Daily life of a cultivation judge-Chapter 1000: Striking an agreement (3)

Xie Yuan couldn’t help but sigh slightly when she saw Fan Ha’s reaction. Clearly, despite her words, Xie Yuan could tell she still held the matter about Liu Jie’s death with blame and heaviness in her heart. If she didn’t, then the matter would not have devolved into today’s matter.

20,000 years ago before Fan Ha joined them, while they had a monstrous figure like Liu Jie within their ranks, they were still heavily bullied by the Yu family. Liu Jie, despite his talent, was still just a first-stage palace realm expert at the time, while the Yu family already had four, late-stage palace realm experts and over a dozen middle to early-stage palace realm experts, which was much more than what the Starlight Lake had.

The only thing keeping them at bay at the time was the fact that they didn’t have a domain expert at the time which kept them restrained in their actions, but even then those in the sect still felt the pressure, Liu Jie likely bore the brunt of it, though he never showed it.

Almost everyone in the sect had thrown the weight of the sect’s survival on his shoulders. Only by him reaching the domain realm could they truly be safe, but no matter how much talent he showed, reaching the domain realm was still a tall order and it would take time and resources, both of which the sect had a dwindling supply of.

As such Liu Jie decided to use one of the teleportation talismans their domain leader had created whose coordinates led someone to one of the platforms he had secretly set up in the Millionsfold Treasure Ocean.

If Liu Jie wanted to reach the domain realm, that was one of the few places that could help him do that in the shortest amount of time possible. There was some risk to it, but with the dangers the sect was facing, or how perilous the tribulation of the domain realm was, venturing to the Millionsfold Treasure Ocean didn’t seem as terrifying when compared to the alternative.

The sect was desperate, and it proved to be their undoing because Liu Jie ended up injuring his origin during that trip. It is unknown how he ended up meeting Fan Ha, only that they met at the Millionsfold Treasure Ocean and ended up collaborating a few times over the time they were there and it was during one of their explorations that Liu Jie got injured.

From what Xie Yuan had learned, an embryo of an ascendant-grade treasure had taken a liking to Fan Ha and accepted her. However, because it was an embryo, this meant it could not afford her any protection due to its state.

A treasure being in its embryonic form was similar to a butterfly wrapped in a cocoon in its pupa form, or a cultivator wrapped up in the most crucial stage of its cultivation, or a spirit beast or spiritual plant that was at the cusp of an evolution.

During such a stage, all parties are at their most vulnerable as all the energy and focus they have is spent on achieving the next stage. That was the same for treasures in their embryonic form. In that state, whatever energy and strength they had, it was all gathered for completing their form and breaking free of their embryonic form.

So when it came to Fan Ha, while an embryonic ascendant grade treasure may have taken a liking to her and accepted her, when it came to ability, it was no different than a rock by the roadside when it came to ability from its current state, only unlike that rock, that treasure was liable to get you killed if you had it on you and lacked the strength to protect it.

There was no better time to steal a precious treasure from someone than when it was in its embryonic form and that was what exactly happened to Fan Ha.

Despite trying to hide it, a few late-stage palace realm experts from different backgrounds caught on and attacked her as she and Liu Jie tried to make their getaway.

Liu Jie could have left her but he stuck by her and eventually, he paid the price for it as his origin got injured in the process which resulted in his cultivation realm plummeting.

Before he left the Starlight Lake Sect for the Millionsfold Treasure Ocean he had been at the first stage of the palace realm, and in the three years that he had spent venturing out there, his cultivation had skyrocketed to the fifth stage of the palace realm.

However the injury to his origin was so severe, though it didn’t take his life, it caused his cultivation base to regress to the second stage of the palace realm.

The result would have been worse had Fan Ha not decisively chosen to throw the embryonic ascendant grade treasure towards the mob of palace realm looters besieging them, thus creating an opening for their escape.

With the injuries Liu Jie got, he had to be carried back to the sect and that was when Xie Yuan and the rest suffered a devastating blow to their morale when they saw his injury.

An injury to someone’s origin, though not incurable, might as well have been, to the Starlight Lake Sect. It could only be healed with at least a top-tier ascendant-grade treasure that had the essence of heaven and the earth.

Finding such a treasure was no different than trying to scour the continent for a top-tier saint-grade treasure. The difficulty was just the same.

A treasure that had soaked the essence of heaven and the earth, putting its origin restorative properties to the side, was a treasure that soul formation experts would fight to the death over because of the profound mysterious truths of the grand dao it contained.

