Daily life of a cultivation judge

Egg peak, Yang Qing couldn't help but let out a nostalgic sigh as he made his way there. Egg peak also known as the peak of first despair. Though when Yang Qing was starting out, he did not know it went by that name, none of the first years in the first month do, it's only after a few months have passed by do they get to know it by that name.

It's usually in the fifth month going forward that they get to know Egg Peak by that moniker.

Egg Peak, though called a peak, was a territory of its own. It was as big as the cities found in prosperous rank 3 kingdoms and empires.

Throughout their time there, the whole territory was used to house the first years and all the facilities and training resources they would require.

Every single training regimen that they would ever require, was catered for there. It was like a mini world for cultivation.

There were combat areas that either took the form of arenas or platforms filled with formation arrays that created various situations, natural landscapes that had been inlaid by some treasure to create a calamitous environment, forests stacked with all kinds of spirit beasts and spiritual plants to hone their survival skills, herb gardens, mountains, valleys, swamps and rivers, mines, pavilions to practice weapon refinement, talisman crafting, formation and disabling of arrays, alchemy and a library, to name a few. Also inclusive of the facilities were cultivation abodes and special meditation areas.

It was complete with everything those who got into the Institute would need to completely excavate their potential.

When Yang Qing first laid eyes on it, he couldn't believe his eyes. It had mystical aurora lights mixed in with the ethereal mist, giving the region an air of grandeur.

He wasn't the only one. It happened to every trainee the moment they first laid their eyes on it.  Everything was beyond their imagination, from the training facilities to the wisdom contained within the peak, down to its basics such as the spiritual qi and other daily life services.

Yang Qing wept in joy when he visited the mess hall. It was an all-you-can-eat buffet, for no cost which was the best price for someone like him who had nothing to his name, and the quality of the food in terms of taste and richness, was to die for.

During the early days, he was a bit careful and well-mannered in his eating habits. He only ate four meals a day, and it was light, though it was light according to his gluttonous judgment because to others it was normal.

Every day he would increase his amount subtly to test the waters and see if there were restrictions on how much one could eat, and by the second week, he let loose when he realized there were absolutely no restrictions. He ended up camping there in those first months.

He remembered how blissful he had been, thinking this was paradise. There was plenty of good-tasting food, rich facilities, and resources that he didn't have to fight for, no any of those internal politics, and the instructors were kind and gentle with them from the moment they got in.

What he didn't know was, that they were getting fattened up for slaughter, the slaughter that would happen from the fifth month going onwards to their last day at the institute, where they would pay back every resource and food they gobbled up in those first four months, several times over.

The first four months were the grace period days. Where there were no demands, no torture,  they still had some life in them along with lively and hope-filled eyes.

But from the first day of the fifth month, the illusion breaks, and the death trap that is the Institute and their captors, the instructors finally reveal their true selves, fiends in human skins.

"I wonder how bad it will be today.." Yang Qing gleefully thought.

He had a few goals for visiting the Egg Peak today. One was because he was genuinely rooting for Peng Zhen and hoped he would do well. Peng Zhen used the Order in order to ensure his sect's survival. His motives though pure, attracted consequences for using trickery to drag the Order into the mud without telling them, and for that he was sentenced to a life-and-death duel once a month for the next ten years. Yang Qing hoped he would survive and live to the end but ultimately it would depend on his abilities and luck too in case he got a defeat that didn't end with his death.

The second goal was to see the blue-grade art he gave him, the Brilliant ray fist technique in action. The art could be considered one of his most prized treasures since it was the only blue-grade art to date he had ever managed to create by improving upon a red-grade cultivation art.

While he uses the art himself, every chance he gets to try and improve on it, seeing it being used by someone else may give him perspective and insight he would not normally get.

As for the final reason, it was to maintain tradition. Ever since he graduated from the Institute, once a year he would come and see the first fights held at the Egg Peak, the breaking-in fights.

Seeing the moment the hope of those young students get pummeled out of them that first time made him feel refreshed. No matter how bad a day or a month he had, the moment he stepped into the arenas of Egg Peak to see those fights, he would feel cleansed and renewed.

Therefore it eventually became a tradition, almost a ritual for him. As long as he was around he would always come for the very first duel.

Without him noticing it, his smile grew wider the closer he got to the combat arenas.

The fight this time would be held at the white tiger mountain. The mountain was high up and had caved in to form the maw of a tiger, and its snow-filled peak led to it being called the white tiger mountain.

When Yang Qing arrived from the air, he drew curious filled eyes from the students below. There were about 70 of them.

They all looked up with shining eyes because they could tell Yang Qing was at least a palace stage cultivator, seeing how he could float in the air so casually. They did not know his post, since Yang Qing was dressed casually. He looked like some casual farmer from the get-up he had on.

He had on a green coat, white shirt, green shorts, and straw sandals underneath, and a beat-up wine gourd at his waist.

Yang Qing casually analyzed their gazes. It was different from what he would get if he decided to visit the Butterfly Peak which was the peak that housed those who were in their final year. All together the Institute had four peaks namely; Egg Peak, Larva Peak, Pupa Peak, and finally Butterfly Peak.

Egg Peak housed first years, Larva Peak housed second years, Pupa Peak housed third years and Butterfly Peak housed fourth years, which was the final point. 

Had Yang Qing visited any of the other three peaks, the look they would have given him would have been of genuine respect, especially from those in the Pupa Peak and Butterfly Peak, when compared to those of Egg Peak, who other than a fleeting curiosity, a little awe, most of them had competitive and even combative flames in their eyes.

Those from the Pupa and Butterfly Peak, have already been baptized by the terrifying flames of the Institute, which washes away any sense of confidence, and self-worth, and leaves you a broken shell, struggling to survive each day. 

Yang Qing's appearance before them would be filled with respect as they would see him as a successful survivor who made it to the other side. They knew what it meant to survive because they had endured a substantial bit themselves, however, when it came to those from the Egg Peak it was a different story.

The looks they gave Yang Qing were completely different. It was almost as if they were saying, that in just a few years or even less, they would be where Yang Qing was and even maybe outshine him. They saw Yang Qing as no more than a stepping stone to the glamor-filled lives they had each envisioned for themselves from the moment they passed the entrance examinations.

They were filled to the brim with bluster and pride. They had already given themselves the crowns of prodigies of the Order, the shining jewels. They couldn't wait to let out that brilliance. 

The first four months were made easy for them by design, to bring out this side of them to the surface, which the Institute would then ruthlessly wash away from the fifth month to their last day. Whatever brilliance they thought they had would be blotted out every day with the darkness of the Institute and its trusty instructors.

The dragons and tigers they thought they were would be pummeled until they wore new identities, the worms of the earth, and one of the ways they did that was through these life-and-death duels.

Yang Qing rubbed his hands in excitement as he envisioned the instant knockouts, the torn limbs, and the shock-filled eyes about to descend on these arrogant first years. They were about to experience a shocking rebirth.