When it came to the valley master, Yang Qing knew she was a monstrous genius, the kind that appears once every million years when it came to alchemy, herbology, and other related matters, but he didn't think when it came to combat she had enough abilities to make someone strong enough to be a chief inquisitor, to be fearful.
"Will I be safe, after refusing her all this time?" he worriedly wondered.
However, his thoughts of impending doom were cut short, when Vice President Tao Wen and Chief Inquisitor Zhu Qiu started another discussion of their own, more specifically related to the origin of that tree.
"Mei, can you show us what happened, please?" said Vice President Tao Wen to the horn in his hand which let out an elland's call as a water-like membrane appeared out of thin air displaying the events that happened in extreme detail.
Yang Qing and the rest were unable to follow because of the speed with which the details were being shown.
The whole ordeal had taken them close to an hour to conclude, but the water membrane appeared and disappeared in the blink of an eye.
"Your thoughts, brother Zhu Qiu?"
"The Ba She looks to have been artificially recreated, and with some degree of skill at that. The mastermind seemed to have embedded something in the founder as a fail-safe.
Mmh It seems the tree was controlled in the same way.
The mastermind seems to have a wide array of skills from alchemy to spirit beasts, and herbology, while his blood arts are some of the finest I've seen for it to be able to recreate lifelike creatures like the tree and the Ba She ..."
"Just as I thought, we have a thorny person here..." said Vice President Tao Wen as his eyes let out a strange ethereal glow.
"From the fight, the thorn had the power level of a soul beginner, but the exquisiteness of the moves, the level of expertise is of someone higher, and then there's a judgment.
They didn't even hesitate to detonate their apparition, despite the damage it does, all to make a clean getaway.
Brother Zhu Qiu, you are better at tracking than I am, although I feel someone that cautious and skilled is less likely to make such a mistake, but are there any traces left we can work with to track them?"
The chief inquisitor waved his palm like he was pulling something to himself. Millions of leaves surrounded by a mystical light were instantly produced from his palms, and spread all over the ruins of the Ice Emerald Sect with the bulk of it concentrated on where the corpse of the Ba She had been along with the red abyssal thorn tree.
The leaves gently swayed all over the place like falling leaves during autumn and cast an ethereal look to the place.
Yang Qing and the rest gasped in awe at the marvelous sight. They felt like they were standing in a galaxy of stars.
After a minute the leaves disappeared.
"The trace is light and discombobulated hidden beneath layers of trickery and misdirection. There are even curses mixed in there.." As Chief Inquisitor Zhu Qiu said this, hundreds of bursts of dark smoke surrounded with a radiant light appeared all over the place.
"Their karma has also been erased...but in combusting their apparition and also appearing, they did leave something, but by the looks of it, it will only be around for ten minutes or less.."
A wavy thin hazy golden light appeared as it weakly meandered like a river headed in the northern direction of the ruins of the Ice Emerald Sect.
"Ten Minutes huh...hopefully that is doable. My real body will meet us halfway..Oh before I forget.." the apparition of Vice President Tao Wen turned to face the five judges.
"The Chief Inquisitor and I need to chase after the person while we still have time, and I will need to take the horn with me.
Have this instead for your protection when you head back, should be enough to protect you against someone in the early stage of the soul formation realm. Though it will only be there for two hours at most, so make sure you reach the headquarters by then.."
Vice President Tao Wen opened his palms as five water swords instantly appeared. They gleamed with glow of the sun, and they were about the size of an index finger.
Yang Qing couldn't detect any energy from them and just seemed like a mundane water sword to him, a parlor trick conjured from qi.
The fact he couldn't gauge their power level was a sign of how unfathomable those ordinary-looking water swords were.
The five swords instantly flew toward them and disappeared into their bodies through their glabbelas.
The five judges tried to scan their bodies to find where the swords had disappeared to, but they all couldn't detect it.
"Take care now... and ..." a sympathetic look appeared on Vice President Tao Wen.
"Visit the judicial review when you arrive, they will guide you on what's next. This ordeal couldn't have been easy..Good job.." he said as he comfortingly patted each one of them.
"The doubt you have, the heaviness you feel, and all the other things running through your minds, don't hide from them, don't ignore them, just like when you conducted the sentence, face it.
It won't be easy, but take solace in knowing all you are feeling, we have all felt it. You're not weak for feeling it either.
I wish you rest and comfort on the path ahead.." Chief Inquisitor Zhu Qiu gently said as he saw the complicated looks flash in their eyes when Vice President Tao Wen patted them.
"Be well, and the Order will always offer you support despite the circumstance..." Vice President Tao Wen lastly said as he and Chief Inquisitor Zhu Qiu flashed and disappeared.
A somber silence drowned the area after the two had left, with the five young judges finally having a breather, as they prepared themselves for another fight, one though didn't have risk of death one, was just as tough.
It was unknown who sighed first, but they all collectively sighed, trying to relieve the heaviness from their chests.