Daily life of a cultivation judge

"Please don't agree to his request, Judge Yang Qing! That man killed my son!" Chen Gutian vehemently said with desperation in his tone.

A look at the expression he had on was all it took for anyone with discernment to guess his thoughts. He looked like a person who believed Song Ba would be able to weasel his way out of all he had done and quite possibly even get a cushy pardon for all he had done.

The world operated like that after all. As long as one had something substantial to offer, they could get away with anything. It wasn't such an outlandish thought to Chen Gutian that the Order could quite possibly release Song Ba.

Even if the Order was presumably a beacon of justice, he had experienced too much of the world to believe that they would remain impartial in the face of tangible benefits. Song Ba as a seasoned merchant and one who had ties to a grand organization like the Golden Bamboo Pavilion, surely would have something worthwhile to trade.

He had only discovered his son's killer and now there was a voice inside of him, yelling.

"KILL HIM! KILL HIM! Kill him before he is released. He will get away with it! You know he will. Do it now while you still have the chance. Avenge your son. Do it! Do it! Do it!.."

Luckily a smidge of rationality held him back preventing him from going completely over the line.

"While I am interested in what you have to share, I feel like there are a few things I need to make clear from the onset, so you know what you're dealing with here, and one of them, which is the most important one is, nothing you offer will get you released.

The evidence against you is already beyond damning, and the charges are as bad as it gets. The Order has intolerance against any and all matters that touch on the taboos of fiend arts. We already know it was you who supplied the techniques and means through which these elders nurtured pill slaves and human cauldrons, especially when it comes to the potions.

Your refining flames, the red flaming lotus flames were a key component in blending all the ingredients.

It was your flames that helped cover the tracks as efficiently as it did, enough to fool the eyes of most orange-grade alchemists.

Unlike Shen Mu who wasn't a direct participator in it all, you and those elders were, you are all culpable in the nurturing and harvesting of pill slaves and human cauldrons, and as such, your fates are all but sealed because of it..." Yang Qing paused as his gaze narrowed on Song Ba, a solemn presence radiating from him.

"No matter what you have to offer, nothing you give will earn your freedom in any way, shape or form. You could offer the head of the most heinous criminal and the result will be the same.

For the crime of actively engaging in the nurturing and cultivation of pill slaves and human cauldrons, the sentence for that crime is prolonged death. You will have to pay for every life you subjected to that fate, both the living and the dead.

Every crime has its pursuer and every debt has its collector. For what you did, the Order will collect in kind.

From the moment we found you guilty of those crimes, your death was guaranteed. That will not change, no matter what you offer, Owner Song Ba.."

Chen Gutian heaved a sigh of relief, while Song Ba, faltered, his knees almost giving way. Whatever strength he had garnered to try and negotiate with Yang Qing, seemed to have evaporated away the moment Yang Qing stopped talking.

While his thoughts weren't like Chen Gutian's, who thought there was a way for him to weasel out of everything and get away scot-free; he didn't expect that to happen, not with the crimes he was charged with, but he expected there was a way to meet halfway, especially with what he had to offer.

Hearing Yang Qing directly say his death was all but set, sent him deeper into the abyss, especially when he imagined what a prolonged death meant. As someone who dealt in pill slaves and human cauldrons and all other misdeeds, he could only imagine what paying back all he owed entailed and that thought made him feel, that maybe it was better off if he took his life now.

But he had doubts if he would even be able to. Yang Qing aside, who could likely freeze his movements with a mere thought, there were two domain experts present. Song Ba could forget doing anything of the kind, not to mention, he knew himself well, he was a coward through and through. Even with the threat of a painful death hanging over him, he didn't think he had the resolve to take his life. Deep down he knew, if it came to it, he would hesitate.

Just as he was about to lose himself in the pit of despair, he heard Yang Qing speak again.

"That being said, if you have something to trade, even though death is still your end road at the end of all this, the journey to that point can be amended and made a bit easier on you..

What do you think? Would you be willing to trade whatever you have for that?"

"Smooth?" Song Ba asked with a weak, quivering voice, that was birthing a little bit of strength in it.

"Yes, smooth.." answered Yang Qing feeling no need to expound further on what that entailed leaving it to Song Ba's imagination.

Despite the vagueness of it all, whatever it entailed it was better than the alternative. Whatever Song Ba envisioned was waiting for him in terms of a prolonged death and paying back what he owed, his imagination would ultimately fall short of whatever the Order had in store for him.

With the characters the Order dealt with since its establishment, the Order had refined its ability to break those characters. Some of them were as bad and hardened as one could get. The whole world could condemn them and spit on them and torture them for what they did, and they would remain unfazed by it and even have time to jeer at the world as they took its condemnation as a badge of pride.

However, no matter how hardened they were or unrepentant, half a year under the 'dedicated care' of the Order was more than enough to turn them into soft persimmons. Song Ba wasn't exactly a hardened person. Yang Qing had doubts he would even be able to survive the first ten minutes of that care.

To him, he was okay if Song Ba took the deal or not, though he very much preferred the former. For Song Ba who was having a mental breakdown a few seconds earlier, only to regain some semblance of calmness, it meant he had confidence that whatever he had was worthwhile.

Regardless of his dealings, he was a seasoned merchant, that identity was what made Yang Qing curious about what he had for trade, not to mention the suspicions he had, which he felt Song Ba could shine a light on.

It took Song Ba only a few moments before he came to his decision , which was more or less what Yang Qing had expected.

"I accept the deal.."

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