Daily life of a cultivation judge

“Jinjing, stay behind a bit,” Yang Qing suddenly said as he got up from his podium.

“Thank you very much for your assistance judge Yang Qing,” Sect master Han Qingling said as he cupped his fists.

“Thank you very much too,” Liu Yun added as he cupped his fist in thanks too.

“Till we meet again young friend Yang Qing,” Deng Chao said with a smile as he offered a daoist salute. Despite him being a half-step soul formation expert he didn’t find it beneath him to offer a daoist salute to an early-stage palace stage expert.

How many 20-year-old palace stage experts were there around the world? And he could detect Yang Qing wasn’t like the rest. Even Yi Jie, Mao Yunru, and Su Jinjing had made him raise his brows.

“The Order really isn’t simple. How many such talents do they have? With terrifying seniors like daoist Meng Chao and daoist Lei Weiyuan looking after them, they can grow to their fullest potential under their guidance and protection.

If what I’m seeing is any indication, then the Order has long since reached the ranks of the Radiant sword sect and the Flowing valley sect. I wonder if the president of the Order has reached that terrifying realm?” Deng Chao thought as he disappeared into the crescent moon-shaped trinket around Zhao Qi’s neck.

“I wish you all good fortunes in the times to come,” Yang Qing said to sect master Han Qingling, Liu Yun, and Zhao Qi. They were all in the same battle wagon now with the troubles facing the Yellow lotus sect being imminent.

Their chances were much better now with the involvement of Deng Chao, a seasoned expert who headed a rank 2 sect and is a seasoned domain-level expert. His plethora of experience with different cultivation arts could come in handy but the unexpected could happen and things could go wrong. In Deng Chao’s current state other than offering insight there wasn’t much he could do physically. The rest would have to fall on the shoulders of sect master Han Qingling, his sect, and now Liu Yun and the Mountain spring pavilion.

Though based on Yang Qing’s read of Liu Yun, he had a feeling only Liu Yun and his two brothers would participate sparing the rest of his staff from involving themself in the Yellow lotus sect conflict.

Sect master Han Qingling and the rest nodded back in thanks as they made their way out of the courtroom. They had several additional things they needed to iron out together.

Yang Qing sat back down comfortably in his seat as he slumped backward raising his feet up on his podium.

“I wanted to inform you all I will be throwing a small welcome party for our new members at my place. They’re spirit beasts, one is called Bolin and is a rainbow mist toad, and the other Haishi a mirage dragonfly,” Yang Qing said as he made a brief introduction for Su Jinjing’s sake.

“The party will be one hour from now. Yi Jie you’re in charge of informing the rest. I think they should be in the common room or their chambers here at the Order. As for Feng Xin, I’ll inform him personally. He should be at the Thousand flavors restaurant,” Yang Qing said as a pensive look flashed in his eyes briefly.

“Hopefully he hasn’t left yet by the time I show up,” thought Yang Qing.

“Can I bring friends? I’d like to bring some members of my team,” Mao Yunru suddenly asked. Though from her tone it seemed more like a dictation of facts rather than a request.

“Sure, sure,” Yang Qing offhandedly replied as he waved his hands.

“By the way Yi Jie you’ll be in charge of providing the wine like always. They will be your subordinates so bring something good,” Yang Qing said as his eyes shone with unconcealed greed.

“You’re paying. As the boss, it’s only proper. And no putting it on your tab. You already owe me for the past 15 transactions and if you don’t pay it at the end of the week as promised I’ll just have to file a complaint against you Mr. I will soon be rolling in it, Yang Qing,” Yi Jie said without missing a beat. He had to quickly block off every root of entry before the parasitic Yang Qing sunk his leeching fangs in.

“Yi Jie..You? I’m I that sort of person?” Yang Qing vehemently retorted with spittle flying everywhere with eyes red, fingers shaking. All the clear marks of righteous indignation.

“Of course, you are that person,” Yi Jie coolly answered back.

“I’m leaving,” Mao Yunru quickly said as she left, carefully carrying the excess jade talismans in both her hands.

“Another one for the collections. This will help me save up a bit for this month,” Mao Yunru thought cheerfully as she made her way to her chambers via a teleportation circle at the center of the courtroom.

“Me too. It’s time for your bath and I have to put you to bed early because mummy has to go out later,” Su Jinjing coaxingly said to her spear as she made her way out of the courtroom door. 𝑜𝑣𝘭.𝘯𝑡

Yang Qing and Yi Jie didn’t seem to have noticed anything as they were still bickering with each other by bringing up past events to one-up the other. Yang Qing was slowly losing that fight as evidenced by his decreasing word flow that soon turned to gestures and signs.

