Chapter 174: 174

By the time the boss lady had stopped, Michelle had already figured everything out. The footwork was indeed similar to her Shadow Spirit Steps. But there were some differences.

And the biggest difference was that while Michelle kept her shins and ankles as relaxed as possible while only contracting the muscles in her thighs, the boss lady did quite the opposite.

She relaxed her thighs and contracted her shins. She also made sure to lock her knee and ankle joints in place, so when she moved, the only joint in motion was the hip joint.

That made the movement a bit slower than the skill’s full potential, but it extremely heightened the precision and accuracy, so the user could even control whether they would leave behind footprints when walking.

And Michelle also noticed the thing that made her Shadow Spirit Steps so similar to the boss lady’s footwork.

It was the start of the skill and the posture the user had to keep.

Michelle kept that posture all her life, so it seemed natural to her, but when the boss lady showcased her footwork, she, too, got into that position, making Michelle realize that it wasn’t that natural of a posture. She was just used to it.

When using the two footworks, the user always set their head back a bit and straightened their back to an extreme. But at the same time, the user would let down and relax their shoulders.

That minimized the energy needed to move arms and also gave the posture good aerodynamics, compensating for the loss of speed created by locking in the knee and ankle joints.

And then, there was the start—the initiation of the footworks. Both Michelle and the boss lady always dragged the toe of their non-dominant leg—in both cases, the left leg—across the ground for a few centimeters, creating small dents on certain surfaces.

They also did the same thing when they switched terrains, but very briefly. Well, at least Michelle did it. She didn’t see the boss lady switch terrain, but she was guessing she did it too.

That was a subconscious action to understand the terrain. By understanding the surface they would walk or run over, they could adjust their steps to make them completely silent. And as for why they used their leg for it—eyes could fool oneself, so touch was more reliable.

A while later, Michelle was walking by the boss lady through the building of the information guild. “So, how are you planning to improve your method?” Michelle asked as she glanced at the boss lady.

The boss lady had a slight frown on her forehead. She had already thought of many ways, but all of them were complicated. If she wanted to teach them to her subordinates, she needed to come up with something they could handle.

“What about you?” the boss lady asked instead of answering. She didn’t have an answer yet.

Michelle tilted her head up a bit, her gaze deepening. “I have a few ideas, but for now, I want to focus on the ripples in my soul energy when I move. No matter how perfect my footwork gets, if people can sense me through my soul energy, it will be useless.”

The boss lady stared at Michelle for a while before speaking again: “You know, I was able to sense you because my sensitivity to soul energy is quite high, so unless you meet someone like me, you should be safe even with the way your soul energy is now.”

Michelle wasn’t surprised by what the boss lady said. She had guessed it was something like that. But— “I’m planning to go to higher realms.” There, people will have more power, so they will be able to sense me easily. If I want to survive there, I need to minimize what they could catch on.”

“That makes sense…” the boss lady nodded.

Her calmness made Michelle raise a brow. “I don’t think it’s a well-known fact around here that higher realms exist,” she said, her voice dragging lazily.

“Well, maybe not around here, but anyone with enough power could tell places higher than here exist. It’s quite surprising that you know about those places.”

A small smile tugged on Michelle’s lips. “My father’s from there…” she said as if it was nothing.

“So that means you know a lot about the place?” the boss lady asked. Just then, they reached the door into her office, so she led Michelle in.

“Hm…” Michelle tilted her head to the side as she sat across from the boss lady in the office. “Depends on what you take as a lot. I’ve never been there, so I can’t tell you what it’s like there, but I can tell you things like what realms there are and such.”

And so, Michelle ended up explaining basic things about the four realms to the boss lady.

After listening to it, the boss lady’s eyes brightened. “Do you think my guild could go there?” she quickly asked.

Michelle shrugged. “That depends on your potential,” she started. “All realms are divided by barriers of Heavenly Law. The one between the lower and middle realm only lets those who have surpassed the Divine rank pass through. Can you achieve that?”

Instantly, the boss lady’s face fell.

She had heard some old legends that it was possible to reach the level of a Divine Paragon in the lower realm, but her whole life, she had not once heard of anyone reaching the Spirit Paragon level, not to mention breaking through into the Divine rank. It seemed it was impossible for her guild to advance to the middle realm.

Seeing the boss lady’s glum face, Michelle frowned a bit. She didn’t like it. The boss lady was clearly smart, maybe even a genius, and her intelligence guild had great potential.

But because of the restrictions of the Heavenly Law and the terrible cultivation conditions in the lower realm, they were stuck, never able to truly shine. The most they could do was dominate the lower realm—which wasn’t that hard to achieve.

“Is there no other way?” the boss lady asked, not wanting to believe that the conditions were so unreasonable. Also, it was clear that Michelle was planning to ascend realms, so she had to know a way. Or she was really planning to cultivate to the Divine rank.

“None that I know of,” Michelle shook her head, glancing around the office. It was quite spacious, but also empty. It didn’t look like a space used by a human. “The guild just moved here?” she asked.

“Why do you think so?” the boss lady was clearly taken aback by the question.

Michelle had no reason to hide her thoughts. “The walls are empty, the furniture bleak. It’s either that you didn’t have the time to fill the office with things you need here, or, from the start, you aren’t planning on staying here for a long time. It looks like it’s just a temporary office that could be discarded anytime.”

“That’s right,” the boss lady said with a nod as she leaned back in her chair.

“Though I’ve been using the office for years, I made sure it stayed in a way I could burn it down when needed.”

That made Michelle raise a brow.

“Why? Do you not like this place? Or is someone after you?”

The boss lady shook her head, a bitter flash passing through her eyes.

“I chose this place because I liked it, and no one would dare to threaten me in this place.”

“Then why?” For the first time in a while, Michelle was genuinely confused by the words of someone else.

Thinking back to all that had happened since she created the information guild, the boss lady sighed.

“The guild needs a new leader…” she finally said.

“It seems perfect under your lead,” Michelle narrowed her purple eyes as she stared at the boss lady.

“I’m not able to take the guild to new heights. A new leader could achieve that.”

Michelle could see that the boss lady wasn’t speaking the whole truth. She wasn’t the kind of person who would give up her position just because the improvement of her guild stopped. “And?”

The boss lady gritted her teeth.

“The girls don’t deserve to be forced to live in hiding their whole lives.”

“Why do you think the girls joined your guild?” Michelle frowned a bit. She had only been in the guild for a short while, but she could see the reverence and admiration of the guild members toward the boss lady.

They clearly viewed her as their idol and savior. It could even be seen from their gazes. But it seemed the boss lady felt like she had taken away the girls’ freedom.

“There could be many reasons…” The boss lady’s calm facade was slowly falling apart the more she talked with Michelle. And the more she saw just how guilty she felt toward the girls.

Seeing the state the boss lady was in, Michelle sighed. “The guild members are girls of all ages, and only girls…” she changed the subject a bit. “Why is that so?”

The question wasn’t something the boss lady could expect, so she was clearly taken aback.

But she still answered truthfully: “The first ever members I took in were abused or violated by men, so they couldn’t even look at them. And so, the guild slowly grew into an all-women guild.”

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