Daily life of a cultivation judge

"Thank you, Judge Yang Qing, for saving my mother," Fan Cai instantly said, once it was just the three of them, grinning ear to ear.

His mother threw a look at him that one would see in mothers who were about to discipline their children for misbehaving in public.

Fan Cai instantly flinched like prey sensing the presence of a predator. Luckily whatever fears he had from that look remained unrealized as he saw his mother's gaze soften which only emboldened him to slather Yang Qing with more praise, who humbly refused the thanks as he lowered his station as but a humble practitioner of fairness.

Yang Qing didn't delay much as he revealed his reason for having Fan Ha to remain behind.

"During your time at the Deer Mountain Range did you know an eclipse spiritweave fox?" asked Yang Qing.

Fan Ha looked slightly surprised by the question as she paused briefly looking baffled. Well as much as she could with her favored taciturn expression.

When Yang Qing asked her to remain behind, she went through a few ideas on the reasons why, and in the end, it all went down potentially to something involving her sister. An eclipse spiritweave fox was nowhere in her thoughts, but nonetheless, she smoothly composed herself as she answered the question.

"They're not that many eclipse spiritweave foxes, but we did have one at the Deer Mountain Range," she said her mind flashing with the image of that particular eclipse spiritweave fox.

"Human mink, that was what some called him because he was fascinated with their kind," she added, chuckling in the process, putting Fan Cai into a stupor because of it.

Even though he had already seen her put on a genuine smile during the case, Fan Cai still felt unnerved by it.

"Fascination with their kind?" asked Yang Qing, his curiosity showing.

"Yes... Eclipse spiritweave foxes are a peculiar bunch. Maybe it has something to do with their innate attributes, they have an eclectic nature to them that always leads them down strange paths."

Fan Ha couldn't help but shake her head as she said that part, recalling the actions she had seen from that particular eclipse spiritweave fox and other tales she had heard of other foxes.

Eclipse Spiritweave Fox had notoriously fragile bodies not only by spirit beast standards but even by human standards the raw strength of their bodies was severely lacking.

If it was solely a competition of physical strength, a core formation eclipse spiritweave fox would lose to a peak stage qi refinement cultivator who had attained a gold body in the body refinement stage.

Just like their name, they were born during an eclipse where both the yang and yin qi were at their lowest but also at an equilibrium. It was a creature of yin and yang, but unlike its counterparts who were notoriously powerful or precious, the eclipse spiritweave fox was rather lackluster with its strength only coming from its ability to create illusions.

Maybe that was the reason they were eclectic, always doing something unpredictable like trying to mimic the abilities of other spirit beasts, or spiritual plants despite lacking the parts and the innate attributes to do so.

However strange eclipse spiritweave foxes were, despite having only really interacted with one of them, with the rest coming from tales, Fan Ha still strongly believed the one from the Deer Mountain Range was definitely strange even when compared amongst its kind.

From a young cub, it already showed its peculiar habits as it tried to walk on its hind legs, mimicking the walking posture of humans, down to even some of their mannerisms, such as nodding or cupping their fists in gratitude, or nodding sagely once in a while even though it was not doing anything sage-like.

That fox would have died had it not been for her elder sister intervening whose penchant for the bizarre prompted her to place the fox under her protection unbeknownst to the fox. This protective halo gave the fox a wide berth to continue with its experiments and eccentric behavior as it continuously and diligently tried to mimic the habits and mannerisms of humans.

Because of its persistent efforts, eventually, it was able to act, breathe, and conduct itself in the mannerisms of a human. One would have easily mistaken it for one if it wasn't for its long snout, tiny paws, and orange dusk tail, but even that was quickly remedied as it continuously improved its illusory abilities to create the illusion of a human cultivator to mask its true body.

This was during its formative years when it was between the qi refinement realm and the core formation realm and had not yet gained the transformative ability that all spirit beasts gain when they reach the palace realm, where they could transmorph their bodies into a human form.

Its obsession eventually turned out to be a boon for the fox as it rapidly improved its illusory abilities in a bid to create the perfect replica of a human that would fool countless eyes and even their spiritual senses which were the true eyes of a cultivator.

It ended up succeeding as it fooled the eyes of countless spirit beasts who were at the same realm it. Of course, its success ended up being a detriment to its life. Because of how good its illusions were, there was no shortage of spirit beasts attacking said fox because of mistaking it for a human.

