Daily life of a cultivation judge

After her brief explanation, Mei Xiling picked one of the potions she bought from the Red Flaming Lotus Pavilion and poured half of it on the sacred cleansing sunflower, while the remaining half was given to the bleeding petals devouring venus flower that seemed all too eager to sample as its petals rubbed together in apparent excitement.

True to what she had said before, the moment the potion came into contact with the sacred cleansing flower, the light released from it turned from ethereal and calm into an intense volatile brilliant ray of light that looked like it wanted to eradicate everything in sight.

The potion poured on it was instantly vaporized and what was left in the aftermath was a blood fog that got expunged by the light from the sacred cleansing sunflower before it even reached the jade table.

As for the bleeding petals devouring venus flower, it made a human-like expression of deep satisfaction as crunching sounds like it was eating up the muscles and bones of a living creature were produced by it as it 'chewed' the potion. Seconds later, red droplets that had an eerie similarity to blood down to even the metallic smell of blood were produced from its pristine white petals.

On seeing the results unfolding before him, Song Ba was tempted to speak up, desperation seemingly clear to be the cause.

The means Mei Xiling had used were not secret techniques that only the Medical Saint Garden had, they were well-known techniques. Every alchemist or merchant with a little bit of know-how would know to use the sacred cleansing sunflower and the bleeding petals devouring venus flower the same way she did.

Most alchemists had even tweaked their usage of the sacred cleansing flower and exploited its inability to tolerate impurities to root out the level of toxicity in their potions.

It wasn't just the alchemists who did that, merchants who dealt in potions would have a sacred cleansing sunflower or two hanging around to evaluate the quality of potions they were buying.

Someone like Song Ba who was both a seasoned alchemist and merchant would definitely know about the sacred cleansing sunflower and how damning the results before him were.

It was because he knew what it meant that he reacted the way he did. His eyes were darting all around as if he was looking for an escape route, his forehead was visibly perspiring, his hands could be seen trembling. He kept trying to clench it with force as a means to contain the shaking, but it all seemed to naught.

Even without his shaking hands, everyone with an eye could see how unnerved he was and that sense of nervousness and fear only grew the more potions Mei Xiling tested out.

Every single potion on the table produced the same results. When it came to the sacred cleansing sunflower, they were vaporized the instant the potion left the vial, releasing a bloody mist in the process and scattered by the sunflower soon after.

For the bleeding petals devouring venus flower, it gorged itself with ecstasy showing as it did.

Even its look changed as a reflection of it as it turned crimson red with a thin baleful mist appearing on one of its petals. It also grew in size.

Before it was about the size of half of Yang Qing's arm in length while its flower was half his palm but after consuming all the potions bought from the Red Flaming Lotus Alchemy Pavilion and the ones collected from the storehouses of the Chen family, its length had grown to about a meter. The sizes of its flowers were about the size of a fully grown pawpaw. Every time it opened its petals to gorge itself on the potion, with every potion it devoured, a portion of its petals would calcify. Now as a result of it, those calcified parts made it seem like it had teeth, razor-sharp teeth that were dripping in the same red liquid that was constantly produced from its petals.

It looked like a true fiend, and such a change would only happen from consuming the essence of cultivators be it blood or flesh. It was closely approaching essence frenzy which was a common occurrence with them.

Consuming the essence of a cultivator always strongly triggered its devouring ability, throwing it into overdrive, pulling it into a frenzied state where it thought of nothing other than consuming every cultivator present to satiate the all-consuming desire it had to devour them.

It was what made them so dangerous. When in such a state, a bleeding petals devouring venus flower would massacre countless cultivators in its path to fulfill that devouring desire but the problem was, it would never get satisfied, hence the name, essence frenzy.

The more essence it consumed, the more frenzied it became as that insatiable devouring desire grew, but the problematic part was, it grew more powerful with every cultivator it consumed. The baleful mist bleeding petals devouring venus flower produced every time it consumed a cultivator's essence had a natural corroding ability that could eat away at hardy surfaces, tough skins, and materials, and eventually it could even break down the forces of cultivation arts or techniques which would then be converted into fuel by the flower.

The bleeding petals devouring venus flower had an innate understanding of almost all of the elements which is how its able to reproduce refined elemental essence crystals.

