Daily life of a cultivation judge

"I'll leave this to you," said Assistant Director Feng Lei to the short owl-eyed man in red robes.

Yang Qing assumed he was part of the Special Inquisitors too because he wore similar-looking robes to Assistant Director Feng Lei.

The man took out a small cauldron that was about the size of a palm. It was in the shape of a golden toad with Daoist inscriptions all over.

The short owl-eyed man rapidly formed a few complex skills and the cauldron produced a grey mist from the mouth which swallowed the black blob.

The moment the black blob was absorbed, every inscription within the cauldron lit up immediately after the short special Inquisitor began putting herb after herb into that cauldron.

When he started Yang Qing recognized a couple of them such as the golden light night shade, red worm eucalyptus leaves, yin dew jasper tree, and the like. These were all top-tier monarch-grade herbs. 

But as time went by and more herbs were poured into the cauldron, Yang Qing struggled to identify them all he could tell was their rank. A bit were at the monarch grade but the bulk were at the ascendant grade and they all had diverse attributes. Some were complementary and others were contradictory. 

The contradictory ones made Yang Qing take a gulp of nervousness as he took a step back in fear of a cauldron explosion. Considering the number of ascendant-grade herbs that were thrown in there, should a cauldron explosion happen, being the weakest member present, he would be the one to get hit first. 

However, the explosion he waited to appear, didn't happen. There wasn't even a fizzle sound for that matter to show at least something had happened. 

"Is my alchemy that bad? Shouldn't there be an explosion or something? I'll take even black smoke. This is so underwhelming," Yang Qing didn't know why but he felt a little disappointed there was no explosion despite being wary of it moments before.

"If you're waiting for an explosion, you wouldn't find one. Inquisitor Xu Ling is one of the finest gold grade alchemist and healer at the Order.

Some of the high-level techniques and potion recipes you practiced at the institute were invented by him," said Vice Chancellor Wu Ling as his eyes narrowed on the cauldron with shining interest in his eyes.

Yang Qing couldn't help but throw quick glances at the short owl-eyed inquisitor by the name of Xu Ling.  Being both a gold-grade alchemist and gold-grade healer was no easy feat despite the two professions having overlaps. 

Not all healers were great alchemists and not all alchemists were great healers there were only two professions which almost always meant as long you were skilled in one area you would be proficient in the other. Almost every herbology expert was a skilled alchemist and almost every poison expert was a skilled healer no matter how twisted the path. But alchemy and healing had deviations and being equally good at both of them to the rank of gold grade meant Special Inquisitor Xu Ling went beyond talented.

Yang Qing couldn't help but wonder which potion recipes and techniques were his. Back during his overzealous years when he was taking almost every subject, he could think of, alchemy was one of them, especially after all the potential money one could make from it, Yang Qing was only all too eager to try his hand at it.

Even though he didn't end up sucking at it, alchemy proved to be too demanding for him with everything he was juggling around, so Yang Qing had to drop it. Nevertheless, the classes he undertook left him in awe of the Institute's depth when it came to alchemy. 

In the midst of Yang Qing getting lost in his thoughts, the short owl-eyed inquisitor dropped the last ingredient which looked like a beating heart. 

Yang Qing may have been clueless about all the other ingredients but this one he knew. It was the core of a horizon-drawing crown tree. In terms of grade, it was in the low tier of the ascendant grade. However, the core was just as rare as top-tier ascendant-grade treasures since a horizon-drawing core tree needed over 500,000 years to form. It could only be formed by a horizon-drawing crown tree that was growing underneath a lesser dragon vein, and the area also had to be dense in the wood Dao. Only under such conditions could a core form. The core had a range of uses some of which were cleansing a body and reforming a destroyed body as long a sliver of will and blood was left of the person. The body formed will be based on the aptitude of the cultivator and his/her affinity. 

Having a heart of the horizon drawing crown tree was like having another life.

Yang Qing wasn't surprised that it was being used at the moment, unlike the other ingredients he saw being thrown in. Some even seemed to be poisonous herbs.

"Seems like you have outdone yourself against, Xu Ling?" said Assistant Jun Pei with her gaze seemingly seeing through the grey mist around the cauldron.

"It isn't much, I just got lucky I had prior experience with a few members in a similar position," said Xu Ling.

The cauldron violently shook as the Daoist inscriptions flickered with an intense light accompanied by a loud rumbling within the cauldron. This went on for almost a minute before it finally settle down.

The grey mist receded and in its place was something that looked like a soft round brown object that had veins on it. It pulsated with every millisecond, and with every pulse the object would wriggle and increase in size. 

Small red cuticles appeared on the object, followed by tiny appendages, then an eye that grew to two, followed by the ears and then a mouth. The round object rapidly grew in size and what was indistinct moments ago turned into a defined newborn baby who seemed to mature with every minute.

Yang Qing marveled at the transformation taking place before him more so when he knew the state of that figure from an hour or two ago.

....

One hour forty-five minutes ago, in the square of the Star blooming mist valley,

"Judge, can we strike a deal?" 

"What kind of deal are you hoping for?" 

"I'm not delusional enough to ask for complete freedom, especially in the circumstances I am in, but I at least hope I can keep my life, free from torture,"

"Well, I'll have to ask my seniors first,"

"It's okay, I can wait, and thanks to your flames I don't have to worry much about my 'colleagues,..."

"It's okay, we can make a deal with him. In fact, the current circumstances works well in our favor. The Scarlet blood ghost hands syndicate will be none the wiser. However, to really sell it, his body will have to be destroyed in the process so his master can think all avenues tracing back to him will have been cut short and any other person he may have close ties with.

If he worries about his body just tell him, we can help him reform it just like we did for his junior brother, however, he will have to show sincerity in the information he divulges."

"Thanks, I will do so, Assistant Director Feng Lei."