Chapter 667 Price of greed (17)
Their reaction more or less confirmed to Yang Qing that the leaders of their respective organizations more than likely handled the inheritance enlightenment blood crystals.
"You touched taboo power.." Yang Qing ominously said as he dispelled his technique.
"As known with taboo power, once you get in touch with it, there is usually a price to be paid.
Lucky for you four,?Pavilion Master Li Yao helped you pay something small for what you did.
You shaved off a bit of their life essence and a natural treasure born out of a variated form of life dao. Considering they had not used the crystals themself, losing a bit of their lifespan and the treasure as a reactant, was enough to quell the curse.." said Yang Qing as he faced Li Yao.
"You are right, Judge Yang Qing. I'm amazed you were able to tell all that with just a glance. I'm in awe with the depth of your insight.." Li Yao said with genuine admiration in his tone.
"It's nothing much, it just happens that I am a little more sensitive than most to certain energies and auras.." Yang Qing said as he waved his hands.
He wasn't playing at being humble, as his yin-yang jade bones did make him sensitive to things that touched upon the life dao.
From the moment he laid eyes on the four he could feel something off with their lifespans.
The only thing he wasn't certain of, was the reason why. Before he knew of Li Yao's identity, he had surmised that maybe Li Yao may have been a fiendish cultivator siphoning lifespans from the unsuspecting.
But when he heard of the curse of the graveyard torch, the affected lifespan of the four, made sense.
Normally human cultivators would avoid the graveyard torch because of the trouble it would bring. Messing with one would invite an eternal enmity of every spirit beast living in the area or even ones that have ever lived in the area and then there was also the curse to consider.
Most would avoid the inheritance enlightenment blood crystals despite their ability to help a cultivator induce a state of epiphany that enables them to gain insight into the dao.
Of course, some were reckless and desperate and would thus ignore the risks involved. Those who did this usually had nothing else to lose, for example, old cultivators reaching the end of their lifespans whose only shot at reaching the next level was those crystals.
Those cultivators wouldn't care if they ended up getting cursed, or put a bull's eye on their back from the spirit beasts living in the area. To them, they were dying anyway and didn't have anything to lose.
Then there were those like the four cultivators before him, those whose recklessness was driven by not knowing enough along with ambition, greed, and a little bit of desperation.
Because of the insatiable depths of human greed, cultivators managed to find a workaround on how to properly harvest those crystals without suffering the backlash. A skilled alchemist, someone with a top-tier wood element physique, someone with a karmic treasure, someone with skilled with a variated form of either the life dao or death, they would be able to overcome the challenges associated with the crystals, and there were even remedies for those who got cursed.
One of the remedies was called the yin-yang life conversion tribute where two energies would be used to offset the cost of the curse. The two energies were yin and yang in nature just like the name. The cursed person provided the yin, while the yang was an external treasure filled with natural yang energy that was dense in life, the denser the better because the more dense it was, the less the yin energy the cursed would have to pay.
Yang Qing's unique physique predisposed him as the ultimate bane of that curse. Were he the one who performed the treatment on the four, they would not have had to pay a price for it.
This also meant he could harvest the crystals without fear or knowledge of some specific harvesting skill to eliminate the risk of getting cursed. His body was completely immune to its curse.
Though even if it was easy for him to acquire the crystals, his conscience would never allow him to do so, the same way sentient spirit beasts never raided the ancestral tombs of humans despite their feud.
It was a line neither side, crossed.
Of course, there were exceptions to the rule. It wasn't common knowledge, but there were differences among the graveyards, and there was a unique one among them that was capable of inciting the greed of even the morally bound cultivators.
What made that graveyard unique was the formation of the eight-petal ascendant concentrated rose. A rose that grew at the center of the graveyard. The rose had eight different colored petals, with each petal containing a refined form of dao.
The rose was capable of creating eight domain experts, one for each petal. Such a bounty was capable of eroding whatever conscience a person had.
Had such a rose been present where the four organizations went, he did not doubt that the Deer Mountain Kingdom even with all the troubles facing it, would have risked acquiring that rose, no matter the consequences.
"I wonder if that story is true.." wondered Yang Qing as the tribulation of the domain realm tested not only one's accumulations but one's spirit. He wondered if people who robbed a hallowed grave to advance themself would be able to overcome such a tribulation.
To him doing such a thing meant you were not confident of reaching it by yourself. With such doubts swirling within you, would you be able to face a tribulation known to have the highest mortality across all known realms?
Yang Qing had his doubts, though he knew his reasoning had loopholes within it. Cultivators robbing graves wasn't anything new. Ruins and mysterious realms could be considered as burial grounds in some way. The ascension of a cultivator was steeped in bloodshed and death, what did robbing the sacred ground of spirit beasts matter to them, they would likely rob their ancestor's grave if it gave them a shot at power.
Pushing those morbid thoughts aside, Yang Qing focused his attention on the four cultivators.
"The reason your bodies' felt different was because of the treatment technique cast on you. The treatment consumes two things to rid you of the curse, one is a treasure and the other is your lifespan, the grade of the treasure determines how much lifespan is consumed.."
Reading the leading cue from Yang Qing, Li Yao continued,
"Since they had not been in contact with the crystals for long, I used the vitality spectrum dahlia as the yang treasure. Its grade is at the top tier of sky grade, which looked like it needed just a few hundred years of absorbing pure yang energy for it to reach the monarch grade..."
The four, especially Ling Qi who knew the value of that flower, looked dumbfounded before shame started creeping in.
Li Yao laughed slightly at their reactions and said,
"Don't worry I only used a few shavings of it and not the complete thing. Even if I was a bit sentimental at seeing my junior apprentice brother's technique on display, that feeling wasn't enough for me to burn an entire vitality spectrum dahlia on you.."