Fan Ha out of curiosity had once asked it why it diligently tried to mimic humans despite the history between the two sides. Its response was simple, it was because it thought human cultivators looked cool.

As for why it thought that way, from the fox's own admission, when it was just a few months old, it swore it saw an immortal tear apart space and descend on the deer mountain range, and with a wave of the immortal's hand heavenly fire descended from the skies into the man's palm and coalesced into an egg brimming with life and the most potent fire energy the fox had ever sensed.

It went without saying that the fox got noticed by said immortal who smiled at him as he put his index fingers on his lips, urging the fox to remain silent about what he saw. The fox blacked out immediately after, either out of fear or the influence of said immortal.

Fan Ha believed none of it. Immortals? Heavenly fire transforming into eggs?

The cultivation world was filled with wonderous things that subverted the mind, but what were the odds that a month-old eclipse spiritweave fox really saw what it said it saw?

Fan Ha was more inclined to believe that it had fallen victim to its illusory arts or it had eaten a herb or an insect with phantasm effects that induced visions of immortals and heavenly fires.

Whatever the case, whether what it saw had been true or not, which Fan Ha strongly believed it wasn't, what it saw had greatly impacted that eclipse spiritweave fox's life from that moment forth transforming it into a spirit beast that liked to pose as a human any chance it got.

"With how it was enamored by humans, did it have a human name?"

"Yes, it did," Fan Ha immediately answered.

"Was it by chance Jiang Xiang?"

"You've met him?!" Fan Ha asked, surprised at Yang Qing's mention of the name as the fox he was acquainted with had indeed gone by that name.

"Not really," said Yang Qing as he went on to explain the story of the obsidian serpent couple and their altercation with the people of the Order, and the circumstances that instigated it which was the death of their daughter who had been given a leftover piece of the treasure bone of the flood dragon Fan Ha's elder sister had used in her evolution, that she then handed it to the fire adler bear who then handed it to the obsidian serpent couple's daughter.

Jiang Xiang, the eclipse spiritweaver fox that he was asking about had been involved in the evolution of the couple's daughter as he was the one who designed the foundation circle that they used to help in the process.

Yang Qing found said circle amid his investigation as he followed the aura of the obsidian serpent's daughter.

He found the circle's presence peculiar since it was something used by human cultivators to improve the strengths of their bodies in the body refinement realm and not spirit beasts. Knowledge of the foundation circle was restricted to powerful organizations because of its potency. If used well, at the bare minimum it almost always guaranteed that one would achieve the gold body in the body refinement stage, highlighting its value.

But for all its potency in giving results, it also demanded a lot when it came to the resources it needed. Putting aside the copious amounts of ingredients precious and common that it needed, it also put a lot of demands on skills that touched on three schools of cultivation namely; alchemy, formations, and anatomy. It needed those whose skills were at the blue grade level.

These factors were what made it an obscured knowledge amongst the masses. Yang Qing only learned of it after he joined the Order, and in all that time reading about it not once had he ever heard of it being used by spirit beasts which was understandable for various reasons. For one, spirit beasts were gifted powerful bodies at birth, negating the need for the circle, and secondly, the demands in the proficiency of skill in schools of cultivation designed with the human cultivator in mind made it so that it would be hard for spirit beasts to adopt it.

Yang Qing was curious as to how Jiang Xiang was able to engineer the circle and convert its purpose to be used by a spirit beast, which was already hard enough before you tack on the difficulty of using it to support a difficult evolution. His achievements were monumental, to say the least.

But what drove Yang Qing's curiosity, was a suspect-led curiosity. The obsidian serpent's couple's daughter was targetted because of her evolved bloodline that had become that of a flood dragon.

From the statement given by the couple, their daughter immediately went into seclusion to digest the resources within her new bloodline after the evolution was deemed successful. From that moment forth she never stepped a foot from her lair up until the day of she was attacked by members of the Blue Soul Flame Crow Syndicate.

From how quickly they dispatched her, it showed they already knew about her and if they did, how did they know?

The obvious suspect to that question would be those who were there during the process and that was the obsidian serpent couple, the fire adler bear, and Jiang Xiang.

Maybe the suspect wasn't amongst them, but Yang Qing had to confirm nonetheless, after all, two members of the Order did end up dying in relation to it, with one of his closest friends almost falling victim. He had to turn every stone no matter how small.