Daily life of a cultivation judge

After what he had read these past two days, some part of him wished he didn't. It wasn't that the things he read were graphic but the little they did reveal left a lot of room for guided imagination, and what it revealed was enough for Yang Qing to be thankful he was born in this era and not then.

The physiques were terrifying, the cultivation arts were terrifying, the artifacts were terrifying, the natural treasures were terrifying, the spirit beasts were terrifying, the spiritual plants were terrifying, and the sects, clans, and other organizations were terrifying.

He already expected that anything associated with an attribute that can submerge someone into an ocean filled with the tormented wails of the dead that continually corrupts and breaks the spirit of the one trapped in there was not going to be anything pretty, but he had underestimated how bad it could get.

The information he had managed to read through in those two days was but a tiny portion of what was stored in the library, but even that tiny portion had left him apprehensive. He still hadn't narrowed down anything that could tie to the mysterious figure from the range, but out of the session a newfound fear grew in him as he wondered what if all the things he read about the physiques, the cultivation arts, artifacts, and sects, clans and the like, what if they had inheritors who survived to the present.

The majority of everything he read entailed things he knew next to nothing about, so it stood to reason that whoever or whatever they were about did not survive to the current era, however, some part of him couldn't help but worry what if they survived, if they did, they could plunge the world into a horrifying darkness that made him shudder at the mere thought of it.

For example, when it came to physiques, though they were all equally horrifying there was one that stood out to him which belonged to an elder called Zhang Fei. He had been an elder of a reputable sect called the Azure Sword Sky Sect.

Yang Qing knew nothing about the sect, from which era it was, or how powerful it was. What he did know was constrained to the elder's physique. Zhang Fei had a physique called the eldritch woe nexus physique and if what was written on the jade slip was to be believed, with just his physique alone, he destroyed an entire clan by himself. Said clan was said to have the bloodline of a phoenix coursing through them. The clan was also known to have breathtaking beauties owing to their phoenix bloodline and Zhang Fei had grown infatuated with one of them, however, he was rejected by her, which he accepted.

But he spiraled into anger when the lady who had rejected him ended up marrying whom he judged to be inferior to him and in that fury, he revealed his physique which the report suggested he had hidden even against his sect. He slaughtered that lady and her dao companion in the most gruesome manner which drew ire and retaliation from that clan. His sect rather than go to war with them, opted to compromise with the clan and sacrifice Zhang Fei. But things didn't end as either expected. He slaughtered his entire sect first before he finished with the clan with the Phoenix bloodline.

In both places, one could see unspeakable horrors that made it seem like the abyss had descended in the area. The souls of his sect and that clan were twisted into playthings of the Eldricht horrors that had invaded the area, with their tormented screams echoing all around. Those regions turned into forbidden regions as those wails were capable of breaking the souls of domain experts.

The jade slip didn't mention what happened to Zhang Wei after, Yang Qing could only assume he met his end at the hands of some formidable expert, or he was ganged on and destroyed, or the phoenix associated with that clan he massacred delivered its retribution on him. His end was uncertain, but his strength wasn't.

Even if there was little information provided about the Azure Sword Sky Sword Sect or the clan with the phoenix bloodline, by virtue of having a phoenix bloodline, Yang Qing felt that clan must have been pretty powerful. Fang Wen had a smidge of taotie bloodline and it gave her terrifying abilities, then it stood to reason that the clan with the phoenix bloodline at the very least had people that were as capable as Fang Wen, and if there were, the fact that Zhang Wei singlehandedly destroyed and tormented them, spoke of his terrifying abilities.

Worse was, in those two days, he had read of terrifying figures and objects that were just as terrifying as Zhang Wei if not more, like the dark eclipse soul blade, a blade created by the surviving members of a blacksmithing clan for vengeance.

When the blade was completed, it swallowed their life force and any living being within a 1,000-kilometer radius of it. It corrupted and consumed every cultivator who has ever owned it, though it was more apt to say, the blade was the one who wielded the cultivators instead of the other way round as it used them as furnaces to strengthen itself before finally it found its way into the hands of an infamous soul formation expert known for his bloodthirsty nature.

The blade and the soul formation expert tried to consume each other, and a monstrous hybrid of the two was created. The duo slaughtered their way through the planet for almost a thousand years before they were finally destroyed. During that period the number they had slaughtered had reached millions, with a couple of those victims being soul formation experts.

Then there was the shadow soul forge dahlia, a flower that would cause all who gaze on it to have their souls forcibly removed from their bodies and absorbed by the flowers and subjected to unspeakable torment when absorbed as the dahlia strengthened itself using the negative energy produced. The dahlia ended up being an infamous villain called the Dark Empress who had consumed countless soul formation experts, and sacred beasts in her wake.

In those two days, he got a clear look at how truly harrowing the world he lived in was, who knew how many dahlias, cursed blades, destructive physiques, and shadowy organizations were lurking in the dark?

He couldn't help but be reminded of Gu Xing's words of a dark undercurrent brewing. He wondered if it was because of what was in Deer Mountain Range, or it touched on the southern continent as a whole. Feeling stifled by the thought, Yang Qing left the library, heading to the Thousand Flavors restaurant hoping it would lift his spirit, completely unaware that two figures, one old, one very young, had been secretly monitoring him ever since he stepped onto the gold floor.

"What do you think?"

"I think he handled it well.."

"I still feel it was too soon.."

"It can't be helped with the way things are moving, besides, it was his fate to tread upon those waters this early. At the end of the day, it would still have happened, whether today or when he unlocked his sanctum.."

"I know, I just feel guilty leaving of them having to carry something that was ours in the first place.."

"Me too, but it can't be helped, the continent needs it.."

"I know.. See you, En Sang.."

"Take care, Lai Ning.."