Chapter 71: 71

Very quickly, Michelle and the Archduke received news that the whole Sloan family was captured and imprisoned. The date of their execution was set for the first day of the next month, October, which was in two weeks. By then, fall would be in full swing, with all trees painted red or yellow and the ground covered by a brown carpet of fallen leaves.

Michelle loved just the thought of October, since she would no longer feel hot because of her ice element spirit energy, but most people didn’t quite like it. Though October was colorful and beautiful, the temperature was just so low that one additional layer of clothes wasn’t enough, but two additional layers were too much.

After knowing the date of the Sloan family’s execution, Michelle went to ask the Archduke to teach her how to use or train with soul energy, so she wouldn’t overuse it and sleep for a month like the last time she used it.

The Archduke was happy to help her, and after she changed her clothes into something she could train in, he took her to the training grounds, but not those used by the knights but separate ones to which only the members of the Grace family had access. Standing in the middle of the training grounds, Michelle watched the Archduke as he formed a sword with a soft glimmer around it in his hand.

“Father, did you create that using your soul energy?” Michelle’s eyes widened in shock when the realization dawned on her.

“Yes and no!” the Archduke let go of the sword, and it fell to the ground, losing the glimmer. “Pick it up!” he said as he stepped back, giving Michelle space to try.

She walked over to the sword, not thinking much of it, and bent down to hold it. She tried to pull it up, but her eyes widened in shock. “Eh-?” Though she only used a part of her strength, the sword didn’t move an inch. She used more strength but nothing happened. Finally, she used her full strength, but the sword slipped out of her hand and she disgracefully fell backwards, landing on her butt with a grunt.

She stood up with a frown, patting the dust of her butt as she squatted down next to the sword and poked on it from the side. As she had expected, nothing happened. “Father, are you making fun of me?” she glanced at the Archduke. “I can’t pick that up.”

The Archduke moved his fingers a bit and the glimmer returned to the sword. “Try again now!”

Michelle sighed and took a hold of the handle. And to her surprise, she was able to lift the sword up with no problem. It was very light. She could barely feel its weight. “How come?” she was shocked. “Father, what did you do? Is that the effect of your soul energy?”

The Archduke shook his head: “The whole sword is made out of soul energy. Only the glimmer was something else. Soul energy by itself is untamable, as it basically has a mind of its own, but the light you saw was something that can tame it.” He waved his hand and the glimmer on the sword disappeared. The sword instantly turned heavy and fell out of Michele’s hand, stabbing itself into the ground.

The Archduke continued: “But every person has the light formed differently, and it’s not even light usually. Everyone has it in different shapes. You can control any freed soul energy, in other words soul energy no longer controlled by its creator or someone more powerful than you, as long as you can cover it with your ’light’, which people actually call a soul leash. I’ll leave the sword here with you, and you try to figure out how to form your own soul leash.”

“Father, how can I know what my soul leash will look like?” Michelle asked as she sat down on the ground.

“That can be simple but also impossible, sometimes,” the Archduke smiled a bit when he saw how eager she was to master her soul leash. “Try to think of something that can define you, like your trademark. Use both your last life and current life’s memories to think about it. ”

“Thank you, father!” Michelle smiled and focused her gaze on the sword stuck in the ground, her purple eyes narrowing. She quickly tied her silver hair into a ponytail as she fought about a trademark of hers. The only thing that came to her mind was her nickname as an assassin from her past life, Mute Bloody Queen, but that had nothing to do with her new life. And she had no clue how that could be turned into a soul leash.

So she continued thinking, but for a long time, nothing came to mind. Slowly, her mind started wandering until she ended up thinking about the mark which appeared whenever she formed a contract with a beast. Why was it the shape of a snake coiled around a rose with the rose’s thorns piercing into its flesh? Why not something else?

As she kept thinking about it, she didn’t even notice that a tattoo-like golden mark in the shape of a chain appeared around her neck. She only noticed it when she felt something hot on her neck. She touched her neck, and felt the mark solidifying into a full chain.

Michelle frowned and pulled on it a bit, but it didn’t move an inch. “What the-!” her purple eyes narrowed as she stood up from the ground. She condensed a speck of spirit energy on her palm and pressed it to the chain.

When the spirit energy blew up, she got sent flying from the force of it, but the chain wasn’t the least bit damaged. She grunted in annoyance and got back on her feet, her purple eyes showing a speck of red from her anger. She didn’t like the chain the least bit. It was hot and weighing on her neck, making her uncomfortable. She wanted to do something to get rid of it, but the chains started spreading all over her body, starting from her arms and chest, until they reached her legs.

She tried to struggle against it, but to her surprise, the chains didn’t restrain her movements. “What a strange thing…” she muttered as she stared at her chained body.

Not knowing what the chains were, she decided to go look for the Archduke. “Father?” she knocked on the door of his office but no one responded. So she went down to the dining room, but saw no one except the servants. The drawing room was empty too. Finally, she went to his bedroom and knocked. “Father? Do you have a moment?”

“What’s wrong?” the Archduke opened the door, and his eyes widened when he saw the chains on Michelle’s body. “Come in…” he stepped out of her way.

Michelle entered and sat on a couch in the room, looking at the Archduke. “Father, these chains suddenly appeared on my neck before spreading all over my body, do you know what they are?” she asked.

The Archduke nodded as he sat opposite her. “I know…” he seemed troubled when he saw the chains. “They are binding chains…” he sighed.

“Binding chains?” Michelle lifted a brow. “What’s that?” she asked. From the Archduke’s expression, it didn’t look like a good thing.

The Archduke sighed. “It’s a type of soul leash… You probably have it because your past and present lives both somehow resonated with it. You know, there are many types of soul leashes, and each person has a type that reacts and resonates with their life the most. Since yours is a chain, your lives must have been full of controlling and restraint. The chains by itself wouldn’t be a problem, but binding chains are a bit different. They can be troublesome to their users. But also very beneficial if used well.”

Michelle listened closely with a raised brow. “What kind of troubles and benefits can the binding chains give me, father?” she asked curiously.

“Basically…” the Archduke started explaining. “You will be able to seal things and things like that with your soul energy if you combine it with your soul leash, but at the same time, the more you use it, the more uncontrollable your soul energy will get, and once, it will break free. It could try to kill you, or just leave, but if it leaves, you will be seriously weakened and will probably never be able to cultivate again.”

Hearing that, Michelle’s eyes widened. “After how many uses will it break free?” she asked.

The Archduke thought about it for a while before answering: “If you use the power of soul energy equivalent to the power of a Paragon leveled Emperor ranker about a hundred times, your soul energy will reach the verge of breaking free.”

When his words fell, Michelle didn’t really know what to think. She knew that a Paragon leveled Emperor ranker was the Archduke when he wasn’t affected by the realm restrictions, since that was the highest rank achievable in the upper realm. She was still far off that level, but she was determined to reach it and maybe even cross it by going into the heavenly realm and cultivating there.

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