Daily life of a cultivation judge-Chapter 938 - 45,000 merit points

Yang Qing took his order of spring rolls, braised pork and ribs, moon cakes, and shredded beef and chili to go from the Thousand Flavors Restaurant before making a brief stop over at the Celestial Soup Herb Garden for brief stop over to buy their eight treasures porridge and snow plum wine.

He had been hesitant to go there on the off chance that Xia Ting was there, but his desire for the porridge and the wine won that fight, plus he was banking on Xia Ting being busy handling the aftermath of the case they had done.

His guess was right, but before he could celebrate to have escaped the clutches of that soup glutton, one of the staff members informed him that Xia Ting had picked a few soups and wines, and he was saddled with the debt. Xia Ting even had the audacity to reserve some in advance on Yang Qing’s tab.

Yang Qing could only helplessly sigh to himself as made the payment along with the bill for the eight treasures porridge and the snow plum blossom wine.

Luckily being a purple amethyst card holder came with a few privileges one of which was a discount on the soups and dishes sold by them. But even then, Yang Qing couldn’t help but worry if he would be able to sustain Xia Ting’s appetite.

Clearly, she had zero restraint and had no sense of shame. Yang Qing couldn’t judge her for it as he would have done the same thing in her shoes, in fact, he had done the same thing whenever someone offered to sponsor his meals.

Some part of him even respected her for it, the fellow glutton in him did, but the miser in him was grumbling about it.

"No I will have to seek senior Yu Gen’s help on the matter, and if worst comes to worst, maybe I could have them restrict what she can order with my card.." Yang Qing thought as his gaze fell on the staff from the Celestial Soup Herb Garden.

If he could help it he would rather avoid the second option at all cost. He would only fall on it when he had exhausted all options, or when Yi Jie and the others came out of seclusion.

When he thought about Yi Jie and the rest he couldn’t help but sigh about how lonely the next few months would be.

Yi Jie was already three months in at the tribulation mountain with Feng Xin joining him a month after he had left, Zheng Hu had gone into seclusion aiming to reach the peak stage of the core formation realm, before he joined the rest on the mountain, while Luo Meili had already left for the mountain immediately after coming back from the Deer Mountain Range.

The only person left from his team was Su Jinjing but because she wasn’t yet a palace realm cultivator, her assignment to Yang Qing had been temporarily paused, and was instead helping Mao Yunru with her cases.

The new members of his team in Haishi and Bolin, both spirit beasts were still under intensive training and guidance by the beast tamer hall. There were a lot of gaps in knowledge and ability to fill before they could be considered ready to handle the affairs of the court and whatever else the Order might require them for.

It would be quite some time before Yang Qing interacted with the duo.

Then there were the likes of Kang Huilang, Xia Boqin, and Yu Huifeng who had also gone to the Tribulation Mountain for their breakthroughs to the palace realm, leaving only Dai Chen and Zhang Qingge from his circle, but earlier when he went to the Thousands Flavors Restaurant he did end up meeting with Dai Chen who was on his way out for a two week long ranking assessments.

It was also from him that he learned Zhang Qingge’s three-month leave had hit when he was deliberating the Golden Bamboo Pavilion case, and she would be in seclusion for the better part of those three months having used some of her merit points to access one of the special grade cultivation sites of the Order. From what Dai Chen had told him, Zhang Qingge went to the pocket realm the Order had built within the waters of the Millionsfold Treasure Ocean.

Because of how wonderous the ocean was, all the powerful organizations built mysterious realms in different areas hoping to tap into the otherworldly power of the Millionsfold Treasure Ocean.

Those realms also acted as stations or anchors through which those organizations used as they explored the ocean for treasures.

With how massive and wonderous the Millionsfold Treasure Ocean was, almost every top-tier organization had built a mysterious realm or a facility of some sort within the ocean. These were several peak rank two organizations to almost all rank one organizations, to even the Holy Lands and the Order itself.

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Those below said rank would only be spelling their doom if they tried to replicate the feat because of how dangerous the place was to even those who had established themselves there, especially when it came to the rank two organization that had bases there.

