Daily life of a cultivation judge-Chapter 968: The one with the highest talent

With the atmosphere eased, Yang Qing took out a jade slip drawing curious glances all around, especially Luo Suyun who had never interacted with all manner of items that cultivators used on their day-to-day.

"Zhu Qing, your task for the next four months is inscribed within that jade slip," Yang Qing said as he handed over the slip to him.

Zhu Qing picked it up, doubt and hesitation showing on his face.

Yang Qing couldn’t help but sigh when he saw what had become of the once-prodigy of the Blue River Star Pavilion. The young man before him was a blue grade formation master who had designed a blueprint capable of creating a gold grade formation array and from the information he had collected, part of the reason his master managed to step onto the gold grade tier in his mastery of formations, other than his accumulations, the other reason was studying Zhu Qing’s blueprint and completing it.

After Zhu Qing was imprisoned, his master was the one who bore the brunt of his actions, but since he was one of the pillars of the Blue River Star Pavilion, despite the backlash he got, the pavilion didn’t kick him out. His master studied that blueprint over and over in the hopes he would rectify his disciple’s mistake and finally, when he felt he had combed through it enough to extrapolate its weaknesses, he made improvements on it, and then he visited that rank three kingdom whose capital had been destroyed by Zhu Qing.

He made them an almost similar offer to the one Zhu Qing had made but with a few key differences here and there. One was his services would be free, which went without saying, secondly, the materials used would come from him, and three he was upfront about what grade of array he was about to put up and the risks involved.

If the kingdom showed to be uncomfortable with it, he had promised to downgrade from the gold-grade blueprint to a top-tier blue-grade one with the first two promises still being kept even for the blue-grade blueprint.

After the experience they had, one would have expected the kingdom to not take any risks and choose the safer option, or outright refuse any involvement with Zhu Qing’s master because of the destruction his disciple had caused.

But a gold grade formation was too tempting of an offer to decline, especially when it was being done for free. Thus Zhu Qing’s master got to work putting down the formation despite facing heavy criticism from his organization and their competitors who took advantage of the situation to besmirch the reputation of the Blue River Star Pavilion and that of Zhu Qing’s master.

From what Yang Qing had read the matter got so tense that the Blue River Star Pavilion almost split into three. One faction wanted Zhu Qing’s master expelled from the organization for what he was doing, which to them was no different than her putting the entire organization beneath the guillotine in case things went wrong. Which they strongly believed would happen since at the time Zhu Qing’s master wasn’t yet a domain expert and as established formation experts themselves, they knew how difficult laying a gold grade array successfully as a palace realm expert would be.

To them, what Zhu Qing’s master was doing was no different than Zhu Qing’s foolhardiness. It was another failure and catastrophe waiting to happen. The pavilion’s reputation fell to the pits after what Zhu Qing had done, and they still had not recovered from it and were doing damage control, and the failed attempt of Zhu Qing’s master would push them further into the abyss.

Thus a large group believed it prudent to cut ties with Zhu Qing’s master so whatever fallout came out of her reckless endeavor, it would all fall on her.

The second faction meanwhile wanted Zhu Qing’s master to remain in the organization because of her talent as a top-tier blue-grade formation master and peak stage palace realm expert. Just like the first faction, they may have not had much faith in her success, but they felt the fallout of losing top tier blue grade formation master was a much greater loss compared to the fallout that came from her failure.

As for the last group, it went without saying were the fence sitters who adopted a wait-and-see approach.

Zhu Qing’s master succeeded and with it, she became the first-ever gold-grade formation master of the pavilion and first-ever domain expert, and behind her success other than her sheer guts and experience, was Zhu Qing’s formation blueprint.

But looking at the shell of a man before him who was full of doubt and fear, one would not believe he was the creator of a blueprint that gave rise to a domain expert and a gold-grade formation master. His confidence was almost non-existent, he looked like someone hoping to die, only he was too afraid to go through with it.

In all accounts, he was someone who had lost the will to live despite being a gifted formation master and when it came to cultivation, while he might not compare to Yang Qing, of those present, he could be considered to be the most talented of the bunch.

He was just 203 years old, and he was already a second-stage palace realm expert which excluding Yang Qing, made him the youngest palace realm expert present, followed by Gao Wei and Luo Suyun who had already hit that 400-year mark before it finished off with Han Lei who was in his 800th year quickly creeping up on that 900 year mark.

When it came to cultivation base, Han Lei had the highest at the third stage, then Gao Wei and Zhu Qing were similar, and when it came to Luo Suyun since she was a weapon spirit, her realm was slightly different. When it came to weapons and treasures, they were usually differentiated into three minor realms i.e. low, middle, and high, and Luo Suyun was at the low tier of the monarch grade which essentially meant she had the abilities of an early stage palace realm expert.

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In all accounts, Zhu Qing’s talents were the highest of the group, but one look at him and one wouldn’t believe it. This was what made heart and mental demons so scary. They were a constant reminder that just like how mortals fell to a fever when they were sick, the same could happen to a cultivator when plagued by mental and heart demons.

Yang Qing could only hope with time as Zhu Qing handled the tasks assigned to him, maybe his love for formations may be ignited and in the process, he might find the courage to confront his demons and free himself from them.

Yang Qing couldn’t help but wonder if his master had been so insistent back then because she had predicted Zhu Qing’s current state, and completing his project, in the same place that he experienced his greatest setback, maybe was her way of reminding him what he is capable of.