Daily life of a cultivation judge-Chapter 1036: It shouldn’t be my turn yet

On sensing the unfamiliar presence, Yang Qing got up and made his way to the abode’s entrance. He could tell that the person to whom the presence belonged had deliberately made themselves known to him, a fact that was immediately proven as the figure spoke just as Yang Qing was getting up.

"Pardon the intrusion, Judge Yang Qing... Could I have a moment of your time? My name is Wei Shen and I’m from the Purple Eagle Guards," announced the figure.

The voice was that of a male and sounded mature and though gentle, it had some power to it.

"Purple Guards?" Yang Qing murmured in confusion.

"What are they doing here?" he wondered, opening the array of his abode as he did.

As the veil lifted, Yang Qing finally got the chance to put a face to the voice. The speaker, as deduced, was male and appeared to be in his early forties. He was slender and handsome, but the mild aura he radiated, along with his short black hair partially covering his cheeks and half his eyes, made him easy to overlook. He wore light grey robes that paired perfectly with his reserved, mild demeanor.

"I hope I didn’t catch you at a bad time?" said the middle-aged man, offering a polite smile as he did.

"Not at all," Yang Qing answered, appreciating the concern. The guard had likely noticed the slight exhaustion within him, a consequence of the two duels he had today.

"Please, come in," he added, making a welcoming gesture as he did to the newcomer.

"Thank you," answered Wei Shen, as he nodded slightly, walking ahead of Yang Qing, who reactivated the array, a few questions flooding his mind as to why a purple guard had come to visit him.

Purple guards, colloquially called purple eagles, fell in the same organizational structure as the Silver Eagle Guards, and Gold Eagle Guards, and just like those two, Purple Eagle Guards, duty fell on the lines of protection.

Where the Silver Eagle Guards handled security and sometimes acted as guides to newcomers within the main headquarters, and the Gold Eagle Guards handled the protection of facilities such as branches, and resources that were outside of the headquarters, the Purple Eagle Guards handled the protection of sensitive parts or resources of the Order.

For example, even though it was unlikely to happen considering the people that were there, the Institute had a purple guard member watching over its security, which was in addition to the various other means the Insitute had put in place.

During his time there, Yang Qing never saw the person, but he had heard rumors that they were there, guarding the sensitive areas of the Institute such as the purple forest and various other precious grounds within the Institute.

Yang Qing often tried to call on that supposed "protector" for help whenever the instructors got too vicious, but they never responded, ignoring his desperate pleas. They turned a deaf ear to his screams and even his attempt at bribery when he offered up his mom’s dishes, even when he went to great lengths in his exaggeration of how they were no different from heavenly elixirs.

He still nursed that grudge. The day he joined the Spirit Council, he was sure to repay it in kind.

Besides the Institute, he knew Purple Guards were stationed at the logistics division, treasury, and other precious cultivation grounds that could only be accessed with special permission from either the Spirit Council, one or all of the Vice Presidents, or notable figures like the Institute’s Chancellor, the Chief Justice, or the Head of the Inquisitors.

Any place requiring such high-ranking permission was sure to have a Purple Eagle Guard secretly stationed there.

They were the elite of the Order’s guarding division, with stricter entry requirements than even the roaming or special inquisitors. To even be considered, one needed to have reached the Domain Realm.

Their numbers were few, but within the entire Order, and not just within the Eagle Guard Division, they were considered elite—even when compared with other divisions. Understandably so, considering the requirements to join and the duties they were tasked with.

The Order was stingy and liked to act like a pauper; Yang Qing had no doubt about that. But what he was even more certain of and the reason he was always livid with the Order, scheming against them whenever he could, was that the Order was absurdly rich in resources.

If it wasn’t, it would not have been able to attract as many talents as it did, nor nurture as many talents as it did.

So, bearing that in mind, one could only imagine what it classified as precious, and the type of people it would assign to protect such things, not forgetting their stingy nature. The hardest person to steal from was a stingy person, another fact Yang Qing knew intimately at heart. They would do anything in their power to prevent suffering a loss.

Once inside, Yang Qing ever the considerate host, warmly welcomed the Purple Guard, even going to the extent of taking out the precious wine he had been gifted at the Deer Mountain Range by the mysterious figure.

