Daily life of a cultivation judge

The two-hour time limit for returning the robe came up and Yang Qing quickly excused himself and headed to the Internal Logistics Department, to avoid even more dire circumstances and lose everything he had earned up to the current point.

Despite only spending a few hours with the three saint-grade treasures, Yang Qing developed a special bond with the three of them like he had spent all his life with them.

They felt like his seniors who had guided him and had been with him from his childhood. Blue Universe was the well-informed senior who liked to share bits and pieces of his acquired wisdom here and there. Yang Qing felt he could grow his skills in cultivation art dissection if he spent more time with him. 

There must have been a reason Dean Zhu Lao kept begging him and the rest to come to the Institute.

Veiled Destiny seemed like the dependable senior who knew which path suited you. Ones that will help you grow and ones that you should avoid. Even though Blue Universe was technically in charge of the overall defense of Yang Qing, Veiled Destiny's presence added a more comforting feeling to him, in terms of his overall well-being, like there would be nothing that could evade its detection, even the deep insidious schemes.

And when it came to Green Cocoon, even if he had minimal interaction with her, owing to her poor communication skills, he felt deeply connected to her, almost familial like she was his ancestor, calmly sitting in her rocking chair, half asleep watching the younger generation of her lineage laugh about and run.

Other than looking cool, the other reason he chose to pay the exorbitant fines was he didn't want to separate from them yet. But all good things come to an end.

Yang Qing said his goodbyes to the spirits of the three saint-grade artifacts. He did try sneaking a plea of seeing them again, which he didn't have any hope for but he was surprised when he heard the three of them agree to it, to the point they were willing to speak up for him to gain special access to the mountain they stayed at. However, the approval process would have to go through the spirit council or the agreement of two of the three vice presidents.

Yang Qing could only hope the three saint-grade treasures held some sway over any of the two groups.

After saying his goodbyes, he immediately left to return back to his party. The green flowered babirusa had already been revealed by Feng Xin and they had a few skilled chefs from the Thousand Flavors restaurant working on it. Yang Qing didn't want to risk missing out on it, if he was being perfectly honest, that pork was the biggest highlight of the party even more than him.

When he got back, he received a beating, which luckily healed up because of his cockroach-like vitality. The party went all the way till dawn, and the guests along with the other members of the Order slowly dispersed, albeit there were those who didn't seem to want to leave such as Liu Juan who after sampling the luxury that was in the nest of the Celestial nesting weaver didn't want to leave at all. He had to be forcibly dragged away by Hall master Ren Xin when Wei Liling failed to get through to him.

….

Yang Qing smiled with a sigh as he admired himself with his new dark gold palace court robes that had a rhombus symbol at the back with the numeral (I) inscribed on it to show he was a judge of the outer core palace court.

Although the robe fell short when compared to Blue Universe, it still had its own charm, and the best of all, it was his forever. He still remembered the conversation he had with Blue Universe the previous day when they briefly discussed nurturing the spirit of his robe. If he chose to do so, he would not receive another robe when he got promoted to the domain courts. He would have to stick with his current robes. 

After interacting with Blue Universe, Yang Qing was a bit more partial to taking the leap though he still held his reservations because of the potential quality of the robe for the domain courts. If he agreed to nurture the spirit of his current robe, he would be losing out on it. 

But now, the moment he put on the robe, and sensed its wholesome brilliance, Yang Qing felt he might as well go all in. If he needed anything extra that the robe couldn't provide when he was in the domain realm, he could use his merit points to acquire it. Even if the Order was stingy, it had mountains and mountains of treasures. As long as you could afford it, you could get almost anything from them.

"The assimilation will have to wait until my schedule frees up a bit," thought Yang Qing as he straightened his robes once more before he left for the Administration hall for his induction into the outer palace court.

Even though he already had a rough idea as to his new roles and responsibilities from his interaction with Dai Chen and Zhang Qingge who were already both outer palace court judges, the process could not be skipped.

….

"Good morning Yang Qing, my name is Shi Tian and I will be guiding you today into your new role as an outer palace court judge. 

First congratulations on your promotion," said Shi Tian.

Shi Tian was a slender young man with short black hair and a charming appearance. He seemed like an easy-to-get-along-with person, unlike Song Guan from the standard regulatory committee who was in charge of guiding and preparing Yang Qing for his ceremony.

Shi Tian looked to be in his mid-thirties and from what Yang Qing could tell, he seemed to have a cultivation base that was at the second stage of the palace realm.

"His rank may not be low in the department," thought Yang Qing.

The administration hall was one of the few departments within the Order that didn't have a cultivation base requirement when giving out the job. The bulk of their workers were in the core formation realm, as for those in a higher realm like in the palace realm, they were either sub-heads, or they dealt with sensitive matters within the Order. For example, to work in the internal logistics department one had to be at the peak of the core formation realm at the very least.

"Thank you for your warm wishes Shi Tian, I highly appreciate it," said Yang Qing as he offered a thankful smile.

"Well then, let's begin. Unlike the induction done for the ceremony, we don't have to move around as much. We can get it done all here, for the most part, though there are a few parts related to your new role that you will have to personally visit the concerned department for further details.

I'm pretty sure you may have an idea on some of them, such as the Requiem," said Shi Tian.

Yang Qing nodded back in acknowledgment. He did find out about visiting the Requiem from Dai Chen, which was why he decided to take advantage of the opportunity at Dean Zhu Lao's ceremony to strike up a conversation with Vice Warden Shao An, which went rather well since the Vice Warden offered to personally guide him when the moment came.

Shi Tian took out a few scrolls and unfurled one of them and handed it over to Yang Qing.

"In here you will find a detailed guideline of your role and responsibilities and you will also find your payment package, which from what I heard, is something you are really invested in," said Shi Tian with a light chuckle.

Yang Qing reflexively nodded like a newborn chick as his eyes rapidly skimmed through the scroll to find the area that highlighted what his current salary would be, which he didn't have to do since Shi Tian dutifully went on and gave him the rundown of the amount.

"Your remuneration package as an outer palace court judge will be:

A monthly payment of 20,000 high-grade spirit stones per month. The 20,000 is the basic pay which has an increase if the evaluation score of your cases and duties is graded as good. With that grade, you get an added bonus of 10,000 high-grade spirit stones, and if it's excellent you receive a 20,000 high-grade spirit stones bonus, and if it's graded as exemplary then you receive a 50,000 high-grade spirit stone bonus in addition to your 20,000-basic pay.

You will receive blue-grade potions and pills whose equivalent value in spirit stones is 500,000 high-grade spirit stones.

Your chamber will also be receiving a monthly stipend of 100 monarch-grade herbs or natural treasures of your choosing. Reselling them is strictly forbidden, should you be found doing so, your alotted amount will be halved for the duration you will be an outer palace court judge. 

And lastly, you will also be receiving an annual discretionary fund of 40,000,000 high-grade spirit stones. The amount is to cater for the payment of all commissions you may issue in the fulfillment of your role as an outer palace court judge.

That amount will not be given out as a lump sum but will instead be disbursed on a quarterly basis and clear records of the spending needs to be kept. If the sum is proved to have been spent correctly with minimal abuse, then the limit could be raised...

Judge? Judge? Judge? Judge Yang Qing, are you listening?" Shi Tian paused halfway into his explanation when he saw Yang Qing have what looked to be seizures accompanied by an uncontrollable frantic laugh which later moved to Yang Qing kissing the scroll.