Chapter 61: 61

Back in the Archduchy, Michelle went to tell the Archduke about the Soul Seeking Pendants. Cold Flame didn’t follow, and instead went to look for Alexander Terce. He had a few questions for him, but just from Michelle’s memories, he knew that Alexander was unpredictable and probably wouldn’t answer his questions.

Also, from the memories inherited from his ancestors, Cold Flame had a guess about Alexander’s identity, which made him frown. Why would a person like that be in the lower realm? And in the Land of Exile at that…

He threw those thoughts behind his head and went to the illegal auction house. If his guess was right, he should be able to meet Alexander if he went to David Elether. And even if that wasn’t the case, David could as well answer his questions. If by chance it happened that David wasn’t in the auction house, he could just go to the Imperial Palace to search for him since he was at the moment the Prince Regent.

Arriving at the illegal auction house, Cold Flame told the pretty lady that greeted him that he came to see the owner. When she told him he wasn’t around, he rolled his eyes and left. Outside the auction house, he took on his shrunken beast form, turning into a small bird, and quickly flew towards the palace.

There, he didn’t have to do much to meet David. He just took on his human form and went straight towards the little Emperor’s office. He used his spirit energy to conceal himself, so the guards were completely oblivious as he passed by them. At most, some more sensitive ones felt like wind brushed against them.

Stopping in front of the little Emperor’s office, he knocked on the door after revealing himself. “Enter!” David’s voice carried through, and Cold Flame opened the door. He was met with the gazes of the little Emperor and David.

David instantly recognized Cold Flame to be the Vermilion Bird and raised a brow. He didn’t know about Cold Flame’s contract with Michelle, so he didn’t know why the ruler of all birds came to see him and the little Emperor. He was also a bit surprised that the Vermilion Bird had ice element spirit energy, but that wasn’t something that had never happened in history, so he didn’t think too much about it. “How can I help you?” David asked as he stood up slowly, his eyes fixed on Cold Flame, a bit of wariness in his gaze.

Cold Flame remained silent for a long while before opening his mouth to speak: “Dark Lord, where can I find the Dark Lord?” What he asked sounded nonsensical, but in reality it made sense since Dark Lord were actually two very similar people.

Hearing the question, David arched a brow. It wasn’t surprising for the Vermilion Bird to know about the existence of two Dark Lords and to know that he was one of them, but why would he want to meet the other Dark Lord? “Why do you want to meet him?” he asked with a frown.

Cold Flame didn’t really feel like answering, but since he had questions concerning Michelle, his master, he put away his arrogance for a moment. “I have questions for Alexander concerning a person he knows.”

When his words fell, David only felt more confused. “Since when does the ruler of all birds care about a single human?” he asked with a frown.

Seeing how wary David was, Cold Flame rolled his eyes and on his forehead flashed the contract mark between him and Michelle for a moment. “Is that enough for you to understand?” he asked with a frown.

Even though he saw it just for a moment, David clearly recognized the mark, and it was shocking. Never in the history of the world was heard about a Vermilion Bird being contracted by a human. It was known that it was possible, but it had never happened because of how prideful Vermilion Birds were.

“Who’s your master?” David asked, his frown deepening. If a Vermilion Bird was willing to bow his head in front of a human and let the human contract him, it meant that the human was an existence he needed to find out more about. There had to be something special for the Vermilion Bird to let the human contract him. And it was clear that the Vermilion Bird cared about the human, so the human also had to have quite some charm.

Not liking being questioned so much, Cold Flame arched a brow. He didn’t want to reveal Michelle’s identity to David, as he didn’t know how much she wanted to be known about her to the people from the heavenly realm. What Michelle and the Archduke knew was that David and Alexander just had some ties to the heavenly realm, but Cold Flame could clearly see that they were from the heavenly realm, and they held quite high ranks there. Not too high, but high. Just the fact that they could bypass the power restriction of the realms was enough of a proof that they were from the heavenly realm.

