Chapter 91: 91

With her beasts by her side, Michelle stood in front of the invisible barrier between the Land of Exile and the lower realm, on the Land of Exile’s side. She couldn’t see the barrier, but she could feel the force blocking her from taking another step forward. “Nyx, Cold Flame, how do I get to the other side?” she asked with a slight frown. She knew that since she had already reached the threshold of the Spirit rank, she should be able to walk through the barrier, but it seems she needed to do something special if she wanted to pass. And she didn’t know what that was.

Cold Flame stared at the barrier, and with a simple flap of his wings, he flew to the other side of it. Seeing that, Michelle frowned and tried to push her hand through, but she felt her palm press against a solid wall. Something was keeping her out. “What is the meaning of this?” she asked with narrowed eyes.

“Michelle, you’re being hated!” Snow sneered as she walked through the barrier effortlessly.

Forming an ice spear in her hand, Michelle threw it at Snow, expecting it to be stopped by the barrier, but instead, it flew through, flying straight toward Snow.

Not expecting that, Snow barely dodged the ice spear and turned to look at Michelle, who was equally shocked as she was.

Seeing all that, Nyxaroth arched a brow, a thought appearing in his mind. The more he stared at the ice spear stabbed in the ground behind Snow, who continued provoking Michelle, the more sure he was about his theory.

Just as Michelle was about to throw another ice spear at Snow, Nyxaroth nodded at Mare, and she grabbed Michelle’s wrist, stopping her. At the same time, Cold Flame took on his human form and grabbed Snow’s wrist, forcing her hands behind her.

Michelle didn’t protest, since she understood that Nyxaroth probably thought of something, but Snow wasn’t really compliant. She tried to struggle against Cold Flame, but unfortunately for her, after stepping through the barrier, the power he had inherited after maturing was partly set free, since he was no longer restrained by being in the Land of Exile, so he was much stronger than Snow, even though she was trained by the Archduke so she could rival people from the middle realm.

In the end, the difference between the lower and middle realms was just one rank. People in the lower realm could at most reach the Paragon level of the Divine rank, and in the middle realm, they could reach the Paragon level of the Monarch rank. Also, to go from the lower to the middle realm, one only needed to be a Spirit Saint, so the middle realm was filled with Spirit and Divine rankers, and Monarch rankers were few; most of them only reaching the power of Monarch Warrior, which was just the third of ten levels.

When Snow finally resigned against Cold Flame’s power, Nyxaroth spoke: “Michelle, the barrier’s probably rejecting you because of your Spirit Soul Blood.”

That made Michelle frown in confusion. “Why would that be?” she asked as she melted the ice spear she had formed just a moment ago. “What about my Spirit Soul Blood would the barrier reject?” she added.

“Having Spirit Soul Blood gives you high affinity with monsters and beasts, so the barrier might have mistaken you for one, and since humans possess different power than monsters and beasts when they are allowed to pass through the barrier, the barrier isn’t letting you through as it thinks that you are a monster or a beast which just doesn’t have enough power,” Nyxaroth explained his thoughts.

“Then…” Michelle was still confused. “Why did my ice spear have no trouble passing through the barrier?” she asked, but just as her words fell, she felt like the dumbest person to ever live, as she realized why instantly after she asked. Humans, monsters, and beasts had different cultivation methods, so the way they used their spirit energy was also different, and the barrier could naturally discern to what an attack belonged, and if it was powerful enough, it would let it pass through.

Thinking about that, a thought struck Michelle, making her purple eyes shine a bit. Gathering her spirit energy in her hand, she slowly coated her arm in spirit energy before trying to push her hand through the barrier.

At first, it seemed to have potential, but after her fingers passed through, the rest of her hand got blocked even though she had coated it with a layer of spirit energy as thick as the layer on her fingers. And that made her frown as she pulled her hand back. “Nyx, what is this?” she asked as she turned to look at Nyxaroth. “I thought that if I proved to it that I’m a human with enough power, it would let me pass. Was my guess wrong?”

“Yes and no.” Nyxaroth glanced at Michelle’s hand, coated in spirit energy. “Think about it, Michelle,” he started. “If the barrier lets you through just because you coated yourself in spirit energy, why wouldn’t it let through those coated in the spirit energy of someone strong enough to get through the barrier?” he asked, making Michelle freeze. He was right.

Nyxaroth continued: “But the part of your reasoning that you should prove your identity is spot on. The only mistake you made was using your spirit energy as proof.”

Hearing that, Michelle arched a brow. “Then what should I do, Nyx?” she asked with a frown. She had never really studied spirits, so she didn’t have a clue as to what she could do or how to get to the other side.

“That is actually quite simple,” Nyxaroth said. “Unlike spirit energy, soul energy can’t be enveloped around any living being other than its wielder, so if you coat yourself with your soul energy, and let your spirit energy course through your whole body rapidly, the barrier will recognize that you’re not a monster or a beast, but that you just have a high affinity with them, and thus it will let you pass through,” he spoke.

His explanation was based on a similar theory as Michelle’s guess when she tried to use her spirit energy to prove her identity as a human to the barrier. She based the guess on what she knew: there was some difference between the spirit energy that humans, beasts, and monsters use, as their cultivation methods are different. And Nyxaroth knew there was also a difference between the soul energy of humans, beasts, and monsters, because their souls and potential were different, and the state of one’s soul energy depended on that.

Listening to Nyxaroth’s advice, Michelle shut her eyes and started moving the black void inside her, her soul energy, letting it envelope her. At the same time, she started moving the spirit energy inside her, forcing it to rage around her veins, so she could pass the barrier. With that, she extended her hand, pushing it toward the barrier.

When her hand passed through it effortlessly up to her elbow, she finally stepped forward and walked to the other side. There, she took a deep breath, marveling at how much spirit energy she felt in the surrounding air. Also, she felt a reaction in her dantian, making her guess that she was about to break through to the Spirit rank.

Feeling how much spirit energy was just at the border, she couldn’t imagine how rich it would be when she went deeper into the lower realm.

Seeing that Michelle had succeeded in passing through the barrier, Nyxaroth and Mare followed her, so everyone was finally in the lower realm, though just in the jungle at the border, and they still had a long journey to go to reach some civilization.

“Michelle, what are your plans now?” Mare asked as she glanced into the jungle.

But Michelle just shrugged. “I don’t have any plans. Since that creature in black said it would be waiting for me in the lower realm, we can just wander through this jungle until we find an exit. There, we might meet it…”

Hearing Michelle’s nonchalance about the whole situation, the four beasts were left speechless. Unable to look at his contracted master’s carelessness, Nyxaroth turned into a speck of mist and hid inside Michelle’s body. Cold Flame turned into a small white bird and landed on Michelle’s shoulder. Seeing how Cold Flame and Nyxaroth were acting, Snow and Mare also took on shrunken versions of their beast forms, with Mare coiling like a necklace on Michelle’s neck, resting her head on her collarbone, and Snow jumping onto Michelle’s free shoulder to sleep.

With the four beasts resting, basically asleep, Michelle snickered a bit and walked into the jungle, humming a lazy song as she strolled around.

Since the ground was mostly blocked with fallen trees and big bushes, Michelle used the vines to climb to the top of the trees and then formed ice bridges between them to get around. And soon, she found a small clearing in the big jungle, making her raise an eyebrow. Not getting down to the ground, she observed it until she noticed a hole in the ground, hidden by grass and leaves, probably a den of a monster, or better, a group of monsters.

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