Alex's mood was a lot better after learning that his master wouldn't have to leave his spot for a while now. At least 5 months from what Luo Mei had told him would take her to become a True realm expert.
'I will enter True realm way earlier than her though,' Alex thought. He soon reached her house and knocked on the door.
"Sister, I'm back," he said out loud. However, nobody answered. He knocked a few more times, but his sister didn't open the door at all.
'Huh?" Alex thought. "Why is she not opening the door? Is she not back by some chance? Maybe she's gone somewhere. Master will let her know later I guess."
"Searching for your senior sister, are we?" a voice came from behind him. Alex felt that the voice was familiar, so he turned around.
Behind him was a young man in a yellow robe with a red outline. The robe looked great on him since the outline matched his red hair a lot.
Alex could feel a cultivation base of the 3rd Mind tempering realm, close to the 4th Mind Tempering realm from this person.
He started to have a sour feeling in his heart when he saw him but didn't let him show on his face.
"Maybe, what are you doing here in my sister's house," Alex asked Yang Ma.
"Haha, your greetings lack a bit of respect, brother Yu," Yang Ma said. "You shouldn't talk like that to a prime disciple now, should you?"
"What?" Alex was surprised when he heard then. Only then did he realize that he was staring at a Yellow robe with a red outline, the robe of a Prime disciple.
"How did you…" Alex's confusion was at an all-time high.
"Get the first rank? It's quite easy actually," Yang Ma said. "Since sister Luo Mei isn't back yet, and Du Yuhan didn't show any attempts to make it his, I decided to take it for myself for now."
"Sister Luo Mei will probably ask it back when she returns, but I can have some fun as rank 1 until then," Yang Ma said. "Who knows, maybe you will fight me to take it back too."
Alex was still surprised, but his confusion was going away. "Oh, I see. So sister isn't back yet, huh. No wonder you got it, brother Ma. Don't worry, I won't come for your rank. Rank 1 doesn't appeal to me as well as rank 3 does," Alex said.
Yang Ma immediately showed signs of anger in his face, as if Alex had just said something that offended him.
Alex didn't understand what was wrong with what he had said, however, he could see through Yang Ma's expression that it struck a bone for sure.
"Anyway, I'm leaving. Have fun with your 1st rank" Alex said and walked away. If Du Yuhan didn't want the 1st rank then Alex had nothing to worry about. When Luo Mei did come back, she would have an easy time getting back her rank.
"I wonder why Du Yuahn didn't take the spot though?" he wondered. That reminded him of the semi-finals in the Annual competition too.
'Hmm… he didn't fight sister at that time either. Could it be…?' he was just thinking that when another thought struck his head.
"Oh, so that was why he suddenly got angry, haha," Alex thought as he chuckled remembering Yang Ma's reaction when he said he would get the 3rd rank.
Alex said that because he was looking forward to having Du Yuhan teach him about sword intent and such.
However, to Yang Ma, it sounded completely different. Ever since the maze run when Alex took his talisman, Yang Ma had thought of Alex as someone he needed to put in his place.
He was just an Organ Tempering realm cultivator that managed to win the whole thing when he himself barely got any points there. Not to mention, Wan Li beating his so bad in the competition stung him a little too.
Two alchemists got the better of the grandson of a Saint realm expert. That had made Yang Ma unreasonably angry.
Now that Alex said that he was going to take the 3rd rank, that meant that when Luo Mei did return and easily took back her place, Yang Ma would then have to challenge Alex to take back his original spot.
And that felt like an open invitation of duel to him, which he didn't like.
Alex didn't care about Yang Ma enough to worry about him attacking him. For now, he was simply going to focus on himself getting stronger.
'Should I go to 3rd Mind Tempering realm today?' Alex wondered. 'Although, I do want to learn from Du Yuhan as well as I can.'
Alex contemplated for a bit and decided to wait on it. It had only been a week since he broke through to the 2nd realm and he definitely needed some more time to stabilize that cultivation base.
The bigger the realm he would go to, the longer they required to stabilize. He sighed and made his way to Wen Cheng's manor.
He stayed there for a few minutes before Wen Cheng returned.
"You're back, huh? Good. What do you plan on doing now? I don't really have anything left to teach you. Maybe a couple of fighting techniques but that's it," Wen Cheng said.
"It's alright, master. I can take care of myself now," Alex said. "Oh right, did Sister not return yet?"
"No," Wen Cheng said. "I can't communicate that far away so I don't really have any information. But, she should be returning at anytime soon now. Didn't you say she had to stay there for 2 weeks?"
"Yes," Alex said. "If they were successful, it should be right about now. Although, she may choose to stay around for a little while with her father."
"No, he will send her here for sure," Wen Cheng said.
"Huh? But it should have been a while since she was back there. Why would he send her back immediately?" Alex asked. He didn't think Luo Keng was a heartless father at all.
"Because it's dangerous there," Wen Cheng said with a serious face.
