Daily life of a cultivation judge Chapter 1522: Three Sects, One Manor (1)

After a few more exchanges with Fei Chen, Yang Qing parted ways with him. Yang Qing went to meet up with Fan Mei and apprise her of the developments, while Fei Chen returned to the Bluefin Escort Agency to await the missing passengers who might want to be examined at the Medical Valley.

...

Fan Mei’s office.

"They’ve been returned?" Fan Mei asked in surprise when Yang Qing informed her of Jiang Hao and the others’ reappearance.

"Yes," Yang Qing said with a sigh, leaning back into his chair and massaging his temples. "And in complete good health at that," he added in a murmur.

Fan Mei, still looking surprised by the news, said, "At least your assumptions about the kidnapper’s character proved true."

"There is that, at least," Yang Qing conceded. "But Bai Chen is still missing; who knows where, needed for who knows what," he added tiredly.

Sitting upright, his expression turning serious, he faced Fan Mei. "Have Senior Dong Ping pay a visit to the Sunset Bank Manor and see if Elder Mui Bingwen is there. He should also try to probe for more information about Guest Elder Xue Peng, of the Drunken Dream Formation Manor."

"Maybe I should have Han Xing join him. With his background, he’d be better at spotting inconsistencies," Yang Qing added, talking to himself.

"Better not." He immediately dismissed the idea. The other identities’ trails needed verification. With Xue Peng’s identity already having some fingerprints verified, Yang Qing felt it more beneficial to have the other identities receive the same treatment, level of visibility, and verification, especially the Wandering Painter Identity, whose footprint was thin; not to mention that, of the four identities, it was also the one that had spent the most time in Hebei.

If he was to have any meaningful breakthrough in the case, Yang Qing felt it would be with the ’Cao Tian’ identity that belonged to the wandering painter. Not that he dismissed the value of the others; if anything, he was hedging his bets that all of them would provide worthwhile clues. After all, while the four identities were nothing more than false fronts the kidnapper used, they were not completely false, given how "lived in" those identities were.

Those identities had relationships and connections spanning years. Surely, given the effort the kidnapper put into cultivating them, as false as they were, they must have contained the true essence of their creator. Not everything about them could be fictitious; there had to be some truth—some truth Yang Qing hoped they would unearth through the ongoing investigations by the Frost Eagles, Dong Ping, and Han Xing. The more they uncovered, the quicker and easier Senior Veiled Destiny’s deductions were likely to become.

"You think he will be able to handle it?" Yang Qing suddenly asked Fan Mei, his question referring to Dong Ping’s ability to get anything out of Sunset Bank Manor, more precisely, Elder Mui Bingwen.

The report from the Flying Shadow Hawks contained not only the name of the person connected to one of the kidnapper’s identities but also extensive information on Sunset Bank Manor as a whole and even the Emerald Spring Kingdom, where it originated.

This case made him marvel at the Flying Shadow Hawk Division’s ability to unearth information and the depth and breadth of their reach.

The Emerald Spring Kingdom was a Rank Three Kingdom, and if one were to grade its strength within that rank, it would solidly be placed in the upper tiers, right up there with the Azure Sapphire Kingdom, except that where the latter was riddled with war and promises of more wars and the complete breakup of its structure, the Emerald Spring Kingdom was relatively peaceful and close-knit.

Despite their differences, the Emerald Spring Kingdom’s structure bore a certain similarity to the Azure Sapphire Kingdom, beyond their rank and strength, and that similarity was the distribution of power.

On paper, the royal family of the Emerald Spring Kingdom was outwardly recognized as the de facto leader. How could they not be when it was known that they had at least fourteen peak-stage palace realm experts?

But the reality was far from that. In truth, a delicate balance was maintained by three equally influential factions, similar to how the Thirteen Sects of Yue State jointly ruled their country. However, in the Emerald Spring Kingdom, this joint rule was not by deliberate design, as it was with the Thirteen Sects of the Yue State.

The Three Parties had reached that tripartite balance by growing strong enough to restrain one another, with not one side having an overwhelming advantage of the other, which made acting against one another a costly affair.

Of the Three Parties, one was of course the royal family. The second was the Seven Noble Families of Emerald Spring Kingdom, who each had just as much strength as the royal family. And then the third party was colloquially referred to as the "Three Sects, One Manor."

It was the presence of this third party that forced the stalemate between the noble family and the royal family, who avoided feuding with one another lest the third party play fisherman and benefit from troubled waters, whilst the other two parties suffered.

Of those in the "Three Sects, One Manor" party, one of the three sects was an outsider that came and set its roots there after the Emerald Spring Kingdom had been established and the balance of power was slowly taking shape. It had enough strength to grab a place for itself within the kingdom. And though of all the powers of the Emerald Spring Kingdom that sect could be considered relatively young, it had been around the kingdom for 13,000 years.

While the remaining two sects had been around since the beginning, along with the Royal Family and the Seven Noble Houses.

As for the Manor. That Manor was none other than the Sunset Bank Manor. It had been around just as long as the Royal Family, the Seven Noble Houses, and the Two Sects had been in the kingdom since it was established, but back then, it was completely unremarkable.

It was just a name in a sea of tens of thousands of merchant companies operating in the Emerald Spring Kingdom. It was a name no one would notice or care about, whether it continued to exist or disappeared. It was just another signboard in a building, whose name they’d quickly forget.

But all that changed about seven hundred years ago, when the Manor, which had been slowly biding its time, sharpening its fangs, and spreading its wings in the darkness, finally revealed itself in the light.

Seven hundred years ago, that shop, which many, aside from its regulars, would likely have easily forgotten, had grown into an unforgettable existence and presence in the Emerald Spring Kingdom.

The Sunset Bank Manor quickly rose from a forgettable entity to one of the voices that carried real weight within the kingdom, on par with the Three Sects, the Seven Noble Houses, and the Royal House. This prominence came when it was revealed that they had seventeen Directors, all of whom were at the late stage of the Palace Realm, and a Vice Chair at the peak of the Palace Realm, who also happened to be a highly accomplished saber cultivator. This fact was revealed in the same way powerful cultivators often are: by a powerful figure demonstrating just how sharp that Vice Chair’s saber truly was.

And the powerful figure used as the whetstone and announcer of this formidable Vice Chair was none other than the Grand Elder of the Dragon Water Palm Sect (that youngest among the Three Sects in the "Three Sects, One Manor.")