Chapter 307: Peering In

Faced with the shadow that suddenly appeared between Gorsa and himself, Saul’s nerves instantly tensed—he nearly cast Soul Armor. But remembering that the Tower Master might be examining his soul body, he quickly forced himself to relax.

“The diary didn’t give any warning.”

Saul was a little nervous.

The diary had already become his locator, its connection with him growing deeper and deeper. He didn’t know if Gorsa would sense the diary’s presence if he used some special method to observe his soul body.

But with the shadow approaching ever closer, Saul had no choice but to continue trusting in the diary’s power.

The shadow moved swiftly—within the blink of an eye, it was standing directly in front of Saul.

Its figure was long and slender, but paper-thin.

For a moment, Saul even thought it might be Lady Yura stored inside Gorsa. When Lady Yura appeared in her shadow state, she looked just like this—like a paper-thin silhouette.

But he quickly dismissed the idea.

This shadow felt completely different from Lady Yura.

It wasn’t irritable, nor was it angry. It simply stood there silently. As it leaned forward to peer down at Saul, its outline vaguely overlapped with Gorsa’s form.

But it wasn’t Gorsa.

Because the Tower Master himself was still sitting in the corner across from Saul!

The shadow stared at Saul—though Saul couldn’t see its eyes—it continued to lean in closer.

Its movements were slow, but as it gradually approached, the world before Saul began to distort.

Saul kept his gaze locked on the shadow, but as time passed, his focus started to zero in on the shadow’s face.

The figure before him grew clearer and clearer, while the surroundings blurred away.

In his peripheral vision, the room seemed to stretch under an invisible force. Gorsa, who had been just two meters away, now seemed ten meters off.

“Was this room always this big? Or has my vision been twisted by some magic?” Saul thought vaguely.

He had the faint feeling that something wasn’t right, but couldn’t figure out what exactly. The shadow drawing ever closer had completely consumed his attention.

He no longer had the mental energy to think about why the walls beside him had turned curved, or when the Tower Master ahead had become a distant blur. He just wanted to keep looking at the shadow, to look closely, hoping to make out the shadow’s features within the blur.

Yes, Saul felt he was just about to see it clearly—just a little closer, just a little more…

Rustle…

Suddenly, the sound of flipping pages snapped Saul out of his trance. He jolted, finally noticing the diary flipping pages inside his soul body.

It was only flipping through blank white pages—no text appeared.

It wasn’t a warning.

“This isn’t a crisis warning—it’s the diary helping me stabilize my consciousness!” Now that he was alert, Saul realized the diary was doing its job as his locator.

Even with his awareness back, Saul noticed his soul body remained in a disturbingly lax state. It was as if his mind had sobered up, but his body hadn’t caught on yet.

His soul body was like a grand mansion, with the owner gone and the doors left wide open. Anyone who happened to look this way could walk right in, roam around at will, and maybe even leave with something valuable!

“This has to be the Tower Master’s ability. It feels like it’s anesthetizing my awareness.” Saul thought, growing anxious, though his reactions still felt sluggish.

The shadow continued to inch forward, and his view of the world kept stretching further and further—the far end of the room now looked a hundred meters away.

“The closer this shadow gets, the more the world stretches. And the distortion is growing exponentially. If it keeps going, my perception of the room could extend into hundreds, even thousands of meters.”

“If it touches me… will my entire world become some endless corridor?”

I can’t let it touch me!

He could hear his own heartbeat pounding like thunder—he had never felt such an acute sense of danger.

This wasn’t a threat of death—it was a collapse of perception.

Even if he didn’t die, Saul was sure that if the shadow touched him, he’d go insane!

Yet the diary still didn’t respond.

For the first time, Saul’s instincts were screaming, but the diary remained motionless.

The shadow was now only a centimeter or two away. Saul’s sluggish mind finally remembered: Run.

Even though the room was physically quite small, he had to try and escape—even just a few centimeters would count!

“Back up. Back up. Back up!”

Saul frantically told himself to dodge, like someone caught in a nightmare desperately trying to wake up.

With great effort, his neck finally moved.

It tilted slightly backward—just enough to pull Saul’s head away from the shadow… by one centimeter.

But that one centimeter of retreat made the shadow suddenly halt.

Then, like a spring stretched to its limit, the shadow straightened up sharply.

In that instant—as the shadow stood upright—the distorted world around Saul snapped back. Everything shrank, collapsing in a flash back to normal.

As the view returned to normal, the shadow vanished with it.

The Tower Master Gorsa was still quietly sitting in the corner, just two meters away.

As if nothing had happened.

“Your locator is quite good, but what surprised me even more was your willpower. It’s just as tenacious as it was the night we first met.”

Saul was breathing lightly, but that was only because he was doing his best to keep control.

Silently, he moved his hands behind his back, tugging at the sweat-soaked shirt clinging to him.

It had been a long time since he’d sweat like this.

“Ta… Tower Master, that… just now… what was that?” Saul’s voice was still shaking.

“Just observing your soul body, to see if there were any of the abnormalities you mentioned.” Gorsa rested his arms on his knees. “But your locator blocked my vision, so I wasn’t able to see through your soul body. I didn’t find anything unusual.”

The diary blocked Gorsa’s probing?

Saul was surprised.

Either the diary had protected him too well… or the Soul Devouring Flower’s mark had been planted too deeply. To find it, one would have to thoroughly inspect every corner of his soul body.

But that would risk revealing Saul’s secrets.

So, even if only to protect itself, the diary had to stop the intrusion.

“But if that’s the case, won’t the Tower Master be unable to confirm the Land Drifters’ scheme?” Saul’s gaze dimmed. “I can’t just tell him outright that I’ve been marked by the Soul Devouring Flower.”

Saul shouldn’t even know that name.

So he only nodded, thanking the Tower Master. “Thank you, Tower Master. I must have been too sensitive.”

“No, I believe in your intuition.”

To his surprise, even though he hadn’t discovered anything, Gorsa affirmed Saul’s instincts. “The fact that I didn’t find anything just means the opponent’s methods aren’t low-level.”

Saul heard a soft laugh.

“What are the Land Drifters best known for anyway? It’s nothing but their reliance on the Soul Devouring Flower.”

He bought it!

Saul looked up with feigned surprise. “The Soul Devouring Flower? That name sounds like it targets the soul.”

Gorsa slowly stood.

The way he stood was strange. He didn’t brace himself with his hands or retract his ankles. He simply rose up—like a balloon man being inflated.

Saul vaguely saw him twist his neck.

“That’s right. But more accurately, the Soul Devouring Flower targets consciousness.”

(End of Chapter)

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