Daily life of a cultivation judge

Yang Qing's eyelids drifted open, and in the green darkness of his irises, a dazzling light pulsed to life. It was as though countless shooting stars were streaking across a vast, endless azure sky within his eyes, each one igniting in a brilliant explosion of color and light. The stars burst into shimmering trails, scattering like embers caught in a breeze, only to reform and erupt once again. The flashing spectacle within his gaze seemed alive, each eruption leaving the confines of his eyes, as radiated outside to the rest of his body, bathing it in a celestial glow.

He stood up, amazement showing in his eyes as he stared at his hands, which shimmered with the same light as the stars in his eyes.

"Time to test if there are any improvements," Yang Qing muttered in excitement, clenching and unclenching his fists, which let out faint sparks with each motion.

He walked a few meters north to a large, open space covered in grass. Without hesitation, Yang Qing began testing all the hypotheses he had formulated during his contemplation.

Of the thousands of insights flooding his mind, he managed to narrow them down to about fifty, which he then cross-referenced to see which could be combined to work effectively together, while temporarily setting aside those that could only work individually. The last three or four hours had been spent combing through his accumulated knowledge and experience with the Brilliant Ray Fist Art, and trying to integrate those refined insights into the art.

He had already achieved some theoretical success on that front, and now it was time to see if they would translate practically.

For the next half-hour, Yang Qing tested his hypotheses, pausing midway to evaluate and make necessary adjustments before resuming. Time quickly flew by as two more hours passed with him executing various moves of the Brilliant Ray Fist Art, pausing to sit in contemplation, then getting back up to continue his practice.

His insights became further refined in the process—some were discarded, while others were readjusted and improved. In turn, new insights emerged, which Yang Qing quickly seized as he sank deeper into the wondrous state of perfecting his cultivation art.

It had been a long time since Yang Qing first created his art, and though he'd explored it before with thoughts of improvement, the unique environment of Sage Mountain filled his mind with fresh insights and fired his spirit anew.

Surrounded by the dense presence of countless Daos, he felt as if he were a fish in water, his thoughts flowing faster and faster, nurtured by the very air around him. His heart raced, and his mind surged with euphoria at the feeling that had always drawn him to dissect cultivation arts, obscure knowledge, and rare treasures.

He could feel his entire being submerged in an ocean full of mystery and wonder. The ocean was a blue ocean, with the resplendent glow of the sun shining through, its refractive glow occasionally shining light on the beautiful treasures lurking within, Yang Qing taking advantage by quickly grasping the location of those exposed treasures before the refractive light moved on.

With every treasure revealed, there was that sense of excitability and intrigue building up within him. What did this coral hide? What about that pearl? and that clam over there? what wondrous secrets lay within waiting to be uncovered.

This feeling mirrored the one he had experienced when he first developed the Brilliant Ray Fist Art from a humble red grade art, into a powerful blue grade art.

What he was feeling now, was what he felt back then. That sense of your entire body, essence, mind, and spirit, blending perfectly into one, with one purpose, and in the process of that perfect merger, a door leading to a fantastical place opens, revealing a world where even the greatest of imaginations fell short.

To Yang Qing, that place always took the form of an ocean that was filled with wonderous treasures buried and scattered about, all ringing with the allure of a mystery waiting to be unearthed. He often wondered if that was what the Millionsfold Treasure Ocean felt and looked like.

This sensation wasn't unique to him, as others have experienced something similar, albeit the scenery was different.

Take Kang Huilang, for example, his scenery was that of a desert, a gold sand desert to be precise, littered with all kinds of weapons buried within its sands, partially or whole. Some of these weapons were broken, or rusted, while others were new, regardless of their state, each of these weapons held a story, a story of a battle, a story of a technique, a story that only weapons could tell.

Kang Huilang's scene was a bit too grisly for Yang Qing. A desert tomb for weapon corpses wasn't exactly what came to mind when one thought of a dreamlike landscape. But he wasn't one to judge, Kang Huilang has always been a little weird.

Lost in this wondrous state of discovery, Yang Qing cycled through trial and error with ease, seamlessly refining his insights without breaking his flow. Were anyone to witness, they would see his form covered in golden, radiant light, moving with increasing speed and fluidity until he became a blur of starlight.

His figure bore the momentum of the sun, the swiftness of heavenly winds. As he moved, the trees rustled, the grasses swayed with vigor, and birds and insects joined in a symphony of sound. It almost seemed as if they were cheering him on as he constantly danced to the tune and the rhythm of the Grand Daos swirling around him.

Yang Qing's rhythm seemed to pulse through the mountain itself as if his movements stirred something ancient and silent in its depths. Unaware of his surroundings, he was wholly absorbed in his trance-like state, his very sense of self, dissolving. Every fiber of his being was entwined with the flow of the Brilliant Ray Fist Art, which opened a window to the grand Dao—a vastness that drew him in like a tide, swallowing his awareness and connecting him to something far greater.

In that moment, Yang Qing was less a man, and more a parched plant, that just kept soaking up the rainfall of the grand dao, as it fell on him, greedily wanting more.

His qi, essence, and spirit rumbled gently with every move he made, whether it was a punch, a movement of his palms, or his feet, he rumbled, with a whisper but carrying the weight of the heavens and earth in his punches, palms, and accompanying movements and in the process, his surroundings seemed to quieten, his heart beat slower, time seemed to move slower around him, but his mind.. his mind only grew sharper and clearer as his body became lighter and freer in the process, able to meet whatever demands the mind had on them.

In the trance-like state he was in, Yang Qing didn't seem to notice that he was gradually moving away from the location he had chosen for his exercise and was now moving toward the main body of the mountain, instead of hanging out in the fringes, like he usually did.

As he got closer to the mountain, the scroll he had been tugging at before let out a soft hum that had an ethereal charm to it. That hum resonated with the mountain, as another hum resounded at a different location. Yang Qing's unconscious movements led him to the location of that hum, which was about 100 meters away from the first scroll.

There was yet another scroll in that location, producing the same sound and flickering glow the first scroll had produced, the only difference being the flickering of this second scroll seemed to expose it more. While it still looked deeply entrenched, with only the end being the visible part, an astute person may notice that it seemed a little bit more exposed than the first scroll, even if it was just by millimeters.

As soon as Yang Qing reached its location, it let out another soft hum, that resonated with another hum, about 250 meters away northeast of its location. Yang Qing as if guided by its tune, gravitated towards that location, lost in the world of the Brilliant Ray Fist Art.

When he reached the third location, same as the first and second locations, there was another scroll there, flickering with the same gentle glow, and just like the second scroll, there was more of the third scroll outside the mountain than entrenched. By more, this was, one could see not only the scroll knob but also a bit of the decorative silk that was meant to protect the paper within.

The decorative silk was in the design of a golden leaf, that had a denser charm of the grand dao compared to other places, which wafted off the scroll like steam coming out of a small geyser.

No sooner had Yang Qing arrived at its location than another hum was produced, with Yang Qing slowly and unwittingly being lured into parts unknown except known only to the Sage Mountain.