Reason for existence

Yi Jie walked forward toward a different entrance than the one they had entered through. This doorway led to a separate hallway, where defendants and victims in dispute were held by other inquisitors, awaiting their call-up from the judge.

The hallway was packed with cultivators in varied robes, each awaiting their summons to the respective courts. Despite the sheer number, order was maintained, partly due to the presence of the inquisitors and partly due to the prestige the Cultivation Order Society had established over years of service, particularly toward discouraging any troublemaking within their grounds.

"Sect Master Cheng Yuan of the Green Fog Swamp Sect and the Emerald Leaf Cow, your case is being heard first. Please make your way over," Yi Jie called gently in the hallway.

As Yi Jie handled the call-up, Yang Qing busied himself by familiarizing himself with the case details.

...

The Green Fog Swamp Sect was a Rank 4 sect, meaning its strongest powerhouse was at the core formation stage. Ever since the Order's establishment, all cultivation organizations—sects, clans, royal families, merchant guilds—were ranked by power level and influence. This ranking system became a core part of the Order's structure, helping it decide how to handle and prioritize cases.

A group's rank was determined primarily by its most powerful member, alongside a few basic requirements. In total, there were five ranks, with Rank 5 as the lowest and Rank 1 as the highest. Rank 5 groups had a Foundation Establishment expert as its strongest cultivator, Rank 4 had a Core Formation expert as the most powerful member, Rank 3 had a Palace Stage expert, Rank 2 was led by a Domain-Level expert, and finally, Rank 1 was ruled by a Soul Formation expert.

However, two groups fell outside this ranking system: one was organizations whose highest member was at the Qi Circulation level, and the Holy Lands.

There were thirteen Holy Lands spread across the continents of the Blue Origin planet. The Central Continent held the highest number with five, followed by the Western Continent with three, and both the Southern and Eastern Continents with two. The Northern Continent held only one.

What set these Holy Lands apart was the rumored power of their leaders, said to surpass even the Soul Formation stage. While this claim was unconfirmed, their formidable strength alone was enough to make them unrivaled, as they could easily overpower multiple Rank 1 organizations at once.

The Cultivation Order Society could be considered a Holy Land itself due to its unmatched capabilities, despite having a shorter history than the two Holy Lands on the Southern Continent.

People in the southern continent often wondered why these two Holy Lands allowed the formation and the eventual growth of the Cultivation Order Society. Outwardly, it seemed detrimental to them for another party to rise up and muddy the waters in the continent. Cultivators or organizations founded by them, especially the powerful ones, were not known to be the magnanimous sort. More often than not, they did all they could to stifle the development of those lower than them and fiercely compete against those of the same rank and scheme or be wary of those stronger than them.

The Holy Lands despite having the term 'Holy' epithet, were not a righteous sort either. You can't play in the river and expect not to get wet. They got to where they were by playing that game, and usually, those who got to the top were the masters of that game.

This was why the rise of the Cultivation Order Society never made sense to some. It wasn't how things went. However, that didn't stop them from coming up with reasons why.

Those in the know ..or so they thought.. or those too tired of closed-door cultivation and needed a little breather and thus decided to gossip with some friends in a fancy pavilion somewhere stacked to the brim with voice-dampening formations. They hypothesized that these two Southern Holy Lands, the Radiant Sword Sect and Flowing Valleys Sect, had secretly founded the Cultivation Order Society. According to rumor, they created it as their proxy, a loyal dog trained to curb the rise of potential competitors.

Some events seemed to support this theory, including the mysterious decimation of a long-established Rank 1 sect by the Order itself. To this day, no one knows what provoked the attack. All that is known is that from then on, the Order cemented its profile as a powerhouse in the continent from that moment on.

Some took this hypothesis with a grain of salt, suspecting it to be a vicious rumor spread by those with an axe to grind against the Order.

The more credible hypothesis, widely accepted, was that these two holy lands feared outside threats more than internal upstarts. The continent-wide wars that almost destroyed it in the process, allowing outsiders to sniff around the Southern Continent, had only strengthened this suspicion.

In this version of events, the southern holy lands tacitly approved the Order's rise, their tacit silence the only "blessing" it would ever receive. They never gave a single low-grade spirit stone, much less a cultivation mat—even a ragged one fit only for a dog's bed.

Their approval nonetheless ensured peace in the Southern Continent, a peace that protected their future talent pool from being snuffed out in endless wars.

To these holy lands, the greatest threat wasn't some lecherous young master who would one day bring sect-destroying calamity to their doorstep.... which to this day, they still don't know which despicable bard spread the rumors that all these cultivation holy lands have lecherous habits of lusting after swan meat.

Their recruitment of female disciples suffered a massive blow during the height of those rumors. They scoured the whole continent, used karmic spells and all sorts of derivation techniques but never discovered who spread those rumors. One of the few unsolved mysteries to this day.

Instead, the greatest threat to the Holy Land's future was a generational talent gap—a period when new disciples could not match their predecessors in talent or ability. Without a steady stream of exceptional talent to carry on their legacy, even the wealthiest Holy Lands would eventually fall behind, leaving them vulnerable to their rivals. This was a very valid concern since Immortality was yet unproven to exist.

Geniuses were rare enough as it was, a scarcity these Holy Lands didn't intend to see worsen by constant war.

The Holy Lands had vast resources, but they needed geniuses to unlock the full potential of these treasures. The notion that geniuses thrived in adversity was, in their eyes, nonsense; true prodigies flourished anywhere, whether they were breaking through realms in their sleep or having epiphanies over a meal of spirit beast meat.

The idea that a genius needed to face life-or-death situations to grow was likely propaganda, maliciously and deliberately spread about by blood cult groups in the hopes of never lacking spilled blood for their arts.

With the Cultivation Order Society maintaining stability, these rare gems could grow strong, ensuring the holy lands' survival through the ages.

....

"Hmm, the Green Fog Swamp Sect," Yang Qing murmured, scanning through the jade slip.

"They're highly skilled in spiritual herb cultivation. Feng Xin once told me their spiritual rice has one of the finest flavors in the province. Gulp... I wonder if I could charm a sample or two from them," he mused, licking his lips.

The sect, because of their location, had always experimented with spiritual herb propagation, and one of these experiments led to an unexpected outcome: One of their herbs had awakened the latent spirituality of a cow they had on hand, now known as the Emerald Leaf Cow. She had managed to unlock a fragment of her bloodline, which, the sect later discovered, belonged to the rare Radiant Emerald Cow—a line that, if fully developed, had the potential to reach the Soul Formation stage.

Realizing the potential, the sect struck a deal with her. They agreed to feed her a diet rich in quality spiritual herbs, hoping to draw out her bloodline powers. In return, she would provide them with her spiritual milk.

The milk of a Radiant Emerald Cow had potent effects, revered among alchemists and cultivators alike. It could cleanse impurities, stabilize shaky foundations, and was considered an ideal emulsifying ingredient for alchemical potions. This milk was essential for disciples at the start of their journey, offering them a stronger start, and the sect saw it as an invaluable asset.

But now that she had reached the core formation stage, she had refused to continue the terms of the pact, resulting in a battle between her and Sect Master Cheng Yuan. Although the Emerald Leaf Cow was only at the early core formation stage, she managed to hold her ground against the sect leader, who was at the middle core formation stage.

"Interesting. That cow must have a higher-grade core," Yang Qing said, intrigued.

"No wonder the sect leader came to the Order. In a few years, she might surpass him entirely—and possibly seize his position as sect leader. Now that would be a fascinating development."

Yang Qing's lips quirked up in amusement as he continued reviewing the case.