Chapter 45: 45

Walking into the cave, Michelle had to fight her disgust and desire to go out as the white flame illuminated the surrounding walls. The walls were plain wet stone walls like in any other cave, but Michelle wanted them illuminated, so she could see if something changed. And indeed, when she went deeper, the walls changed. The stone was much darker and into it were carved runes which Michelle couldn’t comprehend. It was from the runes that the disgusting energy was coming out.

Michelle continued walking, but the good thing was that the disgusting energy was no longer intensifying as she was already between the runes. Or so she thought. After a while, she found a place where the cave was much wider and the ceiling was way higher. And. The disgusting energy was much stronger than anywhere else in the cave, making Michelle stop in her tracks. She felt like thousands of wet worms were crawling over her body with each breath she took.

The little white flame next to her was too small to illuminate the whole room, so Michelle enlarged it until she could see everywhere. What she had seen next was shocking. The room was enormous, with runes carved into the two walls at the side. The wall at the end wasn’t a wall but a huge cage with thick bars, monsters engraved on the bars. And in the cage lay a huge purple monster that Michelle couldn’t recognize. The disgusting energy from the runes was mostly flowing at the monster.

Seeing the beast, Michelle held her breath for a moment, standing in place. The monster’s presence was overwhelming even as its eyes were closed. It seemed that the runes were used to keep the monster asleep.

Michelle also noticed another thing. In the corner of the room was a small table and a chair. It was like for a child or a dwarf. On the table lay an open book with pen and ink, and beneath the table lay a small skeleton. Michelle frowned and stared at the skeleton for a while, a frown on her face. She felt danger from the book so she didn’t approach it and directed her gaze back on the monster behind the cage. No matter how overwhelming the presence of the sleeping beast was, she didn’t feel any danger from it.

Staring at the monster in the cage for a long while, Michelle couldn’t understand why it was locked up. After a while, she took a few steps forward and walked towards the cage. Placing her hand on one of the thick bars, she kept her gaze on the monster, not even noticing that the book in the corner started suddenly rapidly turning pages. Only after a while did Michelle notice the sound and turn around to look at the book. Seeing the pages being turned, she stared at the book in silence.

After a while, the book stopped moving and laid like nothing happened, but it was emitting light. The light was gentle and soothing, but Michelle felt something repulsive towards it, like the gentleness in the light was just to fool her to come closer. She still remembered the feeling of danger she felt from the book, so she didn’t approach it. But knowing that the book could move on its own, she didn’t want to turn her back on it. But at the same time, showing her back to a monster, even though one in a cage, was equally dangerous.

Nothing seemed like a safe bet and Michelle didn’t know what to think or do, when she suddenly heard a low growl behind her. The moment the growl appeared, the book lost its shine and closed.

Knowing that the monster was awake, Michelle froze for a moment. Just from the growl the monster let put, she felt horrifying power, one which she didn’t even feel from Alexander Terce when he immobilized her. Slowly, Michelle turned around, to see the huge monster staring at her with its silver eyes. Its eyes were the same color as her hair. The monster was inversive towards her. She had purple eyes and silver hair, and the monster had silver eyes and purple fur.

Turning her back on the book, Michelle instantly realized it was a mistake. Quickly turning back around, she saw black mist flying towards her. She dodged to the side, and it hit the bar behind her, leaving a dent in it. The power the mist carried was something she couldn’t take on.

Michelle dodged again and again as the black mist kept rushing at her, slowly pushing her towards the book on the table. Realizing that, Michelle frowned and retracted the white fire she summoned before. With darkness enveloping her, she closed her eyes and started moving the spirit energy inside her dantian.

It seemed the black mist needed light as it stopped moving for a moment after Michelle retracted her white fire, but it quickly got used to the darkness and rushed at Michelle again. But at that moment, she didn’t dodge. She condensed her spirit energy into a pebble in her hand and threw it into the mist, letting it explode. From what she had noticed while constantly dodging the mist, it was untouchable most of the time, but could be separated, but the moment before it was about to hit her, it would solidify to land the attack.

And Michelle could use that.

The moment the spirit energy she condensed blew up, the mist was blown to all sides and Michelle ran towards the cage with the monster. Another thing she noticed about the mist was that it never got behind the bars. As if it was scared.

So Michelle had to take the bet and risk getting torn by the monster so she wouldn’t get killed by the mist. Luckily, the huge bars were wide apart, sos he could pass between them without any trouble. And just as she had guessed, the mist stopped in front of the bars, then flew around the whole room before returning into the book.

With the mist gone, Michelle turned to look at the huge monster towering over her. Its silver eyes were locked on her, and the monster remained motionless. Michelle stared at the monster, not knowing what to do.

The difference between beasts and monsters was that while beasts cultivated similarly to humans, by absorbing the surrounding spirit energy, monsters cultivated by sucking out the spirit energy of other living beings. To quickly discern if a living being was a beast or a monster, one just needed to look at the forehead. If it had a gem in the same color as their eyes there, it was a monster.

Monsters’ gems were rare and used for making weapons, so many cultivators hunted them to make fortune by selling that, but that was only outside the Land of Exile, as in the Land of Exile, nearly no cultivators lived, and those few cultivators were fifteen years at most since all other cultivators died because of the erratic spirit energy coming from the cave during the five years between twenty and fifteen years ago.

The silver gem on the huge monster’s head was so distinct that Michelle couldn’t overlook it. Monsters were basically known for being violent, so she didn’t know what would happen next, but she was hoping that the huge monster would be different since it was under the effect of the runes.

And to her surprise, the monster didn’t do anything to her. It laid down on the ground, so it could look straight at her and its warm breath hit her, making Michelle feel like her body was about to burn since she was sensitive to warmth because of her contract with Snow. “You are smart…” Michelle was shocked when she heard the monster speak. She only ever heard that beasts could speak if they reach a certain level of cultivation, not that monsters could speak. What Michelle didn’t know was that in the heavenly realm, few monsters could speak, but those were only the most powerful ones.

“How did you know that you should hide here from the book?” the monster asked, its voice booming in the cave.

“When the black mist attacked me, it never went beyond the bars. It was just a guess, but it seemed like the black mist was scared of you.” Michelle answered truthfully.

The monster chuckled. “Weren’t you scared I would kill you?”

Michelle nodded. “I was taking a hazardous bet. I had two choices. To die and to make the bet between life and death. Senior, did I win the bet or will you kill me now?”

When Michelle’s words fell, the monster laughed out loud. “You are a good human! Smart one!” it sneered, showing off its huge sharp fangs. “Don’t worry! I’ll let you live. And I’ll even give you a gift!” The monster moved its huge paw and pointed with its claw towards the book from which came the black mist.

The book got instantly enveloped in the black mist and flew towards the cage. It flew into the monster’s paw, and the monster slapped it on the ground, leaving a dent behind. Then, I lifted its paw. “Drop your blood on it!”

Michelle glanced at the monster. She knew that the monster wouldn’t try to harm her, because being so powerful, it could easily destroy her if it wanted. So she reached into her sleeve, took out her shifting weapon and changed it into a small knife. Slashing her thumb, she pressed her hand to the book and felt painful suction.

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