Sect Leader’s Rise to the top! - Chapter 75

The next day, Kai’s disciples headed out to the Eastern-Swamp as usual. He had also ordered more alchemy materials so he decided to stay home practice his alchemy until it was time for Mei Lee to arrive.

Today, Kai was able to increase his success rate of making [Basic Healing Pills] up from 5% to 8%. His progress was slow, but he improving which helped to motivate him. Kai would analyze each failure and try to tweak a certain aspect to see what changes it would bring.

This included finding the optimal temperatures, the best ways to stir the concoction, and the best time to put the herbs into the furnace. None of this was detailed in the beginner alchemy scroll so Kai had to go through a lot of trial and error. Kai hoped to increase his success rate to at least 50% before trying to make any other types of pills.

Later that afternoon, Mei Lee arrived. When Kai opened the door, Mei Lee was stunned by his appearance. Kai had commissioner a bunch of new clothes a few days ago after having formed his official Hunter team. He decided today would be the perfect day to change into one of those new outfits. The one he chose was a pure white robe with multiple layers stacked on top of each other. The sleeves holes were deep which made them flutter in the breeze.

However, what made the clothes stand out were the various patterns of golden dragons sewn into the material. The materials themselves were subpar and of obvious low quality, however, Kai had made sure to custom-ordered the dragon pattern designs which fit the Wuxia theme that he was going for.

He finished off the outfit with a white mask that had gold accents to match the golden dragon patterns. The outfit was cheap to make since he provided most of the materials himself. He only needed to pay the tailor 1 gold piece to create the intricate dragon patterns to his exact specifications.

Earlier that day, Kai had looked himself in the mirror. “Did I go a bit too far this time?… I kind of look like I’m wearing a Dao Emperor cosplay…” In the end, Kai decided to just go with it. This was a fantasy world, after all, so powerful people needed to dress a little mysteriously and be a little eccentric.

Mei Lee’s jaw was agape for a few seconds but she quickly pulled herself together. She was dressed in a fancy red dress that hugged her figure. The dress had slits on both sides which exposed her legs. Her hair was tied up into a bun and held together with an intricate jade hairpin.

“Mister Kai, your outfit is quite…unique. I have never seen this style before. I hope you can tell me which tailor you use later…Well then, shall we set off?”

Kai simply nodded his head and followed her into the carriage. Inside the carriage, Mei Lee continuously stole glances at Kai, intrigued by the interesting patterns and various layers. To her, he looked both regal and mysterious.

The duo arrived at the auction house which was a lot more packed than when Kai was last here. The main auction would be held inside the main hall where only special guests and those who could afford the expensive tickets could enter. However, the outside still had many weird and unique-looking for people to haggle over. These items were fairly rare so a lot of people were around, looking for good deals.

When Kai and Mei Lee arrived, they stepped out of the carriage and all eyes immediately landed on them.

“Whoa, who are they?!”

“Look at that outfit, is he some sort of Prince?, I’ve never seen so many layers on one outfit before…”

“And the woman in red, the contrast between them is simply beautiful”

“Out of the way! whoever they are, they must be important to be dressed like that, move out of the way you bums!”

The crowd parted while murmurs and excited shouts filled the air. Mei Lee calmly gestured for Kai to proceed and Kai obliged silently. The Lee family guards had already surrounded them and were clearing a path for them through the crowds.

They two walked past the crowds and entered the building. Once the doors closed behind them, the people burst into a commotion, with some wondering who the man was and where they could get his outfit.

Inside the auction house, Mei Lee lead Kai towards the second floor where the main hall was located. Those who bought the regular tickets were seated in the hall while the VIPs and special guests were all up in the various balconies that surrounded the hall.

Kai was led up to the Lee Family’s balcony. When he arrived, Craftsmaster Lee, the current head of the Lee family was seated quietly, looking down at the stage. People below were slowly filling the regular seats while the staff organized the last few details.

“Ah, Mr. Kai, welcome!”, said Craftsmaster Lee enthusiastically while gesturing for him to come over…

Kai accepted his greeting and took the seat next to Craftsmaster Lee. Kai stole a glance at the man and noted that despite his middle-aged appearance, he was older than he made it out to be. Kai suspected that he was hiding his real age with some sort of pill or secret technique to put up a front.

“The auction will be starting in 30 minutes. Your Qi-crystal will be part of the main attraction this time. We also have a lot of other interesting items so if you see something you like, please let me know, haha”

“Thank you”, Kai said softly. He didn’t want to seem overly friendly with the Lee family but was also grateful for the free furnace. This was why he had decided to at least try and help them save a portion of their business instead of joining the vultures.

As they spoke, a condescending voice suddenly came from the doorway behind them. “Lee family head, how have you been?! haha!”

Kai turned around and saw a man in fancy green attire walking through the door. Behind him was a group of guards following closely. The guards were all wearing black gear with the emblem of a red rose etched on their chests and shoulder pads. Kai recognized the emblem as well as the two guards standing on both sides of the man.

They were the leader and vice leader of the Order of the Rose, the current strongest Hunter Team in Huang City. Their leader, Hou Zhou is a former wandering internal cultivator, and their vice leader, Xu Wei who is a body cultivator at [Mortal Grade-4]. As far as body cultivators go, this was fairly rare in Huang City.

Kai used [Qi detection] on the Leader, Hou Zhou.

[Human -[699 Qi] E- Rank]

“Looks like this guy has made some progress since the last time I saw him…”. Kai didn’t mind using Qi Detection on them seeing as they had entered the room with hostile intent.

Despite knowing how much Qi Hou Zhou had, Kai still knew that the amount of Qi was not a direct indication of the person’s power. In real battles, the quality and ability of your internal manual, as well as your martial arts skills would be the real deciding factor.

Kai was still confident that with his current skills, he could defeat cultivators at any stage of Qi condensation. He was even confident in successfully escaping from foes at the early stage of the Foundational Establishment if he was willing to risk getting hurt.

Kai looked away from Hou Zhou and over to the woman, Xu Wei who he had once fought. She noticed Kai’s gaze but simply looked away.

The man standing in the middle of the guards made his way to the front and looked at Kai curiously. “Who is this?…”, said the man while starring at Kai.

Kai could faintly sense that the man was an internal Cultivator as well, and quickly used [Qi detection] on him.

[Human -[67 Qi] F- Rank]

“Weak….” Kai inadvertently blurted the word out, causing the room to fall into an awkward silence.