Daily life of a cultivation judge Chapter 1505: Without a shadow of a doubt (2)

Chen Yu’s gaze flickered with worry and countless other complex emotions before finally culminating in a bitter smile as he thought to himself,

One of his hands, clenched and hidden beneath the wide sleeve of his robe, was still trembling. It had only lasted for a few seconds, but that lazy glance from that purple-haired figure had triggered a primal, overwhelming fear that consumed every part of him.

Chen Yu let out another bitter, tired chuckle, shaking his head as he processed what he had felt beneath that stare. One thing in particular left him feeling completely absurd, because it was something he’d never felt before.

He wasn’t sure if it was his fear tricking him and influencing his perception, but beneath that gaze, he had felt like... an ingredient.

He was a . Yes, he may have been a Blue River Grass that gained enlightenment and birthed a spirit, but he was no regular blue river grass, nor a mere spiritual plant that had simply birthed a spirit. He was a Blue River Grass born around the Ten Thousand Dao Jade Leaf Tree, nurtured by that marvel, and granted sentience beneath its splendor.

Given the Ten Thousand Dao Jade Leaf Tree’s splendor and marvel, it was no surprise that countless natural treasures, from spiritual ores and spiritual liquids to plants and even animals, could be found around it. Without exception, every one of them had soaked in the resplendent and radiant aura of the Ten Thousand Dao Jade Leaf Tree, making them precious beyond compare.

Their quality was unmatched, but... the Heavenly Dao worked in balance.

The ground around and beneath the Ten Thousand Dao Jade Leaf Tree was so precious that countless prominent sects and cultivation organizations would not hesitate to trade their entire wealth for a single lump of soil from beneath its roots. Even the soil found ten thousand meters away from the tree was bound to fetch an exorbitant price, with countless suitors clamoring for it.

Every place within a hundred-thousand-meter radius of the tree was considered prime blessed ground that rivaled the cultivation grounds the Holy Lands reserved for their most prized members.

Growing within such an area could be considered fortune accumulated over a million lifetimes, let alone being born there as Chen Yu had been.

But therein lay the problem.

The Ten Thousand Dao Jade Leaf Tree was a phenomenon unmatched in both ability and manifestation. It continuously suffused its surroundings with the presence of countless Daos. That was a wonderful thing... provided one possessed the cultivation base necessary to withstand an environment so deeply immersed in those Daos that even the rain and the air themselves contained countless profound truths and mysteries.

If you didn’t have a sufficient realm, then being in such an environment, as heavenly as it was, was no different from a dragonfly trying to wade through the choppy waves of an ocean. Eventually, that dragonfly would succumb to exhaustion and drown beneath those waters.

The number of spiritual plants growing within the hundred-thousand-meter radius of the Ten Thousand Dao Jade Leaf Tree numbered in the millions. Yet of those millions, how many managed to form a spirit and develop sentience?

Less than one percent.

It was an abysmally low figure, and the reason was: Their spirits would be drowned out, suffocated, and eventually erased by the overwhelming presence of the countless Daos that permeated the area.

So, forming a spirit meant one had the will to survive the drowning long enough to find a way to wade through the choppy waves and overwhelming currents, and eventually learn to use those very currents to stay afloat until they learned to swim on their own.

Put more directly, one needed overwhelming talent to survive an environment where countless Daos, each containing countless truths and profundities, continuously bombarded the spirit.

Those who survived such a trial earned the title of , which directly translated to " ," because in essence, they truly were.

So, Chen Yu, though he may be a Blue River Grass, was a Blue River Grass whose talent was one in a million. Of the countless Blue River Grass that had managed to form a spirit and cultivate since antiquity, if measured, Chen Yu’s talent was bound to rank among the very top.

Surviving long enough to form a spirit within the grounds of the Ten Thousand Dao Jade Leaf Tree was considered far more difficult than cultivating to the Domain Realm. With the latter, as arduous as it was, you could pace yourself and steadily build your foundation over time, and those early stages carried little to no risk of death. The only truly great trial came when breaking through to the Domain Realm.

