Daily life of a cultivation judge Chapter 1504: Without a shadow of a doubt (1)

"Surely not," Yang Qing quietly murmured to himself, chuckling even as he did, in the hope that maybe the laugh would prove just how ridiculous his fears were.

He wouldn’t put it past Shitong to lie about something like this. And just as he knew Shitong, the reverse was also true. Yang Shitong was intimately familiar with Yang Qing’s fears. It wasn’t like Yang Qing had gone to great lengths to hide them.

The morning cursing ritual he did for Old Lei, hoping he wouldn’t run into him at the Tower. Or the evening cursing ritual he performed when he did, in fact, end up meeting Old Lei, and things turned out every bit as terrifying as he had expected, leaving him with no choice but to curse the fiend with incense sticks and relentless hope because, with his paltry cultivation base, that was the only payback he could manage for all the torment.

Yang Shitong had borne witness to all of it, considering Yang Qing never skipped a day of the ritual. It was one of his most diligently maintained routines.

Not to mention, Yang Qing had even consulted Yang Shitong in the hope that somewhere among the Celestial Nesting Weaver’s inheritance memories there might be some ancient spell he could use that would finally work on Old Lei.

Yang Qing wasn’t picky about the spell, so long as it allowed him to avoid meeting Old Lei the next day at work. Whether it came with negative side effects or even positive ones, like a spell that would suddenly plunge Old Lei into a state of enlightenment that kept him occupied for days, weeks, months, or, if Yang Qing was lucky, even years.

But alas, Yang Shitong had no such spell in his legacy. Not that Yang Qing believed him, given how petty and vindictive Shitong had grown over the years.

That was why Yang Qing couldn’t help but hopefully entertain the thought that Yang Shitong’s remarks had been nothing more than a vindictive jab at him for stumping out whatever plans he had toward Chen Yu.

Most of the time, Shitong didn’t even need a reason to be vindictive. He found joy in it, and Yang Qing knew it.

But what if Shitong wasn’t being his usual vicious self? Yang Qing couldn’t help but worry. What if he had indeed been stalked by Old Lei and his former instructors?

It wasn’t like he didn’t harbor those suspicions himself. Immediately after graduating, during his first year in his abode, Yang Qing stayed alert every second he was there, because he couldn’t shake the feeling that the instant he relaxed, he would get ambushed by an instructor who, after carrying out a successful, very traumatizing, and equally very painful ambush, would leave him with something like:

Safe to say, for that first year after graduation, he never relaxed much in his abode. He was a bundle of nerves.

Not to mention, it was during that very same time that he discovered there was an even scarier monster than his instructors.

What an overwhelming shock it had been, discovering there was someone he could fear even more than the instructors who had tormented and traumatized him for four years, to the point he’d developed trust issues and grown to suspect everything and anything in his surroundings, including even his .

The number of times he’d come to blows with his own shadow because it looked funny from the way the light hit it, or because some other shadow had overlapped with his, lending credence to his suspicion that something strange was lurking within it...

He Jun’s ’brilliant’ plan of hiding in Senior Instructor Lu Yuan’s shadow had played no small part in those fears. Not to mention, upon admiring the sheer gall of it, Lu Yuan had started using the same move against them, though the bulk of it was reserved for He Jun.

To this day, even at the restaurant, He Jun’s distrust of his own shadow surpassed everyone else’s. The way he sat, positioned himself, and moved was carefully calculated to ensure as few variables as possible could interact with or interfere with his shadow.

And yet, the people who had transformed him and He Jun into the kind of people who suspected even their own shadows paled in comparison to an old supervisor who never seemed to smile. He would just stand there with a taciturn expression and a piercing gaze that seemed capable of seeing through even the heavenly secrets themselves. Yet that look was enough to terrify Yang Qing to no end.

Was it really any wonder that, under such strenuous conditions, Yang Qing’s mind snapped and he started harboring, and acting on, some very dangerous ideas that he strongly believed at the time would work?

