Daily life of a cultivation judge



Something tiny the size of a bird's egg appeared on the flight path of the scarlet crown hummingbird. It looked like a rubber sac, like something that came out of the entrails of some beast.

The sac exploded instantly when it almost collided with the scarlet crown hummingbird. A thick viscous black-green liquid was produced from it which immediately covered the hummingbird as it was flying downwards.

At the speed it was flying, it was difficult for it to escape getting drenched in the green liquid.

Zou Yi and the rest didn't know what that green liquid was, but they assumed it definitely had properties that could help them with their current predicament. 

His guess proved to be true. The scarlet crown hummingbird that flew so fast that it looked like a blur in their eyes, got a little bit sluggish in its flight the moment it made contact with the green liquid.

A look of shock appeared in its tiny beady eyes as it tried to rapidly flap its wings, but with every passing second its flapping speed would reduce. Realizing the danger it was in, it immediately gave up targeting them as it turned in the direction of the snapping willow tree.

Even though its speed had reduced, it was still fast, and covering the distance back to the tree would not take more than ten seconds at its current speed.

Both Zou Yi and He Shan as if on tacit understanding, launched their century-iron pebbles toward it. Zou Liqin held back as she kept a close eye on the snapping willow tree that looked to be preparing another more powerful move.

It was intertwining several of its vines together forming a knot that was as thick as three of her combined. She wasn't sure if the century iron pebbles would be able to damage it as they did before, she could only hope He Shan and Zou Yi could finish off the scarlet-crowned hummingbird before the snapping willow tree attacked.

One of the pebbles thrown at the scarlet-crowned hummingbird managed to hit one of its wings which made it lose balance and tumble into the ground.

Just as He Shan and Zou Yi were about to go in for the kill, Yu Mei spoke up,

"There are white flakes showing up from the tree," she warned.

He Shan and Zou Yi both looked up in time to see tiny white flakes circling around one of the branches of the willow tree. Because its scale was small, one could easily miss it as long as you were not looking keenly enough, but in a few microseconds, the size grew.

"Let's run," He Shan yelled as he quickly grabbed his rusty beat-up axe and made a run for it to his front.

Zou Yi had been contemplating whether to go for the century iron pebble, but when he saw He Shan's hasty retreat he decided against it.

He nodded toward his sister and made a beeline toward Yu Mei and grabbed her by the hand as he hurriedly made a getaway with her. She had the slowest pace, and physical capabilities since she had no cultivation base to speak off. In essence, she was just a normal 13-year-old girl.

Even though she was the oldest of the four, because of no cultivation base she looked like the youngest and the smallest of them. 

The group used every strength they had to make a run for it, while still keeping a close eye on the willow tree. From the way it was compressing its vines despite them not engaging it, it seemed like it wasn't done with them, and with them this close to leaving the area, it was only a matter of time before it launched its attack.

Just as they were about to leave the open clearing, the attack finally came. A thick spiral vine that looked like it was more like an oversized arrowhead was launched in their direction, more specifically it seemed to be directed at Zou Yi.

The force at which it was launched was so big that it produced a whistling sound.

Zou Yi's eyes flinched as he saw the attack. At the front, He Shan had half expected the attack to be launched in his direction for the damage he had done to the scarlet crown hummingbird. When he saw the attack veer toward Zou Yi, he exhaled a sigh of relief as he increased his pace to draw as much gap as he could between him and Zou Yi, who had to worry about himself and Yu Mei that he was dragging along.

"Liqin, grab her."

Zou Yi immediately made the decision to offload Yu Mei to Zou Liqin while he prepared for the attack that was no more than ten seconds away from hitting him.

Zou Liqin looked troubled, especially on noticing that her brother seemed to have been singled out by the tree.

"LIQIN DON'T!!" yelled Zou Yi when he saw her contemplating coming his way.

Things were already bad enough without his sister adding herself into the fray.

Zou Liqin flinched at Zou Yi's yell and whatever ideas she had evaporated as she grabbed Yu Mei and run after He Shan.

Zou Yi reduced his pace a little bit to ensure whatever collateral damage might come from the attack will not affect his sister and Yu Mei who were just a few meters ahead of him.

I hope this isn't the end for me. It would suck when I'm just looking forward to coming out at the other end of this thing and making Dad and Mom proud.

How petty is that tree anyway? It was just punctured on a few vines which should be no different from losing a few nails right? What I'm I thinking?

Zou Yi ruefully smiled as he tightly held on to two century-iron pebbles in his hands as he run.

Please don't hurt 

He thought as he gritted his teeth and jumped sideways the moment the compressed massive vine was upon him. It was as thick as a trunk but towards the end, it was pointy and sharp as a needle.