Daily life of a cultivation judge-Chapter 1165 Not following the script

1165: Not following the script

1165: Not following the script

As if seeing through the flurry of questions swimming around in Yang Qing’s mind, Xia Fang answered,

“We had our eyes on the Chi family more than the rest for many years.

It was only eighteen months ago that we realized the true threat was the Ning family.”

Xia Fang sighed, her eyes flickering with deep sadness and regret.

“They had a hidden expert?

Or some treasure capable of threatening you?” Yang Qing asked, wondering how the Ning clan had managed to force the cooperation of the others.

Xia Fang shook her head.

“A bit of both, but not necessarily,” she replied.

Then, as if shifting the conversation in an unexpected direction, she asked, “Have you heard of the Song Kingdom?”

“The Song Kingdom that ascended into a rank two kingdom four years ago when their emperor broke through to the domain realm?

That Song Kingdom?” Yang Qing asked, his brows slightly raised in surprise.

“Yes, that one,” Xia Fang confirmed with a slight nod.

“The Ning family has had ties with them going back 15,000 years—even before we were decimated by that rogue cultivator’s son,” she said, her tiny shoulders slumping slightly.

“Like the other clans, they secretly sent some of their descendants to sects.

But unlike the others, they took it a step further by sending some of their descendants to the Song Kingdom.

And unlike with the sects, they didn’t send them there to siphon resources… rather they sent them with the intention of doing the opposite.”

“They used their descendants, along with donating countless resources—even at the expense of their own growth—all to support one of the princes of the kingdom.

Where the other two clans took a safer approach, avoiding direct involvement with powerful organizations and using methods that minimized their expenditure and risk, the Ning family risked it all on that prince,” Xia Fang said as she absentmindedly played with the handle of her cup, despair steadily building in her heart.

“Every single one of those clans were deep schemers.

How are we supposed to survive against something like that?” she softly mumbled, staring at the reflection of her face in the tea.

“I am really alone,” she weakly muttered, voicing one of the biggest fears in her heart as she gazed into the bleak, desperate eyes staring back at her.

She remained like that for a short while before sighing and gently shaking the cup, distorting the reflection into ripples before looking up.

“That prince they hitched their bets on isn’t the one who broke through to the domain realm,” she said, as if expecting Yang Qing to have assumed otherwise.

In truth, Yang Qing had entertained the thought.

And if that had been the case, what kind of putrid luck did the Xia clan have?

They took a flower from a rogue cultivator—something seemingly inconsequential—yet ended up gaining the ire of a domain expert in the process.

Then one of their retainer clans betrayed them, throwing their lot in with a prince of another kingdom who, in an absurd twist of fate, ended up becoming a domain expert himself.

What kind of horrid luck would that have turned out to be?

“Though the prince they hitched their bets on wasn’t the one who claimed the throne or the one who broke through to the domain realm, the favor the Ning clan gained from supporting him was no different from gaining the favor of that domain king himself—because that prince and that king are brothers from the same mother and share a deep bond.

That prince had been supporting his older brother’s claim to the throne, so all the resources the Ning clan provided went toward that goal,” Xia Fang said with a sigh.

“His brother eventually ascended to the throne.

Though he wasn’t a domain expert at the time, the power he wielded and the vast resources of the Song Kingdom made him no different from one—at least in terms of influence and wealth,” she added.

“Their bet paid off—and handsomely at that,” Xia Fang said with a bitter smile.

“Normally, it isn’t all that strange for favors to be forgotten.

In fact, it’s expected, especially when there exists a wide gap in ability, influence, or power between the one giving and the one receiving.

And yet…” she trailed off, shaking her head bitterly.

“Why didn’t he follow the script?

It’s not like the Ning family were the only ones who supported him,” she softly mumbled before letting out another exhausted sigh.

“That prince,” she began, slowly looking up at Yang Qing, “repaid his favors…

he more than repaid them—he even took one of the Ning family’s daughters as one of his concubines, bringing their relationship even closer.

And neither we nor the other two clans were any the wiser.”

“They kept it a secret from everyone…

even their so-called partners,” she said with a sardonic undertone.

“Back then, they convinced the two clans to take action by first offering to provide the resources needed to help the two palace realm experts from the Chi family drastically shorten the time needed for their full recovery as compared to the time they would have taken if they relied on themselves.

In addition, they also offered to spearhead the attack.

Those two actions won over the two groups,” she explained.

“Though I bet they must have grown wary of the Ning family’s actions… but we were the greater thorn in their side, so their focus remained on us,” she scoffed.

“Aside from the Ning family’s maneuvering, another reason the other two clans went along with the plan was our inaction.

Because we didn’t immediately attack them, despite the considerable damage we had inflicted, they assumed we had only that one trump card to rely on.

And since they already knew of its existence, they believed they could find ways to counter it—so that was exactly what they worked on for the years that followed,” she said.

“They used harassment tactics to continuously put the clan members acting as the nodes under immense stress.

The formation diagram usually required at least one palace realm expert as the focal point, working in concert with the plate to bring out the diagram’s full abilities.

At the same time, having a palace realm expert at the center helped lessen the burden on the other nodes.

But we didn’t have one, thanks to the actions of the rogue cultivator’s son.

All we had in surplus were core formation experts.

So, without a palace realm expert to anchor the formation, even just activating it under normal conditions placed a considerable toll on the nodes, let alone the weight they had to endure under the relentless barrage of attacks the diagram had to suffer through.

As such, because of the toll incurred, we kept losing more clan members to the diagram.

This, in turn, forced the clan to divert what little resources we had left into quickly raising new candidates to take up the role of nodes.

And that meant abandoning any plans of producing another palace realm expert.

With the resources we had, we could only choose one path.

And given the circumstances, keeping the formation diagram running took precedence,” Xia Fang said somberly.

“My grandfather became one of those nodes,” she softly added as her eyes refracted light through the tears that were slowly forming in them.