Daily life of a cultivation judge - #615 - 615 Company under the resplendent view

Not sensing anything meant one of two things, either the middle-aged before him had no cultivation base or it was so high beyond Yang Qing’s level of comprehension.

The fact that he was able to arrive next to him unnoticed, Yang Qing instantly eliminated the first option.

“It seems like my presence seems to have ruined the mood..” said the middle-aged man with a slight smile when he noticed the wary looks on both the young woman and Yang Qing.

“Not at all..” Yang Qing said with his countenance calming down.

“The fact that he reached this close without me sensing anything means if he wanted to, he could have killed me without me even noticing.

I might as well enjoy the wine and the scallops rather than worry about it. 

Was I cursed? Over the past month, I’ve met one scary individual over the other. I really need to have myself checked out for curses. This makes no sense..”

“Would you like to join us..” Yang Qing politely asked as he took out another cup and bamboo chopsticks.

The depths of the gaze of the middle-aged man flickered slightly with amusement when he saw how Yang Qing was able to switch effortlessly from wary to easygoing in a short amount of time.

“I will have to shamelessly accept your kind offer..” answered the middle-aged man as he took a seat next to Yang Qing while accepting the wine and the chopsticks.

The young lady was left confused by the change of events. A few seconds ago she and Yang Qing were all panicking but now Yang Qing was acting like he and the middle-aged man were long-lost friends.

She threw covert glances at Yang Qing seemingly asking if he knew the intruder. Yang Qing’s response was just a carefree smile as he casually picked up a deep-fried scallop.

Her gaze alternated between the duo before finally she decided to join them. If Yang Qing wasn’t worried about the middle-aged man neither would she. 

Besides the presence of Yang Qing and the middle-aged man somehow made a part of her feel delighted. It had been a long time since she had company. After Lady Gild, Adler and the Badger went their ways, she languished in loneliness.

The century that she spent alone felt longer than the tens of thousands of years that she had been alive. She constantly lamented her inability to be mobile because if she did then she would be able to visit the fire adler bear and check in on him, annoy him a bit, or even roam outside like Lady Gild and the Badger.

But she was stuck and because of her weak main body, she couldn’t risk forming new friendships.

“I will make the most of this, to make up for those dark years..” she said to herself as she gingerly walked over to where the middle-aged man and Yang Qing were.

“Mister, are you a farmer?” she excitedly asked as she took a big swig of her wine.

The conical hat the middle-aged man was wearing was something she had seen herb collectors and some qi refinement cultivators wear as they worked. Whenever she felt her loneliest she liked to watch them work via her spores.

 “Doesn’t she switch character a little too fast..” Yang Qing incredulously thought as he saw the young lady’s shining eyes with no sense of the fear and wariness from before.

“Hahaha, a farmer? It’s the first time I’ve ever been mistaken for one..” said the middle-aged man as he chuckled.

“So you’re not?” asked the young lady as she leaned in closer to observe the middle-aged man’s conical hat.

“But you have the same hat as the farmers I’ve seen. They all wear the same hat just like yours and I also feel like your aura resembles them somewhat..” she added as she pointed toward the middle-aged man’s conical hat.

“What aura is that?” the middle-aged man asked with a slight smile.

“A simplistic one with…. what’s the right word..” muttered the young lady as she ruminated over the right choice of word.

“A caretaker, yes, a caretaker..” she said with excitement.

The middle-aged man stroked his beard with one hand, with wine in the other as a nostalgic look appeared in his eyes.

“I am not a farmer, I just like wearing the hat, it reminds me of my parents. They were farmers and I always thought they looked cool with the conical hats.

I occasionally find myself with the urge to wear them now and then whenever I’m roaming about..” 

A nostalgic smile appeared on his face as he said that.

“Why didn’t you want to become a farmer like your parents..” asked the young lady as she nibbled on the scallops.

“Well, I didn’t seem to have the hand for it. Everything I touched seemed to disappear..” said the middle-aged man with a slight cough of embarrassment.

His reply drew an uproarious laughter from the young lady. Yang Qing who had been trying to stifle his laughter from the look the middle-aged man gave found himself laughing openly infected by the young lady’s laughter.

“So what did you end up doing?” asked the young lady in between labored breaths and laughs.

“Well, your earlier guess wasn’t wrong…I became a caretaker of sorts..” 

“Of people?” interjected the young woman.

“In part, yes..” freely answered the middle-aged man not off-put by the barrage of questions coming from the young woman.

It seemed like he rather enjoyed it and welcomed it even.

The young lady sighed as a forlorn look appeared on her.

“I knew someone special to me who is like that. For all the time I’ve known her, she has always been taking care of someone. Me, a few handfuls. I hope she’s now at least enjoying herself wherever she is..”

Seeing her look Yang Qing guessed she was talking about Lady Gild.

“She sounds like an incredible person..” softly said the middle-aged man.

The young lady’s mood was instantly uplifted by the middle-aged man’s reply as she answered,

“She is! She is the best!”

Seeing her childlike excited face drew laughter from both Yang Qing and the middle-aged man which made her bow in slight embarrassment.

“Come to think of it, Yang Qing do you farm?” she excitedly asked when she remembered the green flame leaves in her hands.

She couldn’t help but imagine Yang Qing having a celestial garden filled with all kinds of precious herbs

“Occasionally, but not often. I have… I am not sure I can call them friends but some steal from me, others mock me endlessly for my efforts, and others send me countless work that never seems to stop..” said Yang Qing with a mournful sigh as he recalled the shenanigans Ellie and the Celestial nesting weaver usually put him through.

