Daily life of a cultivation judge



"This yin salt continually accumulates in the duck's body the more it consumes the white scale fairy moss doused with dew from the moonlit cypress. The yin salt in by itself is not harmless and is rather beneficial to the duck, when it comes to increasing the durability of its feathers, and when it comes to the restaurant side of things.

Duck meat from a gold feather duck with yin salt in its system is much tender than one without."

"Now daoist Bai Zou, I take it you use the tri fire flame to cook it?" asked Alchemist Ma Bo.

"I do," answered Bai Zou with a mildly surprised expression.

"The tri fire flame is an excellent flame art for both alchemists and chefs.." As Alchemist Ma Bo said this, a flame appeared in his hands.

The flame had three different colors. There was blue, yellow, and dark orange.

"With this flame, you can regulate different levels of heat be it on your cauldron or on the food you're processing. The blue flame is fierce and hot, the dark orange flame is gentle and slow, and the yellow flame is the middle ground between the two.

It's one of the best flame arts to use to extract a large quantity of the elements contained in an ingredient. It's truly a wonderous art with unlimited uses and high efficiency.." 

Alchemist Ma Bo lightly rubbed his palm and the flame disappeared.

"The flame is good for ensuring every ingredient is used to its maximum potential, and that's what happened with the Yin salt. Because of the tri-fire flame, the yin salt which should have remained in the gizzard got melted and distributed throughout the body of the duck, and if served sizzling, the yin salt is usually at an active state because of the fire.

Herein lies the problem...yin salt by itself is no problem to someone who consumes it, however, in its active state, it becomes problematic if you introduce a compound with volatile yang energy which the dragonfire basil has plenty of.

Introducing both substances in your body at the same time turns it into a combat arena with one vying for dominance over the other. 

Had Miss Li Shu not been a regular and had the same dish, the yin-yang imbalance wouldn't have appeared. Your body would have regulated it with time or the yin salt and the yang energy from the dragon fire basil would have neutralized each other.

But by consuming it on a regular basis you continuously supplied these two substances the energy they needed to subsist on your body to the point they could run autonomously by using different organs and parts of your body as a furnace and a source of the yin and yang energy, with each trying to outdo the other.

It's why your qi becomes erratic and sometimes sluggish, the dizzy spells, and other effects. Every part of your body turned into a battleground for these two types of energies, and the measures the two alchemists from the Blue River Cauldron couldn't work because a lot of substances around the world contain traces of yin or yang energy.

The two substances used their means to feed themselves. The array or their technique would have worked had they used an item with a void element but those are hard to find and it would be a waste to use it for a harmonization or cleansing.

That's the basic ins and outs of what happened.."

A short silence ensued as Li Shu and Bai Zou processed what happened. They all seemed to have conflicted expressions. With what Alchemist Ma Bo had said, Li Shu couldn't very well blame the restaurant. Her regular consumption of the golden roast duck and the long-term use of the dragonfire basil was the trigger for the whole thing.

Guilt could be seen all over her face as she tried to avoid eye contact with Bai Zou. 

As for Bai Zou, he too felt guilty along with Liang Tian who kept mumbling 'how' over and over... For Bai Zou the yin salt present in his duck was a factor in Li Shu's imbalance, and she was only affected this badly because she was a regular customer. Her reward for loyalty to the restaurant was sickness.

He could be seen clenching his fist in frustration.

"Ahem.." Yang Qing's soft cough broke the silence.

"Well, I guess its time for me to pass my judgment. Li Shu, Bai Zou....as per the seniors' comments in my humble opinion, none of you is to blame, it's just a series of unlucky events that brought this on.

As for the matter of resolving the imbalance, as your mediator for this case, I'll just do it myself and bring it to a close.."

Yang Qing immediately reappeared in front of Li Shu with his right index finger placed above her forehead.

"While it's not the morning lily heartseed, it works just the same. I've eaten enough of them to mimic their abilities.." Yang Qing casually said as a green-blue drop appeared on the tip of his finger.

Spring of resplendence

A burst of refreshment and vitality filled the room the moment the drop appeared. Luo Fan's pupils constricted in shock when he felt the fluctuations of that droplet. He wasn't alone in this, as Bai Zou had the same reaction but for Lou Fan, it was more exaggerated.

"A perfect yin-yang harmony? it's even better than the morning lily heartseed? How?!" he couldn't help but turn his gaze to Alchemist Ma Bo who had hinted about Yang Qing being capable of resolving the issue.

Luo Fan had assumed Yang Qing was a blue grade alchemist like them or would use some natural treasure to resolve the issue but he didn't expect him to resolve it as he did.

With all the treasures he has appraised over the years, he has interacted with a few treasures that exhibited the dual nature of yin yang but none of them matched the purity of the droplet in Yang Qing's hand. He was even half tempted to ask for it and do the treatment himself.

The moment the droplet fell on her forehead Li Shu felt a sense of comfort she had never felt before instantly washing her body. Every bone, sinew, organ, and blood cell were being renewed and revitalized by the microsecond.