Daily life of a cultivation judge

Chapter 880 Struggles of the powerful

Apart from Deng Wei, every domain expert present was a late-stage domain expert, be it Cai Hong, Lin Guiren, him and the two domain experts from the Order in Hou Dehui and Lei Weiyuan. Their presence was restrained, and though Liu Guan as a late-stage domain expert could tell so and so were in the late stages of the domain realm, because of the restrained presence, he couldn't accurately gauge deeper into the strength levels.

Coming here, he was already appraised of Hou Dehui by Lin Guiren, who described the judge as terrifying. That appraisal was something Liu Guan took to heart as Lin Guiren even when pitted against the Silver Empire, was someone whose strength was capable of shaking the Empire, barring their soul formation experts.

For someone of such strength calling another terrifying only served to highlight the scariness of Hou Dehui, which was why his all attention had been on Hou Dehui, completely overlooking Lei Weiyuan, but now, as Lei Weiyuan, leaked a bit of his aura as he issued the warning, Liu Guan couldn't overlook him anymore.

He was at the ninth stage of the domain realm, but he felt a credible threat to his life when he felt that aura leak out, and for it to threaten him so could only mean, the silver-haired man with the impassive expression was significantly stronger than him, if he could feel that way just from his aura. He could only imagine what it was like for Cai Hong, who was the target of it whilst also being slightly weaker than him, being at the eighth stage of the domain realm.

"Emperor, what did you throw me into? Even if one of the ancestors was the one standing here, I doubt it would influence much.

While I know well enough to not underestimate them, even my overestimation of them seems to have fallen way off the mark.

I am sorry, princess. I am afraid we have hit an iron wall here. I am afraid the Empire's prestige is insufficient to eat at this table let alone negotiate on it.." thought Liu Guan as he smiled bitterly.

After Lei Weiyuan's warning, some semblance of sanity and control which was marred with a hint of wariness returned to Cai Hong's eyes. That threat helped her contain herself as she reigned in her murderous emotions while tightly embracing Lin Duyi like a mother hen would protect her chick. That embrace only got tighter as Lin Duyi's sobs continued. From the moment he walked into the courtroom up to when he jumped into his mother's embrace, not once did he look up.

His actions drew a lot of awkward looks all around the courtroom, which all seemed to say the same thing.

"He is a palace realm expert, isn't he? How is he still being coddled, so openly at that?"

Even Lin Guiren, despite being the picture of calm was ill at ease in his heart at the display and couldn't help but sigh inwardly in defeat. He knew well enough to not intervene.

By the time he became dao companions with Cai Hong, they were both already in the domain realm, albeit in the early stages. But regardless of whether one was in the early stages or at the latter stages of the domain realm, just the fact that both he and his wife were in the domain realm meant due to their powerful cultivation bases, their ability to conceive was that much harder.

It was always difficult for powerful cultivators to conceive, and that difficulty grew the further up the realms one moved. A mortal could have seven or eight children by the time they were twenty-three, and that number could possibly even be higher if they had multiple wives and concubines, but for someone in the core formation realm, the circumstances were vastly different.

No matter whether they had multiple wives or partners, in five hundred years that core formation expert may end up having one or two children within that timeframe, and those numbers shrank the higher up the cultivation realm one moved.

That difficulty was hypothesized as the heavenly Dao's way of creating a balance because almost always, the offspring of powerful cultivators had natural aptitudes in cultivation. Most natural physiques were born from powerful cultivators despite those cultivators not having natural physiques themselves.

Just by virtue of their cultivation base, they can inadvertently affect the fortunes of their offspring. Thus to regulate this advantage, the heavenly dao restrains the ability of these cultivators to conceive to the point that some may go their entire lives without a single child despite trying, and this wasn't just applicable to human cultivators but to spirit beasts too. Powerful spirit beasts suffered the same difficulty.

Lin Guiren, being a domain expert at the time had surrendered completely to the possibility he may never have a child and that possibility grew stronger when year after year passed and they weren't able to have one.

He was okay with that eventuality, but the same couldn't be said for his partner, who was always hoping for a child. It took them almost 23,000 years before Lin Duyi was finally conceived.

With how long he took to get here, and the emotional weight it had been, especially on Cai Hong, when he was born, he became her entire world. She spoiled him rotten, acquiescing to his every demand, and for Lin Guiren, while he wasn't as excessive as Cai Hong, he would be lying if he said he wasn't affected greatly by having a son. It was to the point that the relief and joy his birth brought him freed his mind inducing an epiphany in the process that helped him improve his cultivation realm by a single stage, moving from the tenth stage to the eleventh stage of the domain realm.

Even if it was just a single step, the gap within that step was the same as a first-stage domain expert cultivating to the sixth stage of the domain realm. In the later stages, improving by a single step was just as difficult as scaling the heavens.