A treasure born of the essence of the heaven and the earth was one of the few known treasures capable of transforming rotten wood into precious metal. Such a treasure could remold the body, soul, mind, and spirit.

When it came to such a treasure, it didn’t matter whether you had a strong backing, whether you had resources, whether you had a master, or monstrous talent, as long as you had such a treasure on you, using said treasure, provided you could survive its tribulation, you were almost guaranteed to reach the domain realm and its transformative abilities followed one well into the soul formation realm.

With such terrifying abilities, one could imagine what kind of storm it would create upon any sighting of it, especially given how rare they were.

It went without saying that the Starlight Lake Sect despite having produced a domain expert in their lifetime and accumulated a tremendous amount of resources and treasures as a result of it, did not have a treasure of such caliber in their stores, and neither could they afford it even if they sold the entire sect including the trump cards their domain sect leader had left them. It still wouldn’t be enough.

With how down on their luck they were at the time, Liu Jie’s injury was the final blow. Their hopes of producing a domain expert or even just a peak stage palace realm expert were completely shattered. That sense of helplessness infected the whole sect.

They couldn’t do anything about the Yu clan that was viciously knocking on their doors with malice and avarice in their hearts, and neither could they do anything to help Liu Jie, their one hope, and the person who had thrown himself into danger for the sake of the sect.

Before he left, save for a few of the higher-ups, not many within the sect knew he had left. This was done on purpose. In part was for Liu Jie’s protection in case there were spies from the Yu family planted within their midst. The fewer people who knew about his whereabouts the better, and the other reason was to avoid mass worry around the sect.

He had already grown into a symbol of hope for the sect, thus his absence would have likely created worry amongst many in its ranks. Thus the sect kept his departure a secret and only said he was in seclusion and when he came back injured, the veil of secrecy continued as they hid the fact that he was injured from the rest of the sect.

At the time, other than Fan Ha, only Xie Yuan, Meng Jiayi, the vice sect master at the time and the grand elders knew of his condition. Everyone else was kept in the dark.

Xie Yuan couldn’t help but exhale slightly as she recalled her feelings during those early days, to early weeks, to early months and years.

She loved Liu Jie, a fact that she kept secretly guarded in her heart even to his death. So when he came back injured, and gravely at that, and the news that they could do nothing about it, all those pent-up emotions boiled over into hate.

She hated herself for not being strong enough to share Liu Jie’s burden, she hated Meng Jiayi for not talking Liu Jie out of going to the Milliosnfold Treasure Ocean, despite not knowing how dangerous it was, but her greatest hate was reserved for Fan Ha.

Fan Ha was who she blamed for everything, even problems the sect was suffering from that she had nothing to do with. It didn’t help that she was a woman and that the man Xie Yuan loved had injured himself to protect her.

She knew she was being petty and unreasonable, but she couldn’t help it. With the shock of it all, hatred was ironically the only thing that kept her functioning and lucid and also fuelled her desire to improve herself even more. She couldn’t be looking in any way lacking to the woman Liu Jie got himself injured for.

Because of that hate, for the better part of the first 50 years, she couldn’t bring herself to appreciate what Fan Ha had done by committing herself to the sect for 20,000 years via the contract. To her, those 20,000 years were not worth the damage she had caused. She could tack on 100,000 more years and it still wouldn’t be enough.

It was only after some time had passed by, and the anger and frustration had left her slightly, and also the pleading look Liu Jie gave her, that she was able to think things through clearly and let go of the hate she had.

There were only a few ways a first-stage palace realm expert would be able to survive in a dangerous place like the Millionsfold Treasure Ocean and one of those ways, was help.

For Liu Jie to willingly risk his life to protect Fan Ha, despite knowing of the circumstances of his sect and the importance of his life to the sect, for him to willingly risk his life for Fan Ha, could only mean it was something they had done for each other several times over, after all, Fan Ha had even sacrificed an embryonic ascendant grade treasure to aid their escape.

They had likely saved each other’s life several times over, and it was only this time that luck had not been on their side.

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It was only after her eyes opened to that fact did she start appreciating what Fan Ha was doing for them and she also saw that just like her, and Meng Jiayi, she had the same guilt of responsibility in her heart where Liu Jie was concerned.

Just like that, with shared misery and guilt, a person she hated, turned into a person she admired, trusted, and considered a true friend and sister.