Cheng Yuan finally heaved a sigh of relief once he was in the courtroom. Never had he been so glad to be here however his mood soon turned sour once he noticed that Wen Chang was still enclosed in the black blob.
"Mmmh you might be in luck sect master Cheng Yuan, Wen Chang may very well pull through from this. My spell, the Green cocoon of evernight has shrunk and this means there's been an improvement in her state. We may not have to wait long. Maybe before Feng Xin makes it back she would have already woken up a new cow," Yang Qing said as he moved closer to examine the blob and left seconds later with an interesting smile showing up on his face.
It was only when Yang Qing mentioned the shrinkage that Cheng Yuan managed to notice the black blob had a very significant reduction in circumference. The reduction was so huge that he suspected if Wen Chang was even there because the blob's current size was even smaller than her regular body size. Despite thinking it over and over he couldn't figure out why it seemed smaller and just assumed that the spell had some spatial features to it.
Yang Qing went over to his podium as Mao Yunru and Yi Jie went to each of their positions with Yi Jie staying by Yang Qing's side and Mao Yunru sitting at the desk below his podium. As for Cheng Yuan, he moved to where the defendants stood which was to the left of Wen Chang.
"I wonder if we should call in people from the other cases to save up time." Yang Qing held his chin as he debated.
"I think it may be best. We don't know when Feng Xin will arrive. It's already been over an hour and he isn't back yet. I hope he didn't get into trouble over there, especially with recent developments of members of the Order being attacked when conducting their duties. I can't help but feel a tumultuous undercurrent brewing," Mao Yunru added with concern showing on her face.
"What do you think Yi Jie?" Yang Qing asked solemnly.
"If it was anyone else I would be worried but it's Feng Xin. Not many inquisitors at his level can best him in a duel; that is when he hasn't activated his physique. If he were at the same level as me I would be hard-pressed to gain victory over him as I do now. Who knows he may beat me." Yi Jie coolly said.
"Isn't that pretty modest of you there Yi Jie seeing as how you are one of the few people at the Order known to have defeated a purple core formation expert despite being a gold core yourself. But I have faith in Feng Xin too, he did manage to last 90 seconds against me when I broke through to the palace realm albeit I held back but his skills and especially his reaction speed have been refined to the tip. He still also has the talismans I made for him and the rest after I recently broke through. Although they are at 80% of my full strength it should be enough to give him room to escape from someone at the early stages of the palace realm and if he decides to spam them who knows killing or fatally wounding one might not be out of the question." Yang Qing said.
Even though both he and Yi Jie had full confidence in Feng Xin, they were secretly worried. Over the past ten months, some members of the Order were attacked with some being grievously wounded. This put the Order on high alert. During their investigations on the surface, it seemed the attackers were part of factions and underworld organizations that had a deep feud with some members of the Order. However, the attacks seemed too coordinated throughout the continent and the 'culprits' didn't have the resources and manpower to pull it off. The Order came to an assumptive conclusion that there was some powerful mastermind behind it all and it may not even be a single entity but a couple. They were careful and meticulous enough to not leave any trail or connecting thread behind. It was always intermediaries, false leads and in some cases, they had created a thorough frame-up job that if it was any other organization other than the Order they would have fallen for it. They were even able to avoid scrying techniques of the Order which were done by the elders who were at the peak of the domain realm. This was what made the whole Order to be wary, for someone to be able to evade those techniques they had to be at least a peak domain expert and one who was one of the most powerful or they were at the soul formation stage. The latter was a worst-case scenario that the Order didn't hope for. The attacks over the recent months have also grown in sophistication and intensity. The last recorded attack was on an inquisitor at the palace realm. He was besieged by 15 half-step palace realm cultivators. He managed to get out alive and even killed 10 of them and fatally wounded the rest however he ended up with some severe injuries that he had to be transported to the Order's medicine valley for recuperation for a year.
It was after this attack that the Order started ensuring that every branch had at least someone at the palace stage manning it and with the major ones having someone either at the peak of the palace realm or an early-stage domain realm cultivator. However, those at the domain stage were few and far in between. Though the Order had talents, domain stage cultivators were in short supply and were a critical resource to them who had to be positioned in strategic places.
Because the mandate of the Order covered the whole continent, it has always struggled with a shortage of manpower. With their very best efforts, years of expansion, and growth the Order is only able to address 10% of the continent's issues. A lot of cases go unresolved or even unnoticed most of the time. There are even places in which the Order has no footprint. The recent attacks made the Order stretch its already thin resources even more. At the moment they were currently debating whether to close some branches and concentrate their manpower and resources in the more central branches or alternatively for the next decade ¾ of the talent that comes out of their institute priority will have to be given to the branches instead of the main headquarters or lastly, they find the mastermind and deal with the root cause. However, the last solution was predicated on them being able to handle the mastermind while suffering minimal loss. The Order was already in a precarious position especially after they destroyed a rank 1 sect. They had shown their hand and this left the rest of the rank 3 and above sects and families wary of them. The Order protecting the underdogs instead of the interests of these sects and families also contributed hugely to the list of grievances they had which has only grown more with time. Were the Order to attack the mastermind and both end up with huge losses there was no doubt these sects and families would take advantage unite and pounce on them.
"Feng Xin I hope you're okay," Yang Qing silently muttered to himself. Yi Jie at the side had his hands behind his back which were tightly clenched.
It was then during this somber atmosphere that the doors of the courtroom swung open revealing three people, two of them were in a disheveled and sorry state. Their robes were in tatters, their whole bodies were covered in black soot and one of them was even bald. They seemed to be at death's door as they could barely stand and it was the man in the middle who was supporting the both of them. The man looked better of the three, however, part of his right sleeve robe was torn apart revealing a pale white arm that had a few wounds that were visibly healing at a fast speed.
Yang Qing stared wide-eyed at the stranger but soon a glad smile formed on his face as for Yi Jie his shoulders seemed to relax and a small smile was on his face.
"YANG QING YOU BASTARD, WERE YOU TRYING TO GET ME KILLED WITH THOSE TALISMANS?!!!!!!!!!" the man in the middle yelled as he carelessly dropped the two people by his side.
"Feng Xin you're okay," Mao Yunru cheerily said as she quickly left her desk to go check on him. Feng Xin who was already an erupting volcano suddenly turned into an extinct volcano the moment he saw Mao Yunru rush towards him with a glowing smile.
"Mao Mao only you're the best, unlike a certain someone. I wish I could ditch his court for yours," Feng Xin said as he gave her a warm smile but not before throwing a death glare at Yang Qing.
"Feng Xin I knew nothing could happen to you. Didn't I tell you Yi Jie his ability to survive matches his ability to eat, truly unparalleled." Yang Qing said as he sheepishly laughed also making his way toward Feng Xin with Yi Jie in tow.
Mao Yunru hugged Feng Xin before she quickly moved to the two people on the floor.
"Summer stratus glow," She muttered as a golden cloud was produced from her index finger enveloping the two people. They were swallowed up by the cloud. Cheng Yuan's pupils were frozen once he saw the two people even in their charred state he could still recognize them. How could he not when one of them was his junior brother and the other was one of his oldest friends.
