Chapter 105: 105

Walking out of the dungeon, Michelle hummed lazily, a playful smile on her face as she went to see Kieran and Ivova, and she wanted to tell them what she had done so they wouldn’t be shocked when they went to the dungeon again. She had completely wrecked Ferdinand Ostrich’s mind by beating him again and again without letting him see her, all the while leaving the door of the cell open, giving him some hope of escaping. When she was done beating him, she slipped out of the cell, closed it, and locked it.

First, she went to see Ivona, who was still training with the knights, and when she told her about the state Ferdinand was in, Ivona was fairly surprised. From the start, she knew that Michelle was both ruthless and capable, but also lazy; but she had never guessed that she was so lazy that she would completely wreck someone’s mind so extracting information from them wouldn’t be bothersome.

Ivona didn’t mind the method, but it was surprising. She herself could be quite cold-blooded and calculating, and her nature was basically the same as Michelle’s, but maybe she hadn’t experienced enough, so she never thought about the possibility of wrecking someone’s mind. She was also a bit surprised when Kieran came up with the idea to cripple Ferdinand, or when Anastasia asked for a knife, saying she wanted to stab Ferdinand from behind.

In the end, Ivona was still the most inexperienced and maybe even the most naive of the group, but she, and everyone in the group, didn’t mind. Experience and knowledge weren’t constant. They could be gained, but also forgotten, which made human life fascinating.

If one were already born with all the knowledge of the world, life would be boring. Also, it was impossible for a human brain to store so much data and information. Especially right after a person is born, so knowledge and experience have to be slowly attained in life.

After speaking with Ivona for a while, Michelle went to Kierna’s room, but before she could knock on the door, she halted her hand, and the corners of her lips turned up a bit. She felt the spirit energy around the room swirling haphazardly, or flowing through all cracks into the room. That was a clear sign that the person cultivating in the room had either gained enlightenment or was about to reach a bottleneck.

The first case was quite impossible, because enlightenments carried power superior to that of Spirit Paragons, so to attain it in the Land of Exile was impossible. The Heavenly Law blocked it.

As for the second case, there could be two reasons why a person reached a bottleneck. One was that they reached a breakthrough point, but were in a place where they couldn’t attain the next level, and the next reason was that they had a block, either mental or physical.

Physical blocks could be an old wound, or weak spirit veins that did not allow further cultivation, and mental blocks could be unresolved grudges or old burdens they even forgot about. Some blocks could be removed or overcome, but some stayed forever, and the cultivator got stuck at their level, forcing them to live only until their lifespan ran out.

Knowing that Kieran was about to reach a bottleneck, probably because he was still bothered about the Ostrich family, Michelle smiled and waited by the door until the swirling and rushing spirit energy calmed down. That meant that Kieran really reached the bottleneck and stopped cultivating.

“Kieran?” Michelle knocked on the door when she thought his mind was back in reality. “Do you have a moment?” she asked through the closed door.

“Come in!” Kieran’s voice came through the door, so Michelle entered. “What do you need?” he asked. Since the case with the Ostrich family started, she had never come to search for him, as she was leaving the case completely up to him, so he was curious as to what she needed so suddenly.

Briefly telling Kieran the same things she told Ivona, Michelle then proceeded to ask him about his bottleneck. “Are you so worried about the Ostrich family that you can’t cultivate?” she inquired. She could guess what he was worried about, but she didn’t understand why he was so worried that he couldn’t even cultivate properly. Did he think the Ostrich family was that powerful, or did he just overthink everything? But considering how Kieran acted so far, neither seemed to be the case, so Michelle only felt more and more confused about why he was suddenly so concerned.

“No…” Kieran shook his head. “I don’t have a reason to worry about the Ostrich family…” he said with a frown on his face.

“Then what’s bothering you so much?” Michelle asked as she leaned against the wall and crossed her arms over her chest. “You aren’t the kind of person who would pointlessly worry about things, so what is plaguing you?”

Kieran went silent for a while before speaking again: “You want to take Anastasia with us to the lower realm, right?”

“Yes! What about it?” Michelle arched a brow, a guess forming in her mind. “Are you worried she won’t be able to go there, or that she would be in danger here?” she questioned.

“The second…” Kieran said, with a sigh. “I know she’s capable and scheming, and it can make her a powerful entity here, but without spirit energy, outside the barrier, she might just end up as a lamb to be slaughtered.”

Hearing that, Michelle was surprised. “Kieran, did you never see the destruction soul energy could bring?” she asked.

As Michelle expected after hearing about Kieran’s concerns, he shook his head when her question fell. “I’ve never heard of it before you mentioned it.”

“I see…” Michelle sighed. “Come with me! I’ll show you something,” she decided, and opened the door to leave the room.

“Now…? When it’s dark already?” Kieran wasn’t a fan of darkness and night. Maybe it was because he was a fire element Spirit Master, so he couldn’t really hide in the dark when needed.

With Kieran reluctantly following her, Michelle led him to the empty and dark training grounds. She walked over to the spirit stone in the middle of the training fields and squatted down, putting her hands on it. After she inserted her spirit energy into it, it started shining brightly.

Then, she looked at Kieran. “Let’s spar! You can use your full power while I won’t use my Shadow Spirit Steps or spirit energy. I’ll only use my soul energy, so you can see how powerful it is. And just so you know, I haven’t trained with it that much.”

Nodding a bit, Kieran formed fire around his arms and prepared to fight. “Then don’t blame me if I hurt you, Michelle! I won’t hold back, even if you are my friend.”

“That’s good to hear!” Michelle grinned and formed black chains in her hands. Then, she swung her hands one after the other, using the chains like whips to attack Kieran.

Wanting to see the power of the chains first, Kieran dodged to the side, and his eyes widened when he saw the chains make a dent in the ground after Michelle pulled them back. As far as Kieran knew, the ground in the training grounds of the Archduchy was made of special material so it wouldn’t easily break even under a barrage of spirit energy.

When Kieran saw that, he knew that if he wanted to fight back, he needed to put his full concentration into it. He instantly forgot about all plans prepared for the Ostrich family in his mind, and increased the amount of spirit energy blazing around his whole hands.

Then, when Michelle struck again, he used both his hands to catch one of the chains while dodging the other. He was able to catch the chain, but the force and speed of the chain made him stumble backward and let go of it.

At the same time, Michelle flung the other chain at him again, so he had to dodge again. But he didn’t know that Michelle could use more than two chains at once. To control them, she didn’t need to hold them. So, when he landed on the ground a few steps back, a chain hit him from behind, forcing him to stop his movement and turn around to defend against it.

Clearly, Michelle didn’t use full power in that one hit, or she would have broken Kieran’s spine. But when he was facing the chain, she could use it’s full power and whip it at him.

Seeing the chain whip at him with the power of at least a Spirit Apprentice, Kieran chose to roll to the side to save his neck. But there, another chain was waiting for him and wrapped around him like a snake, binding him in place.

“You lost!” Michelle smiled widely as she walked over to him and retracted the chains. “So? What do you think?” she asked with a smile. “Is soul energy usable?” she added.

“Yes…” Kieran nodded. “Very much so…” As he spoke, Michelle could clearly see the excitement dancing in his eyes.

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