Ellie was hidden in the trees cautiously eyeing the party going on. She had an envious greedy look to her as she wanted to come and eat her fill with all the food spread about. Though occasionally her eyesight would fall on Haishi though it was not a look one would give a potential teammate.

She was already on thin ice with Yang Qing, especially from the earlier debacle where she tried to nab some of his fish from the pond. She was not sure she would escape alive if she made an appearance. She didn't want to test it.

The party was already in full swing as the cloud-swallowing kite by the name of Ellie was undergoing a risk vs reward debate. There were laughs, mingling, food being passed around, gazes being traded every now and then and wine being refilled every few seconds. It was an all-jolly mood. The two subjects of the party were nodding and bowing every now and then as they exchanged a few words. Both Haishi and Bolin were given voice transmission beads fashioned as small amulets around their necks.

…..

"You must be pleased with yourself for having new subordinates to help lessen your workload," Kang Huilang snidely remarked with clear envy rife in his tone.

Yang Qing had already left his role as the host as he sat with the other five judges; Kang Huilang, Dai Chen, Zhang Qingge, Xia Boqin, and Yu Huifang.

Yi Jie was closely monitoring the hundred-leaf sugar cane wine that looked almost done while Feng Xin was hard at work barbecuing the thin strips of the rapid snapper cotton mouth.

"Of course I am, why wouldn't I be after getting such capable subordinates," Yang Qing smugly said trying to stoke Kang Huilang's envy further.

The ploy didn't seem to have worked as Kang Huilang started smiling soon after.

"Too bad the new subordinates won't get to be with their boss much since he just got a promotion. Wait come to think of it you'll have to work alone since most of your team still hasn't reached the requirements for your new post.How will you survive Yang Qing, my dear friend," Kang Huilang said with fake pity plastered on his face.

Yang Qing who was acting like a smug cockerel a few minutes ago slumped down in his seat as he had on a serious solemn look that was soon destroyed with a red braised pork in his hand.

The manpower issue was something he had to ponder seriously. He was the only one in his team with a palace stage cultivation realm. About the only one who could come with him was Yi Jie who was in the quasi-palace stage and had proved to have enough combat ability to guarantee his life against an early-stage palace stage cultivator. The rest would be hard-pressed to do so. However, the only person who could go with him to handle palace court cases was about to go into seclusion. He would have to make due on his own for a couple of months before Yi Jie could join him.

"But even if Yi Jie reaches the palace realm we will still be severely undermanned. No.. no... I will have to intensify Feng Xin's training further to make sure he joins up," Yang Qing thought as he threw a determined menacing gaze in Feng Xin's direction.

Feng Xin who was joyfully barbecuing the rapid snapper cotton mouth making sure it was crisp while he whistled joyfully had his body suddenly freeze. He had detected something ominous heading his way which made him hurriedly turn his head only to meet Yang Qing's determined look.

"What's he up to? Has he decided to use force to get the rest of the green-flowered babirusa? No, I will have to stash it in the Order's treasury. It costs a few spirit stones a year to store anything there but it's safer there than with me especially now that Yang Qing has set his greedy eyes on it.

Shame on you Yang Qing, just because I owe you a few thousand spirit stones and made you take out the vermilion wine you want to get your hands on the rest of the babirusa. Dream on," Feng Xin thought as he threw Yang Qing a supercilious look and went back to his 'true calling'.

"This bastard," Yang Qing ground his teeth as he saw the look Feng Xin gave him.

"You know you will be given roaming inquisitors once you come to the palace courts right?" Dai Chen said once he saw Yang Qing's state.

"I know but ordering them around will feel awkward for me considering they are my seniors. I prefer ordering Yi Jie and the rest around with zero weight on my conscience but as for the roaming inquisitors…" Yang Qing couldn't help but sigh once his thoughts reached this point. He would actually have to pull his own weight as opposed to shamelessly throwing a job here and there to his team for a fee of course.

Other than that the manpower issue was still a factor. Whenever someone got promoted to the palace courts they would be assigned roaming inquisitors if they were the only ones in their team who had reached the necessary requirements to be promoted to the palace courts. The judges usually had more requirements compared to their inquisitor counterparts who only needed palace-level combat strength to be promoted while judges had other factors to be evaluated on such as the grades they got on the judgments they passed on their cases.Roaming inquisitors were inquisitors who were not assigned to a particular judge. They were usually rotated around the courts to fill in places where there was a severe manpower shortage such as filling in as temporary inquisitors for a newly promoted judge who didn't have his/her team with him/her or acting as a temporary replacement for a team that has had high injuries or fatalities.

Despite the spike in growth, the Order is still severely undermanned making roaming inquisitors a scarce resource. Each judge was allowed only two roaming inquisitors. They would have to make do with the two to complete all cases in their docket.

This was Yang Qing's biggest worry since the cases do not reduce just because he was short on teammates. The targets still remained and worse he had heard newbies were usually assigned all the walk-in cases adding more cases to the already enormous load.

"By the way, I heard Lai Lei will be out soon. Tell him he can use my green flame forest to recuperate when he is out. It has not reached its true potential yet but it should offer comfortable sleep compared to the mats in the medicine pavilion," Yang Qing suddenly said when the inquisitor dilemma made him realize Lai Lei the quasi-palace stage inquisitor who got ambushed a couple of months ago by 10 quasi palace stage experts was about to be released.

He had suffered grievous injuries throughout his body but the most serious one was the cracks in his dantian. Luckily for him, the Order's medicine pavilion had some of the best alchemists and medical experts out there with a few of them reaching the gold grade. His dantian got mended in eight months mainly in due part to their techniques and available resources but also because the damage wasn't as severe as far as cracked dantians go. He was about to be released from the medicine pavilion in a week's time.

"I offer my thanks on his behalf I'm sure he will appreciate it," Dai Chen said as he still had his usual wild smile on his face however all present could detect the mild trembling in his pupils.

"You don't have to pretend. It's us," Yu Huifang who was seated next to him gently said as she placed her hand on his back.

"I won't say much but when the time comes bring me along," Kang Huilang solemnly said with battle intent flickering in his eyes.

"Me too," said the rest as they collectively echoed Kang Huilang's intention.

"I will have to impose on you all when the time comes," Dai Chen said as he raised his wine urn. The other judges raised theirs as they clinked them together. However, Zhang Qingge looked rather odd since she was shorter than the rest she had to prop herself up on the table so her wine urn could reach the rest.

"TO A GREAT HUNT AND RETRIBUTION," they all collectively said as they swallowed the wines in their hands.

Just as the six judges were stewing in their camaraderie, a yellow-green figure blitzed from the green flame tree crashing into the middle of Yang Qing's table.

"Can't you atleast try to be gentler in your landing?!!" Yang Qing furiously yelled as he poked the yellow-green round figure in the middle of the table.

"It's too much work," The yellow-green round figure said as it projected its sound around the table. It didn't so much as bother to move as it lay there lazily looking around.