Daily life of a cultivation judge



Yang Qing went to the Harmony Well Pavilion to deal with the cases Tan Jue had handed him.

There were thousands of pavilions, courtyards, and special locations around the Medicine Valley that catered to different medical maladies.

The Harmony Well Pavilion was an all-purpose pavilion that could be considered a jack-of-all medical hall. It handled everything from healing to regrowth of limbs, purification, and detoxification, internal demons purge, gu removals, and potion and pills brewing.

It had its own small lake and a herb garden to cater to all its needs and the area had been designed by a geomancy specialist and a formation master skilled with the natural formations, which was a sub-type of formation arrays that aimed at using natural features to trigger a symbiotic reaction that resulted in a natural array.

Such types of arrays were never defensive or attack-based but were mostly utility-based. Their aim was to promote the sustainability and longevity of the area they were located under by enhancing the growth of the biotic and abiotic features of the area.

The Harmony Well Pavillion thanks to the efforts of the geomancy specialist and natural array formation master were able to create one such array. The area had a gentle pure spiritual qi that had a quelling effect towards erratic qi caused by internal demons, it could delay violent effects that were caused by certain poisons, and it also helped in reducing the mental strain of the alchemists as they brewed potions or of the physicians that were working on the patients, thus increasing their efficiency and also how long they could work.

That was just one of its features, as the array was able to boost the growth of various spiritual herbs that were unique to the conditions created by the natural array. It had created a system of its own geared towards restoration.

Yang Qing made his way to the third level of the pavilion as he greeted a few of the Valley members along the way.

It wasn't his first time at this pavilion as this was the place where he spent most of his time when he came over to help whenever he had free time to help practice the skills Deputy Hall Master Ren Shu had taught him.

Most of the cultivators on the third floor were in the late stage of the core formation realm, with a few quasi-palace realm cultivators showing up, while the fourth floor which was the highest was reserved for those in the palace realm. 

It had the fewest patients as it was rare for those in the palace realm to get injured and those that did had their own means of dealing with it.

The pavilion mostly catered to outsiders, though those from the Order could be sent there for treatment, but it was mostly centered on outsiders. It saw visits from many cultivators at the core formation realm and below, while those at the palace realm were less, and the majority of those who came in were rogue cultivators.

The flooring of the third floor was made of swirling tranquility marble that made one fill they were within a gentle ocean, while the walls at the side were made of sundew jade stone that created a purifying light and ambiance to the floor that was further amplified by potted monk's chime bamboo plants.

At the center of the floor was a spectral image of crystal green kirin, which was a projection of an ascendant-grade artifact that was used to anchor all the formation arrays used within the building itself. 

Yang Qing inserted his spiritual sense into the jade he was given by Tan Jue. Other than containing the patient's names, it also had their faces, cultivation base, affiliations, and the preliminary diagnosis done on them.

After reading through all the names within the jade, which was about 60 of them he immediately began his rounds.

Each patient was in his/her own compartment separated from the others by a green light curtain courtesy of the kirin treasure. 

The light isolated presence, noise and acted as a seal to prevent one patient from contaminating the other, or prevent accidents such as berserk explosions from reaching the other patients.

The first patient Yang Qing dealt with was a rogue cultivation by the name of Ye Xun who was a core formation expert in the seventh stage. The diagnosis of his state was poisoning by a ghost vine spider, which judging by the damage done to Ye Xun had been one that was at least at the same level as Ye Xun or slightly weaker. If it had been stronger Ye Xun would not have survived more than a few minutes from its bite.

The ghost vine spider was a spirit beast skilled in stealth which made it adept at even escaping a cultivator's detection via the spiritual sense. It also had speed that matched its abilities in stealth, however, the most dangerous part was its venom. 

The ghost vine spider's venom was filled with the purest corpse qi, and unlike corpse cultivators who get theirs through refining corpses, the ghost vine spider is naturally born with it which makes it more potent than that found in corpse cultivators.

Corpse qi was no different than poison mixed in with curses, if a regular cultivator was infected by it, and ghost vine spider's venom contained the purest kind that amplified its effects by a couple of levels. It would eat away at someone's qi, their blood, their flesh, slowly eroding and contaminating every aspect of the cultivator's body to the point they're nothing but a dried husk.

The rogue cultivator Ye Xun had a sufficient amount of corpse qi in his system based on how he was wreathing in pain while he shook violently. His body was covered in grey-black vine markings that released grey smoke. The vines looked like they were strangulating him.

"Luckily it hasn't permeated into his heart, soul, and dantian.." Yang Qing muttered as he placed his palms over Ye Xun's body.

The vines as if alive wriggled as if they were trying to jump out of Ye Xun's skin and latch onto Yang Qing's palm.

Eternal spring flames

Golden yellow flames were instantly produced from Yang Qing's palms exuding a sense of purity that would cleanse every blemish, within it was also an aura of dense life.

The flames instantly doused the grey smoke coming out of Ye Xun's body and then went on to burn away the grey-black vine markings on his body. Upon first contact with the flames, even unconscious, Ye Xun let out a gut-wrenching scream before his expression suddenly eased to one of relaxation.

A shrieking sound came from the grey vine markings as they rapidly receded from Ye Xun's body. Within three breaths his body had been cleared up of all markings, and his desiccated and cracked white skin now had some color within it, with his breathing and qi state coming under a normal rhythm.

There were black ashes on top of his skin which Yang Qing blew away with a wave of his palms. The ashes were millions of eggs the ghost vine spider had planted on him when it bit him. They would only have hatched a month after his death. The eggs had a fluid that would increase the speed of rot and degradation of the body to release corpse qi that would provide the necessary energy required for them to hatch, and when they did they would cannibalize each other until only one was left. 

This was why every ghost vine spider was deadly, every single one of them had survived a brutal fight from the instant they hatched, where they had to defeat a million of their brothers and sisters or get eaten themself, and the reward of being the final victor was to use those million siblings to refine the purest corpse qi out there.

Yang Qing left the rogue cultivator still asleep as he moved on to the next case. Within half an hour he had made quick work of 50 of the 60 cases he had been given by Tan Jue. He dealt with a few poisons, deep battle injuries, and internal demon rampages.

He could feel his skills had improved from when he last used them. He couldn't help but think of the experience he had at the grounds of the Clear Sword River Sect, the brief experience he had when he was trying to investigate if he could find traces of his physique from within his realm that ended up with him getting transported to a jade tree with countless leaves. The experience had resulted in a slight improvement to his cultivation albeit slightly since it still remained at the first stage of the palace realm.

Then there was the substance Green Cocoon left in his palace realm. Its presence had been qualitatively improving his inner palace realm, especially the green flame tree that was at the center. The object deposited was about the size of a pear fruit, however, after his debacle with the red abyssal thorn tree where it got triggered and helped him move and save Mo Lingwei, its size had decreased by half, however, even with a decrease, its effects had not waned one bit.

"Coming here wasn't a bad thing.." Yang Qing mused to himself as he eagerly moved to the next case.