Daily life of a cultivation judge



The art associated with the fist art was called the Flurry Waves fist art, while the palm art was the Withering Leaves palm art; the leg art was the sundering kicks of the blizzard, and lastly, the movement art was called the traceless leaf gliding movement art.

Zou Liqin had only perused the flurry waves fist art briefly, but just those glimpses were enough for her to know it would require a particular effort on their part to make any significant process with it. 

If they wanted to make any significant qualitative progress in their short time, they could only do it if they focused on one aspect. Each of those arts had guidelines on executing them at different stages and incorporating them with their herbal solution to break through their body refining stage. 

It had a step-by-step guide up to the gold stage of the body refining realm. 

Zou Liqin analyzed each art on a surface level before she settled on the art she thought she would have better odds with.

"I will go for the fist art.." said Zou Yi.

"I've decided on the palm art. What about you, Yu Mei?" asked Zou Liqin.

Yu Mei seemed hesitant to answer at first before she awkwardly answered,

"I'm going with the blooming tranquil lotus meditation art.." said Yu Mei with the troubled smile of one afraid they would be scolded.

"Why?" Zou Yi asked with deep consternation. 

The blooming tranquil lotus meditation art was only for strengthening and calming the mind, and it couldn't be used in breaking through the body refining stage. 

All cultivators in the early stages of the body refining realm focused on honing their bodies. From what Zou Yi knew, this extended even to the qi refinement realm, where constant exercises and herbal solutions would strengthen and expand the meridians and acclimate the body to tolerate large volumes of qi. Only when one stepped into the foundation establishment realm would they focus on other aspects that didn't tie to the body.

Only when one was at the late stages of the foundation establishment realm would they start strengthening their spirit. Doing it before then would only slow down your cultivation, and training the spirit in the early stage was almost useless since the mental sea got unlocked when one was close to breaking through to the core formation realm.

The only people he knew who focused on honing their spirits early on were usually those with special physiques.

"Wait, could she..." Zou Yi's pupils constricted as his gaze fell on the awkward, smiling Yu Mei.

"If she does, then that explains a lot..." thought Zou Yi as he shook his head.

"Yu Mei, you don't have to answer. If that's your wish, then it's okay. We made it all the way here partly because of your efforts. If you feel that's the best for you, it's okay.." Zou Yi said as he gave her a smile of endearment.

"Many thanks, brother Zou Yi.." Yu Mei said as she cupped her fist, sighing relief.

She had been the first to regain consciousness and was ahead of the others by almost twenty minutes. Once she had confirmed the rest were okay, she looked around the place and discovered it was a special zone.

She had no skills in alchemy, weapon refinement, or other skills relevant to the partitions and resources provided, so she went through the booklet to try and increase her strength. 

Other than her intuition, she realized she was practically useless and wanted to increase her strength so as not to be a burden to the rest.

Like Zou Yi, she mildly entertained the idea of trying the Soaring Swallow sword art recorded in the booklet. Seeing how demanding it was, she came to the same conclusion as Zou Liqin and decided to try and see how the other arts were.

As she was perusing, a calm voice told her to ignore the other arts and only focus on the Blooming tranquil lotus meditation art. The voice later told her not to tell the others. 

While she did not know the voice's owner, she felt it had to be someone from the Order, especially when she didn't detect any malice from the statement. Since she was small, her intuition of any form of malice has always been strong, which was how she had been able to escape before her father sold her to a gambling den.

When Zou Yi asked her why she chose the art, she hesitated because she would have to lie to them. Even though they were a new team, she felt they were good people and didn't want to lie. Zou Yi's latter response came as a relief to her.

"What about you, He Shan?" asked Zou Liqin when she saw He Shan step away from the cauldron.

"With my sporadic fighting style, I think the movement art would suit me best...So which one of you wants to try the solution? It's already done," said He Shan as he eyed the trio, who reflexively looked sideways at his stare.

"How can you be cultivators with such an attitude.." He Shan said as he scoffed.

"Since none of you are willing, I will do it.." said He Shan as he poured the herbal solution into the wooden bathtub.

The liquid had the viscosity of water and a turquoise color. Despite the cauldron being smaller than the wooden bathtub, when He Shan poured the solution into the tub, it was filled to the brim, after which He Shan threw in an azure crystal that was in the shape of a teardrop into the solution and closed the tab with a cylindrical lid.

After confirming the lid was firmly in place, he took out his booklet and started going through the traceless gliding leaf movement art guideline.

The key to using the solution was first to practice the particular art until their strength had been overdrawn, then soak in the solution in which their body would hungrily absorb the nutrients in the solution to strengthen the body, then go back and practice the art again to help them in refining the solution better in every part of their body.

It needed to be done in four cycles before they could rest. The better they were in the art they practiced, the more benefits they extracted from the solution, which translated to how fast they would break through to the next stage of their body refining realm.

All members present, with the exception of Yu Mei, were all in the bronze stage and were trying for the silver stage.