Chapter 241: 241
When Alexander’s power touched Michelle’s neck, she not only felt cold, but a wave of dizziness washed over her. And it kept returning, with each wave getting stronger.
She felt that after a while, she would lose her strength to it.
"Try to stay on your feet as long as possible." Alexander stepped back ever so slightly, so Michelle wouldn’t be pressed against him—so she couldn’t use him for support.
But he kept his hands on her neck, sending his power under her skin.
"What exactly are you doing...?" Michelle asked with a frown. She was close to losing her balance.
Alexander smiled. "Testing your potential and awakening your cultivation. Both at once."
Michelle just got more confused. But she didn’t get to ask about it because she nearly fell over. After shifting her feet, she stabilized herself for a moment.
Still, she was nearly sure she would fall with the next wave.
"You can use all your powers to keep yourself up," Alexander reminded.
That made Michelle frown. "Aren’t you testing my potential for cultivating shadow essence...?" She felt that if she used her soul or spirit energy, it would distort the results.
But the truth was otherwise. "Shadow essence is all about control. To test you, I need to see your control over other energies."
Hearing that, Michelle narrowed her eyes. Since that was the case, she would use all her knowledge to show Alexander just how much control she had over herself.
Knowing that the organs responsible for stabilizing humans were located in the ears, Michelle sent her soul energy there to calm them down. At the same time, she sent her spirit energy down to her feet to stick herself to the ground.
But she made sure not to root herself there. That would completely throw her off balance and just result in her falling earlier.
What she did was make her feet more adhesive to the ground, so if she was about to lose balance, she would have an easier time securing her feet in a different place.
At first, everything seemed easier for Michelle, but after about two more waves, she felt a strong surge of dizziness. That reminded her of something great she had overlooked—
The movement of soul energy.
Within her ear, it was originally still, but when Alexander’s power stimulated her senses into thinking she was sideways, the soul energy had to quickly move to calm the sensors down.
But because it moved too quickly, it started swirling around a bit. In other words, it started acting like spirit energy leaked into the air, flowing around randomly. And since it belonged to a human, it flowed around rapidly.
That just irritated Michelle’s ears, and she felt like vomiting.
But she held back and forced the soul energy to stop moving. It was clear she would have to put the majority of her concentration into the soul energy in her ears.
Otherwise, she would fall down quickly.
In the distance, the disciple was watching what was happening.
He couldn’t understand what was going on, so he had a feeling that Michelle was in danger. But he didn’t dare step in. Also, he didn’t really have the desire to.
To him, she was just an outsider—one that got too close to an intruder and was about to pay for it.
When Michelle could no longer bear the dizziness, even though both her soul and spirit energy were helping her, she crashed headfirst into Alexander. She could feel that he stiffened a bit when her face touched his chest.
Feeling that, she felt the urge to mess with him, even though she was feeling like crap.
"You’ve been acting strange since last time..." She moved her gaze to look at his face, a slight smirk on hers. "Is it because you’ve never seen a naked woman before?"
Alexander stared down at Michelle, retracting his hand from the back of her neck. The test was done, so he moved his hands back to her waist.
"Of course, I have..." His voice was calm like always, but Michelle could feel he was a bit stiffer. "How many people do you think tried to seduce the Dark Lord? They would use any method possible."
"Ooh..." Michelle stabilized her footing. "And you always resisted?" There was an evil gleam in her eyes.
"No one has ever been able to seduce me." Alexander felt a bit amused by the gleam in Michelle’s eyes.
Upon hearing Alexander’s answer, Michelle put on an unconcealed grin. "So, does that mean you are impotent?"
Alexander’s eyes narrowed a bit. Someone was trying to test his limits. But he wouldn’t let her do it so easily. "Why so curious? Do you want to check it yourself?" he leaned down to whisper in her ear.
Michelle lifted her hands up to keep Alexander leaning down. "I’m sorry, Dark Lord..." she whispered. "I have no interest in cripples."
Alexander’s pupils moved to look at her. "And how are you so sure about that?"
Michelle’s grin widened. "Because..." She moved her head even closer to his ear. "I know I’m beautiful."
Alexander let out a hearty laugh. He couldn’t feel offended when he knew Michelle was messing with him. Straightening up, he pulled Michelle closer to him, the pair of jet-black eyes dancing with amusement.
After hearing the laugh, Michelle knew she lost, making her a bit annoyed. So when Alexander pulled her closer, she conjured a needle of void in her hand and pricked his palm with it.
Seeing the black spot appear, Alexander’s smile widened. "I shall take that as you marking me..."
He knew his words would enrage Michelle, but he didn’t mind.
He had long realized his feelings for her, so the fact that he could enrage her so much just amused him. For some reason, nearly anything she did could amuse him.
Seeing that her anger was just making Alexander happier, she sent all her remaining soul energy to her hand, wrapping it around her fist. Then, she sent a punch to his stomach.
Alexander was much more powerful than Michelle, so he didn’t really feel the punch. Only his smile widened. "Did you think that would hurt me?" He grabbed Michelle’s wrist.
But his smile didn’t last for long when he felt a familiar sensation in his stomach.
Seeing his expression twist, Michelle showed a triumphant smile. "I said I will infect you with the Void Plague!"
Her soul energy was completely spent, but she was satisfied. And her insight about Alexander had deepened.
Originally, she thought just a bit of soul energy would be needed to enter his body to infect him, but she had to send in all she had left to feel even the slightest change.
But that didn’t matter. Since he was infected, the void within him would quickly spread, growing enormous.
Alexander still felt that something was different. "You’ve altered it so it doesn’t kill me?" He was fairly surprised when he realized it. He doubted Michelle was such a kind person.
Michelle nodded. "I can’t have you dying the first day if I want you to suffer for a while!" she grinned as she spoke.
For some reason, Alexander only showed a bigger smile, making Michelle suspect whether he had all the screws right in his head.
Or did she do something wrong while infecting him with the Void Plague, so his head got messed up?
But that wasn’t possible. She struck him in his stomach.
Not his head.
"You psycho..." Michelle mumbled.
Alexander didn’t mind. Instead, he rested his chin atop Michelle’s head. "How about this? I teach you to cultivate shadow essence and you cure my Void Plague again?"
Michelle wanted to slap him away, but the mention of cultivation made her reconsider. Having a tutor with something like that would definitely be useful.
"I don’t have the necessary soul energy to cure you now!" she said carelessly. It was partially true, but she mostly didn’t want to cure Alexander. For two reasons.
First, she wanted him to suffer.
And second, the longer he was sick, the more void would gather within him. And then, when she pulled it back, she would gain it. It would become her soul energy. And if she wanted, she could use it to cultivate her soul energy and break through some ranks.
She hadn’t properly cultivated her soul energy since she was in the Land of Exile, so even though she had a lot of it, she still wasn’t even in the Mortal rank. On the other hand, Anastasia was already in the Soul rank.
Alexander didn’t really care whether Michelle was telling the truth. Before he was cured by Michelle in the Land of Exile, he had the Void Plague for a long time—for years—and he got used to the pain.
So bearing it for just a day or two wasn’t that much for him. He could barely feel it.
"Then, until you can cure me, I’ll teach you the cultivation." Alexander reluctantly let go of Michelle and had her sit down.