Daily life of a cultivation judge

Before he left, Yang Qing had already communicated with the heads of the Green Jade Pavilion and appraised them of his intent to visit several of the subsidiaries and main stores. He had left it to them to inform those subsidiaries and main stores of his arrival to avoid the hustle of a mixup in identities where those store owners and staff don't believe he is who he says he is. After all, the Green Jade Pavilion owner was an unknown who had never made an appearance up until Yang Qing was given that identity.

People would distrust someone they had never seen even if he had the jade token. It was better if the information came from someone they did know.

Seeing the complications in the Moonpine Kingdom, he was glad for the arrangements he had made. A second later, the store owner of the Serenity Ambrosia vouched for him even telling the general that he could come in person to do so, which the general said was not necessary.

With everything in place, they didn't have to wait for too long before the ship resumed its course. Yang Qing was the only one among the passengers who was making a stop in the Moonpine kingdom. General Su Chen after apologizing a few times, dispatched one of the guards who was at the quasi-palace stage to accompany the ship during its stay in the kingdom.

The rest of the journey to the five peak valley was smooth, and it wasn't long before they docked a ways away from the center of the town. Yang Qing was the only one who left the ferry this time, with Bai Chen's movement and the other passengers restricted to where they had docked the ferry. Bai Chen couldn't pick up or drop off other fares in the meantime.

To avoid the awkwardness of making Bai Chen wait for him too long, Yang Qing decided he would try to make his meeting with his contact as brief as he could. The contact in comparison to the rest of in his network was the youngest in the program.

His name was Liu Chen and he had been in the program for 48 years. Even in terms of age, he was also the youngest as he was 62 years old. Integrating him into the Liu Clan was fairly easy as every cultivating clan had a way of verifying their members through their bloodline. The Order trained him up for a few years before they finally let him go to the Liu Clan. The training was to help him survive but also stand out once he was in the clan.

The preparation proved fruitful as despite his age and with no one to back him at the start, he was currently one of their elders and the youngest one at that. With his cultivation base at the fifth stage of the core formation realm, he was held in high esteem within his clan and was even groomed to take over the position as the next clan leader.

On the way over to the Serenity Ambrosia Store, Yang Qing had already decided on the means he would use to make contact with the young elder. With the entire kingdom on high alert, he couldn't guarantee that he wouldn't be trailed if he tried to sneak over. Seeing the reaction of General Su Chen at the mention of the store gave him the idea of which means to use.

Yang Qing made his way to the store where he met the overzealous store owner practically beaming as he welcomed him. He would have probably made a showing of it like some Emperor's welcome had Yang Qing not mentioned repetitively he didn't want something ostentatious much to the disappointment of the store owner.

However, he didn't reject all of Cui Song's displays of hospitality. Cui Song had suggested hosting a welcoming meal for him in one of the most famous restaurants in the Five Peak Valley, the Sizzling Paradise Dining Inn. Yang Qing accepted the offer and even had Cui Song invite the five peak clans of the valley over and other prominent figures of the valley as a form of acknowledgment for all the good business they brought.

With the pull the store had, it wouldn't be difficult for Cui Song to invite those clans on short notice, and considering it was a personal invite from him, those who answered the invite would be the bigwigs of those clans, and he had no doubt, the Liu Clan leader would bring Liu Chen with him to expand his horizons and also as a statement that he was his successor.

Yang Qing realized that he had underestimated the strength of the reputation the Serenity Ambrosia Store had in its surroundings. It didn't take long for all the clans and the rest to confirm their attendance and in half an hour they were all congregated at the Sizzling Paradise Dining Inn.

With every who's who of the valley in attendance, Cui Song as a seasoned merchant, handled his role as the host beautifully, sparing Yang Qing the effort of exercising his soft skills. As he had the seat of honor, Yang Qing didn't have to interact much, restricting his interaction with the heads of the clans, and in the middle of that, he was able to establish contact with Liu Chen.

With no palace realm present, he was able to make his introductions to Liu Chen via his palace sense before he covertly handed him a sensory artifact that he could use to transmit his thoughts.

With the artifact's help, he was able to learn from Liu Chen a bit of what had transpired in the kingdom, though he didn't know much. Even though the Liu clan was one of the peak clans of the Five Peak Valley, that was restricted to the valley. Outside the valley, they were nothing much as none of the five clans had a palace realm expert, and even if they did have one, they could not rival the foundations of the noble families settled in the royal capital, the true powerhouse factions of the kingdom.

The five peak clans of the valley were subordinate to one of those families, and the Liu Clan was no exception. It was from that relationship that Liu Chen through their clan leader learned a bit of what happened. One of the noble families, the Chen clan, had something robbed, of what exactly it was, Liu Chen had no idea, and even the noble family who fed them that information had no idea, the only thing they had was a guess that whatever it was, it was related to something they found in some mysterious realm a few hundred years ago.

Liu Chen offered to dig around more, but Yang Qing warned him against it. If Liu Chen started digging around, he was liable to draw suspicion from that family, and if they had lost something precious, who knew what they were liable to do in a fit of anger? It was better for Liu Chen to make a wide berth between him and the affairs of that family.

Yang Qing didn't linger long after making contact, he exchanged a few perfunctory words with the guests and store owner Cui Hong before he took his leave and left for the next place, the home of millions of artifacts, Thousandforge City, of the Divine Armament Sect, a rank two sect, famous for producing countless ascendant and monarch grade artifacts since its establishment.

Just like the Saint Herb Garden was revered by medical cultivators, the Divine Armament Sect was held with the same regard by artificers and refiners.