Daily life of a cultivation judge - #609 - 609 Fortune that brings misfortune

“I am sorry Spring..” said Yang Qing as he looked at the destruction around him that was still ongoing.

Though it would take considerable time, Yang Qing could cleanse the area of the violent energies wreaking havoc on each other and their surroundings, but with the case still fresh he couldn’t do it.

Considering the state it was currently in, the special inquisitors were likely not done with the location. Yang Qing couldn’t tamper with that.

“While I can’t restore this place to what it once was at the moment, maybe you could do it..” Yang Qing said as he transmitted something via the resonant chain.

“This art is called the golden earth luminescence resurgence art. You may not understand it at the moment but just follow the pattern that I am showing and slowly by slowly you’ll gain familiarity with it..” 

Yang Qing created a pseudo-image of himself in the consciousness of the crystal spring larch which he used to circulate the art he had just transmitted.

The movements were slow, a deliberate move from Yang Qing. Along with the movement Yang Qing’s pseudo-image muttered an incantation that went along with his circulations. 

“Since I don’t know when I will be back here again after my tenure as branch chief is over, I might as well leave the whole thing here.

Launching the soul lake memory lock seal again in just a day. I didn’t think I’d work this hard…” muttered Yang Qing with a tired sigh as his pupils turned into two pristine white full moons accompanied by a transformation of his hair that turned white.

Yang Qing’s expression turned solemn as he was basically launching two intricately sensitive arts at the same time when just one required extreme concentration on his part.

Using the resonant chain as a conduit, he created a seal within the consciousness of the crystal spring larch. 

Various lights interweaved together around the pseudo figure of Yang Qing eventually transforming it into a golden tree that looked like it had been sculpted from the flames of the sun while the ground below it transformed into a radiant earth that surged like the waves of the ocean.

A scroll appeared in front of the tree and swallowed the tree and surging earth.

“You can access it with a thought, spring. I will come by over the next few days to help you gain a little bit of understanding in it and then you can continue by yourself..” Yang Qing said as he canceled both the soul lake memory lock seal and the myriad thoughts resonant chain art.

Beads of sweat could be seen forming on his forehead after he had canceled both arts. He had not sustained the arts for long but he felt like he had done a mental taxing activity for months on end without stopping.

Luckily the expenditure this time was not as high on his soul as it had been the previous day. After a few seconds, the exhaustion started leaving Yang Qing’s body with his soul constantly renewing itself.

“Spring, I’ll come by tomorrow. Thank you for everything..” Yang Qing said as he patted the crystal spring larch on his way out.

The cultivation art he had just shared with it was one of the few good cultivation arts he had managed to find on his numerous visits to the cultivation market.

At the time he had bought a brown marble stone that had a pleasant smell which he thought would improve the test of his soup if he boiled the soup together with the marble stone.

He had used his spiritual sense to see if there was anything special with the marble stone. He was half hoping for there to be a legendary tantalizing ingredient stored within but sadly other than the gentle aromatic scent it released there was nothing special with the marble.

After haggling he eventually managed to get the stone for 15 middle-grade spirit stones. He tried fiddling around with it after buying it, unreconciled that there was nothing special with it, but after a dozen failures, he decided to use it as a renewable condiment for his soup. 

The taste was better than he expected and that 15 middle-grade spirit stones looked like a great steal. It was only later when he was boiling meat from a pumice-scaled crocodile that he accidentally unlocked something within the marble. 

Pumice-scaled crocodiles were notorious for their ability to withstand high temperatures thanks to their pumice coating. Other than their outward hardiness, they had the most tender flesh that just a wiggle of the tongue was enough to break them apart.

Yang Qing like he always did, used his yang flames to boil the pumice off the crocodile meat he had on hand while the marble was in there. His flames immediately got swallowed by the marble which melted away revealing a golden wood that had the rich smell of earth with inscrutable markings on it that seemed to resonate with Yang Qing’s yang flames.

Without much investigation on his part since his flames seemed to work like a key, he discovered a low tier blue grade cultivation art within that wood, and that art was none other than the golden earth luminescence resurgent cultivation art. 

It was a meditation art that synchronized the user’s body with the earth and the sun using the user as the midpoint between the two. Over time it strengthened the user’s body and mind by making their souls burn like the sun’s flames and their bodies were as robust as the earth. 

The user would gain passive immunity to poisons and miasma, especially yin-related poisons and miasma. That immunity even extended to corpse miasma.

It was a great and versatile technique to have except it was a slow-burn cultivation art that required the user to be still for long periods for them to have any harvest. During the day one absorbed the rays of the sun and during the night one absorbed the essence of the earth making one complete cycle.

It required complete stillness which was perfect for ascetics and now the crystal spring larch. The requirements of the technique coupled with its already natural ability to draw energy from the stars including the sun made the art perfect for it even if it was built with human cultivators in mind. It solely being a meditation art eliminated those racial hurdles.

Yang Qing had a feeling that the crystal spring larch would have unexpected changes thanks to the art. As he was leaving he couldn’t help but sigh when his thoughts fell on the meditation art. He always had a bittersweet association with it.

On one hand, he managed to get a low-tier blue-grade cultivation art for cheap but on the other hand, he lost the perfect renewable condiment. The marble couldn’t restore itself and he didn’t have a clue on the materials or technique involved in creating it.

He wouldn’t dare admit this out loud even among friends and family for fear of receiving a beating but deep down he knew he would rather have the marble than the blue-grade meditation art. His peerless physique already gave him immunity to all kinds of poisons across a wider range than even the art itself. He didn’t need it. 

But when it came to the marble, it gave him something he didn’t know he needed until he had it. His homemade soup experienced leaps in flavor thanks to the marble and now he couldn’t savor that taste. He barely even makes soup anymore because he can’t stand the grief it brings.

“Hopefully something good comes out of the sacrifice..” Yang Qing wistfully thought as he made his way to his final stop of the day which was the location of the parasitic purple flower spore sycamore.