After five days passed since Michelle entered the Spirit Onslaught room, the family head (Jonathan) summoned one of the guards responsible for the place, telling him to open the room and be prepared to clear a body.

So, the guard did.

He went over to the Spirit Onslaught room and opened the heavy door along with the second guard that was assigned to the place.

In the room, Michelle heard the door slowly opening.

And at the same time as it creaked, the machines ceased their firing at her.

So, she retracted the void barrier around herself.

She no longer needed it, and she definitely didn’t want anyone from the Ostrich family to know she possessed soul energy — that she was a Soul Master.

When the two guards finally opened the door, they were clearly shocked that Michelle was without a single scratch on her.

Like she was completely immune to the effect of the machines.

"Lady Ana, how come the punishment didn’t affect you the least bit?" one of the guards asked — the one Jonathan had summoned and ordered to get rid of the body.

Michelle looked at him dismissively and just passed by him.

Officially, she was a Young Lady of the Ostrich family; she didn’t need to respond to a guard.

To make sure he didn’t bother her further, she just concealed herself and walked away invisible to the guards.

Like that, she went to find Vincent.

Since she had returned from the Academy, she didn’t have the time to go meet the man she was temporarily calling her father.

First, she went to check Vincent’s courtyard, but his servant told her he wasn’t there.

So she had to look for him elsewhere.

And that place was the family’s graveyard.

As far as she knew, Jonathan and the elders must have already told Vincent the punishment they had decided for Michelle.

As (officially) her father, he had to pretend to be grieving just from the thought that she was in the Spirit Onslaught room, because being there for five days was a death sentence.

And, as a grieving father, Vincent argued with the elders until they at least let him create a grave for her for proper burial.

Because those who died from punishment in the Spirit Onslaught room had their corpses thrown into a hill in the grounds of the mansion, where quite the number of beasts resided — quite the number of hungry and bloodthirsty beasts.

Actually, Vincent wasn’t worried that Michelle would die.

He was aware that even he himself could have trouble surviving five days in the Spirit Onslaught room, but when it came to Michelle, he knew that since she provoked the elders enough that they wanted to kill her, she was confident she could survive everything they could throw at her.

And, somehow, he had the feeling that the Spirit Onslaught room wouldn’t even count as a child’s play to her; and he thought that even though he knew he was higher in rank in cultivation than her.

When Michelle entered the graveyard, the servants that were digging the grave stiffened up like they saw a ghost.

But Michelle ignored them and went to find Vincent.

"Father! What are you doing here?" she asked when she reached him.

Instantly, Vincent twisted around to stare at her, his eyes wide with disbelief.

"Ana!" His hands trembled at his sides, seeing that his daughter was alive.

Well, that was only what it looked like to the onlookers.

Vincent wasn’t really the least bit shaken up — maybe only by the fact that Michelle looked completely unscathed from the punishment.

So, she indeed had a way to completely ignore the Spirit Onslaught room.

"Father, why are the servants digging a grave? Did someone die?" Michelle pretended not to know what was going on, tilting her head in what perfectly looked like confusion.

Vincent pretended to be completely shocked but delighted to find out that his daughter was fine.

He quickly ordered the servants to stop what they were doing before he led Michelle away.

When he and Michelle reached his courtyard, only then did he drop the act and talk business with her.

Also, Vincent didn’t ask her how she survived the punishment; if Michelle wanted to tell him, she would, and if she didn’t tell him on her own, it meant it was something she wanted to keep a secret.

And since he was basically her business partner, he wouldn’t probe where he wasn’t meant to.

So, finally, Michelle and Vincent talked about what had happened in the family while she was at the Academy, and what the plans were for the future.

The things of the past were easier to sum up.

Basically, Vincent kept taunting Andrew and making him go insane. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

The poor guy was already near snapping.

Once that happened, the real plan would begin; it would be the first blow to the elders.

Because Andrew Ostrich Senior was a killer; everyone in the family knew he was a maniac, so if he snapped, he would cause bloodshed that would force the elders to act against their own rules.

Also, if Andrew snapped, Vincent would get rid of the right hand of his dear enemy — the damned mastermind behind everything.

While talking about all that, Michelle realized that not once had Vincent mentioned the name of that enemy of his; he was deliberately avoiding saying it.

But Michelle wanted to know the name.

When she asked, Vincent told her.

He also knew she needed to know who the enemy was.

The man was Tobias Ostrich.

The next thing Michelle and Vincent talked about was how to get rid of Tobias.

That, Vincent had also already thought of.

Tobias wasn’t someone like Andrew Senior who could just be driven crazy to go on a manic killing spree.

If Tobias went crazy, he would become paranoid and become even more cautious than before.

He definitely wouldn’t just start mindlessly killing.

Even if he did start killing, he would do it secretly, so it couldn’t be traced back to him.

So, to make a bastard like that do something the elders would have to punish in a way that went against their own principles, Vincent and Michelle had to get creative.

Also, in the process, they had to include Michelle’s staged death so Vincent could finally give his daughter a burial.

Her body was still in his spatial ring to prevent decay.

Because burying a decaying corpse was a great disgrace in the upper realm.

Vincent wanted his daughter to have a proper burial, since her death was already disgraceful enough.

Actually, Vincent had yet to include Michelle’s staged death into the plan.

That was why he needed to talk with her.

Michelle thought about it for a while.

If Vincent wanted to, her death could be staged so it would seem that Andrew Senior was the one who killed her in his manic frenzy.

Naturally, after that, Michelle would still stay hidden nearby, because she was needed for the following plan.

But she wasn’t needed as Ana Ostrich; just her abilities were needed.

Vincent liked the idea quite a bit, but there was one thing bothering him about it.

Initially, when he agreed with Michelle that she would stage as his daughter and he would make it so she could go to the Academy, they had agreed she wouldn’t be engaged in the plan; she would just need to be alive.

But she had already been dragged into the conflict so much, it was basically impossible for her to no longer be involved.

But still, the initial plan had been that once she (supposedly) died, she could leave.

At least that part of the deal Vincent wanted to keep up.

When Vincent stated his concerns about that, Michelle nodded a bit.

In the upper realm (and generally in the world of cultivation), cultivators’ words and promises were a big deal; going back on one’s words was considered utterly disgusting.

Vincent must have thought that too, so he didn’t want to do it.

But, of course, that didn’t mean he wanted to prolong the time before Michelle’s staged death just so he could keep his word.

That would be straight‑up selfish.

Michelle thought about Vincent’s words for a while before coming up with a plan.

For his plans, Vincent didn’t need her personally.

He needed her poisons and some of her skills.

The poison part was simple to take care of; Michelle could just give him a supply of them.

As for the skills, theoretically, she could summon a clone to step in as her, but she didn’t know if she was comfortable showing Vincent that she could clone herself — even considering that, working with him, she trusted him quite a bit.

But then, there was still a way to take care of that part.

"Father, I have a way to take care of that, but after everything is taken care of, I will have to wipe your memories. I will make you remember the period after my staged death that I left behind a contracted beast that can do all I will really be doing for you."

Vincent raised a brow.

"It’s such a secretive thing?"

Michelle nodded.

"If you don’t like the idea of me altering your memories, I can come up with a different plan. But tell me now, because I’m not telling you the current plan if you don’t agree."