Daily life of a cultivation judge-Chapter 1091 - The price of loyalty (1)
1091: The price of loyalty (1)
1091: The price of loyalty (1)
Reading through Liu Ying’s slip, Yang Qing found nothing that pointed to her as a suspect, much to his relief.
Her relationships with Bai Chen and the others were impeccable—one even hinted at being more than just friendship—and nothing in her dossier suggested any connections that could implicate the rest.
The few feathers she had ruffled over the years, especially during her time as a rogue cultivator, were not significant enough to pose a threat to Bai Chen.
The only potential concern would have been her paternal clan, the Shi clan.
However, with the clan now reformed and those she had grievances against long banished, any meaningful grudges in her life had been effectively neutralized.
The slip did include the names of the Shi clan elders who had been exiled by Liu Ying’s brother, along with their cultivation realms.
Among them, the strongest was the former clan head, who was weaker than even Jiang Hao, being only a peak-stage core formation expert.
In contrast, Jiang Hao was a quasi-palace realm expert, leaving a significant disparity in strength.
While it was plausible that the exiled elders bore lingering grudges against Liu Ying’s brother for what he had done—and by extension, harbored animosity toward his siblings—their current lack of power rendered them incapable of acting on those resentments.
Without the resources or backing of the clan, their options were severely limited.
Yang Qing couldn’t shake the nagging suspicion that Liu Ying’s brother may have already dealt with them permanently.
It was likely he had eliminated them shortly after their banishment.
The only reason he might have spared them within the clan’s borders was to maintain his image and ensure a smoother path to consolidating his authority.
Regardless of the justification, shedding the blood of one’s clansmen would have undoubtedly caused unrest among the remaining members.
Banishing them, on the other hand, presented him as just and fair, bolstering his reputation within the clan.
Mortals and cultivators alike were rarely in the habit of sparing their enemies, especially the latter, who understood how quickly the tables could turn.
A moment’s leniency could see the predator become the prey in an instant.
Most cultivators took no chances, preferring to nip such threats in the bud as soon as the opportunity arose.
For someone like Liu Ying’s brother, Yang Qing found it hard to believe that he would be magnanimous enough to simply let his enemies go.
If he were that kind of person, he wouldn’t have returned to his clan seeking vengeance.
He could have chosen to start fresh elsewhere, leaving the past behind.
But what did he do?
He went back to the clan, intent on retribution.
When he discovered that the primary object of his grudge was already dead, he didn’t stop there—he redirected his wrath toward others.
A person like that was unlikely to let things end with mere banishment.
The final detail that convinced Yang Qing of this conclusion was the news of his search for his siblings and the way he treated them.
His evident care and concern for them made it clear that they mattered deeply to him.
That care, however, also meant they could be used as leverage by his enemies.
Yet, he openly sought them out and didn’t hide how much they meant to him.
You only act that way when you’re certain your enemies can’t exploit such vulnerabilities.
And the only way to be truly certain of that is if those enemies are no longer around to pose a threat.
…
Yang Qing reviewed Liu Ying’s information a few more times before setting her slip aside.
He made a mental note to check with the Flying Shadow Hawks to see if they had any information on the banished clan members, aiming to confirm his suspicions.
Still, even if those individuals were alive, he doubted they had the ability to make Bai Chen or Jiang Hao disappear.
However, confirmation was necessary.
Nothing in the cultivation world was ever truly set in stone.
A tiny ripple today could transform into a hurricane tomorrow.
Prosperous kingdoms could become desolate ruins in the blink of an eye.
The world was always in flux, and cultivators lived in constant awareness of that reality.
Once he felt sufficiently satisfied with Liu Ying’s case, Yang Qing moved on to Duan Ting’s slip.
His eyebrows arched slightly in surprise as he discovered that Duan Ting had once been a viscount in a rank-four kingdom, the Spirit Emerald Pod Kingdom.
“Too bad he’s no longer associated with them…” Yang Qing murmured, disappointment flickering across his face as he scanned the jade slip.
His disappointment stemmed from the fact that the Spirit Emerald Pod Kingdom was renowned as a haven for agriculture, particularly for its wide array of cereals, most notably beans. freewebnøvel.com
Yang Qing’s thoughts buzzed momentarily to the list of dishes he could have enjoyed with their produce: there was mapo tofu made from crimson flame black beans, steamed buns filled with scarlet ember red bean paste, or a refreshing bowl of mung bean soup crafted with azure moon mung beans.
The kingdom’s agricultural prowess was no coincidence.
It owed much of its success to the numerous spiritual veins that crisscrossed its lands, predominantly infused with wood and water elemental qi, with traces of earth qi mixed in.
This unique combination created ideal conditions for the growth and propagation of spiritual plants.
Yet, what made the kingdom a paradise for spiritual herbs also served as a limitation for cultivators.
The dominance of wood and water qi meant that only cultivation arts aligned with these elements could thrive, making it challenging to practice techniques outside of them.
This peculiarity likely explained why Duan Ting’s spiritual qi had such a dense water-elemental presence, something Yang Qing had already noted during his earlier assessment.
If one were to analyze the kingdom’s residents, this trait was likely to be a commonality among them.
But even with that restriction, Yang Qing didn’t view it as a disadvantage.
Specialization had its own merits, especially when rooted in an environment that heavily nurtured it.
Cultivators in the Spirit Emerald Pod Kingdom could still ascend to the higher realms of cultivation by practicing water- or wood-based cultivation arts—or both.
In fact, one could argue they advanced at an even faster rate because of their surroundings.
Take the Spirit Emerald Pod Kingdom itself as an example.
While it might not currently have a palace realm expert among its ranks, the kingdom has produced several throughout its history, with some even reaching the peak stage of the palace realm.
Moreover, the intervals at which they produced palace realm experts weren’t particularly long, which spoke volumes about the benefits of their focused cultivation environment.
