Ruins of the Ice Emerald Sect
"Can you guys give me a second.." Yang Qing said as he headed to the location where the Wisteria tree had been.
Yu Gen, Xia Ting, and four other inquisitors had already arrived where they were, after everything had settled down.
The four inquisitors were each from the four judges' team that they had brought along for the mission. Their duties along with the two roaming inquisitors were to maintain the cordon around the Ice Emerald Sect while also remaining vigilant against any would-be cultivators who would be tempted to interfere with the sentence, or those scheming to fish in troubled waters.
It wasn't only the allies of the Ice Emerlad Sect they were wary about, especially with the recent rise in attacks on Order employees, an event like this one would be the perfect place to plan an ambush, especially, in the midst of the chaos brought about by the fight.
Therefore the five had to make sure their bases were covered even if they had a saint-grade treasure and an ascendant-grade treasure, that was now nonexistent.
Mo Liwei's inquisitor was a lady named Yu Lanfen. She had a studious look about her, like one of someone who liked things done prime and proper. She was at the second stage of the palace realm just like Mo Liwei.
Wei Ying's inquisitor was a taciturn young man with a slender and small build. He was at the second stage of the palace realm and was an accomplished swordsman from the bit Yang Qing knew.
Next were Dai Chen and Zhang Qingge's inquisitors who were both in the first stage of the palace realm.
Both Dai Chen and Zhang Qinggee were newly promoted palace court judges. They had only been there less than a year more-so the latter.
Every judge had five inquisitors to their team, with the option to have more, should the option be available but at the bare minimum, they needed to have five.
Dai Chen had six inquisitors under him while Zhang Qingee had five, and of their inquisitors, only two from both sides had reached the palace realm. In Dai Chen's case it would have been three had Lai Lei not been gravely injured and had his dantian injured while he was in the quasi-palace realm.
In terms of talent, among the inquisitors under Dai Chen, he was the most skilled, skilled enough to even rival Dai Chen's abilities, the same as how Yi Jie was with Yang Qing.
Stepping up to cover the gap left by Lai Lei's injury was an inquisitor by the name of Cheng Qing. He was a bit older than Dai Chen and by default Yang Qing. His features were that of someone in his early forties. He had short black hair and a calm and stable aura about him.
The Order unlike most organizations, never looked at someone's age when they applied to get in. They would rather spend enormous resources to pull out a buried talent from the ground which always resulted in a few old cultivators coming in through their ranks like that old man during the test in Yang Qing's invigilation who managed to gain sword sense during the test, while also showing one of the highest comprehension skills with the cultivation art Yang Qing had given them.
Cheng Qing, Dai Chen's inquisitor got in the same way. He was 70 years old when he got in. He had wanted to maintain the same look, but it made Dai Chen and Lai Lei feel awkward so he changed his look to his present look.
He didn't have any outstanding qualities other than the fact that he was a jack of all trades. He knew enough about everything, whether it was soul techniques, formation arrays, pill refining, medicine, or poison identification. He wasn't stellar at them, but he knew enough for a baseline and his application of them was ingenious and creative.
He was an all-rounded person who would have been the likely candidate to be head of the inquisitors under Dai Chen's team, but refused it because in terms of talent, he couldn't match Lai Lei, but with Lai Lei injured, he took up the mantle.
When it came to Zhang Qinggee, the inquisitor by her side, was a gentle, motherly, and serene-looking young lady called Zhu Ren. She was from the same year as Yang Qing but a bit older than them by four years.
She was the head inquisitor under Zhang Qingge and had a special physique related to the earth element. In terms of defense, she was an absolute turtle which suited her rather well for her role because even though she was an inquisitor, her primary job was to be Zhang Qingge's nanny. Whether it was to hold her hand during shy moments or prevent her callous berserker state from causing too much damage.
Zhang Qingge would be buried in never-ending debt from reparations were it not for Zhu Ren. She was great friends with Yi Jie, which Yang Qing never understood how, since Yi Jie was never a sociable person. Other than his wine friends, he rarely interacted with people.
The four judges had thus decided to each bring one member of their team, while in Yang Qing's case, the two roaming inquisitors had to be present as primary investigators of the whole thing.
...
"I can't believe you're still hanging on. I wonder what it is that has you desperately clinging on?" Yang Qing said as he gently removed the debris and sand that covered a tiny withered bark that had cracks all over, and faint white flashes in those cracks that also released a little cool mist.
"F..i..n..al w..o..r..d..s.."
"Yours?" asked Yang Qing with a sad expression on his face.
This day was less than pleasant for him, and when he saw the husk of the Wisteria tree, his emotions grew even more complicated.
Despite knowing it was corrupted, and had its spirit sealed. The tree had still been at the center of thousands of deaths one of which was Ma Yuan's wife.
If Yang Qing didn't know someone related to its victims, he was sure he wouldn't be feeling as he did. The churning pit in his stomach made him nauseous, and his body felt unlike himself.
If it was just victims on a piece of paper, he would have been sympathetic but he interacted with Ma Yuan for quite some time which inadvertently made him invested.
He hoped he could reunite the whole family and give the man some good news as a reprieve for all the torment and suffering he had endured for the past seven years.