But for a Jade Kin, there was no gradual beginning. From the moment they were born, it was as though they were already facing the Domain Realm tribulation. It was up to them to carve out a path to survival within that precipice, and to do so required overwhelming talent in cultivation and comprehension, with particular emphasis on the latter, along with a great deal of luck.

Not many survived it.

But if you survived the Baptism of the Jade Ocean, as it was called, then your future was limitless. A Jade Kin carried the innate essence of the Ten Thousand Dao Jade Leaf Tree, which meant understanding the principles and truths of the Grand Dao came naturally to them.

As such, every Jade Kin within the Jade Leaf Empire was afforded the same respect and honor as one of the princes or princesses of the royal family.

After all, one of the founding Emperors of the Jade Leaf Empire had been a jade kin, only that Emperor had been of a much higher rank than Chen Yu. That Emperor had been a , which meant they had been born directly from a fruit produced by the Ten Thousand Dao Jade Leaf Tree.

The tree had only ever produced three fruits in its lifetime. One had become the founding Emperor of the Jade Leaf Empire, another the founder of the Jade Leaf Academy. As for the third, Chen Yu didn’t know much about them, where they had gone, or what they had become. They were a complete enigma.

Those three were known as the of the Ten Thousand Dao Jade Leaf Tree, or its

Chen Yu was a , otherwise known as an Outer Descendant. This was the lowest rank among the jade kin, reserved for those nurtured away from the main body of the tree.

There were two more ranks between him and the Direct Descendants: the and the

The Favored Descendants stood directly beneath the Direct Descendants. They comprised those spiritual plants and beasts with the durability and frightening talent to anchor themselves to the body of the Ten Thousand Dao Jade Leaf Tree without having their spirits erased. They were like vines clinging to the tree or birds that had made their nests within its branches.

The closer one was to the tree, the more terrifyingly dense the presence of the Daos became. Even among regular cultivators, unless one had reached the Soul Formation Realm, standing within spitting distance of the tree was liable to ruin them and damage their foundation as the countless mysteries, laws, and profound truths contained within those many Daos bombarded their spirit without pause.

It was like trying to force water down someone’s throat, except the water came from an endless rapid. You either needed the capacity to withstand the torrent or risk being overwhelmed and drowned by it.

As for the , this was the third tier, or group. They were those who, though unable to anchor themselves to the tree’s main body, still managed to attach themselves directly to one of its roots. The roots of the Ten Thousand Dao Jade Leaf Tree stretched for thousands upon thousands of kilometers away from its main body, and the Bound Descendants were those who managed to directly interact with those roots without having their spirits erased.

As talented as he was, Chen Yu would have long since died had he dared anchor his roots to the Ten Thousand Dao Jade Leaf Tree.

But as low as his rank was, he was still a child of the Jade Tree. He might have been an Outer Descendant, but he was a descendant nonetheless. Coupled with his monstrous talent and lineage, he was afforded a great deal of respect within both the Jade Leaf Empire and the Jade Leaf Academy. He carried more influence and standing than Domain Realm experts and even some Soul Formation Realm experts. After all, with his talent and the essence of the Ten Thousand Dao Jade Leaf Tree within him, provided nothing went wrong, he already possessed everything necessary to reach the Soul Formation Realm.

As such, no one, not even a purple-grade alchemist, would dare treat him as an ingredient. Yet beneath that stare, he had not only felt appraised as one, but a part of him felt it was only right that he be treated as such by that figure.

And that terrified him to no end.

He’d come here excitedly, thinking that maybe he’d get to meet a or a , based on the aura he had detected from Yang Qing. Instead of meeting a fellow kin, he had met a frighteningly dangerous individual who looked as if he were one glance away from processing him.

All he wanted to do right now was cut his adventure short and run back to the comforting shade of the Ten Thousand Dao Jade Leaf Tree. Whatever adventurous spirit and curiosity about the world he had once possessed had been thoroughly smothered by that purple gaze.