Chapter 142: 142

After drawing enough blood, she created an ice lid on the bowl and solidified some dark element spirit energy on the wound on her hand so no scent would leak out. Then, she started tests on the blood.

For every test, she would open the lid a bit and drop some blood on an ice palette she created, adding some ground herbs, pills, or concoctions into it to see how it would react. After each test, she would let Nyxaroth check the blood for differences compared to the poisoned blood. And after Nyxaroth checked it, she would check it herself before drinking it.

Every time, the amount of blood was very small, so it was never enough to harm her if the concoction was dangerous, but it was enough for Michelle to test if it was able to destroy the poison within her blood and organs.

After about three hours, when Michelle was starting to feel sluggish and was able to feel her organs starting to shut down, she finally found the right concoction for the antidote. She quickly sat cross-legged and took out her provisional pill furnace from her spatial ring. But she wasn’t going to make a pill. She could, but that would make the antidote less effective. So she was going to make an elixir.

She ignited her ice fire under the furnace and put in some herbs, ground bone of a monster similar to a crocodile, the eye of a poisonous spider, and a bunch of Mare’s scales. They were from skin she had shed before and given to Michelle, saying she would definitely need it in the future. Well, and Mare was right. Because her shed skin was the most important ingredient in making the antidote for her poison.

Due to being weakened by the poison, it took Michelle nearly an hour to make the antidote, and when she was done, her face was deathly pale. The poison was already so strong within her body that even her tricked nervous system was able to clearly pick up that her organs were shutting down, about to fail. And the pain was unbearable.

Michelle quickly gulped down the antidote and laid on the ground, closing her eyes so tightly that the muscles on her face nearly stiffened into a cramp.

“How do you feel?” Nyxaroth asked worriedly. The whole time, he was monitoring Michelle’s health, sometimes going into her body, sometimes coming out to check her complexion. So he knew how close her organs were to collapsing.

“The antidote’s working… Just give it some time…” Michelle said calmly, but her voice was weaker than ever.

If someone didn’t know her well enough, they wouldn’t have noticed anything strange, since Michelle looked like an ordinary fifteen- or sixteen-year-old. But those who knew her were used to having a domineering air around her, with her voice carrying undeniable authority. But at the moment, it was gone.

Well… not completely.

Even in that state and lying down, Michelle’s presence was powerful and impossible to ignore. But to those who were used to her usual self, she looked like a sleeping tiger after winning a fight, but still getting injured.

They knew they shouldn’t be worried about her health since her medical knowledge was unparalleled, but they were worried about outside threats. What if something suddenly happened and they couldn’t protect her?

But it was only a subconscious worry. Because if one thought about it rationally, Snow, Nyxaroth, and Cold Flame were already at the peak level reachable in the lower realm, even though they were there just for a while, because they all had extraordinary bloodlines—except Nyxaroth, who didn’t even have blood, not to mention a bloodline. So anyone who wanted to mess with Michelle in the lower realm would be dealt with accordingly by the three of them.

Also, Alexander Terce, whose power was unknown to all, was still present, and from his subtle actions—like following Michelle into the cave or dragging her out in time—it was proven that though he didn’t really show it, he didn’t want Michelle to get hurt or, even worse, die.

After a while, Michelle’s face relaxed, and she opened her eyes, slowly sitting up. “Finally…” she muttered under her breath in a small voice, unheard by anyone else.

“Is the poison gone?” Alexander asked, leaning against the wall of the entrance of the cave.

“No,” Michelle shook her head. “Just rendered useless against me,” she said as she got to her feet. “Now, let’s go take care of Mare.”

“What are your plans?” Alexander’s smile widened as he grabbed Michelle by her wrist again, preventing her from taking a single step into the cave. “Will you absorb the soul energy in the Void Obsidian?” he asked, his black eyes narrowing into smiling crescents. But deep inside, they were cold. “I already told you, if you do that, you won’t be able to repair the damage caused to Mare’s soul. Or do you have something else up your sleeve?”

Michelle stared at Alexander’s fingers tightly wrapped around her wrist, and a small frown crept to her eyebrows. “I have no clue…” she said, her voice dragging slowly, sounding a bit lazy. But everyone could tell that wasn’t the case. Michelle’s eyes were no longer purple but bright red. No one could tell if it was from excitement or anger, but whichever was the case, both were dangerous.

The reason why Michelle’s voice was dragging slowly was because she was definitely tired from making the antidote, but that was just a minor reason. Mainly because she was either excited or angry. Because whenever she was excited, angry, or felt any other intense emotion which changed the color of her eyes, she would start acting strangely, far off from how she was actually feeling.

For example, when she was enraged to an extreme, she would smile sweetly and innocently, or lazy like at the moment. If she was excited, she would either act lazy, like at the moment, or cold and stoic. Basically, except when she was tired or really lazy, she could always act lazy. That was like a neutral mask she could always put on to perfectly hide what she was really feeling and thinking.

In her whole two lives, there had only been one person who had been able to see through that lazy mask—or all the other masks—and always identify how she was feeling. A pity, maybe because of it, he died young. And by Michelle’s hand at that. But she didn’t regret killing him. She wasn’t planning it. But she would never regret it.

“If you have no clue, why are you going back into the cave?” Something stirred within the cold depths of Alexander’s eyes, the amusement on the surface of them reaching in deeper.

“You will help me, won’t you?” Michelle turned her head to look at Alexander, her scarlet eyes piercing into his. “You know a way.”

Hearing Michelle’s words, the corner of Alexander’s mouth twitched. “Wasn’t it just a while ago that you hated the thought of being near me?” he asked, the amusement reaching the complete depths of his eyes.

“I still hate it!” Michelle yanked her hand back and walked into the cave. “But that doesn’t mean I won’t accept help from you!” she added as she walked into the darkness.

But Alexander could still see her. Just as Michelle could see into darkness because of her dark element spirit energy, he could see into darkness because of his own power born from the darkness.

Once again stopping in front of the boulder around which Mare was coiled in her full beast form, Michelle stared blankly in front of herself. She heard the light footsteps of Alexander approaching from behind. Very quiet and subtle, but since he wasn’t trying to conceal himself, Michelle could still catch the light sound with her sensitive ears.

“Do you always walk so quietly?” she asked when he stopped next to her.

“You could say so…” Alexander’s voice carried from behind like a playful breeze, ruffling the hair of children playing on streets. But with it sounding within the dark cave, it sounded more like it belonged to the devil, prepared to tempt souls to follow him into the deepest depths of Hell.

“So how do I take control of the soul energy without absorbing it?” Michelle decided to focus on the serious matter at hand.

But Alexander didn’t have that in his plans. “And why should I tell you?” he asked with a grin on his face as he walked in front of Michelle and turned to face her. “Didn’t you say you hate me? Why should I help someone who hates me? So that it comes back at me in the form of your revenge?”

Rolling her eyes, Michelle ran her hand through her hair. “What do you want in exchange?” she asked with a frown. From the start, she knew that something like cooperation with Alexander was impossible, so she was trying to avoid it.

But at the moment, he was the only one she could turn to with the request of helping her wake up Mare. And for any of her contracted beasts, she was willing to go as far as cooperating with someone like Alexander. She just didn’t know that he would act like that.

Like a shameless prick.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep