Daily life of a cultivation judge-Chapter 1102 - The way of the paranoid

1102: The way of the paranoid

1102: The way of the paranoid

Yang Qing didn’t linger too long on that particular thought as he carefully put away the information jade slips detailing the four members of the Bluefin Spine-tailed Swift Escort Agency.

Although the information within didn’t shed light on the disappearance of Bai Chen, Jiang Hao, or their ship, it did answer a few lingering questions that had been on Yang Qing’s mind—particularly regarding Bai Chen’s story and his relationship with the Gold Earth Bank.

As for the other members, while their backstories didn’t directly contribute to solving the case, they did provide insight into their personalities and circumstances.

This clarity helped Yang Qing in determining their roles in the investigation, reducing their likelihood as suspects.

He hadn’t ruled them out entirely, but the additional details allowed him to lower his suspicion of them, freeing up his focus for other, more pressing avenues of inquiry.

Shifting his attention, Yang Qing reached for one of the jade slips Duan Ting had handed over.

This one contained a list of what and who had gone missing, along with details of their ownership or affiliations.

Unsurprisingly, the list wasn’t particularly long.

By the time Jiang Hao and the rest of the ferry disappeared, they had already completed roughly three-quarters of their commissions.

Among the missing passengers was a family of six—four males and two females—all sharing the surname Su.

Each family member was reportedly in the late stages of the core formation realm.

This detail wasn’t included in the jade slip Duan Ting had handed over but was instead mentioned in the report Yang Qing received from the Administrative Building responsible for Gold Eagle Town’s governance.

The jade slip from Duan Ting not only listed the names of the missing clients but also outlined the terms of their contracts.

According to the document, the Su family’s arrangement involved transportation only; no valuables were included in their commission.

In addition to the Su family, there was also a couple on board, both in the foundation establishment realm.

Like the Su family, they were simply being transported, with no goods or cargo included in their agreement.

The final missing passenger, aside from Jiang Hao, was a cultivator named Zhu Fa.

This was the individual Ming Wa had been frantically searching for, leading to the commotion she caused at the escort agency.

Yang Qing’s brow arched slightly as he cross-referenced Zhu Fa’s details from the slip Duan Ting provided with the information in the report from the Administrative Building.

It went without saying, Duan Ting’s slip just like the others, , had no mention of Zhu Fa’s cultivation realm, just the terms of the commission which was him being transported to Turtle Lapis Lazuli Empire, a prominent rank three empire that was at the higher end of the spectrum when it came to organizations of similar ranking. freēwēbηovel.c૦m

What truly caught Yang Qing’s attention, however, was an asterisked note beside Zhu Fa’s name in the slip from the Administrative Building.

According to the note, Zhu Fa had lied about his cultivation base when entering Gold Eagle Town.

He had claimed to be at the seventh stage of the core formation realm, but in reality, he was at the quasi-palace stage.

To conceal his true strength, Zhu Fa had been using a monarch-grade artifact capable of masking his cultivation base, presenting a false aura in line with his fabricated claim.

The artifact’s potency was impressive; it had successfully deceived the silver guard at the town’s entrance.

This particular guard was a first-stage palace realm expert, yet even his senses had been fooled.

Its strength was probably what bolstered Zhu Fa’s confidence and he dared lie to the Silver Guard.

He more than likely believed he wouldn’t be found out, or at least not in the short term, since his stay in the town would have been brief.

However, he had made one grave mistake, which was overestimating that artifact’s abilities and underestimating the Order’s abilities, nature, and how it did things.

Due to his childhood and a family filled with eccentrics, Yang Qing grew up as a highly eccentric, highly paranoid individual.

But even then, his levels of paranoia stayed within a normal and acceptable threshold.

It was only when he joined the Order that his paranoia was purposefully fed and nurtured, growing to the obscene levels it was at today.

The Order had truly perfected the craft of raising highly paranoid individuals, so Yang Qing’s paranoia wasn’t an outlier within the Order’s sphere.

Every single person there was highly paranoid, which in turn shaped the way the Order as a whole conducted itself.

They did their business assuming the worst of everything.

As a result, whenever they set something up, it was always covered under multiple layers of redundancies.

