Yang Qing's Yin Yang jade bone physique made him sensitive to certain types of qi, especially ones related to slaughter, fiendish qi, or corpse qi. Yang Qing didn't detect a dense slaughter qi on Ma Yuan which meant he had fewer bodies on him.
If he could, Yang Qing wanted to help him with whatever pushed a man like him who seemed to be at the prime of his life, to the point he would willingly sentence himself to a painful death. From the earlier words that he spoke in a daze, he felt it had something to do with the person who was called Ruo.
He hoped the two days would be enough for Ma Yuan to get comfortable enough to open up to him about his circumstances, once he realized he was from the Order. If two days weren't enough, Yang Qing was willing to bring him back to the Order and book him an inn there and give him some time to think things through. If by the end of it, he still didn't feel comfortable sharing, then Yang Qing would leave it at just that and wish him well. But if he did decide to share his story, then Yang Qing was willing to help, if it was within his means to do so. If it was above his pay grade, then he would gladly dump it on Lei Weiyuan's lap.
…
True to his words, during the entire journey to the Diamond Body sect, not once did Yang Qing broach up the matter of Ma Yuan's past. They just silently drank wine enjoying the lonely skies atop Ellie's back.
Starlight was also with them. Yang Qing had placed him in the barrel he used to store the redears and bluegill from the Yin-rich lake. The blue-green water in the barrel had dense spiritual qi that had a gentle attribute that would help Starlight in his attempt at refining the wisdom pearl from the cyclone arc prawn.
The preliminary phase of refining the wisdom pearl was a critical juncture for it. If a blunder occurred during its attempt, the wisdom pearl would either disintegrate to ashes with all its insights disappearing, or the starlight crab would suffer a backlash from the pearl when all the insights stored in there instantaneously flooded its mind. The resultant effect would be the insights would saturate its mental sea slowly eating away at its spirituality till it finally ends up going berserk. From that point, it would only be a matter of time before it imploded.
In addition to the spiritually rich blue-green water, Yang Qing also dropped a few sky-rank herbs that were perfect for strengthening its mental state. Whatever happened next, it would have to depend on Starlight.
….
Yang Qing's group managed to reach the Diamond Body sect's territory about an hour later. The sect had dispatched one of their high-ranking elders to assist Yang Qing in his evaluations. The elder in question was a fourth-stage palace realm expert, which was a way for the sect to give face to Yang Qing.
By the time Yang Qing arrived, they already had everything in place, including the area in which Yang Qing would conduct his evaluation. They had set it at one of their branches that had been emptied out of its disciples. The only people who were left behind were the servants and the branch leader. Everything proceeded rather smoothly, especially with the assistance of the palace realm elder.
After a couple of hours, Yang Qing easily completed all 270 evaluations. Yang Qing wasn't sure if it was because of the prestige of the Diamond body sect or something else entirely, but none of the 270 organizations who came for the evaluation tried to scheme their way through their evaluations. All 270 organizations passed, though their results were not as outstanding as the ones from the Blue Lotus Kingdom.
The bulk of the organizations had red-grade pillars, while those that had orange-grade pillars didn't number more than ten. In terms of physiques, they were few in number and were of the general variety. Almost all of the recorded physiques were related to the wood element and they were of the low-grade kind at that, which didn't offer too much of a benefit to the user.
When Yang Qing was done, he exchanged a few pleasantries with the elder from the Diamond Body sect before he made his way to the territory of the Wind Gliding Mercenary Escorts. He had Ma Yuan with him during the evaluations, which came as a shocker to him when he realized Yang Qing was from the Order and also the respect showed by the palace realm elder towards Yang Qing.
Ma Yuan assumed it was the Order's prestige at play there, instead of it being a palace realm expert showing respect for another, especially to one so young.
Ma Yuan seemed to be out of sorts from the moment Yang Qing revealed his title. Even when they left, he seemed dazed like he had a lot of thoughts flooding his mind.
His rapidly contorting face gave away some of those thoughts. His look occasionally shifted through a multitude of emotions some of them being hesitation, dilemma, and fear. With how intense his emotions were, it wasn't hard for Yang Qing to see through some of them. With the hesitation in play, it atleast showed Ma Yuan was open to sharing, it only needed time.
Even with him close to the edge, Yang Qing decided to let things flow organically rather than forcefully steering it.
...
The Wind Gliding Mercenary Escort's territory wasn't that far from the Diamond Body sect. Their journey took them about two hours.
Just like the Spiritual temperance sect, the Wind Gliding Mercenary Escort had a loose control over its territory. Other than a small annual tribute, they didn't demand much from those within their territory. But unlike the Spiritual temperance sect that liked to close itself off from its territory, the Wind Gliding Mercenary Escort had over a dozen branches spread all around its territory. The branches' purpose wasn't oversight, but to lessen the barrier between them and those settling within their territory, while also growing their business through the use of that relationship.
The Wind Gliding Mercenary Escort is one of the few independent mercenary organizations that has managed to create a strong base for themselves. Their primary business is the transport and protection of goods from one point to another. Their specialty is, long-distance coverage. In addition to that, they also handle security for various auction houses.
The organization has been in existence for almost 20,000 years and has built a solid reputation for itself around the continent due to its service and strength.
They don't discriminate when it comes to their clientele, which has been one of the factors behind their growth over the years. With their amenable rates, even a rankless organization could hire their services. They have taken work from rankles organizations to high-ranking organizations like the Order.
It was from that established relationship that Yang Qing was able to gain their assistance on short notice, for his evaluations.
