Daily life of a cultivation judge-Chapter 1438: Blossoming intent (2)

With everything about the item laid out, then came the request. Given the value of said item, it came as no surprise when some of the mentioned items needed for the trade were top-tier monarch-grade items and a top-tier blue-grade soul art.

The owner of said item even dared to ask for the blueprints for a low-tier gold-grade formation array.

The one who ended up winning the trade was a cultivator who offered an incomplete, low-tier gold-grade soul cultivation art, which the owner of the Calamity Avoiding Compass immediately agreed to, even before Li Gang asked for her opinion. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Given how eager she seemed, Yang Qing suspected she may have fallen victim to one of the cons of the Calamity Avoiding Compass, particularly the one about it possibly injuring the soul. Otherwise, why be eager for an incomplete soul art?

Appraiser Chen Yu of the Jade Leaf Academy handled the appraisal of the incomplete art, which Yang Qing felt was reasonable, given that he could tell Chen Yu had powerful soul fluctuations, and it did not seem to be purely from his cultivation base at all.

If Yang Qing had to guess, based on his experience, Appraiser Chen Yu likely had a physique that strengthened his soul, and it was probably a water-based one, because his fluctuations shared some similarity with Mao Yunru’s, who had the Purple Cloud Mystique Body, which was a water-based natural physique that greatly empowered her soul.

Appraiser Chen Yu seemed to be a similar case.

How fast he finished the appraisal seemed to give more credence to Yang Qing’s case, as only people with powerful souls—and more so those endowed with it through innate abilities—could see through a soul cultivation art that fast. It only took him not more than ten minutes to confirm it. Yang Qing suspected it would have even likely taken less than that. He saw that same glint in Chen Yu that he had whenever he encountered an intriguing cultivation art to decipher, where one wanted to analyze every single thing about the art, from its script down to even the medium it was inscribed on.

Chen Yu likely fell to that allure, though briefly, before he collected himself and realized the setting he was in.

With verification done and agreement reached on all sides, the items were swiftly given to their new owners before the next item was brought forward. It was a robe, which, just like the Calamity Avoiding Compass, looked like it had been dug up from some long-forgotten ruin, given its worn appearance.

And just like with the Calamity Avoiding Compass, even aged and worn, it still had the undeniable charm and aura to it that announced it was valuable to every gaze that fell on it, and the aged, weathered appearance only added to it. The robe was blue. It must have likely been deep aqua blue at some point, but it was now faded, adopting a light blue hue that was more light grey than blue. It also had smudges of different colors spread about and had thinned around the sleeves to the point that one could almost see through the fabric.

But even weathered in appearance, as soon as it was brought over, the entire auction house was instantly filled with the scent of greenery and flowers. It made everyone feel like they had been instantly transported to a spirit herb field.

This looked like a robe that had been worn by an alchemist, and it was not just the scent that suggested it but rather the "intent" left behind on the robe that more than confirmed it.

Every Palace Realm expert in the house could sense there was an intent blended deeply into every fiber of the robe. It would not be an exaggeration to say that ninety percent of that robe was intent, and it was likely that intent was responsible for keeping that robe intact as it was. Without it, who knows? Maybe that robe would not have endured until today and would have long since disintegrated into dust.

The materials that made up that robe were clearly valuable, just from whatever effects still managed to survive to date despite the passage of time, but that robe’s worth and whatever it would go for would all be because of that intent.

A sword user could develop sword intent; likewise, a saber user could develop saber intent, a spear user spear intent, a fist user fist intent, or a palm user palm intent.

Intent was not just restricted to combat and weapons. Intent, for all intents and purposes, if looked at in its bare bones, was the culmination of a cultivator’s understanding toward a particular area, to the point that they formed a tangible imprint of their understanding regarding that particular area. It was both their fingerprint and their footsteps.

As such, intent could be birthed from anything if your understanding and devotion about something was deep enough to imprint itself into the world and gain acknowledgment from the Dao.

Because of that, there were as many intents as there were Dao paths. An alchemist could develop their intent. So could a talisman worker, an artificer and craftsman, a formation master, a painter, a chef. And the list goes on.

Even Yang Qing had developed intent. The eerie liveliness of his spells was birthed from his intent, which had the ability to breathe life into his spells to the point that his spells had now started acting and behaving like living things.

