Chapter 321: Preliminary Examination

Saul admitted—there were many things in this world that could shock him.

The truth behind Lady Yura’s death, the inheritance of the Wizard Tower, the origin of that cursed pool of blood in the beginning…

But none of them had ever made him spit out water in sheer disbelief!

Cough cough! “Hayden, you—you actually signed up for the soul infusion experiment?!”

Even now, Saul couldn’t calm himself down.

147—no, Hayden—looked up at him. Because he couldn’t control his facial muscles properly, his whole expression appeared oddly innocent.

“My lord, back then, you told me that an apprentice who’s not yet Third Rank by thirty is highly likely to suffer contamination and distortion. But I’m already twenty-eight. Even if you helped me, with my aptitude, there’s no way I could reach Third Rank before thirty.”

“So you risked your life and volunteered for the soul infusion experiment?”

“Yes, my lord. It was the fastest path I could think of to reach Second Rank. And once I had that power, I could help you with more of your research.”

Saul pressed a hand to his forehead. He’d always known that for the soul infusion experiment, the soul’s gender had to differ from the vessel’s body. That was why, when he first saw the beautiful subject, he’d had absolutely zero stray thoughts—he might as well have been looking at a pile of corpses in the storage room.

But finding out the soul belonged to someone familiar… that hit a little too close.

“So your earlier departure from the tower was just a cover?”

“Yes.” At this, Hayden bent down again, pressing his forehead to the floor. “Other than Mentor Rum, only you know about this, my lord. Please… don’t tell anyone else.”

Saul nodded, then quipped, “You had the courage to join the experiment, but not to reveal your identity?”

Unexpectedly, Hayden answered with complete honesty, “No, my lord. In fact, even the courage to participate wasn’t mine.”

“Oh? Someone else helped you?”

“Actually…” Hayden straightened up, lifting his face so Saul could see clearly.

Suddenly, a stiff smile spread across that already stiff face. “Actually, it’s me, my lord. I apologize for not greeting you properly until now.”

Saul narrowed his eyes, scrutinizing the figure before him.

Though her appearance, voice, and expression hadn’t changed much, her gaze had.

Compared to the earlier hesitant and timid look, this one was bolder—and far more resolute.

“Who are you?”

“I’m also Hayden. I just appeared a bit later. In academic terms… I’m Hayden’s second personality.”

Saul immediately narrowed his eyes further and activated his meditation technique.

But from what he could see, Subject 147 still looked exactly the same. No abnormalities.

It seemed Hayden’s soul was tightly sealed inside the vessel, waiting to be examined later for any irregularities.

“Would a split personality manifest visibly on the soul? Would it be two souls in one body—or a single soul with dual consciousness?”

“Well…” The person before him visibly reverted to the timid Hayden. Her stiff spine softened. “I’ve never studied my own soul. I was afraid of causing unpredictable changes.”

“That’s fair,” Saul muttered. Without the safety net of his diary, even he wouldn’t dare casually mess with his soul.

Besides, Saul’s soul had high plasticity and adaptability. Perhaps that was the ‘uniqueness’ Gorsa had mentioned.

A uniqueness likely stemming from his experience of transmigration.

Yet to this day, Saul had no memories of that event.

No matter how hard he tried to recall, all he could see was endless darkness.

“Did something trigger the emergence of the second personality?”

“Yes. When I was little, the territory my family lived in suffered a sudden surge of wraiths. Everyone died—except me. That’s when the second personality appeared. He’s the one who helped me survive.”

“You’re sure it’s a second personality, not another soul?” Saul gestured for Hayden to lie down on the experiment bed.

Clearly, Hayden had already prepared for Saul’s examination. Without hesitation, she climbed onto the table.

The experimental uniforms were specially designed, with matching openings on the back as well as the front, making it easy to inspect the special formation etched on their spines.

Saul approached and undid the back of her clothing. Once in research mode, he no longer cared whether the subject was male or female.

To him, they were all just test subjects.

A golden rune formation was drawn across Hayden’s back—a formation specifically used to bind and restrict the soul of a First Rank apprentice.

Now, that soul subtly took the shape of Hayden’s appearance, but without prior knowledge, it’d be nearly impossible to identify.

Saul’s fingertip lit with a faint gray glow as he touched the formation.

Hayden’s body didn’t react—but the face etched within the formation suddenly began to writhe.

“No need to hold back,” Saul said coolly. “I want to see your natural reaction.”

He loosened the seal a bit more.

Immediately, the formation distorted even further! Hayden’s skin began to bulge, as though something inside was trying to burst through, clawing its way out.

Saul narrowed his eyes, fixed on the shifting skin.

A twisted, translucent gray face struggled to emerge, its expression twisted with agony and madness.

“You can talk to me calmly—yet your soul reacts with such intense pain? Did someone deliberately suppress emotional signals using the formation? That would explain the muted emotions, the lost micro-expressions… like some celebrity with a botched facelift.”

Saul didn’t stop. He continued pressing down on the formation. The more he did, the more tortured Hayden’s soul became.

But at that moment, a soft moan came from the head of the bed.

Saul paused, leaning in to observe her face.

“The more the soul suffers, the more relaxed the vessel appears. A complete reversal. This suggests the body still rejects the soul—but the formation forcibly binds the two together.”

“A crude method. No wonder there’s been no meaningful progress in all these years. Did Mentor Rum not see this? Or… is this already the method with the least side effects?”

Saul stopped torturing Hayden and pressed a hand against the nearly-escaped soul.

His hand turned slightly translucent, and with force, he shoved the soul back into the body.

That concluded the preliminary examination.

Saul told Hayden to rest, then walked back to his desk to document his findings.

“Definitely a second personality. No fundamental soul mutation—just a fractured consciousness. But I’m no psychiatrist. Unless I use soul-fishing to trap Hayden’s soul into a book page… which is possible.”

As he wrote, Saul suddenly realized—Hayden’s current state wasn’t so different from the four consciousnesses in his own diary.

He’d already gone through all the documentation on the soul infusion project and found that most subjects didn’t live past three years. And in every case, it was the soul that ended up corrupted.

Once that happened, Mentor Rum would enlist Kaz and others to help clean up the contamination, purify the vessel, and wait for the next First Rank apprentice desperate enough to volunteer.

First Rank apprentices with no hope of advancement trying to shortcut their way to Second Rank—but still unable to escape the fate of corruption.

As if despair never truly left them.

(End of Chapter)

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