Daily life of a cultivation judge Chapter 1497: Wicked stare

"I am pathetic," Yang Qing mumbled in utter dejection as he walked, shoulders slumped, through the desolate hallways of the Outer Palace Courts. Well, they weren’t exactly desolate. Cultivators could still be spotted waiting in the hallways. Their numbers were barely even a third of what the hallways of the Core Courts saw on any given day and night, but still, pitiful as the numbers were by comparison, there were still cultivators in those hallways who, ordinarily, should have been preoccupied with whatever business had brought them there, but who instead found their attention drawn to a certain gloomy presence walking past.

He couldn’t do it. Try as he might, Yang Qing do it. His tongue, filled with mutiny and cowardice, to move. He couldn’t utter a curse against Old Lei. He couldn’t even breathe out a single syllable.

"Pathetic," Yang Qing whispered miserably, his insides churning with self-loathing and bubbling shame.

Yang Qing wondered, examining his robes, as though the curse would suddenly announce itself, before moving on to the walls and the roof of the hallways, hoping for the same. Thinking a curse was involved was better than entertaining the idea that he feared Old Lei so much that even in the fiend’s absence, his body still had a natural protective reflex toward that silver-haired monster.

The was . The were , and in plenty. And yet... his mouth refused to work. Usually, the problem he had with his mouth was getting it to stop talking when he needed it to. But this time, the one time he was prepared to remove all limiters and let it loose, it decided to listen.

Yang Qing looked around listlessly before his pupils suddenly froze as he saw something uncanny on one of the walls. He wondered weakly, his eyes widening slightly as he tried to confirm what he’d seen. A second later, he shook his head dejectedly and walked on.

"Even the walls are laughing at me now." Yang Qing’s shoulders sagged further, his head dropping as he tried to make himself as small and indistinct as possible while walking those hallways, in search of the cause of all this.

After walking at a dejected pace for who knew how long, Yang Qing covered the entire Outer Palace Court hallways without sighting Supervisor Lei Weiyuan. With his spirits already low from the day’s events, Yang Qing gave up the search for Old Lei in the Inner Palace Courts.

If he still hadn’t found him after walking for so long, then likely Old Lei wasn’t in the tower, or if he was, he was perhaps inside one of the courtrooms, observing a court proceeding as part of his duties as supervisor of the Core and Palace Courts. And if he wasn’t there, then there was likely one other place Yang Qing felt he could be. Yang Qing go there. Not if he could help it. He’d set foot there once, and that experience was enough to last him an entire lifetime. He didn’t need to go there again. If he spent his entire life without ever setting foot again in Old Lei’s office, he would consider that a life well lived.

There was nothing weird about the office. It was surprisingly nice looking, with aesthetically sound furniture, walls lined with Ascendant Grade sapphire fire flowered vines, and delicate tea kettles, a shelf filled with scrolls, and a white long sword sheathed in a beautiful, soft blue jade wood inscribed with a cluster of silver stars. The room and everything inside it looked nice. It looked like the proper chambers of a supervisor and a domain-level expert.

For some reason, given his stiff demeanor, Yang Qing had expected the office to be bare and plain, matching that expressionless gaze he always saw on Old Lei, but, surprisingly, the office was well furnished and had some personality and comfort to it.

It was just that... this was office. Old Lei’s office. That fiend’s office. And because of it, the moment Old Lei stepped into the decoration of the office, that beautiful, pleasing office suddenly turned into a tower meant to suppress evil entities. It felt like the bottom floor of an abyss for holding fiends, and because of that, on his first visit there, Yang Qing had almost fainted. When he’d walked in, there had been that brief moment where he’d thought:

Then Old Lei had walked in after him, and whatever envious thoughts he’d had at that moment all disappeared as overwhelming dread washed over him when Old Lei’s shadow fell over his body, dimming the light in the entire office, save for the starry scabbard. Yang Qing had gone deaf, dumb, and blind for a few seconds. He hadn’t even properly heard the punishment Old Lei handed him for ’carefully concealing’ exactly when he’d completed his breakthrough to the Palace Realm and fully stabilized his realm.

And since then, he’d vowed to never set foot there again.

If he were to meet Old Lei, he’d rather it be in the hallways or the vast courtroom, where there was plenty of light and witnesses.

Yang Qing, without hesitation, decided to shelve Tang Xiadan’s matter until he saw Old Lei in a public space. Besides, as urgent as the matter was, there was a Purple Grade formation master from the Spirit Council stationed at Deer Mountain Range, laying the groundwork for a top-tier Gold Grade formation meant to cover the entire mountain range, given the events that had transpired there and the fact that three quarters of the range was ownerless, leaving it open to further infiltration by unknown elements like the Blue Soul Flame Crow Syndicate and leaving the Order’s branch there exposed.

If anything suspicious were to happen, or was already happening, there was already a Soul Formation expert there from the Spirit Council, not to mention the domain-level Gold Eagle Guard and the Special Inquisitor who’d been there when Yang Qing himself had been stationed there as branch chief. The Special Inquisitor may have left since then, but he was sure the Gold Eagle Guard stationed there was still there even now, and would continue to be there with her team until the formation array was fully laid down and functional.

If there was anything suspicious going on at Deer Mountain Range, there was already enough Order manpower to respond to it.

