Chapter 343: 343

After Vincent told Michelle that she should watch out for Andrew Ostrich Junior, she talked with him for a while, telling him what she did and such.

It was so he was informed in case her actions could affect his plans.

Then, Vincent also told Michelle about the things his spies found out in the Ostrich family, so she knew what to watch out for.

After that, Michelle put away the communication spirit stone and laid down in her bed.

Since she had started cultivating, she had rarely felt the need to sleep, but after Lucas started training her, she had to sleep every night.

The training was extremely exhausting.

But it was also proving fruitful.

In just a few days, Michelle gained back some of her ability to observe herself, and started noticing a bit of where she was moving strangely.

And partially, she was able to control it.

Still, it was clear to her it would take a long time of training before she would be able to observe her condition properly again and conceal her inhuman movement completely.

As Michelle fell asleep, she felt a figure appear in her room.

She didn’t have to do anything to know who it was.

Since she had confessed her feelings to Alexander, whenever she was about to fall asleep, he would appear in her room and lay in her bed.

But whether he fell asleep or stayed awake the whole night was a question Michelle didn’t have an answer to.

Whenever she woke up, Alexander was wide awake, but that didn’t necessarily mean he didn’t sleep at all.

Maybe he slept a bit, but always woke up before she did.

Michelle decided after the second day not to think much about it.

Alexander’s sleeping schedule wasn’t really something she needed or planned to worry about.

With his power, it wouldn’t be surprising if he didn’t need to sleep at all, his power compensating for it.

In the end, it was a well-known fact that after reaching certain power, cultivators didn’t need to eat.

So discarding sleep didn’t seem all that impossible.

So, Michelle discarded the thoughts and let her mind rest in sleep.

When she opened her eyes in the morning, she was met with a sinfully handsome face she had grown accustomed to seeing.

“Morning…” she muttered, getting up.

The last few days, her muscles had been terribly sore from all the training she went through under Lucas’ guidance, so she was a bit grumpy in the morning.

Alexander sat up on the bed and watched as Michelle prepared herself for the day.

“I have to admit, I didn’t think ordinary physical training could have so many benefits.”

He could clearly see the changes in Michelle, especially since he had a clear view of her when she was changing.

There had always been defined muscles under her skin, she wasn’t a weakling, but they couldn’t be seen because of the disguise mask affecting her whole body.

But after the days of training with Lucas’ method, they were more prominent and peeked into Michelle’s appearance as Ana Ostrich.

Also, it was clear that they were clinging perfectly to her bones, which they weren’t before.

And that was mostly what made it so that her movement was subtly unnatural all the time.

Through the training, she didn’t lose any of the mobility she gained by absorbing the Life Stones, but it was starting to get hidden.

If she completed the training, it would most probably only appear when she wished it.

But when would the training be considered finished?

While changing clothes, Michelle glanced at the mirror in the room, staring at the foreign figure.

It had already been a few weeks since she had seen her silver hair and purple eyes.

That mirror was there to remind her every day that at the moment, she wasn’t Michelle Grace, but Ana Ostrich.

Staring at her reflection, Michelle summoned some of her spirit energy and pushed it to her glass eye, the Eye of Nihil.

She wanted to see what someone with Truth Artifacts would see if they used them on her.

She was disguised only by a disguise mask her father had given her when she was still in the Land Of Exile, so she didn’t know whether it would work on advanced artifacts.

And her guess was right.

When she activated the Eye of Nihil, the figure in the mirror got split in half.

One half remained the same, showing Ana Ostrich in her delicate beauty.

The other half showed the breathtaking appearance of Michelle in her full glory.

Finally, Michelle glanced at the window that appeared next to the mirror reflection:

“Michelle Grace –> disguised as Ana Ostrich (using a disguise mask of Paragon rank)”

After that, there were detailed descriptions about both herself and Ana Ostrich.

Seeing all that, Michelle started wondering about ranks of disguise masks.

Hers was a Paragon rank, so did that mean it could only fool Paragon rankers and below?

Or did it work completely differently?

