"Yes."
As soon as the elders heard him confess to stealing something from the alchemy garden, they gasped.
The alchemy garden was one of the forbidden lands in the sect that not everyone was given permission to enter. Only elders were allowed in it to pick the ingredients previously, but even that had changed.
Now the elders were only allowed to care for the garden, and not pick up anything. That task was apparently given to the sect leader's new disciple. The elders didn't know if that was the right choice, but they heard nothing but praise from Elder Wang and Elder Zhan who took care of it now.
So, when they heard that Song Zun had entered the alchemy garden to steal ingredients from it, they knew there was no pardoning him.
Ma Rong was starting to get angry. "Why did you steal the ingredients and not buy it?" she asked.
"I am not going to do these menial tasks just to buy something I can easily steal. All I want to do is make pills and nothing more" Song Zun said with a blank face.
"Why do you want to make the pills so bad?" she asked.
"To surpass Zhou Mei and Wan Li and become the number one ranking disciple in the sect under Alchemy Achievement." Song Zun relayed his simple plan.
Alex was surprised to hear that as well. ' First in Alchemy Achievement…Alchemy Achievement…" suddenly he remembered something.
'That's right. Song Zun is the name of the third-ranking disciple in Alchemy Achievement. He is the anomaly in the black rock who has a high alchemy achievement with a very poor contribution ranking. Does that mean he didn't do many contributions to the sect at all?' he suddenly thought of something.
"How long ago did you join the sect?" he walked forward and asked Song Zun.
"Hey who are you?" the elders cried out.
"Go away disciple, this is not a place for you."
Ma Rong suddenly shouted "Quiet!" and all the elders quietened down. She waited for Song Zun to reply.
"4 years." He said.
"Where are you going with this?" she asked Alex.
Alex gestured her to wait and see and asked another question. "How long ago did you become a core disciple?"
"1 year ago." Song Zun was still under the effect of the pill, and it didn't look like it was going to go away soon.
"And how many contribution points have you earned after becoming a core disciple?" he asked. Ma Rong started getting curious as to why he was asking such unrelated questions.
"I make the weekly required 100 contribution points." Song Zun replied.
"Then, where do you get the ingredients for your pills to rank third in the Alchemy Achievement?" as soon as she heard this question, Ma Rong's eyes turned wide as she finally thought of a possibility that she had forgotten in the heat of the situation.
She looked back at Song Zun, and the answer she dreaded came out of his mouth. "I steal all my ingredients from the alchemy gardens."
Ma Rong immediately questioned "How many ingredients have you stolen so far?" the revelations were getting too much for her, but she still had to ask the question.
Song Zun stayed quiet for this question. The deafening silence lasted for a few too many seconds before he opened his mouth to say, "I don't know."
Ma Rong was shocked. She changed the question, "Since when did you start stealing the ingredients?"
This question he didn't think at all and said, "3 and a half years."
The pill's effect ran out with the answer and Song Zun realized what he had just said. "No! No! That was a lie. That was wrong. I wasn't thinking straight. Sect Master, please give me a chance. Elders, please help me. I am one of your best students. I am so close to becoming an Earth Grade alchemist. Please don't punish me. I can change. Please."
Ma Rong felt disgusted looking at his face. She scanned his body with her spiritual sense and pulled out 3 storage bags. She threw them each towards Alex and said, "This is your reward for your contribution tonight. If not for you, this criminal would have gone unnoticed by us."
The elders were looking in shock as Alex took all 3 bags. Alex quickly scanned the bag and found most of the items inside were just alchemy materials, pills, and a few dozen spirit stones.
There were also 2 books that he quickly scanned the cover of. One of them was called [Veiled light technique]. It was an Earth Grade technique that used Qi to cover one's body with refracted light to make them invisible to the surrounding.
This was what Song Zun was using to hide in the sect valley.
The second book was perhaps the best book Alex had found as of yet. It was called the [Immortal Concealment Technique]. It was a technique that ran on its own and hid people's cultivation base from others as well as their aura and Qi.
To anyone that is not at least a major realm higher than the user, the user would appear to be a simple mortal with no cultivation. To top it all of, it was an Immortal grade technique. The first one he had ever seen.
"Thank you, master."
Ma Rong nodded and looked back at Song Zun, whose eyes were glaring daggers at Alex, who had been the one to find him. He was the one that had pointed at him back in the market and had asked those questions that got him to where he was.
And now, he also had all of his items.
Ma Rong closed her eyes and said, "Throw him into the forbidden fields for 2 months. That shall be his punishment."
A few elders with a badge on their robe that said 'Protect' walked out and carried Song Zun to take him to the forbidden fields.
"Go back and rest." Ma Rong said towards Alex and went along with the elders, leaving Alex alone.