Daily life of a cultivation judge

Like a puppeteer moving his strings, Yang Qing threaded his spiritual sense deeper and deeper into the gorge via the silver thread ball. He had come across faint residual traces of other types of yin qi, but still not the one he was actually looking for.

If he was being honest, he wasn't even sure he would find any traces of it here. The only reason he even thought to look was because of Bai Chen's soul lamp. He was here hoping that maybe, whatever it was that caused the soul lamp to contain traces of nebulous yin qi might have left behind traces in places other than the lamp itself.

But even if he did find said traces here, what then? It wouldn't bring him any closer to finding Bai Chen. The best he would get out of it was maybe finally confirming the location of Bai Chen's and Jiang Hao's disappearance—and that whoever did it knew how to use nebulous yin qi.

Other than that, he wouldn't be any closer to uncovering the identity of whoever disappeared them.

But at least it would be something, he mused.

Yang Qing's closed eyes opened slightly as his gaze fell on certain parts of the gorge that had been engulfed in gentle white flames, before he closed them once more, immersing himself in the task at hand.

Haishi and Bolin were also hard at work on theirs. The former was trying to glean something from the profound power revolving around the pristine yin spring, while the latter had immersed his senses to grasp the mysteries of the fog surrounding the healing gorge fog vine.

As for the two sky-rank spiritual plants, they too were preoccupied with their own tasks, one of which involved fully digesting the benefits Yang Qing had brought them with his green nature flames. Not to mention, they were also passively benefiting from the environment Yang Qing had inadvertently created around them when he cast the Pristine Yin Spring Spell and the Yin Yang Genesis Art: The Vestige of Yin Whispers.

Both spells increased the concentration of yin energy around them, whose purity and quality were at the level of midnight yin qi or even higher, given that they were produced from Yang Qing's Yin Yang Nature Peerless Jade Physique, which in terms of worth was no different to a heavenly treasure.

The benefits didn't stop there. Because the spells were manifestations of Yang Qing's abilities and understanding, combined with his profound cultivation realm and talents, they were filled with countless mysteries and profound truths born from Yang Qing's powers of the grand dao. If the two sky-rank spiritual plants and spirit beasts could glean anything from them, the benefits would be immense.

As for Yang Qing, even though he wasn't gaining as much as his four counterparts, he was still benefiting nonetheless. One's mastery over something grew the more they practiced, and that was exactly what was happening.

He was combing through all the wisdom, insights, and understanding he had gained thus far and incorporating them into the manipulation of his spells.

Over the past nine months, he'd experienced a great deal that'd contributed immensely to his journey as a cultivator, which is why he'd advanced by three stages within that timeframe.

He had almost died during that timeframe, which led to the unlocking of certain mysteries within his physique, mysteries that greatly impacted and improved nearly all his abilities, even those not directly tied to his physique. Then there were the gains he made in Sage Mountain, which allowed him to evolve the Brilliant Ray Fist Art from a low-tier blue grade to the middle tier of the same grade. And of course, there was also the recent rich dao discourse he had with Senior Xia Cangfu and Senior Shuyuan earlier in the day.

The harvests he had gained thus far were considerable, and his current actions with the three spells gave him the perfect opportunity to refine those gains and truly make them his own by incorporating them into his abilities.

From the group, the only beings who seemed carefree were the salmons, who were just as lively as when they had first been summoned, except for their leader, who seemed like it was the only one executing its duties diligently… well, half-diligently. Even though it wasn't as playful as the rest, and was actually doing rounds.. or looked like it was, as it gently swam around the blue water dome, it did it look like it was dozing off with those half closed eyes, and the relaxed swish of its dorsal and tail fins, looking like it was about to drift off into slumber.

But as unbothered and unconcerned as they appeared to be, they were completely aware of everything and anything within 1000 meters around them. Not even a speck of dust could float by without them noticing, especially the slumbering boss.

...

One more hour silently passed by, and still, Yang Qing had not found any traces of the nebulous yin qi.

Despite the negative results, he wasn't all too discouraged. Coming here, he had expected nothing, and if he ended up leaving with nothing, he would still consider it a worthwhile trip, at least where his cultivation was concerned, given the gains he was making.

As for Bai Chen's and his disciple's matter, well, it depended on how one looked at it. A glass-half-full kind of person might view the results and say that while they didn't find any traces of what they were looking for, the absence itself was still a result. It meant either Bai Chen and his disciple didn't disappear in this gorge, or their disappearance had nothing to do with the nebulous yin qi. Perhaps the presence of that qi in the soul lamp was a reflection of Bai Chen's current location—and not where he had vanished.

And that was exactly what Yang Qing's thoughts would be if he didn't find anything.

Another forty minutes passed by with no results.

"Mmh…" Yang Qing's eyes twitched slightly as he finally sensed something peculiar.

It wasn't the nebulous yin qi he found, but something else. Something he wasn't sure had anything to do with either Bai Chen's or his disciple's disappearance, but he would investigate it nonetheless—if only to satisfy his curiosity.

When Yang Qing was snooping around the gorge with his spiritual sense working in tandem with the silver thread ball, the view he was working with was vastly different from what one would see by observing the gorge directly with their eyes.

The scene he saw through the Yin Yang Genesis: Vestige of Yin Whispers spell made the gorge appear like an ocean floor, and the threads of yin energy he was following and retracing flowed inside what looked like an ocean current.

That current was powered and stabilized by his spiritual sense, while the spell directed its flow. Just now, he had sensed another foreign power functioning in a similar manner to his spell as it attempted to alter the directional flow of the current. Its target appeared to be the yin energies flowing within it.

The interference came as a probing tug that vanished just as quickly as it appeared. But no matter how brief the interaction, that tug had left the intruder exposed, because it had interacted with none other than Yang Qing's spiritual sense, whose threads had already permeated three-quarters of the gorge. So the instant that power made contact with the current powered by his spiritual sense, even though it cut off the connection rapidly, the brief contact was more than enough for Yang Qing to pinpoint the source.

He didn't know what it came out of, but he definitely knew the where, and also how strong its origin was.

Based on the fluctuations of the power produced during that fleeting encounter, Yang Qing could tell it belonged to an entity at the quasi-palace realm. As for its location, it was exactly 1.4 kilometers southeast of him.

With a target in sight, Yang Qing canceled his spiritual connection with the silver thread ball—though he left the spell running, allowing it to continue collecting yin qi traces around the gorge in hopes that, among them, he might still find the nebulous yin qi.

He silently dusted himself off, then cast a quick glance toward Haishi and Bolin, who were both deeply immersed in their cultivation.

Choosing not to interrupt them, he quietly exited the water dome. It parted slightly to let him through, then sealed shut behind him.

"Look after them," Yang Qing said to the half-snoozing salmon boss, who nodded noncommittally at his instructions. He found the response amusing, a thought striking him as he observed the boss's lazy demeanor and that of several other salmons who paid him no heed.

They looked like manifested behavioral clones of himself. There was the boss, relaxing on the job; another salmon nibbling on the leaves of the spirit water oak tree; one intently studying Bolin and Haishi, as though trying to glean something from them; and a group of four others deeply engaged in what looked like a serious discussion as they pointed at each other's rune scales with their fins. Then there were the mischievous ones, pulling pranks on their counterparts, who, instead of retaliating, simply joined in the fun.

They all seemed to mirror some of his habits. Though there was one among them whose behavior he couldn't quite relate to— it was the salmon that had winked at Haishi when it first appeared. Even now, it seemed to be sneaking glances at her. Yang Qing didn't need to be an expert in reading fish expressions to guess what it was thinking as it stole those looks.

"What's Zheng Hu's habits doing here?" he muttered, frowning at that particular salmon, which quickly swam off to hide among the others the moment it sensed his gaze.

Yang Qing shook his head with a wry smile, doing his best to push away the unsettling thought that maybe... just maybe... he harbored some unconscious attraction to Haishi.

Did he? At least, he didn't think he did.

To him, she was like a puppy he looked after. Of course, he'd never actually owned one, thanks to his traumatic experiences with dogs during his childhood—well, one dog in particular. That black mutt used to laugh at him while he was crying in pain during body refinement training with his grandfather and the others. Not to mention it also stole his food... and occasionally peed in his herbal solution bath that he only came to discover when his senses got more developed when he was in the gold body refinement stage.

Who knows how long it'd been peeing in his bath before that? He shuddered at the thought.

Pushing aside the dog trauma and associated misgivings, he was fairly certain that if he ever did have a puppy, he'd look at it the same way he looked at Haishi.

So what was with that salmon?

Choosing not to dwell on the matter, Yang Qing shook his head clear of those thoughts and quickly made his way toward the source of the foreign power he had detected.

Fortunately, it wasn't far, and he had no concerns about it fleeing without his notice—or escaping if it tried. He could cover the short distance in less than a minute.

About halfway there, Yang Qing's eyes flashed as he picked up on a new presence moving in the opposite direction. The figure was stealthily heading toward the spirit water oak tree, and based on the faint aura they gave off, they were a first-stage palace realm cultivator—and human.

In case of anything, the salmons can handle it, Yang Qing thought, feeling not too worried, keeping his focus on his original target as he continued forward.