Daily life of a cultivation judge

Yang Qing's calm voice sounded like a thunderclap in the young lady's mind.

Her pupils shrunk with clarity mixed in with dread showing in them.

After a bit of hesitation, she meekly said,

"You said you wanted to trade, i..i...I am not stealing, Am I?"

Her stuttering voice did little to make her case along with the eyes that were darting around looking at everything around the room but Yang Qing.

Yang Qing couldn't help but touch his face as he wondered if he was that scary.

Yang Qing shook his head with a slight chuckle at the awkward display from the young lady.

She was an absolute stunner that would bewitch the minds of many but currently, she was a bundle of nerves. Her face exhibited contrasting emotions. She had fear and excitement both trying to exert dominance over the other.

Yang Qing despite trying to hold it back couldn't help but laugh at the scene which inadvertently made the young lady flinch before she hesitantly looked up.

"How old are you?" asked Yang Qing when he noticed her almost naive innocent behavior.

The young lady plopped to the ground when Yang Qing removed his restriction.

Even falling she managed to make it look alluring.

The young lady pushed some of her pink hair that had covered her eyes during the fall to the side as she said,

"I am not quite sure.." 

She twirled her hair with her finger seemingly in deep thought.

"I can't remember but I should be the same age as adler. He used to come and hide here when he was a cub every time he angered lady gild.."

A strange twinkling appeared in her eyes followed by pearly laughter.

"Who are adler and Lady Gild?" curiously asked Yang Qing.

From one of the names he had a guess, it might be the fire adler bear but this Lady Gild was a complete mystery.

Also, he couldn't help but have a strange look when he saw the enchanting empress-looking lady before him. If she was the same age as the fire adler bear then at the very least she was 10,000 years old.

He couldn't help but sigh at the absurd lifespans of spirit beasts and spiritual plants. They didn't have the same degree of adaptability and speed as humans did when it came to the improvement of their cultivation realms or versatility in the cultivation arts they could practice. Still, they were born with a few advantages of their own such as innate abilities and long lifespans.

"Adler is adler and Lady Gild is Lady Gild.." answered the young lady with a matter-of-fact tone and a gaze that seemed to imply,

"How don't you know about them? Everybody at our level should know.."

Yang Qing put on a smile that wasn't a smile as he fought the urge to destroy the leaves in his hand out of spite.

"I am not from here so I haven't heard about them. Is Adler a fire adler bear?"

To stop the lady from giving him the look like he was some sort of an airhead, he decided to take a gander at who the Adler she mentioned might be.

The young lady looked at him strangely like she was trying to see through him and didn't believe him completely before she nodded as she said,

"There are not that many fire adler bears around here, at least, as far as I know, he is the only one not unless he went and found himself a wife and had a child.

But no, there is no way he would do that.." 

The young lady shook her hands dismissively as she smiled.

"With that incorrigible behavior of his of lazying around all day doing nothing but eat empyrean wasp honey, sleep, and mock others endlessly, there's no way he'd go find a spouse let alone find one willing to tolerate him.

Even his master, despite Lady Gild's gentle personality, couldn't stand him and was pushed to maddening anger by him a lot, she even vomited blood a few times because of it.." 

The young lady couldn't help but show a sympathetic look as she said this.

"She ended up leaving for parts unknown to calm her mind. It's been a few thousand years since she left. I don't have anyone to sing to me because of it, and adler stopped coming out as he used to when she left..."

A deep melancholic look appeared on her face as she sighed with sadness.

"I wonder if it's guilt or he has been asleep all this time.." she muttered as she put one of her slender jade hands below her chin in deep contemplation.

Yang Qing meanwhile had a deep look as thoughts constantly swirled in his mind.

The fire adler bear having a master wasn't something he expected as it wasn't something common among spirit beasts, though it has been seen here and there. But the only spirit beasts who usually exercised such a practice were those who had some interaction with humans and borrowed the custom from them and secondly more often than not they were usually powerful enough to not need to cannibalize a fellow spirit beast to grow their strength.

The quickest way for spirit beasts to improve their cultivation realm, especially in the lower realms was to cannibalize each other.

It was fast, the foundations were not shaky, and if one was to consider one drawback for growing their strength this way was the spirit beasts ran a risk of becoming frenzied the more they did it, but even then the issue could be easily remedied with a strong willpower, natural herbs that clear the mind and strengthen the spirit, or if the spirit beast only goes for the wisdom pearl that risk is eliminated.

Therefore spirit beasts usually saw each other as delectable and precious resources for rapidly growing their strength and would only stop doing so the more powerful they became because at that point their understanding of dao would be the only thing that would be able to push them forward.

Yang Qing couldn't help but wonder how powerful the fire adler bear master was. For him, it stood to reason at the very least she had reached the palace realm considering the bear's current realm and when she disappeared.

"How powerful was she?" Yang Qing finally asked.

"Very.." the young lady said with fervent worshiping eyes.

"No matter how strong Adler became, he would suffer the same flawless beating as he did when he was a cub.

A single flick would send him wailing for weeks.."

The young lady animatedly stood up as she did a finger flick with an excited expression as she envisioned herself pulling the same move on the bear.

"She could be at the domain realm.." muttered Yang Qing.

"Do you know what type of spirit beast she was?"

The young lady suddenly froze as she warily looked at Yang Qing.

"Why do you ask? is that the help you were talking about?"

Qi fluctuations appeared around her body and the tree at the back as the dark water rippled.

Even though she looked fearful, there was a staunch determination underneath.

"No, I was just curious since you were speaking so highly of her.." Yang Qing said with a wry smile when he saw her cautious look.

"Mister I'll say this upfront even if those leaves are precious and life-changing for me, I won't betray my friends for it.." the young lady staunchly said.

"I am sorry if my question offended you, and I assure you I am not asking you to betray anyone. You're free to refuse if you feel what I'm asking is too much. I won't take any offense.." Yang Qing gently said.

The young lady looked at him for a short while before her expression eased up and the fluctuations subsided.

"I don't know her form, I've only ever seen her in her human form which was filled with grace and gentle majesty. 

No matter how much I try, I can't copy her essence.." she wistfully said as she used one of the clear marble rocks next to her to look at her image.

Yang Qing's gaze flickered slightly from her response.