“Mao Mao I’ve never known you to be shy with your words. If there’s something on your mind ask away, I’d be more than happy to guide my little junior on her path so she takes as few detours as possible. Or is it something that you can’t say in front of Yi Jie and Feng Xin? I’d be happy to kick them out, they always stifle the air in the courtroom unlike you Mao Mao who’s a ray of sunshine. Life will be hard without you in the palace courts,” Yang Qing had a mopping expression towards the end as he let out a pained sigh and looked at Yi Jie and Feng Xin like sharp poisonous thorns deeply stuck in his toe that he could never get rid of.

The duo snorted at the same time as they threw an equally provocative glance labeling Yang Qing as the greater thorn that grew into a parasite and just leeches of their nutrients.

“You three can’t be normal for once,” Mao Yunru couldn’t help but shake her head.

“I’ve been wondering Yang Qing ever since the case started there were some instances where you have acted rather odd. Yes, you’re an odd quirky person who common sense and sanity never apply to but still some acts of yours seemed too odd even for you,” Mao Yunru rattled on innocently.

“Were the jabs at me being an odd person really necessary Mao Mao? Did you even need to use all those different words just to show how much of an oddball I am?” Yang Qing couldn’t help but grumble.

Mao Yunru as if completely oblivious went on,

“One of the instances was the time when you used the green cocoon of Evernight to help Wen Chang with her mental breakdown. Both Yi Jie and I detected you releasing a part of your aura and invading sect master’s Cheng Yuan’s mental sea with it. Then there was you sharing your oolong tea with him and specifically ordering dishes made by Cao Ying and the things that happened in between during your meal. Everything seemed to be geared at helping Cheng Yuan improve his realm when minutes ago you were terrifying him with your aura.

Then there’s the matter with Peng Zhen, it’s the same thing. You seem to be proactively helping his growth even going to the extent of sharing a blue-grade cultivation art with him and those favorable terms you offered barely even seem like punishment. Throughout this case it seemed at one point you had something against Cheng Yuan but then as the case continued it seems like you were doing everything you can for their growth. Being this invested, isn’t it going against the impartiality one should have as a judge?” Mao Yunru asked as she waited in apt attention for Yang Qing’s reply.

Yi Jie and Feng Xin were completely disinterested as if this had nothing to do with them and were barely interested in knowing Yang Qing’s rationale. They were bickering at the side bargaining with each other on ingredients and wine quantity. .

“How can you two be lackluster about this, aren’t you interested in Yang Qing’s odd behavior, especially you Feng Xin? You almost died, don’t you find it a bit unfair for your boss to actively help the ones who put you in that situation,” Mao Yunru asked. Seeing their reaction made her feel slightly irritated for some reason like she was out of the loop about something. She has been with the three in the courtroom for the past three months. She discovered she could never follow their train of thought on certain things sometimes but on this, she expected they’d be on the same page.

“Umm Mao unlike you I’m just an inquisitor, I don’t overthink Yang Qing’s ruling that much. I’d rather spend that effort thinking of how to get off the blacklist of certain restaurants and how I’m going to afford another primal lotus dew. Yes, I almost got injured but that is another day on the job. An inquisitor’s job is fraught with dangers and variables. If it didn’t happen in this case it would happen in another plus I got a bountiful harvest in this case. I’m glad I was the one who went this time….I wonder how I can get the most out of that corroding heron. I hope it doesn’t taste as disgusting as it looks,” Feng Xin’s words trailed off at the end as he started mumbling to himself about different ingredients completely forgetting what Mao had even asked.

“I’m on the same page with Yang Qing. Don’t worry Mao your doubts are understandable but the more you do this job the more your judgment will be fluid. You’ve already sent a copy of the proceedings to the higher-ups but haven’t you noticed they haven’t overruled Yang Qing’s ruling? They are in agreement with it,” Yi Jie softly explained as he gave Mao Yunru a comforting smile.

“I know that’s why I’m asking, I can’t help but feel I missed a couple of things that despite trying I can’t figure out myself. That’s why I need his help,” Mao Yunru reluctantly said as she helplessly smiled. It was embarrassing for her to admit she couldn’t track her superior’s thoughts at all despite being a judge herself.

“Mao Mao is so cute when she is embarrassed,” Yang Qing cheekily smiled as he poked at her.

“Do you want me to report you to Supervisor Lei Weiyuan for harassment?” Mao Yunru coldly said as her eyes radiated a dangerous glint.

