Chapter 189: 189

Michelle stared in confusion at the black eagle on her lap. She just couldn’t understand why it did such a thing.

After it had landed on her shoulder, it started roughly rubbing its head against the side of her head until its Life Stone fell out. Then, it grabbed it into its beak and flew over to Michelle’s hand.

With its claws, it made a cut on her palm and let the Life Stone fall on it. Finally, the bird landed on her lap and fell asleep.

“Nyx…” Michelle’s voice was the same as ever, but she spoke slower than usual. “Will it die now…?” she asked.

It was a logical question. Monsters always died when they lost their Life Stones.

Nyxaroth descended to the ground and turned back into his human form. Michelle landed on her feet. “Do you feel any difference in the pressure?” Nyxaroth asked lazily.

Michelle shook her head.

So Nyxaroth continued. “If the monster was about to die, the pressure it causes would start dissipating. The monster is safe.”

Nyxaroth’s words made sense, but it defied the law that monsters couldn’t live without their Life Stones.

“So what is going on?” Michelle tilted her head in confusion, her purple eyes locked on the eagle in her arms.

Nyxaroth shrugged. “You will find out once it wakes up. Until then, hold the Life Stone like it gave you.”

Michelle nodded a bit, sitting down on the ground. She didn’t have to worry about monsters or beasts coming to get her because the pressure would keep them out of the city.

Even if some had the ability to pass through the pressure, they wouldn’t. Because the pressure was proof that a powerful monster was present in the city, so no creature below its rank would enter.

And since even Noctis, who was from the heavenly realm, was afraid of the monster, creatures from the lower realm wouldn’t dare get near.

Thinking about Noctis, Michelle wondered where he was. Since she had retrieved the needle, he should have already been perfectly fine and back on his feet.

When she looked around, he wasn’t anywhere in sight, so he was probably hiding in the shadows again.

And Michelle’s guess was right. Noctis had concealed himself on the roof of a house, observing everything from up there.

Unlike Nyxaroth, he understood what the monster did, and it greatly shook him. He had never seen it before, but he had heard legends about it, making him wonder what was so special about Michelle.

It seemed that everywhere she went, she attracted the attention of the most powerful ones there.

At first, it was his master, the Dark Lord. Then the tavern lady, the city lord, the head of the intelligence guild, and finally a monster left behind by the black god. Would there come a time when the black god himself would take interest in her?

What Noctis had no way of knowing was that the black god had already done far more than just take interest in Michelle.

She didn’t do anything to get his attention.

She was just unlucky enough to be targeted by the white god. And the rivalry between the two didn’t let the black god just watch the white god carry out his plan.

Someone could say she was just a tool in the power play of the two, and it was partly true, but she didn’t care. Just because her existence was involved in the fight of the two didn’t mean she would let herself become a tool.

The black god was trying to train her into someone that could cause trouble for the white god. She would take it, but she had yet to decide whether she would follow his plans.

For long enough had Michelle lived as a tool of the assassination organization in her past life, and even they weren’t able to control her.

And the same would be with the black god.

She wouldn’t stop him from trying to groom her into a perfect weapon. She wouldn’t stop him from trying to control her.

But she wouldn’t let him succeed in controlling her.

Her guess was that the black god knew what she was thinking, and that was why he didn’t show himself to her from the start. He knew she wasn’t someone he could just control, so he decided to lead her onto his path by giving her opportunities others would never attain.

While Michelle was deep in thought, considering what the black god knew and what he wanted, the black eagle started waking up, so she snapped out of it.

When the pair of black eyes locked on her, she felt a strange sense of familiarity within her chest. She had felt like that before. When she had formed contracts with her beasts, a moment later, she would feel like that.

“Why did you give me your Life Stone?” she asked, suppressing the strange feeling.

The bird didn’t answer. It just flapped its wings and flew around her two times. Then it stopped in front of her hand. The bloodied hand in which she was holding the Life Stone.

Understanding something, Michelle opened her palm and showed the gem to the bird.

Instantly, void covered the bird again and it transformed into a small black bird. It was hard to tell what kind of bird it was, but it looked quite cute.

