Daily life of a cultivation judge

Pushing his wandering thoughts aside, Wu Mingli continued.

"The riverstone serpent likely heavily injured had been in a stasis-like hibernation for thousands of years and who knows it may have remained in that state for quite some time if it wasn't for my father.

When he was fishing, he accidentally got injured by a catfish that was in the creek. His tussle with it ended up with him suffering a slight injury that left him bleeding into the creek.

His blood was what pulled that beast out of hibernation.

While the village was secluded from the rest of the empire and didn't have a widely spread knowledge on matters related to cultivation they still knew enough to the point that the village had quite the number of qi refinement cultivators.

During my father's time, they had at least twenty of them with my father counting amongst their number, and being the youngest one at that.

Without some form of cultivation, it would have been next to impossible for the village to establish itself. It was bordered by hills, mountains, and forests all around.

For the village to sustain itself in such an environment where they had no access to towns or places packed with humans where they could trade or get things they required, they had no option but to depend on themselves and make provisions from what surrounded them and that required some form of strength.

Be it scaling those steep mountains for spiritual herbs and the creeks that flowed through them filled with fish or venturing into the forest and hills that were filled with other bounties important for their sustenance.

All these ventured activities were fraught with dangers and difficulties that required some form of strength, especially the forest and hills which were filled with wild animals and a few spirit beasts whose strength had reached the qi refinement realm.."

Wu Mingli paused when he realized he was about to go off tangent.

"Master's habits and the other seniors seem to have rubbed off on me.." he thought wryly.

"My father at the time was in the early stages of the qi refinement realm, but because of his young age,.. He was nineteen at the time. The vigor of his youth, coupled with the vitality of a qi refinement cultivator, even if he only used low-grade cultivation arts to reach it, those two factors working concertedly together ensured his blood was no different than a tantalizing, aromatic dish that had been placed right smack in the face of someone who has been starving for days.

Though in this case, the person in question was a riverstone serpent that had been starved for thousands of years.

My father's blood dripping down to where it slumbered, awakened it, and its desire to live, and an unsatiable hunger.

Drawing onto whatever reserves it had, it burst out of that bedrock, startling my clueless father in the process who couldn't believe his eyes when he saw the beast.

I am not sure what its size was, but going by standard sizes of riverstone serpents that were in the core formation, I guess in terms of length it should have been about a kilometer while in terms of girth, probably about the size of a normal cow.

I don't know, maybe because he was petrified, but my father's description of the one he came across went away from the norm..." Wu Mingli said as he laughed dryly.

He felt so betrayed when he got to see what a true riverstone serpent looked like and the description his father had given him of the beast.

"From the way he described it, he said it was as large as an ocean, with nostrils that served as gateways to the abyss, an aura that made the heavens cry, and vertical pupils that looked to have been composed entirely of a river of blood.

It's evident how terrified he was of the thing. Its presence and appearance left him utterly petrified and too scared to think of anything.

Without thinking he threw the stone he had at the serpent and immediately fled without bothering to check whether the stone connected or not, or even if it did any damage to it.

That point as he was running away, was what shaped my father into who he became later in life.." Wu Mingli said as his expression turned slightly solemn and melancholic

"He may have not had an idea on what kind of spirit beast the riverstone serpent was, or its abilities, or anything of that sort, but having been exposed to its aura, and being a cultivator, he immediately knew how potentially dangerous such a spirit beast was just based off the presence of its body.

From the moment he laid eyes on it he instinctively knew that even if the entire village was marshalled together against the beast, there was nothing they could do against it. Their attempt would be no different than an egg trying to smash itself against a mountain.

They would all die without so much as putting a scratch on it. But despite knowing all that, when he was running away, the direction he was running to was the village.

He told me this, as he was running even in his muddled terrified state he still had a bit of clarity in him that was enough for him to imagine what would happen to their village if that serpent followed him back there.

But even knowing this, knowing that his entire village could be massacred to the last person and devoured after, by the serpent, and him running to the village would be a guarantee to that fate, his feet didn't stop moving.

Not once did he divert his route and maybe lead the serpent in a direction that was far from the village. He went straight for it at the highest speed possible.

He told me this..."

Wu Mingli paused as his gaze was transported to that memory. It was five-year-old him seated outside, the clear sky filled with the twinkling thousands of stars accompanied by the gentle glow of a full moon, and below that vast glamor above them, was him, his father, and his mother, and a crackling fire at the center of them.

He could see the outline of that flame being reflected in his father's eyes as he spoke, and him listening attentively with his head buried between his knees.

"Mingli, what do you think about heroes?"

"They are cool.." answered the young Mingli, his eyes shining with the same radiance as the stars above as he did.

"Would you like to become one?"

"What do you mean become one? I already am one. Earlier I saved Shen Jue from Aunty Ma's yellow dog when it chased after him when it saw him pee on Aunty Ma's hedges..

He almost got bitten by it if it wasn't for me acting swiftly and carrying him up the tree next to him.

Mmph, serves him right for bragging that even his pee was powerful enough to leave animals scared to death.." said Wu Mingli, as he puffed out his chest.

"Ahem, that was heroic of you.." Wu Fang awkwardly said,unsure of how to react to that, before his gaze turned solemn again.

"What about a hero who doesn't just save a boy from being punished by a dog for hisarrogance, but a hero who saves hundreds, from people you know like me, your mom, to your friends, down to strangers, have you ever wanted to be such a hero?"

"I do," Wu Mingli said as he clenched his fists with a blazing passion lit up within him.

"I did too.." his father said with a melancholic sigh as he took a sip from his wine leather bag.

"When you're young before the world has its claws in you,you always believe yourself to have the makings of a hero. When we are young we are all heroes in our tales. We play all these scenarios in our minds all day that always end up with us showing off our heroism.

I wasn't any different either...

What would happen if a bandit attacked the village? For a child with the grandeur of heroismthe answer is simple, I would defeat the bandit..

What if the bandit isn't alone and their numbers are more than the village can handle? The answer for that, again simple, I would fight them off with my sword, not shrinking one bit. May valiance will be more than enough to scare them and if it isn't, I will willingly stake my life to protect everyone in the village.

That was how I imagined things when I was small. Fired up at every turn, hoping that the world would provide me with the chance to be a hero.

A chance that my imagination would be translated into reality. Where I can show off to my parents and the rest of the villagers how amazing I am. To be the hero who I have always thought myself to be.

The opportunity finally came for me, and I failed spectacularly at it. We may be heroes in our own stories, but remember this, the world can make villains of us all.

The world is not such a kind place that it will just let you be what you imagine yourself to be. It will test you in the cruelest of ways and if you're lacking even slightly, you will soon come to discover that the line between villain and hero is a very thin one.

As someone who crossed that line, what I can tell you is this, we all have a villain inside of us, son. For me, the greatest heroes are those who can confront the villains within them when the moment calls for it.

You don't have to save tens, hundreds, or thousands, you just have to save the one.." Wu Fang said as he leaned forward and gently poked Wu Mingli's heart.

"And how do you do that, the answer I found is keeping it simple and finding one thing you hold as dear as your life and using it as the sword to contain that villainous spirit.

For me, the sword I found was your mother... and you..

Find your sword, Mingli. The right sword that can help you keep the villains in your heart at bay, then maybe just maybe you can then point it to the world outside of it..

Never forget, don't underestimate the world, it can draw out the villain in us, and it is really good at it, too, and just like Aunt Ma's dog, it might attack you at unexpected moments. Keep your sword up at all times, hero..."