“Cough cough ahem. Since I’m a good boss it wouldn’t hurt to guide you through my thinking. I’ll start it off by saying this and this is purely my guess but I think Sect master Cheng Yuan was the mastermind behind the whole plan. To involve the order, to split up their forces, I think it was all his machination. At first, it was only a tiny suspicion but that changed when I detected something as I was removing the gu and forcefully removing the hibernating Dong Yanlin. I found remnants of qi like someone tried to tamper with the art but stopped early enough before it could trigger anything. It was faint but it couldn’t hide from my monarch sense.

No questions until the end of the presentation Mao Mao,” Yang Qing said as he turned away from her and walked to the middle of the courtroom trying to evoke an expert-like demeanor. He paused in the middle of the courtroom and stared ahead pretending he had a far-reaching gaze.

“How obsessed are you with posturing like some enlightened sage,” Mao Yunru couldn’t help but shake her head at this. Yang Qing completely ignoring her statement went on,

“I refuse to believe someone of Cheng Yuan’s level wouldn’t notice a group of elders scheming behind his nose. Peng Zhen’s betrayal was also suspect from the start. I find it hard to believe people who have saved each other’s lives as much as they have, that one would just betray the other so easily especially siblings under the same master. However, the bulk of my suspicion was on Cheng Yuan. Working behind this desk I’ve come across numerous sect masters and not one, even the ones heading a rank 5 sect was a simple character. They all had one thing in common, they all have a breadth of sight and a calculative mind if you may to anticipate and plan things.

There’s no way someone of Cheng Yuan’s caliber would fall short on this. In fact, I’d rate him higher among sect masters of sects of his rank. The reason for this is simple. He was thrown into that seat when he was young, their master who had the highest cultivation base had just died and he bore all this and managed to even help it to grow into what it is today in just less than 100 years in a place as tumultuous as the green fog region. With zero presence of the Order, that place is a hotbed of slaughter and murder from the human themselves not to mention the spirit beasts. There’s no way someone who was able to survive and even thrive in the midst of that be a simple character easily deceived.

Following that thread of thought after hearing Peng Zhen’s version of events I assumed Peng Zhen came to him first and not Gui Bingwen. Cheng Yuan knew his junior brother well so if something was off he’d be the first to detect it. From there he tried to remove the gu from Peng Zhen but realized it was too complex for him so what does he do? Kill the initiator of the art in the hopes that the technique will dispel but he can’t do it himself since the person is wary and he may have surmised the fight wouldn’t be easy and the aftermath of the fight would leave the sect in shambles. So he and Peng Zhen create that little reuse of the dispute between him and Wen Chang and while they are at it use the situation to get rid of the tumors from the sect with a borrowed knife. He has Peng Zhen get rid of Dong Yanlin since he would be less wary of him. He gives him artifacts with the might of a core formation expert and they enlist the tupelo’s tree help which has the might of a peak core formation expert. With all these factors in place, they were sure they’d be able to get rid of him.

The Tupelo tree being taken out of the sect was also another giveaway he was involved. It’s the most prized possession of the sect and Peng Zhen got it way too easily even if he was the vice sect leader. No way Cheng Yuan as a sect master would ignore his due diligence and leave it so easily unguarded.

I think they set off two plans. Plan A was for Peng Zhen to deal with Dong Yanlin aided by the Tupelo tree however if something unexpected happened that even the Tupelo tree would be unable to deal with It then the second plan would be in effect. This is Cheng Yuan with the aid of Wen Chang could start over and preserve the embers of their sect. I’m willing to bet among the people in the sect master’s entourage coming here most would be the seedlings of the sect who showed the highest potential. I think Feng Xin can confirm that since he has seen them.” Yang Qing paused as he looked to Feng Xin for a response.

“By the standards of their sect, they were promising. There were about 15 people all young and at the foundation realm with 2 being at the peak of the qi refinement realm. Among the foundation-level members, there was a guy who seemed about 30 years old who was in the middle stages of the foundation realm. That level is sufficient to be labeled a talent at a rank 3 and even some rank 2 sect,” Feng Xin answered. Yang Qing nodded in appreciation.

“To Cheng Yuan, the continuity of the sect is the most important thing to him more than his life, his junior brother’s life, and even the tupelo tree if it came down right to it. Hence he was willing to make that gamble and risk losing the Tupelo tree in case their plan met a mishap. About the only one clueless in all this was Wen Chang and she would have paid with her life if I didn’t intervene. This was the read I got from being around him.” Yang Qing paused as he drank something from a container that looked like a small cylindrical green log. It was made of green wood with visible grains all around