Chapter 342: 342

The next day, Michelle went to see Lucas again.

“Teacher!” she bowed her head a bit in greeting.

Lucas took a good look at Michelle, raising a brow.

“The tempering bath didn’t work?” he instantly noticed that Michelle’s movement patterns hadn’t changed.

Michelle nodded. “Teacher, that’s what I wanted to ask about.”

After that, she explained that her strength suddenly rose when she was in the bath, and after she got out, it took nearly two hours to get back to normal.

The more Lucas heard, the deeper his frown got until he spoke: “How long were you in the bath?”

“Short. Not even five minutes.” Michelle told the truth.

“Good then…” Lucas was relieved at least by that.

“Now the question is whether just that type of tempering bath is unusable for you, or you completely can’t temper your body.”

Michelle lifted her shoulders, not knowing.

Lucas sighed. “Anyways, for now, you will just undergo training, no tempering.”

Michelle nodded. That made sense.

“Thank you, Teacher!”

So, for the next few days, Michelle was undergoing physical training.

And though she thought it would be easy for her since she had spirit and soul energy along with shadow essence to support her, that was far from the truth.

Having taught students for over decades, Lucas had found ways to bypass their energies and force their bodies to their limits.

In the meantime, in the Ostrich family residence, Vincent had his spies watching closely every member of the family, to not let anything suspicious evade his gaze.

And in the time of something over two weeks when the children were already in the academy, he got a report that highly piqued his interest.

Two men that never seemed to have anything together secretly met up.

The spy didn’t manage to overhear their conversation, but they were clearly unhappy about something.

Looking at the two names, Vincent knew he couldn’t reach a conclusion yet, but the connection was suspicious.

One of the men was a man he had a terrible relationship with for years, and the other was known in the family to be a ruthless bastard.

Why would such two get together?

The answer was quite obvious actually.

And Vincent did think of it, but he didn’t want to reach conclusions just yet.

The two men met after the one unrelated to Vincent got a message from his son, Andrew Ostrich.

The father had long known that Ana had survived and was sent to the academy, so he told his son who had entered the academy a year prior to keep an eye on her.

Andrew promised to do it, but even after the Ostrich children reached the academy to take tests, he didn’t see her for a whole week, so he started thinking that she was somewhere where she wouldn’t have to meet other students.

In the end, it was said that Michelle was sent to the academy to be protected, not to study, so it wouldn’t be all that surprising.

For a whole week, Andrew didn’t concern himself with Ana Ostrich, believing he wouldn’t get the chance to see her.

But then, after a week, he saw her, introduced as the newest disciple of his master, Antony Julians.

Additionally to that, after asking Antony about her, Andrew found out that Marcus Julians also took her in as his disciple.

So, as soon as he had free time, which was about a week and a half after Michelle started learning in the academy, meaning the second day she was being trained by Lucas, Andrew found a communication spirit stone and gave his report to his father, also named Andrew Ostrich.

To not mix them up, the son was called Andy by most Ostrich family members.

After listening to his son’s report, Andrew went to meet up with his partner-in-crime, Tobias Ostrich.

That was what Vincent’s spy saw.

“What is the important news you have for me?” Tobias was clearly superior to Andrew.

Anyone could tell just from the tone of his voice.

“Tobias, that Ana can’t be an ordinary cripple, and that could ruin our plans,” Andrew quickly spoke.

Tobias frowned at that.

“Why is she not an ordinary cripple?” he asked, his voice growing colder.

“What did that son of yours see?” it was clear he didn’t like Andy.

“Apparently, she has been accepted as a disciple by both of the sibling teachers,” Andrew started explaining.

“The ones that have the fewest disciples in the whole academy.”

That piqued Tobias’s interest.

“The Julians brothers?” he asked.

“What do they see in a cripple like her?” he added.

“That confuses me, too,” Andrew admitted.

“But Andy said they did it because of how easily overlooked she is.”

Tobias narrowed his eyes.