The little bird flew over to Michelle’s hand and landed on the gem on her palm.

That made Michelle wince a bit. Since the gem was placed on her hand, it entered the wound the bird had cut, sinking into her flesh. So when the bird landed on the gem, it sunk even deeper, cutting in deeper. She could feel it reaching her bones.

“What’s this for?” she asked with a slight frown.

But the little bird didn’t show much reaction. Instead, it stomped on the gem here and there, as if making sure it sunk deep enough to touch the bones.

And after the last stomp, something quite unexpected happened. The gem shattered and the shards stabbed all over Michelle’s palm.

That in itself was still somehow understandable. Under continuous pressure, many things could break.

But the process didn’t stop there.

Once the shards touched Michelle’s blood, they turned into a black liquid which squeezed itself into her wound, entering her veins.

To say Michelle was confused was an understatement. She had no clue about what was going on. All she knew was that the shape-shifting monster somehow got its Life Stone into her blood.

“Just what do you…” Michelle suddenly felt a bit light-headed. “…want…?” She nearly fell down before she could finish speaking, but she was able to stabilize herself.

When she was once again standing steadily, a frown formed on her forehead. Her spirit energy was suddenly surging around her body as if she was about to break through. Even the pressure she felt significantly lessened.

Quickly, she sat down and closed her eyes to cultivate.

Watching it from the distance, Noctis nearly fainted in shock. If anyone else had seen Michelle at the moment, they would have died of envy. A begrudging death.

Michelle cultivated for over two days, and when she opened her mouth, she coughed up a mouthful of spirit energy. Even after that time, she couldn’t contain all the spirit energy that was suddenly surging around.

But she didn’t mind. After checking her level, she was quite surprised by it.

Spirit Master. Fifth level out of the ten levels.

She jumped straight to the middle.

Rubbing her eyes lazily, something strange surfaced within her mind. “Tenether?” She tilted her head a bit as she let down her hands and glanced at the little black bird resting on her knee.

Hearing its name, the little black bird chirped happily, making Michelle raise a brow.

After cultivating, she felt another bond form in her soul. The bond was completely different from the ones she had with her contracted beasts. It was a contractual bond, but not exactly.

In the first place, contracts with creatures were defined as contracts between humans and beasts, not between humans and monsters. Also, Michelle could feel that the little black bird was not only bound to her, but a connection was formed with all her beasts.

It created a net between six creatures—a human, a monster, and four beasts—so each could communicate with everyone they wanted.

Still, the fact that the communication between them became equal didn’t mean the contractual hierarchy disappeared. Michelle, as the contractor, was still the absolute master. If she said something, the contract would bind the beasts and monster to do it.

As proof of that, when the contract formed, the contract mark appeared on Michelle’s forehead. As always, a snake tangled around a thorny rose pricking it. And the one thing that changed after going into the cave in the valley—atop the rose was a butterfly that the snake was trying to swallow.

Michelle scratched the back of her head in confusion. “You are powerful, so why would you submit to me?” she asked.

But the bird didn’t speak. It just flew over to her shoulder and went to rest there.

Michelle felt a bit flustered, but she didn’t say anything. Instead, she decided to focus on why she had broken through so many levels.

Unlike when she contracted her beasts, she didn’t receive a copy of the monster’s powers. The increase in her cultivation was completely irrelevant to it. What affected it was a completely different condition—the surrounding pressure.

Michelle, as the monster’s contracted master, couldn’t be affected by power used by the monster before it got contracted. So after the contract formed, the pressure lifted off her shoulders.

With that, the liquid nitrogen in her body started rapidly turning into gas, and her spirit energy proceeded to push it out to prevent problems.

And the rapid movement of spirit energy resembled the excited state spirit energy entered when one was about to break through, so Michelle was able to skip levels up to Spirit Master. Even though she didn’t have enough spirit energy for it.

That caused her to feel like she had a gaping hole in her dantian, so she felt the need to continue cultivating.

And since the bird refused to communicate with her, she could do it.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep