Daily life of a cultivation judge

Chapter 1224: Searching for clues (1)

Maybe it was because of the indirect influence Branch Chief Zou Wen had, or maybe it was because of what the Wan family currently had at stake, with their patriarch’s impending breakthrough to the domain realm, but Yang Qing’s and Elder Wan Li’s trip was steeped in prolonged silence, with minimal engagement between them.

Outside of finding out what they knew about Bai Chen and his disappearance, along with that of his disciple and the others who had been in the ferry with him, Yang Qing didn’t engage much with Wan Li. And when it came to the minimal interaction they did have, the elder didn’t reveal anything he didn’t already know.

The story remained the same: the Wan clan didn’t know anything about the disappearance, or what had happened to Bai Chen, his disciple, or the ferry.

Their account matched that of what was given to him by the remaining two escort supervisors of the Bluefin Escort Agency.

Wan Li acknowledged that Bai Chen had indeed been sighted passing through their territory twice—once when he retraced Jiang Hao’s steps along the planned commission route, and the second time when he returned after following that route to the end.

Elder Wan Li confirmed that Bai Chen had left their territory safely. Wherever he disappeared, it hadn’t happened within their borders.

He maintained the same statement when it came to Jiang Hao, when it came to his disappearance. Though there were differences between his and Bai Chen’s story in that, unlike Bai Chen, Elder Wan Li said Jiang Hao had never even stepped foot in their territory, which was a detail that somewhat contrasted with what Duan Ting and Liu Ying had told him.

According to their account, one of the guards from the Wan Noble family’s territory was quoted as having seen the ferry before it disappeared, though they hadn’t interacted with it.

However, at the same time, Duan Ting and Liu Ying also said they lost contact with the ferry after it entered the Azure Sapphire Kingdom’s territory. They never specified which part of the territory Jiang Hao and the ferry were in when they lost contact.

Given the pressure they were under, they could have confused the guard’s testimony, possibly interchanging the movements of Bai Chen with those of his disciple.

After all, between the two, only the former had confirmed presence within the Wan Noble family’s territory.

It took close to twenty minutes before they arrived at the border shared between the Wan family and the Huang family.

Despite the minimal engagement between them, Yang Qing still found the trip engaging. The engaging part wasn’t the conversation, rather, it was the sights.

He had never been to the Azure Sapphire Kingdom before, and given its precarious state and history of warfare, he would have been perfectly fine never stepping foot in it. But some part of him, despite his reservations, was curious about it, and seeing it in person, fully met the expectations behind said curiosity.

Despite its history of carnage, the Azure Sapphire Kingdom was surprisingly beautiful.

Though, in truth, he had half-expected it. This was a kingdom known to field sapphire mountains, after all.

Given its sapphire nature, Yang Qing expected it to look beautiful. But at the same time, he thought its beauty would be marred somewhat, considering this was still a place that had seen heavy war for over five thousand years.

Surprisingly, he couldn’t see any markings of war. All he saw were well-developed towns and cities, packed with life and activity. Along with them were sprawling mountains and hills composed entirely of sapphire in various colors.

The entire bodies of those mountains and hills were crystalline— they were literal, gigantic sapphire formations. They cast an awe-inspiring sight across the surroundings, especially with the prismatic glow they gave off as sunlight struck their surfaces, lending them an ethereal look.

On the way over, the predominant sapphire mountains were the Baleful Sapphire Mountains, which Yang Qing had expected. Seventy percent of the sapphire mountains in the Wan family’s territory were Baleful Sapphire Mountains.

These mountains had a deep brown hue, tinged with dark red like cooled lava, and released a hazy dark red to orange fog that blanketed their peaks. That fog gave them both an eerie and elegant appearance. It also contained one of the purest concentrations of baleful energy Yang Qing had ever sensed.

There was little to no vegetation growing around those mountains, which was to be expected.

Baleful energy was as corrosive as it was invasive, easily assimilating the surrounding spiritual qi to adopt its corrosive nature.

Few plants could thrive in such an environment, let alone survive it. But that didn’t mean there weren’t any that could.

Just like how certain groups of humans and spirit beasts had learned how to exploit the properties of baleful energies for their gain, there were also plants that managed to do the same.

Though not many, some plants had learned to thrive on baleful energies, leading to the emergence of unique variants that were as rare as they were precious.

On the way over, Yang Qing had detected the faint auras of such variants, though they were well concealed.

Most of them belonged to plants that were at the monarch grade, which wasn’t too surprising, given the purity of the baleful energies those sapphire mountains and hills produced. Not to mention, plants that managed to survive in such an environment were usually unique in both their abilities and their growth.

What did surprise Yang Qing, however, was the sight of two hills made of azure sapphire—the same azure sapphire said to be the mainstay treasure of the royal family, and at the same time, the greatest contributor to their strength.

He had assumed such a mountain could only be found within the royal family’s territory. Seeing those two hills, that didn’t seem to be the case.

Yang Qing couldn’t help but wonder if the Wan family’s territory held more. Maybe the core ground was set atop one. And who knows, maybe the territories of the other great noble families had similar formations, which could explain their strength.

But none of that mattered to Yang Qing right now. His focus was on the land ahead of him, which was a deep gorge covered in dense vegetation, with a temperate atmosphere that leaned slightly toward the chillier side.