Alex made sure he didn't stand out in the crowd, so he split his attention keeping most of it on the woman and around her, and some of it on acting like he was there to buy something.
He had his master's communication talisman in his hands, ready to call her any moment.
The female outer sect disciple seemed to not know where to find the person, so she looked around hoping the person would instead find her.
Minutes passed by and nothing happened. Still, it was the only midnight now, so both Alex and the female disciple stayed there. The female disciple especially was in a jumpy mood.
From her understanding, she had gotten involved with something bad and wanted to get out of it as soon as possible. If even the sect was after this person, then he must be really bad.
Alex watched the woman's nervousness increase as she started getting fidgety. She was still walking around the market, unsure if the person would even come.
Suddenly, she turned stiff.
"Have you brought the ingredients?" a voice entered the woman's ears that made her jump.
"Quiet down." The voice spoke again.
Alex had his spiritual sense on the woman, so he heard the voice too. 'It's a man for sure. But where is he?' he looked through the crowd towards the female disciple but saw nobody standing around her.
'This is weird.' He immediately sent out his spiritual sense and found a figure in a cloak standing beside the woman.
'He's invisible. And it's just like she said, he has no aura or Qi. It's almost like he is a mortal.' Alex finally understood why he couldn't see the man at all.
Thankfully, he had a spiritual sense. The man's techniques could hide his aura and Qi, and hide his body, but it couldn't hide his figure from being seen with his spiritual sense.
He looked at the man and was shocked. 'So young!' the man didn't look a day over 20. Alex looked at the robe linings and realized he was a core disciple.
He immediately sent out a message. "Master, he's here. It's a core disciple. But be careful, he is invisible and has no qi or aura. Only your spiritual sense works on him."
The man was giving off no qi so he couldn't guess or see what his cultivation base was.
"Give me the damn ingredients." The man demanded in the woman's ears. The woman slowly took out a storage bag which the man immediately snatched. As soon as the bag left the woman's hand, it vanished as well.
The man started leaving and Alex started following. Suddenly, Ma Rong flew down from above. The man stopped and looked up to see the sect leader was landing nearby.
But he didn't seem to care much about it. He started walking away, still invisible.
Most of the disciples at night were outer sect disciples who had never seen the sect leader, so when she dropped they only assumed an elder was flying.
The elders from the stalls stopped what they were doing and walked out. "Sect leader, is something wrong? Why are you here?" they started wondering if they did something wrong during the sales today.
Ma Rong ignored everyone and looked towards Alex.
"Where?" She asked as soon as she flew down. Alex immediately pointed to the invisible man walking away, "There."
The invisible man turned back to see Alex point directly towards him, his eyes staring right at him. Ma Rong looked in his direction as well and within seconds her eyes that were looking everywhere else suddenly locked onto him.
"Not good." The man started to immediately run away, but there was no way he was going to be faster than the sect leader herself.
Ma Rong caught up to him in what felt like a blink of an eye and immediately pushed him down to the ground by just releasing her cultivation base on him.
The man stopped using his techniques and instead flared his cultivation base to struggle against the sect leader's power. His figure was finally visible to all.
Ma Rong saw the face and exclaimed with surprise. She immediately took him and flew off. Alex followed in their direction as well.
Ma Rong landed in front of the elder's hall surprising the many elders that were standing nearby. She had just been here a moment ago, and flew off with no indication, and came back just as quick.
Now, she even had a core disciple with her.
"What is going on, sect leader?" the elders asked.
"Nothing. I just found a thief who has been stealing from the alchemy gardens." She said as she tossed him down. Alex arrived just in time to see the man look up to the numerous elders with fear creeping up in his eyes.
"Song Zun?" the elders were surprised. "Are you sure there is no mistake here, sect leader? Song Zun is one of our best students. There is no way he could be a thief."
Ma Rong sighed and said, "I know. But a thief is a thief. And we don't look away from someone's crime just because they are good."
Alex looked at the man. 'Song Zun… I've heard of that name somewhere before.' He thought. He tried to remember, but couldn't think of where he had heard of him.
"What exactly did he do, sect leader? Couldn't we pardon him with a little punishment if the crime isn't that big?" one of the elders said.
"Let's see how big his crime is then, shall we?" Ma Rong pulled out a pill bottle and took out a single pill from it. It was the same Truth-seeking pill that she had given to the elders.
She force-fed it to Song Zun, who immediately got passive with no emotion in his face.
"Did you steal the ingredients from the alchemy garden to make a Heart-Stopping pill?" she went directly for the question.
Song Zun couldn't lie or say anything other than the truth, so he simply said, "Yes."