Chapter 157: 157

For a long time, Michelle just kept thinking about a way to get rid of the humidity, but she couldn’t come up with anything. She couldn’t use her spirit energy, and her soul energy was still nearly spent, so it was ruled out too.

Michelle felt like a fool. What was the point of having memories and knowledge from her past life when she couldn’t utilize it in any way?

Finally, Michelle decided to let the thoughts swirl in her subconsciousness. She was already tired, so she was hoping that after resting her mind, she would be able to think clearly and come up with something.

Also, she wanted to observe the humidity for a while. She wanted to see whether the vapor would seep into the basement roof and from there above the ground. That way, Michelle would just need to think of a way to speed up the process if it was too slow.

Walking out of the basement, Michelle didn’t even look at Alexander and went straight to the old tavern lady.

“Can I use the room I stayed in before?” she asked with a tilt of her head.

In the presence of the tavern lady, she regained some of the sweetness she thought she had long lost, but because of the exhaustion she herself wasn’t yet aware of, it was much milder than before.

When the old tavern lady saw the state Michelle was in, she quickly handed the key over to her.

“Don’t you want to eat something first?” she asked before Michelle could walk to the staircase.

Hearing about food, Michelle remembered that she hadn’t had anything to eat for a few days already. Though as a cultivator she had no need to eat that frequently, she was still able to feel hunger. So, probably reacting by Pavlovian reflex, she instantly felt her stomach tighten when food was mentioned.

Thus, not caring that she was dirty and wet from being in the basement, Michelle sat down on a chair by the counter and watched as the old tavern lady quickly put some food on a plate.

When the plate was put in front of her, she felt saliva gather in her mouth. Not only was she hungry, the food smelled divine, making her stomach tighten even more.

Without any hesitation, Michelle started eating after thanking the tavern lady.

“Granny, give me some too!” Alexander sat down next to Michelle, a smile on his face as he watched her eat.

The old tavern lady silently and quickly prepared food for Alexander. She was surprised that someone like him would ask for food from her, but she didn’t say anything. Within the tavern, no one would be gutsy enough to question Alexander.

Except for Michelle. Even though she was no longer angry at Alexander, she still felt a big sense of enmity, making her look for any opportunity to strike at him.

Naturally, Alexander knew what Michelle thought about him, but that just made him want to anger her once again. He himself found it strange, but since he enjoyed it, he wouldn’t just stop. No matter how unusual it was.

When the food was in front of him, Alexander took a small bite. He wasn’t really curious about the taste of the food. He had already tasted many delicacies in the world, and no taste could really surprise him. He just wanted to annoy Michelle further. And he felt that in the state she was in at the moment, even something as small as eating next to her would do the trick.

The whole time he ate, he clearly didn’t pay attention to his plate and just stared at Michelle with his smiling eyes, hoping to anger her. But to his disappointment, Michelle remained calm.

It was a mechanism she had developed in her past life—to suppress all emotions and feelings when exhausted. That way, she could keep her rationality even in extreme situations. As an assassin, it was crucial for her to always be clear-headed, not swayed by emotions.

After finishing her plate of food, Michelle got up and left some money on the counter before picking up the room key and going up to the top floor, into her room. There, she somehow changed into clean and comfortable clothes before slumping into the bed. She still felt disgusting because she didn’t take a bath, but she decided it could wait until later.

When Michelle went upstairs, Alexander remained by the counter for a while longer. He could easily guess that Michelle wanted to change her clothes and most probably even bathe, so he was courteous enough not to bother her. Only after a while passed did he get up and walk out of the tavern.

There, he disappeared, only to reappear on the window frame in Michelle’s room. Releasing a bit of his shadow essence, he let a thin thread open the window for him and jumped into the room.

Then, he closed the window—so Michelle wouldn’t feel cold at night. But after he closed the window, he remembered that Michelle had ice-element spirit energy, so she was drawn to cold. Still, he kept the window closed. Since Michelle had kept it closed when she came to the room, he wouldn’t open it.

In her sleep, Michelle felt someone enter her room, because Alexander didn’t even bother to hide his presence, but she didn’t open her eyes. She woke up for a moment, but after realizing it was Alexander, she slumped back into shallow, restless sleep, slowly sinking into deeper, calming sleep.

For a short while, Alexander observed Michelle in her sleep, lifting a brow slightly. Did she have trouble sleeping? If it took her that long to enter deep sleep after being so exhausted, she must have had real problems falling asleep when she wasn’t completely spent. That was the conclusion Alexander reached.

What he didn’t know was that Michelle actually had quite the perfect sleep. The reason behind her slow falling asleep was that she was trained to fall asleep slowly. That way, if someone tried to attack her right after she fell asleep, she would be able to wake up in an instant. She was able to extend the period of shallow sleep for as long as she liked, even to the whole night. It just had the side effect that she was never able to fall into deep sleep right after lying down. But Michelle didn’t mind it the least bit.

While Michelle slept on the tavern’s top floor, deep in the jungle at the border of the two lands, a cave was suddenly illuminated by dancing fire. One of the three people cultivating there remained motionless, with fire enveloping him, while the two ladies opened their eyes and looked at him. Kieran broke through into the Spirit rank the first of them all.

That could mean two things. Either he was the most talented out of the three, or the cave they were in was rich in fire-element spirit energy, making it easier for him to cultivate.

The abundance in the flames dancing around Kieran proved the second theory to be true. But that didn’t mean the first theory couldn’t be valid at the same time.

For a while, Anastasia and Ivona stayed awake, alongside Mare and Snow who were guarding them from the start, so they could also act as guards in case the commotion in the cave attracted some unwanted attention of monsters and beasts. In the end, breaking through ranks was quite a big event and always drew eyes.

When nothing happened, the two girls sighed in relief and returned to cultivation. Anastasia tried to strengthen her soul energy. She also felt like she was about to reach some kind of breakthrough soon, but she knew nothing about ranks and levels in cultivation of soul energy, so she also had no clue whether there were any special conditions to be met if she wanted to advance.

Meanwhile, Ivona went on cultivating her light-element spirit energy. But maybe it was because they were in a cave, she could barely feel any suitable spirit energy in the surroundings and her cultivation was extremely slow. So, she opened her eyes and looked at Snow and Mare.

“Can I go cultivate outside in the light?” she asked.

Seeing Kieran break through the Spirit rank made her realize just how far behind she was. Even if it could be blamed on the environment, she didn’t like it.

“I’ll go with you…” Mare said. She then turned into a small snake and wrapped her sleek body around Ivona’s ankle.

“Just in case something dangerous approaches,” she added.

“Thank you!” Ivona smiled and walked out of the cave. Though it was already dark outside, once she sat on a rock and tried to cultivate, she could feel a huge increase in the amount of suitable spirit energy surrounding her.

At the moment, the cave was brighter than the outside because Kieran’s flames were dancing there, and it was night outside. But the cave was always dark, making it impossible for any light element to seep in. Outside, even though it was darker at the moment, it was mostly bright during the day, and the spirit energy from the day stayed behind even during the night. It was less, but much better, making it easier for Ivona to cultivate.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep