Daily life of a cultivation judge
Chapter 1221 - 1221: chance encounter

Yang Qing, Bolin, and Haishi flew for almost thirty minutes before they finally cleared the territory of the Violet Feather Sword Sect.

The one flying, however, was Haishi, carrying the other two. Bolin couldn't fly on his own, not without reaching the palace realm first. Yang Qing could have flown by himself, likely even faster than Haishi, but he simply didn't want to.

He would have had to adjust his speed for her to keep up anyway. With that being the case, he figured he might as well hitch a ride and maybe even help her push past her limits in the process.

Thanks to the universal nature of his spiritual qi, he could transfuse it directly into her without fear of rejection or adverse effects. With his vast reserves flooding into her, Haishi could push herself without worrying about depletion, much like when Feng Xin first fed the primordial dew while they were chasing Peng Zhen and the others.

With nothing to focus on but flying, Haishi committed her entire body, mind, spirit, and essence to the task.

She might have only been in the seventh stage of the core formation realm, but with the way she poured her entire being into her flight, burning through her qi without hesitation, her speed rivaled that of some first-stage palace realm experts.

This was the advantage of flying spirit beasts. Their strength lay in their physique, and the more specialized they were, the easier it was for them to achieve feats that human cultivators would need a higher realm to match.

Ellie was a perfect example of this. She might only be in the 11th stage of the core formation realm, but thanks to her natural gifts as a cloud-swallowing kite, her normal flying speed likely outpaced that of several first-stage palace realm human cultivators. And if she really pushed herself, the way Haishi was doing now, she could probably rival even third- or fourth-stage palace realm experts.

Satisfied with Haishi's speed, Yang Qing diverted part of his attention to comb through the insights he'd gained from the dao discourse he'd held with Senior Shuyuan and Xia Cangfu. Slowly, he began consolidating his thoughts, digesting them as fuel to deepen his understanding of various spells and techniques in his arsenal.

He still wasn't any closer to uncovering what had happened to Bai Chen and the others, but the trip thus far still had a few gains nonetheless—even if some of those gains had nothing to do with the case.

When it came to the case, while he hadn't made much headway, at least he'd taken a few steps forward and crossed off a few things on the to-do list. For one, the list of suspects had shrunk as he'd eliminated the four retainer clans and Li Gang from said list. Secondly, Xia Fang's request could be considered complete.

All that remained on that front was to brief Xia Fang on everything he'd learned, and the request would be as good as done.

Now, the final task for this little excursion of his was to visit Bai Chen's and Jiang Hao's last known location in the Azure Sapphire Kingdom and see if any clues remained to be followed.

Hopefully, there would be something. But if not, Yang Qing would simply adopt a wait-and-see approach. Maybe the Frost Eagles, the Wind Gliding Mercenary Escorts, or Dong Ping would uncover something, or perhaps another clue would surface from an entirely different source.

At this point, all he could do was focus on what was within his control.

Time passed quickly, and before long, they were within spitting distance of the Azure Sapphire Kingdom—though in this case, "spitting distance" still meant nearly a hundred kilometers from its borders.

Even with nonstop flight and a steady feed of Yang Qing's spiritual qi, it had taken Haishi nearly four hours to cover the distance. But the time it took was understandable, considering the space between the Violet Feather Sword Sect and the Azure Sapphire Kingdom spanned over 40,000 kilometers.

The fact that she had managed to cover such a vast distance in that amount of time was a commendable feat, even with Yang Qing supplying her with spiritual qi.

As they entered the final stretch, Yang Qing slowly brought his full focus back.

Given Bai Chen's ties to the escort agency and their last known location, it went without saying that Yang Qing approached the Azure Sapphire Kingdom from the side of the Wan family's territory.

"The population seems thin," Yang Qing muttered as he surveyed the lands they were flying over.

That hundred-kilometer stretch leading up to the border felt like ghost lands. Human presence was scarce.

In fact, the dominant features were the landscape, mostly mountains, a few scattered hills, and vegetation sparsely inhabited by spirit beasts here and there.

There were a few human settlements scattered across the terrain, but they were widely spaced out. And judging by their size and structure, Yang Qing didn't count more than a hundred people settled in each of the said settlements.

From their layout and the brief clues he picked up, those settlements seemed more like temporary camps than permanent dwellings. Some had no protective formation arrays at all, and the few that did had only set up basic ones using formation flags.

They didn't look like people planning to set down roots. The area seemed more like a temporary stopover than a permanent dwelling.

Yang Qing wasn't surprised by the scene. Given how tense things were in the Azure Sapphire Kingdom, such a sighting was expected. This place might have been a hundred kilometers away, but if conflict broke out, it would no doubt be swallowed up in the storm.

That stretch of land was already living proof of it. Despite its wild aura, brimming with vibrancy from the untamed vegetation and the natural features that gave it life, Yang Qing could acutely sense its hidden frailty. It was like a wounded old soldier whose outer body seemed mostly intact, save for a few battle scars—but inside... inside was where the true horrors of war lay.

