Daily life of a cultivation judge - #647 - 647 Growing list of suspects

“Considering their relationship, the fire adler bear is less likely to blurt out that he helped Bai Qin evolve into a flood dragon.

Meifeng didn’t know much about the evolution other than the fact the fire adler bear did something.

As for these two..” 

Yang Qing’s eyes fell on the distraught couple.

“I doubt they’d let it slip. So how did the Blue Soul Flame Syndicate find out? With the fire adler bear’s presence, I doubt they would have managed to sneak in during the evolution process..

Besides what would they even be doing here in the first place, not unless they know about the other perilous zones….

No, I highly doubt it. It would need the skills of a domain expert to discover those locations. So the only way they could have found out about her is if Bai Qin slipped up and some cultivator found out or one of the parties involved leaked it…Jiang Xiang..”

With a narrow gaze, Yang Qing asked,

“This may be hard to ask, but forgive me, I need to do it..”

“I doubt it can be harder than losing a child. Please ask..” Bai Zhen said with a mournful smile.

“Your daughter evolved into a flood dragon but that meant all traces of the treasure bone had dissolved to form her current body. Whatever value the treasure bone held, had already been expended and not a trace of it was left.

The only evidence of it is your daughter’s body. But from what I heard, the attackers never took your daughter’s body with them. What was missing?”

Bai Zhen’s pupils trembled slightly before it turned into a forlorn look.

“Her heart and wisdom pearl..”

It was just a few words, but it seemed to have sapped his entire life energy as his back hunched over and he bent his head weakly.

“Her evolution used 10% of what was in the treasure bone, and even though it was smelted into her body in the process, the bulk of it was sealed away thanks to the scroll Adler used.

Its features were split into two parts and sealed. The two parts were her heart and wisdom pearl…” 

His voice seemed to grow fainter and weaker, every time he talked.

“The wisdom pearl sealed the Dao insights, and the heart sealed the complete flood dragon essence which encompassed the innate attributes of a flood dragon.

Even at the first stage of the palace realm, she could barely scratch at the surface of the abilities and powers contained within the treasure bone.

She could only slowly contemplate it over time, with the seals releasing every improvement made so it doesn’t end up harming her.

When she got attacked….”

Bai Zhen paused briefly with a pained expression.

“When she got murdered, she had barely scratched the surface. All she had at the time was the raw strength of a flood dragon to work with but even then she couldn’t use it properly. Which was why she easily fell to them..” Bai Zhen softly said with an air of despondency around him and his wife.

Yang Qing seemed to hesitate to ask something after seeing their moods but eventually decided to go on with it.

“Jiang Xiang…What do you know about him?” Yang Qing asked, calmly observing their reactions.

Bai Su’s pupils constricted in shock as her face went pale, while Bai Zhen still wore the same look of grief.

Bai Zhen absentmindedly answered,

“Not much only whispers and what others know about him from his time here. He never liked confrontations and was about the only one who liked interacting with humans.

He was always curious and knowledgeable about a lot of things. He may have not been feared as the metal moon tornado lynx but he was respected just as well.

He helped a few spirit beasts reach the palace realm. You could say he had a few pupils spread about the range about a dozen or less..”

Yang Qing observed the two for a brief moment before he decided to keep his suspicions to himself but from the way Bai Su was looking at him and her pallid face, she seemed to have guessed his thoughts.

Yang Qing felt there was a likelihood that Jiang Xiang may have been involved in the leak as one of the remaining people who knew about the existence of the treasure bone, other than the fire adler bear, the Bai family, the fire adler bear’s master and the unfathomable figure who gave it away.

Of the seven figures, he was the one Yang Qing suspected. The others stood nothing to gain by revealing the information and when it came to Jiang Xiang, Yang Qing didn’t know what he stood to gain either, he was the only one without a deep connection or investment to the parties involved, which makes it selling them out, very easy.

Seeing how distraught they were, Yang Qing thought it wise not to add to their woes, though from Bai Su’s reaction, it was already too late for that.

“I’ll have to get the Shadow Hawk Division to investigate him and his whereabouts. How he acquired those resources needs to be investigated too.

Does the White Rose Pavillion pay that well? Maybe he is highly valued, but if he is, then why would he collude with the Blue Soul Flame Syndicate?

It makes no sense..”  Yang Qing thought.

Even though he suspected Jiang Xiang, it was only because he was the only one to suspect, but even then, the reason for his collusion made no sense considering his background or even strength.

Even though the White Rose Pavilion was a merchant organization, its foundations ran deep as any ancient rank 1 sect, and one could even it ran deeper even, if the rumors surrounding them were true.

Rumor had it that they had managed to form branches of their pavilion in the Northern and Western Continent. To achieve something like that showed their incredible reach as traversing the oceans to other continents was tumultuous, let alone gaining a foothold in those continents. 

The White Rose Pavilion had done both. Yang Qing struggled to imagine why the eclipsed spiritweave fox would collude with the Blue Soul Flame Syndicate which was miles away from having the same accumulations as the White Rose Pavilion. It made no sense to him at all.

This was one of the reasons he opted to keep those suspicions to himself.

“Hopefully the Shadow Hawks can find something to make sense of this. What a convoluted mess..” Yang Qing thought with a sigh as his gaze fell on the two.

“There is something I need to tell you both..” he suddenly said with a somber tone.