CHAPTER 212: 212

Seeing what Lavreth did to Michelle, Kieran and the rest wanted to step in. But Lavreth wouldn’t let them. To prevent them from moving, he spread out his spirit energy, creating crushing pressure all around.

Then, he turned his attention back to Michelle. "Why do you think I did that?" he asked coldly, summoning more spirit energy on the palm of his hand.

A frown was on Michelle’s face. The dark element spirit energy in her blood was clashing with the light element spirit energy forming the white spike, making her blood painfully sizzle in the wound. "Do you want to test something?"

"I promised Mavreth I wouldn’t kill you today!" Lavreth suddenly showed a cold smile. While he spoke, the summoned spirit energy in his hand formed into a sharp spike. "But he allowed me to test you as I deemed fit."

With that, he threw the spike at Michelle.

Having her foot impaled, she couldn’t dodge. So she quickly bent backwards, letting the spike fly above her head.

But her eyes widened at what she saw next.

Once behind her, the spike split into two, and both flew at her again.

She couldn’t evade it the same way.

Instantly straightening her back, she turned to the side, making sure not to move her impaled leg. That would bring about too much pain.

The two spikes flew past her without touching her.

But under Lavreth’s control, each split into two, forming four. They flew at Michelle again.

Seeing the direction the spikes were flying in, Michelle knew it was impossible to dodge the attack without moving her impaled leg. Finally, she realized what Lavreth wanted.

He wanted to see how much pain she could endure before she let the spikes hit her.

Since he wanted to see so much, she would blow his mind.

With a turn to the side, she spun her foot a bit, the spike in it making her flesh sizzle.

It hurt like hell. The light element spirit energy got deeper into her blood, burning her flesh. And as it clashed with her dark element spirit energy, it caused tiny explosions that felt like ants biting her from within her body.

For a long while, Michelle kept dodging Lavreth’s attacks with her foot spinning around the spike. With every attack, Lavreth increased the difficulty, making it impossible for Michelle to dodge everything.

At first, just some spikes grazed against her, making scratches on her skin, but the longer she stood, the more drastic the damage to her body became.

To make sure he didn’t kill her, Lavreth made the later spikes disperse once stabbed into someone. But that didn’t mean they didn’t create wounds.

All of them ran at least a few centimeters into Michelle’s flesh before disappearing.

And even then, they continued causing damage. When they dispersed, they entered Michelle’s bloodstream, making the feeling of ants eating her from inside even worse.

Still, Michelle kept dodging. Even when spikes continuously hit her body, with each wave, she was able to dodge the majority of those flying at her.

It didn’t take long for Lavreth to understand that Michelle would never give up. She would continue dodging even if she was a bloodied mess, made into a hedgehog by the spikes.

And since the spikes were disappearing, nothing except the pain was constraining her movement.

"How can you be so stubborn?" Lavreth shook his head, stopping his attacks. At the same time, he lifted the pressure he was exerting on Kieran, Anastasia, Ivona, and Pete.

"Follow me!" he said coldly, turning around to walk away.

The moment they were free, Ivona and the rest came to Michelle to check on her.

She was bloodied and bruised, but because of her superior healing abilities, she wasn’t in as terrible a state as it looked.

The biggest problem was that she couldn’t really stand on her left foot, since there was a gaping hole in it.

Quickly, Anastasia pulled Michelle’s hand over her shoulder to support her, while Ivona knelt down next to her to check the wound.

"It’s healing already, but since a big piece of your flesh is missing, it will take a few days before you can walk normally," she concluded.

Then she came up with an idea. "Maybe you could create a cast around it with your ice for support."

Michelle shook her head. Because of the light element spirit energy that Lavreth sent into her blood, her own spirit energy was in turmoil, and she couldn’t use it.

But the idea of using a cast was good.

"For now, let’s follow him..." Michelle pointed at Lavreth’s departing figure.

"Can you even walk like that?" Ivona clearly knew the state Michelle’s foot was in, so she didn’t believe it was possible to move like that.

But Michelle didn’t think much of it. "I can bear that much," she said lazily. "Just support me a bit."

With that, she retracted her arm from Ivona’s shoulder and looped it around Ivona’s arm. That way, she could mostly walk on her own, but if she lost her balance, she would have someone to lean on.

Hearing the group behind him moving, Lavreth nodded slightly and led them to a room with a wall full of doors.

"Each door is for a single element," he explained. "Choose your element and enter the door. You will cultivate there until you reach the Divina rank!"

His words made the group suspicious. "Why should we believe you when, just a while ago, you were being clearly aggressive?" Kieran asked out loud.

Lavreth didn’t answer. Instead, he sent out a wave of crushing pressure. It was clear what he meant to say. The group didn’t have a choice. Either they went into the door, or he would kill them.

Kieran and Ivona quickly chose their doors. Kieran the fire element, and Ivona the light element. But the rest had trouble choosing.

Michelle was a dual-element master, so she had to consider which element she wanted to cultivate at the moment.

And Anastasia was a soul master, so neither of the doors suited her.

As for Pete, as a person working under Alexander, he was a monster in humanoid form. His cultivation was a bit different from that of humans, so he didn’t know whether it was worth it to go through the door of his element, the wood element, with its representative brown color.

Lavreth waited for the three to choose for a while, and when they were still standing there, he spoke again. His first words were meant for Pete. "The cultivation there will be suitable for you."

Then, he turned to Anastasia. "The door for soul energy is at the back."

Finally, he put his attention on Michelle. "Ice or dark element?" he asked, with a raised brow.

Michelle had already decided. "Dark element," she said, and lazily strolled towards the door with a black sign on it.

"I hoped so..." Lavreth’s voice lingered behind as Michelle stepped into a place full of darkness. With her ability to see in the dark, she was able to discern where she was, but that didn’t make the place any less creepy.

Michelle was standing in the middle of a barren forest where the trees didn’t have leaves, and their trunks were completely black. And all of them were dry.

The ground beneath her feet was bordering on black and gray, not showing any signs of life.

But the creepiest thing was the sky. A vast black void, without stars, clouds, moon, or sun.

"What a nice place!" Michelle smiled, feeling the abundance of spirit energy all around. Even when she wasn’t trying to cultivate, she could feel the spirit energy entering her body on its own. A nice feeling.

Not caring where she was, she sat down on the ground, prepared to start cultivating.

But before that, she checked her foot for the last time. After she had walked for a while, it hurt much more than before.

Luckily, it didn’t look like it had gotten worse, so she relaxed a bit.

To make sure nothing got into the wound while she cultivated, Michelle took out a bandage from her spatial ring and bound the wound haphazardly.

After that, Michelle closed her eyes to cultivate.

At first, everything was normal; the cultivation went smoothly.

But a moment later, Michelle felt something crawling over her legs.

Opening her eyes momentarily, she saw worms climbing under her clothes to get to her skin. "Bloodsuckers of the dark element?" she lifted a brow.

She had seen bloodsuckers of the ice element on the fields where Alexander had taken her to cultivate. To think she would see ones of the dark element so soon was fairly surprising.

Thinking back about it, when Alexander took her to the field, he hadn’t told her where it was. But she could be sure she was still in the lower realm back then.

Was it possible for there to be another place in the lower realm where bloodsuckers gathered, other than the black god’s sect? It seemed highly unlikely.

So did that mean it wasn’t her first time in the black god’s sect? Did Alexander sneak her in there before?