The damaged body and internal organs functioning at a fraction of what they once were because of the accumulated beatings they took over the years.A waning vigor and fading vitality. Qi channels and meridians scarred beyond recognition. Sluggish qi flows tainted with all manner of corrosive energies that brought even more damage to the body.

That was the feeling Yang Qing got from the land below. The spiritual qi was dry and weakened in some areas, while in others it was erratic and convoluted. The lush green vegetation and sprawling mountains masked the underlying weakness, deceptively hiding the land's inner rot.

However, despite its weakness, Yang Qing had no doubt that given enough time, the land would thrive once more. The earth was far more resilient than the bodies of humans or even spirit beasts when it came to enduring beatings. No matter how badly it was battered, it almost always found a way to recover.

The heavens were said to be magnificent and ethereal, while the earth was said to be immovable and timeless in its resilience.

You're sure to come back up one day, but that doesn't mean I can't contribute a little kindling to your flames, Yang Qing murmured soundlessly as a cyan-green droplet formed on the tip of his index finger.

Within the droplet, faint lights of different colors swam and overlapped like drifting shooting stars.

Yang Qing's gaze dropped to the ground below, his focus slowly shifting westward until it settled on a withered, one-meter-tall brown stag aspen tree—or more precisely, its roots, which were anchored in a weathered vein containing traces of the five main elements.

That's a good anchoring spot, he mused, eyes fixed on the vein.

With a swift flick of his finger, the droplet of Spring Resplendent Dew shot toward the distant tree, two kilometers away. The speed was so fast that neither Bolin nor Haishi noticed the motion of his finger, the trajectory of the dew, or even the act itself.

In the time it took Bolin to blink, the dew had silently burrowed into the earth like an assassin's needle and dissolved into the weathered vein.

Spider-like cracks filled with multicolored light immediately began forming within the vein. A moment later, the roots of the brown stag aspen anchored in it began to tremble, vibrating as if struck by lightning. The same fibrous cracks on the vein spread up through the roots, snaking along the trunk.

The tree's branches quivered, despite there being no wind, and slowly, yellow dusk leaves began to sprout along its bare branches. Its stem thickened slightly as more branches and foliage formed.

Within seconds, the brown stag aspen that had seemed on the verge of death, where it looked more like a dried husk than a living tree, was brought back to life like a phoenix rising from the ashes. It was as if spring had truly arrived.

The sudden transformation startled a five-colored monk parrot that had built a nest in one of the branches. It flew out in a rush and circled the tree in visible disbelief. It circled a few more times before its gaze finally dropped to the ground below, right where Yang Qing's Spring of Resplendence had settled.

The weathered vein slowly pulsed with vitality as its newfound vigor began to influence the nearby vegetation and even the insect life clustered around it.

The five-colored monk parrot stared at the ground in stunned silence, then swept its sharp gaze across the surroundings, looking tense and wary. It looked like it wanted to fly off, and yet, like a moth to a flame, for the life of it, it couldn't tear its eyes away from the patch of earth around the revived brown stag aspen tree.

Finally, whatever apprehensions and reservations it had were lost to the shining desire in its eyes as it gently glided down, hovering just a few centimeters above the ground before descending.

The instant its feet touched the earth, its eyes closed in bliss as it let out a soft, satisfied screech. It began to dig into the dirt around the brown stag aspen tree, then perched itself in the shallow pit it had carved out. There, it rolled its body, coating its feathers with the loose soil. With each grain that made contact, its five-colored plumage glimmered softly like a lamp's glow.

It shifted and twisted a few times, as if searching for the perfect position in the pit. After a few tries, it found it—then slowly, languidly, it sank into the shallow hollow, looking like it was about to drift into the most peaceful sleep of its life.

But its next action was far from restful.

In the very next moment, it released a threatening aura that blanketed a three-kilometer radius around it, encompassing Yang Qing, Bolin, and Haishi.

Yang Qing remained unaffected by the pressure, but the same couldn't be said for the two spirit beasts. Their bodies instantly stiffened.

How could they not, when they were suddenly subjected to the aura of a quasi-palace realm spirit beast?

Luckily for them, the threatening aura hadn't been specifically directed at them. The five-colored monk parrot hadn't sensed their presence, thanks to Yang Qing having isolated their auras during the flight over. But even if it wasn't targeted, the pressure radiating from that tiny, palm-sized frame still made them feel like they were staring death in the face.

"Let's go," Yang Qing gently ordered, pulling Haishi out of her stiffened state.

Ten thousand years from now, that single, random act would lead to the birth of a land whose richness rivaled that of rank two organizations. It would come to be ruled by two domain-level beings—one a bird, the other a tree.

Neither of them ever knew where their second chance at life had come from. But the earth remembered. Every rock, every inch of soil in that place—what would one day be known as Five Element Mountain—etched that silent debt into its crevices.

And when the day came to pay that debt, it returned that favor in kind.