Chapter 376: 376

Alexander watched Michelle closely and raised a brow when she frowned.

“Is there a problem with approaching a breakthrough?” he asked.

Michelle shook her head.

“That in itself is fine, but I didn’t feel any form of bottleneck appearing.”

“That is indeed strange…” even with his rank, Alexander had not once experienced not having a bottleneck while breaking through or nearing a breakthrough.

It was a great anomaly.

But thinking about it, it probably wasn’t completely unheard of.

There were some cases of people who never experienced bottlenecks, and breakthroughs meant nothing to them.

But those people had a harder time cultivating, and had to pull in more spirit energy to reach new levels.

That was as if nature was balancing them out with the rest of the cultivators.

But Michelle’s cultivation was about the same as before.

Alexander could clearly observe that the whole time she was cultivating.

So what was going on?

And it had also never happened to Michelle before.

It was a new occurrence.

So, to figure it out, the best thing to think about was what had changed in Michelle since she had last broken through a level or rank.

The last time she broke through was when she absorbed the Life Stone of the Frostbound Leviathan, but that was a special case, so that wasn’t a good thing to compare with.

So, before that, when was the last time Michelle had broken through and what was different since then?

The answer was obvious.

Her last big cultivation was back in Mavreth’s sect in the middle realm, and back then, there was one massive difference in Michelle’s body.

She had not yet absorbed any Life Stone.

That was a huge change that happened since then, and it was basically screaming for attention.

It literally erased her from the watch and control of the Heavenly Law.

But who knew, maybe that wasn’t even what caused the change.

Neither Michelle nor Alexander could reach a conclusion rashly.

“I will research it for you in the Dark Palace. Until then, don’t try to break through in case it causes problems.” Alexander finally spoke after a while.

Michelle shook her head.

“You can’t just leave now. You are involved in my plan. You are now a guest teacher of the academy.”

Alexander had already thought of that.

“I can create a clone from Living Shadow to take my place while I’m gone.”

Michelle raised a brow.

“Can’t you just have one of your legion of shadow guards check it instead of you?” she asked.

Alexander shook his head.

“I want to take care of this myself. Remember that you have messed with the Heavenly Law. That’s a big deal, and it’s not exactly a good idea to advertise it to anyone. Even if they are my subordinates.”

Michelle in reality didn’t care whether her messing with the Heavenly Law would be found out.

So she wouldn’t mind a shadow guard investigating things.

“In the plan here in the academy, we’ve already made it look like we are lovers. You want me to act in love with a clone?” she suddenly asked.

She despised the idea.

Alexander also wasn’t pleased to hear that.

“No one said you need to act all lovey‑dovey with me, or the clone in the sect. By now, no one will ever doubt the relationship, even if we decided to keep a respectful distance.”

Michelle didn’t like that Alexander could always counter her words and come up with a reason why he didn’t need to stay.

It greatly annoyed her.

She understood the reasons he wanted to go to the heavenly realm personally, but she didn’t like that.

“If you are that worried about your shadow guards finding out something troublesome, you can still stay here by sending a Living Shadow clone up there,” she still didn’t decide to lose the argument.

Alexander shook his head.

“Liquid Shadow can’t cross the barrier of Heavenly Law to go into the heavenly realm. I would have to go to the heavenly realm and summon it there.”

Michelle shrugged.

“And? Just going there and returning won’t take you longer than fifteen minutes. No one will notice you are gone in such a short period of time.”

Even though Michelle said that, Alexander was still prone to going to the heavenly realm himself.

And it could be seen on his face, which quite ticked Michelle off.

“How about a bet, since you want to go there personally so much?” Michelle suddenly asked.

Alexander raised a brow.

“What bet?” he was quite curious.

“You said you think that if I try to break through a level, it could possibly cause some trouble for me,” she started.

Alexander nodded to that.

“It’s highly possible.”

Michelle smiled.

“So, how about this: if nothing happens to me after I break through, you will stay here and send a Liquid Shadow to find out what is going on. But if something does happen, you can go there personally while leaving a Shadow Liquid clone with me.”

Alexander didn’t like that bet.

Michelle had basically no knowledge about what was going on with her body, so she was betting on a random chance.

And it was her health that was at stake.

“Don’t hazard with your health! You don’t know what could happen!” his dissatisfaction was more than evident.

Even his voice was colder than usual.

Michelle frowned at Alexander’s words.

“I will be careful. Don’t worry about that.”

Alexander sighed.

“If I don’t go to the upper realm, will you give up on the bet?” he asked.

Michelle lifted a brow.

She didn’t expect Alexander to give in like that.

She was actually expecting him to take the bet, just with some resistance.

She wasn’t the least bit prepared to hear that he would stay without the bet proceeding.

That was actually great.

She didn’t feel like cultivating at the moment.

“I won’t proceed with the bet if you stay here,” she answered.

That relieved Alexander.

“Then, I’ll stay and instead send a clone to research into the heavenly realm,” he finally agreed to what Michelle wanted.

That made her smile wide.

“Great!” she plopped down on Alexander’s bed.

“Then, you can now tell me what was the real reason you were so insistent on going up there yourself,” she looked over at him with her eyes narrowing into smiling crescents.

But there was a glint in her eyes that showed that she wasn’t actually as casual about it as she was acting.

That was a façade she wanted Alexander to see through.

Alexander looked down at Michelle lying on his bed and leaned close to her, moving his hand to touch her neck.

“The reasons are few…” he slowly laid himself down next to Michelle.

“The main would naturally be that I want to find out what’s going on with you as soon as possible…” That sentence Michelle didn’t believe.

“Of course, I also don’t want anyone else to know what’s going on with you other than me.”

Michelle narrowed her eyes further at that sentence.

That was probably the real main reason.

Just like she was somewhat of a maniac when it came to Alexander, he was a possessive bastard when it came to her.

And Alexander said another reason: “As I said before, I also don’t want anyone finding out something that could bring you trouble.”

Michelle couldn’t help but chuckle.

“So the only one who can cause me trouble is you?”

Alexander stayed silent for a moment before giving something like a nod.

“That would be the best case scenario, but I doubt every fool in this world will be able to realize not to mess with you…”

The thought of someone trying to mess with Michelle made Alexander’s eyes darken.

He was sure he would enjoy killing all those bastards.

And he wouldn’t let anyone blame him for it.

Anyone who messed with Michelle deserved to die in his hands.

And depending on the extent of the messing, he would either give them a quick death or torture them slowly.

Michelle could naturally see the darkness swirling in Alexander’s eyes, making her smile a bit.

Reaching her hand out, she placed her palm over his eyes, blocking his vision.

With his eyes blocked from sight, he actually lost quite a bit of his menacing presence.

With his eyes shown, he looked like the incarnation of evil itself, but with his eyes covered, he was just handsome.

He even looked like a human.

It was clear that on his face, his eyes were the most sinful.

The only thing that could beat that was the devilish smile he tended to show around Michelle or when he was angry.

That was straight‑up hellish evil.

Michelle loved that about him.

Along with all the other things that made her smile.

Or sometimes go white with fury.

Because just like she loved to mess with Alexander, he did the same to her.

With his eyes covered, Alexander couldn’t see Michelle’s smile.

But solely from the Shadow Pact, he could tell that she was satisfied with something.

He could only guess what it was, but it was obviously about him.

“You don’t want me to see you lusting over me?” he decided to tease her.

Michelle raised a brow at that.

“You know I would let you see that. Also, it’s obvious you would lust over me before I would lust over you.”

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