Daily life of a cultivation judge

The trip back to the Order was largely uneventful, except for one small thing—Wenling. The closer they got, the more petrified she became, repeatedly asking the same question,

"Will I meet terrifying beings like Miss Gu Xing and Miss Meifeng?"

Each time Yang Qing answered with a wide-eyed stare of surprise, she would let out a dramatic sigh brimming with fear, resignation, and despair, before adding a few more words of lamentation.

"I am going to die. I knew it! If I am to die, please let it be quick. Don't let me be slowly played to death!" she pleaded.

Yet, even in such a state, her appetite never left her. She asked Yang Qing for some wine and fruit to serve as her final meal.

What could Yang Qing do except comply? He was really just trying to be kind when he agreed, but his act only seemed to have the opposite effect, sending Wenling into an even greater panic. To her, the fact that Yang Qing granted her request meant there was now a solid chance she really was going to die.

When she first made the plea, even though she felt like she was walking into the beast's maw by going to the Order, she had estimated her odds of death at maybe sixty percent. But after seeing Yang Qing readily agree to give her a last meal, those odds instantly shot up to ninety-five. She left that five percent margin only to preserve her sanity.

If not for the incident with the nebulous yin qi in her body, she would have shamelessly begged Yang Qing to let her go or send her back to the gorge. But as things stood, and with the revelations made in the few hours since meeting him, she was even more afraid of being left on her own—or worse, taken back to the gorge—than she was of being brought to the Order. If Yang Qing told her he was returning her, her odds of survival would, in her mind, instantly plummet to zero.

The thought of Yang Qing leaving her to her own devices, or taking her back to the Gorge because of her reaction and questions, only made her panic even more. The one good thing, though—perhaps it was fear, or perhaps her tears made for an excellent condiment without her realizing it—was that the wine and fruit tasted exceptional.

Maybe it's the heavens giving me a final send-off, she thought bleakly as she stuffed a winterlight lychee into her mouth.

As for Yang Qing, he had no idea how to address her fears. He could have said, "Look at Haishi, you're stronger than her, and she's alive and doing well," but he decided against it. That might only leave Wenling unprepared for what lay ahead.

If she thought Meifeng, with her sweet and innocent looks, and Gu Xing, with her noble and graceful demeanor, were terrifying, then what would she think when faced with the rogue Ellie, or his greedy, foul-mannered roommate? And what about all the other, far scarier individuals at the Order?

The best option, Yang Qing decided, was to stay silent and let her imagination run wild. At least then, when she met them, she wouldn't be shocked to death.

Seeing how miserable she looked, Yang Qing made a silent note that their first stop upon returning would be the Beast Tamer Hall, where he would leave Wenling to the professionals to handle her acclimatization and adjustment to the Order's environment.

In simple terms, this meant having her reality adjusted and her common sense obliterated by exposing her in small doses to all manner of powerful spirit beasts and spiritual plants. The process would start gradually, so as not to shatter her mind completely, then work its way up to the more powerful ones or those with noble bloodlines. By the end of it, Wenling would be desensitized enough not to immediately prostrate or faint when encountering something with dragon blood in its veins.

Her acclimatization training was essentially like being fed poisons in small amounts to build tolerance and eventually immunity.

I think a month or two should be enough, Yang Qing mused. Ideally, two weeks would have sufficed, but considering the company he kept in his abode, it seemed wiser to extend the duration. Otherwise, Wenling would never be able to handle Ellie or the celestial nesting weaver. She needed to be thoroughly desensitized before ever being exposed to those two.

"Hopefully it works," muttered Yang Qing. His dream of having a formation array that could continuously evolve without him using any resources depended entirely on that training being fruitful.

After saying a silent prayer for Wenling, Yang Qing's thoughts drifted to another figure he worried about, Xia Fang. She had asked him to find out what happened to her grandfather and the rest of her clan, and while he did uncover the truth, what he found was far worse than she could have imagined.

Given everything she had been through, Yang Qing felt that, even if she may not want to believe it, she would not be surprised when he told her that her grandfather and the rest of the Xia clan who had stayed behind to aid in their escape had all perished. The news, though heart-wrenching, was something Xia Fang would be able to bear, since she had likely already prepared herself for that possibility.