The young lady’s gaze turned sympathetic as she said,

“If they are that bad you can leave them and come farm here if you want… I have plenty of space and the land isn’t bad..”

“Thank you, I will take you up on that offer sometime..”

A sense of warmness filled the area as the trio ate and drank sharing inane stories that didn’t give too much.

After talking for a bit Yang Qing’s curiosity got the better of him and decided to ask what the middle-aged man was doing in Deer Mountain Range.

He had hoped in the course of their conversation, the young lady would bring it up but either intentionally or coincidentally she never asked it.

Yang Qing swallowed his nervousness and asked,

“Senior what brings you to the Deer Mountain Range?” 

“Turns out that Vixen was pretending..” muttered Yang Qing when he saw the glint flash in the young woman’s eyes after he asked the question. It turned out she had been waiting for him.

The middle-aged man swirled the wine in his hands which perfectly reflected its surroundings. The swirl was gentle, slow, and unassuming but it seemed like the entire continent could be captured within that swirl.

The middle-aged man took a small sip as he said,

“A long time ago I left something here to grow. It was so long ago that it escaped my mind, I only recalled it recently so I decided to come and check on its progress, and there was also a friend I made back then, I also wanted to see how she was doing but I didn’t find her..”

“Mister, I thought you couldn’t plant anything?” asked the young lady as she bent her head to the side in puzzlement.

“Well I am a farmer’s son after all, it would be a shame if there wasn’t one thing I could grow. After trying countless times I eventually found one thing I was good at growing..” he said with a triumphant smile.

The young lady completely swallowed by curiosity asked,

“What is it?!”

“Something special to me..” the middle-aged man enigmatically answered.

“Stingy, you’re just like Adler, acting mysterious..” said the young lady with a soft pout for having her curiosity piqued only to be left hanging.

The middle-aged man’s eyes darted to Yang Qing who looked like he had just seen a ghost. When his gaze fell on the middle-aged man, what he got was a meaningful smile.

The young lady who had been madly gulping her wine in frustration missed the interaction between the two as it only lasted a second before they went back to normal.

“What about you young friend?” asked the middle-aged man as he directed his question toward Yang Qing.

Yang Qing suppressed the tide of emotions flooding through him as he answered,

“My friends got injured recently. I am here to find out what happened to them and I somehow ended up here in the hopes of having some of the blanks I have, filled…”

“And have you filled them?”

“Some, with her help..” Yang Qing said as he pointed to the young lady still drowning cup after cup of the frostberry wine.

After hearing Yang Qing’s statement she instantly raised her gait with a smug expression on her face.

Both shaking their heads, Yang Qing and the middle-aged man joined the young woman in drinking lest she finish everything.

Three hours quickly passed by with the trio talking, laughing, eating, and enjoying each other’s company like they were long-lost friends surrounded by the beautiful landscape of the parasitic purple flower spore sycamore tree.

“It’s time for me to say my goodbyes i have affairs I can’t be away from for too long.

This has been truly enjoyable..” said the middle-aged man as he slowly stood up.

“It was..” said both Yang Qing and the young lady with genuine smiles on their faces.

“So I don’t end up feeling like a mooch for not bringing anything please have this..” the middle-aged man said as he handed Yang Qing a wine gourd crafted of white wood that had a jade tree symbol on it.

“Don’t drink it as is, it may be too powerful. You can have your friend who made the frostberry wine play around with a single drop. The drop should be enough to create a year’s worth of supply..” added the middle-aged man.

Yang Qing’s eyes couldn’t help but widen as he took the gourd. Even though he couldn’t tell the material it was made out of, he could feel a majestic worldly aura being released by it, as for its contents, what the middle-aged man said was enough to paint the picture of how powerful it was if just a single drop could last him a year.

“As for you, in thanks for the view and conversation, you can have this..”

The middle gently raised one of his hands and seemed to be pulling down something. A gentle-looking pure white mist descended from the skies above into the man’s hand. It felt like he had plucked the radiance of the moon.

Both Yang Qing’s and the young lady’s pupils constricted as they detected a dense pure yin energy within that mist.

The azure pearlrose floated out of the pond into the middle-aged man’s hands. With a wave of his hand, the swirling mist of pure yin energy descended from the skies and was poured into the pearl. 

The pearl’s color instantly changed from blue-pink to pure white color. It looked like a miniaturized moon releasing its incandescent glow and a gentle refreshing cool energy.

“It seems like it won’t be able to contain it..” muttered the middle-aged man after small cracks started appearing on the pearl. 

He gently rubbed his index finger on the pearl and the cracks disappeared. A vast aura instantly appeared around the pearl as the white mist weaved together into an ancient-looking edict that seemed to carry the might of the heavens.

Within seconds all the pure yin mist from the skies was swallowed by the pearl that had a crystal clear look. An object of absolute purity. It looked like it had been fashioned from a teardrop of the purest being.

“I hope the next time we meet the radiance of your tree will shine even brighter. Until next time, young friends..”

The pearl gently floated into the pond instantly transforming it into a crystal clear pond that had an ethereal air about it.

Yang Qing and the young woman were both gobsmacked by what they had just seen that they didn’t even notice the middle-aged man fading from view.

He left just as he came in, without notice.