Skies above Green pine county
"Ellie watch over him and don't eat him or fool around. I can't worry about finishing the evaluations on time and still keep an eye out for your games," said Yang Qing as he released a heavy pressure on Ellie.
Ellie screeched as she lowered her head submissively. Only when Yang Qing was satisfied he had got his point across did he remove his pressure.
He left the blood-fiend cultivator on Ellie's back in the sky as he gently leaped downward with Zou Yi and Zou Liqin in tow.
It had taken them almost half an hour before they finally made it inside Green Pine County. It was quite some distance away from Purple city as it was a border county just like the Yellow plains county. Except Green Pine County shared a border with Blue deer kingdom, a rank 4 kingdom.
To avoid the problems he had gone through when Ellie got attacked when she was out of range, Yang Qing decided to have her fly directly over the location he would be conducting his evaluation. This way in case something happened, he would be able to detect it before it became anything since she would be within range of his palace sense.
He still had her camouflage herself though, to avoid drawing unnecessary attention and trouble if they could.
Yang Qing used his cultivation force to gently land along with the Zou siblings who were still reeling in excitement from the flight over.
"That was so coooooool!!!" Zou Yi fervently said before he and his sister rumbled endlessly when Ellie did various maneuvers on the flight over.
Yang Qing left them to it as he removed the cloaking art he had used as they were dropping from the sky.
He had conveniently chosen to land in a secluded forest a few hundred meters from his evaluation point.
"Let's go," he said to the two siblings who were still heated in discussing Ellie's maximum speed.
It took them less than ten minutes before they stopped in front of a large grey rock ebony wood gate.
There were two burly-looking men in the early stages of qi refinement guarding the entrance of the gate.
Their looks turned vigilant once they saw Yang Qing and the Zou siblings however it turned normal once they detected the body refining stage cultivation of the two siblings.
They couldn't see through Yang Qing's cultivation but they just assumed he was a mortal with no aptitude for cultivation.
"Hi there, my name is Yang Qing. I have an appointment with your clan leader. Could you tell him someone from the Order has arrived for the clan's evaluation," Yang Qing introduced himself once he was a few steps away from the gate.
The two guards blanked out once they heard the mention of the name Order. It took a few seconds before they processed what they had just heard which was followed by dumbfounded gazes that gradually devolved into fear and anxiety then awkward silence which went on for too long that it prompted one of them to finally react.
"Yes, yes, the clan head informed us that there would be an evaluation. Please, this way esteemed master," One of the guards nervously said as he almost tripped over himself as he invited Yang Qing past the gate.
"Aren't you going to confirm my identity first?" thought Yang Qing though that didn't stop him from accepting the invitation and following the guard who almost tripped over a couple of more times before he finally got a grip on his legs.
His partner wasn't doing well either as he walked stiffly even too afraid to look back as he kept looking straight ahead while Yang Qing and company were behind him.
Ppft
"Zou Yi don't," Zou Liqin whispered softly as she hurriedly closed her brother's mouth.
"I can't help it, look," Zou Yi said as he pointed to the stiff walking guard who almost walked into some hedges as he kept walking in a straight line despite the pathway meandering.
Zou Liqin almost burst out laughing when she saw it but she managed to hold herself back in the end.
Yang Qing shook his head when he saw this. It wasn't exactly a new experience for him. Atleast the guards didn't faint or stand rooted for hours at the same spot without saying anything. There was even one time when one of the cultivators from the organization he was evaluating forgot his name and where he was due to the massive panic despite being informed beforehand that someone from the Order would be coming.
To the unranked organization, finally reaching the requirements to be promoted was an overwhelming experience for them all around despite their ranks. That feeling got amplified on the day of the evaluation and more so if they were the person interacting with the evaluator.
It got too much for them sometimes.
To Yang Qing, this was just another day in the office for him. Still, to these unranked organizations like the clan he was evaluating today, this was a monumental moment for them, the equivalent of an earth-shaking fortuitous encounter.
After a successful evaluation, they could be considered to finally have an identity in the southern continent no matter how minuscule it seemed, to these organizations it was a massive step.
….
After a couple of minutes of walking, a few building structures started appearing.
They were all made from earth-rank materials that were in the lowest of ranks even among earth-rank materials. However, despite the low quality used, the buildings' craftsmanship was good and they were properly maintained.
Yang Qing even spotted minimalistic courtyards around most likely used to host guests who stayed over.
"For an unranked clan they seem to be doing well," thought Yang Qing as he noted that all the buildings were made of spiritual wood. Even though it was the lowest earth-rank wood, it was still something when you considered this was an unranked clan.
The clan that he would be evaluating was called the Murong clan. One of their members had managed to break through to the foundation establishment realm six months ago after which they filed for an evaluation with the Order.
Due to the manpower issue vs the astronomical number of unranked organization filing for an evaluation, there was usually a backlog since only superior core court judges could handle rank 5 evaluations.
Since for one to be a superior core court judge one has to have a purple or gold core, it always ensures that their numbers are always small.
The Murong clan had filed for their evaluation six months ago the moment their clan member broke through however they had to wait six months before their evaluation spot came through.
Their wait time couldn't be considered long as there are times when it would last a year since the judges have to handle their cases and the evaluation and evaluations get less of a priority when the caseloads get too many.
Though the Order did create a few measures to handle the astronomical numbers and reduce the wait time. One of the methods was a quadrant evaluation model where the judges would evaluate a minimum number of evaluations within that quadrant. In Yang Qing's case, he was to conduct atleast 1,400 evaluations within his given quadrant.
The organizations that fell under the 1,400 was up to his discretion since he would be choosing the 1,400 from a longer list of atleast 5,000 unranked organizations that were within his quadrant.
The Murong clan was lucky it fell on the list of 1,400 organizations he chose otherwise they would have had to wait along with the other 3,599 organizations that didn't make it into Yang Qing's list.
However, to avoid unranked organizations with horrible luck suffering, all unranked organizations had a maximum 15-month wait time from the time they applied.
….
After walking for close to a quarter of an hour, they reached the center of the Murong clan's grounds.
"Please wait here while I go call the clan leader and the other elders," said the tripping guard as he dashed away like he was running for his life leaving his stiff walking partner with Yang Qing and the rest.
Yang Qing wasn't sure but he could have sworn he saw a look of envy flash in the stiff walking guard's eye as he watched the other guard bolt away.
"Am I that scary," He inwardly wondered as he chuckled to himself.
They met other clan members along the way who looked briefly at them as they went their way. Though the irony was, during the walk over those that looked their way were not doing so due to Yang Qing and the Zou siblings instead, it was due to the weird display from the two guards which drew curious looks from those members however all they did was look and never approached.
During the walk over Yang Qing noted that the average cultivation realm of the Murong family clan was in the early stages of qi refinement realm. There were a few who were in the middle stages but those who were in the middle stages were mostly elderly.
Based on his brief scan with his palace sense they were in their late sixties as for the younger generation those from between four to fifteen were mostly in the body refining stage with a few in the early stages of the qi refinement. But the latter group didn't number more than ten as Yang Qing detected seven of them and they seemed to be worshipped by other clan members around them.
Yang Qing couldn't help but sigh at the disparity he was seeing. Just a casual nobody from Purple city would be treated as a genius here.
This level of disparity was the reason unranked organization would try their very best to become ranked because with it they would get a chance to have one of their members train at the Order and with it a chance to change their fate. Otherwise barring special circumstances it would be impossible for them to improve on their circumstances let alone etch out survival in such a ruthless world.