It was the other things that had Yang Qing worried about what they would do to her if she learned of them. Whether it was the Lai clan's betrayal, along with Lai Hu, who, judging by the look she had when she spoke of him, seemed to mean more to her than just a retainer or someone she had escaped with. Or the revelations from her clan's ancestor: that the Xia clan still had palace realm experts after the massacre, yet those experts abandoned the clan out of fear that the rogue cultivator's son would return to finish the job. Or that the reason her clan never received aid from the Silver Crane Sect was because her predecessors had violated their ancestor's precepts.

He wasn't sure how she would be able to take it all—the betrayals, or the knowledge that she was paying for the sins of those before her.

Her generation had nothing to do with what the earlier Xia clan members had done, like robbing that rogue cultivator of the celestial light hawthorn, which later brought the calamity of his son, a domain expert. Nor were they the ones who seized the ancestral legacy treasures of the three retainer clans, violating one of the precepts set by their ancestor. That single act not only led the Silver Crane Sect to sever ties with them, but also drew the hatred and ire of the three clans… no, four.

Yang Qing wasn't sure if the Lai clan had their ancestral legacy treasure taken as well, but the fact that they ultimately betrayed the Xia clan—despite being regarded as the one retainer clan that stayed loyal to the end—suggested that perhaps theirs had been taken too.

None of these things were done by Xia Fang or those of her generation, yet they were the ones paying the ultimate price for it.

It was one thing to pay for a crime you had committed, and another to pay for one you had not. The price Xia Fang bore, especially for something she was not responsible for, was far steeper than anyone could imagine. Yang Qing wasn't sure she would be able to withstand another blow on top of everything she had already endured.

A sigh escaped his lips when the faint outline of Gold Eagle Town appeared on the horizon. At another time, his heart would have leapt with excitement at the sight, since it meant a return to safety and comfort. But now its sight left him heavy-hearted, burdened by the knowledge of what he was about to do.

Whether he liked it or not, he had to tell Xia Fang everything, even if it risked shattering her completely. If nothing else, she was owed the complete truth, even if it broke her. The truth was a double-edged sword; one side had the power to redeem, the other the power to destroy. He was certain it would destroy her, yet he held on to the faint hope that in breaking her, it might also free her from the shackles she had carried all this time, and with that, perhaps open a path to a new life for her.

He knew it was only wishful thinking on his part, but life always had a way of surprising people. He dearly hoped it still had another box of surprises left for him in this matter.

It didn't take long for them to reach Gold Eagle Town, and a few minutes later, they were already at the entrance gates of the Order's headquarters. Upon arrival, Yang Qing pulled out his medallion for identification and went through a few other subtle checks to confirm it was him in every sense of the word before finally being allowed in. He then made his way to the Beast Tamer Hall, where he dropped off both Haishi and Wenling and completed Wenling's registration.

As for her training, he didn't need to say much and simply left it to the discretion of the professionals in the hall. Even without his input, their years of experience and Wenling's palpable fright made it clear what was needed. They had handled the same situation countless times before, more recently with Bolin and Haishi as just two examples.

Yang Qing had debated whether to leave Bolin with them, since he still hadn't emerged from the cocoon, but ultimately decided against it. Bolin's current state had been triggered by him, so he felt it only right to remain as his protector until the very end. With the cocooned Bolin in tow, along with his other new companion—the unhatched Zhilan—Yang Qing made his way to the pavilion where he had left Xia Fang.

Walking through the pavilion's entrance, he felt the same heaviness he always did when delivering a sentence of execution—the same weight he carried when he voted for the demotion of the Ice Emerald Sect, or when he made that very announcement over their sect gates.

With a sigh, he asked one of the staff members if Xia Fang was in her abode and, if she was, to invite her over. The staff member informed him that she had not left her abode since the time he departed.

A few seconds later, a trepid-looking Xia Fang emerged.

"Daoist Yang Qing," she said with a forced smile, cupping her fist.

"Daoist Xia Fang," Yang Qing said gently as he returned the gesture with a faint smile. "Let's go to my office," he added, making a 'please' gesture with his extended left arm.

"Mmh." Xia Fang nodded, lowering her head as she followed. The two walked in heavy silence, making their way slowly to the Black Tower, through its hallway, and into the teleportation rune that led to Yang Qing's courtroom, where they triggered another rune that brought them to his office.

Once inside, Yang Qing offered Xia Fang a seat and some tea, which she politely declined. Considering what they were about to discuss, it wasn't surprising she had no appetite for tea.

"W-What did you find out?" Xia Fang softly asked once Yang Qing had sat down, her left fist clenched tight and pressed within her right hand to stop it from trembling.