Intent blooms where obsession meets understanding.

Intent offered a window into one’s insights and understanding.

Because intent was like a fingerprint or footprint, it could be imbued into anything, whether intentionally or naturally, with the latter happening on things the owner regularly interacted with. For a sword user, it would either be on their personal sword or the whetstone. For a palm user, it would be the surface they practiced their technique on. And for an alchemist, it would be everything from their cauldron to their ladle, their robes, and everything else they persistently and continuously used or had on them when they were brewing or thinking about brewing.

As such, that robe before them was not just a robe that had decent effects to it, like protection against contamination and miasma and soul fatigue; it also had the owner’s intent, which meant access to their insights. Of course, being able to access said insights was another matter. Without being an alchemist, said insights were about as useful as a signpost, which did nothing but let you know what was here.

It needed an alchemist’s mind to reveal what lay beyond the signpost, and even then, it was not straightforward, because those insights would need certain "triggers" to access them, like brewing a certain potion that resonated with the intent, opening the doors, and triggering an enlightenment through the insights that started pouring in from said action.

But even with the restrictions, that robe was still worth having, even more so than the Calamity Avoiding Compass or the Resting Root Spirit Oak tree, because the presence of that intent on that robe meant accessing the thoughts and insights of whoever wore it. And judging by how the intent still managed to hold on until today, that figure must have been a highly accomplished alchemist.

After all, it needed one to be at least at the blue grade to form intent, and given the density and quality of that intent, which even after the degradation of time was still very much holding on, there was a chance that the alchemist behind that intent might have been a top-tier blue-grade alchemist or even higher.

Given the case, how worthwhile was it to have access to the insights of potentially a top-tier blue-grade alchemist or higher? Having access to said insights was no different from having a discussion with said alchemist or having their wisdom poured gently into your mind.

Yang Qing sighed, knowing that this item was fated for one of the rich alchemists present. Elder Tianyun of the White Crane Marsh Sect was unlikely to be one of them, though. Being a few million high-grade stones in debt did not leave one with much bargaining weight, especially for an item like that robe.

Something like that would likely go to an affluent sect like the Falling Ember Grove Sect, which had the wealth of having produced two gold-grade alchemists to rely on.

And true to form, they won the bid for the robe.

The owner, maybe because they did not understand the full worth of that robe, or maybe because they were desperate for it, asked for a middle-tier monarch-grade robe in exchange for that alchemist’s robe. The robe’s specifications included robust defensive elements, especially against physical-based attacks like those from weapon strikes, with additional features like concealing the wearer’s presence from at least a fifth-stage Palace Realm expert and a few restorative features, such as the ability to hasten one’s absorption of spiritual qi, with a preference for it having an affinity to draw in spiritual qi dense in earth element.

The Falling Ember Grove not only met those specifications but even exceeded them, as they added a middle-tier blue-grade potion, which, though it did not have the Green Flame Tree’s sap potency in healing abilities, did a pretty good job of not only healing the body against various damages, such as even regrowing limbs, but also had the bonus advantage of forming a protective coating around the user’s body that served as an additional defense, which would allow the user to survive a single attack from a sixth-stage Palace Realm expert.

They seemed to have read the nature of the robe’s owner well (in being a turtle), because he practically jumped at the deal, going to the extent of even begging Li Gang not to ask for other bids.

Yang Qing found himself applauding Li Gang for agreeing to the request. For some reason, he felt some kinship with the owner of that alchemist’s robe.

His musings were quickly cut short as his eyes widened just like Wei Li’s when the next item was brought over. It was a cylindrical pearl the size of a bead, yet despite its diminutive size, the instant it appeared, the entire room went silent as a mirage-like prismatic light instantly filled the entire space, all flowing from that tiny pearl. And along with that light, there was a transcendent and ethereal aura radiating from that pearl.

Everything shown by that pearl mirrored what happened when a natural Dao treasure was born, and such a thing only happened with those at the Ascendant grade and above.

The light and the presence immediately faded away as the pearl’s radiance and look dimmed into a dark grey-looking pebble.

"Hidden Radiance Pearl," Yang Qing absentmindedly muttered in surprise.