This was what made it such a terrifying opponent to face. Provided you were at the same level or weaker than it, it would grind away at your attacks whilst strengthening itself in the process leaving you exhausted and helpless as a lamb at the end.

The bleeding petals devouring venus flower Mei Xiling was already at the palace realm, they didn't have to worry about it completely falling into a frenzied state. It has a strong spirit and self control as a result of it and the essence it consumed were of cultivators who had not even stepped into the core formation realm.

Its excitement was probably due to the test rather than the quality. That was proven when it went to its docile look from before the instant it was done consuming the last potion.

...

" With this, it's proven beyond reasonable doubt that the potions were brewed using the essence of cultivators.

Thank you for your time.." Mei Xiling cooly said as she cupped her fists to Yang Qing before joining Xu Yuan at the side immediately after.

"Thank you for your assistance, daoist Mei Xiling.." said Yang Qing as he cupped his fists in gratitude.

"Brother Xu Yuan, I already have all I need, you can continue with their treatments.."

Xu Yuan nodded gratefully to Yang Qing as the latter used his medallion to activate the teleportation rune in the courtroom transporting Xu Yuan, Mei Xiling and the former human cauldrons and pill slaves back to the Medical Valley.

"There's one more account we will hear before I leave the floor to all of you to make your cases.

Senior Yu Gen, could you bring him, please?.."

The roaming inquisitor nodded, as he flashed and disappeared from the courtroom only to reappear a second later with someone else in tow.

The person standing next to him wore loose black robes that revealed his chest that was covered with sword scars,had a scrawny build, curly long flowing black hair, blind in one eye and blue eye in the other, a devilish charm to him, that even his clear fear couldn't mask and looked to be in his late thirties.

When he appeared, a few of the elders of the Chen family looked apprehensive each with different degrees of severity.

Yu Gen brought him to the center of the court before stepping back to join Xia Ting who seemed to be no more than a spectator in this whole thing.

The loose-robed man bowed subserviently to Yang Qing as he said,

"This lowly one greets the court."

"Your name is Shen Mu, the leader of the Black Scorpions Gang, right?" Yang Qing said as he addressed the man.

"I am.." said the man as he bowed his head ever so lower.

"What say you to the terms offered to you by my colleague?"

Shen Mu inadvertently shivered at the word terms.

"I agree to it and thank the Order for extending its grace and mercy to me, and giving me the chance to turn a new leaf.."

"Good, then we will keep it brief. You will just need to point out those here you had direct dealings here and what you did for them. That's all..." said Yang Qing.

"But if I detect any hint of falsehood or avoidance in you, then your fate will be far worse than what you would have originally got. Is everything clear?" sternly asked Yang Qing.

"I W..Ould not D..are'" Shen Mu said with a slight tremble and stutter.

"Good, you can begin.."

Were people to see Shen Mu's cowardly display, they would not believe he was still the same vicious scorpion head of Purple City. His reputation was that of a ruthless and cunning person.

Both commoners and even the nobles treated him with caution and the reason for that was his strength as a peak stage core formation expert with an embryonic form of saber intent already formed which gave him strength that was a cut above even heads of the peak clans of Red Maple Empire like Chen Zian.

He was both strong and ruthless in how he conducted his affairs. Be it facing an ant or an elephant, he would use all cunning and ruthlessness he could muster making the Black Scorpion Gang one of the most feared organizations in Red Maple Empire.

The thick coat of baleful murderous qi surrounding him was proof of the countless lives he had taken. He was surrounded by a thick dark smog-like aura filled with viciousness and the unrest of those he had slain.

Such a thick stench and aura could only be found on those who had slaughtered hundreds of thousands. The feared reputation he had created was not undeserved. Just his presence alone was enough to strike dread to even the most battle-hardened soldiers but alas he had the misfortune of falling under the Order's radar.

Investigation into the Chen family unearthed his relationship with them which in turn revealed a slew of other things and eventually, he became a person of interest.

With the number of bodies he had on him, one of the palace realm inquisitors of the Yellow Plains Branch, who caught him, beat him, healed him, made him fight with all he had every single time, only to beat him after, ruthlessly at that, heal him again and repeat the whole process over again.

That process went on for four days, and the result.. It was the broken man before them.