When Yang Qing felt he had sufficiently wet his beak he put it away and continued giving a rundown of his rationale.

“By the time Wen Chang had the mental breakdown I was more or less certain of my deductions. So I used the brief moment I was helping her to release part of my aura and implanted something in his mental sea. What he experienced was only a tiny part of it, the real thing will be released later if what I suspect will happen, happens.

I don’t know how he did it but I suspect sect master Cheng Yuan wiped some parts of his memory specifically the ones related to Dong Yanlin and the scheme he hatched otherwise he wouldn’t have been so flawless in his acting. It’s not an act when you truly don’t know it.” Yang Qing said as he had a pensive look on his face. He couldn’t help but wonder what means Cheng Yuan used that even he couldn’t detect traces of it without forcefully reading his soul.

“But don’t we have measures to defeat whatever means he used to wipe his memory,” Mao Yunru asked in confusion. It wasn’t that she looked down on the lower-rank sects like Cheng Yuan’s but she felt they couldn’t have something in their arsenal capable of stumping the Order’s means.

“Mao Mao if you keep thinking that way, your view of the world will be closed and short-sighted making it easier for people to pull one over you. The world is much bigger than you or I can even imagine. Cultivation is a long endless journey with as many divergent paths and discoveries that are as many as grains of sand. There may be rankless sects that have techniques to break through three realms of the body refining stage within a day, others with unique blacksmithing skills, others who can mimic the cultivation style of spirit beasts and the list goes on. The same line of reason applies especially to cultivation arts and alchemy. Not even a seasoned alchemist can claim they know all recipes out there. What they know is just a drop in an otherwise gigantic ocean, the same applies to cultivation arts. They may not be powerful in the larger scheme of things but they may be powerful in targeting a single specific attribute let’s say wiping memory safely. Don’t ever underestimate anyone regardless of their rank even someone at the qi cultivation stage may know something you don’t. I suspect the Green fog swamp sect has a unique method capable of wiping their memories that it can even fool the senses of a palace stage expert. As for those means I’m more inclined to believe it’s from a natural treasure like let’s say their tupelo tree,” Yang Qing said as he lightly smiled.

Mao Yunru lowered her head as her heart raced. She realized her eyes had been blinded by mild conceit from being a member of the Order. The reason Yang Qing had a different outlook was because of his family who were living proof of a rankless family who were specifically skilled in a particular area to such a level that it even drew in the eyes of those cultivators who were more powerful than them even in the Order. His family wasn’t the only one. This was what made Mao Yunru feel even more ashamed as she had overlooked one of the foundations that helped the Order grow into what it was today. It not only accepted students from rankless families but it even accepted their families and among those families or clans there were those with a unique set of skills, inheritance, and knowledge in a particular minor field. This became one of the foundations for the Order.

“Well that answers the first question you had as for the rest which more or less boils down to why it seemed I was going out of my way to support the Green fog swamp sect well…Mmmh Mao Mao what do you think the mandate of the Order is?” Yang Qing asked

“We serve to maintain and enforce fairness, justice, and stability in the southern continent irrespective of who it is,” Mao Yunru studiously said. This was drilled into them when they were kids it was like an oath to them.

“You are correct but there are a few things I’d like to add to it. The Order was started so the wars of the cultivators wouldn’t destroy the lives of normal people. Fundamentally the reason the Order exists and our real goal is to ensure the safety of normal people. Just someone at the qi refinement realm is able to easily massacre a thousand people with no cultivation while someone at the foundation can kill fifty times that and that is by themselves what about a whole slew of them, millions of non-cultivators would perish as unwitting bystanders. Their lives are no better than grass in front of cultivators where they don’t care if they accidentally stomp on it in the midst of their fight.

The wars back then were so bad that the population of non-cultivators throughout the continent fell to a third of what it was. That created a dangerous consequence for the whole southern continent. Our foundation had been hollowed out. As you well know cultivators don’t conceive easily and it gets harder the more powerful we are. Someone could have lived for 10,000 years but have one child throughout their whole life.

We like to forget the more powerful we become but our roots come from those normal people we treat as grass. The lifeblood of cultivators comes from them and without them, our numbers would drop, and there would be no new talents or heaven-defying geniuses. The sects, clans, and empires came to find out that harsh reality when centuries and millenniums passed by with the acceptance rate of new disciples suffering a massive dip. There were pitifully few new talents and the ratio of the young replacing the old was 1:50,000. The rank 3 and above sects had to even lower their intake requirements leaving the lower sects with almost no intake within a few centuries. There was no one to pass down their legacy to and some with no one to pass down the touch to were buried in the sands of time. The cultivation level of the southern continent as a whole fell and this is one of the reasons sects from other continents even dared to sink their fangs into our backyard.

You see Mao Mao the Order’s bottom line is the lives of normal people. It is why the punishment given to cultivators who harm them is the harshest compared to when they harm each other.

