Daily life of a cultivation judge
Chapter 1199 - 1199: Haishi's strangeness (1)

Unaware of Bolin's thoughts, Yang Qing nodded appreciatively at the two spirit beasts.

"Your auras are much more refined," he said, as an imperceptible glow flashed in his eyes, his gaze lingering particularly on Haishi.

The dunce dragonfly, beaming with pride, was still at the fifth stage of the core formation realm, placing her three levels below Bolin, who had reached the eighth stage. Yet in terms of potential and secrets, the mirage dragonfly held more mystery and promise than the rainbow mist toad, despite the latter's strength and innate abilities.

When Yang Qing first met Haishi, something within him stirred—he felt there was more to the mirage dragonfly than met the eye. But after probing her with his spiritual sense, he couldn't detect anything unusual aside from the effects of the primordial dew Feng Xin had used on her, which had further refined her qi, essence, and body.

But Yang Qing was never one to ignore his instincts. He shared his suspicions with several staff members from the Beast Taming Hall. If anyone could detect the root of what was exactly odd about her, it would be them, and indeed, someone did. One of the senior-most elders of the hall noticed it.

It took a seasoned, peak-stage domain expert to actually catch a glimpse of what was off about Haishi.

There was a subtle seal placed within Haishi's body, one that the elder couldn't even probe into deeply without risking his life. Its complexities were beyond his abilities, which led him to believe it had likely been placed there by a figure in the Soul Formation realm. And judging by its subtle qualities and nature, he wasn't entirely convinced it had been done by a human. There was something primal and instinctively raw about it.

Recognizing his limitations, the matter was escalated to the head of the Beast Tamer Hall, who happened to be a Soul Formation expert himself. But even he was stumped, unable to fully unravel the mysteries of the seal—apart from two things: it posed no danger to Haishi, and the fact that Yang Qing and the others were even able to sense it was likely a deliberate act on the part of the seal's creator.

It was almost as if the seal had been used to subtly announce that Haishi had a powerful figure backing her.

Were that not the case, the chief elder who first examined it would never have been able to sense its presence, let alone probe it without suffering consequences. The fact that he could was no coincidence. It likely had been intentionally allowed by the one who left the seal.

As seasoned experts in all things related to spirit beasts, both the chief elder and the head of the Beast Tamer Hall were able to make educated guesses about the seal's origin based on the subtle traits Haishi displayed.

In terms of bloodline quality, mirage dragonflies weren't exactly considered superior. They were generally regarded as ordinary. However, when it came to Haishi, her bloodline was anything but that. While it wasn't at the level of mythical creatures like dragons or phoenixes, it wasn't any less pure than that of a spirit beast like Ellie, whose kind, the cloud-swallowing kites, were considered close descendants of Rocs.

For Haishi to possess a bloodline on par with such beings despite the ordinary nature of mirage dragonflies could only mean one thing: somewhere in her ancestral line, an expert had emerged. And not just any expert, but one who had reached the Soul Formation realm. Given the qualities she displayed, it couldn't have been some distant ancestor either.

The Hall Master of the Beast Tamer Hall suspected that the source of Haishi's transformation, both her enhanced bloodline and the mysterious seal, likely came from her parents, grandparents, or at most, great-grandparents. And judging by the presence of the seal, that individual was still alive. Since the Hall Master himself, a Soul Beginner stage expert, couldn't fully see through the seal, the one who placed it had to be stronger, possibly at the Soul Adept stage or above.

When Yang Qing was made aware of this, his first instinct was to curse Feng Xin for dumping such a hot potato on his doorstep, followed by a very strong urge to return Haishi to wherever she came from, just to avoid the looming trouble entirely.

However, being the pessimistic overthinker that he was, Yang Qing immediately began worrying about how his actions might be interpreted by the figure who had left the seal. What if that person could somehow observe everything happening around Haishi? How would they react to him kicking out their descendant or worse, their child?

Yang Qing didn't think such a scenario was far-fetched. After all, all evidence pointed to the seal being sentient. Why else had he and the others sensed the strangeness in Haishi's body with no clear explanation? Feng Xin hadn't noticed anything unusual during his interactions with her. While one could argue that perhaps Feng Xin missed it because he wasn't in the Palace realm like Yang Qing, Yang Qing would be the first to refute that.

True, Feng Xin wasn't in the Palace realm, but in terms of spiritual sense perception, he wasn't any weaker than an early-stage Palace realm expert. That was thanks to his Ice Soul Jade bones peerless jade physique. Not only did it grant him immunity to toxins and miasma, just like Yang Qing's physique, but it also gave him an incredibly refined soul. So refined, in fact, that it was considered amongst the purest and powerful souls when it came to cultivators below the domain realm, and as his cultivation grew, Yang Qing had no doubt that its purity and strength would only keep growing.

He possessed a crystallized soul essence and jade-distilled spirit, which made his soul more potent than even Su Jingjing's. Among their team, only Yang Qing came close in terms of soul purity and strength. Feng Xin's soul was so powerful that even a sliver of it carried the same potency as the complete souls of some cultivators within the same realm.

With that being the case, how was someone like him unable to detect anything strange about Haishi, especially given the extended interaction he had with her during his chase after Peng Zhen and their return journey to the Order, which lasted well over four hours? Four hours of close contact, and he didn't sense a thing, while it took Yang Qing barely a second upon contact to feel a slight tug at his soul telling him that something about Haishi was off.

Yes, he had a powerful soul, which made him more sensitive than most in the same realm. But not for a second did he believe that was the reason he had sensed something bizarre about Haishi. At first, maybe, he might have entertained the idea. But after he was made aware of the seal and its strength, he immediately discarded that thought, as a new one took its place.

Whoever placed that seal, given their strength, could likely sense things through it—perhaps through an implanted spiritual will or a wisp of soul attached to the seal that kept them constantly aware of Haishi's situation, ready to react the moment something happened.