Daily life of a cultivation judge

As for what happened next, it wasn't all too surprising. Illusions worked perfectly as long as someone didn't know they were illusions but once that illusion was broken, even if a new much stronger, and perfectly seamless illusion was put in, it would still be imperfect, reality in the end would win through and that was what happened with Xie Rong

With his growing doubts, the little things he had overlooked before turned into large warning signs and one of them was how despite having the cultivation base of a foundation establishment cultivator he wasn't much stronger than he had been when he was in the body refinement stage, and with time he even seemed to be getting weaker by the day.

His identity and background, having come from some outskirt village whose strongest expert was someone in the qi refinement realm meant there was a lot he didn't know about the different cultivation realms, especially the intrinsic details, but he had seen the strongest expert of the village, the sole qi refinement expert, bitterly fight a black rock bear to a draw.

Before that qi refinement expert stepped in, that bear had managed to tear through an encirclement of over a dozen hunters from the village. That group was comprised solely of the best fighters the village had to offer and every single one of them was multiple levels higher in skill and ability if compared to his father.

Despite that, even working collectively as a group, they were still played with by that black rock bear as it easily tore through their encirclement forcing its way to their village.

It was during that incident that his desire to be a powerful cultivator truly took root. The black bear playing around with the hunters he admired so greatly that he blindly believed there was no beast they could not hunt. Seeing the looks of fear on their faces as that bear mockingly tore them apart left quite the impression on him, but the greatest impact was what happened when the village chief finally stepped in.

The village chief had always been unassuming to the point that back then Xie Rong often wondered why he was even the village chief or why all the elders in the village including his father, always treated him with such respect.

To him, the village chief was just an old man who liked sitting in his wicker chair all day long, soaking in the sun, sipping rice wine at whatever time of day it was while munching on some garlic-salted fish as he smiled genially at the youngsters hard at work. It always irked him whenever he saw that smile. He would be knee-deep in clams which though looked aesthetically pleasing, produced the worst stench he had ever come across.

Every time he saw the village chief smile at them, he would get this urge to throw one of those stinky clams at him. When he witnessed his fight against the black rock bear, he was glad he didn't go through with the impulse.

Their chief, this old man who looked like he would be toppled over by even their tiniest gust of wind with how bony he was, managed to go toe to toe with that beast of carnage that was the black rock bear. The village chief seemed like a titanic general of slaughter as he traded punch for punch with the bear, till the bear eventually cowered when it saw the frenzied smile look the village chief had on as the fight went on.

While he had been too awed, too weak, too ignorant to notice a lot back in the fight back then, he was at least certain of one thing. The village chief was the village chief for a reason. He was the most powerful person in the entire village and it was by no small margin at that, and as he grew up and started cultivating, that was then he knew of the chief's cultivation base as a late-stage qi refinement cultivator.

That fight back then had been imprinted on him, especially the strength displayed by the village chief, and even with his lacking knowledge in matters related to cultivation, he could at the very least gauge his strength, and it was miles away from what was displayed by the village chief and that was even after he broke through to the foundation establishment realm.

Before he had reasons to suspect his surroundings, he always bought on what his supervisor and teacher at the time told him. His lacking in strength and growing weakness were a result of the demands of the cultivation art and lacking talent. To make up this gap, the art placed demands on the cultivator's body but that would all change once one broke through to the core formation realm.

That reason was more than enough to convince Xie Rong who was severely lacking in confidence after all the rejections he had faced in the years prior.

In his mind, what was there to doubt? He may not have had the strength he had envisioned he would have when he had the cultivation base he had but strength aside, there was no denying he was a foundation establishment cultivator, and the foundation pillars were there as proof of it. As for the diminishing strength, and the growing lethargy, they would all be forgotten as soon as he broke through to the core formation.

The excitement of reaching the core formation realm blinded him to everything else around him including his odd-looking pillars. It was only when close companions started disappearing with time, all looking sallow and drained before they disappeared, did he start to suspect there was something afoot.

As those suspicions grew, the farm that he had thought was an immortal's paradise transformed into a devil's lair, but at that time it was too late for him. His body was already weak, just like his companions, and he knew it wasn't too long before he met the same fate as them. Luckily for him, the Order stepped in before his fate was set.

The other human cauldron, a sixteen-year-old by the name of Li Fie, described having the same symptoms as Xie Rong. They both cultivated the same cultivation art which was called the stellar energy glass funnel art, and despite both working in different counties, with Xie Rong working in Blacktear County and Li Fei working in Spiritwood County, they were both involved in the care of the same herbal plant, the moon starcap mushrooms.

Everything except age, was similar when it came to the two human cauldrons, but when it came to the pill slaves, there were differences to one another. The older pill slave, who was the young lady who was closest to Xie Rong in age, practiced a water-based cultivation art while soaking in a solution of frost spider lilies. After, her blood and qi would be drawn out as ingredients for the ripple aqua sap potion which helped improve a cultivator's understanding in water-based cultivation arts.

Her conditions were different from the other pill slave who practiced an earth-based cultivation art and would then have an elemental leech attached to drain their earth essence when the sun was at its peak. The elemental leech would then be removed at dusk and used for the magma vein insight potion which improved a cultivator's understanding of cultivation arts and techniques that were related to the fire and earth element.

With all of them having given their accounts, they joined the rest, seeming all too glad to do so. Even with Yang Qing's calm-

infused qi to aid, giving their testimony in front of their captors had been an all too draining task.

"Thank you all for the testimonies. I thank you for your bravery.." Yang Qing said once the four were with the rest.

The four nodded back as they were given smiles of endearment and gratitude all around, moreso by their compatriots for speaking on their behalf. Some couldn't help but cry as the four were giving their accounts.

They may have been in different places, but the things they endured were all the same, with the only difference being in how they got there. Most of them were hoodwinked with the promise of a better life, while others had more pitiful fates having been sold off to the Black Scorpion gang for various reasons such as offsetting a gambling debt or funding a new one.

After giving his thanks, Yang Qing waved his sleeve and an ancient-looking weathered stone appeared at the center of the courtroom.

"What you see before you is the heart stone steele. It's part of a saint-grade treasure that can tell the makeup of a cultivator's body, from their cultivation base to their age, and lifespan, down to their race and any bloodlines they may have or deformity.

Some of you may have already seen it work as this is what we used during ranking evaluations.

Its purpose today isn't for a ranking evaluation but to give a clear indication as to the state of their bodies.." Yang Qing said as he pointed to the steele and to the group of youths who were curiously and warily eyeing the steele. They became startled when they saw Yang Qing suddenly reappear next to the steele in a flash.

With a gentle tone accompanied by an encouraging smile, Yang Qing said, as he had said countless times before,

"All you need to do is pour a drop of blood on the stone, and nothing else, just a single drop and that's it. .. "

"Could I go first?" politely asked Xie Rong.

"You're more than welcome to.."

Xie Rong, although seemed nervous, he was less nervous than he had been before when he was giving his version of accounts.

Feigning a look of calmness, with his trembling hands, he tried to make a tiny prick on his index finger only for his nail to slide off from all the sweat that had built up on his hands. Quickly hiding his embarrassment, he made another attempt, heaving a sigh of relief, when he saw it succeed.

His nervousness showing, he poured a drop on the stone, which prompted the rest to hold their breaths as they eagerly awaited what would happen next.