Chapter 177: 177

“I had it all thought out…” the sentence rang in Ivona’s mind over and over as she stared at Michelle.

Was it really possible to think something like that out?

“How did you know the leopards would come?” Ivona finally asked.

“I didn’t know,” Michelle was completely carefree. “But it was to be expected that the first to arrive would be fast animals. And those that I know of live secularly or in pairs.”

As Michelle spoke, she started wondering about it too. Back on Earth, the fastest animals were cheetahs, and leopards could reach merely half of their speed. There had to be some faster animals. So why was it that the pair of leopards reached her first?

A new idea popped into her mind.

She remembered that when she was fighting the assassins sent by the Emperor Emeritus back in the lower realm, she ended up with a wound on her arm. Then Snow let out a loud roar to suppress all the beasts and monsters in the vicinity so they wouldn’t come.

Did the two leopards do something like that too?

It wasn’t a theory to be overlooked.

Seeing that Michelle wasn’t paying her any attention, Ivona huffed in annoyance and started walking towards the city. Still in her thoughts, Michelle just followed behind, looking quite mindless.

She tended to do that even in her past life. When she was with someone but suddenly fell deep into her thoughts, she would just follow them around, not caring about anything else.

Quite a few people disliked her for that, but she never paid them any attention. She had enough on her plate as the top assassin.

After a while of walking, the two girls, one disguised as a boy, reached the city. The guards didn’t stop them, so they strolled in.

It was quite different from the city with the tavern where Michelle was just a few days prior. There, when she entered the city, she was met with a market and streets with inns. But at the moment, she was faced with dilapidated huts all around. It looked very similar to slums.

Ivona wrinkled her nose unconsciously and glanced at Michelle. Michelle was fine, just moving her purple eyes to sweep her gaze over the huts. Then, she stepped forward, walking through the slums slowly. So Ivona quickly ran after her.

“Iv…” Michelle suddenly spoke as she continued walking. “What cultivation level did you reach while I was gone?” she asked lazily, watching as the slums stretched in front of them. But the people slowly changed. They had sharper gazes. Probably the disguised dogs of the two families.

“Spirit Apprentice…” Ivona answered, still looking around warily. She, too, noticed the change in the residents, so she was even more on guard. “Why?” she quickly asked.

Michelle smiled a bit. “I’m just a Spirit Junior, so if we get in trouble, they will probably target you first…” she said with a lazy hum.

“Do you plan to get us in trouble?” Ivona felt the corner of her mouth twitch. There really wasn’t a moment where Michelle wasn’t (at least) thinking of bloodshed or chaos.

The pair of purple eyes moved to look at Ivona. “Why would I plan that?” she tilted her head, looking innocent and harmless.

But Ivona was able to guess what that meant. The city was dangerous, and they attracted trouble to themselves just by stepping in. “What do you think will happen?” she asked, her eyes narrowing in thought.

“Hmm—” Michelle’s smile widened. “You, as a beautiful young woman, will be sold to a brothel, and me, a young brat, will be either killed or sold as a slave.” She chuckled as she spoke.

Just then, a voice boomed from behind her. “You’ve guessed it, brat, so how about you forget the pointless struggle?” A fat man with a huge sword in his hand stared at Ivona and Michelle coldly.

In an instant, Michelle and Ivona were surrounded by a group of men. The fat man was clearly the leader.

Ivona was shaken up a bit, not expecting that, but Michelle’s smile just widened. “See? My guesses are never off!” she sneered and pulled her sickle out of her spirit domain.

Quickly, Ivona regained her composure and summoned her spirit energy. “Since when did you know this would happen?” she asked as she pressed her back to Michelle’s.

Secretly, she was hoping to feel at least a bit of tension from Michelle’s back. But except that it was straight because of her footwork, it was completely relaxed.

Michelle didn’t react. She just swung her sickle forward, and it flew out of her hand, going straight at the fat man while spinning.

He wanted to dodge, but someone suddenly appeared behind him, preventing him from moving away.

So, a moment later, the fat man was pinned to the ground by the sickle, with the connection of the blade and handle pressing against the wheel of fat around his belly.

Seeing their boss pinned to the ground, the rest of the men froze, staring at the young, 15- or 16-year-old brat who was able to pacify the strongest of them with a single move.

Clearly, they could feel barely any spirit energy from him, so how was it possible?

Ivona was also surprised, but not as much. From the first time she had met Michelle at the Harvest Festival banquet, she knew the young girl wasn’t normal. But even that couldn’t prepare her for such a blow.

Having just entered the Spirit rank, Michelle was a Spirit Junior, while Ivona was a Spirit Apprentice, and the men surrounding them were at least Spirit Warriors, a level above Ivona. And their boss was higher. So at least a Spirit Knight.

The secret was very simple, and Ivona actually knew about it partly. But she just didn’t know it could be utilized like that.

Michelle had black soul energy. In other words, soul energy so similar to void that it was void. And Michelle had nearly perfect control over this void. At least when it came to features she knew about.

Well, one feature like that was letting soul energy pulse through a weapon bound to the wielder. The sickle was formed in Michelle’s spirit domain, which somehow bound it to her. So she could let her soul energy pulse through the sickle.

Then, it was easy. A weapon reinforced by soul energy was more powerful than normal weapons. The darker the soul energy was, the stronger the reinforcement. And the stronger the wielder’s control.

So with Michelle’s soul energy being a black void, her control over the sickle could shake heaven and earth, and the sickle’s power was increased by leaps and bounds too.

That all coupled with the fact that a sickle was the weapon Michelle was the most proficient with made it so even a Spirit Knight stood no chance against her attack. Even more so when he had underestimated her and was relaxed.

Michelle didn’t have the time, will, or energy to explain all that to Ivona. She just walked towards the fat man and raised her foot, sending a kick into his round face. The fat in his cheeks twisted disgustingly as the hit landed.

“Who’s the boss around here?” Michelle asked coldly, her purple eyes shimmering twistedly. Her voice wasn’t quite in harmony with her gaze. One cold and sharp, the other one twisted and excited.

Ivona could tell what it was. Michelle was excited for the upcoming massacre.

And Ivona was hoping it wouldn’t happen. Who knew how powerful the two big families were, so it was better not to anger them straight off the bat.

Michelle also knew that. She wouldn’t go straight after the two families. She was just going to pull on the tiger’s tail a bit, to announce her presence. Then, just like she appeared, she would disappear for a few days.

That would make the tiger wary.

And since the tiger had a partner, the next time she reappeared, she would pull the partner’s tail, making sure she wasn’t caught.

She would play cat and mouse with the tigers, but the tigers would be the mice and she would be the cat, while the tigers would think they were in power.

Feeling instinctive fear rise within him when under the lockdown of Michelle’s eyes, the fat man just glanced at one of the huts on the street. That made Michelle smile.

With a wave of her hand, the sickle returned to her and she lowered it to press the blunt, outer side of the blade to the fat man’s neck. “If you lied…” she smiled, but it looked terrifying. Like the devil incarnate.

Then, Michelle turned around and pulled Ivona along with her as she walked towards the house the fat man had motioned to. She knew the so-called boss in there was just another pawn in the pyramid scheme of the two big families.

That made him a nice target for pulling the tiger’s tail.

But first, Michelle needed to confirm how high he was in the pyramid.

The best guess was that the man himself didn’t know. The most he could know would be the one person directly above him, and he could still be oblivious to their identity.

So, before doing anything more, Michelle wanted to investigate things a bit more. She was seeing just the tip of the iceberg, but she wanted to know the full size of the pyramid.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep