However every now and then, some anomalies would appear among them. Some Yang members who didn't care for the body refinement realm or had any interest in pouring their whole lives into it. Ma Bo often waited around for those anomalies, but unluckily none of them were talented enough to have a guaranteed entry into the Academy, that was until Yang Qing's father.
He had top-notch skills in alchemy, one that was enough to even draw Ma Bo's attention, and the best part was Ma Bo had long since noticed his dissatisfaction with the ways of the Yang family. He thought surely he could get him to accept his recommendation. However, he had severely underestimated how deathly afraid Yang Qing's father was of his grandfather. He refused him only for years later to run away from the Yang clan.
Luckily for him, after a decade or so when he came back, another anomaly in the form of Yang Qing was born. A kid who showed the same level of aptitude as the special entry students of the Academy, and the more he saw Yang Qing cultivate his way through the body refinement realm, the more he was certain of it.
He decided to let Yang Qing stay in the Yang family during his body refinement period since even the Academy would not do any better than the Yang family when it came to it, and when Yang Qing reached the qi refinement realm, he would nominate him with his recommendation.
He had already laid down the groundwork for it over the years, by painting the picture of how grand the academy was, the resources, the endless research into different cultivation arts, and how the academy even gives their students the opportunity to delve into all sorts of different unexplored ruins and mysterious realms within their territory.
He knew all young cultivators boiled from the thrill of the adventure, and when Yang Qing kept asking for detailed specifics of those ruins, and mysterious realms such as if they were truly unexplored, and if the Academy supervised, Ma Bo was certain Yang Qing's interest had been piqued, and him joining the Academy was all but guaranteed.
However he came back years later only to find Yang Qing had left like his father, but unlike him, he went to join the Order.
To date, Ma Bo couldn't understand why. Yes, the Order was a powerful organization with a lot of prospects but in his opinion the Jade Leaf Academy didn't lose out to the Order. It had vast resources just like the Order, it had connections all over the continent, and in terms of power, only when he became a guest teacher did he discover how powerful the Jade Leaf Academy was.
Teachers were ranked according to a grade that not only highlighted their accomplishments but also their power level. Ma Bo as a palace realm cultivator and blue grade alchemist was a blue-rank teacher, and above him was gold rank which was reserved for those in the domain realm, and above that was purple rank reserved for those in the soul formation realm.
In all his years working there had heard there were at least 31 purple grade teachers. That was 31 soul formation experts, and then there was the Jade Leaf Empire behind it which was bound to be even more powerful than the Academy it supports.
While the Order was powerful, he found it difficult to believe it was stronger than the Jade Leaf Empire, an entity that was dubbed as strong as the holy lands. If it wasn't, there was no way they could hold onto their ten thousand-leaf jade tree.
When he met Yang Qing, after he had become a judge and his choice, Yang Qing said it was out of a sense of duty and he felt the Order suited his ambitions of introducing fairness to the world.
Ma Bo didn't believe him at all. He knew the kid, he wasn't a believer or a true altruist. The kid talking about fairness was the same one who learnt herbology and alchemy from him all for the sake of dosing his grandfather and a few elders with a potion that induced diarrhea and nightmares.
However, despite Ma Bo not buying it, he didn't pry too much into the reason. At least his talents flourished at the Order. The little kid he'd bribe with pancakes so he could drink the disgusting body refinement potions was already a palace realm cultivator, the same as him, probably even stronger. Ma Bo could distinctly feel even with his third-stage palace realm strength, if he fought with Yang Qing, there was a high likelihood he would lose. It was only to be expected since the grades of the dao they used to breakthrough to the palace realm were different. If he wanted to suppress Yang Qing, he'd need to be at the sixth stage to be able to confidently do it. But as long as they were both within the early stage minor realm, the likelihood of him winning was small.
Ma Bo couldn't help but sigh in gratification.
"Maybe if I enlist daoist Bai Zou's help I can get Liang Tian to agree," he thought, unwilling to let Liang Tian rot away in a rank 4 kingdom without getting the chance to excavate his potential to the full.
He decided to push the matter till later and focus on the task at hand. Li Shu's internal structure was clear to the point that it seemed like she had been cut open and her innards were exposed.
The blood flow and the qi flow could be observed in real-time. His gaze focused on the white-red cloud spots that had filled most of her body except the dantian. It was in her organs, meridians, and blood vessels. Other than her dantian, the head was the only other place that didn't have the white red spots, that seemed to be trying to consume each other rather than live in harmony.
"Daoist Luo Fan's skills are truly a masterful wonder..." Alchemist Ma Bo said in admiration.
The imagery was so detailed that he could see even the numerous injuries in her meridians.
"It's nothing of note.." Alchemist Luo Fan said with a light chuckle
"You gave her harmony wisteria as a stop-gap to regulate her qi flow right?" asked Luo Fan as he directed his question at duo masters of the Blue River Cauldron Pavilion.
"We did.." humbly answered palace master Meng Ye.
"Palace master Meng Ye, right?" asked Luo Fan as he cast a deep glance in her direction.
"It is senior..." Meng Ye hesitantly answered.
"I guess congratulations are in advance..." Luo Fan said with a smile as he made his way to where the live spirit beasts were kept, leaving the dumbfounded Meng Ye and Pan Xin behind.
The membrane that surrounded Li Shu popped and disappeared almost immediately, and the silver carp flew out of her body and followed Alchemist Luo Fan in the direction of the spirit beasts, who showed signs of fear and agitation when they saw the carp.
"Don't worry, it won't harm you.." Luo Fan softly said. His words seemed to have a charm to it, because the moment he uttered those words the beasts calmed down, and almost seemed like they were about to doze off. The gold-feathered duck even tucked its head under its wing in preparation for it.
"Judge Yang Qing, I think we only need to test the gold feathered duck and the respective dish. The other animals and dishes likely did not cause Miss Li Shu's yin-yang imbalance.."
New novel 𝓬hapters are published on fre ew𝒆bnovel.com