The Second elder looked at Ma Rong and spoke, "Sect Leader, I know you are angry that people didn't let you take some much-needed break, but please don't leave your position just because of that."
"No one in this room right now is more capable than you in handling the sect. I'm doing fine, but I'm nowhere close to you in maintaining all the stuff. If you really leave the sect leader position, it will certainly be the sect's loss without question."
"And when that happens, I will be the first to leave the sect and never look back," the Second Elder said.
"That's… a little too extreme, don't you think?" Ma Rong asked a little surprised that the Second Elder wasn't using this opportunity to elevate his position in the sect.
"No, I truly believe that the sect has improved the most under you. If you leave then there will be nobody in the sect to do the job at the same level," the Second Elder said.
"Now that I think about it, I think the Second Elder is right," one of the elders with the hands up slowly lowered their hand. "If Sect Leader truly doesn't want to leave, then it's a pleasure to keep having her."
"You're right. I was blinded in my hope to do better for the sect. I don't want the sect leader to leave either," another elder said and lowered her hand as well.
"Anyone else wants to raise your hands?" the Grand Elder spoke. The remaining elders looked at each other and started shaking their heads. They were fine with Ma Rong staying at the Sect Leader.
"That settles it then. Sect leader will not be leaving her post," the Grand Elder said.
"Alright, listen up. I may not be around most of the time, but I will still be handling the sect business. I will workaround for a few hours a day for now. If you have anything that needs urgent attention, you may find Grand Elder, the Second Elder, or my disciple to send me a message."
"I will only consider those as urgent," Ma Rong said.
"Eh? What about the Eighteenth Elder?" the First Elder looked at Ma Rong weirdly when she left out his son, her junior disciple brother from the list.
"Elder Shun will soon be returning back to his search for Wan Li. Oh right, Second Elder, tell the Third Elder to look for recent information on the Black Venom group. Wan Li seems to be hanging around in caravans looking for a chance to meet those groups," Ma Rong said.
"I will get on it, Sect leader," Second Elder said as he bowed.
Ma Rong made a few more commands for the other elders. Finally, once she was done, she dismissed the room.
The elders left one by one and finally, only 5 people remained.
"That was quite dangerous, Sect Leader. A single wrong word out of my mouth and you would've lost the seat," the Second Elder said.
"Heh, I knew First elder didn't want the hassle at the old age, and I was counting on you not wanting the seat as well," Ma Rong said.
"What made you guess that?" the Second Elder asked.
"If you were a Sect Leader, you would be separated from your wife for most of the time. Given how lovey-dovey you are, I doubt you would want that," Ma Rong said.
"Isn't it obvious for me to love my wife? She's the best thing that has happened to me, sect leader. She's talented and beautiful, all a man can ask for. Hehehe, I'm really lucky in that matter," the Second Elder said with a sheepish smile.
Ma Rong chuckled as well.
"So, do I leave now?" Lang Shun asked.
"No, in a few days. Rest for now. The second Elder should call the Third Elder to rest as well. She's been out for way too long," Ma Rong said.
"She loves doing that. I did ask her to return this time, but she's probably gone to some other city by now in search of Wan Li. Well, I will just send this information to her and hopefully, she'll bring back Wan Li soon," the Second Elder said and left.
Lang Shun and his father bowed and walked away as well.
"Little Ma, please stop doing such a stunt next time okay? You nearly gave your master a heart attack," the Great Elder said.
"It's fine master. I was ready to lose my position, so it wasn't really a stunt. I'm still trying to fit into my position with this new disability I have right now," Ma Rong said.
"I was secretly hoping they would let me go so I wouldn't have to feel guilty about it all."
The Great Elder sighed when he heard this. "It's fine, little Ma. You will be able to make pills once again. You only need a little bit of getting used to," he said.
"I hope so, master. I really do."
* * * * * * *
Alex walked out of the pond with Pearl after cleaning up. He wore his clothes and started planning out his next 2 weeks in the sect.
The first thing he needed to do was make some more pills for himself since he had spent most of it in the Rubyroad city and the fight with the bandits.
One of those pills was the mind pill that would give him a much better Spiritual sea.
Since he decided on it, he went into his Alchemy room and started making pills.
Over the course of the day and halfway into the night, he made a lot of pills. He would have to make some more before he could actually have a few stocks with him.
"Hmm, should I make more?" he wondered for a second. "Although, I do desperately want to see how much True Qi I can make with my cultivation base."
Ning quickly decided to cultivate, so he called out Pearl and started cultivating inside the Alchemy room.
Soon, he had fallen asleep.
Alex woke up in the morning to feel a buzz on his storage bag. He instinctively took out his talisman and checked it.
His sleepiness ran away and he looked at the time on the top right. "Master is calling me this early?" he thought and stood up.
"Ow!" he screamed when the soles of his feet hurt a lot from the cuts being crushed.
"Pearl, you can stop now," he said, and Pearl finally stopped with a 'Meow'. "Come here," Alex called and soon sent him into his beast space.
"Woah!" Alex was surprised when he noticed 3 distinct strands of Qi floating in his meridians. He started smiling when he realized that he had more True Qi now.
"Oh wait, so is cultivating the only way to make True Qi?" he wondered. If that were true, then it would take him an incredibly long time for his cultivation base to improve.
At 3-5 strands a day, it would take him forever to convert all the Qi into True Qi.
"Oh wait," he facepalmed himself when he realized where he was wrong. "I can just break through to make my Qi thicker and I won't need to worry about speed."
"Alright, let's go to master's," he thought and walked out. He soon flew over to his master's house and sent in his spiritual sense. The whole house looked empty from his perspective aside from a single spot in there that he couldn't see at all.
He quickly went to that place and greeted Ma Rong.
"Sit down," Ma Rong said.
Alex went ahead and sat down. Ma Rong got into her bag and took out a lot of True Spirit stones, at least 50 of them.
"What's this?" he asked.
"Your payment, from the sect's shop," Ma Rong said. "They said you asked for it to be sent to me."
"Oh right, I forgot about those," Alex said. "Thank you, master."
"Don't thank me, it's your hard work's result after all. There are still a few pills that have yet to be sold. You will get that money once you sell them," Ma Rong said.
"I understand," Alex said. 50 True spirit stones were 5000 spirit stones which were equivalent to 50 thousand dollars in real life. That was a lot of money for anyone.
He had other True spirit stones on him too that he could send back to himself soon.
"Another thing, since you've already understood the fundamentals about making pills by yourself, I will soon start your True pill-making classes. Although, it should take no longer than a single class for you to learn everything."
"The others will just be me looking at you try to make pills. Hmm… given your cultivation base, that might be a problem too. Whatever, I will teach you first, the rest we will do something about it," Ma Rong said.
"Go and practice for now."
"Ok master," Alex said and was about to leave when he remembered something.
"Oh right, I had a few plans for the upcoming few days… I was hoping to get your approval on them," Alex said.
Ma Rong made a weird face. "What bizarre thing are you going to do that requires your master's approval?" Ma Rong asked.
"I don't need my master's approval; I need to sect leader's approval. Having master's approval would be quite nice too," Alex said.
"Alright say what you want," Ma Rong said.
Alex listed out the 3 things he wanted to do and Ma Rong's eyes went wide with each thing he said.
Her eyes started darting around as she forced herself to ask. "Do you really want to go back there again?"