When the primary goal is protected we can move to our secondary goal which is to ensure stability is maintained. We can either do it forcefully or use other means. Relying solely on the first option is impossible for us. We have the shortest history and we don’t have the numbers to comfortably enforce fairness and justice throughout the whole southern continent. So we use other means, one of them is what I did with the Green fog swamp sect. Most of the sects, clans, and empires nowadays see us as a thorn in their side. They have been trying to imitate what we did to grow so powerful in a short amount of time and create alliances all to rival us and tear themselves from our rules and regulations especially the rank 2 sects and above. They hate the feeling of having someone above them monitoring their every action. It’s only because they are not completely united otherwise they would have already stormed our headquarters.

We need therefore to create as many variables as possible and deflect the attention of these sects and clans from us to each other. The thing these sects hate more than us is another sect lower than them growing to be as powerful as them. This is where the Green fog swamp sect comes in. Their fate lies entirely on us moreso if Cheng Yuan did what I think he did. I showed them mercy and helped them, they now owe the Order. They will strive to keep the straight and arrow for fear we will target them and they are less likely to form an alliance with other sects in fact I’m even willing to bet they will inform us of those alliances of their own volition to get in our good books.

We need as many sects out there like the Green fog swamp sect to be our eyes and ears but also as pieces to form a chaotic fragile balance. A chaotic balance like this one is our best friend Mao Mao. Sects, clans, and empires being wary of each other, keeping each other in check instead of having a common enemy. I plan to install as many variables as I can out there and disrupt the long-established balance as much as I can. At a time like this chaotic balance is our friend. That’s why I gladly helped Cheng Yuan, as for Peng Zhen it was in part to support the Green fog swamp sect but the other is because I admired him. In all this, whether it was Cheng Yuan’s scheme or not his end was guaranteed in death but he still willingly did it. Someone like that has a strong and admirable resolve. But I was surprised to see he had used the tribulation cleansing method to upgrade his pillars from the orange grade to the blue grade using the tribulation lightning meant for his ascension to the core formation stage instead he used to refine his pillars. Having someone willing to go through that duel against our students is a boon for us as it is for him plus I trust his character more than I do Cheng Yuan.

Don’t worry Mao Mao you don’t have to imitate my way of doing things, the more cases you judge the more you will find your own way of enforcing judgments that are a reflection of your take on the ideals of the Order. Read more, listen more, seek advice more and most of all keep an open mind and you’ll see your own path,” Yang Qing said as he softly patted her back.

“I know you will be a splendid judge Mao Mao, you had an amazing teacher after all. In the Order, I have many monikers and one of them is the World’s canvas because of how much of the big picture I can see, you’re in luck Mao Mao to absorb some of this splendor and greatness.” Yang Qing said as he puffed up his gait with some pride.

“Pppfthahahah,” Mao Mao soon broke into a peal of soft laughter with the rest joining in.

“Leave it to Yang Qing’s shamelessness to lighten the mood.” They all thought to themselves as the man in question rubbed his nose cheekily. He went on to have a discussion with Feng Xin who informed him about having Bolin the rainbow mist toad in his possession and the possibility of Haishi the mirage dragonfly joining their unit.

“Of course he is ours, I’m not sharing with those alchemists. We are already undermanned and having an extra pair of hands wouldn’t hurt and we could know more about the green fog region. Let him out first.” Yang Qing vehemently said with righteous indignation.

Feng Xin released him from the soul-anchoring bamboo jar. Bolin was a bit disoriented like one waking up from a deep sleep before he got his bearing together. He looked around spotted Feng Xin and knew he was at Feng Xin’s workplace. He bowed toward who looked like the boss which was Yi Jie, completely overlooking Yang Qing who snorted in displeasure.

“How does Yi Jie look more like an expert than I am,” Yang Qing thought as he seethed in envy. 𝒃𝙚𝙙𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝒍．𝒆𝒕

“Ahem, Bolin my boss is the green-haired guy though the one you have bowed to is also my boss but the green-haired one is the overall boss. He may not look like much but even two of me couldn’t defeat one of him,” Feng Xin said.

That statement shook the glands off Bolin as he looked at Yang Qing with some weariness. He couldn’t place him as a fearsome target then again they thought Feng Xin was a soft lamb based on his looks and he had learned painfully from that mistake.

“Sorry esteemed master, this lowly one is Bolin,” Bolin said as he bowed so low his face touched the courtroom floor.

“Wow a rainbow mist toad,” Yang Qing had already squatted next to him poking him over with his index finger with a childlike smile on his face. Bolin was a nervous wreck thinking he was about to be obliterated but the smooth gentle qi coursing through him disproved that guess. Purple glowing writing soon congealed on his skin with the words ‘Yang Qing’s toad don’t try anything funny’

“Good with that those alchemists won’t be tempted to kidnap him and swap with a fake. Feng Xin you can have him registered at the personnel office as for his training we will leave it to Luo Meili she is better at this sort of thing. Nice to meet you Bolin, I look forward to chatting with you more but I’m a little strapped for time. We will have a proper welcoming ceremony later together with the mirage dragonfly too.” Yang Qing said as he admired his own calligraphy.

Feng Xin nodded as he went his way together with Yi Jie who went to the hallway to call in the next people whose case was to be heard. Feng Xin’s footsteps paused as he couldn’t help but feel he forgot something important. But he soon shook his head dismissively as he continued moving.