Once Xia Ting had led the two parties to their respective positions, she nodded toward Yang Qing and stepped back.
"Hello to both of you, my name is Yang Qing and I will be the judge in charge of this case. As my colleague may have already told you, the moment you stepped through the doors of this courtroom you are both subjects under the regulations of the Order.
Whatever conclusion and verdict we come to, are to be followed to the letter.." Yang Qing sternly said to which the two parties both nodded in acknowledgement.
"Good. Since you have entrusted us with the duty of bringing this matter to a just resolution we will do everything within our means to ensure just that.
Owner Bai Zhou, your restaurant, the Golden Duck Platter stands accused by Daoist Li Shu of selling her dishes that were dosed with alchemical pills.
As per her statement, she has been a regular member of your establishment for the past twenty eight years and has rarely missed a day without having a meal there.
About three years ago she started experiencing slight difficulties circulating her qi using her qi circulation art. The issues started growing from there. Her qi flow became sluggish and erratic, and some of her meridians appeared to have weakened and others appeared to have been blocked.
This later translated to her skin, where green and purple patches started appearing on different parts of her body. When she consulted a medical practitioner she was diagnosed with Spiritual qi imbalance and meridian blockage as a result of pill poisoning.
As per her statement, she doesn't use pills for cultivation other than the occasional pill for healing injuries and the like, so as per her there is only one place she could have gotten pill poisoning from, which is from the foods from your establishment.
Those are the charges filed against you and your restaurant, Owner Bai Zhou.
You will both take turns, to explain your side of things. Be as clear and direct as you can, and leave no information out that you may think may be relevant to the case.
After hearing both testimonies, there will be independent alchemists and medical practitioners brought forth for the purposes of the cases, to help provide more information that will help shed more light into the situation and offer a resolution that both of you can accept.
Now then, I think as the accuser, we will start with you, Daoist Li Shu..." said Yang Qing as he motioned to the pink-haired core formation expert to start.
"Thank you for the opportunity, Judge Yang Qing. My name is Li Shu and I'm a guest elder of the Shao clan which is a rank 4 clan, though because of this incident, I'm no longer considered one of their members.????????????????????????????????.????????????
I guess I'm an independent cultivator now..." she said as she smiled ruefully.
Even though she tried to hide it with satire and humor, Yang Qing could detect the bitterness and disappointment in her tone.
Based on her words, it wasn't hard to guess that the Shao clan had more than likely cut ties with her when she decided to go against the Golden Duck Platter that was owned by a palace realm cultivator.
The Shao clan most likely thought to themself they couldn't afford to offend a palace realm cultivator, especially not for an outsider like Li Shu who was only a guest elder.
Yang Qing couldn't help but feel it was a pity. Li Shu was only 180 years old and she was already a sixth stage core formation expert. Though her qi flow was still unstable due to pill poisoning, from a scan Yang Qing could tell she had a quasi blue grade core.
With such a talent, any rank 3 organization would be quick to scoop her up and give her favorable conditions even rank 2 organizations would accept, though not as a guest elder, but she still had the qualifications to pass through their doors as a normal disciple.
From the information he was given, the person with the highest cultivation in the Shao clan was a supreme elder who was at the eighth stage of core formation, however as per the report, he seemed to only have less than 100 years left in his lifespan.
The next Shao clan family member to follow him was the current clan leader who was at the sixth stage of the core formation realm same as Li Shu, though he was not as young. As per the record, he was already above 1,000 years old.
Other than him, there were only six other members of the Shao clan who were in the core formation realm, and all were in the early stages and none showed as much talent as Li Shu. An outsider would be baffled why Li Shu was even in such a clan as a guest elder. I think you should take a look at
Yang Qing asked himself the same question too, before he learnt that when she was in the early stages of core formation realm, one of their clan elders had helped her when she was injured. The elder in question was a peak foundation establishment member who was an alchemist. He helped her with her injuries and Li Shu out of a sense of responsibility offered her services to the clan as a guest elder.
The Shao clan was all too glad to agree since they would be gaining the services of a first-stage core formation expert, and a young one at that. Under normal circumstances, it would have been hard for them to invite someone of her talent, not with the foundations they had.
With her help, they managed to stabilize their footing in Silent Willow County, which was a free-for-all all county under the rule of the Jadebrook Kingdom, a rank 4 kingdom that was top tier among rank 4 organizations.
The royal family had over a hundred core formation experts and about 11 quasi palace realm experts but funny enough never a palace realm expert. Rumor had it, the reason there was no palace realm expert in the kingdom was because they had displeased a powerful cultivator, and from that moment forth every palace realm cultivator to come out of the royal family would die through inexplicable means.
So no one from the royal family dared to break through to the palace realm, and because they wanted to keep hold of their kingdom as the prime rulers, they also restricted the aristocratic families under them by allowing other organizations to freely establish within their territories so they could compete for resources.
Silent Willow County was one of the territories that had an open door policy where all organizations could mix in there, and the Shao clan was but one of the cultivation clans established there and Golden Duck Platter had also opened a major branch within that county.
To survive in such a place Li Shu's help came in handy and she continued to do so even when the elder who had helped died due to old age. She still continued supporting the Shao Clan to help them establish a foothold in Silent Willow County.
But when she got pill poisoning and her case with Golden Duck Platter escalated, it seemed that they cut their ties with her.
From what he read, even when it came to the medical cost, they offered the bare minimum which couldn't cover the whole cost which was why she resorted to bringing the Golden Duck Plater to court to try and get compensation or her cultivation journey ahead would be halted.
Pill poisoning was just as dangerous as hidden injuries when it came to hindering the journey of a cultivator.
The more time passed by without it being removed, it would affect the qi flow, seep into the meridians and internal organs as it slowly corroded the body of the cultivator adding more side effects with every corrosion.
The more it stayed in the cultivator's body, the greater the danger, because you never know what other component of the world would react with the pills accumulated in your body which may result in an almost irreversible damage to the cultivator such as permanently damaging the body's foundation.
Pill poisoning sufficient to affect a sixth-stage core formation expert requires the services of a blue-grade medical practitioner or alchemist to ensure its complete removal and recovery, and gaining the services of one isn't cheap either.
It was why Li Shu more than likely didn't hesitate to file her charges even at the risk of offending a palace realm expert, and whatever backlash that may come from it. She had the fate of her cultivation journey on one hand, and making an enemy of a palace realm expert on the other, and a clan holding a knife in her back.
Even though Yang Qing was meant to be impartial, he couldn't help but sympathize with her plight.
...
Li Shu quickly recollected herself and continued.
"I'm not skilled in many things other than using the spear and eating. Though if I'm honest I love the latter more than the former..."
When she said this a gluttonous glint flashed in her eyes, and at the same time Yang Qing had the same look flash in his eyes as his mind wondered what to eat for Lunch.
"He's like me."
"She's like me."
At that moment, they could both sense each other's gluttonous spirits.
