Daily life of a cultivation judge-Chapter 956: Going all the way
"The mountain?" he asked, somehow aware of what Chief Song was alluding to.
"Mmh," Song Chuanli said with a slight nod.
"I have already handed over all my duties at the division, and all other pending matters have been resolved except here and I was hoping you’d take over for me here in the meantime until Boqin comes out from his seclusion which should be in a month or so.
What do you think? Care to look after this place for me in the meantime?" asked Song Chuanli.
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"It goes without saying," Yang Qing lightly said. If it was his usual self, he would have added some flair to it and even tried to score some sort of advantage but this wasn’t the place for it, not with the stakes involved.
"Are you confident in surviving it?" Yang Qing hesitantly asked, trying to hide the worry he had.
Song Chuanli despite his tough appearance was one of the most friendliest and generous people Yang Qing ever had the pleasure of knowing. He knew the elderly craftsman before him back in his institute days when he was just starting.
His path and Song Chuanli’s crossed during his first year when they were introduced to merit points and how it was one of the most powerful tools within the Order. As students, it went without saying they had few avenues in which to acquire said powerful tool and the means available to them were grueling, and what they gained for said grueling tasks was pitifully low but despite all that, it was undeniable that merit points, be it five or fifty, they were precious all the same.
Song Chuanli became one of those avenues. Working in his abode, specifically the care of the spiritual plants in said abode was one of the missions that the students at the Institute could get access to for merit points.
Working on his farm for a month netted one a whooping five merit points. The merit points were peanuts, but working on his farm was one of the less dangerous missions that the students could do and earn merit points without the risk of death, dismemberment, or a realization of new fears.
To a greedy coward like Yang Qing, there was no place better than the farm. His physique already gave him an advantage when it came to all manner of lifeforms, especially plants, he would get to earn merit points in a safe environment, and if he was really lucky maybe said farm would have plenty to eat.
He had all to gain and nothing to lose and that was how he became acquainted with Song Chuanli, and even became close friends with Xia Boqin who applied for the same mission he did and even happened to strike a deep bond with the elderly craftsman.
After he graduated, Yang Qing still kept the visits even though he wasn’t earning any merit points for it, but he paid himself in other ways, but even then, he reduced his visits to once a month, while Xia Boqin maintained the same number from the Institute days which meant he came almost every other day when he wasn’t busy.
The duo learned a lot from being around the elderly craftsman who went even beyond the scope of nurturing plants. Yang Qing breaking through to the palace realm as early as he did and as smoothly as he did was in part to do with interacting with Chief Song and helping him in his duties. He got better in his interaction with his dao thanks to Chief Song’s influence.
The craftsman may have the cultivation base of tenth stage core formation expert, but neither Yang Qing, Xia Boqin, Yi Jie, nor any other person who had interacted with him would dare treat him as one. In fact, even those who didn’t know him, as long as they had any perceptive sense to them would immediately recognize that Song Chuanli wasn’t your typical core formation expert.
If it wasn’t for the craftsman’s obsession with crafting to the point that he felt breaking through would steal precious time that he could spend crafting, he would not be a core formation expert, but from his statement, it seemed things had changed, hence Yang Qing’s worry.
Yang Qing had no doubt in his mind that Song Chuanli’s sentiment about breakthroughs had not changed. To him, it was likely a time waster, and if he was forced to do it, he would make a singular large go at it so he wouldn’t be back there again any time soon.
If he was breaking through now, then he wasn’t just breaking through to the palace realm, but would instead open the entire floodgates that he had been suppressing all this time and go the entire way. That meant he would be making that one swift movement from the tenth stage of the core formation realm to the domain realm, and if his intuition served him right, at the very least Song Chuanli would stop at the middle stage or quite possibly even the late stage itself.
But all this was predicated on one thing, Song Chuanli had to survive the deadliest tribulation among all realms, the tribulation of the domain realm, hence Yang Qing’s worry. No matter how deep his foundations were, surviving it wasn’t a guarantee. The Order had lost a few of its cultivators to that tribulation over the years since its inception which only served to highlight how terrifying it was.
All who faced it had to be prepared for the possibility that they may die to it, and Yang Qing couldn’t help but feel fearful that this might be the last time he saw Song Chuanli and his mentioning the abode was him announcing his will just incase anything happened to him.
Just as worry was bubbling up in him, Song Chuanli’s response came.
"Will I survive it? Who knows with these things, but I am eager to find out if I can use the tribulation to craft something. I am actually quite eager about it if I’m being perfectly honest," Song Chuanli said as his eyes shined with maddened interest.
It was now Yang Qing’s turn to wear a dumbfounded expression before it quickly turned into a light smile.
"As expected of the Chief Craftsman of the Order," Yang Qing said with a light laugh.
"How long do you expect to take?"
"Between six or eight months at the most,"
"That fast?" Yang Qing asked in surprise. The time Song Chuanli quoted was roughly close to the amount of time someone breaking to the palace realm would take whereas he was breaking through two major realms. No matter how deep his foundations were, Yang Qing had expected him to take a year at the very least.
"I have no intention of dragging things out than I have to like a certain someone once did," Song Chuanli said as he cast a meaningful look toward Yang Qing, who decided to pull the only move he could, and that was play dumb.
"I understand my situation well, six months is more than enough. It is actually because of my situation that I can no longer postpone it," Song Chuanli said with a sigh which resulted in a slight twitch of disbelief from Yang Qing.
"Some cultivators would trade their entire lineage and everything else of worth just for a chance to reach the palace realm yet there is someone here sighing in agony because he can no longer restrain his cultivation base?" thought Yang Qing.
"You can entrust everything to me," Yang Qing said with an air of seriousness.
"Thanks. Once I come out, we can see about making improvements to that abode of yours," Song Chuanli said, his response feeling Yang Qing with extreme joy that he almost started tearing up.
"Really?"
