Daily life of a cultivation judge-Chapter 985: Luxury and torment of two states
If the three members had not yet broken through, then that left two scenarios as to their likely fates;
One of the scenarios Yang Qing had in mind was that they were in deep seclusion looking to breakthrough, and have been in said seclusion for a long time hence their noted absence from the current known sect experts.
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And if their state was truly desperate, they might have even decided to enter a death seclusion where they wagered their lives. Such a state could not be interrupted neither could it be broken. There were only two ways to come out of it; one was to achieve the intended breakthrough or the other was as a corpse.
In death seclusion, one converted everything, their life essence, their souls, their cultivation realm, everything that comprised said cultivator both body and soul would be converted into a singular energy to aim for that one push.
It was an all-or-nothing gamble. Either the push would materialize into something, or it won’t be enough and in that case, there would be no turning back. That energy would dissipate after failing to achieve its purpose resulting in the death of the cultivator who had triggered it.
Only cultivators who were at the end of their ropes would trigger a death seclusion.
With how much time had passed, if the three cultivators had not seen any improvement, with the clock on their lives fast approaching, they may have decided to either enter a deep seclusion or death seclusion, depending on how desperate they were to improve their strength.
His last and final assumption as to the present fate of the trio was that they were dead and likely at natural means. If it was under unnatural causes let’s say they were killed then despite how bare bones the report he was given had been, that was information that would have likely been recorded, as was his experience with previous reports of a similar nature.
The fact that it wasn’t there, meant if the three signatories did die, then it was likely to have been of natural causes which were much easier to hide from unwanted ears.
The contract has been in effect for 23,000 years, and a typical early-stage palace realm expert had a life expectancy of 25,000 years. Meng Jiayi, Long Zhaozu, and Liu Jie were already well-established palace realm experts at the time as was indicated in the contract.
They had therefore already lived a part of that 25,000 years by the time they signed the contract as to how much they had used up exactly, Yang Qing’s guess was as good as anyone’s.
But the fact that Xie Yuan had been named as one of the signatories, to Yang Qing seemed to suggest that she may have been a safety measure put in place by the sect master.
She was the only one who didn’t seem to have a legitimate reason to be named as a signatory of the contract. Meng Jiayi and Long Zhaozu being in there made sense as the two were the leading figures of the sect with one being the sect master and the other, the vice sect master.
As for Liu Jie, if Fan Cai’s guess was correct and he did indeed have a deep connection with Fan Ha, then above all the rest had to be in the contract. He was as much as principal in the matter as Fan Ha was.
By all accounts, Xie Yuan was the only one who seemed like she didn’t need to be there, and if she was not the current sect master, that would have indeed been a correct assumption. But the fact that she was the sect master, and had featured in the contract, seemed to suggest that the previous sect master, Meng Jiayi, may have had doubts about whether he would get to live out the duration of the contract and he may have assumed the same of Long Zhaozu and Liu Jie.
Thus it was likely that those three members were likely already dead, and with Xie Yuan and Fan Ha being alive, kept the contract active.
...
Yang Qing after he finished reading through the slip, put it away as he turned to face Fan Cai, whose nervousness seemed to have abated slightly but he still looked fraught with worry nonetheless.
"Has your mother ever brought up her life with Starlight Lake Sect, specifically how they treated her over the years, especially her final ones?" asked Yang Qing.
"That is the one thing she never touched on," Fan Cai said with a sigh.
"I only came to know about the Starlight Lake Sect the day she handed me the contract," he added as he used the cup in his hand to point toward it.
"And even then it wasn’t much. She only said that was where she had been all this time and left it at that. The rest I only figured through the contract,"
"Mmh, and what was her cultivation realm when you last saw her?"
"She is my mother, but I know so little about her. She is as much a stranger to me as anybody else. She never told me and every time I did ask, she would tell me if I stopped being lazy and worked hard to improve my cultivation base, then I wouldn’t need to ask, I could just sense it myself," Fan Cai said with a bitter shake of his head.
"She may have acted that way with your best interest in mind," Yang Qing softly said trying to comfort the teen.
"After some time passed by and I had time to think on it, I did come to see the reasoning behind some of her actions, but even if I understood it... it didn’t make it any easier to accept," Fan Cai said with a heavy smile.
Yang Qing could only nod sympathetically at Fan Cai’s plight. After a few seconds had passed, and judged Fan Cai to be slightly less melancholic, Yang Qing broke the silence.
"There are two colleagues of mine, one has headed to the Starlight Lake Sect, with the other headed for Silver Vermilion Rose Pavilion. They should be arriving shortly with the parties involved, but before they do, there are a few things I need to do myself. If you’ll excuse me for a bit."
"No, No, it is okay," Fan Cai said, his voice and hands trembling slightly as he did.
Hearing that the parties involved were being brought over made him slightly hopeful but also apprehensious and very anxious.
At this moment, in his mind, his mother was both alive and dead, with those states constantly alternating depending on where his mind was at, but if the parties were brought over, then he wouldn’t have the luxury or torment of alternating choices. That state would be fixed, and some part of him was terrified of facing that reality.
