"Judge Yang Qing, why did you do that? I get that you're excited about your day tomorrow, but haste is an act of impropriety."
Song Guozhi chastised Yang Qing as he straightened his robes showing clear displeasure on his face as he did it.
"Sorry about that, " Yang Qing awkwardly said as he smiled foolishly with remorse in his eyes, especially when he saw Song Guozhi use a bunch of spells to straighten his robes over and over again.
"Isn't this a bit too much? I didn't even drag him for that long," thought Yang Qing as he saw three minutes in, Song Guozhi was still not done with straightening his robes.
Yang Qing used that brief pause to stare at the hot potato in his hands. After the generous explanation from Assistant Director Jun Lei, those saint-grade treasures had lost their allure to him. Right now they were nothing more than dangers that had the potential to sink him further into poverty and a resultant slave of the Order, which he suspected was the Order's long-term plan. Yang Qing the inciter may need to come out of retirement and make the noble sacrifice of revealing the Order's intentions to the public before it was too late.
However, all that would be left for later as he had present predicaments to deal with in the form of the three saint-grade treasures. Despite wishing he could leave them behind and have absolutely nothing to do with them, he had to bring them with him.
The Order along with its meteoric rise in power and fame, also had enemies that grew in direct correlation to their power. Those enemies would target them in all sorts of locations including their own backyard.
The Order has always held a public ceremony in the promotion of its judges. This was done with a number of reasons in mind. For one; it was to bridge the gap between the judges and the public since they dealt with them all the time in their courtrooms and for another it was a show of force to the outside world.
Of course, the Order still hid a bulk of its power by not disclosing some of its members or power distribution of its forces like the inquisitors or guards of requiem among other branches whose identities needed as much secrecy as possible, but when it came to their judges they were all too glad to show them off and make a spectacle out of it, so as to buildup their own prestige.
However, that didn't always go so well for the Order. Since its founding, there have been a few judges who have died during their ceremony and some severely injured, especially those in the lower realms like the core formation realm or the palace realm.
However, despite these dangers surrounding the ceremony, the Order has firmly maintained the ceremony, never once have they considered postponing it. The ceremony could be considered a battle of sorts. It was the Order vs everyone else, and for the Order to remain truly effective in their duties that was a battle they could not shy away from.
Though even if they were determined to raise their prestige at all costs, the Order wasn't reckless about it. Every judge was a talent that they have spent considerable effort and resources to nurture. Their death and injury despite their cultivation realm, was a loss the Order would not want to swallow if they could help it. Thus over the years, they have fine-tuned their protective mechanism to ensure the increase of survivability of the judge at the center of the ceremony, and in the past 50 years, there has not been a single death or injury, all thanks to their continuous efforts and also the sacrifice of those who died or got injured.
…
Yang Qing sighed lightly as he tightly held the three saint-grade items. With them in hand, it was starting to sink in he was finally moving to the palace courts.
It took him seven bitter years, but he finally made it up to a new stage with different challenges and the most important part, better pay, hopefully, fewer working hours and he was a tiny bit closer to getting out of the thumbs of Lei Weiyuan and becoming his boss.
Of course, the latter part of the equation was impossible since he would need to atleast be in the soul formation realm and may be a member of the spirit council or Judicial review committee before he could be considered his boss, but getting out of Lei Weiyuan's command was a real possibility since all he needed to do was graduate to the domain courts.
"I wonder how long that will take." Yang Qing inwardly wondered. While breaking through to the palace realm was fairly easy with respect to the monsters from the Order, the holy lands, or some of the top tier rank 1 or 2 organizations but when it came to the domain realm it was a different matter.
Geniuses, monsters, and the top average, who had some chance to break through to the domain realm would all need considerable time and preparation to break through to the domain realm despite their considerable resources and level of talent. While one could be considered a true cultivator the moment one stepped into the palace realm, one would be considered a different being the moment one stepped into the domain realm.
The power to level an entire nation, flatten the mountains, render the sky asunder, split the rivers, and destroy space, all this power within a single being. This was the power of a domain expert, but it came at a cost and that cost was trading your life and surviving the tribulation that came in the advancement to the domain realm. The moment that tribulation fell, it fell with everything it had, subjecting the cultivator facing it, to judgment.
Are you worthy of the power and the title 'Domain'? Will your foundational dao survive the mettle? Is your will able to surmount a tribulation that makes the whole world quake?
The tribulation judged everything about the person facing it and if your heart flinched for even a second while facing it, your death was all but guaranteed, no matter how sturdy or powerful your dao foundations were.
When breaking through to the domain realm, it's either you will be a domain expert at the end of it, or you will be a cautionary tale of the has been genius who came this close to glory but fell short in the end.
Cultivators could survive failing their tribulations in the core formation realm or palace realm but breaking through to the domain realm, was either success or death, there was no middle ground. Every domain expert no matter their background or the quality of the domains, was worthy of respect because having that cultivation base was not only a title but proof that they risked their lives without flinching and made it through.
In some circles, breaking through to the domain realm was considered more dangerous than even breaking through to the soul formation realm because for the latter there have been a few survivors though pitifully few who survived failure in breaking through to the soul formation realm, but when it came to the domain realm, since time immemorial no one has ever survived after failing their tribulation. There have been some who had their bodies remain intact, but that was it.
This is why there are countless palace realm experts who are at the peak of their realm and have the qualifications of breaking through to the domain realm, but they never do it. They never trigger their tribulation to undergo the test because they know whatever awaits them is either death or success and the chances of the latter were slim at that. Those odds deterred most, which was why some, would rather spend their whole lives in the peak of the palace realm and maybe extend their lives using some treasures when they hit their life expectancy limits, rather than risk losing their lives to the domain tribulation.
The Order continuously warns its members to take their time and not be in haste to reach the domain realm. Strengthening and polishing one's dao is easy but preparing the will was the part that required time. Only experience and being tried over time could ensure your will was strong enough since willpower was not a talent but something borne out of experience. This is why you could find even a 17-year-old palace realm expert but you would be hard-pressed to find a 35-year-old domain expert. The palace realm could be considered as nothing but a bridge.
...
Yang Qing decided to push the matter to the back of his mind. He still had a few hurdles to go through before he could even consider sniffing the domain realm. One of them was the ceremony tomorrow which he hoped would pass by without a hitch and the other was realizing the gift of the purple core that would bloom when he was in the later stages of the palace realm.
From what he was told by some of the instructors from the institute, when he realizes that gift, his chances of breaking through to the domain realm would be significantly higher. The purple core despite the enormous efforts and requirements needed to attain it, had no difference from the gold core when one was in the core formation realm, however the moment one stepped into the later stages of the palace realm, the true brilliance of a purple core reveals itself then.
Yang Qing still had no clue what it was but he was told it was well worth the effort it took to get the purple core and more. Yang Qing hoped it was true since gaining the peerless jade body which was one of the prerequisites of forming a purple core, had come almost at the cost of his life, and worse if he died it would have been at the hands of his crazy experimental family's hands. It was why he was so fearful of them.
