Back at the master's residence there were 3 people currently sitting around an ornate table, assorted sweets and cakes were placed carefully on top.
"Randolph, when will the pill be ready?"
A large middle-aged man said with a gruff voice, his tone carried an arrogant air as if he were ordering around a subordinate.
"Mr. Jacob please have some patience, as you know, pill crafting requires not only rare ingredients but also time and skill. My son is merely missing one ingredient, once he acquires it, we can start right away on making the Body Cultivation pills"
An older gentleman with silver hair and a widow peak leaned forward in order to placate Jacob. He wore a flashy silver robe and held a black cane in his left hand, judging by giant red jewel on top it must have cost a pretty penny.
"I assure you Mr. Jacob, once we retrieve the Spirit Elderflower we can start right away."
Randolph smiled subserviently to the middle-aged man as he continued to reassure him. Jacob was the grandson of Bruce Li, one of the Grand Elders of the Soaring Dragon Sect who had tremendous influence within the sect. Fortunately for Jacob, his grandpa doted heavily on him, always ready to clean up his messes. Merely a mention of his name was enough to strike fear into the other party.
'Tsk. If it wasn't for my father needing the Grand Elders support for the Sect Master position, I wouldn't even waste my time with this brute' Randolph sneered in his mind.
He looked over to his father who seemed to share the same sentiment, after locking eyes his father gave him a look as if to say, 'bear with it'.
"I don't have much patience, our deal is off if you can't provide the pills by the end of the week" Jacob said in an annoyed tone.
Randolph clenched his fist in annoyance, luckily, he managed to not let it show on his face. He looked out the window and saw that the sun had almost set, sighing with relief internally he quickly stood up from his chair.
"Mr. Jacob, we'll be in touch soon" he said with a slight bow.
Jacob responded with a harrumph before getting up and showing himself out the door.
Once their guest left Randolph looked at his father who had finally let anger show on his face. Constantly having to ingratiate his noble self to these paltry characters had begun to wear on his patience. Were it not for the fact that the Grand Elders were old monsters with gargantuan strength he would have taken the Sect Master seat by force.
"Son if we play our cards right, when the election happens in a few years I will win. We already have the Hawk Faction thanks to your grandfather; we just need at least one more to tilt the scales"
Randolph nodded slowly, he had a lot of pride built from being called a genius from a young age. Due to his talent in alchemy, he was on track to become Master Yi's core disciple, something that had yet to be achieved by anyone in the past 100 years.
After reaffirming their plans Randolph quickly made his way to the fields where he was expecting the new servant to arrive with his ingredient. In his haste he bumped into a small servant girl with long blonde hair, the impact sent her flying half-way across the hall.
"Watch where you're going bitch" he said venomously through his teeth.
The young girl looked up at the tall and skinny Randolph with tears in her eyes, due to her having no cultivation it felt like walking into an oncoming horse. She could already feel that her tailbone was bruised which didn't bode well for her line of work.
"S…Sorry Master Randolph" she managed to hold in her tears and quickly uttered out an apology.
"Trash" Randolph dusted his robe off and didn't spare the servant another look as he walked out the door.
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Michael made his way toward the building in haste with dusk creeping up behind him. He didn't forget to remove the 3 herbs from his pendant, he wasn't sure if dimensional storage's were a common item or if they were as rare as hens teeth. Keeping the Eternal Pendant a secret was a top priority, especially since he didn't have the strength to protect it.
From afar he could see the lanky beanpole making his way toward him, a smug smile framed his face. Seeing the unbridled scorn on his face filled Michael with anger which he quickly bottled up and locked away.
'Master, you need to act exhausted' Archie quickly reminded him.
'I know' he said while grinding his teeth. Michael quickly put on a panicked expression as he ran towards Randolph, it was time to test out his acting skills.
"M…Mister Randolph, I don't know what happened. I picked this flower on the list and suddenly I felt terrible, almost like all my energy was being sapped from my body" He panted and held out the herb to Randolph.
'Haha that idiot really did it' Seeing the pristine Spirit Elderflower now in his hands he sneered inwardly.
'Judging by the state of the Elderflower he must have picked it first. 2 hours of having your life-force drained is almost 20 years.'
Randolph took out a medium-sized green jade box before placing the Elderflower inside, he looked at Michael and clicked his tongue.
"Tsk, country bumpkin you obviously didn't harvest the herb correctly. I've disabled the flower's effects. You should feel better soon enough. Now go and see Master directly, he's on the balcony"
He waved his hand as if shooing a fly, a sly smile making its way to his mouth.
'Heh ehehe let's see how proud you are when your pills blow up in your face you f***ing string bean'
Michael made an audible sigh of relief and began to thank Randolph repeatedly.
"Thank you so much, you saved me"
Randolph ignored the ignorant bumpkin and made his way back to the building, shaking his head in annoyance.
Michael's trademark devious smile appeared on his face as he watched the stick man walk away.
'Time to hand in the real test'