The way they worked was like a cautious, powerful cultivator who, even when facing an opponent weaker than them, would go into the fight highly alert and paranoid, asking themselves a few questions to fuel that paranoia:

What if that opponent has some powerful trump card that can hurt me?

What if they have backup hidden somewhere in the shadows?

So, even if the cultivator was multiple levels stronger than their opponent, fueled by paranoia, they would go into the fight armed to the teeth, looking to end it swiftly.

They wouldn’t just rely on their cultivation base.

They would also use their most powerful move with their strongest weapon.

On top of that, they would likely use every external advantage they could find: powerful talismans, artifacts, formation arrays—whatever they had.

And they would ensure that they themselves were protected with the best defensive measures available.

Even then, they might still feel unsatisfied with the precautions they put in place.

This was like a peak palace realm expert attacking a middle-stage qi refinement expert while wielding a gold-grade art, a top-tier monarch-grade weapon, and wearing not one but multiple top-tier monarch-grade defensive treasures.

Add to that high-quality talismans capable of unleashing 50% of a domain expert’s strength and a hidden top-tier blue-grade formation embedded in the battlefield—all used together in a single attack.

That level of overkill was how the Order operated.

It was a given that they expected cultivators to lie about their realm and employ methods that might successfully deceive the Silver Guards stationed there.

Anticipating such tactics, the Order layered redundancies upon redundancies, always assuming the absolute worst and crafting measures to counter it.

No matter how exceptional the artifact Zhu Fa was using, it would ultimately fall short against the Order’s paranoia and level of preparedness.

It was the same reason Yang Qing’s schemes always ended in abject failure against them.

His achievements in the Dao of paranoia were nothing compared to those of the Order.

Even if Zhu Fa had been wielding a saint-grade treasure, Yang Qing doubted it would have been enough to escape the Order’s gaze.

They likely had measures in place to see through even saint-grade artifacts and treasures—otherwise, they wouldn’t have opened Gold Eagle Town to the countless rank-one and rank-two organizations that had established branches there.

“First Ming Wa, and now him…” murmured Yang Qing, noting the reckless behavior of the two individuals.

Ming Wa had started a fight in town despite knowing the repercussions, while Zhu Fa lied about his cultivation base despite the town’s regulations strongly advising against it.

Both of them had been lucky.

Ming Wa was fortunate that it was Yang Qing who stepped into the Bluefin Spine-tailed Swift Escort Agency earlier today and not someone else from the Order.

As for Zhu Fa, his luck lay in the Order’s sensibilities and the strength that shaped those sensibilities.

Even though he wasn’t there, Yang Qing could understand why the Order let Zhu Fa’s deception slide despite being aware of it.

To the Order, Zhu Fa’s lie likely didn’t matter much.

In their eyes, a quasi-palace realm expert and a seventh-stage core formation expert belonged to the same category—core formation experts.

While quasi-palace realm cultivators were undeniably much stronger within that group, having one foot halfway into the palace realm, they were still not true palace realm experts.

Ultimately, they remained core formation cultivators.

Now, if Zhu Fa had already stepped into the palace realm, that would have been a different story entirely.

He would almost certainly have been detained for his deception and questioned about his motives.

Depending on the answers he gave, the Order would have determined whether his punishment would be light or severe.

“Hiding their identities, a top-tier monarch-grade artifact, a quasi-palace realm figure masquerading as a seventh-stage core formation expert, a blue-grade art, and a cultivator with a blue-grade core…

I wonder what troubles you’ve brought with you,” mused Yang Qing, a faint light flickering in his eyes.

“What were you planning to do in the Turtle Lapis Lazuli Empire?” he murmured thoughtfully, idly twirling the jade slip containing Zhu Fa’s information between his fingers.

“Or perhaps it has nothing to do with that place,” he added, his tone contemplative.

“Given their behavior, I wonder if their true destination is more hidden.

Was the empire just a convenient waystation—close enough to their real destination to misdirect, but not so close as to make it obvious?”

He let out a sigh, his gaze falling on the jade slip.

“If only Ming Wa had been a little more forthcoming, this would all be so much easier.”