CHAPTER 208: 208

Swinging on a chair in the tavern, Michelle was already prepared to depart, and she was just waiting for Kieran, Anastasia, and Ivona to come down. The scarred man was beside her, drinking ale. "What are you planning to do?" he asked, his gaze moving to Michelle.

"I don’t know yet," Michelle shrugged, stopping her swinging just before the chair beneath her lost its balance. "For now, I’m just curious."

The scarred man felt his eyebrow twitch. He had a hard time understanding how someone could have no plan or goal when about to go to a place ruled by the strongest creature in the world.

A while later, Ivona, Anastasia, and Kieran came down one by one, so the group could set off towards the barrier of the Heavenly Law.

Michelle summoned Tenether, and he flew them over. During the flight, the scarred man explained to the group what he knew about the black god.

As the group already knew, all the hideouts of the black god’s sect were on the borderline between the lower and middle realms.

Apparently, whenever the black god came down and didn’t need to go deep into the lower realm, he stayed within the sect, residing within the part of the hideout in the middle realm.

The second interesting thing from the scarred man was that people were freely able to enter the sect, but no one has ever come back out. At least from the lower realm’s side. So they either died, stayed in the sect, or progressed to the middle realm.

Hearing all that, Michelle raised an eyebrow. That was probably why she didn’t see any guards when she first came to find the sect—because there was no need for them.

After listening to the scarred man, the group talked about what to do.

Since the entrance of the sect wasn’t blocked, they didn’t worry about getting in, but they also decided not to go in rashly, as they didn’t know what awaited them inside.

First, they would stay just outside the sect for a few days and see whether someone would try to chase them away if they stayed too long.

After getting a better understanding of the situation, if possible, they would go in.

They also decided to set a max time they would spend outside the sect, so they wouldn’t lose too much time. It would be five days.

But if something happened, they could go in or leave earlier.

When Tenether landed in the desert between the mountains, the heat of the scorching sun hit everyone.

Out of the five people present, two were extremely uncomfortable, two were about fine, and one was comfortable.

The comfortable one was Kieran. He cultivated fire element, and the desert was rich with it, making his body naturally relax in comfort.

The two people about fine were Michelle and the scarred man. Michelle had her Everfrost Mantle to keep her cool, and the scarred man was powerful enough not to be affected by heat of such a degree.

And lastly, the uncomfortable two were Anastasia and Ivona. They had never been in a desert, and neither of them had an affinity with the heat.

Out of the two of them, Ivona felt a bit better because she was still somehow positively affected by the light element around. On the other hand, Anastasia was miserable because she didn’t have an affinity with anything in the desert, since she was a Soul Master.

"Let’s settle down here for a while." Michelle hopped off Tenether’s back and started creating a hut from ice to keep away the sun.

Also, once night fell, the desert would get incredibly cold, and the hut could keep the temperature inside somewhat stable. And if Kieran set a fire inside, it would be perfect, as long as she didn’t let him melt away the ice.

Kieran stayed outside to enjoy the abundance of fire element spirit energy in the surroundings, while Ivona and Anastasia went into the hut.

Cooling off inside the hut, Ivona had a frown on her face. "I feel useless..." she muttered. "We can’t do anything in the heat."

Anastasia glanced at her as she rested against the ice wall. It was a nice contrast to the heat all around. "You will never be useless or worthless. You can always be a bad example!" she commented with a smirk.

"To whom?" Ivona stood up and walked over to Anastasia. "No one other than us is here," she reminded.

"To anyone," Anastasia shrugged. "Even to Michelle or Kieran. Or even to me."

Meanwhile, the scarred man walked around the part of the sect in the lower realm, and Michelle placed her hand on the invisible barrier of the Heavenly Law.

Unlike before, she didn’t instantly remove it. She didn’t fear an injury.

Instead, she kept her palm on the barrier and exerted some pressure while she started walking along it.

Quickly, she realized that while her hand was moving along the barrier, she didn’t get hurt.

So she stopped moving and left her palm still on the barrier.

It took just a few seconds for a sharp pain to shoot through her hand. The next moment, the all-too-familiar sweet scent hit Michelle’s nose.

Michelle didn’t retract her hand. While it was pressed against the barrier, the sweet scent was partly blocked, so it wouldn’t attract beasts and monsters.

But leaving the hand on the barrier would cause the wound to expand, and that had to be prevented.

The solution was quite simple. Since the wound wasn’t forming while Michelle was moving her hand, there was no reason for it to expand if she started moving her hand again.

And with Michelle’s superior healing abilities, it wouldn’t be long before she could retract her hand, her palm completely healed.

Being nearby, the scarred man frowned a bit. Because of his higher level in cultivation, his senses were better than Michelle’s and the rest, so he caught the smell of blood. He came to check on Michelle.

"What are you doing?" he asked as he came closer.

Moving her hand over the barrier, Michelle cast a glance at the approaching man. "Testing the barrier," she stated placidly.

"Why?" the man asked, clearly aware of the wound on Michelle’s palm.

Michelle moved her gaze back to her hand. "Because oblivion and ignorance kill!"

The scarred man was clearly surprised by Michelle’s words. "So you don’t want to miss a single loophole?" he asked.

Michelle shook her head. "That’s humanly impossible. I just need to minimize the probability of something going wrong because of my unawareness."

"What if something goes wrong because of your inability to act? What if your opponent is too strong?" the scarred man continued asking.

Michelle didn’t have to think about it. "I’ll still try to prevent it, but I doubt I’ll be able to do much." It was a rational answer.

It was easy to guess that the people within the sect were at the threshold of reachable cultivation within the lower realm, at the threshold between the Divine and Monarch rank, while she was still just a Spirit Overlord.

Against such experts, she would be completely helpless.

Michelle and the scarred man talked until her hand healed, which was quite quick, and she could retract her hand. They both then returned to doing their own things until night fell.

The moment the sun set behind the horizon, the temperature in the desert started rapidly decreasing. There was no plant life or clouds above to keep the temperature stable.

Not liking the cold, Kieran went into the hut prepared by Michelle and created a ball of fire. Michelle went in too, to make sure the ice walls didn’t melt because of the fire.

The scarred man followed her, having found out all he wanted.

"How can the sect’s disciples live in a place like this?" Anastasia complained a bit. The temperature changes were just too big, going from one extreme to another. It made the desert a place not suitable for any living creature.

"Maybe they have it as some kind of training." Michelle still instinctively kept herself away from the fire in the middle of the hut, even though her Everfrost Mantle was keeping her cool.

After being used to evading heat for quite some time, stopping doing it wasn’t something she could just do suddenly.

Habits could be a scary thing, and hard to get rid of. Evasion of heat was a habit of Michelle’s like that.

"So what do we do tomorrow?" The group came together.

Quickly, they decided. Early in the morning, when it was no longer unbearably cold, but neither too hot, they would go out to walk around the sect again and again, testing whether someone would notice them.

Once the temperature got unbearable to someone, they would go back into the hut, and the rest would continue walking around.

And in the evening, when the temperature would start dropping, the people in the hut would come back out.

Also, to try to get on the sect people’s nerves, Michelle would release some of her beasts to move around too.