Daily life of a cultivation judge

"Thank you very much for your mercy."

After the delivery of the sentence and the choice made by the Zhang clan juniors, Zhang Guiren filled with emotion, cupped his fists at Yang Qing as he thanked him. Even though he had already prepared himself for their death as was expected for any matter with ties to blood fiend cultivation, even if they still had the potential of dying to the Heavenly inquisition sword, they at least had a chance at surviving it.

Just that chance alone was more than he could have hoped for. Despite spending over 500 years on the battlefield and seeing countless of his clansmen die, he never quite got used to it. It still cut deep every time he saw it happen. He was glad that the tally he had in his head would not be added to today.

The vice clan master and the eight clan members were given a brief moment to say their goodbyes. For warriors who had lived their entire lives on a battlefield, their goodbye went as much as Yang Qing had expected. No words were exchanged, they just nodded at one another, letting their gazes and bows convey whatever message they wanted to trade with one another.

With the goodbyes done, it was Xia Ting's turn. She had been the one put in charge of sending those charged to where they needed to be taken after their sentence had been administered.

Yang Qing and Yu Gen took a small break which Yang Qing used to do some house cleaning which was just basically him sending the recordings of the proceedings to the spirit council and the Judicial Review Committee.

Only when he was finally done did he motion for Yu Gen to bring in the participants of the next case which was the Gui Family, another one of the founding major families.

Unlike the first two founding families with combat-based backgrounds, the Chen Clan being sword cultivators, and the Zhang Clan following the path of slaughter like their ancestor, the Gui family rose from alchemy.

Their ancestor and founder, Gui Ling, during her life, was a blue-grade alchemist, and her talents were one of the key factors to why the Red Maple Empire had managed to expand so fast. Even though she wasn't a combatant, her alchemy skills were just as lethal.

Alchemists were highly sought after wherever they were, especially the established and skilled ones. A top tier orange grade alchemist with a cultivation base that was at the early stages of the core formation realm would be able to gain an audience with a palace realm expert than a no-name cultivator with quasi-palace stage strength.

They were just that valued. They were called creators and miracle workers in certain circles as they were able to do the extraordinary and unimaginable through a pill or a potion. They were able to transform dung into gold. Some no-name herb that was treated as a weed somewhere in their hands could be transformed into a potion that could pull someone from the grip of death, or to another it would give them the chance to change their fates and ascend to heights they never thought possible.

The things they could achieve made them as precious as dao treasures to cultivators. Cultivators would do anything to gain their services, which made alchemy one of the best professions one wanted to get into if they wanted to be rich and or make tonnes of connections.

Provided you were a decent alchemist, a lot of doors would be opened to you. If Yang Qing had not been scarred by his clan to the point he would have faint tremors and mild panic attacks every time he was near a cauldron, he would have tried his hand at it and with the affinity his physique afforded him with various elements of nature, he had a feeling he would have been really good at it.

But alas, alchemy was a subject that required great concentration, even if one had a powerful soul. He could never quite concentrate long enough to actually successfully brew a potion. Every time he stirred the mixtures he would see the greedy crazy eyes of his grandfather and the other elders within the brew, which would always send him in a frenzy as he tried to exorcise those 'impurities' with his more than energized Yang flames.

After destroying a few cauldrons, Yang Qing gave up on it, reluctantly, though he did get back to it once he had a great handle on his emotions, but by the time he did, he had already found something else he was truly interested in and could not give alchemy the time it needed.

Though he doesn't regret jumping into archeology or studying the dissection and evolution of cultivation arts, especially the lost arts, some part of him, usually whenever he was low on funds, has always wistfully thought on the path not taken. What it would have been like if he had gone the alchemy route.

Some part of him envied that ability of theirs to brew wonder and fantasy with just a ladle, a flame, some ingredients, and a cauldron,and the ripple effect the things they created had in the world around them, and the pull they had because of it and it was those abilities that pushed the Red Maple Empire and the Gui clan to the heights they reached.

Red Maple Empire whose core territory once belonged to a powerful spiritual plant in the red maple spirit tree was a paradise to alchemists and herbologists alike because of the numerous and rare spiritual herbs and plants that grew in the area due to the red maple spirit's presence, and the dense wood energy it released along with the amplified and refined spiritual qi that promoted their growth and quality.

A competent alchemist would thrive in the area, and Gui Ling did just that when she became a blue-grade alchemist, and from it, the Red Maple Empire which was just a tiny bud, had enough capital to instantly bloom into a full-blown tree. A blue-grade alchemist could maximize their strengths by making full use of the strengths of their territory, i.e. the dense spiritual herbs, and because she was a blue-grade alchemist, countless cultivators joined up so they could gain her favor.

Bar the founding families, a good chunk of the noble families around the empire, those who joined up at the start, did so because of Gui Ling, a favor that extended well past her death, as presently, the Gui clan despite not producing another blue grade alchemist still held as much sway as the royal family, be it with the noble families or the regular folks, and even in terms of wealth, they were neck and neck with the royal family.

But Zhang Su had been right.