Chapter 57: 57

Standing in front of the concubine’s prison cell once again, Michelle glanced at Kieran Ashford’s empty cell. At the moment, he was with the little Emperor, investigating the corruption of the Sloan Viscountcy after he realized that the old Viscount was one of the people who caused the downfall of his family. Michelle didn’t have to say much in the little Emperor’s office for him to put two and two together, and his hatred for the Sloan family boiled even more.

All Michelle did was mention the fact that though on the surface it looked like the Sloan Viscountcy gained only bare lands from the divided Ducal lands, but in reality, he gained a land which the Duke used to protect like his life depended on it, and he also made the young Ducal lord his son’s servant, so his son could become a cultivator if the legend was true.

Not being stupid, Kieran just thought about it for a while and quickly realized that the old Viscount must have been somehow involved, especially since he was acting strangely before the Duke disappeared for the first time. So, driven by rage, Kieran swore to the little Emperor that he would help find proof of the corruption in the Sloan Viscounty. Since that was the case, the little Emperor wrote an edict, giving amnesty to Kieran.

When all that was done, Michelle went back into the prison, alone, to continue training the memory manipulation skill. The concubine didn’t even dare to move as Michelle’s cold purple eyes locked on her. Michelle’s lips were hooked into a bright smile like always, but her eyes were so cold, the concubine shivered in terror.

Michelle entered the cell, sent her spirit energy into her mind and soaked it in her memories before sending the soaked spirit energy towards her hand which she placed on top of the concubine’s head. Through her hand she inserted the soaked spirit energy into the concubine’s brain. The concubine flinched in fear, but to her surprise, she felt nearly no pain. Blurry images started blurring in her mind, but before she could focus on them, she fainted. Her brain couldn’t keep up with the force of soaked spirit energy being stuffed into her head, so it shut down for a while.

Rolling her eyes with a sigh, Michelle retracted her hand and left the cell. She sat on the ground and closed her eyes. She was already close to succeeding, but she needed to control the force she used to send the memories into one’s brain, or she could end up destroying their nerve system, which was unwanted.

Staying motionless for two days, going in her mind through the skill, she finally opened her mind when a realization hit her. The whole time, she was going at it the wrong way. She tried to insert her memories forcefully into the concubine’s head, which would only work if the concubine’s brain was completely empty, but that was only the case with babies. It was possible to use the method, but it would leave chronic damage on the victim even if she had succeeded. But the skill that the monsters used on creatures they didn’t want to harm was slightly different.

Basically, the monster would use two wisps of its spirit energy. It would send one along the victim’s nerve system into his brain and absorb his memories into it. The other wisp of spirit energy would be soaked in the monster’s memories which it wanted to give the victim. Then, in the monster’s body, the monster would merge the two wisps and send them into the victim’s nerve system again and let the nerve system carry it into the memory part of the victim’s brain. That way, the wisp would naturally get into the brain and recreate the memories which were absorbed and pulled out, also adding new memories into the brain.

Standing up lazily, Michelle glanced at the concubine’s cell and smiled. “This will be the last time,” she said as she placed her hand on the concubine’s head. Closing her eyes, Michelle separated two wisps of spirit energy in her body and sent one into her own brain and one into the concubine’s brain along the nerve system. The wisp in her own brain got slowly soaked in the memories she wanted to pass onto the concubine, and the wisp in the concubine’s brain completely absorbed her memories, making a memory-less shell.

But that was only for a while, as Michelle quickly merged the two wisps and sent them into the concubine’s brain. The concubine gasped and closed her eyes, feeling memories flooding through her brain.

Seeing that, Michelle smiled. She realized that if she wanted, she could take away the concubine’s memories and place in ones she liked, making her a puppet she could use. Also, she could use the skill to copy others’ memories into her brain as long as she could seep her spirit energy into their brain, which would be impossible if the person was stronger than she was. So, in other words, she could use it on everyone in the Land of Exile, but once she left it, she would have to cultivate for a while before being able to use it on others.

