Chapter 240: 240
Lazily stretching her body, Michelle stood up. It took her a few days, but she was finally able to keep the cloud of soul energy on her palm for over an hour.
"Master, will you teach me some poisons now?" She turned her head to look at Mavreth.
But he shook his head. "Listen up, Michelle. I won’t ever teach you to make poisons, elixirs, or pills. You will have to learn that on your own. All I will teach you are new techniques."
Hearing that, Michelle raised a brow. If Mavreth didn’t teach her to brew specific poisons, she would have to learn that on her own. That could greatly reduce her poison arsenal compared to other Poison Maker Masters with teachers.
But at the same time, it would give her one big advantage. Forced to explore new poisons on her own, she would have to test them—most probably on herself—which would, in turn, increase her poison immunity and maybe even aid with her cultivation of poison element spirit energy.
Just thinking about that made Michelle excited, her purple eyes shimmering.
Seeing that, Mavreth took out a bottle and threw it at Michelle. "Just because I won’t teach you new poisons doesn’t mean you won’t get the chance to learn them. I will regularly give you new poisons. Until you master how to make them, you will take one pill a day. Don’t worry. I won’t give you ones that will kill you with your current abilities."
Without wasting a second, Michelle uncapped the bottle and tipped it over, taking out a pill. The next moment, it landed in her mouth and she swallowed it. "Will you tell me what kind of poison it is, or is that for me to figure out?"
Mavreth was a bit speechless at how quickly Michelle swallowed the poison. "I will only tell you how it should be administered. As you’ve already figured out, this one is meant to be eaten to work."
Michelle nodded in satisfaction. She couldn’t wait to feel the effects of the poison. Since it was from Mavreth, it would definitely be exceptional.
Seeing Michelle’s expression, Mavreth had a bad premonition. He had the feeling that in the not-so-far future, his disciple would be eating poison like candy. What he had yet to know was that his premonition would come true.
After mastering some poisons, Michelle would always carry a bottle with her, and whenever she got angry, she would eat a pill. Sometimes it would calm her down, and sometimes just boost her rage.
Having eaten the poison, Michelle was prepared to leave the room, but Mavreth’s words halted her. "Sometimes, I’ll tell you what to do for the poison to activate. For example, today you can try cultivating your shadow essence. The results will satisfy you."
"Yes, Master!" Michelle smiled. Even though she was Mavreth’s disciple, she wasn’t keeping up much decorum.
Usually, a master’s disciple would bow before leaving the room where their master was, but Michelle didn’t care. She just nodded her head a bit as a sign of saying goodbye.
Going back to her room, Michelle sat down on her bed and closed her eyes. She had never tried to cultivate her shadow essence, and it was finally time to do so. But she first had to figure out how.
First, she tried to sense for any shadow essence. But all she could feel was the spirit energy moving around.
A frown formed on her face. Two explanations existed.
One was that her room wasn’t suitable for cultivating shadow essence. And the other was that she was too clumsy and couldn’t even sense it.
To confirm that, the best thing to do would be to go somewhere known to be potent with shadow essence.
Standing up, Michelle left the room.
When Kieran, Ivona, and Anastasia were still in the sect, Mavreth had given them a map. There, it was marked what was abundant where.
And if Michelle remembered correctly, there was one place rich in shadow essence.
Going to the forest where the group spent some time, Michelle wandered through until she found a lake. The trees around it were thick and tall, with big tree crowns nearly shielding away the sun. It was understandable why a place like that would be rich in shadow essence.
Sitting under a tree, Michelle closed her eyes to try again.
She was able to sense something, but it was extremely sparse, making her sigh. It was proof that she just didn’t know how to sense the shadow essence.
Thinking about what to do, Michelle leaned against the tree behind her.
She could go to the library to search for a book about Shadow Masters, but that would take too much time. That increased the chance of the poison getting out of her system before she could feel its effects.
That would just be tragic.
Lost deep in her thoughts, she didn’t even notice a person appear next to her.
Alexander landed next to Michelle and stared at her. He was wondering when she would notice him.
She had keen senses and could always discover him, but after he appeared in front of her a few times, it was like her senses stopped picking him up.
Did she get used to his presence? Or could she just not be bothered to notice him?
Either way, Alexander wasn’t really a patient person when it came to Michelle. When she didn’t notice him for a while, he decided to change his plans.
"You won’t achieve anything this way!" Michelle was startled when someone whispered in her ear. At the same time, a pair of hands pulled her up from the ground, pulling her into an embrace.
"What do you mean?" Michelle looked up at Alexander calmly. He had hoped for her to be flustered, but instead, she just directed her piercing gaze at him.
Seeing that Michelle was calm, Alexander was about to let go of her. But he felt that it was nice to have that brat in his arms, so instead, he tightened his grip around her waist. "You can’t sense shadow essence. You have to let it come to you on its own."
Michelle lifted a brow. She didn’t like what Alexander said. "And how do I know whether it came to me? And when it does come to me, how do I pull it into my body if I can’t sense it?"
Just then, a disciple was walking toward the lake to gather some herbs. When he passed around the trees and finally saw the lake, his gaze fell on Alexander and Michelle.
"Hey, outsider! How dare you bring in other people!" he shouted at Michelle when he realized who she was. The disciples of the sect had already somehow accepted that she was allowed within the sect, but they would never accept it if she brought someone else in.
Alexander lifted his gaze from Michelle, his black eyes locking on the disciple. The chill from within them made the disciple shudder in fear.
But he couldn’t accept the presence of someone not permitted. Summoning his spirit energy, he sent an attack at the two.
Michelle felt the attack coming, but she didn’t move. Not like she could with Alexander’s arms around her.
Alexander just flicked his finger and a black speck flew at the attack.
Halfway toward them, the attack clashed with the black speck. The next moment, the speck massively enlarged, swallowing the attack. Then, it disappeared.
Michelle stared up at Alexander and sighed. "Don’t kill him." Her voice was calm. "He’s protecting the honor of his sect."
Alexander turned his gaze back to Michelle. "But he bothered me..." he smiled as he spoke.
Michelle’s gaze turned chilly. "It hasn’t been that long since you had Void Plague... You are still vulnerable to it!" she hissed.
"Fine then!" Alexander wasn’t worried that Michelle would infect him with the Void Plague. But seeing her angry somehow satisfied him. So he no longer cared about the disciple.
The disciple was terrified that his attack was swallowed so easily. Though it wasn’t his strongest attack, it was one of the stronger ones. If just a speck of Alexander’s power could swallow it up, he stood no chance if Alexander decided to kill him.
But he refused to just leave. Michelle was allowed to be in the sect, but Alexander was an intruder. That meant he couldn’t be left unsupervised.
Feeling that the disciple didn’t leave, Michelle started seriously doubting his intelligence. By staying around, he was just asking to be killed.
But Alexander’s full attention was on her, so it seemed the disciple was safe for a while.
So the two returned to their earlier conversation. "So how do I know whether it came to me? And when it does come to me, how do I pull it into my body if I can’t sense it?" she repeated her questions.
"It’s all concentrated here." Alexander let go of Michelle’s waist and instead moved his hands to the back of her neck. Then, she felt something cold there.
Possessing the ice element, it was barely possible for her to feel cold. But Alexander’s power made her shiver in cold.