That being said, Yang Qing still had every intention of sharing Tang Xiadan’s fears. And if not with Old Lei, because who knew where that silver fiend had gone off to, then he’d just pass the information to Ren Shu and have him share it with the others.

Actually, why didn’t I go to Ren Shu first?" Yang Qing muttered as he made his way to his increasingly favorite person yet, Fan Mei. His logistics advisor was a lifesaver, especially now that it was just him and the two roaming inquisitors temporarily assigned to him, whom he hadn’t even seen in a while.

Walking to her office with a fawning smile, Yang Qing greeted her with a few vats of tea, heavily infused with his and the Green Flame Tree’s spiritual qi, and added a jug of wine he’d pilfered from the collection he’d been given at the Vast Blue. With the bribe already handed over, his guilt over the work he was about to pile on her eased somewhat. It wasn’t lost on him that he and the Order had certain overlapping qualities. But at least... he compensated, unlike the Order, which worked you to the bone and still demanded you feel thankful for it.

With the bribe settled, Yang Qing unhesitatingly poured out all the information he’d uncovered thus far to Fan Mei, leaving it entirely up to her how to share it with Dong Ping and the others, while he made his way to his next stop: the Judicial Review Committee.

If things went well there, and he obtained their approval, he could finally enlist the help of his old friend, Veiled Destiny, and have her track the karma of the kidnapper. Yang Qing felt he had already gathered enough information for her to use. Even if it was not sufficient to pinpoint an exact location, it should be enough to trace a thread and confirm whether there truly was a commonality linking all the gathered information, and whether Yang Qing’s suspicions were right on the mark or not.

Using the teleportation array in his chambers, he activated it and soon appeared outside the quaint bamboo courtyard of the Judicial Review Committee. It looked more like a retired elder’s leisurely home than the chambers of one of the highest echelons among judges.

The moment he walked into the courtyard, Yang Qing was greeted by the same scene. At least, more or less the same. Elder Jiang Heng and Elder Jia Bohai were still heavily engrossed in their match of Go. Every time he came here, he would find them in the same position, even the same posture, with hands cupping their chins and their attention fixed on the Go board between them.

If someone told him the two had been playing a single match for a hundred years without moving, Yang Qing would believe it, because not once had he ever seen them doing anything else. It was part of the guiding reasons behind his envy and his motivation to move up in the ranks.

This courtyard was the perfect depiction and motivator of what life would potentially be like for him when he reached the top of the Order’s echelons. Playing Go all day, drinking tea, and enjoying the sun—what was not to like? The only worry was how long it would take him to reach this point, and what the cost would be.

"Oh, look who is here. You came just at the right time," called one of the judges. It was Xu Biya, the only female member of the Judicial Review Committee, seated next to an elderly man with a kind and friendly face. The two were drinking tea and sharing a tray of star-shaped cookies.

"I made a new batch. They might be my best batch yet," Xu Biya said pleasantly, making a welcoming gesture for Yang Qing to join them.

"You always say that, Auntie Biya," Yang Qing teased, smiling as he walked over.

When he reached them, he shed his joking demeanor as his expression turned respectful. Cupping his fists, he said, "Judge Yang Qing greets the committee."

"So respectful," commented Jiang Heng, whose attention was still on the Go board.

"He is about to ask for a favor," Jia Bohai immediately followed, sparing Yang Qing a momentary smile before returning his attention to the match.

"If there is anything we can help you with, feel free to ask, Little Qing," Long Enlai said warmly, rescuing Yang Qing from his brief embarrassment at having been completely seen through.

"Am I really that predictable?" said Yang Qing, smiling wryly as he took a seat at the table shared by Xu Biya and Long Enlai, the chairman of the committee.

Xu Biya poured him some jojoberry tea before placing a generous helping of her cookies onto his plate.

Yang Qing smiled joyously as he was once again reminded why he enjoyed his visits here.

"You have really outdone yourself on this one, Auntie Biya," Yang Qing praised after taking a crunchy bite from one of the cookies.

"The favor he is about to ask must be huge," Jiang Heng commented as he finally made a move, pushing one of the tiles.

"Yes, I do need a favor, but the cookies really good. I would not lie about food," Yang Qing grumbled defensively before smiling at Xu Biya, who was beaming at him. "They are the best," Yang Qing praised. "And no, it is not the favor talking," he hurriedly added, lest Elder Jia Bohai seize the chance to back his go partner’s statement.

"Here, have some more," Xu Biya said joyfully as she added more cookies to Yang Qing’s plate, which he eagerly accepted.

After he had had his fill, which was about twelve cookies in, Yang Qing smiled bashfully at Long Enlai and Xu Biya.

"I have a big favor to ask of you," he said sheepishly to the two of them, though his gaze lingered more on Long Enlai, who smiled genially at him and gave a slow nod, encouraging him to continue.

Before Yang Qing could continue, Elder Jia Bohai and Jiang Heng abandoned their game, much to Yang Qing’s shock, and quietly took the seats opposite him. Yang Qing hadn’t even seen them move before they were seated right in front of him.

Both wore leisurely smiles that somehow felt unbearably smug to Yang Qing, as though they had been waiting for this exact moment.

Yang Qing thought in exasperation as he watched the two, whose eyes twinkled when they fell on him.