"What did you say? You sold a lily?" Ma Rong said in surprise.
Alex's face still had shock written all over it. "Yes, i— I thought it was a good idea at the time to sell a single lily since it would bring me so many spirit stones," Alex said.
"How could you be so stupid to sell a precious item like that?" Ma Rong scolded.
"I— I hadn't realized how terrible this world was at the time and ended up foolishly selling the flower away," Alex said.
"Lord and this man is the one that bought it?" she asked.
"I assume so. I think he was trying to capture me to get some more, but I managed to escape, so I couldn't fully understand his intentions at the time, but that must be it," Alex said as he started thinking more.
Ma Rong asked more questions regarding the sales of the flower and Alex told her everything he knew. She fell into deep thought for a while and Alex waited for her to speak.
"But how could he have gotten your face?" Ma Rong asked.
"How? The auction house probably gave it, right? Everyone there seems to know the guest's face" Alex asked.
"That's not possible. Especially since your face alone isn't enough. The staff doesn't know what you are there for, they only know that you are important. Your actual information would only be circulated amongst the innermost staff, and that too would be nearly impossible in this case since your sale was remote," Ma Rong said.
"That means that there are likely only 3 people in the auction house that could possibly know your information, but even they wouldn't do something shady like that. The reputation of their entire auction house is on the line if they ever see inside information, especially of a guess as expensive as you," Ma Rong said.
"Then how could it have happened?" Alex asked.
"I don't know. Tell me about the man once again?" Ma Rong asked. Alex described his face the best he could.
"That is too generic of a face. What about his cloth?" she asked.
"He was wearing a red robe," Alex said.
"Red… that too is generic. There are dozens of sects in the competition with a red robe. It is likely an elder from one of these sects," Ma Rong asked.
"I figured that too master, so I was thinking of changing my face for the rest of the competition," Alex said.
"Hmm… That might be a good idea," Ma Rong said.
"The committee won't say anything about that right? What if they don't allow me?" Alex asked.
"Don't worry. There are too many disciples in the competition, and no one remembers your face. So as long as your Qi remains the same, you won't be in any trouble," Ma Rong said.
"I see. Thank you, master," Alex said.
"Do you need Face Changing pills?" Ma Rong asked.
"I've got these, they might work," Alex said and showed his pills. He hadn't made any new Face Changing pill recently, so the highest one lasted for 42 hours.
"That won't do. Take this," Ma Rong said and handed him a Face Changing pill with 58% harmony. The pill would last 58 hours too.
"Thank you, master." With nothing else to say, he bid Ma Rong a good night and left the room.
He returned back to the room and go onto his bed. Wan Li was still reading his paper, so Alex didn't bother him and directly started cultivating.
He called out Pearl and kept him in his robes. Once Pearl started cultivating, he too started body cultivating. After that, he started cultivating normally, and soon, he fell into a trance and lost consciousness.
Alex opened his eyes at 6:00 in the morning. He stopped Pearl and sent him back to the left arm.
'Today is going to be a long day,' he thought. Unlike the other 4 days, today was supposed to last for a really long time. He was told that today would last until the competition ended, but that would take a long time, so he wasn't sure how long 'today' was going to last.
Since he didn't have much time in the day to eat, he decided to log out now and eat.
Alex opened the lid to the capsule and walked out. He went to the bathroom to freshen up and then went to the kitchen to eat some light meal.
He made a light milkshake with some fruits and drank it before returning back to his room to disappear back into the game world.
He opened his eyes back in the game and looked at the time on the right-hand corner of his screen. It was about time to leave. However, before that, he needed to do something.
He reached into his storage bag and pulled out a Face Changing pill. Unlike yesterday's pill, this was irreversible and he would get access to his face back only after the duration was over.
The one he had in his hand was a 58% harmony pill. That was enough for him to have a different face the entirety of today, tomorrow, and partially into Sunday as well; and finally, get his face back around the nighttime.
So, without thinking, he popped the pill in his mouth and swallowed it. Energy started releasing from the pill as it coursed into his bones, his muscles, and his skin.
Although the pill was called a Face-changing pill, it changed everything about a person's body, making them practically a new person.
'Imagine having this pill, but a permanently working one, I wonder how much that would sell for,' Alex wondered.
He knew what to do here, so he simply thought of a face, one that he saw in the mirror all the time. The bones and muscle remained the same as he wished for them to be so, but the face slowly started morphing and changing until he was no longer recognizable.