They soon decided to take a pause in their debate as Yi Jie went to the teleportation circle, headed to the inquisitor common room and chambers in search of Luo Meili and Zheng Hu.

Just like judges, the inquisitors had their chambers too and a common room right next to the judge’s chambers they were attached to. However, even if they had their own chambers they had a shared common room where they held their meetings and also trainings. Though it was mostly used for the latter because the combat hall in the training room was retrofitted with all kinds of powerful arrays to help them hone their combat sense.

Yang Qing made his way out of the courtroom doors as his robes started transforming when he was midway out the door. His resplendent blue robes and coat transformed into a simple green coat with the symbol of a circle that was half-moon and half-sun appearing on the back of the coat. Inside he had a matching green robed shirt and matching shorts that reached his knees and straw sandals. Though the sandals were of different colors. The one on the left was pure white and the one on the right was pure yellow. Though contrasting they seemed perfectly in unison.

Yang Qing looked like a farmer out in the summer. He leisurely walked out whistling with cheer in his steps. Some of the cultivators whose cases hadn’t been heard yet by the other judges couldn’t help but stare strangely at the stranger walking casually in the Order’s hallway without a care in the world.

Yang Qing offered a silent prayer at the courtroom doors that were still in session. The Order didn’t have a set working schedule. The rule that they had was all the cases scheduled on the docket for the day had to all be heard that day. The Judge could only clock off when he had fulfilled this criterion.

This rule was the cause of Yang Qing’s nightmares when he was just starting out as an outer core court judge. Outer core court judges had over a hundred cases per day in their docket. This was because they heard cases from cultivators in the body refining stage up to the foundation stage. The numbers were endless. Worse was they had to hear all a hundred cases in a single day. If you didn’t finish the assigned quota they would be added to the next day’s pile and the cycle continues mercilessly. Yang Qing at the time thought nothing of it until when it came time to take his leave he was denied until he cleared his backlog of cases.

It was from this never-ending torment that Yang Qing decided to work himself like a dog to rise up the ranks. Even though the superior core court had more complex cases, the number of cases they heard per day was few and from what Yang Qing heard that trend continues the further up one moves. He couldn’t wait.

Once Yang Qing had finished giving his condolences to the judges still hard at work, he leisurely went down the hall and passed through the blue-colored mimicry chaos sky metal that transported him to the ground hall as he made his way out of the building down the alley to the Thousand flavors restaurant.

It was already dusk out with the sun almost setting but the restaurants were still packed to the brim.

“Most likely some poor saps who missed lunch because of the pile of cases in their dockets,” Yang Qing thought to himself as he swaggered into the restaurant while taking in a greedy gulp of air.

“Judge Yang Qing,” Cao Ying who had spotted him when he entered, quickly came over.

“Cao Ying hey, what time do you clock off?” Yang Qing asked with a smile.

“In about thirty minutes though I think I’ll stick around longer as I wait for my friends,”

“Well, you can come by my place if you have nothing to do. I’m throwing a small party for new team members in an hour’s time. You should come,” Yang Qing said as he patted Cao Ying’s shoulders.

“Really I can? Uum can I..” Cao Ying paused as he hesitated on how to ask what he wanted to ask.

“You can bring your friends,” Yang Qing easily said.

“Thanks,” Cao Ying loudly said before he hurriedly closed his mouth in embarrassment at his outburst.

“Will you be having the usual?” Cao Ying said.

“No, I don’t think so. I’ll just grab takeaways. I’ll have 10 plates of red braised pork, a similar number in sweet and sour spare ribs, sweet and sour pork fillet, vermicelli with spicy minced beef, and 10 large bowls of eight treasures porridge.

Mmmh what else..Haishi might be a vegetarian. Add a few plates of pine nuts with sweet corn, pan-seared green chili pepper, sweet sour cucumber, and seaweed, and egg soup.

To finish it off I think a hundred pan-fried dumplings, a hundred pork buns and hundred spring rolls will do and oh also the 1,000-year-old silent lake elderberry wine,” Yang Qing said in quick succession as Cao Ying dutifully remembered everything. A cultivator’s memory grew sharper the higher the realms they moved. It was why the Order never felt odd about slamming the core realm judges with a hundred cases since with their memory they could remember an event that happened decades ago with much clarity as though it happened at that moment. Down to even the food, the weather, the number of people they greeted that day.

So remembering an Order was an easy task for Cao Ying with his foundation establishment cultivation. It was a given considering how much cultivators ate especially special characters like Yang Qing and his partner in crime Feng Xin who was currently discussing something with the manager of the Thousand flavor restaurant at one of the tables.

Yang Qing made his way toward them as he gave Cao Ying a storage ring and the card with his spirit stones for the bill.