Chapter 102: 102

When Michelle opened the door of the office and walked out, she was met with the surprised gazes of Ivona, Kieran, Anastasia, Alexander, and David. “Why do you look like that?” Ivona asked as she stared at Michelle’s black hair, eyes, and nails. “That’s the effect of the void you absorbed?”

“It will go away soon…” Michelle waved her hand dismissively. “It was worse before,” she added.

Not really wanting to believe Michelle, because she seemed somehow reckless about her own safety, she turned to stare at David and Alexander. “Is that the truth?” she asked.

“Yes…” Alexander nodded, a nonchalant expression on his face. “Most probably.”

“Most probably?” Ivona arched a brow, not liking the answer.

Rubbing her temples a bit, Michelle sighed. “Ivona, it’s fine, really,” she said seriously. “Now, let’s go to the black market… David?” she turned to look at David, her gaze clearly asking him to lead them there.

When her words fell, Alexander raised an eyebrow. “Why would you go to the black market?” he asked with a frown.

Alexander’s question made David remember Michelle’s words before he called Alexander to come to the auction house, which made him cringe. “She said that the payment she wanted for getting rid of the void was information about the Ostrich family, their relations in the upper realm, and the business they have with the black market.”

“That’s all you wanted?” Alexander turned to look at Michelle. “Now I don’t know if you think two lives are worth so little, or if you think it’s hard for this bastard…” he motioned with his chin at David as he spoke. “…to find out all that and give the information to you.”

Not wanting to repeat herself, Michelle just rolled her eyes and glanced at David again. “Will you give me the information?” she asked.

“Let’s go to the black market,” David said with a sigh when he felt Alexander’s cold gaze on the back of his head.

When the group got to the black market, David led them to a warehouse where dealings with the Ostrich family happened and explained quite a lot about the family to them.

In the upper realm, the Ostrich family had some power, but they didn’t belong among the families which could be considered powerhouses. But in the last few years, they were improving quickly, even though many family members disappeared.

David had his people investigate it, and he found out that the disappeared members were sent to the middle and lower realms to increase their power and influence by searching for ancient relics and rare herbs. Though such things were hard to find, the lower one went in realms; if they could find something there, they wouldn’t have to fight the powerhouses for it and could take it for themselves.

Like that, the Ostrih family gained quite some rare things, but none of them were things that could make them able to rival even the weakest of the powerhouses. But the family was starting to get greedy. And then, they discovered the Sloan family and their suspicious activities in the lower realm and their plans to go to the Land of Exile; so years before the Sloan family even decided whom to send, the Ostrich family already planted someone in the Land of Exile, and he became the founding General of the Empire. So when the Sloan family came down, they didn’t suspect that someone knew about their activities already.

When Malrik Sloan started filling the Soul Seeking Pendants with souls back in the lower realm and sending the empty bodies of the people into the Land of Exile, the members of the Ostrich family in the lower realm noticed and notified the members in the Land of Exile to prepare themselves for a big fight, as the Sloan family was creating an army of puppets for themselves.

Even once, they didn’t consider that the soulless bodies and the Soul Seeking Pendants were actually meant for a huge sacrificial ritual, so the Ostrich family sent many people to the Land of Exile so they could prepare themselves for the fight the Sloan family was planning to strike them, too.

While preparing for the fight to come, the Ostrich family didn’t keep their eyes on the Sloan family as much, so they were shocked when the little Emperor suddenly announced their execution. They still didn’t know what the Sloan family was planning, as they didn’t really know what Soul Seeking Pendants were, and they refused to leave the Land of Exile without any insights, if not gains. So they started searching for the pendants, and since they didn’t know exactly how they looked, they started stealing all the Sloan family’s artifacts and bringing them to their mansion.

They checked them, and when it was something that could have some value in the middle or upper realm, they kept it; if not, they sold it to the black market. But all the artifacts were affected by being in the Land of Exile, so even an appraiser from a middle-ranked family in the upper realm would have trouble discerning whether the objects were usable in the upper and middle realms; but the Ostrich family in the upper realms didn’t deem the Land of Exile to be that important and just sent a low-ranked appraiser, which didn’t notice the value of many things, which then ended up in the black market, in David’s hands.

“What artifacts did you get?” Michelle asked with a lifted brow. She wasn’t really curious about the artifacts themselves, as she knew that the Archduke must have more and better ones since he was from the upper realm, and the artifacts originated from the Sloan family, which was from the lower realm, but at the moment, she was searching for something she could use to get Anastasia out of the Land of Exile, and she wanted to try looking for something like that herself before she went to the Archduke for help again.

Seeing what people Michelle had in her group of friends, David could guess what she was looking for, as it was quite obvious that since she had made only three friends and two of them were already reaching the threshold of the spirit rank, she would want to take them all with her to the lower realm, but since Anastasia couldn’t cultivate, it was a bit problematic. “I have a few things that might help you,” he said as he walked over to one of the chests in the warehouse and opened it. It was filled to the brim with artifacts, but he completely disregarded their rareness and started throwing them around as he searched for the few artifacts he wanted to show Michelle.

Though, just a few days ago, he said that she would need to pay for the artifacts if she wanted them from him, since she basically saved his life and made it possible for him to go back to the upper and heavenly realm, he wasn’t planning to make her pay for them.

She might have said that it wasn’t much for her to save both him and Alexander, but the blackness in her eyes, hair, and nails was proof that even at that moment, she was feeling some discomfort. The blackness was already subsiding, and her nails were just grayish, her hair already had some silver strands, but the black in her eyes still remained. That was guessed to disappear last, as eyes were the most sensitive to changes in soul and spirit energy in one’s body.

After a while of rummaging through the chest, David finally found what he was searching for and took out two things. One was a single earring, and the second was a decorative belt. “What’s that?” Michelle asked curiously.

“Though they are just from the lower realm, you can use them if you get in trouble. This earring, I don’t know what it’s called, can be used to mask one’s cultivation level, and make others believe that it is higher by a whole rank, but it can only mask it up to the Divine rank. It should also be able to fool barriers, but that’s just a hypothesis.” David started explaining.

“Then, this belt. It’s not really a rare artifact, but it can’t be found in the Land of Exile, so you are lucky the Sloan family brought it here. It is used by people who don’t have spirit energy and cultivate something else, so the barriers of Heavenly Law would let them pass. It can show the barriers that the carrier has enough power of different energies or Mastery to pass through.” He continued.

Hearing that, Michelle’s eyes glinted a bit. “Then I won’t be courteous, as I need that,” she said with a grin. When it came to business, she wasn’t hesitant. Since David already offered it to her, she would take it. She also knew that she didn’t need to pay him back, because, for him, it was useless, and he would probably feel guilty if he “only” gave her information after she got the void out of him and Alexander.

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