Daily life of a cultivation judge

"Good, you can step back now.." Yang Qing said as he straightened himself up.

Chen Zian acknowledged with a polite cupping of his fists as he stepped back to the crowd to where his anxious clan members were.

Some of them seemed to want to say something to him but held off when their nervous glances fell on Yang Qing and the Red Flaming Lotus Alchemy Pavilion proprietor.

"Now, let's begin with the proceedings..." Yang Qing said, plunging the courtroom into an even more desperate atmosphere.

"Like I said earlier, each of you who stands accused will have a chance to defend yourself, and should you wish to, your clan patriarch can speak on your behalf. Of course, whether he does it is entirely up to him. Patriarch Chen Zian, you're not obligated to do that, if you do not wish to, there will be no penalties for refusal, and should you wish to speak up at their behest, what you choose to say is also entirely up to you.

Is it clear to everybody present?" asked Yang Qing to which everyone nodded solemnly in agreement.

"Okay.. Now let's go to the two charges brought forth against you. Usually with the cases that we deal with, someone files the complaint while the other defends themselves against the complaint, and we act as the arbiter between the two sides, but your case is different..."

Yang Qing paused as his gaze narrowed on everyone present causing a few to take nervous gulps.

"The one serving the complaint this time is us. About two months ago I passed through Purple City and noticed a few things that prompted me to have a thorough investigation conducted in Purple City and the Red Maple Empire as a whole.

The impetus for that investigation was a couple of things but the primary one was the presence of a blood refinement cultivator in Purple City and from what I have learned more were unearthed in the last month.

The investigation was conducted by my two colleagues here in Yu Gen and Xia Ting and also the staff at Yellow Plains County who you should all be familiar with more or less.."

There were a few startled looks from the crowd, more startled than before when Yang Qing mentioned Yellow Plains County Branch.

"Now, let's move to the specifics of the charges brought against you. The Chen family is harboring pill slaves and human cauldrons. Possessing even one of them is a violation of the Southern Continent Cultivator Baseline Conduct Charter.

As a long-standing cultivation clan, I doubt there's any need for me to waste time defining what a pill slave or a human cauldron is, is there?"

Yang Qing paused as he awaited an answer from the group. The response given was as he expected, muteness and awkward nervousness from most of the crowd as they avoided eye contact with him.

Their reaction was expected considering what they were accused of. Having pill slaves and human cauldrons was just as vile as practicing fiendish cultivation arts that required harvesting lives to cultivate it. Practicing such arts, and having pill slaves and human cauldrons was no different because at their roots, both practices needed life force as a catalyst for progress.

Pill slaves were humans be they mortals or cultivators, whose part or entire bodies were used as an ingredient in the crafting of a pill or a recipe. It did not matter whether they functioned as a primary or a secondary ingredient, they were pill slaves nonetheless.

Cultivators were usually preferred to mortals when it came to choosing a pill slave. Those who had perfected their craft in using pill slaves would rear those cultivators like how a person rears cattle whose sole purpose is to provide high-quality beef. Those organizations were very specific in the way they nurtured their pill slaves. Everything from what they ate, where they lived, the cultivation art they practiced, the elemental balance of their bodies, all of it would be micromanaged and controlled to suit the needs of the potion that required said cultivator.

A whole thorough regimen was built around it. It wasn't all who were as thorough about it. Some would use the cultivators as is. But for those using complex recipes, a carefully laid out nurturing plan for their pill slaves was needed, and the Chen family was shown to be one of them.

When it came to human cauldrons, they differed from their counterparts, the pill slaves, in that they were not an ingredient, but were instead the furnace through which all of the ingredients were brewed, in place of a cauldron. Other than concocting potions, they would also be used to nurture spiritual herbs.

One could be careless with pill slaves but the same could not be said about human cauldrons.Nurturing one required considerable effort and resources which was an investment that would be repaid several times over provided you were successful in nurturing one.

The investigation showed that the Chen family had already nurtured twenty-three of them.

"The investigations unearthed the following in regards to the charges. Your farms in Cherry Blossom County, Spiritwood County, Blacktear County, and Misty Caldera County were found to have pill slaves and human cauldrons.

The total number of pill slaves and human cauldrons was 78 to 23 respectively. Inquisitor Yu Gen please inform the Medical Valley to have them delivered.." Yang Qing said to Yu Gen, who nodded as he took out his communication talisman.

"He seems surprised?"thought Yang Qing as his gaze fell on Chen Zian who quickly tried to conceal the shock in his eyes as Yang Qing mentioned the four counties.

It came as no surprise that all counties were in the territory owned by the Chen family, and of those counties, Cherry Blossom County and Spiritwood County were the largest spiritual herb-producing territories under their control and the reason for that was the two counties fell under the territory the red maple spirit controlled and had thus been baptized by its aura, unlike the other places which they gained when they expanded the kingdom.

Yang Qing could only guess the reason for his surprise was the presence of pill slaves and human cauldrons in those two locations. Considering the significance of those two locations, it would be a given for the Clan Patriarch to monitor them closely.

Why wouldn't Chen Zian have the look of someone who had just eaten a fly when he discovered that someone had pulled one over him and he was none the wiser about it?