Daily life of a cultivation judge

"What was that tree? Was it the Yin Yang jade physique or was it something related to the Universal duality indulgent of the myriad worlds art?" Yang Qing silently wondered as he held his chin in contemplation.

Purple grade cultivation art was different from the other different grades of cultivation art because of one distinct quality, which was that they had spirituality in them. Some of the purple-grade arts would choose those who could cultivate it, except the creator of course. So at times, a genius endowed with world-shaking talent would fail to cultivate a purple-grade art whereas a cultivator with lackluster abilities may get that luck as long as they had the luck to gain the favorability of that purple-grade technique.

Even though the art Yang Qing cultivated was incomplete it still had the spirituality of a purple-grade art which was why he couldn't help but suspect that the jade tree he saw deep within his palace realm was a byproduct of his cultivation art. The ejection feeling he had just experienced was something he experienced a lot during his preliminary phases when he was attempting to cultivate the Universal duality indulgent of the myriad worlds art.

Other than the eviction there were also the numerous leaves on the tree that looked like they belonged to different plants. That depiction could be symbolic to the myriad worlds part of his technique. However, the one part that made him think the jade tree wasn't completely tied to his cultivation art was the sense of intimacy and familiarity he felt with the tree like it was a part of him.

Yang Qing closed his eyes and tried to insert his will into his palace realm so he could retrace the jade tree again but his will got blocked the moment he tried it and didn't get far. He wasn't even able to trace the outlines back to the tree. The route leading to it seemed like it had been shielded off.

…

"Was Grandpa right about there being requirements?" Yang Qing wondered with furrowed brows.

Going on the assumption the jade tree was tied to his Yin Yang jade bones then based on his grandfather's statement, the reason he was being rejected was because he didn't yet fulfill the criteria of being there let alone approaching it.

"And what was with that voice?" Yang Qing could still vividly remember the sound that came from the mist was in a language he had never heard of before.

"Mmh!!!"

Yang Qing's frown became even larger. He tried to utter the words that he heard but it was like they were stuck in his throat and wouldn't come out. It didn't stop there, he kept feeling the memory he had of the words didn't exist in his memory like they existed in a separate space like how information was stored in jade talismans and he was just accessing it but the real content was stored elsewhere.

"Now this is a pleasant surprise, my realm has already increased to the peak of the first stage of the palace realm," Yang Qing excitedly mused.

His mind was too preoccupied with the sudden discovery that he had overlooked his cultivation base. It was only when he had decided to postpone the matter of the jade tree to another time, did he get the chance to discover the increase in his cultivation base.

It has already been eleven months since he stepped into the palace realm. It took him five months to break through and safely consolidate his cultivation base while also familiarizing himself with his realm. His breakthrough had been among the fastest and it was as smooth as it could have been which was why he thought himself clever that he could pretend it took him eight months to do so since normal breakthrough and the consolidation afterward would take 9-12 months. However, his perfect breakthrough sold him out and Lei Weiyuan was able to see through him and was therefore added three more months of work to cover the three months he had lied about.

Even though 11 months had passed by and Yang Qing was assiduous in his cultivation, he still thought it would take him another three or four months before he touched the peak of the first stage of the palace realm. Since the palace realm focused on deepening one's own understanding of the dao, improvement was slow measured compared to the realms below it.

The sudden improvement came as a welcomed surprise to Yang Qing since he felt with his cultivation base already at the peak of the first stage it wouldn't take him more than a month or two before he broke through to the second stage of the palace realm.

In his palace realm, there was already a shallow river that had formed at the boundary in the land to the north of his palace realm as it fed into the ocean next to it. It was light blue in color and had a hint of clear crystal-like shine to it. It was shallow and had a five-meter width but Yang Qing was ecstatic with its presence since he detected a hint of liveliness to it that was different from the grass, the ocean, or the sun and moon above him.

"I really owe Grandpa for this," Yang Qing muttered with a dry chuckle as he headed back to the house. If it wasn't for his grandfather, he didn't know how long it would have taken him to veer his head in the direction of his physique. While he was mildly traumatized by his methods, Yang Qing knew he owed his current achievements in part to his grandfather and the Yang family as a whole. The concoction that they used on him so he could break through to the peerless jade body, he didn't know what exactly was in it, but he knew it was pretty precious and that was without even putting into account the glyphs that were used to seal his senses. To date, he still wasn't sure how the Yang family was able to afford it all.

"Thanks, Ellie," Yang Qing said as he was leaving. He tossed a few fish Ellie's way, who screeched in excitement as she gobbled them all up in one single fell swoop.