Daily life of a cultivation judge - #653 - 653 Price of greed (3)

Only such a tight bond could make three different organizations rush in support of one another, especially, when one of the foes was a tricolored white-eyed tortoise.

The tricolored white-eyed tortoise was a thorny opponent to deal with considering its abilities. It was skilled in four attributes namely; the poison attribute, the water attribute, the dark attribute, and lastly the yin attribute.

It was called tricolored because its shell had wavey pattern symbols that highlighted the three attributes; poison, water, and dark. Poison was purple, water was blue, and dark was black.

As for its yin attribute, the yin attribute was featured in its white eyes that didn’t seem to have pupils. It looked blind but it was the farthest thing from it as those eyes could see the souls and attributes of living creatures, and to some extent even their strength. 

This made it difficult to hide from. In addition, its dark attribute made it skilled at concealing itself, its water attribute granted it great defensive and regenerative properties, while it attacked primarily using its poisonous attribute, though other than the yin attribute which was primarily used for surveillance, the other attributes could also be used in attacks if need be.

With the four attributes working in tandem, it was hard to overwhelm it even when working as a group.

Yang Qing could understand why the Hua clan called for help as just dealing with a tricolored white-eyed tortoise was hard enough let alone when you added another spirit beast in the mix.

Yang Qing’s eyes shone inexplicably as his gaze fell on the four cultivators.

The tricolored white-eyed tortoise was a thorny opponent to deal with but its entire body could be considered an alchemical treasure trove, especially with its ability to manipulate four attributes and it didn’t stop there.

Tricolored white-eyed tortoises when they reached the core formation realm, formed something at the center of their shell. A plant formed at the center of its shell. The plant was the four-patterned dreamshade luminaria.

The lunaria plant had different colored leaves that matched the coloring pattern of the tricolored white-eyed tortoise, with each color on the leaf corresponding to one of the four attributes the tortoise was familiar with.

The leaves contained a dense and pure energy reflective of the four attributes, and the more powerful the tricolored white-eyed tortoise was, the more leaves it would have.

Yang Qing knew those leaves could help strengthen a cultivator’s body and deepen their understanding of the elements they were familiar with provided it matched up with one of the four attributes and if one had a high comprehension, affinity didn’t even matter, as the cultivator could still make use of the leaves to gain a deeper understanding of the elements.

The plant was also a versatile and key ingredient in a wide range of potion and pill recipes. It could be used in restorative and detoxification recipes or strengthening recipes, but the one use Yang Qing thought was most tempting, was the Elemental enchanting attunement potion, a low-tier blue-grade potion.

The elemental enchanting attunement potion was a precious resource used by those at the peak of the core formation realm. The potion would help induce an epiphany for those cultivators, though it wasn’t always guaranteed, and was dependent on a few factors one of which was the accumulations and foundations of said cultivator.

The key that led to the doors of the palace realm, was dao. A cultivator needed to grasp a form of dao to be able to take that step.

Grasping dao, any kind, was usually a function of opportunity, talent, and luck, for one to be able to catch a sighting.

There were those who expended little effort to grasp the Dao they were suited for. For example, Mao Yunru, even though she was in the core formation realm, she had already heard whispers of Dao when she established her pillars in the foundation establishment realm. The same thing happened to Yang Qing too, because of his peerless jade physique he already had insights into his dao before he had reached the core formation realm, it was just that his understanding wasn’t at the level yet where he could make sense of it.

Then there were those who no matter how much they bitterly cultivated and sacrificed, to the point of even subjecting themselves to dangerous situations would fail to grasp it, or even if they do, it’s insufficient to take them all the way through the door, and are stuck at the entrance and end up being half step palace realm experts all their lives.

Where natural talent isn’t enough, external means to contemplate the Dao come into play like visiting areas suffused with the dao such as grottos, natural formations, of spirit veins that are at the rank of lesser dragon spirit veins and above, or other natural treasures of similar rank such as the nature dao stone that the mountain jade serpent was guarding.

A cultivator with wood or earth element affinity would be able to use the nature dao stone to find insights that would guide them into their dao path to the palace realm.

Outside of natural treasures filled with the presence of dao, being preached to by a seasoned domain-level expert with good foundations could help one grasp the fleeting presence of dao, as experts of such a level can draw the force of dao with their words.

Without the talent or the luck to grasp it yourself, what were the chances that you would find a natural treasure infused with the power of dao, or find a seasoned domain expert to preach to you? 

Irony was, the places that had those things required talent and luck, to begin with. So for those with neither, their only choice of attempting to reach the palace realm was to use substandard means with a pitifully low success rate and even if by some stroke of luck they manage to reach the palace realm, they would be the weakest palace realm cultivators around, to the point that they would likely lose to a quasi palace realm cultivator with decent foundations.

One of those substandard means was the elemental enchanting attunement potion. The potion is used in the hopes of triggering an epiphany or burst of insight into a dao that touches on the four attributes, however, for the potion to even work, it needs another natural elemental-infused treasure, to be used alongside it. Without it, the potion is just another restorative potion with elemental strengthening properties.

Yang Qing couldn’t help but wonder if the tricolored white-eyed tortoise appearing in the territory of the Hua Clan was accidental or deliberate.

He increasingly felt it was likely to be the latter and if it was the latter, were the other three organizations they were in alliance with, privy to said plan?

Even though the alliances within the Deer Mountain Range were stronger than most, there were things that could put a strain on the relationship and one of them was the appearance of a palace realm cultivator in an alliance that didn’t have one.

The whole dynamic changes, and the equal partnership and cooperation changes to a subservient and subordinate one.

Would the Xin Clan, the Flowing Fist Sect, or the Moon Essence Cauldron Sect agree to it? The only reason Yang Qing could think of them agreeing to it was if they were facing an existential crisis that risked their survival and they had no option but to support one of them.