Daily life of a cultivation judge

The fluctuations and remnant energies got more chaotic the deeper he went in. Anyone at the core formation and below would not be able to survive in the area. Just any single wisp of the remnant energy would be able to destroy them both body and soul.

As he walked in Yang Qing spotted a grey saber energy. The saber energy was chilling cold like the abyss and it was accompanied by deathly cries that looked to corrupt someone's mind and turn them frenzied.

It didn't take him too long for Yang Qing to guess that the saber energy more than likely belonged to one of the deacons of the Blue Soul Flame Crow Syndicate. 

The Syndicate was famous for specializing in spells and arts that distorted the mind. Next to the saber energy, there was also another remnant energy. It was ghostly pale white and carried an air of corruption. The energy continuously tainted the spiritual qi and even the other energies around it, though its attempt at the latter wasn't successful.

Moving a little further in Yang Qing spotted a nebulous black swirling energy with motes of gold and red light mixing within it. Seeing it made one feel like they were staring at the deepest recess of space with its suffocating darkness and few stars around it. 

Yang Qing detected a turbulent and taboo energy contained within it along with it was an ebbing life force.

"This should be from the sacrificial move made by the royal guards.." Yang Qing said with a sigh as he felt the fleeting lingering emotion contained within the swirling energy. The emotion seemed to portray one thing unbending determination.

It resembled the same air and will that surrounded the capital of the Deer Mountain Kingdom.

Yang Qing finally stopped at what seemed to be the center of the battleground. All the energy he had passed along the way was all concentrated in that energy still engaged in fierce combat. 

Whether it was the miasma attacks from the obsidian serpent couple, Hao Da's sword energy, the Branch Chief's earth energy that carried ferocious ancient energy, the deathly saber energy, the ghostly corrupting energy, the taboo power from the royal guards, along with other attacks which Yang Qing surmised were from the other members who had been present such as the three princes and the two inquisitors from the Order.

The only energy that seemed to be missing was the one from the child of the obsidian serpents despite it being the trigger for the whole battle.

Yang Qing wasn't too surprised that it was absent considering how easily defeated it was, it likely didn't have time to launch any attack even until its death.

Yang Qing wasn't too discouraged by it because when it came to the child of the obsidian serpent, he wasn't interested in the traces left behind by its attack but something else, something that would either prove or disprove his conjecture.

His eyes lit up when it fell on a particular area within the crack-filled ground. The ground was just like any other place around the area. It was filled with turbulent energy colliding against each other as they constantly ate away at the ground below.

But within that chaotic mess, Yang Qing sensed something, it was ephemeral, but it was as clear as day to him.

Yang Qing walked to the area, crouched down, and with his hands acting like a shovel, he scooped up the disintegrating soil below. It was ground to the point it looked like gold dust. Yang Qing sifted through the dust before his gaze fell on two grains.

"This must be her blood.." muttered Yang Qing as the dao glyph markings on his hands let out an intense glow and the green aura surrounding his body got deeper.

To the common eye, there was nothing within those grains even a core formation expert with a strong soul and his/her spiritual sense deployed would miss it, even some early palace stage experts would easily miss it, but to Yang Qing, the ephemeral feeling he felt before was as clear as day.

He could hear the sound of a faint roar followed by the crashing of a sea of waves. Thanks to his Yin Yang peerless jade bones and the vitality Dao added to it, he was extremely sensitive to all auras of life that came in all manner of forms.

The two grains within his hands though didn't look any different from the rest, had one trait that set them apart from the rest, they were coated with blood at some point. Even though it was erased by the chaotic energies around it, its life imprint remained which Yang Qing was able to sense.

All throughout the battlefield, he could sense blood life imprints of all the fighters that were in the area except for the two deacons of the Soul Flame Crow Syndicate which was fairly understandable considering if they left their blood behind it was easy for them to be tracked by having their karma deduced through their blood or even cursed.

They rarely leave any blood traces even at the cost of their lives.

But whether it was Hao Da, the branch chief, the inquisitors, the princes, the royal guards, or the obsidian serpent couple, Yang Qing could sense their blood imprints all over the battleground.

They were like twinkling starlights in this chaotic mess while that of Hao Da, the branch chief, and the two obsidian serpents were like the blazing sun.

It was filled with vibrant lifeforce of powerful palace realm cultivators. Were a foundation-level spirit beast or spiritual plant to attempt to absorb just a tiny drop of blood from a palace realm cultivator, their bodies would instantly explode. The blood also could collapse their minds since it had dao traces of the palace realm cultivator.

"The earth gives and the earth takes.." Yang Qing thought when he saw the littered blood all around.

After a decade the blood that had soaked this ground will turn this wasteland into a blessed ground of cultivation. The spiritual energy and attainments contained within those blood samples would over time decompose and and integrate into the earth and air they were deposited in.

Everything the cultivator has received, he or she would return it all back upon their death. Battlegrounds like the one Yang Qing was standing on were considered prime farming grounds for harvesting all sorts of resources suitable for cultivation. The spiritual qi of an area that had experienced great bloodshed and even death of cultivators would experience a resurgence in spiritual qi and even unique natural resources would appear.

There were some spiritual herbs and metals that required the blood of cultivators for them to form or mature while others even went to the extent of requiring the lifeforce and cultivation base of a cultivator. 

Provided one took care of the corpse miasma and resentful energy commonly found in places that had experienced great bloodshed and death one stood to harvest a lot which was why there were some large kingdoms and empires that constantly engaged in warfare.

Those of low station thought the constant wars they had were because of an unreconcilable feud over something among the different kingdoms but the reality couldn't be further from it. The higher-ups of the different kingdoms meet and preplan those fights and arrange everything down to even acceptable casualties and how they are going to split the resources later after the cultivators' bodies have been refined by the earth.

The Order's presence has reduced such cases but even now they were still prevalent. Some even went to the extent of making deals with blood-fiend cultivators for that purpose. The amount of things that one could harvest from a cultivator's body was endless which is what constantly provokes the greed of most.

Of course that was up to a point. Yang Qing heard even to their deaths the bodies of those in the domain realm never decompose or lose the vitality and presence of the domain cultivator when they were alive.

Their bodies were immune to all sorts of attacks and would require a domain expert like themselves to harm it and since it contained the pressure of a domain expert, those below it would not be able to approach it without being crushed by the corpse's pressure and Yang Qing even heard that the bodies of those in the middle stages going forward retained a trace of a remnant will that would be triggered if anyone tried to profane the body in any way. It acted like a sort of defense mechanism.

Countless died in an attempt to loot an area rumored to contain the corpse of a domain expert.

The darkness of the cultivation world continuously terrified Yang Qing the more he knew about it.

Yang Qing shook his head clear of those ominous thoughts as he sensed the qualities of the blood imprint in the two grains.