Daily life of a cultivation judge

Chapter 550 Final session

Yang Qing wasn't sure but he could vividly feel some threads untangle themselves from his body, which made him feel like he had been released from something.

"That kid has managed to rip the nether karma strings, that's some resolve, now all that's left is one karma string, but even it seems faint and looks well on its way to full resolution.." thought the saint grade tree, the auspicious wood grove tree.

"His soul has grown stronger and purer.." it added.

In its gaze, Yang Qing was surrounded by countless glowing threads but moments earlier before his resolution, amongst those threads, there had been about a hundred grey threads that released a purple-black energy that was slowly tainting his body and mind.

When he came, half his mental sea and inner soul body had been tainted to the point there was something almost humanoid manifesting from the infested pool. However, the sessions at the brook of clarity suppressed the spreading of that infestation and the corrosion caused by those black threads.

Each and every day that Yang Qing came for treatment and was exposed to the measures of the brook of clarity, the brook's abilities moved from suppression to cleansing. The black threads were slowly being purified so Yang Qing would sever them for himself.

Now all that was left was one, but based on the faintness of that thread and its transformation, it looked like Yang Qing would not need the brook's help to deal with it.

"Congratulations, young judge.." said the auspicious grove wood tree.

"I could not have done this without your help senior, thank you truly for this.." answered Yang Qing as he performed a deep respectful bow to the auspicious grove wood tree.

It was only now that he realized how much dire straits he had been in. He had no idea how deep in the cesspool he had been in until he was released from it.

An unbearable weight had been slowly suffocating him and he had no idea, how bad it was until this very moment.

He felt a sense of lightness to him that brought him relief, comfort, and a sense of strength that he didn't have even before the events of the Ice Emerald Sect. He felt like he had just unearthed another part of him that had been locked away which gave him a sense of clarity and assuredeness.

"My connection to my Dao seems to have grown.." he muttered as he felt an ephemeral connection with the vitality Dao thicken.

His skin immediately started letting out a gentle aurora glow which made Yang Qing's eyes light up in excitement.

His physique, the dormancy he experienced from it was slowly being alleviated, and his peerless jade physique was reactivating once more, which was a week in advance of the prediction the valley master and Ren Shu had made, which Yang Qing agreed with.

"I might as well see this through to the end since it is his final session. The faster he grows, the better it is for me. With his help, I should be able to find them..." muttered the auspicious wood grove tree as one of the pebbles transformed into his humanoid clone.

The humanoid clone waved his sleeves as a ball-sized water bubble was pulled from the brook of clarity.

The clone molded the water bubble like it was kneading dough as mystical air and an ancient-looking light were produced within it.

If one looked at the light closely, one would notice it bore a faint resemblance to the light Yang Qing released every time he executed his core cultivation art, the purple grade art, the universal duality light of myriad worlds.

The light being produced in the water bubble and the one Yang Qing produced bore some semblance of similarity to each other, except that the one produced from the water bubble felt vaster and more ethereal.

The water bubble turned into a radiant light and the elderly clone of the auspicious wood grove tree gently pushed forward to Yang Qing and watched it disappear into his forehead.

Yang Qing felt a cool sensation envelop his mind, which was similar to what he felt in the two-hour restorative session he had with the brook of clarity, except this one had been amplified ten times.

His physique which seemed to be restored at a gradual pace felt like it had been given a powerful jolt of energy, rapidly regained life in an instant.

Yang Qing froze as he could feel it, it was finally back. The subtle emptiness he had been feeling ever since his physique went dormant, instantly disappeared.

Just as Yang Qing was about to thank the auspicious wood grove tree for its help, he felt his vision suddenly change as he experienced an out-of-body experience.

"This!?!" 

Yang Qing was in a once familiar route and sensation that brought him an endless shock. He was within the deeper recess of the palace realm his body being guided within an enclosed radiant glowing current and in an instant he was standing before the crystal jade tree that he didn't know lurked within his palace realm.

It was his second time here, and despite the prior interaction, he still felt awed by the jade tree like he was seeing it the first time.

It stood there gently, silently with an ethereal mist surrounding it with countless leaves though were the size of his thumb, they looked like they could contain an entire world within it.

Yang Qing tried to walk towards it, however, his body seemed frozen in place. 

On seeing his movement frozen, Yang Qing decided to observe the tree and see if he could glean any clue from it.

"The sound from before is not there.." he muttered as his gaze fell on the ethereal mist and then moved to the leaves.

The leaves were light green and looked like they had been sculptured from green smooth crystal. Yang Qing's focus was on the runes inscribed on them. They gave Yang Qing the sensation of something primordial, something beyond ancient, but that was all he could get from them. He couldn't understand them no matter how deeply he looked at them, his mind drew a blank on them and there was also no reaction coming from them.

Everything from the mist to the tree seemed shielded from his mind somehow. It was like there was a veil in his eyes and mind that stopped him from seeing more than what he saw right now. He couldn't decipher anything other than there was a crystal jade tree before him surrounded by ethereal mist and leaves with ancient primal runes inscribed on them.

Yang Qing was hoping that there would be some sort of reaction triggered from his presence here, but there was nothing.