As stingy as he was too, he had learned a lot from his nemesis, especially on when best to drop that hat, and be generous, and this was one such moment. One can never have too many friends, especially in a place like this, and for a person like him who had a certain reputation within the Order.

He needed all the help and connections he could get, and if a cup or two of his finite precious wine could gain him the friendship of a purple guard, then it would be well worth it.

Luckily, the Purple Guard before him didn’t seem like a tea person. More than that, he seemed to have a deep fondness for wine, as his mild aura disappeared within seconds of Yang Qing bringing out the wine—a fact Yang Qing celebrated, even if it meant two cups would likely not suffice if the greedy glint in Cui Feng’s eyes was any indicator.

One cup in, and the atmosphere warm and relaxed, Yang Qing broached on the topic of the Purple Guard’s reason for looking for him.

Due to the sensitive nature of their work, they weren’t the type to casually visit someone, especially someone they had no prior interaction with. Cui Feng must have had a good reason to leave his post and come see him.

They were not like a certain despicable fiendish domain supervisor who would occasionally visit Yang Qing for absolutely no reason other than to torment his mind with his presence.

Yang Qing had a guess as to why he was here. It wasn’t his first time interacting with a Purple Guard, but what made him doubt his guess was the timing.

"It shouldn’t be my time yet, right? It should be in three months by my count," surmised Yang Qing.

"The reason I am here is because of the Sage Mountain.." said Wei Shen as he put his wine cup.

"So it’s that," thought Yang Qing, before his confusion showed a second later.

"Sorry for the interruption, but my time there hasn’t arrived yet. It should be in three months," said Yang Qing, airing his doubt.

"Yes it is indeed so," Wei Shen, said with a slight agreeable nod.

"Something happened with the person who was supposed to be there today. Their absence was sudden and unavoidable, and the immediate replacement we had for them went into seclusion two weeks ago.

We would have gone for the person we had after that one, but we were told to ask you instead," he added.

Yang Qing’s brow furrowed as a flicker of surprise crossed his face. "Asked? By whom?" he asked, his voice taut with a blend of curiosity and bewilderment.

Wei Shen shook his head, flashing Yang Qing an apologetic smile.

"I don’t know who specifically. I only know that my immediate boss asked me to come here, but with how she looked at the time, It didn’t seem to have been her idea either," answered Wei Shen.

Though Yang Qing thanked the Purple Guard, his response did little to alleviate his curiosity and confusion.

Yang Qing was no stranger to tooting his horn, bragging shamelessly, and embellishing details as he saw fit, all to overstate his importance to the Order and how valued he was.

He was a vain person. Every person whether they acknowledged it or not had a flaw or two in them and being vain and petty were some of his.

Was he ashamed of it? That was an emphatic "Of course not!" He kept the company of scumbags and shameless individuals where his only course of action was to be as shameless as them and or even exceed them.

Did he take it too far at times? Maybe

Did he suffer consequences for it? Most definitely.

Did he regret it? Most definitely not.

But never in a million years did he ever imagine that one of those embellished details would come true, that some big shot of the Order somewhere would pull strings on his behalf so he could get favorable treatment.

The Sage Mountain that Wei Shen mentioned, went without saying was a precious ground, so precious that Yang Qing would willingly work for free for the Order, without complaint, well that’s a lie, he would complain, but he would reign it in a little..regardless, the core of the matter was, that mountain was one of the few places that would make him consider abandoning his ’voice’ against the Order and its practices if only they would let him cultivate there for a year.

Sadly the Order would never take him up on the offer, and so precious was the place, that one wouldn’t even be able to access the place with merit points. You got in there by schedule, and you would only get to spend two days in there until your next call-up.

Yang Qing has not been there in two years, and in those two years, no place has come close to his experience there. All this time he has been counting the days till he goes back there. He thanked the heavens he broke through before his allotted time came, and now, he was being told he would get to access that dream landscape earlier than expected.

How could he not be ecstatic when he knew that there were members of the Order who willingly traded top-tier monarch-grade treasures and a swarm of favors all for the chance to go a day earlier, and here he was going three months earlier, and he hadn’t bribed or bootlicked anyone for it.

"Judge Yang Qing, are you okay?" asked Wei Shen, concerned as he saw Yang Qing drift into silence, his lips quivering slightly.

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