Chapter 119: 119

Walking through the long pathway, Michelle’s eyes turned from velvet purple into dangerous blood-red, but that couldn’t be seen in the darkness. She was disgusted and enraged. From the moment she entered the darkness, she realized that the person who created the pathway was not only not picky about his study subjects, he was a maniac who had it like a collection.

Every single glass bottle on the shelves had a label, stating what creature it was from and what organ it was. It also had a date on it, probably from when the creature was dissected. And the dates weren’t far apart. Putting the creatures together in her mind, the person who was dissecting them dissected at least three creatures a day, and did it for years. Many years.

Even Nyxaroth was surprised by the sheer amount of organs in the pathway. In the thousands of years he had lived, he had never seen something like that. “This is why humans can be so disgusting…” he muttered. “They say monsters and beasts are crude and evil, but monsters and beasts could never do something like this…”

Michelle didn’t show any reaction to Nyxaroth’s remark because she thought the same. Whether in her past life or at the moment, humanity had always shown her that even though humans could the kindest and most amazing things in the world, there still existed those who cast away their humanity and acted so disgusting that even she, who was never a saint, abhorred their way of acting. And the worst about those disgusting people was that even though they cast away their humanity, they were still humans.

Slowly, Michelle and Nyxaroth proceeded forward, their eyes scanning the glass bottles, some bigger, some smaller. It didn’t take them long to realize that they didn’t see a single pair of eyes in between the organs. Did the psycho who dissected the creatures cast the eyes away, use them for an experiment, or store them somewhere else? Michelle had the feeling they would find out if they ventured deep enough into the darkness.

But even a person like herself was feeling disgusted from seeing such a huge number of organs in one place, and as she didn’t know how long the pathway was, she didn’t know if she could reach the end.

Thinking about that only strengthened her guess that the pathway was also used to block out people who wanted to find what was on the end. If everyone stopped somewhere before the end, no one would find the things hidden in the deep darkness.

After a while, the pathway opens into a room, with a dissection table, gruesome tools and remnants of blood and flesh. Even before they reached there, they could smell the rotting flesh and blood.

But that wasn’t the end of the pathway. After exploring the room, they realized that the pathways continued behind it.

There was one more thing Michelle and Nyxaroth realized. By the entrance of the pathway were the oldest organs, and deeper, they were the new ones. And the pathways stretching in front of them were still long and huge, meaning that every time the dissector wanted to store away new organs, already behind the dissection room, he would need to pass by hundreds, or maybe even thousands of organs he had already dissected in the past to reach a place where he could put away the new ones.

Just the thought of that strengthened Michelle’s thought that the dissector was a complete psycho. Because even if he wasn’t one when he started, anyone would go crazy after doing something like that. And repeatedly every day for years.

Entering the pathway behind the room, Michelle scanned the glass bottles much quicker than before, her pace increasing. She wanted to reach the end to find out what was going on.

Was the pathway just a place where a psycho carried out experiments and dissections? Or was the pathway meant to keep out the probing eyes? Or was it both? With her disgust, her curiosity was growing. Just what was it that made the Ostrich family create such a hellhole? Also, why in the Land of Exile, where their resources and power were limited? If they wanted to hide something, the Land of Exile was a good idea, since it didn’t draw much attention, but for conducting experiments, it was the most unsuitable of all lands in the four realms.

Not having the answers at the moment, Michelle shook the thoughts away and sped up as she walked deeper into the darkness. She didn’t know how long they were in the pathway, but it was definitely already over an hour, and she was starting to feel sick from it. But she refused to back down. Just like when she pushed through the disgusting feeling when she was entering the cave where Rivenaar was sealed away, she would reach the end to find out what was there.

Since the pathway was so unnecessarily long, she had long ruled out that it was just the laboratory of a madman. It was systematically created to keep anyone from seeing what was inside.

But there was one thing that was a bit surprising. Why were there no traps along the way? Did the Ostrich family not put up any so that the dissector could move around freely? Or was it because they thought that no one could go past so many dissected organs? Or were the traps deeper in, and she just didn’t encounter them yet?

After some time, the number of glass bottles with something in them got sparse, replaced with empty bottles, which could be used in the future for storing away organs. Seeing that, Michelle sighed in relief a bit and walked along Nyxaroth even deeper. The pathway stretched even more than what she had walked before, but after a short while, there were no more shelves. Just empty walls, leading to something.

“Nyx, do you feel something there?” Michelle asked as she stopped for a while, staring into the distance.

Nyxaroth, in the form of a black mist, focused on the spirit energy surrounding him and all around the pathway before taking on his human form. He then closed his eyes and tried sensing again. In the human form, his senses were a bit dulled, but he wanted to confirm something. “Something dangerous is there, but you should be fine since it’s suppressed by the Heavenly Law…” he said after a while. “Also, it’s quite good at concealing itself. I couldn’t sense it when I took on my human form, and in my original form, I could barely sense it when I focused on it. But that can also be because it’s quite far from here.”

Nodding a bit, Michelle started walking again, taking long strides through the empty pathway, her nearly silent steps echoing quietly. She was guessing that the creature hidden at the end of the pathway was probably already aware of her and Nyxaroth’s presence, so she didn’t bother to completely silence her steps. She just walked somewhat quietly so she wouldn’t go crazy from the echo.

Soon, she stopped in front of a wall made of an eerie black stone. “So this was blocking my senses,” Nyxaroth’s eyes widened in realization. “But why would this be here?”

“What kind of stone is this, Nyx? And how come it can block your senses? I thought your senses were one of the best in the whole heavenly realm.” Michelle was clearly surprised by Nyxaroth’s words.

“That might be true, but anyone’s senses could be blocked by certain obstructions…” Nyxaroth spoke with a frown. “I’m immune to most, and partly even to this one, but it can still block out most of my probing power.”

“Do you know what kind of stone it is?” Michelle asked.

“It’s void obsidian…” Nyxaroth sighed. “A stone created by the mixing of void or black soul energy with normal obsidian, which changes its properties. It can block out most creatures’ probing abilities, and it also absorbs soul energy, so it’s dangerous for Soul Masters, such as yourself or Anastasia, to touch.”

“How exactly is it dangerous? What does it do to Soul Masters?” Michelle kept asking.

“It starts sucking away their soul energy to the point when the faint, but even then it doesn’t stop, and it basically keeps them eternally asleep,” Nyxaroth explained simply.

“Do you think there is a possibility it could react differently to me since my soul energy is basically void itself?” Michelle tilted her head curiously, her once again purple eyes fixated on the black wall. She was itching to touch it, but she knew not to be reckless and pointlessly endanger herself, so she withheld the urge and stayed calm.

“It is possible, but only hypothetically. The possibility that it would react to your soul energy the same way is much higher.” Nyxaroth said with a sigh as he solidified a part of his mist body and ran it like a hand over the wall. Unlike Michelle, he had never cultivated soul energy, so it was so sparse that the void obsidian didn’t even notice it, and thus nothing happened to him.

With a slight frown, Michelle watched Nyxaroth touch the wall when an idea suddenly struck her. There was a way for her to test her theory, but she needed Nyxaroth’s help for that.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep