Daily life of a cultivation judge

"Miss Hua Ying, you can start whenever you're ready.." said Yang Qing as he motioned for Hua Ying who had already calmed down, though one could still see she was slightly unnerved by Yang Qing, despite Yang Qing's attempt to seem as unassuming as possible.

"I am a supreme elder of my clan, and when the red pine flame porcupine and the tricolored white-eyed tortoise made an appearance, I was the one deployed to handle the tricolored white-eyed tortoise.."

"Pardon me for a moment, but how many supreme elders do you have?" asked Yang Qing as he raised his palm in interjection.

"Four.." answered Hua Ying slightly baffled on why she was the one interrupted during her testimony.

Yang Qing as if reading her thoughts, smiled slightly as he said,

"The account of the fight with the tricolored white-eyed tortoise would be the same for all of you. The differences show up in the symptoms of the poisoning, and your accounts before you met up.

Since the attack happened within your territory and not theirs, I do have a few questions for you, that I would not have for them."

Hua Ying nodded as she said,

"If there is anything you wish to know, I will gladly provide the details.."

"Thank you for your cooperation..." Yang Qing said as he clasped his hands together and leaned forward in his podium.

"So of the four supreme elders, how do you rank against them?" he added.

"I am the second strongest. The highest is at the eleventh stage of the core formation realm, and the third and the fourth are both at the eighth and seventh stages respectively..." answered Hua Ying.

"Why were you the only one sent then? You're attacked by two spirit beasts and one of them despite being weaker than all of you, is notorious for its steady defenses and thorny abilities.

How come you were the only one sent, instead of sharing the burden with another supreme elder?

It is your territory being infringed upon after all.." asked Yang Qing.

"The first and third supreme elder went to deal with the red pine flame porcupine. It may not have the same level of defense as the tricolored white-eyed tortoise, but it was a dangerous opponent nonetheless and at the time we judged it to be a more dangerous opponent in comparison to the tricolored white-eyed tortoise.

It was in the eighth stage of the core formation realm and as you well know, fire pine flame porcupines are highly destructive, with a volatile temper. Once triggered, they would fight to the death, destroying everything in sight with its hardy flamed quills filled with flame poison.

Considering its abilities, we deemed it safer for me and my fellow daoist to handle the tricolored white-eyed tortoise while the first and third supreme elders handled the red pine flamed porcupine..." answered Hua Ying.

"What about the fourth supreme elder?"

"The fourth supreme elder was in charge of guarding our clan leader who is still in seclusion at the moment. 

Whenever he is in seclusion, one supreme elder is in charge of protecting him. Ordinarily, when the two spirit beasts attacked, it should have been me guarding him, but considering the strength of the two spirit beasts, I was deployed while the fourth supreme elder took my place.."

"Okay...You can continue with your testimony.." Yang Qing said as he leaned back in his seat with an inscrutable expression.

"O..okay.." Hua Ying said with a slight unease as her pupils flickered slightly when she saw Yang Qing smile lightly as he leaned back comfortably in his seat.

Hua Ying went on to recount the events from her perspective. Her details on the clash against the tricolored white-eyed tortoise matched Xin Zephyr's and Wu Shen's statement on it. Which was mostly how they thought they were about to win and the tortoise revealed its hidden fangs by suddenly breaking through a minor realm and borrowing the momentum and surprise of that breakthrough to strike at the four of them, injuring them gravely.

Just as she was about to continue, to the events that happened after, Yang Qing interrupted.

"You don't have to answer this as it's purely curiosity on my part, but what happened to the red pine-flamed porcupine?"

"The first and third supreme elders managed to kill it. We used the contents of its body to fund the resources needed for our treatment.." answered Hua Ying.

Yang Qing nodded as he motioned for her to resume her testimony.

"Contents, huh...clever way to answer and be vague at the same time.." thought Yang Qing as he lightly drummed his index finger on the table with a playful smile on his face.

"After we got injured, my clan spared no resource to try and help us, but the venom was beyond our abilities to handle it.

We deferred to the Moon Essence Cauldron Sect, to see if they could come up with better means as they were more suited to it than us.

While they focused on trying to contain the poison, my clan, the Xin clan, and the Flowing Fist Sect, tried to find outside help from other organizations within the Range, and when that proved futile we expanded outwards, selling whatever valuables our organizations had in exchange for any information that may help us with the predicament we had..

But we grossly underestimated how terrifying the venom of a tricolored tortoise that had used its blood essence, truly is.

All the information and help we collected failed. None of it worked, and we were only left with one option, which was to hire a blue-grade alchemist, but we didn't have the connections or the resources that would enable us to hire one.

It was when we were at the end of our ropes, that Long Zemin appeared.."

Hua Ying paused as she took a deep breath to try and calm her emotions.

"By the time he arrived, my body and mind were in a mess. I felt like my whole body was submerged in never-ending darkness. However, this darkness wasn't like normal darkness that had silence and an abyssal chill to it.

This one made me feel like I was at the center of the earth's core, where all the heat was gathered. That heat burned every part of my body and I even felt my soul was slowly being melted away in the process. Most of my limbs had already started melting away leaving only bone, and even that was slowly disintegrating.

Thanks to Long Zemin, I got my body back.." Hua Ying said, her bitterness not hidden, despite the thanks.

"But in exchange for gaining my body back, I am unable to use my clan's bloodline abilities. I am thankful he restored my body, but I can't forgive him for stripping me of my abilities. It is no different from tearing me away from my entire lineage.

I feel a hollowness within me, that is even worse than the boiling pain I was subjected to. I don't care if Long Zemin gets punished or not, I just want him to give me back what he stole.." Hua Ying said with a weak, distraught and desperate tone.