230 Gathering

Early morning, Alex got out of his room and made his way to the kitchen. Hannah was probably still in-game, so he didn't bother preparing anything for her. It was too early after all.

Once he was done, he left her a note at the dinner table saying that it was Friday and he didn't have any classes, do he would eat later whenever he could.

Once that was set, he went back to his room and logged back in. It was still a while before he would be taken away, so he decided to practice his techniques.

Fighting with a mortal body had made his body move way better than it did before. When combined with Qi, he was on a higher level. He practiced the Elusive Heavenly sword.

A slash, a stab, a swing, he practiced every stance there was in the Elusive Heavenly Sword and before he knew it; he was starting to lose vision of the surrounding.

It was just one man and one sword against the world. Soon, Alex lost himself too, and it was only the sword.

After a while, he abruptly stopped practicing. Alex felt a sort of mental whiplash from suddenly being in control of his body once more, fully conscious.

"It happened once again…" he thought. The first time he learned the sword technique, he had fallen in a trance as well. 'Why does this keep happening?' he wondered.

"You out of it now?"

A question came from the side. Ma Rong was standing at the door, looking at his train.

"Ah, master. When did you get here?" He asked.

"I've been here for 5 minutes now. Took you quite a while to notice me," she said.

Alex just gave small smile and didn't tell her that he didn't notice her at all. He quickly looked at the time and was shocked at how late it was.

'It's 8 am already?' he thought in surprise. More than an hour had gone by without him even realizing it.

"Come one, we are leaving now. People are going to arrive at the place soon," she said.

"Oh, okay," he said as he walked out with her. "Have the disciples who are leaving been already selected?" he asked.

"Yes. There are over 15 disciples who will leave with us. Considering that one sect can only have 3 disciples in each of the competitions at once, and each disciple can only take part in 3 competitions; we will need a lot of these disciples," she said.

"Oh, we can only take place in 3 competitions huh. Have you decided what competition I am going to take part in?" he asked.

"I am going to put you in two of the alchemy competitions. The Ingredients Recognizing competition and the best pill-making competition. As for the third one… I haven't thought about it yet."

"There are other alchemy competitions such as the fastest pill making, where as long as you make a mortal grade pill, you pass the competition. Or the one where one is made to make the most unique pills out there."

"I could put you in the second one, but that would mean you will have to show the different recipes you got from the corpse, and I don't want to do that right now," Ma Rong said.

"I see. Alright, master, I will do as you say," Alex said while nodding. He could be said to be above average in terms of speed in making pills, but he was nowhere near the fastest amongst his peers according to his master.

He flew with his master and landed directly in front of the Elder's hall. There he saw about 11 different disciples and a few elders standing around.

"Hmm… are the 3 not here yet?" Ma Rong asked. Just as she said that a voice came from behind her. "We're here. Sorry, we took a while. Hmm… are the other 2 not here yet, sect leader?" an older man asked.

Alex looked at him and felt like he saw him somewhere before, but didn't know where. 'That face looks so familiar,' he thought. Next to the older man was a girl with blonde hair in ponytails who was looking around with playful eyes.

Her eyes fell on Ma Rong and she quickly greeted her. She then switched her eyes to Alex and was puzzled for a second before she realized who he was.

"Ah, you are the sect leader's new disciple, aren't you?" She said in surprise. It seemed that she was in the knowhow about the sect leader somehow.

Alex was a little surprised. A girl he had never seen before suddenly knew who he was. He looked at her robes and realized that she was a core disciple as well.

'I don't remember interacting with her before, have I?' he gave a confused look as he thought about the girl, but couldn't remember anything.

Even without eidetic memory, he was sure that such a lively girl with a not bad face and child-like attitude would be hard to remember. He was about to ask his master who she was when she instead talked first.

"Yu Ming, greet the First Elder," Ma Rong said. "He is Lang Shun's father, Lang Luoyang."

"Ah, good morning First elder. It is really nice to meet you," he said with a slight bow. 'Martial uncle's father? No wonder he looks so familiar. They practically have the same face.'

He then turned to his master, waiting for her to introduce the lively girl as well, but instead, she just looked at him in confusion.

"What?" she asked.

"Umm… who is she? She seems to know me, but I don't remember ever meeting her," Alex said with his spiritual sense.

Ma Rong nearly face-palmed herself. "Don't you interact with your fellow disciples or what? How come you don't know her?" she asked.

"Umm… master, I usually spend my free time learning alchemy and remember that I have been absent for the last 2 weeks and a half?" he said.

"Sigh, I understand," she said as she looked at the girl and said, "My disciple doesn't seem to know you, introduce yourself, Fanfan."

"Oh," the girl said in surprise and then proceeded to introduce herself.

"Hello, My name is Fan Ruogang, you can call me Fanfan."