Chapter 345: 345

It took a while for Michelle to calm down and stop punching Alexander.

When she did, she stared at him for a moment before bending down to pick up the cube she had dropped.

Then, she started pushing her spirit energy into it again, like nothing had happened.

Though her knuckles were bruised and swollen.

The cube once again changed colors to those of Michelle’s elements, the three colors dancing over it.

Once again, Michelle didn’t feel anything at first, but when she had already been pushing her spirit energy in for a while, she felt a shift.

It felt like something started pulling on her spirit energy.

She couldn’t stop pushing it out.

With every passing moment, Michelle could feel the flow of her spirit energy speed up. To the point it was uncomfortable.

Since Michelle couldn’t stop it, she just closed her eyes and felt within her body, observing the flow.

And, she had to admit, it was quite interesting.

The spirit energy wasn’t flowing like a stream but spinning in a spiral to her hands and from there into the cube.

Michelle had not once before seen spirit energy in her body spin through her veins in spirals.

Was that what Lucas meant when he said that the cube would use her own spirit energy to temper her body?

Was that the beginning?

Michelle started wondering what would happen if she added soul energy and shadow essence to that spiral.

Could the cube work with that too, or would it completely ignore the two energies?

And since Michelle was the kind of person who acted on her thought, or, better said, experimented on her thought, she proceeded with the idea.

Summoning her soul energy and shadow essence, she pushed them into her blood and had them join the spirals of spirit energy, flowing to the palms of her hands and then out into the cube.

Michelle was really hoping the cube would react to it.

And, somehow, the cube did.

It didn’t absorb the energies like Michelle was hoping, but it did feel them.

Because a cocoon of spirit energy formed around it, one that let spirit energy through but no other energy.

Seeing that, Michelle was greatly disappointed, but she didn’t retract her soul energy and shadow essence.

Maybe, the barrier would disappear or stop working after a while.

So, the spirit energy kept flowing into the cube, while soul and shadow essence gathered around it, forming a dark cloud.

Standing on the side, Alexander closely watched the gathered soul energy and shadow essence.

The soul energy was starting to create a small void right next to the barrier, and the shadow essence started pulling in shadow essence from the shadows nearby.

And it clearly wasn’t under Michelle’s control.

It was only happening because the two energies were spinning around in spirals.

Michelle could stop it if she wanted, but she wanted to see what would happen if she let it go on for longer.

Well, and her wait paid off.

The barrier around the cube was most probably timed.

The cube’s mechanism worked considering that someone tried to pump in other energies, and gave up after finding out it was impossible.

So, after a while of being present, the barrier disappeared.

And instantly, Michelle’s soul energy and shadow essence surrounded the cube like two predators wanting to bite into it.

The cube probably wasn’t able to form another barrier right away, so the two energies were able to sink into it.

Michelle opened her eyes to look at what was going on, only to see the cloud of shadow essence and speck of void disappearing into the cube.

Slowly, the cube started shifting color.

Everything on its surface started turning darker as if it got cloaked in shadow.

And here and there, small black patches appeared.

That was the shadow and void at work.

And the cube also started acting a bit different than before.

It was as if after getting a taste, it couldn’t stop.

So, just like with her spirit energy, Michelle felt a pull and realized that she couldn’t retract her soul energy and shadow essence any longer.

If someone else ended up like that, they would probably be worried, but Michelle just observed it.

Seeing Michelle’s carefree expression, Alexander couldn’t help but chuckle.

The brat in front of him was just crazy.

After some time, Michelle felt that her spirit energy had been depleted, her dantians empty.

But the cube kept pulling, making her veins and dantians ache.

In reaction to that, Michelle’s body on its own let the cube pull in more soul energy and shadow essence. That made the strain of the dantian lesser.

With the cube sucking in more soul energy and shadow essence, they also depleted quickly.

Especially the soul energy.

And when the shadow essence started running out, Michelle could feel her body instinctively sending some out into her surroundings to pull in some from the shadows around her.

Her body started cultivating shadow essence without her direct command.

It worked autonomously.

So, a moment later, Michelle could feel shadow essence rushing into her body from the outside only to travel through her veins and go into the cube.

Her body became something like a pipe for shadow essence between the cube and the outside world.

With every moment that the shadow essence kept flowing into the cube, the cube’s surface got darker and darker, the colors on it nearly disappearing, overtaken by shadow black.

A moment just before the shadow black took over, quite a few different shades of black could be seen until the shadow took over everything.

And once that happened, the cube seemed to have been satisfied.

Just a split second after the shadow black took over, black smoke started coming out of it, spreading out to wrap around Michelle like a cocoon.

Seeing that from the side, Alexander instantly reacted to go over to Michelle.

He could guess she was about to be pulled into the cube’s space, and he wanted to go along.

But the shadow reaction was too fast even for the Dark Lord himself. Because autonomous energy was faster than light and no one could outrun it.

Before Alexander could take a single step towards Michelle, she was within a black egg which started shrinking around her.

Alexander kicked into the ground and shot towards her, but he wasn’t even halfway there when the egg shrunk to a tiny speck and disappeared.

All that was left behind was the black cube which fell to the ground with a clack.

Stopping above the cube, Alexander’s eyes darkened.

He knew that even if he tried, Michelle would push him away and that he wouldn’t be able to go into the space with her, but he wanted to try.

He wanted her to get angry and push him away.

Because her angry expression was priceless.

But a dumb cube took the chance to see it away from him.

He really felt like crushing it.

The only thing stopping him was that if he did, it would most probably trap Michelle forever in the space and he would never get to see her angry face again.

That… would be tragedy.

While Alexander was in the training grounds, staring down begrudgingly at the cube, Lucas arrived at the council building.

He had serious things to report to the headmaster and discuss with the council.

He wasn’t a part of the council teachers, but he had more influence in the school than some of them.

Because while they worked tirelessly to get to the council, he had rejected the spot when he was offered it by the former headmaster.

Though he didn’t look all that old, he was actually an old man of middle Emperor rank in cultivation.

And he was also one of the founders of the academy.

That was how old and important he was, but he always refused to take on an important role, even if it was to be just representative.

That was how most of the world didn’t even know an old legend like him existed.

Students took him as an ordinary teacher, and newer teachers thought so too for a while.

It always took them a few years to realize how formidable he was.

Some teachers in the council joked that he was the second legend of the academy, the first being the Heart Twins which accelerated cultivation everywhere in the sect grounds just by being present.

When Lucas entered the headmaster’s office, Francis lifted a brow in surprise.

“You rarely appear here. What might you want?” he asked.

“It’s about your niece,” Lucas answered straightforward.

Francis went serious the moment he heard it was about Ana Ostrich.

He had the feeling that the girl would be a constant trouble, so all matters about her had to be taken seriously.

Lucas started explaining. “Today, she found a threatening letter in her training grounds. It said, and I quote: ’You should have died in that lake!’ You should investigate it.”

Francis knew about how Ana Ostrich had been found nearly drowned in a lake because someone tried to kill her, so he knew not to overlook the incident.

The killer, or someone working with or for him, was in the academy.

“I’ll make sure to look into it.”

For a moment, Francis thought about it when a thought struck him.

“Why was she at your training grounds? I didn’t hear about that.”

Lucas rolled his eyes. “The healer found out she had strange joint flexibility after she got hurt, so he sent her to me for training.”

He said it like it was the most obvious thing.

And, well… it was.

It wasn’t all that rare for students to have special body conditions, which could show especially after injuries.

And some of them were sent to Lucas for special training so they could get used to those conditions.

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