CHAPTER 283: 283

Michelle stared at Alexander’s weakened form, her eyes dancing with delight. If he hadn’t made the Shadow Pact with her, she wouldn’t have been able to take him down.

But she still found it was too easy.

Checking on him for a moment, she raised a brow. "What were you doing to end up like this?" She was fairly surprised by what she found.

Alexander’s shadow dantian was completely drained, but that could be explained by saying that he had sent all his shadow essence into Michelle’s body. But it couldn’t explain why the dantian was shivering and spasming. In such a state, it would be impossible to take hold of the shadow essence inside even if it was filled to the brim.

But it was clear that Alexander had done it anyway. The area around his dantian was slashed by shadow essence.

When he had taken hold of his own shadow essence, because of the state of the dantian, it recoiled against him and struck his insides, turning him extremely weak. But his resistance remained the same, so it wouldn’t be that easy if someone tried to harm him in that state.

The one who got him like that didn’t want to harm him. They just wanted to make him unable to do something. As for what that was, Michelle could only guess.

Alexander’s black eyes were locked on Michelle. "What did you do to me?" He was curious. Until she pushed her shadow essence into his neck, he had been in a manageable state. But after her interference, he collapsed.

"And what do I get if I tell you?" There was no way Michelle would tell him for free.

Alexander wasn’t all that surprised by the question. "When you come to the heavenly realm, I’ll make you one of the executives of the Dark Palace..."

Michelle’s eyes narrowed. Then, without her expression changing even a bit, her hand, which had been resting by her side, flew out and landed a slap on the side of Alexander’s face. She didn’t go for his cheek. The slap landed over the side of his eye.

"Whoops!" she smiled. "My hand slipped!"

Michelle didn’t conceal her intentions. It wasn’t that she didn’t like the position of Dark Palace executive. She didn’t like the responsibility that came with it. Another thing she didn’t like was taking care of Alexander’s work. She wouldn’t become his subordinate.

Alexander knew Michelle well enough to understand her intentions. "Then what do you want?"

Michelle shrugged. "You come up with that. How much is the information worth to you?"

Alexander frowned. Michelle didn’t state it directly, but he understood what she was saying between the lines. In the repayment, he could just as well consider the price for Michelle to keep her mouth shut. Because if she told one of Alexander’s enemies, he would be in trouble.

Finally, Alexander came up with something. And he quite liked the idea. "What if I make you my equal in the Dark Palace?"

Michelle frowned. There was definitely a twist to it. "And how exactly would you do it?"

In response to that, Alexander summoned a black pendant from his space. "Drop your blood on it and it will recognize you as its master."

Michelle grasped the pendant and turned it over. The material was cold. So cold that even Michelle felt the chill. A word was engraved into the jade.

"Dark"

"You have another one just like this?" Michelle lifted a brow.

Alexander summoned another black pendant.

Looking at it, Michelle frowned. "Mine’s different. Why?"

Alexander didn’t want to tell the truth. So he lied: "Every pendant is a bit different. So the subordinates can see whether it’s the Dark Lord they work under, or the other one."

Michelle wasn’t convinced. "Does that mean shadow guards under David Elether don’t need to listen to you?"

Alexander shook his head. "That would be a death sentence for them."

"Then what’s the point of them being able to recognize you?" The suspicion in Michelle only kept growing.

Alexander had already thought of an excuse for that. "So they know who to seek orders from. Otherwise, things would get chaotic."

Staring at the pendant in her hand, Michelle’s frown just deepened. Finally she decided and stored it into her space. "I’m going to the Land of Exile!"

Her intentions were clear. She would seek out the other Dark Lord, David, and ask him about the pendant. If his words were the same as Alexander’s, she would believe him and keep the pendant.

"Very well!" Alexander expected something like that, a smile spreading over his lips. But he highly doubted David would tell Michelle the truth. "Now, tell me how you did this to me?"

Michelle glared at Alexander. "You didn’t figure it out yet?" She rolled her eyes at him. The method was so simple, she thought Alexander would have already figured it out.

Alexander just blinked innocently. But that only made Michelle more suspicious.

If he was really all that curious about the method, he would have thought about it first, before making a deal with her. The fact that he didn’t just meant that he wanted to make her accept the pendant.

Why was that?

"I had my shadow essence follow the Shadow Pact to your soul. A soft hit on one’s soul echoes into their consciousness and strength." She finally explained with a frown.

"Why did you follow it through my neck?" Alexander’s curiosity wasn’t satiated yet.

Michelle felt like Alexander had turned stupid. "That’s the easiest way to send it into your body. Your absorption and sensing points are there."

Alexander nodded a bit. It made sense.

Michelle wanted to quickly set off to the Land of Exile so she could be back as soon as possible, but first she needed to tell her friends where she was going.

Ivona and Anastasia were sleeping, but Kieran was still training nearby.

Leaving Alexander at the side of the bed, Michelle stood up and went over to Kieran.

When he saw her approaching, he retracted the Sensing Net he had just created.

Seeing the speed at which he did it, Michelle was pleasantly surprised. Even she couldn’t create and retract a Sensing Net so quickly, and she was the one who invented it.

For a while, Michelle talked with Kieran. She told him about her intentions, and asked if he wanted her around when he fought the Elemental Giant Scorpion. The answer was no, so Michelle could set off right away. Kieran would inform Ivona and Anastasia of her departure.

Walking back to Alexander, Michelle tilted her head a bit. "I’m going alone!" She had two reasons for that.

The first one was that Alexander was clearly weakened. She didn’t want someone like that on her neck when she wanted to be quick.

Second; if Alexander came with her, he would definitely somehow communicate with David and tell him what was going on. By leaving him weakened in the middle realm, the chances of them communicating were much lower.

Alexander didn’t like that. "With me, you can travel faster. I can open a space rift for you."

Michelle shook her head. "You can barely keep yourself awake!" Her voice was cold. At the same time, a streak of shadow essence left her hand and went straight for Alexander’s neck.

"Now... that was nasty..." Alexander felt his lids grow heavier. He was weakened once again, just when he was getting his strength back.

Michelle smirked and summoned Tenether in the shape of a falcon. "I can’t be as fast as through a rift, but still fast enough to get back within a few days."

Tenether grabbed Michelle by her shoulders and flew up high with her. There, he let go of her and she started falling.

But Tenether flew down faster. Just a few meters lower, Tenether got under Michelle and she landed on his back.

Tenether stopped in place, and Michelle looked down toward Alexander. "See you!"

With that, she summoned her soul energy and wrapped it around both her and Tenether. It was so similar to void that the air around it bent, letting Tenether fly twice as fast as normal with half the effort.

Michelle came up with that just a while ago. When Alexander used rifts through space around her, she always carefully watched them, thinking of a way to replicate them without that immense power he had.

After some observation, she noticed that the rifts were always strangely bent. They weren’t straight lines connecting the two places with the shortest path.

Michelle could guess why that was the case. Different places had different density of spirit energy. To create a spatial rift, one needed to separate that spirit energy to open a path between it. That would in turn create a void pathway.

Alexander couldn’t step into something like that. That was why he needed so much shadow essence for it. He would push it in there to fill the void.

And the best way to move through it was by coating himself in the shadow essence and having it pull him through the rift. That would make it so when he took just a step through the rift, in the real world, he would have walked kilometers.

Michelle’s replica used the advantage of the fact that both she and Tenether could use black soul energy. In other words, void. Getting into void wouldn’t infect them with Void Plague. So Michelle just wrapped Tenether in void and had him fly. The new speed would let him cut through space.