Daily life of a cultivation judge-Chapter 914: Recompense
The recording cut off after the red-haired man uttered those words. Xiao Gun’s eyes were slightly reddened, welled up with tears, his gaze transfixed on the area where the projection of the red-haired man had been. Yao Chang had also been looking at the same spot with trembling lips, which perfectly displayed how distraught he was.
Finding the dragon’s gate was a phrase they coined during their period of captivity. At the start, it was used as some gimmick, something they said for a laugh. With how bleak things were, humor was their way of maintaining their sanity.
Then after they escaped, the phrase sort of stuck with them, only this time it wasn’t used as a joke. Every time before they ventured into some dangerous location they would utter those words, "May we find the dragon’s gate."
The words acted as a form of blessing and determination at the same time. A hope that whatever venture they were about to undertake would bear fruit, enough fruit to be able to wholly transform their lives from carps into dragons.
Before the cauldron, they never found anything noteworthy, but that phrase, just like when they were captured by Tan Song, stirred them on to keep trying, despite the many misses they had or the hardships they endured.
Those six words and each other were what kept them from truly falling into the pits of despair.
However, now, those words had lost their charm to them both. They were no longer a source of hope but a tragic reminder of the companion they lost, and how unforgiving the world was.
After the recording had finished playing, Xiao Gun took a while to compose himself. He took a deep breath, bearing the look of someone trying to muster the courage for a great undertaking. He smoothened out the edges of his sleeves, before finally settling his gaze on Branch Manager, Yao De, whose attention seemed to be elsewhere.
The old branch manager’s attention was on Lin Guiren, and he bore the look of a child caught in the act of doing something mischievous by their parents and was now forced to explain themselves.
"Fu Yong didn’t have to die. Yes, the cauldron was valuable, but was it something the Golden Bamboo Pavilion couldn’t pay a price for? Is that how your organization operates? Conning your customers, and when that doesn’t work you escalate it to robbing and killing them?" Xiao Gun deeply said, his attention locked on Yao De, before it went to the former emperor, Duan Hu.
"I understand pandering to those stronger than you, being no stranger to it myself, but even I, despite being the lowest in the rungs of society, have a bottom line that I would not cross. I would have expected that a nation such as yours would have one.
But then again, seeing how you easily sold out your own citizens, it isn’t all that surprising that you would engage in vagrancy too.
Though I might not be able to prove it, I doubt that the commander took those actions without tacit approval from you, after all, there was the testimony from earlier that showed you two selling that Daoist’s father.
Then there is also the news of you and the branch manager being sworn brothers. What are the odds that it was a coincidence that a commander with royal bloodline just happened to be outside the branch just as Fu Yong was leaving, and within an instant, they immediately brandished him a thief and attacked him?
Unlike the daoist from before, neither I nor Yao Chang have the strength to personally avenge Fu Yong, in as much as we may want to," Xiao Gun paused as he let out a sigh of resignation.
"We can’t claim the debt to his life but we can try and claim the debt owed for the cauldron. We want our cauldron back, that’s it. As long as you hand it back the matter can be considered settled.."
One could hear the bitterness in his tone as Xiao Gun said that. Getting robbed or short-changed on a deal wasn’t exactly a matter the Order dealt with directly. They would only be involved directly if either Xiao Gun or Yu Chong wanted to file for a duel for the return of their treasure.
In such an instance, provided the grounds met the threshold, the Order would enforce the duel, and act as a guarantor and officiator for it. If either Xiao Gun or Yao Chong had enough strength, strength that matched the branch manager, they could have filed for a duel against him in which the winner gains ownership over the cauldron.
If they won, they would not have to fear any reprisal from the Golden Bamboo Pavilion, since everything from the fight, down to the results were guaranteed by the Order. The Order would act as their guarantor. If the Pavilion tried to seek vengeance because of the results, they would have to face off against the Order.
It was the best cover for rogue cultivators like them who had no backing, but as it stood, neither he nor Yao Chang were remotely close to the palace realm. They could forget about that option.
Their only play here was to try and leverage the Order’s prestige and hope the branch manager or the Golden Bamboo Pavilion would hand over the cauldron without a fuss. Xiao Gun was even willing to compromise and accept payment in kind if they didn’t want to part with the cauldron, after all, if he were to get the cauldron now, he and Yao Chang had already agreed they were going to sell it, only this time they were actually going to follow the advice given to them by the overseer at Sacred Kirin Manor.
From the moment the Order approached them about the case, they had already decided, if by some luck they ended up getting the cauldron back, they were going to hand it over to the Medical Saint Garden Sect, in exchange for asylum or maybe a treasure that could guarantee their lives or one that could maybe alter their fates if it was possible.
Right now Xiao Gun could only hope that the Golden Bamboo Pavilion cared so much about their face that they would be unwilling to drag things out and just choose to concede. After all, even though the cauldron was precious, its true value was truly realized when the three times items were combined, elevating the cauldron to a quasi-ascendant grade artifact, but separate, the cauldron was no more than a monarch-grade artifact with a damaged foundation.
The thievery of one of their members aside, the Golden Bamboo Pavilion was a large and powerful organization, surely they had thousands upon thousands of monarch-grade artifacts to care about some damaged monarch-grade cauldron. At least that’s what Xiao Gun hoped.
As with all cases, branch manager Yao De was allowed to say something in his defense if he so wished, a right he gladly exercised, though he still did seem to be ill at ease even as he did so.
This 𝓬ontent is taken from freeweɓnovel.cѳm.
"It is true, the cultivator by the name of Fu Yong did come to the branch to sell a cauldron.." Yao De said with a calm and unhurried tone.
"I made an offer on it, 1,500 high-grade stones to be exact. There’s no denying it, yes, the cauldron had a special charm to it, but that was all it had, a charm of antiquity. It was no different than the dried-out bones of some long-deceased powerful beast.
When it came to output and strength, it did show the capabilities of a monarch-grade artifact, however, that ability was unsustainable, due to its damaged origin foundation. As you all know when it comes to artifacts, specifically artifacts with spirits, damage to their origin foundation is the cultivator equivalent of a crippled cultivation.
The cauldron’s abilities were quickly degraded and in a few years, or less, I have no doubt its abilities would have plummeted down back to the sky grade from the monarch grade, and if anything were to happen that prompted it to expend the little scattered energy it had, then it would easily shatter like a porcelain vase.
Its damage was that extensive. This is why even if it showed to have the capabilities of a monarch grade I couldn’t buy it at the price of one. Its origin foundation was damaged, and its spirit was almost nonexistent which is usually the whole essence of any artifact that is at the monarch grade and above.
With so many detrimental features, I couldn’t offer to buy it at the price of a monarch-grade artifact."
"Pardon me, but what is the standard buying price of monarch-grade artifacts at the pavilion, for low-tiered ones, that is?" asked Yang Qing.
Just as Yao De was about to answer, Liu Guiren beat him to it.
"Depends on the material used and the spirit’s potential. The lowest price we can buy such a treasure at would be 10,000 high-grade spirit stones.."
"Thank you for your assistance, pavilion owner Lin Guiren.." said Yang Qing as he nodded his head in gratitude.
The quote was more or less what he expected, as he inwardly clicked his tongue when he thought of how miserly and black-hearted the Order was. While the standard rate outside was 10-12,000 high-grade spirit stones for low-tier monarch-grade artifacts, he knew for a fact that the Order would go to as low as 7,000 high-grade spirit stones.
Unless he had no option, Yang Qing would never sell his wares to the Order, those penny pinchers would always give the strictest evaluations all so they could pay less.
You could bring them a low-tier monarch-grade artifact, or natural treasure, you’d leave the appraisal feeling like you walked in with a beetle’s rolled-out dung, instead of a precious treasure.
Pushing those thoughts aside, he asked Yao De to continue.
"With all those challenges in place, I couldn’t in good conscience buy that cauldron at the price of a monarch-grade artifact, not when I knew the artifact was hanging on by a thread. That at any moment, it could either break into pieces once the energy that held it together was sapped, or that it would drop in grade in less than four years.
The damage was irreparable and its decline was all but set in stone. In respect of what the cauldron once was, I decided to offer a bit over the value of a top-tier sky-grade artifact which we usually buy at 800- 1,000 high-grade spirit stones, and I offered him 1,500, because of the cauldron’s unique aura.
Fu Yong thinking I deceived him retaliated, and detonated a soul puppet without provocation or warning. Luckily no other customers were close by or they would have been caught in the aftermath.
As I was containing the destruction left by the detonation, I managed to pinpoint Fu Yong’s real body and saw him getting away. Afraid that he had other soul puppets on hand, I hurriedly informed Commander Duan Mu of the danger he posed, and what he had done at the store.
As the recording you just played showed, his death had nothing to do with us. The void stone was what took his life when it consumed his lifespan as he tried to escape.
Though I know it’s callous for me to say, it was his actions that drove him to that point. None of it had anything to do with me, Commander Duan Mu, or even Emperor Duan Hu.." said Yao De.
"What happened to the cauldron?" asked Yang Qing as Xiao Gun and Yao Chang clenched their fists in anger at Yao De’s remark.
Yao De almost with no hesitation answered,
"It got blown up in the soul puppet’s explosion. Fu Yong’s soul puppet had been holding it when he triggered the detonation, and as I said before, the cauldron was already in a fragile state. With the extensive damage it had, a powerful enough stimuli would have been enough to push it over the edge, and Fu Yong’s explosion did just that.
A shame, a true shame.." Yao De said as he sighed in pity whilst shaking his head.
