Daily life of a cultivation judge

"This three-day trip might not be that bad after all," said Yang Qing as a small drool dripped from his hungry smile.

"I hope Zhong Quan and the Earthvine restaurant don't disappoint," He added on as he rubbed his hands together.

When he was looking at the list of organizations in the Red maple empire, he happened upon the name Earthvine restaurant in one of its counties, the Purple grass county.

His mood turned for the better the moment his eyes zoned in on that name. It wasn't because it was a restaurant, though that didn't hurt but it was because it he had struck a deal with Zhong Xuan where he would be getting 50% off on his meals when he visited.

He'd get to eat twice the normal amount at that charge. What wasn't to love about such a situation? Even if their food ended up being subpar he would still capitalize on the discount. A free meal was a free meal and Yang Qing wasn't about to break his creed of never refusing something free for something as trivial as quality. But with the reputation the Earthvine restaurant had, from princes dining there down to it being a subsidiary of the Golden bamboo pavilion, Yang Qing was sure that their quality had to be decent at the very least.

"Mmmh the area seems to have a lot of rank 4 organizations," Yang Qing pensively said as he noticed that there were atleast seven organizations including the Earthvine restaurant that were at rank 4. One of them was an alchemy shop that sold pills and potions, another was a blacksmith shop and the remaining four were all-purpose merchant stores that sold different wares.

Even though the Red maple Empire was a rank 3 powerhouse, it was still odd for it to accommodate so many rank 4 organizations within a single county. Without a palace stage expert to man the helm within the county it would prove difficult for the Empire to autonomously govern the county with so many rank 4 organizations in the area.

"So many organizations of this caliber clustered together like this is odd. It would make sense if the empire had a domain-level powerhouse but as far as the Order can tell, the Red maple empire has four palace stage experts of which three are usually stationed at the capital to keep the noble families within the capital at bay and one is permanently stationed at the border the empire shares with the Zou family.

Mmmh with so many organizations in the area, it seems the stunt the Shen brothers pulled at the Earthvine restaurant was not as random as it seemed," muttered Yang Qing as he recalled the Earthvine restaurant case he had the other day.

The list he had on hand had just the barest of bones when it came to information. Other than the names and rank there was nothing else added to it so even if Yang Qing wanted to have a picture of the situation, it would be hard with the information he had on hand.

"Ellie we are headed here," said Yang Qing as he used his monarch sense to imprint the general direction into Ellie's mind. It was another perk of the spiritual sense upgrade when in the palace realm.

The deep blue judge robes Yang Qing had on slowly transformed into a light grey robe. The Order-issued robes had a feature that enabled them to transform into the image the wearer had in mind. This was because the robe was made of silk from a void mimicry silkworm.

The void mimicry silkworm had the ability to transform into whatever it sees. It was a rare silkworm that was found in areas with unstable space such as degrading spatial nodes found in collapsing mysterious realms or damaged grottos.

…

"This should be alright," said Yang Qing pleased with himself as he admired the normal-looking grey robe his robes had transformed into.

It was common to change one's robes for Order employees to draw in less attention when outside. There were even those such as the inquisitors who would alter their faces and bodies so they wouldn't draw unwanted attention due to the nature of their occupation and the grudges they have accumulated over the years, especially with the recent rise in attacks on Order personnel.

Yang Qing decided that changing robes was as far as he would go in trying to blend in. In his eyes doing other things was counterproductive to the goal.

For example, he was not that proficient with transformation cultivation arts though his judgment was based on his comparison with those from the Order who were gifted in that regard. If he were to do it he was sure no one at the core formation and below would be able to spot it or even those at the early stages of the palace realm. However, he had doubts if he would be able to fool the seasoned eyes of those who were familiar with such arts and techniques. If the goal was to hide from shady villainous characters then wouldn't using skills those characters were skilled in be a huge welcome sign that those characters would spot?

As for concealing his cultivation base that was an even incomprehensible action to him. If your goal is to avoid trouble then that is the last thing you would do since this was a cultivation world where the strong constantly prey on the weak even with Order's presence not much has changed. Hiding your cultivation base would just draw in trouble and curious looks when someone with seemingly no cultivation base easily topples a disciple in the foundation establishment stage, his master in the middle of the core formation stage, and their sect master in the peak of core formation stage, in all under five minutes. Even a blind man would be able to tell there was something fishy there.

Thus Yang Qing decided changing his robes was as far he would go and as for his cultivation base though he wouldn't actively publicize it by releasing its aura he wouldn't go to great lengths to hide it either. Those who wanted to know would know provided they were at his level as those with higher cultivation realms had their levels inscrutable to those below them though they did feel a faint suppressive pressure from them.