CHAPTER 214: 214

After killing the wolf, Michelle sat back down to cultivate. For the next three days, nothing bothered her, and she could focus on it.

And that led her to a shocking discovery. After she absorbed the spirit energy from the scattered black Life Stone of the wolf, her cultivation speed rapidly increased. The new speed even felt illegal.

It clearly wasn’t normal.

But over time, the speed went down slowly, returning to normal by the end of the third day.

And that was when a monster appeared again.

Michelle ended up in a strange cycle.

Every time, she would cultivate for three days before two monsters would jump at her separately, one after the other. And after sucking in the spirit energy of their Life Stones, her cultivation speed would temporarily increase.

Of course, while Michelle cultivated, bloodsuckers of the dark element would stick to her skin to eat away the residue of spirit energy gathered around her.

When the cycle had already been going on for half a year, Michelle killed off a monster but ignored the spirit energy from the Life Stone, deciding not to cultivate for a while.

Staring at the palm of her hand, she felt the spirit energy within her blood boiling from her desire to fight.

But because of the obstruction in the space, she couldn’t summon her spirit energy. Even with the monster’s, she still had to fight them solely with her strength.

That made Michelle feel a bit ticked off. In the half a year she was either fighting monsters or cultivating, she reached the level of a Spirit Paragon, close to breaking through into the Divine ranks, but she never got to use her spirit energy.

It took away the excitement of testing the power of her attacks, making her ticked off.

Deciding to stretch herself and change the scenery a bit, Michelle finally stepped into the dead forest. She was wondering whether she would meet a monster there.

Her gut was telling her that she wouldn’t.

It was just a guess, but Michelle thought the monsters were somehow summoned or called forth by Lavreth or Mavreth, and only appeared once every three months under their control. At other times, the forest was probably empty and barren.

Lightly, Michelle’s feet moved over the ground, not making a single sound in the forest. All that could be heard was her own breathing and the whistling of the wind.

"I don’t feel like cultivating anymore," Michelle sighed, heading deeper and deeper into the forest. "I’m taking a break until the next monster appears!" she declared into the emptiness.

Meanwhile, behind the doors of wind, light, and fire element spirit energy, Pete, Kieran, and Ivona were going through things similar to what Michelle had gone through in the past half a year.

The only one with a different situation was Anastasia behind the door of soul energy.

There, she didn’t encounter a single monster, nor was the room abundant in spirit energy.

It was a bleak white space with four walls.

At first, Anastasia didn’t really know what to do, but since Lavreth had said to cultivate until they reached the Divine rank, she understood that for her, an equivalent of that was the Soul rank.

So she sat down on the ground and started cultivating just as Michelle had taught her.

And then changes started to appear. Black spots like tongues of fire started spreading on the white walls, as if they were some kind of canvas.

At first, Anastasia didn’t take notice of the black marks because her eyes were closed in cultivation, and the marks were small. But when the marks stretched so high that they were taller than her, she felt something and opened her eyes.

The sight fairly surprised her. The originally white walls were nearly black, seeming as if they were about to swallow her whole.

Anastasia found it disturbing, but she decided not to pay it any attention and continue her cultivation.

So, in the next half year, Anastasia improved greatly.

Well, everyone improved greatly. While Michelle became a Spirit Paragon, both Kieran and Ivona became Spirit Saints, and Anastasia turned into a Mortal Paragon.

As for Pete, he broke through into the level of a Divine Paragon. His next goal was to cultivate until he reached the threshold of what a monster could reach in the lower realm.

And after some more time, the group started appearing out of the doors one by one.

The first one to come out was Anastasia. The cultivation of soul energy was faster than that of spirit energy, so she had surpassed even Michelle in speed and had reached the Soul rank, becoming Soul Junior.

The next one to come out was Michelle, just two months after she decided she had to take the three-day break. She had broken into the Divine rank, becoming a Divine Junior.

A day or two after Michelle, Pete came out through his door, having reached the new breaking point. He could no longer cultivate in the lower realm.

Even when Anastasia came out, Lavreth was already waiting outside, his face calm and emotionless. The whole time, he didn’t say a single word.

He only opened his mouth when Pete came out. "The two will take longer to come out. Don’t wait for them here."

Lavreth’s words weren’t that surprising. When entering, Ivona was a Spirit Lord and Kieran a Spirit Master. So they had more levels to break through until they reached the Divine rank.

"Where can we go?" Michelle turned to stare at Lavreth. She remembered that before going to the sect, she had told the boss lady from the information guild that she would be back in a month, but instead, she had stayed in cultivation for eight months. She needed to let her know she wouldn’t be returning so soon.

Lavreth shrugged. "You can go anywhere you want, but watch out for the arrays everywhere. I personally recommend you continue cultivating. You will need it in the future."

Michelle frowned a bit. "Why is this place so deserted?" she finally asked. Since they had entered the sect, they hadn’t met anyone except Lavreth. And since he was letting them roam around freely, he clearly wasn’t worried about them bumping into someone, which could cause unnecessary misunderstandings.

Lavreth stared at her for a while. "Over the barrier..." his answer was lazy and careless, but it wasn’t difficult to understand what he meant.

The place was deserted because everyone was in the part of the sect over the barrier of the Heavenly Law. In other words, on the middle realm’s side.

Michelle wanted to ask more, but she suddenly sensed danger from beneath.

Instantly, she jumped to the side, dodging a spike that stabbed out of the ground.

"Is this your way of telling me to shut up?" Michelle frowned. So it seemed Lavreth didn’t want to talk with her any further.

"At least you aren’t stupid..." Lavreth turned around to leave.

But Michelle’s voice stopped him. "I need to send out a message to a friend. Where can I do it?" she asked, her voice steady. It was clear she wouldn’t accept a negative answer.

Lavreth stared at her for a while before answering. "Monsters can freely leave this place."

The answer made Michelle raise a brow. It meant that around the sect was either a barrier or an array which blocked people from leaving, but it could somehow discern whether they were a monster or something else, and let the monsters pass.

"How sophisticated..." she smiled and summoned Tenether.

Then, she took out a paper and pen from her spatial ring and wrote a simple letter for the boss lady, explaining that she would be gone for a long time and that they shouldn’t wait for her.

She then had Tenether turn into a small bird and tied the letter to his leg.

After being told where to go, Tenether flapped his wings and flew in the direction from where Michelle and the rest came when Lavreth led them to the doors.

Though he had the intelligence of a child, he was still intelligent enough to find his way out.

"What do we do now?" Anastasia stretched her hands, ready to start exploring the sect.

With their cultivation levels, they were already able to cross the barrier of the Heavenly Law and go to the middle realm’s part of the sect, but it was clear they wouldn’t go there just yet.

Until Kieran and Ivona came out, they would stay on the lower realm’s side.

Michelle shrugged. "We can split up if you want." She wasn’t really all that curious about the sect, but she didn’t even feel like going back to cultivating in the bleak black forest.

Anastasia frowned a bit. "But the arrays are still active. I don’t know anything about them. You have at least the most basic knowledge."

Michelle nodded a bit. Because of the memories she had received from Rivenaar, she knew here and there about arrays. "Then let’s go together."

For the next few days, Michelle, Anastasia, and Pete walked around the lower realm’s part of the sect, but they didn’t find anything. Just empty halls and small arrays.

So the group returned to the doors.

"I have an idea..." Michelle stared at the doors. "Anastasia, when you were cultivating, did monsters come to attack you?" she asked.