“So it’s because of her nonexistent presence, the reason you had so much trouble killing her?”

Andrew lowered his head in shame.

“Tobias, even my tracking spider couldn’t find her. I’ve always told you she is abnormal.”

Naturally, Tobias didn’t want to admit that he was at fault, so he just got angrier.

“We’ve already talked about this!” he hissed in anger.

“We are having all this trouble because you failed to kill her! So, this time, make sure she at least doesn’t gain more power! Have Andy sabotage her in the academy so the teachers disown her.”

The reason Tobias wanted that was simple.

Having a master disown a disciple was utter disgrace, that would mean that the young cultivator wouldn’t be accepted by big powers.

Because it happened extremely rarely, only when the disciple did something terrible.

Andrew quickly nodded. “I’ll tell him.”

Tobias nodded in satisfaction.

“Let’s consider that brat taken care of, and now move on to what to do with Vincent. He’s been acting more subtle lately, but he is definitely planning something. So we have to act faster.”

Andrew nodded.

“The preparations are nearly complete. We will be able to set things into motion in just a few months.”

Hearing that clearly pleased Tobias.

“Before you start everything, don’t forget to kill Vincent and Francis. Those two would definitely stand in my way.”

Andrew agreed naturally: “That had been the plan the whole time.”

Andrew and Tobias talked for a long while about the plans before they parted, their lives returning to what it was like before.

Or at least, that was what it looked like from an onlooker’s point of view, to an uninterested person.

But someone involved, having close watch on the two, would see everything.

That Andrew informed his son to sabotage Ana Ostrich, a.k.a. Michelle, and that he had stolen seals of a few elders.

Or that Tobias kept writing fake letters in the names of the elders and sending them out to other families.

What the two were planning would clearly be a big spectacle.

After just a few more days, Vincent was certain that the ones behind the death of his only and beloved daughter were Tobias and Andrew.

His spies overheard them talking about the failed assassination and even he himself heard it once.

Truthfully, Vincent had guessed it a while ago, but having it confirmed lit up a cold fire of rage within his heart.

He would get revenge for her.

He would make sure all involved individuals lost their ability to see the light of the day.

Whether by dying or being forever locked up and tortured would be decided later.

His plan was just starting.

After having his spies follow the two men around for a while more, another conversation happened, and this time, the spy made sure to listen closely.

Tobias asked Andrew how Andy was progressing in sabotaging Ana, but Andrew spoke that after Ana got hurt, Andy didn’t have a single chance to see her.

Apparently, Antony took her to the healer facility, but when Andy went to see her there, she was nowhere to be found.

And the teacher there refused to tell him where she was.

After the spy gave his report to Vincent, Vincent took a communication spirit stone and tried to contact Michelle.

But in the academy, she was in the middle of her training, so she didn’t have the time to listen.

Instead, in the evening when she got back to her room, she took out her communication spirit stone and contacted Vincent.

“You tried to contact me during the day?” she asked.

In her training, she did notice some movement in her space, and thought it was coming from the communication stone, but she couldn’t be sure and had no time to check it.

“Yes, I did,” Vincent’s voice was deadly calm.

After finding out who it was that killed his daughter, he felt somehow emotionally numb.

He was always calm no matter what new information the spies brought to him.

“Do you know a guy named Andrew Ostrich, called Andy by others?” Vincent asked.

“That would be my Senior Brother…” Michelle answered truthfully.

As she said that, she realized that Vincent highly probably didn’t know that both Marcus and Antony had taken her as their disciple.

And that was true.

Until he heard it from his spies, Vincent didn’t know Michelle had taken a master.

But after he heard it, he could guess who it was.

When he was sending her to the Ostrich Academy, he was fairly certain that Antony and Marcus would find out she wasn’t the real Ana Ostrich and just a step-in.

Shaking his head, he went back to what he originally wanted to say.

“Be careful of Andy. His father has to do with Ana’s killer, and he was told to make sure your masters disown you.”

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