Ma Rong cried. A lot. Not even Luo Mei had cried for Alex this much. She was a sobbing mess as she hugged Alex and started thanking the gods for his return.
Alex didn't know what to say. However, the warmth he felt from them all was making him slightly happy that he returned, which in turn was making him more guilty about the fact that he left behind Pearl.
Ma Rong's body was quite skinny. It seemed she wasn't taking care of herself properly. It's my fault, Alex thought.
It wasn't really his fault. He did what he could to save them and was taken away by the beasts. There was nothing he could do in that situation.
Now he needed to go save Pearl, and yet once again, there was nothing he could do.
Alex met with the other elders who welcomed him back. His Grandmaster grew emotional when he saw him as well. The second Elder sighed with relief when he saw him as well. Even the third Elder seemed happy to see him, despite not having much connection with him.
Alex saw his Martial uncle as well. He seemed to have returned from his mission in the past 2 months. He said he was successful. Alex couldn't wait to go and visit Wan Li, who they said was being heavily guarded so he didn't escape again.
Ironically, for an alchemist who made many different pills to hide from the ones searching for him, he was found out exactly thanks to the heavy alchemical scent on him.
Zhou Mei, Zhou Mi, Fan Ruogang, Kong Yuhan— some of the only people in the sect he could call his friend— came to meet him as well.
They were all truly happy to see him back. Alex was happy to see them as well. He was particularly happy to see Fan Ruogang, who had her cheerful personality back thanks to having both Wan Li and Alex back in the sect.
They stayed around for a few hours before leaving him alone with his masters.
With Wen Cheng present with them, Alex started telling the both of them what he had been up to for the last 2 months. He told them how the beasts treated him, how he trained, what they were planning to do with Pearl, and how— if they could enter the secret realm— they could go out of the Empire.
Wen Cheng and Ma Rong were surprised to even learn that there was an Empire outside of the Crimson Empire. It was just speculation they had that there was civilization outside of the Crimson Empire, which they never expected to be an Empire that was larger than their own.
Alex took the time to explain to them about the 5 continents as well as he could. That was another thing that surprised them the most.
Learning that they were an isolated bunch with no access to outside resources, in a continent that itself was low on resources, and was thus the weakest one of all, was perhaps the biggest shock they had received their entire life.
"We should tell the emperor about this. He will be happy to learn as well," Wen Cheng said.
"I don't think you have to," Alex said. "They probably already know."
Wen Cheng looked at Alex with a weird face. "How do you know that they know?" he asked.
"The Emperor's grandfather, Fu Qing, the First Emperor, was from the Luminance empire. He was someone that entered the secret realm from the other side, and escaped through this side when everyone else he had come with died."
"I suspect he would at least tell his family about something so important. I also suspect the only reason they never dared to make it public is because of how difficult it would be to go through a secret realm full of beasts," Alex said.
"Hmm, you might be correct. But, there is a chance they really don't know and the first emperor just never bothered to tell them because of how dangerous it is," Wen Cheng said.
"Somehow I doubt that," Ma Rong said from the side. Her tears had dried away completely, and she was no longer red in the face from all the crying. She also no longer choked on her tears while speaking.
"Why do you say that?" Wen Cheng asked.
"Did you know that the Emperor's sister-in-law was sick?" Ma Rong asked. "The city lord's mother, she was brought here in the Scarlet city for me to treat."
"Eh? They brought someone so important here? Why not let her stay in the capital?" Wen Cheng asked.
"That's because they didn't feel the capital safe because of the beast attack. Also, senior Lai— Ah, the Royal alchemist, he couldn't find any treatment for her, so they brought her here to see if I could treat them," Ma Rong said.
"Did you?" Wen Cheng asked curiously.
"Yes, thanks to a pill Alex came up with. He came up with the pill and the Royal Alchemist improved upon it. She was starting to heal before the final Beast invasion, and I heard she left a month ago, fully healed," Ma Rong said.
"Oh, she's healed? That's good for her," Alex said.
"Yes, that is good, but I don't see the point of this information," Wen Cheng said.
"Well, the point is that the reason she was sick was that she ate a Divine Devil fruit, a rather raw one with not enough age to it, and was stuck halfway in Mortal Cleansing."
