Chapter 319: The First Trial

Saul couldn’t really remember the moment he had first crossed over into this world.

When he had just arrived, he’d entered a completely unfamiliar body. On top of that, the body had a head injury, leaving him dazed and muddleheaded. That was why those little boys had ganged up on him, forcing him to shoulder the most dangerous task of guarding the dorms at night, all by himself.

It turned out, back then, Mentor Gorsa had already discovered him.

That master of his was really good at pretending!

Saul’s tense shoulders gradually relaxed. His soul form no longer flickered in and out, and even the faint rejection this body once had toward him had been completely suppressed through body refinement techniques.

Using his own consciousness and mental energy, he had transformed his entire skin—now, it looked completely like the “new” Saul.

“For the next few days, I followed you in secret,” Gorsa continued. “Your soul was fusing more and more smoothly with the new body. It had already surpassed the best results we’d ever achieved in resurrection experiments. If I hadn’t caught you at the very beginning, I wouldn’t have been able to tell you apart from a normal person. So I kept wondering—was it your body that was special, or was it your soul?”

“Until that day, when you encountered that pool of blood on the thirteenth floor…”

Of course Saul remembered. That night had changed his life—the night that awakened the Dead Wizard’s Diary.

To escape the death that pool of blood heralded, Saul had knocked on Kongsha’s door across the hall.

“Your instinct was startling,” Gorsa swayed slightly as he spoke. “Though your soul was unfamiliar, it didn’t seem especially powerful. Only your mental energy was a bit higher than average—but even that was within the range of an ordinary prodigy. So how did you know that pool of blood was deadly?”

“I don’t know…” Saul deliberately blanked his mind and replied in a daze, “It was like a voice inside me just kept shouting—don’t touch it, or you’ll die. But I also understood that if I left that blood there, I’d be the one dealt with the next morning.”

What Saul said wasn’t false. The voice had indeed come from within him—specifically, from the diary on his left shoulder.

Gorsa didn’t doubt him. In fact, he nodded in agreement. “From that day forward, I realized—the special part of you isn’t the body you merged with. It’s your soul. Perhaps the dimensional leap you went through left your soul with a unique adaptive property, allowing you to resist the body’s rejection and avoid mental contamination due to cognitive dissonance.”

“Everything you did afterward only confirmed that. The greatest issue you faced was the occasional out-of-body episode as your soul grew stronger. And even that you managed to fix through body refinement.” Gorsa’s swaying body suddenly went still. He leaned forward slightly and looked Saul in the eyes. “Saul, though you’ve been researching vessels, that’s only the foundation. Sooner or later, your path will lead to the soul.”

“Yes, Master. I already understand my task.”

Gorsa’s voice gradually grew soft. “My time is running out. Which means your time is also running out. Five years… I hope you’ll have an answer by then. Otherwise, I’ll have no choice but to take matters into my own hands.”

Most soul-based wizard experiments were irreversibly damaging to soul bodies. Faced with such risky experimentation and only one high-level expendable to work with, Gorsa preferred to wait a bit longer.

He would wait for Saul to grow. Wait for his soul form to become stronger. Wait for him to unravel this mystery himself.

“This too is a kind of experiment,” Gorsa thought to himself.

It was like planting a weak little seed in a petri dish. Maybe it would wither midway. Maybe it would grow into a bloodthirsty vine. Or maybe it would grow into an ordinary little sprout.

But that didn’t matter. He still had some time left. He wanted to see what kind of fruit this rare seed would ultimately bear.

“Five years, huh?” Saul understood—that was Gorsa’s absolute limit. “No problem. If I don’t complete my task in five years, I’ll lie down on the experiment table myself.”

Since there was no other choice, he might as well bet everything on this!

“Very good.” Gorsa’s silver eyes curved into a smile. “One final piece of advice—when it comes to souls, the wizarding world has already made very deep inroads. But even so, there are vast domains that remain unknown. If you want to study the soul, you can’t stay in the safety zone. A true wizard is always treading the path of the unknown.”

Saul silently savored those words.

Was Master Gorsa… encouraging him to take risks?

Did he think Saul had been playing it too safe lately?

Indeed, ever since acquiring the diary, Saul’s actions might seem risky on the surface—but in truth, he’d always remained inside his comfort zone.

And because of that, he understood many things only on a superficial level—knowing that something worked, but not why it worked.

He was beginning to lack that most vital quality for any wizard: the spirit of exploration.

If he kept relying on the diary, he could indeed cruise through the early stages of becoming a wizard.

But that was like building a hundred-story skyscraper with no foundation.

Eventually, at the very end of the road, he would face a life-or-death crisis—one he could neither avoid nor escape.

It would be like floating high in the sky in a hot air balloon without knowing any flight spells. Once the balloon’s energy ran out, the only outcome waiting for him would be a fatal crash.

The thought sent a chill through Saul’s spine. Cold sweat beaded all over his body. He was more terrified than he had been when Gorsa had exposed his identity as a transmigrator!

“I can’t let myself use the diary’s power for research or study anymore. If I grow dependent, I’ll lose the habit of learning on my own. I’ll become a puppet of the diary—a failure of a wizard who doesn’t dare try a new spell without it!”

When Gorsa spoke those words to him, he probably meant them as a casual piece of advice—but by sheer accident, they helped Saul unearth the greatest hidden crisis he was currently facing.

Gorsa was very satisfied with Saul’s shaken reaction. He could tell that Saul had experienced an epiphany.

Sometimes, vague philosophical truths, when matched with one’s personal experience, could transform into specific warning signs—thus becoming lessons with far greater impact than others could ever appreciate.

Of course, the prerequisite was thinking it through.

“We’ve talked enough for today,” Gorsa said. “As for the experiment, think it over after you go back. If you have no other questions, I’ll send you back to the second storeroom now.”

Saul snapped out of his deep thoughts. Hearing the implicit dismissal, he was about to nod when a question suddenly came to mind. “Master, back then, that pool of…”

“Hmm?”

“No, it’s nothing.” Saul’s heart skipped a beat and he gave up the question. “Please send me back.”

Gorsa smiled slightly. The halo above their heads abruptly vanished, plunging the surroundings back into darkness.

A wave of dizziness hit Saul. His mind felt like it was plunging downward. Once more, he fell through a world filled with eyes, until he landed on the single bed in the storeroom.

He didn’t get up. Just lay there in the same posture, staring blankly at the ceiling.

“Kongsha once told me the dorm across from hers was unoccupied. Then that night… that pool of blood… who put it there?”

Recalling the calm look in Gorsa’s eyes at the end, Saul finally chose to let it go.

“So, the trial… began all the way back then, huh?”

(End of Chapter)

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