The activism. The secret meetings. The anonymous letters to management demanding better working conditions and higher pay. Trying to fiddle with the arrays in his courtroom and carriage in the hope that one of them contained a time array that could slow time down so he could relax a little more. Or selling out colleagues here and there to make up for past misdeeds and get into upper management’s good graces.

All of them were the actions of a man desperate to maintain his sanity.

Even the morning and evening cursing rituals. They never worked, but the wonders they did for his nerves, and the veiled hope they gave him each day whenever he thought:

Thanks to those diligent efforts, and him finally breaking through to the Palace Realm, Yang Qing had long since shed the fear of being stalked like prey. But now, after Shitong’s vicious remarks, those buried fears came rushing back to the forefront.

Could Shitong have lied? Yes, there was a very good chance he had.

But there was also a chance the damn bird had been telling the truth.

From what he knew of Shitong, and the timing of the revelation, the math made sense. Everything aligned perfectly with his vicious nature.

Shitong could have discovered the hidden presence of the instructors long ago and deliberately said nothing, savoring the thought of Yang Qing being stalked without ever realizing it. At the same time, he had probably been waiting for the perfect moment to break the news, when it would deal the maximum amount of damage.

The timing made sense.

Yang Qing had just told him off and had even veiledly threatened him with the Order. Shitong had retaliated in kind, using the same dagger Yang Qing had used against him.

After a bit of fretting and worrying, and after putting together a few strategies on what to do, Yang Qing’s gaze fell on his storage ring, the very storage ring that held his winnings for the day, whose contents might actually be his salvation.

The sales he had made, weren’t they exactly to prepare for this moment?

Yang Qing’s expression smoothed over from worry to excitement as he patted the storage ring, which inadvertently reminded him that there were a few pertinent things he had forgotten, one of which was the guest rooted near the turn leading to the pond, nervously looking up at the crown of the Green Flame Tree, wearing an increasingly pale expression.

"Appraiser Chen Yu?" Yang Qing softly called.

Chen Yu didn’t seem to hear him, remaining rooted in the same posture, doing the very same thing: watching fretfully, his eyes never leaving the spot where Shitong had disappeared.

"Appraiser Chen Yu," Yang Qing gently called once more, only this time he elected to do so from up close, his figure vanishing from beside the Green Flame Tree and reappearing next to the dazed and frightened Chen Yu, patting him on the shoulder as he called out to him.

The pat proved to be the wrong move. Chen Yu’s reaction was a swift palm strike. A translucent blue leaf aura coated his palm. The attack was swift and sharp, but Yang Qing, long familiar with how deeply frightened people sometimes reacted when suddenly approached or startled, easily dodged it, gliding to the side using the Phantom Void Steps movement art, leaving Chen Yu’s strike to hit nothing but air. The miss alone served as enough of a wake-up call.

"Sorry!" Chen Yu quickly said as he hurriedly pulled his palm back and dispersed the attack before it could do any harm to the surroundings.

Yang Qing internally noted as he studied Chen Yu’s movements.

Even though the attack had been executed reflexively and in a daze, it had remained restrained and concentrated within his palm. When he struck, it was with contained precision. Not even a sliver of energy, nor the impact of the strike, extended beyond the blue leaf aura surrounding his palm.

When he interrupted and dispersed the technique, he did so with the same refined ease and control, making it seem as though it wasn’t him who had absentmindedly lashed out just moments ago. The level of control he displayed made that little interlude look less like a panicked reflex and more like a deliberate demonstration of his palm art, even though Yang Qing knew it had been anything but.

After apologizing profusely and repeatedly, to the point that Chen Yu even started offering treasures to compensate for the damages he had caused, even though there were none, Yang Qing firmly refused any compensation. Once that matter was settled, Chen Yu, whether deliberately or unconsciously compelled to do so, once more turned his attention to the top of the Green Flame Tree.

"I take it that is the friend you were talking about?" he asked tentatively.

Yang Qing gave a faint nod.