Daily life of a cultivation judge-Chapter 949: The old man and the child (1)

"It seems I came at just the right time."

A soul-soothing voice sounded as the figure went around the corner. Yang Qing had already poured a cup of the heart-cleansing jasmine into another cup by the time the figure completed the turn.

"It seems like you did, Jinjing," Yang Qing lightly said as he smiled at the short-haired, a bit plain-faced lady with one of the deepest mesmerizing eyes.

Su Jinjing responded to the greeting with a smile of her own, only hers seemed louder, excitable even. Yang Qing could understand why as his gaze fell on the spear she was holding lovingly in her hands. It still had the same unassuming appearance as ever which was an overstatement of the fact. It looked like the work of an amateur blacksmith who just banged on iron trying to create the general shape and size of a spear. It was uneven all around with lumps all over.

But Yang Qing could tell that beneath that appearance there was something else, something that most weapons and artifacts never get the chance to have, despite the quality of craftmanship or material used. That something was a spirit.

Yang Qing could feel a gentle wisp lurking within the spear that was breaking with vitality with an ethereal force incubating it. That ethereal force was the power of Dao.

"Congratulations Jinjing, it seems grey has finally fully formed his spirit," Yang Qing said with a heartfelt sigh as he stood up to pat Su Jinjing’s head, who had in turn lowered her head, not because she was preparing herself for the pat, but instead it was because of the tears that had welled up in her eyes.

"Mmmh, it is all thanks to you and the others. If it wasn’t for you all supporting me, grey would probably have never awakened its spirit. Thank you truly, boss. I can never repay you for this, but I will work as hard as a donkey for you so you can take as much break as you want," Su Jinjing staunchly said, with her voice breaking from being chalked up in emotion.

"No wonder you are my favorite inquisitor," Yang Qing said with a soft smile drawing a chuckle from Su Jinjing who was now looking up, her eyes red, but face lit with joy.

"You say that to everyone, even to Ellie sometimes," she said cheekily before leaning forward and giving Yang Qing a hug.

"Thank you, Qing," she said softly with her head against his chest.

"You’re welcome," Yang Qing said as he gently placed his hands on her back.

They stayed like that for a few minutes before finally separating as Yang Qing helped Su Jinjing to her chair, who despite trying to hold back, her tears kept dropping.

"When are you leaving?"

"After I leave here,"

"That fast? But then again I get it. Grey doesn’t seem like he can restrain himself for much longer, " said Yang Qing.

"And you either," Yang Qing added as his gaze fell on Su Jinjing. From the fluctuations she released, she was already firmly at the peak of the core formation realm, but her aura had already surpassed that of a typical core formation expert. Yang Qing could already feel the presence of the dao sublimating within her, especially when it came to her soul which was her most powerful attribute.

Through his palace sense and the special affinity his physique gave him, he could see the quality of her soul had already doubled to what it was, suffused with a transcendent power within it. That power seemed to resonate with the spear next to her.

Su Jinjing’s body was like a jar that had been filled to the brim with water to the point that the water was bearing undue pressure on the jar. Her body felt like that. Her soul had grown so absurdly powerful that her body was straining itself to contain it, and the only way to rectify it, was either through the use of artifacts that would restrain the burden her soul was putting on her body, or the simpler method it was for her to breakthrough to the palace realm and have her body strengthened and realigned to comfortably house her soul.

"I wish you a smooth breakthrough, Jinjing, both you and grey," Yang Qing said with a heartfelt smile.

"Mmh," Su Jinjing mummed, as she lowered her head again, using one of her hands to wipe the tears in her eyes.

Yang Qing couldn’t help but sigh when he saw this. To an outsider, they would find it confusing why Su Jinjing seemed so emotional. It was just breaking through to the palace realm and while it was a significant milestone to most, she was part of one of the most powerful organizations in the continent.

With her talent and the resources at her disposal, breaking through to the palace realm was par for the course. The emotion she was showing right now was of someone who never expected to reach the palace realm, but by sheer luck they found themselves at its doors.

In truth, those who thought that way would be right. There was a slight chance Su Jinjing may have not reached the palace realm and it wasn’t because her talent was lacking.

With her soul already being as powerful as that of a regular early-stage palace realm expert, already gave her natural talent when it came to cultivation, especially when it came to comprehension of arts that was heavily reliant on the strength of one’s soul.

The reason it was unknown whether she would reach the palace realm wasn’t her talent but rather her spear, grey, as she so named it. Its appearance was its true reflection. It was not some prized weapon whose radiance was hidden beneath a mundane look as most stories surrounding prized treasures went where a treasure looked like a rock but was instead a heavenly treasure.

That narrative didn’t apply to Su Jinjing’s spear. Its ordinary lackluster appearance was a true reflection of the spear’s origin. The spear was something Su Jinjing had made herself before she joined the Order.

Before she joined the Order, in her earlier years she worked as an apprentice to an old blacksmith in her village. The blacksmith took her in when her parents died in a landslide that descended upon them when they harvested herbs from one of the precipitous cliffs that neighbored their village.

Su Jinjing had been about four years old at the time and with the village not being the most fertile, or the most developed, not many were willing to take on the burden of having another mouth to feed, except one person, the old blacksmith.

The old blacksmith didn’t have a family, and from the way Su Jinjing described him, he crossed off all the stereotypical checkboxes of what one would expect from a blacksmith, especially an old one at that. He was cranky, venomous with his words, especially when drunk, and had this vicious look that he wore all the time that would terrify even the Grim Reaper.

Everybody regardless of age was frightened of him and usually gave him a wide berth. If it were not for him being the only blacksmith in town and a skilled one at that, they would have been all too glad never interacting with him.

He frightened everyone in the village except Su Jinjing, who even before her parents died usually stuck to the old blacksmith like a tick to a cow. When Yang Qing asked her why that was, she said it was because he felt warm and also he was the only one in the village who didn’t look at her like she was a demon.

This content is taken from fгee𝑤ebɳoveɭ.cøm.

Because of her powerful soul, when Su Jinjing was born, she wasn’t like regular children. Her soul gave her a level of perception, understanding, and awareness that subverted the norm. At eight months she could already speak, and at one and a half years, she could already make sense of the world around her the same way the adults did.

One can only imagine how a primitive village that had never heard nor interacted with any form of cultivation and is exposed to its countless possibilities, would react to a one-and-a-half-year-old girl who could reason, and talk just like any other adult, and in some cases, her understanding even surpassing that of some.

Her oddity wasn’t well received by them. Everyone within the village treated her with wariness like she was not human but instead was possessed by some sort of ghost or evil spirit of some sort. Even her parents were not immune to the fears. They never treated her like their daughter which always drew certain questions in Yang Qing.

Su Jinjing never saw her parents’ bodies. They were never recovered from the landslide. Yang Qing always wondered why both of them had to go for the harvest. As was common practice, one would go and one would remain. It was a labor system the village often followed so there would be someone to care for the children in case something happened and when it came to landslides, while they did happen occasionally, the villagers knew well enough to predict and survive them, to the point that in close to 100 years they have only ever recorded two casualties of it, and ironically, those two were Su Jinjing’s parents.

Yang Qing didn’t need to share his thoughts with her, because for someone as perceptive as her, she would have likely noticed the oddity of it too.