“Go through the memories and understand them! I’ll come get you out tomorrow as I’ve promised!” Michelle ordered as she walked out of the cell and prison. She quickly went to the Archduchy to bathe and rest. For a few days, she didn’t bathe, and though she could keep herself clean with her spirit energy, she missed the relaxing feeling of the warm water surrounding her.

“Michelle?” she was surprised by the Archduke’s voice outside her room after she changed her clothes.

“Yes, father?” she opened the door to see the Archduke standing with a handsome young man standing behind him. He had blue eyes with white pupils in the shape of flames. His hair was long blue, with streaks of white. “Cold Flame? You woke up?” her eyes widened when she saw him, the corners of her lips lifting into a smile.

Unlike before, Colf Flame wasn’t cheerful or childish. He smiled a bit, but his face was calm and stoic. “Yes, Michelle! I woke up two days ago!”

“But why are you with father?” Michelle asked with a tilt of her head. The Archduke looked quite tired.

Hearing Michelle’s question, Cold Flame froze for a moment, and glanced at the Archduke. Strange silence overtook the room for a while before the Archduke finally spoke up: “When the Vermilion Bird woke up, he came to ask me where you were. The moment he found out you were in the palace, he decided to wait for you to come back and wanted me to teach him human behavior so he could act like one in his human form.”

Michelle lifted a brow and glanced at Cold Flame before looking at the Archduke’s expression. It was clear that he was exhausted from teaching Cold Flame. “Cold Flame, in the memories of your ancestors, not a single one of them lived among humans?” she asked with a lifted brow.

“A few did…” Cold Flame sighed. “But that was so long ago that the world changed a lot since then.”

Listening to that, Michelle nodded a bit, and turned to look at the Archduke. “Father, you look tired. You should go rest. I’m sorry. Cold Flame must have been hard on you.”

“Don’t worry about it! I was glad to teach him since it’s beneficial to my daughter,” the Archduke smiled a bit, but it was clear that teaching Cold Flame had taken a toll on him, since Cold Flame was quite the character.

After talking for a while longer, the Archduke left and Michelle was left alone with Cold Flame. In his human shape, he was handsome, one could say breathtaking, and taller than Michelle, but she didn’t really mind. “Since you’ve woken up, does that mean my room is free to use now?” she asked as her gaze roamed over Cold Flame for a moment, taking in his full appearance.

“Not really,” Cold Flame entered the room Michelle was in and lazily sat down on the couch. He was quite similar to his contracted master, Michelle, lazy and careless as long as he didn’t have to do anything, as long as nothing was happening. “It’s still filled with eggshells. I asked your father to order the servants not to clean it.”

“Why?” Michelle didn’t understand why he wouldn’t want to clean it. “Are the eggshells useful to you?” she asked.

“No!” Cold Flame shook his head. “I’ve already got everything I could out of the eggshells. The rest can be used by you.”

Michelle lifted a brow. “Me? How so?”

“Eat them!” Cold Flame said bluntly.

“What will it do to me?” Michelle kept asking.

But Cold Flame just shrugged. “It can have many effects. Depends on your potential.” He said the truth. It solely depended on one’s potential what he would gain from eating the eggshells. Someone could gain complete nothing, while someone else could gain the ability to bypass the realm restrictions. Or someone’s cultivation speed could increase rapidly. Or someone’s power could jump suddenly. Or one might as well just raise their level of proficiency with their spirit domain, and they could start taking things out of it. Of course, someone could gain more than one thing from it.

Getting the answer from Cold Flame, Michelle sighed and sat down next to him. “I mastered the memory manipulation skill. Tomorrow, I’m going to get the old bastard’s concubine out of the prison and change her memories. She’s smart so she might be useful. If she isn’t, I’ll just let her be since she’s never really offended me.”

For a long while, Michelle talked with Cold Flame about their future plans and about when they would leave to the lower realm. Before leaving, Michelle was still planning on taking care of the corrupted Sloan Viscounty, so she could take Kieran Ashford with her. He was smart, so she wanted such a friend with her.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep