Chapter 110: 110

When Anastasia heard Michelle’s words that the hardest part was only about to come, she frowned and turned to stare at Michelle. “What do you mean? I thought I could already use it, so what’s the next thing to do?” she asked as she stood up.

Michelle turned her head away from the sunset and spoke as if it were the most obvious thing in the world: “You may have gained control over the power in your body, but can you control it perfectly? Can you guarantee that if you got into a fight, you won’t lose your grasp of it in a crucial moment? From now on, you need to relentlessly use your soul energy and spar with someone until you are confident that you will never lose control of your power.”

“Also,” Michelle continued. “It’s not only about saving yourself. What if you lose control while attacking someone or demonstrating your power? Then, it could run rampant and harm those around you, your friends, or your allies.

Listening to Michelle, Anastasia had no other choice than to agree. “Let’s start with the training tomorrow,” she said after a while. She was already mentally exhausted and wanted nothing other than to sleep. Maybe that was also why she didn’t realize such an obvious thing as the need to train with her newfound power, so she could master and perfect its use.

After talking for a while longer, both Michell and Anastasia returned to the mansion. Anastasia went to her room while Michelle went to the dungeon. There, she found Kieran and Ivona discussing something some distance from Ferdninads cell. When they noticed her, they weren’t really surprised. “We interrogated the suicide soldiers you captured, but they didn’t know a thing, except that someone powerful hired them in the lower realm and sent them to the Land of Exile to listen to the Ostrich family,” Ivona said without even needing to ask Michelle why she came down to the dungeon.

Before going to train Anastasia, Michelle woke them both up and told them about the assassins she had captured. So the first half of the day, Kieran cultivated and Ivona sparred with the knights, while in the afternoon, they were in the dungeon interrogating the assassins.

“Well, that was to be expected…” Michelle wasn’t really moved by it. “Did you try to find out what organization they worked for in the lower realm?” she asked after a moment of thinking.

Ivona shook her head, but then Kieran spoke up: “I did. I was here a while earlier than Ivona so I interrogated them about the less important things before she came.”

Then, he started explaining. To put it simply, the assassins were from an assassination and information guild from the lower realm called Dark Domain. It was ruled by powerful people, who were clearly from a place higher in rank than the lower realm.

But the low-ranking assassins and scouts never dared to ask anything, because after one of the high-ranking scouts tried to probe about the group of leaders, he suddenly died of poisoning. And even the best doctors in the whole lower realm couldn’t tell what kind of poison it was. No direct cause of death. Just that it was poison. Nothing else.

There was also one more thing the assassins knew. It was said that the group of leaders was actually taking orders from someone; that they, too, were subordinate to someone. It was like a huge pyramid, and the assassins couldn’t see the top. They were guessing that they were barely seeing into the middle of the pyramid of power. And that not only terrified them, but made them realize that, after stepping into the guild, they had no way of leaving or rebelling. Well, maybe leaving was possible since they were of such low ranks, but revolting was ruled out.

Kieran also questioned the assassin about the original wording of the request the guild received from the Ostrich family, but they said that they were just ordered by a mid-ranking assassin to take a badge given to them by the client, go to the Land of Exile, find the Ostrich family, and show them the badge. If the family recognized it, they were to obey the family, even if it meant dying for them.

When Kierna finished speaking, Michelle smiled a bit. The way the guild worked sounded like multi-level marketing from her past life. And for someone in either the middle, upper, or heavenly realm to think of making it so big that it spread its limbs down to the lower realm, meant that they were either searching for something, or were highly ambitious. And there was one person she had in mind who met the criteria. It would be quite a coincidence if the Dark Domain’s top head were the Dark Lord, in other words, David Elether and Alexander Terce.

Seeing Michelle’s smile, Kieran and Ivona didn’t quite understand what was going through her head. “What made you so happy?” Kieran asked with an arched brow.

“You two, have you ever heard about something called multi-level marketing? Or otherwise called pyramid scheme?” Michelle asked instead of answering. It seemed like she wanted to explain something before answering.

Ivona shook her head. “No, but considering what Kieran just said, and by its name, it’s self-explanatory. A powerful person is at the top of an organization, and he gives orders to a few people beneath him. Every person beneath him has more people beneath them, and those people have their own subordinates. The more levels of subordination, the more people each level has, creating a huge pyramid of ranks and people, all working under one or two people. What about it? Is it important to understand how it works?” she asked.

“Yes and no…” Michelle smiled. “All we need to know is that the guild itself isn’t against us. They were just hired by the Ostrich family to help them proceed with their plans. The assassins mentioned a mid-ranking assassin who sent them here. Once we go to the lower realm, we have to find him and interrogate him. But for that, we need to cultivate for a long time after reaching the lower realm, because the assassin would most probably be quite powerful, and even with our artifacts, we wouldn’t be able to defeat him at our level.”

“Are you planning to slowly work, or fight your way up to the top of the pyramid?” Ivona asked skeptically. She knew Michelle was capable of thinking of plans that involved such impossibilities. “Why would you do that when we have our hands full with the Ostrich and Sloan families?” she added.

The moment Ivona’s questions fell, a suppressed laugh escaped Michelle’s lips. “I don’t want to do that. I’m just curious about the real request the Ostrich family had for the Dark Domain.” She quickly explained herself, basically defending herself, so she wouldn’t seem like a hyperactive person who had to stick her nose into everything and anything that smelled of trouble. “Also, I have a slight suspicion that the leader of the whole Dark Domain pyramid could be the Dark Lord we all know.”

“That would be a shitty coincidence…” Kieran scoffed as he glanced towards the cell where the assassins and Ferdinand lay. “But it’s not completely ruled out. With how the two seem, it is possible for them to create an organization with influence all over the world. In the end, for years they have been searching for a cure for the void in their bodies. For something like that, they needed quite a few connections.”

“Now that I think about it…” Michelle frowned a bit. “Though I cured the two, I never got to know what they called the condition of having void in their bodies. With how serious it was, it must have been named by someone. Also, I doubt they were the first case in the world to have it, so it’s impossible for it to be a nameless sickness.”

“You’ll have to ask them yourself when you meet them next time. And I doubt it will be soon, since you clearly distance yourself from them.” Kieran started speaking. “You even said you didn’t want them to repay you, since you didn’t take it as if you saved their lives, even though you did, but that it was more like you just dragged void out of their bodies, which was a simple favor on your part.”

Michelle just rolled her eyes. “Which part of what I said wasn’t true?” she asked rhetorically. “All I said was absolute truth, and though it could have sounded harsh, the two knew that I wasn’t really a gentle person when they wanted my help.”

“You offered to help them!” Kieran cut her off.

“It was part of a deal!” Michelle retorted. “Mere business between a doctor and two easy patients. It’s like a baby having a fever. If not taken care of, its body wouldn’t be able to bear it, but the doctor, or whoever looks after it, isn’t considered its savior. He just helps here and there—cooling its body, keeping it nourished, or giving mild medicine if needed—making sure it gets through safely. But once the baby is healthy, no one acts like the doctor saved it from irreversible death. They are thankful, but he didn’t do anything phenomenal.”

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