"That fruit, she had found on one of her expedition to the south, which I highly doubt was just a random expedition. I have been wondering why they would ever go to the south, I suspect this is the reason," Ma Rong said.
"Ah, I see," Wen Cheng said. "Still, just for formality's sake, I will report what I've learned today."
"That should be okay," Ma Rong said.
It was quite late into the night, so Wen Cheng decided it was time that he left.
"When do you plan to come to the sect?" Wen Cheng asked.
"I don't know master," Alex said. "I'm not a disciple of the sect anymore, am I?"
"What do y— Ah, I hadn't thought about that," Wen Cheng said as he fell into thought. "Right, now that you are in the True realm, you are supposed to be graduated from the sect."
"So, I can either leave the sect or stay as an elder, right?" Alex asked.
"That's right, but…" Wen Cheng fell silent.
"I doubt I can be elder in two different sects, can I?" Alex asked. "Besides, I'm too young to be an elder too."
"This…" Ma Rong fell silent too. "You will have to stay an elder here," She said after thinking for a while. "Your alchemy skills are too great to waste your days doing normal elder stuff."
"That's very selfish of you, Ma Rong. Don't forget, our disciple's cultivation talents aren't that weak either. I sometimes even think that it might be better than his alchemy talents," Wen Cheng said.
"I can argue otherwise," Ma Rong said. "But that's not the point right now."
"I can't join both sects as an elder, can I?" he asked.
"No, the amount of information and responsibility an elder holds in a sect is just too big to share between the two sects without any supervision. Even if you don't mean any harm for the two sects, even if the two of us agree, the other elders will stand up against it, so it's just not possible," Ma Rong said.
"What should I do then?" Alex asked.
"We can't tell you that," Wen Cheng said. "You will have to choose this time, and you can not choose both."
"Normal Cultivation, or Alchemy, the choice will be easy for you once you understand what your heart desires, but at the same time, it will be the most important choice you have made in your life until now."
"What you choose will shape your future from here on out," Ma Rong said.
Alex fell silent. He didn't want to choose. As much as he liked Alchemy, he liked the normal cultivation stuff too. He liked the training, learning new skills, breaking through to the other realms.
He liked formations, to make them, to carve them. He wanted to learn about talisman creation and artifact forging too if given the chance.
There were way too many things he wanted to do to be tied down by a single decision he was forced to make right now.
"I… I will have to think about it," Alex said with a solemn face.
Wen Cheng pointed at Alex's chest and said, "Don't choose with your head, choose with your heart. Don't choose what you think is right for you. Choose what you FEEL is right for you."
"Don't worry. Regardless of what you choose, regardless of where you will be, we will always be your master, and you will always be our disciple. Nothing in the world will ever change that," Ma Rong said.
"We just recruited elders a week ago, so the next one is about 3 weeks away. When is yours?" Wen Cheng asked Ma Rong.
"We have one coming up this week. After that, it will be next month," Ma Rong said.
"Ah, yours is closer that. Sigh, I don't want to force you, but if possible, try to choose one of the two sects by the end of this week, okay?" Wen Cheng said.
"I will leave now. Come to the sect whenever you feel like it," Wen Cheng said and waved goodbye.
"Rest, you have a long week ahead of you," Ma Rong said and she walked out as well.
Alex remained in his house, alone with his thoughts, many thoughts, thinking what he should be doing.
The thoughts conflicted with each other, the feelings contradicted each other. Choose with your heart, Wen Cheng had said. But how was he to do that, when his heart wanted different things?
He felt a close connection with the Hong Wu sect, much more than what he felt with the Tiger sect. That in turn made him guilty towards the Tiger sect and made him want to do something right for them as well.
There was also the feeling of guilt he felt towards Pearl as he didn't think about him all the time, which he felt was what he should have been doing.
Too many things. His mind and heart, a jumbled mess of thoughts and feelings. Alex sighed. He really could not choose at all.
He decided to put it all aside for now. The night was late, and he had nothing to do anymore now that he was back.
So, he logged out of the game, got out of the capsule, and jumped into his bed. The thoughts and feelings slowly disappeared as he fell asleep.
