Daily life of a cultivation judge

Chapter 539 Five rings

A majestic glow circled the entire Medical Valley and from that glow came out an ethereal image of a woman in white robes and golden hair. In her hand, she held a palm-sized bell that had a purple sky and a primordial aura to it. Despite being palm-sized, all who looked at it felt the whole world could be effortlessly swallowed by it.

The bell was producing a ripple sound wave. The sound echoed within the souls of everyone at the Medical Valley and it didn't stop there, it extended to the Requiem, Institute, Main court building, the Respite Valley, all the branches, and secret realms, as it made its way to every single last employee of the Order. It did not matter where they were, or their cultivation base, as long as they were an employee of the Order, they all heard the celestial chime of the bell.

Both Lai Lei and Yang Qing held their breaths as their gazes were solemnly fixed on the woman with golden hair with the bell in her hands.

Employees from the Order all rushed out, as all their gazes were fixed on the woman. Only those from the headquarters could see her visage while those outside all stood or sat in silence, seemingly waiting for something.

Tan Jie had also rushed out from the coalescing tranquility rivers of healing pavilion with clear worry written on her face.

She paused briefly when she saw Lai Lei and Yang Qing together, with her gaze briefly pausing on Lai Lei before she focused it back on the ethereal golden-haired woman above them.

The bell had already rung once, then it rung again. 

Yang Qing clenched his fists as he muttered to himself over and over,

"Please ring five times. Please ring five times.."

The third ring came, and when it did, there was a change to the bell as one line of blood dripped on it.

The trio; Yang Qing, Lai Lei, and Tan Jie all had an intense reaction when they saw the line of blood, then what happened next made it seem like they had seen the most horrifying thing in their whole lives.

The bell rang for the fourth time, and with it, the skies changed as they rumbled with a mournful cry.

"Who?!" Yang Qing muttered in disbelief. His voice shook as he said those words. Lai Lei went pale and for a minute it almost looked like he was about to faint, but managed to hang on, while Tan Jie clutched at her robes, with tears welling up in her eyes.

The trio froze solid all waiting with apt attention for the next part, like they were waiting for an Emperor's decree.

The ethereal golden-haired lady's face turned sorrowful which seemed to affect all who looked at her. She then opened her mouth to speak.

"Branch chief Lai Wan has been gravely injured.

 Chief Inquisitor Hao Da has been gravely injured

 Inquisitor Yi An has been gravely injured

 Inquisitor Xie Wen has been confirmed dead

 Inquisitor Liu Bai has been confirmed dead.

 May they find solace in their next journey.."

A burst of purple light came from the bell as two falling stars appeared in the skies.

A sorrowful melody accompanied their movement until the stars disappeared into the horizon.

"Hao Da's branch?!" Yang Qing muttered in shock.

The purple sky and the ethereal golden-haired woman stayed in the skies for half a minute before the skies went back to normal.

Yang Qing seemed to be struggling with what he heard before he took out his communication talisman.

"Deputy master Ren Shu, is Hao Da okay? Where is he?"

"Come to the Crystal Jade pavilion.."

Yang Qing quickly put away the communication talisman and turned to face Lai Lei.

"Lai Lei, sorry to cut our conversation short, but I need to check on Hao Da. You can pass by my abode later. I had told Dai Chen you could use the properties of the green flame tree in my abode anytime you wished.." Yang Qing said as he cupped his fists in apology.

"Could I come? I may not be as close to Hao Da as you, but.."

Yang Qing did not need a lot of time to guess what Lai Lei was getting to. As someone who once had the subject of the same announcement, it was understandable for Lai Lei to be affected by it.

"Tan Jie, I'll see you later..." Yang Qing said to the shook up Tan Jie who only absentmindedly nodded in return.

Yang Qing sighed when he saw and decided to comfortingly pat her on the back which seemed to have pulled her back from where her mind had disappeared off to, and then pulled Lai Lei and flew off.

In the air, there was one thought that kept going over and over in Yang Qing's mind, and it was the hope that the grave injuries mentioned were not something beyond the Medical Valley's ability to mend.

The bell they heard and the ethereal golden-haired woman were one entity, that was the celestial bell of mourning and jubilation.

The ethereal golden-haired woman was the artifact spirit of the bell that was held in her hands. The bell was a saint-grade artifact and was one of the most powerful artifacts the Order had to their names. It was a void artifact.

The communication talismans they had, were built from studying the celestial bell of mourning and jubilation.

Though that was what it was known by, it wasn't its true name, and it only went by that name because of what it was generally used for over the years.

The celestial bell was used as an announcement artifact by the Order. For it to be graded as one of the most powerful artifacts the Order had in their arsenal, Yang Qing was sure it had other uses which he was not preview to, but what he knew it for, and what most knew it for, was the announcements it made as it had just done a few seconds ago.

The celestial bell of mourning and jubilation was called so because every time there was a serious injury, a death, or something worthwhile to celebrate, the bell would be the one to announce it since its voice and rings could ignore the barriers of space and reach every single member of the Order, no matter where they were. It was perfect for real-time announcements which was why it was used in the announcements of only the vital announcements.

The bell had five rings to it, the first two had no symbolic meaning to them it was only the third, fourth, and fifth rings, that did. The third ring signified the heavy injury of a member, and it was accompanied by the bleeding of the bell, without it, it was just a regular ring, then the fourth which was dreaded even more than the bleeding third ring, signified death. If there was a death, the fourth ring would be accompanied by a sorrowful chime and a change of the skies, followed by the announcement of the artifact's spirit.

As for the fifth ring, this was the most welcomed ring, because the fifth ring was for a celebratory event and usually it was when someone from the Order broke through to the palace realm or the domain realm. Anything below was not announced. The other would be a complete recovery of an Order employee, like when Lai Lei had his dantian completely restored, and all the other injuries completely taken care of, an announcement of his recovery was made.