Chapter 302: 302

After making her shadow essence flow around chaotically, without a proper pattern, Michelle turned toward Alexander for further instructions on how to continue.

So Alexander went on to explain the next step to her.

Apparently, vortexes had their own patterns. And they were so complex that to create them, the shadow essence needed for them had to be completely patternless. Otherwise, the vortex pattern would get twisted up and stop working.

What made things even harder was that to create a vortex, a single vortex was not enough.

There was a number of vortex patterns, and to create a working vortex, one had to mix at least three of them, without them intertwining or affecting each other.

Just a single vortex pattern required control equivalent to the Night rank. And with each new pattern added to it, the required rank had to be one higher.

Continuing the ranks of Shadow Mastery: Shadow, Shade, Veil, Night, Eclipse, Chasm, Oblivion. To get three patterns together, one needed to be at the Chasm rank.

That also meant that getting four together was the maximum number of patterns that could be combined, as there was no rank above Oblivion. Also, no one had reached it after a change in the Heavenly Law a few thousand years ago.

In the world of cultivation, a few thousand years was not that long. Records from those times were kept, but no one alive at the moment could remember them.

It was a good few generations before the oldest generation alive at the moment. Those old fogies could only live up to a thousand years. Not a few thousand.

At the moment, the highest rank in Shadow Mastery that a person had reached was the Chasm rank. Alexander was at that rank.

Theoretically, he was supposed to be able to create a vortex. He was able to form the vortex patterns, and he was even able to smoothly push two of them together.

But he could not push in the third one, no matter how hard he tried. The Heavenly Law always blocked him.

But that was only when he was in the outside world, within the realm of absolute control of the Heavenly Law.

So how much could it affect him once he was in his own space?

Would he finally be able to create his vortex? And if he did, would he be able to bring it outside, defying the Heavenly Law?

Or would all his efforts just go down the drain, because the Heavenly Law would show itself to have enough influence even in private spaces to shatter patterns and disperse potentially forming vortexes?

Michelle watched for a while as Alexander merged two masses of shadow essence moving in vortex patterns. Just as he had said, he clearly did not have any problems with it.

Keeping the merged mass of shadow essence on one hand, Alexander gathered more shadow essence on his free hand and started forcing it to move in another vortex pattern.

When that was done, he moved the two masses together.

Michelle kept her eyes locked on them, watching closely.

Alexander pushed the masses next to each other, and everything seemed fine, just like when he had done it before with the first two vortex patterns.

But when he tried to push them into each other, his hands passed through the masses, and the masses started flowing around his arms. They refused to merge.

Basically, what happened was exactly what Michelle had seen when she stepped out of the wooden house after waking up. Shadow essence randomly flowing around Alexander’s forearms.

Alexander had already been at the Chasm rank for a long time, so he was not supposed to have any trouble creating the vortex. So it was obvious that the Heavenly Law was blocking him.

But there was a difference compared to what he had said before.

He said that the Heavenly Law would disperse the vortexes before they could fully form, not prevent a person from pushing the patterns together.

Did that mean that in a private space, the Heavenly Law did not hold enough power to disperse the vortexes, so it directly prevented the merging of the patterns?

Michelle voiced her thoughts, even though she was sure Alexander must have already considered that.

She wanted answers, and if Alexander had thought about it, there was a high possibility that he also knew the answer.

Alexander did not disappoint. “That is not the only possibility,” he said as he retracted his shadow essence. “The Heavenly Law might not be involved at all in this.”

Michelle raised a brow. “What exactly do you mean?”

Alexander went on to explain. Since he had confessed his feelings to Michelle, he had turned out to be more patient when it came to technical explanations.

“In the past, vortexes were created under the sphere of influence of the Heavenly Law. The Heavenly Law allowed them to be created. That might have had a positive influence on the process. Here, the Heavenly Law’s influence is weakened, and even if it were present, that positive influence would be nonexistent. Without it, merging the patterns could be much harder.”

Listening to Alexander, Michelle frowned slightly, thinking back to the fact that she had absorbed two Life Stones.

Even before that, the Heavenly Law had treated her like a monster. Maybe that was why she had been able to use skills faster than most people. Because a monster’s casting time was always shorter than that of humans.

But that was not what bothered her.

After absorbing the Life Stones, there was a high probability that the Heavenly Law would no longer notice her. If that happened, would its positive influence on her skills disappear? Would that mean she would have a harder time using her skills in the future?

Once she left Alexander’s space, she would have to check it out and use as many skills as possible to test her casting time.

If the theory turned out to be true, she would be in deep trouble.

Alexander watched Michelle’s expression change and could guess what she was thinking. But he had no intention of reassuring her, even though he knew her skill casting speed would remain unchanged. She was the one who had absorbed the Life Stones, so she had to figure out on her own how it had changed her.

Leaving her to her thoughts, Alexander returned to trying to create a vortex. He already had a good guess about the influence of the Heavenly Law in private spaces. He just needed to confirm it. Then he could move on to bypassing that influence.

Because he was already sure it could be done, at least within private spaces like his own.

After some more time, a rift opened where Michelle had fought the Silent Bastards, and both she and Alexander stepped out. The wound on her shoulder was fully healed, and she was clearly refreshed.

Alexander retreated to the side, and Michelle began testing her skills.

First, she summoned her Sensing Net.

She had already done that a few times since absorbing the Life Stones, so she was not surprised to see that nothing had changed. But that did not mean the other skills would behave the same. Compared to her other abilities, the Sensing Net was just a minor skill, requiring only a tiny speck of spirit energy.

So the next skill Michelle tested was one she had not used in a long time.

Summoning her spirit energy, a figure formed a few steps in front of her.

The next moment, another Michelle stood before her.

The skill Spirit Clone worked exactly the same as when she had used it back in the Land of Exile.

Having not used it in a long time, Michelle had nearly forgotten about it. She also did not realize that with the power she currently possessed, she could summon more than one clone, and they could last for several days before disappearing.

But she was not going to test how long the clone could stay. She had other skills to check.

Things were looking bright for her, but she did not want to get overly excited at the start only to be disappointed later.

Michelle did not have many skills. Most of the time, when she fought, she simply formed something with her soul energy, spirit energy, or shadow essence to trap someone or create a weapon.

Otherwise, her skills were Soul Fire, black fire formed from her soul energy; Grim Hand, an explosive strike caused by letting soul energy flick off her sickle; Nonexistent Hymn; Grim Strike, a physical attack using a combination of her sickle and a dagger; and then Spirit Clone and Sensing Net.

Michelle tested everything that required either soul or spirit energy, except Nonexistent Hymn. She did not exactly have a target she could kill with it.

But she did not need to test it. From the other skills, she had already confirmed that her casting time had not increased at all. She was safe to use her skills freely in the future.

But that raised a question: just how exactly did the Heavenly Law view her after she absorbed the Life Stones?

Or did its view of her not affect her casting speed at all? But then, why did it affect the creation of shadow vortexes?

She had many questions, but barely any answers.

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