"Are you alright?" Ma Rong asked as soon as she entered.
Alex was a little perplexed as to what she meant. So, he simply answered, "Yes. I am alright."
"What were you doing sleeping in the courtyard? I was worried you were sick or something." She said with a concerned look on her face.
"Oh, uhh… I was cultivating over the course of last night, and must've fallen asleep outside in the courtyard," He said.
'Damn. Does the game not remove your character from the world while you log out?' he thought. Until now he had assumed that whenever someone logged out of the game, the game would remove their bodies from the play so that it didn't hinder anything else.
'I shouldn't log out in dangerous places from now on,' he said to himself.
"Fall asleep while cultivating? Why would you fall asleep while cultivating?" she asked.
"Huh? Do you not fall asleep while cultivating? I have never been awake when I cultivated," he answered simply.
Ma Rong looked at him like she had just heard something very absurd. "What sort of cultivator falls asleep while cultivating? What if you get attacked while you were cultivating? What would you do then? Simply die?" she asked.
Alex thought for a moment and couldn't come up with an answer. 'That's right. What would I do if something life-threatening happened while I was cultivating? Would I get woken up by the threat? Or would I simply die?' His master's worries made sense.
"Come, it's time for your training," she said as she called him outside. He followed her outside and realized he was still in his house. He hadn't recognized it immediately since he hadn't stayed here for long.
He followed his master to the alchemy room in his house. There was no need for paying contribution points to use alchemy rooms here.
She sat down on one side of the room and told him to sit on the other side. Once they were both seated, they were both on either side of the fire.
She took out a cauldron and placed it on top of the fire. The cauldron was made up of green material, with gold objects attached to it.
"I promised to give you this cauldron, didn't I? This cauldron is called the 'Golden Jade cauldron'. It was given to me by my master when I surpassed him in alchemy. It's a True Mortal Grade cauldron, and from today on, it is yours." Ma Rong spoke with a bit of emotion in her voice.
"Alright. We will start now. You don't have anything to do before we start right?" she asked.
Alex thought for a bit and decided he should ask her something. He took a deep breath and said, "Master, I unlocked my spiritual sense today."
"Okay. If that is all then we can sta— " Ma Rong stopped as she was talking. "What did you just say?" she looked at him as if she misheard what he had just said.
"I unlocked my spiritual sense today," he repeated once more.
"No way, you are a bone tempering realm cultivator. You cannot unlock spiritual sense until the saint realm. You must've mistaken your normal Qi sense as spiritual sense. Although even Qi sense is only supposed to unlock once you reach True realm," she refused to believe it.
"Master, I used a Spirit Cleansing Lily to unlock my spiritual sense." He told her.
Ma Rong's eyes were wide with shock. "How do you know about the spirit cleansing lily? No, where did you even get it from? They are incredibly expensive," she was still refusing to accept the fact that he had unlocked.
"Did you forget master? I can recognize every alchemy ingredient I see in the wild. I got mine in the western forest, outside of the city," he said whatever he could to make her believe him.
Ma Rong thought for a second. "Does that mean you have a spiritual sea now?" she asked.
"Sea? What's a spiritual sea?" he asked.
"If you really did unlock your spiritual sense, then you must've unlocked your spiritual sea. The Spiritual Sea is where your sense is located. According to the records, the sea is in your mind that you can feel with your spiritual sense. The larger your sea, the more powerful the spiritual sense." She explained.
Alex quieted for a second . 'A sea? Do I have one?' he thought. He quickly started probing into himself with his spiritual sense. He felt no resistance as he looked inside his mind.
Somewhere on his head was a small bubble of spiritual energy. Once he looked at what was inside, he saw a massive, but quiet sea with some occasional waves. The sea looked a bit dried up but was constantly getting back to its previous state.
"Yes, Master. There is something in my head. It's like a bubble of spiritual energy, and inside the bubble is a vast body of water, just like a sea." He said.
Ma Rong was shocked, "So you really did unlock your spiritual sense. That-that is too fast." He was looking at him like she was looking at a monster.
"But-but wait, you said you found a spirit cleansing lily? How did you choose the right one? Do you know that choosing the wrong flower destroys the entire flower bed?" she asked.
"Ah yes. I just know which flower is the right one. I have picked 2 lilies by now. One by myself, and another for Luo Mei of Tiger sect, who I met during my hunt." He said.
"So are you saying, you can pick the right flower out of the entire bed of flowers?" she asked once more. Alex simply nodded. Ma Rong's eyes seemed to light up with excitement.
She abruptly stood up and walked outside. She almost forgot about Alex in her excitement and left by herself. She turned back to look at Alex, who by now had a curious look on his face.
Ma Rong's eyes lit up as she said, "Follow me. If you really can tell apart a spirit cleansing lily from the normal lilies, then you have a job to do."