Ling Qi's, Hua Ying's, and Xin Zephyr's faces instantly burned red in embarrassment.
"With the help of the shavings, the yin cost was cut down to three years. Even though three years isn't much to cultivators like yourselves, losing it in a single moment leaves an impact on the body that requires some time to heal from.
Losing three years' worth of your life essence is essentially you losing your ability to live those three years. Other than maintaining the basic instincts that keep your body functioning, you lose everything else like being able to cultivate or meditate.
For such a loss, the healing time ratio is usually 1:0.5. That means you will gain full functionality of your bodies in one and half years, one year, and four months to be exact since two months have already passed by.
Of course, there are ways to shorten that period, but you need ascendant-grade treasures for that which sadly I don't have.." said Li Yao as he exaggeratedly showed the empty pockets of his robes.
An air of silence and awkwardness descended into the courtroom. Other than Wu Shen, the other three cultivators looked out of sorts like they were standing on flaming coal that was slowly burning their feet, especially Hua Ying, who couldn't even look up as her head hung low filled with shame and trepidation.
Since the case started, she had been the most vocal, not hiding her anger toward Li Yao. Filled with such venom, before the whole matter was revealed, there was no doubt she would have attacked Li Yao with reckless abandon given the chance.
But here she was, the man shehad likely tortured several times in her mind over the past two months for swindling her, was, in fact, her benefactor who not only healed them of the venom of the tricolored white-eyed tortoise but also cured them of a curse they didn't even know they had.
And the surprise didn't stop there, the 'scammer' was the founder of a rank 3 alchemist organization, a seasoned blue- grade alchemist and healer, and a palace realm expert to boot.
Whether it was her, or the entire Hua Clan, no one was worthy of meeting such a huge figure let alone getting personally healed by him and yet she was, and what she did as a thank you was curse about him to anybody who would listen, and she even had the guts to display killing intent when he walked into the courtroom. She even had half a mind to hire an assassin to get rid of him after the case because of how livid she was with him robbing her of her ability to use her bloodline techniques.
It was the worst misunderstanding and blunder she could ever make, a blunder that could consign her clan to oblivion.
Then there was also the matter of being tricked by someone impersonating the Imperial Secretary of the Deer Mountain Kingdom to consider, and the death warrant they had signed for themselves because of those crystals.
Surviving without every spirit beast out for their heads was already hard enough, how harder would it be now that they had desecrated their hallowed ground even if they were misled into doing it?
"And to think three months ago I thought the Hua clan's rise was all but guaranteed. The patriarch would make use of the blood crystals with the refinement help from sect master Zhu Jian from the Moon Essence Cauldron Sect.
He would breakthrough to the palace realm, and we would get the rights to live in the Deer Mountain Kingdom, where we would no longer have to look over our shoulders. Living in constant fear that we would end up in some spirit beast's stomach at any moment even within our own grounds.
When the tricolored white-eyed tortoise arrived, I thought even the heavens were in support of us by sending such a treasure trove to our doorstep.
Who would have thought it was the gates of damnation beckoning us.."Li Yao thought as her frame grew weaker and desolate by the second.
Before she could sink further into despair, Yang Qing cleared his throat to grab their attention.
The four cultivators looked up.
"With all facts on hand, the whole matter is now evident and I shall now pass the verdict.
I, Yang Qing, in my capacity as a judge and the Branch Chief of the Deer Mountain Branch, finding all materials presented meeting the threshold for a clear judgment do declare Li Yao, the pavilion master of the Ocean Refining Crucible Pavilion innocent of all accusations against him brought on by Xin Zephyr of the Xin clan, Hua Ying of the Hua Clan, Wu Shen of the Flowing Fist Sect, and Ling Qi of the Moon Essence Cauldron Sect.
The case is hereby closed.." Yang Qing said as he brought his gavel down.
Even though the sound made by the gavel was a low one, to the four cultivators it was like the drum of hell had been sounded and Yang Qing's next words didn't help either.
"My guess is you picked up those crystals for someone in the Hua clan to use them to break through to the palace realm.
He may be cursed already.." Yang Qing paused as his gaze fell slightly on Pavilion Master Li Yao who shook his head.
"Helping them once is the best I can do, the rest they will have to handle themself.." said the Pavilion Master.
Hua Ying looked like she was about to collapse. Ever since she found out about the dangers of the crystal, among the hundreds of concerns that popped up, her clan patriarch's condition had been high up. She didn't expect Li Yao to help them again after their behavior but hearing the outright denial made her sink further into despair.
"Well, that's that..His condition aside, your four organizations need to think very carefully about what to do next.
You have made an enemy of the entire spirit beasts in this place and I can tell you, they are much scarier and more powerful than the Deer Mountain Kingdom..much much stronger....they are the overlords of this place and what you did is an affront to them that they would not let go.
If the red pine flame porcupine and the tricolored white-eyed tortoise found you, you can be sure the rest are not that far behind, it's just a matter of time.
Considering the nature of your actions, as it is taboo, the Order can not step in as this is no different than a blood feud between you and the spirit beasts of the Deer Mountain Range.
My advice to you is to leave, leave immediately, and don't linger as every second you remain here, you risk the complete annihilation of your respective organizations.
Stay and your fate is all but guaranteed to end in death, if you leave maybe you might have a chance at life.." Yang Qing said with an austere tone.
"Where will we go?" Xin Zephyr weakly asked with a bleak look.
"Anywhere but here.." Yang Qing said with a sigh.
"Removing the curse cost you something, and surviving will cost you another. Decide what price you want to pay, because one way or another, it will be collected. Sadly, there is no escaping it, and it will be steep," he added.
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