CHAPTER 279: 279

"So, what are you planning now?" Anastasia asked when everyone sat down.

They didn’t even care there was the Syrithis Lion’s corpse next to them. It wasn’t bleeding, so its smell wouldn’t attract scavengers at the moment. Of course, the situation would be different once the corpse started rotting, but by then, they would most probably have already gone.

Michelle tilted her head. She didn’t have significant plans for the future. Anastasia could most probably guess that, so why was she asking?

There was only one reason Michelle could think of. When she landed on the ground, she got absent-minded while staring at the lion corpse.

Her eyes narrowed a bit. If she wanted to explain that, she would need to explain how the Heavenly Law was restricting her. That sounded quite bothersome.

But still, she opened her mouth and started speaking. She said everything that Alexander had told her. She finished it off by saying that at some point, she would make the Heavenly Law no longer understand what she was. She would defy it, maybe even break free from it, if it meant she could confuse it.

In the group, Ivona thought the most similarly to Michelle, so she was the first one to understand why she was so deep in thought when she looked at the corpse of the Syrithis Lion. "So, you want to become exactly what the Heavenly Law thinks you are?" she lifted a brow.

Michelle smiled. "Don’t you think it could be interesting? If I change and become a monster, there’s no way it wouldn’t detect it. But it already has me classified as a monster, so how would it react to the change?" Michelle’s eyes gleamed with something dark.

It wasn’t all that surprising to the group. They had already seen her like that. But it made them remember just how mad of a person Michelle could become once she was interested in something.

"How would you do it?" Anastasia had seen the most of Michelle’s madness, so she was the least affected by it. But Kieran and Ivona weren’t all that affected either. They were just stunned for a moment longer than Anastasia.

Michelle shrugged. "Maybe I could try something with a monster’s Life Stone. Who knows how my body would react to it."

Anastasia was speechless. Michelle basically said she wanted to conduct experiments on her own body.

Kieran was equally stunned. He knew what power Life Stones contained. It was quite hard to believe that Michelle would dare mess with it.

Ivona, on the other hand, had a flicker of excitement pass through her eyes. She really was the most similar to Michelle. "You could try eating one," she suddenly suggested.

The next moment, a pouch appeared in her hand. The three had hunted quite a few monsters, and Ivona stored away the Life Stones in a pouch in her spatial ring.

Michelle wanted to reach out to take the pouch, but before she could even move, Anastasia’s hand flew out and snatched the pouch away. "Don’t even think about it!"

Both Ivona and Michelle frowned. "Why?!" they were in perfect sync. "Give it back..." even their exaggerated whines blended together into one.

Anastasia frowned in disgust and put the pouch into her spatial ring.

Kieran, who was sitting right behind her, sighed. "Michelle, don’t forget that while you were holed up in the sect, we were out here, cultivating and fighting monsters."

Michelle lifted a brow. "What about it?"

"If you tried to fight monsters here, you would realize just how many people come to train here. From all the adventurers, you will learn new things." Kieran swept his gaze over Ivona. She had around the same knowledge as himself and Anastasia, but she was still encouraging Michelle to mess with the Life Stones.

"And what did you learn?" Michelle didn’t like when things were kept from her.

Kieran finally explained. "Tampering with Life Stones can be extremely dangerous. They contain immense power, and humans can’t control it. Those who have tried all ended up seriously injured or even crippled."

Michelle frowned a bit. "But I’m not planning to tamper with the Life Stones," she finally said. "I just want to put one into my body."

Hearing that, Kieran nearly exploded in anger. "That’s even more dangerous! No one has ever tried that! And with the explosiveness and viciousness of the power within Life Stones, you will most likely get torn apart!"

Michelle sighed. She knew there was no way she would get her hands on a Life Stone as long as her friends were around.

But it wasn’t all that much of a disappointment. In the first place, she wasn’t planning to do the experiment in front of them.

It wasn’t that she didn’t believe them. Her trust in them was stronger than in anyone else. She just had already considered what would happen if she failed.

Michelle wasn’t unaware of the power within Life Stones. If she ate one, or put it in her blood like she was planning, and it spiraled out of control, she could as well just die. If it was that serious, there would be no saving her.

And truthfully, she didn’t want her friends to see that.

Michelle wasn’t scared of death. Since the moment she completed her assassination training in her past life, the fear of death didn’t exist in her. Even in her new life. But that didn’t mean she would just give up her life. She was just willing to do more risky things.

With the pouch of Life Stones confiscated, Michelle and Ivona couldn’t proceed with the experiment. So they turned to Kieran and Anastasia. "What will we do now?"

Finally, they decided to continue fighting monsters. But Ivona and Michelle weren’t allowed to take out the monsters’ Life Stones.

Everyone knew that they wouldn’t try to experiment so suddenly, but leaving a small precaution seemed reasonable.

Michelle didn’t complain. It meant less work for her. Ivona thought similarly.

While fighting the monsters, Michelle mostly stayed in the back. With the power of her shadow essence, if she got involved too much, the rest wouldn’t be able to train.

And that made her realize something. It was quite obvious, but she had never really thought about it.

With the power she had from Shadow Mastery, she could cross the barrier of the Heavenly Law between the middle and upper realm.

That meant she didn’t have to bother cultivating her spirit energy, which she couldn’t even use because of her Spirit Soul Blood. In other words, she could perfectly pretend to be a cultivation trash unless she met another Shadow Master. Because non-Shadow Masters wouldn’t be able to sense the shadow essence within her.

To the eyes of Spirit Masters, she would at most look like someone who had so little talent she couldn’t get past Divine Junior level. That was considered low even in the middle realm.

And if she concealed her spirit energy, they would take her for a complete cripple.

After fighting monsters for a few days, the group found themselves standing beneath a mountain. Michelle had a frown on her face. Even with her Everfrost Mantle on, she could feel heat coming from the mountain. It was either a volcano, or a powerful fire-element monster was living up there.

She didn’t feel like going.

But she agreed to go. It would be beneficial for them.

If it was a volcano, it would be the perfect spot for Kieran to cultivate. If it was a fire-element monster, the fight would let them train further.

Michelle didn’t want to climb the mountain, so she summoned Tenether. The group agreed to fly up, so they all got on his back.

A while later, Tenether was flapping his wings above the mountain.

Michelle stared down at the mountain, her expression cold. She didn’t want to get down there.

But she still patted Tenether on the side of his neck.

The black bird started descending.

When Tenether landed, he let out an uncomfortable screech. The ground was way too hot for him to walk on.

Quickly, he flapped his wings to fly a few centimeters above the ground.

Michelle and the rest quickly jumped off his back, and Michelle let him into the space in her spatial bracelet. Since the spaces of her spatial ring and bracelet merged, she had been keeping her contracted beasts all there so they wouldn’t have to be bored and alone in their contracted space.

When Tenether disappeared, the group looked around. They were atop a volcanic mountain, the heat making their skin flush red. The only one feeling comfortable was Kieran. He was in the perfect environment. For him, it was like a dream come true.

Michelle squatted down. She doubted it was just a volcano. She wanted to check whether there were any creatures nearby.

But when she placed her palm on the ground, intending to create a net of her soul energy to sense around, she had to quickly retract it. Her palm turned bright red from how hot the ground was.