Daily life of a cultivation judge

"Could he be the director or the assistant director of the Special Inquisitors?" wondered Yang Qing.

The presence of the slovenly dressed special inquisitor gave him an added sense of relief since they were basically combat specialists who were skilled in reacting to the most insidious of attacks.

The groups they targeted for investigation or destruction were ruthless and had all sorts of taboo techniques in place to ensure their secrecy. Dong Yanlin was a prime example of this. Even though he was at the core formation realm, Yang Qing detected a fearsome curse embedded in his soul that would have likely injured him had he tried to probe Dong Yanlin's soul or asked certain questions.

Having a top member of a group that was used to dealing with these kinds of attacks, was a huge welcome for Yang Qing. Anyone who would dare make an attempt on his life would less than likely use direct means but will instead rely on some underhanded means.

...

Yang Qing had to refocus when the number of guests arriving grew in stature. Before he had only been dealing with rank 4 organizations but now the rank 3 and rank 2 organizations had already started making an appearance. He couldn't afford to look distracted when greeting them. 

He quickly put on the most professional smile he could muster as he greeted each and every one of them while making a little small talk here and there. His years of bootlicking had finally come into handy. Song Guozhi who stood next to him had an approving look on his face due to how well Yang Qing was handling the whole thing.

Assistant head Liang Wen was also with him, however, he was in charge of dealing with the members of rank 2 organizations along with some of the senior members of the External Affairs department. 

Every minute that passed by, the wider and more sincere Yang Qing's smile became. His attitude shifted at some point when he substituted the faces of the guests that had arrived with the face of a gift box. To him, they were now prized elixirs, spirit stones, precious artifacts, or rare items such as cultivation arts. He was about to leave his hand-to-mouth lifestyle behind, all thanks to them. 

How could he not be happy? when thanks to them, he could splurge as much as he wanted on his meals, he could buy more strange trinkets and add to his collection, he could upgrade both his abode and the nest of the celestial nesting weaver. The things he could do were endless. 

A few members of the merchant organization who had come to exchange a few greetings even flinched a bit because of his gaze. While he had a warm welcoming smile on his face, how could these seasoned old foxes not have a sense when greed was mixed into the smile? They knew that move all too well, which inadvertently may have worked well in Yang Qing's favor since those groups would more than likely add a few more things to their gifts in an attempt to sow positive karma with Yang Qing through his greed.

As for Yang Qing, he was all too glad for it, especially with the noose of potential fines hanging over his head, the more gifts he got the better. With all parties on the same page, their whole interaction became even closer to the point they even started hugging each other which left Song Guozhi wondering,

"Was the information I gave him about the incoming guests really that good?"

pαndα---noνɐ1,сoМ ....

Yang Qing continued on merrily in his 'duties' as he welcomed the guests with even deeper enthusiasm, that he even ended up using all the information Song Guozhi had given him that extended to the ancestral lineage of the guests who were coming by. Yang Qing expertly used that information so he could bring himself closer to the guests with the goal that they would be so touched and be more generous when the time came.

His plan seemed to have worked too as some guests were deeply touched when they saw that a palace court judge from the Order knew so much about them. It made them feel important while for others it created a deep sense of dread within them at how much Yang Qing knew about which was a reflection of what the Order knew about them. They too, would likely end up giving more out of fear.

However, all good things do come to an end at some point, and the same happened to Yang Qing. When Yang Qing was busy exchanging a few pleasantries with the clan head of a new rank 3 family, his gaze had an imperceptible flicker as he sensed something a hundred meters away from him.

"Is that....?" Yang Qing covertly switched his gaze to that area as he expertly continued his conversation with the rank 3, clan head. He exchanged a few words with him and then moved on to the next person all the while sparing a glance at the area where he had just detected his Dao mark.

A few moments ago he felt his palace realm resonate with something, and when he focused a bit on the area he felt that resolution from, he realized it was from his Dao markings. Since breaking through to the palace realm was predicated on being familiar with a type of Dao so one could form a Dao seed, when one broke through to the palace realm that matured Dao seed would seep into every single part of the cultivator's body including their qi which in turn meant their attacks and any manifestation of their cultivation will have their Dao mark showing. It was like their fingerprint, and Yang Qing just detected his, among the guests mixed about a hundred meters away from him.

Finding someone with his Dao mark came as a surprise to him since the only people who could have it were those he had attacked or sparred against or had items that had been made by him personally. He didn't detect any of his inquisitors within the area so he quickly ruled out that it was on someone he had sparred with or someone that had his personal items on them.

When it came to fights, he has only been a palace realm expert for 11 months and in that time the only time he got into a fight was when he fought with the three palace realm experts in Purple City of the Red Maple Empire. As far as he knew they had not been released yet and were still being held at the Yellow Plains County, where Yang Qing had them sent on the account that they'd draw unwanted attention to him when one of them was the son of the founder of Golden Bamboo Pavilion, who was a renowned domain expert described to have a special physique that made him a skilled combatant. 

Yang Qing left that hot potato with the branch chief of Yellow Plains County who was also a domain expert while he completed his evaluations. In addition, he had also filed an investigation request with Lei Weiyuan for that founder's son. With all that in place, he found it hard that they would have been let go, and even if they did, he would have been one of the primary people to be informed.

"Who is it?" Yang Qing wondered as he mentally went through the list of likely candidates. 

Just as he was ruminating through the likelihoods, his pupils froze for a brief second when someone came into view from the corner of his eye.

"It must be... It's the only thing that makes sense," thought Yang Qing as his gaze briefly fell on the person responsible for his sudden clarity on his conundrum. The person responsible for this was none other than his fellow glutton, Feng Xin. 

It was only when Feng Xin came into view, was he able to recollect that he had given him a few of his experimental talismans. Those talismans were imbuied with his Dao markings as a measure to help cut back the time needed to trigger the talismans. 

When Feng Xin came back from apprehending Peng Zhen and the rest from the Green Fog Swamp Sect, he got chased after by a palace realm expert whom he assumed was a member of the scarlet blood ghost hands, because he asked for the Ao Yin saber Feng Xin had confiscated at the site Dong Hanlon had clashed with the three elders and the Tupelo tree.

Realising the disparity in realms, Feng Xin was quick to detonate the talismans so he could create an avenue of escape, however he didn't expect the talismans to have such a short delay that he and Ellie along with two elders of the Green fog swamp were almost sucked into the attack.

From what Yang Qing could remember the branch chief of the Green mountain branch, whom Feng Xin had called for backup, did not find any body at the place Feng Xin had detonated those talismans. 

"Could he be him?" Yang Qing wondered as he grew increasingly puzzled on what he should do if it was. 

Members of the Scarlet blood ghost hands were skilled at infiltration and hiding in plain sight so Yang Qing wasn't all too surprised one of their members would come here and he had no doubt that there maybe others cleverly mixed in within the guests today.