Daily life of a cultivation judge
Chapter 1205 - 1205: Is it really plausible?

Shen Mu and Yang Qing were pulled out of their reverie as Hou Dehui stretched out his hand, gesturing that he was giving it to Shen Mu. His next words confirmed the intent.

"Here, take this. Think of it as my gift to you for enduring that capricious master of yours. May you keep walking and not falter," Hou Dehui said as he handed over the box.

"Inside, you will find a pearl produced by a domain-level dawn rayfish. The pearl is not quite an ascendant-grade treasure yet, but it is not far off and should be of great assistance to you in your preparations for the domain realm. The insights it will offer are suited to your peak's attributes," he added.

"Senior, I can't possibly take this," Shen Mu said awkwardly, and with great difficulty. On one hand, he was afraid to offend a domain expert, especially one who was close to his master, and on the other hand, the items he offered were so precious that he dared not accept them.

Just the red amber scholar jade wood box alone already made him nervous, without even considering the pearl of a domain-level dawn rayfish. As tempted as he was, their value was so immense that he felt too terrified to accept them, as if some calamity would immediately befall him the moment he laid a hand on them.

Even his master was not that generous with her disciples.

"Don't overthink it. Just think of it as me repaying a debt to your master, and the items, as precious as they are, are worthless to me anyway," Hou Dehui said.

"You're really putting me in a difficult spot here, Senior," Shen Mu said with a helpless smile.

"Fine, I won't force you if you don't want to," Hou Dehui said with a shrug. However, just as Shen Mu secretly heaved a sigh of relief, Hou Dehui spoke up once more. "But you know I will have to tell your master that you refused my gift. Knowing her personality, I wonder how she will react," Hou Dehui said ominously.

His words seemed to have had an effect, as they quickly broke through Shen Mu's defenses. He flinched at the statement before breaking into a helpless smile.

"This isn't fair, Senior," he said with a wry smile as he extended his hand to receive the gift.

"I will have to shamelessly accept your kindness, Senior, and commit this grace to my heart. I know I am lacking in ability, and I do not know what I can offer to someone of your level, but should you ever need my assistance, do not hesitate to ask," Shen Mu said with a slight bow.

"Mmh, that's more like it," Hou Dehui praised, before subtly gazing at Yang Qing, who could not hide his envy fast enough. The sight elicited a cackle from the inner court domain judge.

You need to work better at concealing your emotions, Judge Yang Qing, Hou Dehui teasingly said through voiceless transmission.

It can't be helped, given the items you have produced, Yang Qing bitterly admitted. Where Shen Mu was reserved and restrained, Yang Qing was open and unabashed. With treasures like this on the table, he was not refined enough to pretend he wasn't tempted by them.

"Don't worry. You're not left out. Knowing the competitive nature of his master, the moment she sees what I have given her disciple, she is sure to match it or even exceed it..."

Yang Qing's eyes instantly lit up at that reply. "Really?"

Hou Dehui did not answer and only smiled mysteriously in response.

After Shen Mu put away the treasure, unaware that he had just been used to scam treasures from his master, he led the group into the sect.

They soon flew in the direction he had come from and only stopped when they reached the vicinity of one of the trees. Shen Mu took out a white jade token, which lit up and reacted with the tree. The tree glowed faintly as numerous glyphs appeared on its trunk. Immediately after, a mirage-like membrane flashed before them, glowing with an ethereal light.

"Welcome," Shen Mu said, gesturing towards them as he guided them through the mirage membrane.

Once inside, Yang Qing instantly sighed as he softly murmured, "Truly worthy of an ancient sect."

A heavenly mystical paradise did not even begin to describe it. There were sprawling mountains everywhere, with jagged cliffs that extended beyond the clouds above. Winding rivers and vast forests stretched as far as the eye could see. The plains were filled with all manner of luscious plants and herbs, lush with life and glowing in different lustrous hues that immediately revealed their quality.

With just a cursory glance, Yang Qing spotted over a dozen monarch-grade herbs growing wild along one of the riverbanks. The river itself seemed to be made entirely of liquified spiritual qi, if the rich energy mist rising from its surface, suffused with a serene, luminous glow, was any indication.

Ancient-looking pagodas and pavilions, rustic in both design and appearance, were built into the rocky sides of the jagged peaks. The flying eaves, covered in moss and trailing vines, along with the weathered walls, faded colors, and the partial veil of mist surrounding them, all evoked a deep sense of age. One look, and one could feel the passage of time etched into their structure. Combined with the ethereal, mystical air of the region, these buildings resembled epoch relics from a lost era.

Everything, from the soaring mountains and jagged cliffs, to the flowing rivers and verdant flora, from the ancient pagodas to the drifting mists above, painted a picture of a transcendent realm that had exceeded the bounds of mortality. The final clincher to it all that bound that transcendence was the faint echoes of auspicious beasts reverberating across the land, adding a solemn grandeur to the scenery.

Those echoes were clear markers of a dragon vein, and not just any dragon vein, but an ancestral dragon vein, the highest-ranked spiritual vein said to exist only within holy lands. And yet, here it was, nestled within the grounds of a mere rank-two sect.

Feeling the effects of the ancestral dragon vein, Yang Qing couldn't help but wonder: Did the Silver Crane Sect truly not have a single Soul Formation expert?

Given what he was seeing and sensing from the environment around him, Yang Qing now strongly doubted that claim. With an environment like this, there was no way the sect lacked a Soul Formation expert.

An ancestral dragon vein not only produced some of the purest spiritual qi in the world, something he now strongly suspected was the source of the rivers flowing around which were likely condensed liquefied forms of its spiritual qi—but it also contained within it the charm and the powers of the Grand Dao, tied to countless dao principles and laws in their most primal and raw form.

All dragon veins were classified as such because they contained some aspect of the Grand Dao's power, and among them, the ancestral dragon vein held the densest and purest form of it. Nearly two-thirds of the world's dao natural treasures were born in places that had rich powers of the Grand Dao as those produced by an ancestral dragon vein.

So, it went without saying: wherever there was an ancestral dragon vein, dao natural treasures like the red amber scholar jade tree were never far behind.

Knowing that, discounting even the wonderous effects of the ancestral dragon vein, just taking account of the dao natural treasures it can nurture, was it really plausible that the Silver Crane Sect didn't have even a single soul formation realm expert?

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