CHAPTER 266: 266

After undergoing Alexander’s training for a few days, Michelle successfully created her own skill.

It wasn’t all that complex. She just channeled the shadow essence within her body outside and had the surrounding shadow essence stick to it. Then, she had it strike at the lake’s surface.

The first few times, it just exploded against the water, but after enough training, it dissolved into it, turning it gray.

Shadow essence started pulsing through the water, and with a bit more effort, Michelle was able to make a ball of water leave the lake.

And to get at least some petty revenge, she controlled it to get above Alexander. There, she retracted her control from it.

It turned back into ordinary water and fell on Alexander.

Michelle was hoping it would soak him, but Alexander reacted quickly. He formed a layer of shadow essence around him, and the water just flowed around him, falling to the ground.

Seeing that, Michelle clicked her tongue, not concealing what her intentions were.

Alexander smiled.

"You’ve succeeded." He was quite satisfied with what she did. She was able to control nature’s elements using the shadow essence. Maybe not all, and not as greatly as Spirit Masters of those elements, but it could still be useful.

Michelle sat down on the ground. "So, will you teach me the skills now?"

Alexander stared at her, his eyes narrowing. "Your control is far greater than what I thought it would be," he commented.

Michelle lifted a brow. "What about it?"

Alexander had an idea. "Summon that skill again, but don’t let go of the water!"

Curious about what Alexander was planning, Michelle listened to him.

Alexander kept his gaze on the water ball for a while before a streak of shadow essence left his fingers, heading towards the wall.

Michelle watched it stick to the ball before enlarging and turning it completely black. Then, it dissolved into the ball.

And Michelle lost control of the water ball.

But it didn’t fall down.

"How did you do that?" Michelle was instantly hooked. The water ball was clearly under Alexander’s control. He took the control from her.

Alexander shrugged a bit. "That’s Shadow Overtake. You need to have the Chasm rank to use it."

With that, he returned the water ball above the lake and discarded his control over it. The ball plopped into the rest of the water.

Michelle narrowed her eyes a bit. "And what rank do I have?" she asked.

Alexander stared at her for a while, thinking about how she created her own skill. "None as of now," he finally said after a while.

Michelle raised a brow. "What do you mean?"

"Think about it," Alexander started. "You don’t have enough shadow essence to even be counted as someone of the Junior level. Have you ever heard of a levelless rank? Your rank will only show if you cultivate for a while."

Michelle nodded a bit. It made some sense. Especially since the ranks in Shadow Mastery depended on one’s control over shadow essence.

There is no way to have control over nothing. If her shadow essence was too sparse, her control over it would be overlooked.

"So I have to cultivate now?" Michelle finally asked.

Alexander gave a slight nod. "It will be enough if you break through into the Junior level, but you can continue further if you wish so."

So Michelle went to cultivating. She already knew how to do that, since Alexander had once taught her. But, back then, she was testing Mavreth’s poison which didn’t let her continue.

At the moment, she wasn’t poisoned, so she could cultivate normally.

Alexander stared at Michelle, wondering how long it would take her to reach the Junior level. Cultivation in Shadow Mastery took much shorter than cultivation of other masteries.

While in other masteries, breaking into the Junior rank for the first time could take up a good year for an ordinary person, in Shadow Mastery, even the least talented individual would get there in a month. And the average person would need just half a month.

So silence overtook the area around the lake. Only the sound of wind blowing around could be heard. Not even birds could be heard because they avoided the lake.

Alexander observed the flow of the shadow essence around Michelle, and by the evening of the first day, he could already feel changes in it.

But Michelle didn’t break through.

It was hard for Alexander to tell whether she did it on purpose, but Michelle’s cultivation speed went down a notch when she approached breaking through into the Junior level.

Michelle felt it too, and she did do it on purpose. While she was cultivating, she noticed that when she sucked the shadow essence around her quickly, it created strong friction against her dantian. But when she pulled it in slower, the friction got weaker. And if the friction was weaker, maybe she would have an easier time breaking through.

It was just a theory, but she wanted to test it. So as she approached the breakthrough, she deliberately slowed down.

By the noon of the second day, Alexander stared at Michelle with a frown. She had broken through into the Junior level, but she didn’t seem to notice it the least bit.

But that could only happen if nothing blocked her while she was passing the bottleneck.

"You just broke through," Alexander decided to remind Michelle.

Her eyes snapped open. "Really?" She looked down at her hands.

When she summoned forth some of her shadow essence, she could feel the difference. "You are right..." she mumbled.

"Will you continue cultivating for now?" Alexander asked.

Michelle nodded. She was nearly sure that deliberately slowing down the cultivation had helped her pass the breakthrough point with no difficulties. And she wanted to see how far that technique could take her.

Alexander knew that if Michelle started cultivating again, it would take a long time for her to stop. He doubted he would have enough time to wait for her so he could teach her the skills she wanted.

"How about I teach you the skills now, and you cultivate after that?" he asked lazily.

Michelle gave it a momentary thought before agreeing. "Are you able to make out what rank I have now?" she asked.

Alexander nodded. "At least partly..." He couldn’t be too sure since the Heavenly Law was suppressing everything. "You are definitely of the Eclipse rank, but I wouldn’t be surprised if you had the Chasm rank."

Michelle’s eyes brightened up. It meant she could learn the three skills she wanted. And maybe even the Shadow Overtake.

So Alexander started teaching Michelle. And it was similarly ruthless to the training she had gone through just a few days before.

Alexander had Michelle constantly pump her shadow essence out into the surroundings, mixing it into the shadow essence there. Then, once she was completely drained, he had her let the shadow essence go, to flow around naturally, like it wasn’t hers.

And when it completely melded into the surrounding shadow essence, Michelle pulled the shadow essence back.

It flooded back into her body, accompanied by shadow essence that wasn’t hers.

Michelle took hold of it to make sure it didn’t harm her and pushed it out.

And when it left her body, a flicker of surprise flashed past her eyes.

Usually, shadow essence in the air was invisible to the naked eye, but after pushing it out of her body, Michelle could clearly see it—a small black cloud.

And because some remnants of Michelle’s shadow essence were on it, she had partial control over it.

"You are halfway there already." Alexander was quite satisfied with Michelle’s results. "Now, just repeat the whole process until there are no remnants of your shadow essence on the one you push out. But you still need to retain your control over it."

Michelle nodded and tried again. She was already exhausted, but that didn’t stop her. If she could use the skill while completely spent, she wouldn’t need to worry about failing to use it in a dangerous situation.

Alexander watched Michelle repeat the whole process, each time strengthening her control over the shadow essence she pushed out of her body. But the remnants of her shadow essence remained on it the whole time. She decided to do the training in phases.

First, she would gain control over the foreign shadow essence before retracting her own.

She had the feeling that if she did it the other way around, she would have trouble keeping control over the foreign shadow essence. Because the remnants of her shadow essence were what gave her the partial control over the foreign shadow essence.

Alexander liked the way Michelle was approaching it, so he didn’t say anything. He just let her try.

After about half a day, Michelle had perfect control over the foreign shadow essence. She was able to reshape it into whatever she wanted without much trouble.

But that was far from being able to use the Liquid Shadow. She still had a long way to go.