"Eat it," Ma Rong said as they looked at the elders standing in front of her. Her cold eyes and voice made all the elders shiver.
The majority of the elders ate it at once, while a few reluctantly followed. Suddenly, their eyes started to get lazy and their arms limped a little. Their entire body posture slumped and they have no emotions on their face.
"Now, Answer me again. Did anyone of you take away ingredients from the alchemy garden in the last 5 days?"
""" No"""" A collective answer came out of all the elders.
The elders once again all denied it. Ma Rong looked confused. There was no way someone below the saint realm could possibly lie after eating a Truth-Seeking Pill.
She dismissed the elders. After they started recovering once again, they left. Ma Rong got to thinking once more.
If it was not one of them, then it would be near impossible to catch the culprit unless they were stupid enough to make a transaction with the ingredients or the pill.
Ma Rong immediately took out her medallion to check the records, and she found someone selling a Heart-Stopping pill.
'5 hours ago? By an outer sect disciple, no less.' She checked the buying records of the disciple and found no ingredients for the pill.
"Come, we are going somewhere." She grabbed Alex by the arm and started flying away. The two elders just stood there and watched them leave.
Soon the sect leader and Alex were in the outer sect mountain, and Alex slowly flew down to one of the cottages.
"You do the talking." His master's voice rang inside his mind.
'Wow. She can already talk to my head? I forgot that was even possible with a spiritual sense.' He simply nodded to his master and walked up to the cottage.
Knock. Knock.
A female disciple slowly opened the door and looked at Alex confusedly.
"What do you want?" she asked in a very unfriendly tone.
"I am here on behalf of the sect to ask you a question. You sold a Heart-Stopping pill with 22% harmony today. Did you make the pill by yourself?" Alex asked the girl.
The girl was somewhere in her early 20s. As soon as she heard his words, she frowned.
"How do you know that?" She started getting a little apprehensive.
"As I said, I'm here on behalf of the sect. Now please answer the question. Did you or did you not make the pill?" Alex asked in a more stern voice.
The girl started to get a little scared and answered, "I only sold the pill, I didn't make it myself."
'Now we're getting somewhere.'
"Can you tell us where you got the pill from?" he asked
"Someone found me and asked me to sell the pill for them."
Alex frowned a little. "Ask who it is." Ma Rong's voice came to his head.
"Who is it that asked you to do that?"
" I don't know. I only met the person today. They were wearing a black hood over his head, and said that if I sold the pill, I would get 10% of the contribution points from it."
Alex fell into contemplation.
"Do you remember how the person looked like? How did they act? Maybe their gender or even the fact about if they are disciples or elders?"
The girl fell into thought. "I can't tell if they were a disciple or elder, but they wore a really dark green robe underneath, so they must've either a core disciple or an elder. As for the gender, I think they are a male. They tried to hide it but my instinct said they were a male. Aside from that, I don't know."
"I only met them about 6 hours ago so I don't know a lot about them. But, there was something weird about them. The person felt like a completely mortal person with no Qi. I can't tell if that is helpful, but that's all I have got."
Alex nodded. "Oh right. I am supposed to get the ingredients I bought with the remaining 90% of the contribution pill to them in the sect market tonight at midnight." The girl suddenly shouted.
"I see." Suddenly, a talisman fell from above. "Tell her to carry this with her." Ma Rong spoke to him.
"Keep this on your person when you go to the sect valley tonight, just in case."
Alex left the outer sect mountain. For a while, the walk to the sect valley was really silent.
"This person is smart." Ma Rong spoke from above. "Not only are they making other people sell the pills made out of stolen ingredients, but they are also even making the other disciples buy the ingredients for them. They are doing absolutely nothing to get tracked by the sect running formation."
"You are right, master. Who knows how many such stolen pills they have sold already." Alex was shocked that someone was deceiving the sect in such a manner.
"I don't have any hiding abilities, so everyone will see me if I keep flying in the sky like this, especially in the sect valley with all the light. And I can't show up in the sect valley itself, since that might deter away from the culprit."
She turned towards Alex and said, "So you will have to be the one to find this culprit. As soon as you see him, call me. Before that, I can't be seen. "
Ma Rong immediately flew away. 'What did I get myself into?' Alex wondered as he got back to the sect valley. Thankfully, he was done making for the auction or he would have regretted finding out about the missing ingredients.
He decided to wait for the culprit in the sect market, so he went and looked around the market as if he was looking through the different vendors.
About 2 hours later, midnight arrived. And so did the female disciple. He stayed about 15 meters away, hidden in the crowd, constantly surveying the area around the lady, waiting for the culprit to arrive.