With that question, Michelle turned to Alexander.

Being from the heavenly realm, he must have seen higher ranked tools, so he definitely had the answer.

After Michelle asked that question, Alexander answered:

“Tool’s ranks are determined by the rank of the person who created them, the Armament Master. It’s similar to the ranks of pills. Your disguise mask was created by a Paragon rank Armament Master. That’s actually quite rare.”

Michelle still had more questions.

“So, at what rank would people need to be to see through the disguise mask?” she asked.

“Emperor rank, or even those can be fooled?

“They would need to be of God rank. Emperor rankers can be fooled by that. But, of course, that only applies if they didn’t have an artifact like your Eye of Nihil. Artifacts are above tools, so they can see through them.” Alexander answered.

Michelle quite liked that.

“That means I’m mostly safe in the upper realm,” she concluded.

Alexander nodded a bit, but he still reached into his space and pulled something out.

A necklace with a tiny mask hanging from it.

“What’s that?” Michelle asked with a tilt of her head, closely observing the necklace.

Alexander looked down at the tiny mask and handed it over to Michelle.

“It’s an upgrading artifact. Mask of Sin. It can’t change your appearance like your disguise mask, but it hardens your disguise. It basically subtly deflects anything that could see through your disguise in a way that even the prober wouldn’t notice.”

Michelle turned the tiny mask over in her palm, staring at it.

“If it’s an upgrading artifact, why didn’t you contract it when you got it?” she asked.

Usually, when someone got their hands on an upgrading artifact, they wouldn’t hesitate to contract it because of how rare they were.

So why didn’t Alexander do it?

Alexander had two reasons:

“In the first place, I had my shadow guards get it so you could contract it. Contracting it myself would be counterproductive.”

“And upgrading artifacts can only be contracted by Spirit Masters. I’m a Shadow Master.”

Michelle lifted a brow.

“Since when were you considering that my disguise could be seen through?” she asked.

“When you left the Land of Exile. Because at some point, you would come to the heavenly realm.”

Alexander’s answer made Michelle frown.

“It took that long to get this? Aren’t your shadow guards the top force of the heavenly realm? This little thing was that hard to acquire?” Michelle didn’t want to believe that.

And Alexander’s next words finally made her understand what was going on.

“It was a bit hard to get, but I already had it for a while.”

Michelle was a bit surprised by that, but she let Alexander continue.

“As you know, I don’t like that you are stepping in as Ana Ostrich, so I decided not to help you with that.”

The last few words nearly made Michelle laugh.

That did sound like something Alexander would do.

From the start, he was showing high disapproval towards her act as Ana Ostrich.

Well… showing…

He wasn’t exactly doing anything special since he was hidden in the shadows most of the time, but the first time he showed up after Michelle became Ana, his stance was quite clear.

Nearly instantly, he dragged her up into the sky in front of the Ostrich children, as if wanting them to see through her disguise.

So, yeah, his dissatisfaction and unhappiness had been clear from the very beginning.

“Then why give it to me now?” Michelle asked after holding back her laughter.

It was quite a contradictory thing to do if Alexander wanted her to be found out.

Alexander stepped over to Michelle and wrapped his arms around her from behind, resting his head on her shoulder.

“You are mine now, aren’t you?” his voice was calm, but there was a hint of smile concealed in it.

“And you asked about disguises. So what would be the reason to deny it to you?”

Michelle deactivated her Eye of Nihil before moving her gaze to Alexander.

She knew that his power was far out of range of what she could see with the Eye of Nihil, so looking at him with it activated would be uncomfortable.

So she deactivated it.

“You aren’t making sense,” she finally said, lifting her hand to tangle her fingers in Alexander’s hair.

Alexander grinned. “Really?”

“Then let me say it clearer…” his voice lowered.

“You are mine, and I’m yours. So the Mask of Sin was already yours before I gave it to you.”

Michelle’s eyes narrowed. “So it’s because I said I love you? Otherwise you wouldn’t have given it to me?”

A slow smile spread over her lips.

“You could say that…”

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