CHAPTER 281: 281

Kieran described the creature he could sense with his clumsy Sensing Net.

A big scorpion exuding an enormous amount of spirit energy.

So the scorpion wouldn’t notice him, Kieran retracted his Sensing Net. There were many cases of deaf creatures having much stronger other senses, and Kieran didn’t want to be discovered yet. From the power slipping off the scorpion when it was calm and resting, he could tell it was more powerful than what the group could stand up against.

Of course, only considering that Michelle would fight the same way she did up until then. If she fully put herself to it, the story would be different.

Michelle stared at the boulder blocking the scorpion from sight. Her guess had been confirmed.

"That’s a Giant Scorpion," she said lazily. "Normally, they carry poison element and are deadly, but if they stay in an environment dominated by one element for too long, they take on that element. After the change, they are called Elemental Giant Scorpions. Those ones are no longer as deadly, but they are still dangerous."

Kieran stared at Michelle. He didn’t have that much understanding about poison element, but he understood that it wasn’t a normal element. So he accepted that normal elements could overwrite it. Still, he was curious about how it was possible.

Whether Michelle could or couldn’t understand his thoughts, she didn’t explain more about the scorpion. Instead, she went on to explain something else.

"Kieran, are you thinking it’s not possible for us to defeat it with how we were fighting until now?" she asked.

And Kieran nodded a bit. He had thought of a few ways to attack, but not a single one led to the death of the scorpion.

Michelle smiled a bit and shook her head. "It’s possible!"

"How?" Kieran raised a brow.

Michelle lifted her hand, and thin black strings started gathering around her fingers. "Give me your hand!"

When Kieran extended his hand, Michelle had the strings wrap around it.

At first, the strings seemed harmless. Kieran couldn’t even feel them on his skin.

But then, with a single thought from Michelle, the strings started tightening around his arm, biting into his skin.

Kieran let out a hiss.

Michelle let the strings loose and pulled them back. "If I wanted to, your hand would have been severed."

In awe, Kieran stared at the red marks on his skin. It made sense that the Sensing Net could be used for more than just sensing around. He had just been too narrow-minded to realize.

"Can I do that too?" he finally asked.

"Naturally!" Michelle nodded. She wouldn’t have taught him the skill if he wasn’t able to bring out its full potential. Well, since Kieran’s control wasn’t all that powerful, he could have some problems with it, to reach perfection, but he would succeed.

So Michelle started explaining how to do it. There were two ways.

The first one was to make the threads so thin, while keeping them invisible, that the victim wouldn’t notice as the net would spread over their body. And once the net was closed around them, it could be solidified. And the invisibility would also be no longer needed.

The second one was a bit easier on the control. The wielder of the net had to make it spread so fast that even if the victim noticed it, it would be too late, because the net would already be closed and solidified on them.

Then, whichever method the wielder used, there were two more things the wielder could do if they weren’t planning just to trap their prey. If they wanted to harm or kill the prey, they could either tighten the net around the creature until it got cut apart, or they, if using spirit energy, could condense it so the net would explode all around the prey. Then the power difference between the wielder and the prey would decide what would happen.

If the wielder was stronger, the prey would easily get cut apart or exploded. If their power was around the same, the result wouldn’t change much.

But if the prey was stronger, the net could break over it after cutting into it for a bit, or the explosion wouldn’t kill it, only harm it. And the stronger the prey, the lesser the damage.

Still, no matter how strong the prey, the net would immobilize it for at least a moment.

And even a split second of weakness could be fatal.

Kieran understood that for him, who didn’t excel in control, taking the speed route would be better. But he didn’t know how short the reaction time of the scorpion was.

So he decided to train for a bit. The scorpion had yet to notice them, giving him some free time.

Michelle thought that was reasonable, so she gave Kieran some space. He had to figure the rest out on his own.

Retreating to Ivona and Anastasia, she saw a strange gleam in their eyes.

"Is it possible with light element?" Ivona was the first one to speak.

"And what about soul energy?" Anastasia joined in.

Michelle nodded. "But this isn’t an ideal place to learn. You would burn your hands."

"Not entirely!" Anastasia shook her head.

Michelle raised a brow. "What did you come up with?"

Anastasia smiled. "We could try it on you. You’ve already mastered the skill, so if it takes a dangerous turn, you will sense it beforehand and stop us."

Michelle’s eyes narrowed. Her glass left eye remained the same, but the pupil in her right eye shrunk in thought.

"It could work..." she finally said after a while. But she knew that she didn’t like the idea.

To practice making the Sensing Net, one had to insert it into something, ideally the ground. And if Anastasia or Ivona inserted their soul or spirit energy under her skin, it would be painful. With a careless move, they could sever a tendon or even skin her alive.

Michelle wasn’t afraid of pain, but she still didn’t like it.

Deep in thought, Michelle’s eyes wandered to Anastasia. When she thought of the idea, did she consider the pain it would cause?

Definitely!

A fleeting smile appeared on Michelle’s lips. That was Anastasia’s revenge and warning.

The revenge was for wiping her memories. She forgave but still didn’t forget to give Michelle the repayment.

The warning was for Michelle to not experiment with the Life Stones. It wasn’t hard to guess the start would feel as if spirit energy was being inserted into the body. So she was going to show Michelle how that would feel.

"Very well..." From the start, Michelle wasn’t planning to reject the idea. Even if she knew Anastasia’s intentions. They weren’t exactly pure, but neither were they evil.

Michelle didn’t need to explain anything to Ivona and Anastasia. They had listened while she explained things to Kieran, so they knew the basics. And everything else could be figured out from that.

So, a while later, Michelle had a sour expression. On one side, Ivona was sending spirit energy into her left arm, and even though the light element carried healing properties, it hurt like her flesh was being torn apart.

On the other side, Anastasia was doing the same with soul energy. And as soul energy didn’t have healing properties, it hurt even more.

But Michelle kept her mouth shut, not making a single sound. She just waited for it to pass quickly.

In the meantime, in his space in the heavenly realm, Alexander was sitting on a chair, staring into the emptiness above him. His space didn’t have the sky. Just endless darkness up above.

Of course, that made the space dark too, but as a Shadow Master, Alexander wasn’t affected by it.

At the moment, even though he was staring at the emptiness, his attention wasn’t on it. He was thinking about the dream he just had.

The last time he was with Michelle, she was clearly planning to defy the Heavenly Law. Did that decision of hers let Lavreth foresee a future where she would become a monster?

With the kind of person Michelle was, it wasn’t impossible. Quite the opposite. The probability was quite high.

Alexander had the urge to go back to the middle realm to check what state Michelle was in. Was she just thinking about monstrosities, or had she already become one?

But he couldn’t. Since he woke up, he could barely use his shadow essence. He couldn’t even gather enough of it to cut open a rift and leave the space. So he had to wait until he recovered.

That made him angry.

Did Lavreth do it on purpose? So he couldn’t go into the middle realm?

One thing Alexander hated was the feeling of being stuck. And what he hated even more was when it was because of someone’s scheme.

So he started pushing his shadow essence to its limits. He didn’t care what it would do to him or how weak he would get. He would cut open a rift and go straight to the middle realm.