CHAPTER 286: 286

Alexander watched Michelle as she fiddled with the knife in her hand. In her other hand was the black pendant he had given her.

Michelle had already said she would drip her blood on the pendant, but with how she was fiddling with it, she still didn’t believe Alexander.

Alexander’s doubts were confirmed when Michelle spoke: "Both you and David lied. Your stories were way too similar. You somehow told him beforehand what to tell me."

Her voice was quite cold, but still calm.

Alexander didn’t lift his head from Michelle’s shoulder. "Then, what do you think is the truth?" He didn’t deny that Michelle had been told a lie.

Michelle frowned a bit. Then, she grasped the knife’s handle tightly and let go of the black pendant, letting it fall into her space. Finally, she slashed with the knife into her palm.

Once blood started gushing out, she took the black pendant out of her space. It landed right on her bleeding palm.

Alexander watched with gleaming eyes as a black mist left the pendant, formed into the words Dark Lord and flew to the wound on Michelle’s palm.

She hissed a bit, the wound starting to sting.

And it didn’t end there. Without being able to control it, Michelle felt her hand starting to tremble.

With each second, it got worse until the point when the pendant fell out of her hand.

Then, she could clearly see what was happening to her wound.

The two black words spread like tattoos sitting on it, and from them, thin black lines spread out, sinking into Michelle’s flesh. Then, they pulled the cut skin together, forcefully closing the wound.

It was basically the same as stitches.

When the wound was closed, Michelle’s hand stopped trembling, and the stinging pain disappeared. All that remained was a black scar and the two words over it.

"Do you have something like that too?" Michelle glanced up at Alexander.

Alexander shook his head. "I’m the invisible Dark Lord. My pendant doesn’t leave a mark."

Michelle frowned. "Does that mean David has a mark like this since he is the visible Dark Lord?"

Alexander’s eyebrow twitched. He didn’t like the idea of Michelle having the same mark as David. "No. He doesn’t." He finally answered.

Michelle raised a brow. "Why is that? Why doesn’t the visible Dark Lord have a mark from his pendant?" Michelle was already certain that all that about the pendants’ symbolism was just a lie.

But a good lie. It was clear Alexander had given it a lot of thought.

That meant he had planned earlier to give the pendant to Michelle. And when he gave it to her, it was because he had found the right opportunity to push down at least some suspicion.

Alexander stared down at the mark on Michelle’s hand. He knew she saw through his lie, so he didn’t see a reason to keep up the lie. "So, do you regret contracting the pendant now?"

Michelle suddenly pushed her elbow back, hitting it into his chest. "It depends on what the pendant really does."

Alexander moved his hand to his chest and rubbed a bit where Michelle’s elbow hit him. It hurt a fair bit. The little brat was starting to catch up to him in strength, even though it was only when his strength was suppressed by the Heavenly Law.

"What do I get if I tell you?" Alexander pressed his chin into Michelle’s shoulder. It felt a bit uncomfortable for her.

Instantly, Michelle summoned her soul leash, the Binding Chains. They were the easiest to control and could restrain even someone much more powerful than her. And in the middle realm, where both she and Alexander were suppressed, they were on par in some aspects.

The Binding Chains wrapped around Alexander, binding him to the ground. Next, they coiled around his neck like snakes, intertwining together to form an unbreakable noose. "I won’t break your neck if you tell me." Michelle showed a bright smile.

Alexander raised a brow. "I can easily break out of this." With his power, it was supposed to be easy to scatter Michelle’s Binding Chains.

But the moment he summoned his shadow essence and it clashed into the Binding Chains, Alexander’s eyes were forced to widen as the chains tightened around his neck. It really felt like his neck would snap into two.

"What is this?" Alexander frowned.

Michelle’s smile widened. "I call it a choking bind!" she beamed. "I learned it in my past life. The more you fight against it, the more it tightens around you."

Alexander frowned a bit. The bind intrigued him. "And how exactly does it work?" He was still sure he could break out of it on his own, but it would take him a while to figure out what he could and couldn’t do so his head wouldn’t be severed by a chain.

"What do I get if I tell you?" Michelle threw Alexander’s question back at him with a bright smile.

Alexander sighed. "I’ll tell you about the pendant..."

Michelle’s eyes beamed. "You start!" She wouldn’t let Alexander trick her again. Last time, she was the one who told him the answer to his question first, and in exchange, he lied to her. So she wouldn’t let him do the same again.

Alexander sighed, and finally truthfully explained what the pendants meant. He knew he would have to tell Michelle at some point, since she was constantly suspicious of it, but he didn’t expect it to be so soon, right after she made a contract with the pendant.

After listening to Alexander, Michelle’s eyes narrowed. For her, it meant two things.

First, the pendant didn’t give her power equal to Alexander and David in the Dark Palace. It gave her the authority of being Alexander’s spouse. She didn’t exactly like that.

Second...

It had been clear from Alexander’s behavior for quite a while, but Michelle never really gave it much thought. It couldn’t exactly be overlooked that Alexander harbored feelings for Michelle.

Michelle just wondered how deep those feelings ran.

Was it just a fleeting interest, or did he genuinely like her? Or was it even deeper than just liking her?

It was hard to guess because Alexander was always unpredictable. Sometimes, it looked like he was just amused by Michelle, but sometimes, he was showing signs of obsession.

Seeing Michelle so deep in thought, Alexander felt like pulling her to his lap. But the Binding Chains were restraining him. And he didn’t want to break them until Michelle told him how they worked.

If he broke them, there was a high possibility Michelle wouldn’t explain things to him, saying he could figure it out on his own since he was able to break out.

Another reason was that Alexander was a tad bit worried that if he broke the chains in the wrong place, it could harm Michelle. He definitely didn’t want that.

Michelle felt Alexander’s gaze on her and snapped out of her thought. Seeing the golden chains wrapped around him, she smiled a bit. It felt good to see him helpless like that. Even if it was just voluntary helplessness.

Michelle wasn’t dumb enough to think Alexander wasn’t able to break out of the chains.

So she started explaining how her binding worked.

It was a binding way she had learned back in her past life. It was used to restrain those whom the organization wanted to restrain, while not caring whether they died in the process or not.

The method was simple: the middle of a long rope was looped one whole circle around the person’s neck after the person was laid on their stomach. Then, the person’s legs would be lifted up, towards their back, and their ankles would be tied to the ends of the ropes.

That way, when the tied up person moved their legs even a bit, the part of the rope around their neck would mercilessly pull on their neck. And if the pulling was too much, the rope would snap one of the vital bones in the neck, killing the victim.

To use it on Alexander, Michelle had to alter the method. If she did it that simply, he would just need to snap the chains, and he would be fine.

That was why she used Binding Chains. They were extremely sensitive to energies around them; that was why they were the controller of soul energy.

So, Michelle made it so when Alexander’s shadow essence made any form of contact with the Binding Chains, they would shrink a few centimeters. That was enough to choke him a bit and make him stop for a moment.

Listening to that, Alexander was fascinated. Such a simple method could be so effective.

In the heavenly realm, when people restrained others, they solely relied on having more power than their opponent, but with Michelle’s method, she could bind someone stronger than her and immobilize them for a good while. If she was in a dire situation, it would give her enough time to get lost and save herself.

"A brilliant method." Alexander smiled.

With that, he summoned shadow essence from his neck, and pushed with it against the Binding Chains from all sides.

The next moment, they snapped.

Michelle wasn’t surprised he could do it, but she was a bit disappointed it took him so little time. She wanted to see him suffer a bit more.