The Millionsfold Treasure Ocean was home to countless treasures, but it also had natural lifeforms too, that it had nurtured. Whether it was those natural treasures that had gained spirituality or those life forms, most didn’t take too kindly to intruders invading their territory, and as such they were retaliatory.

Among those treasures, there were some, their numbers not being few, were in the ascendant grade, with the lifeforms being their equivalent in the domain realm. Those who wanted to build a base there had to be able to contend with opponents like these and actually survive, especially when one considered these treasures and lifeforms on top of being at the ascendant grade and domain realm respectively, which made them tough customers to deal with on a normal day, they also had the added advantage whenever they fought within the environment of the Millionsfold Treasure Ocean.

Being nurtured by it, they had a natural advantage that came from their manipulation of the ethereal and transcendent power birthed within the Ocean, while also being empowered by the ocean in other areas that made them almost difficult to defeat let alone kill.

It was for this reason that there were not that many rank two organizations with their bases in the area, those that were there were those with deep foundations and long heritages with ties to ancient but powerful legacies.

But even with all that they had to operate under the notion that they could lose it all at any time, especially if their attackers shifted from the ascendant grade treasures, and domain-level lifeforms into those that had reached the saint grade and soul formation realm respectively.

The Millionsfold Treasure Ocean was already known to have them, with even one recording mentioning a celestial spring hibiscus that had awakened its spirit and whose nurturing by the ocean gave it the strength of a soul formation expert.

Two elders from a rank one family that specialized in alchemy tried to grab said hibiscus so it could be refined by one of their grand elders who was at a crucial stage in his cultivation base. He was looking to breakthrough from the soul adept realm to the soul master realm and was short of just that one final step that the celestial spring hibiscus could help fill.

The two elders were both early-stage soul formation experts, but with the advantage of terrain, even though the celestial spring hibiscus was at the early stage too, it managed to hold on against the two, long enough for another life form, its dao partner to appear, another awakened spiritual plant, a Silver Starfire lotus only this particular spiritual plant was at the soul adept realm.

One of the elders got grievously injured the instant it appeared forcing the remaining elder to use a heavy penalty art to force an escape with the injured elder in tow, or they both risked never leaving that place. Another cautionary tale told to warn others of the dangers of the Millionsfold Treasure.

The presence of the two soul-formation spiritual plants served to highlight how deep the waters of the ocean were to the point that it wasn’t even safe for soul-formation experts.

But with risks came rewards, which was why most powerful organizations endeavored to have a solid footing there, even with the inherent risks involved.

However, it took considerable resources to build and maintain it, which was why when it came to the mysterious realm owned by the Order, one had to fork out 45,000 merit points to gain access.

This was why Yang Qing never went there, despite his deep interest in the place. The miser in him just couldn’t do it. 45,000 merit points wasn’t some paltry sum that you could earn easily.

The three-day evaluation that he had done had earned him 50 merit points, and the case that just ended, considering its implications, would probably net him around 400 - 500 merit points if he was lucky.

He may have settled the case in a day and a half but the groundwork itself had taken months, and it even ended up involving a few domain experts from the Order for assistance.

How many cases like that one would he have in a year?

With how precious and difficult it was to earn merit points, Yang Qing would mourn and complain endlessly if he were to fork out 45,000 merit points for two months of seclusion at the Order’s base in the Millionsfold Treasure Ocean. That was even despite it being one of the best places to cultivate, especially for palace realm experts and domain experts because of how suffused the base was with countless traces of different Daos because of the special nature of the ocean.

Zhang Qingge could only afford that sum by not spending any of her merit points since she got promoted and that has been close to three years now.

To him, all he could think about was how he could use those 45,000 merit points on safer options. The base even if manned by the Order was still at risk, who knew what other scary entities the ocean hid?

If he was to take the risk, he would rather take the risk for free. Maybe go when he was at the domain realm, armed to the teeth with countless means of escape, rather than fork out that sum.

Though he hadn’t completely ruled out the option. Maybe when he was at the peak of the palace realm and he was flush with merit points or found a way to scum himself a free entry, he would go there for the experience, before he faced the deadly domain realm tribulation. After all, survival wasn’t guaranteed, even for the well-prepared.

"All the best Qingge," murmured Yang Qing as he made his way to his abode.