Alex left the training hall with his sister, leaving behind a shocked Du Yuhan.
That hadn't even been a fight. Alex had casually blocked all of Du Yuhan's attack and used an attack of his own to bring Du Yuhan down to his knees.
Even when Du Yuhan used his Sword Qi, Alex could easily overpower it. Alex was excited about the fight, but this wasn't it.
He returned back to his sister's house and went back to his room.
'What am I to do now?' he wondered. Once again, there wasn't anything to do, so he decided to sleep.
The next couple of days went in a similar fashion. Alex spent the majority of the day making something or training his new technique, the one whose name he didn't know of.
Occasionally, he went to the Hong Wu sect to see what was happening.
Finally, his graduation days were fixed. It would take place in the Hong Wu sect first, and then in the Tiger sect the next day.
Alex felt anxious. He had never expected to have to leave this place one day permanently, but that didn't mean he wouldn't have to.
He wished for the auction to take place earlier since he needed a new cultivation method, but it didn't seem like there would be one.
The bi-annual auction seemed to have been canceled after the attack on the city that happened nearly 2 weeks ago.
Alex spoke with Wen Cheng too, but it seemed the sect only had Earth grade cultivation method as well. Most Heaven Grade cultivation methods were in private hands that Alex couldn't have.
Wen Cheng gave Alex his own cultivation method, but it was a Wood affiliated cultivation method, which Alex didn't find very helpful.
Since his wood root was quite bad, he decided not to use it.
"It will be better if I find one with no affinity, metal affinity, or Yang affinity since my roots favor them the most," Alex thought.
Something else had been happening over the course of the last few days. Alex had been slowly and slowly growing hotter, just like his master had.
It wasn't hot enough that he had to stay inside and isolate himself, but it was still causing him some major problems during alchemy.
Worst of all, it wasn't stopping at all. Fortunately, however, he had the yang roots that could control all free yang, so he could contain the yang in him much easier than his master could contain her yin.
For now, he had nothing to worry about. He only feared that there would come a day when he too would have to get holed up in a room somewhere, heating up everything around him.
Alex woke up early the next day and went over to the Hong Wu sect. Today was the day of graduation.
Surprisingly, it wasn't just him graduating. It seemed Wan Li had decided to use the day to graduate as well.
The ceremony was simple. It was held in the Elders hall, where only the elders could view it. The First elder who was acting as the interim sect leader officiated the ceremony.
He gave a small speech, congratulating the alchemists that were graduating and offering them good wishes on things that were to come in the future.
He then called them out by the name, as one by one, they went up to get their graduation award.
The award was simple. Before the ceremony, they had been asked for their nameplate. Now, their award was their nameplate, but it had an 'Alumnus' carved onto it.
Alex got his nameplate back and shook the first elder's hands. He walked away and stood by Wan Li who had already gotten his award.
Alex looked at the word 'Alumnus' and started feeling a little emotional. He had spent so many nights and days in this place that he couldn't help but feel sad, but also, he was sad that his master wasn't here to see him graduate.
She had planned for so long for him to graduate to become an elder, and yet, things never happened the way she wanted to.
The graduation ceremony changed to become an Elder recruitment ceremony.
Wan Li and a few others walked up to say their vows and get recruited as the elder of the sect.
'So… Zhou Mei is the number 1 disciple now, huh?' he thought. It wouldn't take very long for her to graduate either.
The ceremony ended not long after, and the elders congratulated all of them.
"I know you have made up your mind, but there is still time. You can still be an el—"
"Lang Shun!" the Grand Elder shouted. "He's already made up his mind. Don't try to dissuade him now."
The Grand elder then turned to Alex and said. "Congratulations on graduating. I hope you continue to do well and make us all proud."
"Thank you, grandmaster," Alex bowed towards him.
Grand Elder started tearing up a little. "If only your master was here to see you. She would be so proud of you," the Grand Elder said.
Alex talked to the two for a while before leaving outside. Outside the Elders hall, a few disciples were waiting for the rest to come out.
Wan Li had already appeared outside, and the group was done congratulating him.
After Alex walked out, most people didn't recognize who he was at all. Only a select few congratulated him and started asking what his plans were next, which Alex answered without hesitation.
"Mingming, are you really leaving the sect?" Fan Ruogang asked with a somber voice.
"Yes, I am," Alex said.
"Will you ever come back?" she asked.
"Of course," Alex said. "I will come back a lot, but you shouldn't expect me to be around a lot."
"I can't believe it, brother Yu. It feels like a week ago I asked you to help me by being an aid. Now you've graduated as one of the best students. This is just mind-blowing," Kong Yuhan said.
"You're not very far away from graduating as well, brother Yuhan. Keep working hard," Alex said.
"I will," Kong Yuhan said. "Especially now that I have used the flower you gave me, It will be much easier, I suppose."
"It will. Trust me," Alex said.
Zhou Mei was mostly quiet, so Alex didn't bother to say much except wish her good luck on her graduations as well.
Afterward, Alex left the group and went to the alchemy garden to see his master. He reached the top and sighed a little when he saw the plant slowly try to distance itself from him.
"Hey, Master. Were you lonely? I hope senior green has been keeping you company," Alex said, sensing the snake close by. "I came here to let you know that I graduated today. I know you wanted to see me do it very badly, but it seems fate had other plans."
"I miss you master, and I will continue missing you. This is probably going to be my last visit for a long while. I don't know when I will return, but when I do, I promise you that I will be someone you can be proud of."
After a few minutes, Alex left the garden and went out of the gates of the sect. He turned one last time to look at the sect he called home.
This was going to be the last time he got to see the sect for many, many years.
