CHAPTER 269: 269

"Let’s give it some rest..." After failing to think of any new ideas for a while, Michelle just lay down on the ground and closed her eyes.

The whole time, she let the cloud stay in the shadow. She no longer needed to be conscious for it to stay around, so she didn’t make it disperse.

As Michelle’s mind sank into the realms of dreams, Alexander came over to her and sat down on the grass. His gaze was fixated on Michelle’s face.

With the disguise mask on, she looked like an ordinary young boy, but he could clearly remember how stunning she looked without the mask.

"I thought you would take a different approach..." he mumbled, running his hands through Michelle’s long silver hair.

Just then, a pair of shadows appeared behind him. He didn’t react.

"My Lord!" Noctis and Unlucien both knelt down respectfully.

"What happened?" Alexander didn’t even look at them. But he knew that since they appeared like that, a message must have come.

"There’s a high probability that the Essenceless Night is approaching," Noctis spoke.

Hearing that, Alexander’s eyes narrowed, his gaze still on Michelle. "Tonight?"

"We can’t be sure. The signs have already been around for some days, but nothing happened yet," Noctis answered.

Alexander frowned. "Why are you telling me about something that won’t affect me?" he suddenly asked.

Noctis and Unlucien glanced at each other. Alexander’s question didn’t really make sense.

Though the Essenceless Night couldn’t affect him, it could greatly endanger Michelle, so it was only natural for them to tell him.

He had assigned them to protect her. And he was strangely interested in her. If they didn’t tell him beforehand, his wrath would consume the whole Middle Realm.

But they didn’t say that. Instead, Unlucien spoke matter-of-factly: "It concerns the safety of the Young Lady."

Alexander remained silent for a while. Then, he turned his head to the side, directing his gaze at his two shadow guards. "Can’t the Head Executive and Executive of the Dark Palace take care of something like the Essenceless Night?" His voice was cold, rumbling above the lake and through the clearing around it.

Unlucien and Noctis would both love to say they could take care of it, but the opposite was the truth. "The black god is somehow involved. This is out of our control."

After Unlucien’s words fell, Alexander understood how dire the situation was. If Mavreth was acting himself, the Essenceless Night had to be especially dangerous. With a wave of his hand, he dismissed Unlucien and Noctis, returning his gaze to Michelle.

If the Essenceless Night was to be of such a degree that Mavreth had to act himself, once it really appeared, the brat sleeping in the grass would be in dire danger. Most probably even life danger.

But wouldn’t it help her?

If she was awake, Alexander would have asked her what she thought about it.

But Michelle was deeply asleep, so there was nothing Alexander could ask. All he could do was wait for her to wake up. Which would take a long time since she had just awoken.

Alexander didn’t get much time to think about it before he felt a presence approaching. Lifting his gaze to look at Mavreth, he frowned a bit. He really didn’t like that guy.

And just like Alexander didn’t like Mavreth, Mavreth didn’t like Alexander.

So why would he appear?

There was only one plausible explanation. Mavreth’s disciple, and the person lying in the grass right next to Alexander.

"For you to appear yourself, you must care for your disciple more than it seems!" Alexander smirked, standing up.

Mavreth didn’t pay him much attention and instead walked over to Michelle. "Hey..." He nudged her shoulder with his foot. "Wake up!"

Michelle opened her eyes with a frown. "What?" she asked, not liking being disturbed. She very much needed the rest.

"Get up!" Mavreth didn’t have the time to explain. The sun was setting.

With an annoyed grunt, Michelle got up from the ground. She stared at Mavreth, the question clear in her eyes.

What did he want?

Mavreth glanced at Alexander before looking back at Michelle. Then, he threw a book at her. "Master this before the sun fully sets!"

With that, he tore open a space rift and walked away. He did it quickly, so it looked like the space swallowed him.

Michelle didn’t care where Mavreth disappeared to. She wanted to know what the book was, and why she had to master it so quickly and suddenly.

It didn’t have a title on its cover, so Michelle opened it to look at the first page.

But there was no title there either. The text just started.

Michelle cast a glance at Alexander. She knew he and Mavreth didn’t have a good relationship, so why was he remaining quiet? And what was the glance that Mavreth sent at Alexander before giving her the book? What did it mean?

"What is the meaning of this?" she asked with a frown.

Alexander shrugged. "It seems your master doesn’t want to explain." He walked over to Michelle and took the book from her. Flipping through it, his eyes narrowed.

He didn’t like the skill.

Michelle could see that. "What is it?" she asked.

"A useless skill," Alexander answered truthfully. He didn’t see any point in the skill.

Michelle took the book from Alexander and started reading it.

It was a thin book, very thin, so after a few minutes, she was done.

She wouldn’t exactly call the skill useless, but even she would have a hard time coming up with a way to use it.

It was a skill that reset the wielder’s shadow essence cultivation. And it could only be used by Shadow Masters who were also Spirit Masters.

In other words, it was a skill that wouldn’t do any good, and would only harm the wielder.

But not that much.

Because the only thing that could be achieved by cultivation in Shadow Mastery was an increase in levels. The control, which set the ranks, couldn’t be lost. Once it was there, it would always stay around.

"Why would he tell me to master something like this?" Michelle read the skill book again.

The basics of the skill were simple. She just needed to push all her shadow essence out of her body and discard her ownership of it. And to do that, she would just need to flood her shadow dantian with her spirit energy, since the shadow dantian overlapped with the spirit dantian.

Michelle frowned. There wasn’t anything to master about the skill. It was just a method she could achieve as long as she had both shadow essence and spirit energy.

And she had that.

So the fact that Mavreth asked her to master it meant he wanted her to use it once. Before the sun set completely.

Michelle turned her gaze towards the horizon. Just a few more minutes remained until the sun disappeared from sight.

"What will happen if I don’t do it?" she looked at Alexander. "Do you know?"

Alexander stared at Michelle, thinking about the Essenceless Night. If Michelle lost her Shadow Mastery for the night, would it not affect her? Was that what Mavreth wanted to achieve?

It sounded hard to believe. Even if Michelle lost her cultivation, her shadow dantian would remain. So the Essenceless Night should still affect her.

So what did Mavreth want to achieve?

"You can try it..." Alexander couldn’t understand what Mavreth was planning. So the decision was left to Michelle.

Michelle wasn’t even aware of the Essenceless Night approaching, but she had the feeling that the forest was way too quiet. She guessed that the skill Mavreth gave her was related to the eerie silence.

But she didn’t know how.

Did he want to test her by taking away her shadow essence for the night? That would mean something dangerous was approaching, and it was vulnerable only to shadow essence.

Or would having shadow essence somehow endanger her?

Whichever was the case, Michelle wanted to know what Mavreth was planning. If it was a trap, she would walk in head-on.

Momentarily closing her eyes, she started pumping out all the shadow essence she had in her body. It felt a bit like a pity to get rid of something she had cultivated.

But after it was out of her body, Michelle summoned her spirit energy and flooded the shadow dantian with it.

If she was just a normal Spirit Master, it would have been a bit more difficult, but since she could absorb spirit energy throughout her whole body, she could also send it anywhere. So flooding the shadow dantian was easy.

When the shadow essence was gone, Michelle felt a strange sense of emptiness.

But she wasn’t worried about that. Just one thing weighed on her mind.

What if, by resetting her cultivation, she also reset her experience with it? What if, after getting it back, she would have to once again undergo Alexander’s training?

She didn’t fear it, but she definitely didn’t like the idea.