Daily life of a cultivation judge-Chapter 1159 Creating nests (1)
1159: Creating nests (1)
1159: Creating nests (1)
Keeping his growing suspicions to himself, Yang Qing refocused on the case.
If the Xia clan had done what he suspected, it wouldn’t exactly be surprising.
Such things were inevitable where self-interest reigned and no one was there to hold the line.
While he didn’t seem to dwell on the matter, the same couldn’t be said for Xia Fang.
Yang Qing’s question lingered in her mind, stirring thoughts she had long avoided.
Was it strange for the three clans to have palace realm experts?
In truth, it shouldn’t have been.
She hadn’t been there when her founder was alive, nor had she witnessed how things shifted after his death—especially in regards to the power dynamics between her clan and the four retainer clans—but she had her suspicions.
Suspicions she had deliberately chosen not to think too deeply about over the years.
An awkward tension settled over her, making her throat go dry.
Instinctively, she reached for her snow jujube tea, the one thing she had slowly come to rely on as an anchor which quickly morphed into a source of strength and comfort for her whenever she felt overwhelmed.
Unluckily for her, this time, even the tea failed her.
She took a few prolonged sips, trying to push back the unease, but there was no delaying the inevitable.
With a quiet inward sigh, Xia Fang set her cup down and moved to address the question.
“The reason it was surprising was because…” Xia Fang said softly, her voice lacking the fire from before.
“While their founders were still around, producing a few palace realm experts was easier.
However, in later years, it became increasingly difficult.
Their talent seemed to decline over the generations, to the point where there were periods when their strongest experts barely reached the quasi-palace stage or the peak of the core formation realm,” Xia Fang slowly explained.
“When we got attacked by the rogue cultivator’s son and he culled our palace realm experts and spared those that were at the core formation realm and below, the three clans managed to escape that judgment and preserve their entire strength as they didn’t have palace realm experts.
If they had, he would have targeted them as well,” she said.
“What makes you so confident he would have?
His grudge was solely with your clan, wasn’t it?” Yang Qing asked.
“It is because when he slaughtered all the palace realm experts within our territory, he didn’t just target our clan members.
The Lai clan had two palace realm experts at the time, and they were killed as well.
Even our guest elders despite having no blood relation or involvement in the celestial light hawthorn matter, weren’t spared either.
If the three retainer clans had palace realm experts present, going by that son’s actions, they likely wouldn’t have been spared either,” Xia Fang said.
Though she spoke with conviction, what truly fueled her belief wasn’t the confidence she held for the extreme vengeance that the rogue cultivator’s son had for them, but rather her own hopes and hatred toward the three clans.
If her clan’s palace realm experts had been slaughtered, why should theirs have been spared?
She tried to conceal those thoughts, but the swirling emotions within her and the fluctuations of her soul betrayed her, keeping her honest before Yang Qing’s senses.
Their interaction, though brief, had shown him a full spectrum of her raw and unfiltered emotions which helped him establish a thorough baseline of her.
He could tell when she was angry, afraid, overwhelmed with regret or hatred, filled with longing or shame, or when she was nervous or hiding something.
And she most definitely was when she mentioned the talent of the three clans slowly waning over time.
Her reaction only further confirmed Yang Qing’s earlier suspicions about her clan and those retainer clans.
Now, as she spoke with unwavering certainty about how the three clans would not have been spared retribution if they had possessed palace realm experts at the time, Yang Qing could clearly trace the hatred within her soul that fueled her conviction.
But since he was merely a listener in all this, and the subject matter wasn’t directly related to his case, Yang Qing didn’t call her out on it.
Nor did he press further on how exactly the three clans’ talent had waned over time, especially when the Lai clan’s didn’t—despite all four clans having started from the same point.
“If they didn’t have palace realm experts at the time, then where did the ones they brought forward to fight against you come from?
Were they hired hands?” Yang Qing asked. freёwebnoѵel.com
Xia Fang’s eyes momentarily flashed with relief as she looked up at him, though she quickly masked it.
Yang Qing didn’t even need to guess why she felt relieved.
Fortunately for Xia Fang, he was far more adept than her at concealing his thoughts, so she remained unaware that she had already been seen through, believing she had concealed her reaction well.
She took a brief moment to compose herself before continuing.
“No, they were all members of their own clans,” she replied.
“That’s why it was so surprising the first time we fought against them—to see them produce even a single palace realm expert.
At the time, the clan suspected they might have one, given the confidence they had shown in moving against us both covertly and overtly.
Even when we lost all our palace realm experts and the other damages we suffered in the process as a result of said loss, we still held significantly more power than the three clans.
So it was baffling to see them dare to act against us.
As our retainers, they should have understood how much strength we still had in reserve—yet despite knowing all that, they acted anyway.
That’s why the clan assumed they must have had something to rely on that gave them that confidence to act.
Maybe it was something their founders left behind for them, some hired expert, or they had a hidden palace realm cultivator among them.
But even though we considered the possibility, we thought the last option was the least likely.
So when the Chi clan suddenly produced a palace realm expert, despite considering it, it still came as a complete shock to us.
Luckily, we had prepared for that scenario, but even so, it still caught us off guard—and the casualties we suffered that first time proved it,” Xia Fang explained.
“Instead of learning from that experience, we underestimated them again,” she added, her cheeks flushing with shame.
