Chapter 65: 65

Leaving the Imperial Palace, old man Sloan was excited to start the formation. He returned with his group to Garric’s mansion and there, he used a communication spirit stone to contact one of the twelve groups with the Soul Seeking Pendants. “Yes, Milord?” someone asked from the stone. “Should we start?”

Old man Sloan was just about to answer when cries suddenly came from the stone. “Hey-! What’s going on there?!” he asked hurriedly, but no answer came for a long time, only the cries of his subordinates coming from the stone. After a long while, the cries died down and someone picked up the communication stone. “Hey! Who are you?!” old man Sloan asked when he heard that the stone was picked up, but no response came.

Then, the connection was cut off. The communication stone was stored in a spatial ring or bracelet which blocked communication.

With the connection gone, old man Sloan tried to contact the other groups, but the result was the same. Just as he was about to speak, cries in anguish sounded before the connection got cut off. It was like there was someone hiding in the shadows by each group, and once he contacted them, with him hearing it, they annihilated the group. And the silence of the enemy was what made him dreadful.

He slumped back in his chair and stared at the twelve silent communication stones spread out on the table in front of him. Who was targeting him? The little Emperor and the Prince Regent were just non-cultivating trashes. And Michael Grayson seemed to have no plans to stop him at the moment, so who was powerful enough and with a reason to stop his plans? Who was hindering his ways?

For some reason, the smiling face of Michael Grayson kept popping up in his mind. His instincts were warning him to evade the young guy. The guy seemed like he carried no real presence and that he was harmless, but his words were spot on, though those who didn’t understand the topic wouldn’t understand anything from his words. And from the cries from the communication stones, it was clear that Michael Grayson had the authority to command a force which could annihilate his subordinates in seconds.

But Michael Grayson had no presence, so why would such individuals listen to him? Or was he just hiding his presence? But to completely conceal one’s presence like that was completely impossible. Was Michael Grayson really the one who was standing in his way? What if Michael Grayson was just a pawn of the person blocking his way to succeeding. If that was the case, old man Sloan was in trouble as he had no clue who could be standing behind Michael Grayson.

After her darling contracted beasts and Spirit Clones killed the delegation groups and put away the communication stones, they went over to the Imperial Palace and gave the stones to Michelle. They also gave her the twelve Soul Seeking Pendants. Each group had one.

Michelle stored it all away and contacted Nyxaroth: “Nyx, we got the Soul Seeking Pendants. They were planning to use it for a sacrificial array to gain power. The array would have not only involved the twelve thousand souls, but the whole Imperial Pallace and the streets surrounding it. That would have been a few thousand lives more.”

Hearing that, Nyxaroth hid in the labyrinth of Malrik’s mansion so he could speak: “If you took the Soul Seeking Pendants from them, they will try to get them back, and if they fail, they will try to gather the souls again. But that will take a few years.”

“So we have to find out the reason they were doing it before getting rid of them! And when we go to the lower realm, we have to destroy all involved parties!” Michelle said seriously, her voice cold and determined. “Also…” she beckoned at Cold Flame by her side so he would listen too. “Is there a way to put the souls from the Soul Seeking Pendants back into the bodies of the cultivators?” she asked with a frown.

Hearing that, Cold Flame raised a brow while Nyxaroth let out a low whistle in thought. “As far as I know, no one has ever tried it…” Nyxaroth finally spoke up.

That deepened Michelle’s frown, but Cold Flame’s words were different from Nyxaroth’s: “There was a case like that in one of my ancestors’ memories. He found a few Soul Seeking Pendants and by breaking them, he set the souls free, but only about half of them returned to their bodies, while the other half either turned into vengeful ghosts or scattered in the air, turning into dark spirit energy. The bodies both of the vengeful ghosts and the scattered souls died soon after.”

Hearing that, Michelle raised a brow. “So… I can save around six thousand people, and it could even be less since your ancestor lived in ancient times and things have changed since then?”

“Yes…” Cold Flame nodded.

“I see…” Michelle mumbled before going silent for a long while. When she finally spoke up, it wasn’t about the souls. “Nyx,” she spoke through the contract. “Stay monitoring Malrik and his mansion! Maybe the delegation will come see him…” her voice left no room for argument. “Cold Flame, take Snow and Mare with you and go monitor Garric and the old man! I’ll try looking at the Soul Seeking Pendants….”

After she finished speaking, Nyxaroth cut off the connection and went back to spying on Malrik. Snow, Mare and Cold Flame swiftly left the Imperial Palace and went to spy on Garric and the old man with his group. Meanwhile, Michelle glanced at the Spirit Clones in the throne room. The little Emperor also looked at them curiously. He couldn’t understand why he could suddenly see seven other Michelles in the room, but he knew that it was under Michelle’s control, so he wasn’t scared.

David Elether had already once seen the Spirit Clones, but back then, Michelle could only summon one and keep it around for barely a minute, but at the moment, she could summon up to ten and keep them around for over two days. It was a huge improvement which showed how her cultivation had leapt in the few months.

Michelle stayed in the Imperial Palace for a while longer, teaching the little Emperor some things and talking with David. He told her about the identity of the people from the lower realm.

Then, Michelle left and went to the Archduchy. She told the Archduke all that happened before going to the dark annex to study the Soul Seeking Pendants. Being already at the threshold of breaking into the Spirit rank, she didn’t need to eat, sleep or drink for a few days without feeling tired or hungry, so she could study relentlessly until Cold Flame or Nyxaroth contacted her.

Very quickly, she noticed two kinds of patterns on the Soul Seeking Pendants. One type was more gentle, like small waves or tildes (“~~~”) all around the pendant, and the other type was aggressive, with sharp edges and more distinct, mostly looking like triangles without one side (“///”), pressed to each other by the corners.

(Author here: I know that was a terrible description, but do forgive me. I couldn’t think of anything else. I didn’t want to write “sharp waves and blunt waves” or something like that. π_π)

After noticing the marks, Michelle lifted a brow and divided the pendants by the marks. Tildes to one side and triangular marks to the other.

And to her surprise, it was divided exactly in half, six and six. That made her think about Cold Flame’s words. Were the marks the reason why half of the souls returned to their bodies while the other half turned into vengeful ghosts or scattered? But if so, from the second group, why didn’t all turn into vengeful ghosts? Or why didn’t all scatter? Why did some scatter and some survive without their bodies? Did that depend on the souls? Or was that affected by the pendants too?

Michelle couldn’t think of an explanation so she continued turning the pendants over and observing them. When she couldn’t find anything special, she tried inserting her spirit energy into them, but it just got repealed.

So she tried the same with her soul energy, but that made her frown. The moment her soul energy touched the pendants, she heard wails and her soul throbbed. She quickly retracted her soul energy and let go of the pendant she was holding at the moment.

To her surprise, her hands and legs were shaking in instinctive fear which she couldn’t control. Usually, she could suppress and control any kind of fear, but the instinctive fear that rose within her when her soul energy touched the pendant was from deep within her soul, warning her not to touch the pendant again.

But it would spear her name as a former assassin if mere instinctual fear could stop her search. Slowly, she put her hand on the pendant again and forcefully inserted her soul energy into it.

Instantly, she felt sharp pain all over her body, but she didn’t stop. After a while, she realized that her body wasn’t the one aching. It was her soul churning around her body. It was like boiling water in a closed pot, bubbling and making ruckus. And to her surprise, the moment she realized that, the instinctual fear within her disappeared and got replaced by dangerous peace of a predator. She was once again in full control of her emotions.

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