Daily life of a cultivation judge

Chapter 561 Placing bets

"By the way senior Yen Xu, was the corpse of their daughter collected?" asked Yang Qing.

He made sure to use voiceless incantation as he posed the question. Regardless of how he felt about the two obsidian serpents, he had to at least pay some modicum of respect and care to their loss which was why he opted to ask the question covertly.

"We didn't. They most likely ate her as their way of honoring her last rites. Why?"

"It's what the male obsidian serpent said, the way he said it. He seems to think he implicated his daughter, but why would he think that not unless she was also exhibiting the same signs of evolution, same as him?

But what are the odds of two obsidian serpents showing flood dragon evolutionary traits at the same time? The degree of difficulty of morphing into a flood dragon is about as hard as a flood dragon morphing into a true dragon, but now there may potentially be two serpents evolving into flood dragons within the same period, same location and they happen to be related to each other.

Something feels suspect here.." Yang Qing said as he rubbed his chin with his gaze falling on the elderly man.

"The special inquisitor assigned the case had the same suspicions too. The two members of the Blue Soul Flame Crow Syndicate would not waste their manpower in hunting an early palace-stage obsidian serpent, and based on how they conducted their affairs, they had made sufficient preparation at that.

They would not spend all those resources, effort, and even risk because of the branch here, all for an obsidian serpent's body even if their daughter had a wisdom pearl.

With the measures and abilities they had, they were better off targeting the father, but it seemed like they had been specifically aiming for the daughter, which means, there must have been something special about her, that made the Blue Soul Flame Crow Syndicate show a willingness to risk venturing here.

But without the body, it's hard to know and the Committee hasn't yet signed off on extracting the information from their soul since because of their strength a peak domain expert would have to do it, but even then it will leave irreparable damage on them..."

"Mmmh, Senior what do you know about flood dragons?"

"Not much more than the next person. The powerful bodies that they're born with are as strong as a top tier monarch grade defensive artifact and it grows stronger through each growth cycle; how they can manipulate dao in their attacks from a young age, terrifying opponents to meet since they can cross realms to fight especially with their terrifying venom that needs the skills of at least several top tier gold grade alchemists to detoxify, and how their bodies are a treasure trove of precious ingredients.

Other than that I don't know much about them.."

Yang Qing wasn't that shocked at her admittance of not knowing a lot despite being his senior and a domain expert at that.

The mysteries of the world were infinite and one couldn't know everything. Gold eagle guards needed to have areas they specialized in to ensure their efficiency, and since they always worked in partnerships, it was a model that suited them well. 

Each guard had an area that they were good in and an area that they were lacking which would be made up for by their partner.

If you tried to chew more than you could handle, you would end up losing everything. Yang Qing learned that the hard way when he tried to be eye-catching and overzealous in his institute days when he picked every subject he could learn so he could show off.

It was a humbling period for him as he came to realize he wasn't as multitalented as he thought.

"I don't how factual this is, but in one of the scrolls I read, flood dragons have certain elemental affinities to them and it is usually three elements that is water, fire, and or wood. You may find a variant one with the dark element, lightning or wind, and maybe even metal but earth is rare for them.

I don't know about the triggers for their evolution process, but I figure elemental affinity has to be an aspect of it because most recorded cases of successful evolutions have been of reptilian spirit beasts that were skilled in either one or more of those four major elements, but the obsidian serpent is different.

Its primary affinity is to earth and if it has a secondary attribute mostly its metal, but more often than not it's just earth.

Evolving into a flood dragon is hard enough even with a strong affinity to the four above elements, let alone for the obsidian serpent that does not have them. How did he, and presumably his daughter trigger the qualifications for one?

Maybe the answer to that is what those two deacons were after, though how did they even know what to look for?"

"You suspect someone from the Deer Mountain was involved?"

"It can't be ruled out considering their delicate state of affairs in the balance between the weakened royal family and the different noble factions.

Putting aside the dangers of this range, and their dark history with it, this whole place is a treasure trove tempting enough to incite the greed of those in the kingdom.

Maybe some of them are in cahoots with the Blue Flame Crow Syndicate.." Yang Qing said.

The stoic gold eagle guard went silent for a second as a strange light flashed in her eyes as she took sight of the green-haired youth seated comfortably on the grass like he was on a picnic as he held his chin in deep contemplation.

Contrary to how he looked or the never-ending rumors surrounding him around the Order, that green-haired youth had a deeply intuitive mind about him.

Now it made sense to Yen Xu why she was told once he arrived to just leave every matter to him, and focus on the continuous deeper survey of the region in preparation for the array they were about to lay down in the area.

At the time they had not disclosed yet who they would be sending and only did so recently which was about the time Yang Qing was about to complete his sessions with the Auspicious Wood Grove tree.

When the name was revealed to her, she had the same reaction anybody from the Order would have upon hearing the name 'Yang Qing'. He was pretty infamous and was known for his various misdeeds in trying to pull one over the Order. There were even bets going around on what stunt he would pull next, and his success rate. 

His infamy usually overshadowed his skills as a judge, and because of how he usually looked people overlooked the fact he was one of the youngest judges at the Order, and now one of the youngest palace court judges. Reaching such heights meant he was anything but simple and Yen Xu got the chance to see how his mind worked.

"Now I can see why he can make trouble for the Order consistently.." she amusedly thought to herself as she made a mental note to place a bet on Yang Qing the next odds that came up, who knows he may have his first victory and the payout was not bad either.