Seeing that Cold Flame didn’t want to answer him, David frowned a bit. “How can I let you see the Dark Lord when I don’t know whether you are an enemy or a friend?” he asked.

Cold Flame rolled his eyes and sighed. He didn’t want to answer, but David was clear about his stance. “You know my master!” he finally said.

That made David arch a brow. Someone he knew, most probably from the Land of Exile, competent enough to make the Vermilion Bird bow down to him? Just one person appeared in his mind. “Is your master picking up contracted beasts on every corner?” he asked as a lazy smile appeared in his lips. “First Snow and Mare, and now you? I hope that’s all that I’ve missed out.”

Cold Flame shrugged a bit. He didn’t really care if David knew about all Michelle’s contracted beasts, so he didn’t mention Nyxaroth. He just couldn’t be bothered to. “Anyway, where can I meet Alexander Terce? I have some questions for him!”

“What do you want to ask him?” David lifted a brow curiously.

Cold Flame stared at David for a moment before speaking. “He tried teaching Michelle to use Spirit Mark,” he said after a while.

“So you want to question him about it?” David asked as a communication stone appeared in his hand. He took it out of his spatial ring.

“Yes! I have some concerns about Michelle’s soul energy.” Cold Flame nodded.

David then inserted his spirit energy into the communication stone, and, after a while, Alexander’s lazy voice came through. “It better be important…” in his lazy voice was a small hint of impatience which was never there before.

“You have a guest…” David snickered.

Alexander sighed on the other end: “Tell them I’m busy!”

“Even if it concerns that girl?” David chuckled. “Fine then, I’ll send the message!”

Alexander frowned a bit. “I’ll meet them in your office in the auction house. I’ll be there in a minute.”

Hearing that, Cold Flame turned into a small light blue bird and flew towards the auction house without even saying goodbye. In his bird form, he flew into the auction house, and using Michele’s memories, he flew towards David’s office. He flew in and took on his human form again, opening the door to the office, only to see Alexander sitting there already.

“A White Vermilion Bird?” Alexander raised his brow with a slight smirk. “So she’s been picking up more and more contracted beasts.” He chuckled. “Why did you want to meet me?” he asked lazily.

“You taught Michelle to use the Spirit Mark?” Cold Flame asked as he sat on the couch opposite Alexander.

Alexander just nodded. “That would be me… Why?”

Cold Flame frowned a bit. “How was the state of her soul energy?” he asked seriously.

“Her soul energy…?” Alexander leaned back in his seat, his black eyes darkening. The day when he taught her to use Spirit Mark, he was shocked like never before. In the hundreds of years of his life, he had never seen something like what he saw in the Archduchy. “From the start, I knew that since she wasn’t originally from here, her soul energy would be different, but…” he frowned.

Hearing that, Cold Flame frowned deeply. “What do you mean by that? What did you see?”

Alexander crossed his legs as he moved his gaze to look at Cold Flame. “As you know, soul energy is in different shades of gray, from nearly white to nearly black, depending on the density of one’s soul. The density of one’s soul decides their potential in cultivation and such things. Soul energy can be used for many things, from fighting to healing. But there’s one rule to it. The darker the soul energy, the more dangerous it can be if used wrongly…”

“I know that much!” Cold Flame’s frown depended. He didn’t need Alexander to explain to him how soul energy worked. “Just tell me what you’ve seen in Michelle’s soul energy!”

For a long while, Alexander remained silent, his eyes staring into the ceiling above him as he remembered what he saw. “It was black! Pure black which looked more like void than soul energy! It was like she had such a dense soul, that her soul energy turned into a pool of void.”

“Void…” When Cold Flame heard that, his eyes narrowed and his brows creased tightly. “That combined with Michelle’s Spirit Soul Blood…”

Alexander nodded. “If her emotions get out of control before she learns to control it, she will get swallowed by the void, by her own soul energy, and disappear. Forever.”

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