Chapter 99
Entering the dungeon, Michelle’s nose was assaulted by the stifling smell of mold and the metallic smell of blood mixed together, making her smile a bit. Judging by the fact that she couldn’t hear any screams or groans, Ferdinand was already unconscious, and Kieran and Ivona had already gotten some information out of him. "What did you find out?" she asked when she finally saw the two standing at the end of the dungeon.
"Oh, Michelle," Ivona was a bit surprised to see Michelle so soon. "Didn’t you say you were going to help Anastasia choose a weapon? Why are you here already?" she asked.
Michelle walked over and glanced into the cell, seeing Ferdinand unconscious and bloodied on the wet and dirty ground, with bruises all over his body. "I see you didn’t go easy on him..." she mumbled. "Anastasia is already sparring with the knights. She chose a weapon quickly, but it’s a bit impractical. I’ll have to think of a way to put it all together before we go to the lower realm."
"You want to take her with us?" Both Kieran and Ivona were surprised. "But that’s not possible. She doesn’t have spirit energy, so she can’t pass through the barrier you told us about." Kieran glanced at the bandage on Michelle’s head as he remembered what she told them when she returned with a bloodied head.
Kieran’s words didn’t make Michelle happy, but he was right. At the moment, she didn’t know of a way to get Anastasia out of the Land of Exile. She thought about making Anastasia a Soul Master, in other words, making her cultivate only soul energy, as in Rivenaar’s memories she found out that people like that existed in the heavenly realm, but she wasn’t sure if a Soul Master could pass through the barrier of Heaveny Law. "There has to be a way! I’ll think of something!" she finally said as she turned her attention to Ferdinand. "What did he tell you?" she asked.
So, Ivona started explaining. Ferdinand explained to them, after they tortured him quite a bit, that his great-grandfather was from the upper realm, but his cultivation was too low to achieve anything, so he went to the middle and then the lower realm, but he couldn’t get a good position there, so he ended up going to the Land of Exile where he became the Empire’s founding General.
When the founding General was already old and had many descendants, his younger brother, who still looked to be in his forties, came down to the Land of Exile and ordered him to observe the Sloan family, but, by then, the Sloan family was already accused of corruption, and the time of their execution was set. When the brother found that out, he ordered the Ostrich family to get as many artifacts from the Sloan family as they could, because the Ostrich family in the upper realm needed them. Under the threat of death from the brother, Ferdinand agreed.
Kieran and Ivona also asked him where the brother was at the moment, and how they were planning to bring the artifacts to the upper realm, but he said that he didn’t know. He was just told that the brother would return to collect the artifacts after about a year after the operation started.
Listening to Kieran and Ivona’s explanation, Michelle turned to stare at Ferdinand, her purple eyes deep and profound as she thought about something. "What are you planning now?" she asked as she finally averted her gaze and glanced at Kieran.