Chapter 175: 175

Disguised as Michael Grayson, Michelle was sitting across from the boss lady, sinking into her thoughts. Strictly speaking, she had already finished her business with the information guild, but she didn’t really want to leave yet.

When the boss lady said she no longer wanted to be the guild leader, Michelle wanted to see how the situation would advance.

But she still had business to take care of and friends waiting for her, so she had to get up and leave.

Outside the information guild, she summoned Cold Flame and flew her to the jungle. Then, following the contract Michelle had with Mare and Snow, she got to the place where she felt them.

A deep and empty cave filled with abundant spirit energy. It wasn’t an unusual phenomenon. Caves usually had ceilings of hard material, which prevented the spirit energy inside from seeping out.

And then, around half of the caves in the lower realm were formed under the influence of spirit energy, so they were even richer than other caves. It seemed the group found one like that.

After entering the cave, Michelle observed the three humans and two humanoid beasts for a while, making sure she wasn’t noticed by them.

Kieran and Ivona were cultivating their spirit energy, already having long broken through into Spirit rank. And Anastasia was surrounded by a thick layer of soul energy, clearly training too.

So Michelle was the only one lagging behind because she was preoccupied with destroying the Soul Seeking Pendants.

Seeing all that, Michelle sat down too and started cultivating for the first time in a long time. Meanwhile, Cold Flame sat behind Mare and Snow, who were sleeping in a corner. And Nyxaroth remained in Michelle’s body.

The first one to stop cultivating was Ivona. She didn’t notice when, but slowly, she started feeling a presence close by. So she opened her eyes and nearly yelped in surprise when she saw Michelle cultivating next to her.

Around the same time, Anastasia opened her eyes too and stared at Michelle in disbelief. She had spread out her soul energy through most parts of the cave, but she wasn’t able to sense when Michelle had entered.

And Kieran remained in cultivation much longer. No one could guess if he had sensed Michelle or he was just that oblivious.

But from what Anastasia and Ivona knew about him, he was more sensitive to things and presences than the two of them, so he must have not only noticed but also recognized Michelle’s presence, so he didn’t stop cultivating.

Kieran only opened his eyes when he felt a surge of something cold in the cave. When he moved his gaze towards Michelle, he saw a flower of ice with some black patterns painted on the ground beneath her. Michelle was breaking through into the Spirit rank.

It was to be expected. When she was in the Land of Exile, she had cultivated far beyond the threshold of Spirit rank, but Heavenly Law didn’t let her break through, so she stayed below the rank. So, in the lower realm, all she needed was to give her dantian just a small push to reach the first level.

Watching Michelle reach the Spirit rank, Kieran, Ivona, and Anastasia were all shocked. When Kieran and Ivona had reached the rank, it didn’t cause a commotion. The commotion Michelle caused wasn’t big, but it was still shocking after all the peaceful time the three had spent in the cave.

“Are we just weak, or is she the strange one?” Kieran asked, feeling power surging from Michelle, making him feel oppressed even though his level was higher than Michelle’s at the moment.

Just then, Snow opened her eyes. “It’s because she’s a dual-element Spirit Master,” she spoke calmly, watching the bluish-white flower with black patterns. White for ice and black for darkness.

“Being a dual master makes such a difference when breaking through?” Anastasia was surprised.

She was a Soul Master, so she didn’t know much about Spirit Mastery. But her logic was telling her that just the difference in the number of one’s elements wasn’t enough to make such a difference when cultivating.

“Of course, it’s not just that. Many things play a role in how a person jumps through ranks.” Cold Flame was in his bird form, lying lazily on the ground. He looked nothing like the legendary and proud White Vermilion Bird he was, at least by lineage.

The white and black danced around Michelle like petals while she broke through. It took quite a while. When she was done, she slowly opened her eyes, looking around.

Seeing Kieran, Anastasia, and Ivona looking at her in disbelief, she smiled sheepishly. “What did I do this time?” she asked teasingly.

“You should be the one telling us that,” Ivona quickly sat next to Michelle, prepared to listen to Michelle’s stories about what she had done while she was gone.

So, Michelle could do nothing then but tell them about all that had happened since she left them in the jungle.

After listening, the three, along with Mare and Snow, didn’t know whether they should be surprised or not.

From the start, it was obvious that Michelle would do something big, even if she wasn’t planning anything. But to think she had attracted first the attention of the city lord and then of the intelligence guild—they felt like they were punched in the gut.

After the explanation, the group of four humans and three present beasts started talking about their further plans. They had to eliminate the Sloan family. And to do that, they needed to gather as much information as possible.

So they split into three groups.

Kieran, Anastasia, and Snow were one. Michelle, Ivona, and Nyxaroth were the second. And Mare and Cold Flame were the last group. Every group would go into a designated city to scout for information.

And in three months, they would meet in a place later decided. Each group had at least one of Michelle’s beasts, so communication was easy.

Also, it wasn’t required of the groups to stay in the designated cities. If they felt like they had gathered all possible information or that the city didn’t have anything useful, they could find a new city to observe themselves.

So, soon after, three strange groups left the jungle from three sides. One was a group of two sitting on a majestic Snow Fox. The other was a blue-white bird with a green snake coiled around its legs. And the last group consisted of two girls sitting on a black cloud.

And, of course, behind the last group was a man moving secretly like a shadow, carefully observing the surroundings. Noctis.

Under Alexander’s orders, he was protecting Michelle.

And Michelle was fully aware of it. But she didn’t mind the least bit. She had already talked with Noctis, so she didn’t mind him.

Out of Michelle’s four beasts, Cold Flame moved the fastest, so he and Mare reached their destination first—the biggest city on the perimeter of the jungle.

Unlike the city where Michelle had been before, it didn’t have guards stopping people at the gate. So, a bit further from the city, the two took on their human forms and strolled into the city. There, they parted ways, each using their best abilities to gather information.

Cold Flame was a bird, so he transformed into a small version of himself and slowly flew across the city, listening to the conversations of the people. When he heard something interesting, he sat down nearby and listened.

Meanwhile, Mare was more adept at using the darkness of the city. The bigger a city, the more nasty places and people it had.

And Mare was targeting just those.

She was beautiful, and when she pretended to be lost, wandering into the darker parts of the city, she was soon stopped by two thugs.

That was when she revealed her true form.

Her sleek and long snake body wrapped around the two thugs, binding them together.

Slowly, she kept tightening her grip as they wailed in pain. Then, she brought her head above them and opened her jaws, revealing her sharp fangs dripping with venom.

Instantly, any last bit of resistance left in the two thugs left them, and Mare was free to interrogate them.

Meanwhile, Kieran and Anastasia arrived on Snow’s back to another city. That too was one of the biggest cities on the perimeter of the jungle.

Michelle was guessing that the Sloan family was quite big in the lower realm, so valid news about them probably wouldn’t be found in small cities.

And big cities didn’t stop their visitors at the gate unless they seemed suspicious. So Kieran and Anastasia were free to pass once they got off Snow’s back.

Around the jungle, it wasn’t that unusual to see someone riding on the back of a tamed beast. But it was forbidden to do so in the city, so Snow had to shrink and could only nestle in Anastasia’s arms.

When the guards saw that Snow could shrink as she liked, they were surprised. That wasn’t something any beast could do. And for someone to be able to control such a beast, they had to be of high rank.

Quickly, Anastasia and Kieran were on the radar of the city guards, to make sure they didn’t start any ruckus.

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