Chapter 7: Last week as a superior core court judge (7)

The sect master of the Green Fog Swamp sect was caught off guard by the sudden call to his name, as he was busy scheming and wildly panicking about the supposed poisonous fungi that could very well be decimating his sect as he was here filing a complaint against his cow.

He quickly cleared his throat, collected his thoughts, and puffed up his gait to try and make himself look regal and authoritative. But it went wrong as he almost slipped on his right foot when he tried to pull off that look. The irony though, in trying to put his best foot forward, he almost lost it.

He swiftly regained his balance and deftly pretended nothing had happened. Yang Qing and the rest all went along with it as no ripple of emotion could be seen on their faces.

"My name is Cheng Yuang, and I'm the current sect master of the Green Fog Swamp sect. Our sect's foundation has been built in the cultivation of spirit herbs and alchemy. The herbs that we mostly deal in are upper-tier, Earth-rank herbs.

However, we've also had a bit of success, albeit very small, in cultivating a few herbs at the Sky rank, low-tier level. This has been beneficial to the sect and its growth. It was also due to this success that we were able to help Wen Chang activate her radiant emerald cow bloodline." Cheng Yuan paused for a minute to calm himself. Every time he thought of the ungrateful emerald leaf cow, blood would fill up in his throat.

Though what drove him even madder was that some of the sect elders had even turned to support the cow and worse the cow that just years ago he would have been debating which 1,000-year-old wine and herbs to pair her with, almost beat him black and blue that he had to use sect treasures just to fight her to a draw. A couple of earth-rank treasures ended up being destroyed by her hooves.

In the Blue Origin planet, spiritual metals and herbs were classified in the same order.

Their rank in ascending order was; mortal rank, earth rank, sky rank, monarch rank, ascendant rank, saint rank, and lastly the origin rank.

Origin-rank treasures are virtually none existent around the planet. The only proof of their existence is old scrolls, old ruins of a bygone era, and some mystical realms that speak of their existence briefly. Origin-rank treasures are nigh indestructible, they are thought to have been formed together with the planet, and thus the capabilities they can perform are immeasurable.

A single-origin treasure could support a rank 5 sect to rapidly rise into a holy land that lives to be insurmountable for ages as long as they have the overwhelming luck to keep it a secret.

In terms of power exertion; a mortal rank treasure or equipment was equivalent to the power display of a qi refinement cultivator, while earth rank is equivalent to a foundation establishment cultivator, sky rank is equivalent to a core formation expert, and so on and so forth.

The sect master of the Green Fog Swamp sect had lost over a dozen earth-rank weapons in his fight against the emerald leaf cow. For a sect of their rank to lose that much, was a substantial hit to their foundations, and that would take a while to recover. The situation was further exacerbated by Wen Chang reneging on her end of the bargain.

Without her emerald milk to offset the loss, they would be living in the red for quite a long time. Chen Yuan would have to make cuts again, which would stagnate the development of the sect. His eyes flashed with unconcealed anger every time his gaze fell on Wen Chang. Her selfishness and greed had undone everything he had been striving for. 

Once Cheng Yuan had his emotions in check he continued, "You see judge, 70 years ago when the monstrosity you see before you was just a young calf, we started feeding it, ahem,... I mean her, leaves from a young radiant twig Earthwood. The leaves had an astronomical effect as it managed to awaken faint THIN traces of her radiant emerald cow bloodline." Cheng Yuan emphasized the thin part with venom in his tongue that it even seemed fork-tongued like a snake's.

He cast a mocking side glance at Wen Chang who at the moment was glowing like a kid with a new toy as she played with the transmission ball.

"The leaves and other mortal and earth-rank herbs we added to her daily diet helped her awaken more of her bloodline and we also assisted her in parts of her cultivation and meditation techniques. We even went as far as seeking guidance from other local rank 4 beast tamer sects in the area, to help us formulate a plan for her growth. The stronger she grew, the more we knew it was out of our depths to be able to care for her growth efficiently. If she was an awakened plant we would have managed. With all we have gone through, there's never a day that has gone by without me wishing she was just an herb."

Sect master Cheng Yuan got lost in his thoughts and went off tangent and started raving endlessly about the pros of having an awakened plant as opposed to an animal. The cost, dignity, and ambiance. He even went down to his ancestry and speculation that one of his ancestors may have been a spiritual plant due to his deep sense of affinity to plants.

Yi Jie had to interrupt him to tear him away from his impassioned speech. It seemed he had been giving the whole plant thing a whole lot of thought. Even Wen Chang, the emerald leaf cow was surprised by the sect master's speech.

"I didn't know he loved plants this much. Explains the veiled hatred I always detect in his eyes every time they bring those second-rate herbs to me. Turns out I was eating his kin. I'll make sure to apologize later." The emerald lead cow made a silent mental note to herself as she looked at sect master Cheng Yuan with an unconcealed pity in her eyes. This resulted in a confused look from Cheng Yuan.

"Huh, is that pity I see in her eyes? Hmmph, she must think she is so powerful just because she got a few hooves in during our fight. If it wasn't for those silly elders holding me back, do you think the fight would have ended in a draw?" Cheng Yuan silently thought to himself as he gritted his teeth in anger. But he quickly cleared his head and focused on the matter at hand.

"Once she broke through to the foundation stage. We formed an agreement with her. She'd supply us with emerald milk and we'd continue giving her the resources she needed for her cultivation. It was mutually beneficial and even more favorable on her part because her upkeep was expensive.

Judge, normal cows eat a lot, now imagine a spiritual cow that is cultivating. The costs were huge. We had to sell a few high-grade earth-rank herbs, spend countless days and nights cultivating potions, and even take a few loans from some merchant organizations so the sect could continue functioning. We even stopped activating a few formation arrays in the sect to reduce cost. Part of her milk supply was used in offsetting this debt.

The cost of her upkeep only grew more and more the higher up the ranks she moved. But we endured through it because we knew once she broke through to the core formation realm, things would get better for the sect.

With her milk, we'd be able to harvest all the effort we put in and more. The milk from a core emerald leaf cow is the dream ingredient for many alchemists out there. Other than the combining effect it has with potions, especially on those with opposing properties, it can help alchemists who are usually affected by pill poison due to the nature of their work and end up having shaky foundations, to purify their channels and solidify their foundations.

With this, we could form a few connections in the alchemy circle and even get a variety of herbs for the emerald leaf cow. She was the dream cash cow to help both the sect and herself catapult forward. Up until she broke through to the core formation stage, I thought that was what she wanted as well. But all that changed the moment she broke through.

She got temperamental, the quantity of milk we had agreed on she shorted the quantity by two-thirds, claiming she has blocked qi channels, which is impossible for a core formation expert and I don't even see how qi channels affect milk production. Then she started stealing other herbs from the sect and even bribed a few elders and started draining the reserves with their help. The last straw was when she asked to eat the leaves from the Tupelo tree. This is our sect's ancestry and saving grace.

The reason the sect exists is because the tree created a safe sanctuary for us in an environment where we would have had no chance of surviving a week, let alone the nine thousand years we have been in existence. I vehemently refused her utterly outrageous and disrespectful request.

Words and bellows were exchanged and that's when our fight broke out. A part of the sect ended up in shambles because of the fight. The sect is almost in ruins because of her. Some of our possessions may even get repossessed by those merchants because of the millions we owe in medium-grade spirit stones. All BECAUSE THIS COW COULDN'T KEEP HER WORD AND GOT GREEDY!!!!" Cheng Yuan got very livid towards the end. One could tell from the bloodshot eyes and labored breaths he had as he pointed toward the emerald leaf cow with shaky hands.