Daily life of a cultivation judge



"If you're not doing anything, we can go ask Old Lei if Meng Chao is around.." said Yang Qing, which drew a welcomed nod from Zhang Qingge.

"Speaking of which, how are your sessions going from the suggestions of the committee?" 

"It's okay, though on my end I wasn't given anything new. I went to the same place, I was told to go when the news about Lai Lei's injuries reached me.

It's a place called the Tranquil Heart Resonance Cave. I've been going there for at least four days a week, but with the month-long break we have been given, I can go every day now.." Dai Chen answered in the same carefree demeanor Yang Qing has always known him for.

"Am the same as Dai Chen. Because of my issue, I've been going to the citadel of imbuement. The seniors at the committee said I can just continue going there, since other than help with my nervousness and the other thing.." Zhang Qingee's voice turned low, as she looked downwards with her ears reddened with embarrassment as she said this.

"They said it can help me process the events of the Ice Emerald Sect too.." she added, as she buried her head deeper into the table, drawing smiles from Dai Chen and Yang Qing.

"You haven't had it easy.." Yang Qing said with a sigh as he looked at Dai Chen.

His carefree personality sometimes made them forget, Yang Qing included, that he had been carrying a heavy weight all this time since Lai Lei got injured.

"Well it wasn't easy back then, but right now with him on the mend, and my trips to the cave, it is better.."

"I'm glad for that.."

Zhang Qinggee who had been burying her head, looked up as she patted Dai Chen's back.

The trio then went on to explain the mechanism of the areas where each one of them was sent. Yang Qing realized that his, was the worst. He couldn't help but wonder if the Judicial Review Committee had a grudge against him, and he was also shocked that the two other places the two were sent to, were also anchored by saint-grade treasures.

He couldn't help but wonder just how many saint-grade treasures the Order had on hand, and how did they even get so many?

The tranquil heart resonance cave was apparently anchored by a pearl from a threading mirage oyster that had been at the peak of the soul formation realm. The thread mirage oyster was skilled in illusory techniques and they were so powerful that they could even fool the world itself. 

Once under its powers, anybody in the domain realm and below could not even tell whether what they were seeing and experiencing was real or fake. What the memory-altering gu could do, was child's play in comparison to what the oyster could do to someone within a second.

It was said it could read one's heart, and your entire life with a single glance. No one at the domain realm and below who has come across it, has ever survived, and those that have, can never be trusted.

Unless one is a seasoned soul formation expert, more so one with ways of combating measures that beguile the mind, you will never know that you're in the presence of the thread mirage oyster.

The pearl of the heart resonance cave was already at the saint grade, and it had the effect of bringing out the questions of the heart even the unconscious ones that one may overlook. Dai Chen felt it suited him best with the things he endured, and also as a sword cultivator, it was the best in firming themselves.

As for the citadel of imbuement, it was a unique saint-grade treasure. It was a building and the whole building was the saint grade artifact, and it wasn't by design.

From what Zhang Qinggee heard about the building, it was originally a tea house, and it dates back a million years ago at least.

The tea house itself wasn't anything special. It didn't have a tea so magnificent it could transform one from a carp to an immortal, it wasn't made from the grandest of materials, and all who stepped in felt like they had been transported to another world. It was just a regular tea house that was frequented by locals and it only had two things going for it. One, it always had customers coming in, and the other, it was next to a beautiful lake.

Because of those two things, it was always bustling with life from all walks. Scholars, farmers, merchants, and regular city guards, people from different stations in life would all come to the tea house and trade laughs and talks over a cup of regular green tree and some chrysanthemum cake.

The teahouse became a place of laughter and talk amongst all its patrons without discrimination and it remained that way for years and years. Kings, emperors, officials, and other rulers, and even the topography changed, but the tea house remained constant, a haven for light talk, and interactions. A place to forget all your weariness and just enjoy conversation, tea, and a semi-decent view.

With how volatile things were, by some odd fate, the tea house despite lacking in background or any means of ensuring its survival, waded and survived through countless years, before the years turned to millennia and millennia turned into tens of thousands of years, and that turn to hundreds of thousands of years. It weathered through it all, till finally it vanished, and something indelible became forgotten, till a rumor started floating around about an ancient three-storied rustic building, that could protect you.

To all who entered it, they would find sanctuary and to a lucky few a stroke of fortune capable of helping them transform in a single bound. 

The founder of the Su clan a rank 1 clan located in the westernmost region of the continent next to the Blue Origin Ocean, was one such person. Rumor was he had once escaped death because of that tea house, he stumbled onto it as he was escaping his pursuers. His life not only got protected because of it, but he also got a fortuitous encounter that helped him reach the heights he did, which was a soul formation expert.

Stories similar to his regularly floated around the continent, about the tea house of sanctuary and dreams, and to those who were lucky enough to find it, will have their fates changed, for the better.

And that tea house now ended up in the hands of the Order.

From Zhang Qinggee's experience with it thus far, she said that the building housed the spirits of countless people. Which was why it was given the name citadel of imbuement. The spirits seemed sentient, and they didn't exactly enhance her strength, all they did was talk to her about random mundane things.

Among the spirits, there were regulars, and there were new faces every time Zhang Qinggee went in, each with their unique perspectives and stories.

When Zhang Qinggee first went there, she was petrified, when she saw hundreds of spirits clamoring onto her to talk with her, but eventually she grew used to it and it was now one of the best highlights of her days. They always made her laugh and feel comfortable and had tonnes of life wisdom to share with her, and she always felt better unburdening herself to them, especially, with her berserker breakdowns from nervousness, and now the recent case with the Ice Emerald Sect.

Among those spirits, there were those who had similar experiences and were helping her through it.

Yang Qing couldn't help but look at her enviously. He wished he had been sent to the tea house.

"About that chrysanthemum cake?" Yang Qing curiously asked with a glint in his eyes.

"There's no food in there.." Zhang Qinggee said with a smile of exasperation with how Yang Qing's thoughts always seemed to lead to the same thing.