Daily life of a cultivation judge

"The evolution happened because of a treasure bone.." Bai Zhen said after a short silence.

"A treasure bone?!" asked Yang Qing with widened eyes of disbelief.

"Yes, a treasure bone.." said Bai Zhen with a sigh.

"How did you even end up with something like that?" asked Yang Qing still in surprise from the revelation.

Forming a wisdom pearl was a diving threshold for spirit beasts. Only those with a certain level of talent were able to form one.

The wisdom pearl contained their insights and achievements in a particular dao and was extremely valuable to both spirit beasts and humans too.

However, as precious as it was, one million wisdom pearls filled with in-depth insights into the Dao wasn't as valuable as a single speck from a treasure bone.

The treasure bone, also known as the mark of the saint, was something formed when a spirit beast reached the soul formation realm.

To a spirit beast no matter the heights of cultivation they reach, their bodies still remain their greatest capital and that fact remains true when they reach the soul formation realm. 

Of course, there are exceptions such as those whose abilities are soul-based but even for them, their bodies do still play a part in their growth.

For spirit beasts who use their fleshly body to traverse the confines of the domain realm, they get another name when they successfully breakthrough which is the equivalent of the soul formation realm, that realm is called the sacred sovereign realm.

At this stage, whether the spirit beast has a noble bloodline or not, bloodline suppression no longer affects them. They have stepped beyond its bounds and established a bloodline unique only to themselves.

The tribulation lightning they face when breaking through obliterates and reforms them anew, and in the end, should they survive it, their entire body is transformed and filled with the same power that forms the world around them. However, it takes different variations depending on the mastery of the spirit beast.

Their flesh, blood, skin, internal organs, and every other inch of their bodies are baptized with the aura of the origin dao. Their bodies end up filled with dao markings and glyphs just like how Yang Qing has a few because of his peerless jade physique.

Those dao markings are what the spirit beasts contemplate to improve their cultivation. Their next steps are literally branded to them and when they die, those markings disappear except the ones that are in their bones.

Their bones contain their entire life's accumulation and are no different from a saint-grade natural treasure, hence the name, treasure bone.

Should a spirit beast stumble even to the tiniest piece of a treasure bone, their fortunes are instantly transformed. A whole roadmap leading to the soul formation realm is instantly opened up to them and they only need to follow it. 

It didn't only benefit spirit beasts as human cultivators could also contemplate the dao markings for the profundities that lay within it like some old tome and improve themselves.

If the obsidian serpent couple had a treasure bone, evolving into a flood dragon was more than possible.

But how did they end up with a treasure bone of a flood dragon? flood dragons were notoriously powerful, famous for holding their own even against those stronger than them, let alone a flood dragon that had reached the sacred sovereign realm.

How did the obsidian couple get their hands on something so rare?

"Adler had a piece of it which he offered to share with my daughter.." said Bai Zhen.

"Where did he even get such a thing? and how come he handed it to you and not used it himself?" asked Yang Qing.

Handing out a treasure bone was no different than handing out a saint-grade treasure.

"From the moment he made the suggestion, I found myself asking myself that very question every single day since.." said Bai Zhen with a wry smile.

"I could never quite understand him sometimes, despite having known each other for almost 10,000 years.." he added with a shake of his head.

"Did he receive it from his master?" asked Yang Qing, increasingly feeling that it was likely to be the case.

"He did.."

As if anticipating that Yang Qing would ask how his master got a hold of it in the first place, Bai Zhen added,

"His master got it from someone else, though she never told the fire adler bear much, other than it was an unfathomable figure and he was the one that gave her a chance at rebirth.

When she left, she had left precisely to search for that unfathomable figure.." 

The gears in Yang Qing's mind instantly started turning as to who that unfathomable figure could be before it slowly fell on the middle-aged man they shared drinks and meals with.

While talking, the middle-aged man said he had forgotten something in the Deer Mountain Range and had come to check on it to which Yang Qing had strong suspicions that the forgotten thing the middle-aged man was talking about was the sword embryo being refined by the flames produced by the egg of a Bifang Niao.

Other than coming to check on the forgotten object, the middle-aged said he was also checking on a friend but he missed them. 

Though it was far-fetched, Yang Qing had a feeling that maybe the fire adler bear's master and the middle-aged man were connected. Otherwise, how could his master have gotten her hands on the treasure bone of a sacred sovereign realm spirit beast?

In his mind, someone who could fashion a wine gourd with wood from the empyrean world jade tree, a king among jade trees, was exactly the same type of person who would casually give out a treasure bone from a spirit beast that had reached the human equivalent of the soul formation realm, and a flood dragon nonetheless.

What were the odds that the Deer Mountain Range was occasionally frequented by multiple unfathomable figures? It was their luck that even one, in the name of the middle-aged man, came by at all.

The Deer Mountain Range may be rich in resources, to the point it may rival some rank 2 kingdoms, but that was insufficient to draw in the eyes of people at the level of the middle-aged man. 

Therefore Yang Qing felt it was highly likely that the middle-aged man was acquainted with the fire adler bear's master and that may have even been the reason he had decided to stop by Meifeng's cavern.

It had nothing to do with his beggar's rice wine or the fried scallops which were Shi Hai's best work, or the radiant look of the parasitic purple flower spore sycamore tree. It had more to do with Meifeng's relationship with the fire adler bear's master.

Someone as skilled as the middle-aged man could likely trace her aura to Meifeng considering she spent some time with the sycamore tree and was like a mother to her, and without a treasure that shielded her karma from being spied on, Miefeng's past could have been easily deduced by the middle-aged man, which was why he came there in the first place or rewarded her with the purest yin energy he had ever seen.