Daily life of a cultivation judge

"Life?!"

Shen Mu was hit with shock that he struggled to follow what was happening around him.

Just the other day, he was beaten within an inch of his life, then the cultivation base which had not moved in close to a thousand years finally moved and in the process, his saber intent grew from its pseudo phase to a fully mature saber intent and the impetus of it all turned out to be his conscience which he had long abandoned, leaving him with only one lingering regret in life, his mysterious mother and now here she was.

The shock of seeing her after searching for her for so long and failing left him at a loss for words and thoughts.

The lady sighed as she saw Shen Mu's reaction, her gaze turning tender in the process, as she extended her hand to ruffle his hair before pausing her movement halfway, returning her hands to her sides.

Shen Mu who noticed her movements had his gaze flicker in disappointment before he asked the one question he had always wanted the answer to all this time.

"Where are you?" he asked, chalked full of emotion.

The figure stared at Shen Mu for a bit, her true thoughts masked behind her calm demeanor. A few seconds passed without a response from her, Shen Mu growing more nervous as the silence continued.

"I should not have left you behind. I should have left with you, maybe then you would not have gone down the route you did.." the figure said with regret in her tone.

Just as Shen Mu was about to press more, he paused when he saw the silhouette of his mother turn solemnly toward two new guests. One of them was a middle-aged man with a stern expression, silver hair, and silver pupils; Next to him was also another man, middle-aged, with short black hair, however, he had star-shaped irises with five pupils in each iris, four were at the four cardinal points of the star-shaped iris and the last one was at the center.

The two men appeared in the courtroom without presence, with only a few noticing they were there. On seeing them, Yang Qing stood up to greet them.

" Greetings Supervisor Lei Weiyuan, Domain Judge Hou Dehui.."

"Yang Qing, your case seems to have dragged in a surprised guest.." leisurely said the middle-aged man with star-shaped irises, his eyes lingering curiously at the lady.

"I hope I am not being too forward here fellow daoist, but would you care to introduce yourself? Rarely does the imprint belonging to a domain expert appear in this type of court.." added Lei Weiyuan.

The reason for their appearance was precisely because of her. Lei Weiyuan as the supervisor of the core and palace courts was always constantly monitoring the happenings in those courtrooms, in part to ensure the judges and the inquisitors were doing their jobs as they should, but another reason was because of the possibility of what was happening right now to happen, where some powerful figure appeared where they should not be.

Over the years there have been numerous cases of cultivators sneaking into the courtroom using esoteric means such as hiding in a cultivator's soul, and transforming their spiritual will into clothing among other means and they do that for a number of reasons; like getting vengeance for a sentencing or capture of someone close to them that the person was not happy with, another reason is they sneak in to try and change the sentencing by covertly beguiling the mind of the judge, while others are more direct and try to pull of breakout.

It's easier to try a breakout in the courtroom, at least there you know where the cultivator of interest is rather than try and do it after they get sent to the Requiem, a place where not even those who belonged to the Order knew where it was.

Years of experience had left the Order to expect sneak-ins into the courtroom and one of the measures they put in place other than the powerful arrays and hidden treasures in every courtroom that are capable of assailing a middle-stage domain expert, is having a domain expert supervise those courtrooms which was why Lei Weiyuan despite being a late stage domain expert, was the supervisor of the core and the palace courts.

As for why Hou Dehui was here with Lei Weiyuan, Yang Qing guessed it was because he was technically involved with the case since it had an overlay with the Golden Bamboo Pavilion, with Red Maple Empire having a partnership with them, and a few of their subsidiaries like the Red Flaming Lotus Alchemy Pavilion being caught up in the case also, and that was discounting the fact that the son of one of the founders was also involved too.

"Forgive me for my lack of manners for intruding like this, it wasn't my intention. I had a dormant will imprint embedded in the amulet I had given my child which I had set to trigger under certain conditions, one of which was a monumental point in his cultivation such as an elevation of his spirit which he did when his saber intent matured..." solemnly explained the lady.

Hou Dehui's irises produced a golden glow creating the look of a true star, as his pupils lit up with the color of the five elements. He placed his hands on his chin with a look of interest as his eyes fell on the amulet.

"An amulet made from 50,000-year-old galaxy sands, expertly embedded in the wood from a silver dragon gourd tree. Beautiful craftsmanship.. approaching the realm of returning to one's root, hiding the extraordinary in the mundane.

Chief Song would like you.. What do you think, Lei?"

Lei Weiyuan stroked his beard, his gaze too on the amulet.

"The blend is seamless, and the properties of both monarch-

grade ingredients have been used to their full efficacy. The array work is amazing too..." Lei Weiyuan paused as he switched his sight to the lady.

"The aura of your imprint is that of peak palace realm expert, though... " his eyes shone with an ethereal light as threads that looked like they were the fabric of the world appeared flashed in his eyes.

"You've already broken through to the domain realm. Mmmh, based on this product, you must have just recently reached the gold tier in your craftsmanship abilities..mmh, I did hear Divine Armament City welcoming a gold-grade craftsman and a domain expert about three years ago, is that you?" asked Lei Weiyuan.

The lady's eyes flickered in surprise as she answered,

"Yes, I am. My name is Tan Lanfen. Once again, I would like to offer my apologies to the court, and .." she paused as she turned to face Shen Mu.

"I had been at the peak stage of the palace realm for over five thousand years, and though I already had the qualifications to break through into the domain realm, I was too afraid to take that leap and thus decided to wander the world, to try and clear my head, and then when I had just about fifty years left, I would make the attempt.

It was in the wandering that I ended up moving into that village and with the thought that I might die lingering in my head, even though it wasn't in my plans in the beginning, as time passed by with me closely approaching my limit, I thought it wouldn't be a bad thing to have a child.

At least then, even if I did end up dying to the tribulation, at least some part of me would still be alive.

On a whimsical fate, the person I decided to have a child with ended up being your father..

I would not be here today if it wasn't for you both. The time I had with him and you was what got me over the line.."

Shen Mu with a lost look, hesitantly asked,

"If you were such a powerful cultivator, why didn't you save him? Surely as a palace realm cultivator, you had the means to prevent his death.."

Tan Lafen sighed as she said,

"It is still one of my greatest regrets, but I couldn't prevent it. Had he lived back then, I would have still left. Closer to his end, I was finding it harder and harder to suppress my cultivation realm. I used a technique to seal my cultivation base completely to the point I was no different than a mortal. If I used my qi even slightly, the tribulation would have fallen.

I.... " Tan Lafen paused as she tightly clenched her fists.

"I wasn't ready to leave you both, so I wanted to prolong that stay as much as I could and your father died as a result of it... After his death, even though I had not planned it, out of guilt I asked you to come with me.

I never wanted you to see me die, which is why I wanted to leave in the first place when the technique to seal my cultivation base stopped working, but seeing the toll your father's death had on you, i waivered, but when you said you wanted to stay, I was relieved, which is why I didn't insist on it, and just left you those resources and the amulet..."

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