Daily life of a cultivation judge



"How were the concentrations?" asked Alchemist Luo Fan as both he and Alchemist Ma Bo scrutinized the reflected image of the internal structure of Li Shu.

"On the plants, normal but on the duck I bet it will be different, and judging by her internal makeup, it seems to have been the cause.." answered Alchemist Ma Bo as he handed the white scale fairy moss in his hand to Alchemist Luo Fan, who gently parsed its leaves through his fingers.

A blue crystalline liquid that shone like the luster of stars appeared on his fingertips as he pressed the leaves of the white-scale fairy moss against his fingers.

The white-scale fairy moss was pure white in color and its leaves had a silky smoothness to it and released a sweet fresh breezy scent.

"The quality is not bad. It falls under the top 5 among the white-scale fairy moss I've interacted with over the years..." said Luo Fan as his gaze went back to Li Shu.

"Mmmh, explains why the Jadebrook royal family has so many experts. Having someone gifted like young Liang Tian supplying them with all sorts of spiritual herbs with such a quality, having skilled experts is a definite guarantee.." 

Alchemist Ma Bo couldn't help but sneak a glance Liang Tian's way who had already walked to Bai Zou and seemed to be animatingly discussing something with him in a low voice.

"I wonder if he'd agree to join the Jade leaf academy. With my recommendation and his talent, it wouldn't be a problem. But he doesn't strike me as the sort to care too much about that.." wondered Alchemist Ma Bo.

"He didn't either.." he added as his gaze fell on Yang Qing.

His years of working as a teacher made him develop a habit of scouting unpolished gems and recommending them to the Academy and see what heights they'd reach.

His life was changed in the same way too. He too was once a student of the Jade Leaf Academy and had gotten in as a regular student. However he was an orphan and had no lucky encounters or treasure stash somewhere to fund his entry, but lucky for him there was a guest teacher of the Academy who admired his talents and gave him his recommendation.

Guest teachers were given two recommendations a year. The recommendation worked as a free sponsorship and not a direct entry card. Whoever they recommended had to have sufficient talent to be accepted into the Academy by normal means. Their recommendation would serve as their fees throughout their whole education.

The recommendation Ma Bo received in his early years, had changed his life. It was no different than giving him a new life. All he had today was because of that recommendation. What he learned at the Academy laid down the foundations he needed to become a blue-grade alchemist and herbologist.

This was the reason why, when the Academy offered him a position as a guest teacher when he became a blue-grade alchemist, he did not hesitate. Other than the generous resources and opportunities he would get as a guest teacher, one of the other main reasons he did it, was he wanted to create many opportunities for other potential geniuses who may end up buried because of insufficient resources.

He wanted to be that opportunity for them, which was why he kept roaming around the continent. He did so for his research and also spotted a few talents that he could use his recommendation on.

One of his journeys landed him at the doors of the Yang clan.  A family that had some of the most profound theories and deductions into the human body, that was supplemented with a deep level of knowledge that it drew even his attention, despite already being a blue-grade alchemist at the time.

Over the years of interacting with them, he had attempted to recommend a few of them to the Academy one of which was Yang Qing's grandfather who had a creative mind for research that wasn't only restricted to the body refinement realm, but to other physiques and alchemy.

As per Alchemist Ma Bo's assessment from their most recent interaction, Yang Qing's grandfather was already just inches away from being a blue-grade alchemist, even with his foundation-level strength.

Ma Bo wouldn't be surprised if he was overtaken by him someday, which was why he tried to get him to join the Academy to further develop his talents and there would definitely be cultivators there who would help him with his research, however he was ruthlessly rejected by Yang Qing's grandfather, and when he tried recruiting other Yang clan talents they all gave him the same response, which was a rejection.

He didn't give up and still kept trying to recommend someone from the Yang family. He always felt like he owed them for them allowing an outsider like him to have a share in their insights and the research. He was surprised at how open they were with it after just exchanging a few pointers with them.

Their research had greatly contributed towards him strengthening his abilities as a blue-grade alchemist, to the point it wouldn't be long before he was able to successfully concoct mid-tier blue-grade potions and pills.

Potions and pills of this grade were ones that would induce two tribulation lightning upon completion. Such potions and pills had the same potency as a cultivator in the middle stages of the palace realm.

If Ma Bo managed to make such a potion, the harvest he would gain would be sufficient to push his cultivation base to the middle stages of the palace realm, and he could become a regular teacher of the Jade Leaf Academy which came with over 100 more perks than what he had access to, one of which was access to gold grade recipes, and access to facilities and treasures that would increase his understanding of alchemy and other related matters.

The research and generosity shown by the Yang family had given him a chance at something most alchemists would drool over, thus he felt he owed them a lot, and giving them resources for their experiments wasn't enough in his book.

A recommendation was the most valuable thing he felt he could give them, but sadly to most of the Yang clan members, it was no more important to them than a useless rock by the road. Other than their devout study of the body refinement realm, they had little care for anything else and they were stubborn about it and were creatures of habit, and would not deviate from it.