Chapter 328: Pig!

Saul’s calm face slowly blossomed into a smile.

He expressed his satisfaction. “Good. Then let’s leave it to you.”

Saul’s plan was to use his tentacle that could transform into a soul form to once again absorb Herman’s soul, then bring it back to the Wizard Tower, simulate Lady Yura’s state, and test for all the potential problems that might arise during the fusion of soul body and vessel.

Although Saul could now access previous experimental data, reading was never as thorough as doing it himself. It would also help him take advantage of his soul talent to discover details that former experimenters had overlooked.

This was also why Gorsa had worked so hard to cultivate him and urged him to join the research team as soon as possible.

With the joint efforts of the other three soul, Saul successfully absorbed Herman’s soul into his own soul body.

During this time, the other three also offered many suggestions and explained to Saul various fields of knowledge he had never encountered before.

Obviously, the remaining three souls had also quickly realized the reason Herman had volunteered.

After Saul had resolutely abandoned the fifth black page last time, they’d vaguely sensed that he couldn’t create the pages infinitely.

Combined with the fact that keeping them conscious required Saul to continuously inject soul energy, they could deduce that if a more valuable soul appeared in the future—one that needed preserving even more, or one closer to Saul—then they… might be abandoned.

Ten minutes later, Saul opened his eyes again.

He lowered his head and looked at his left hand.

His left hand was now coated with a layer of flowing mercury. Within it, Herman’s soul was temporarily sealed.

“I can preserve it in my hand for about three days. I need to hurry back to the Wizard Tower to find a suitable vessel for Herman and begin the experiment.”

Today happened to be the day the carriage came to deliver supplies. Since Saul’s experiment had gone smoothly, he could ask the driver to take him back first.

At the lakeside cabin, he activated the protective formation and asked Little Algae to plant an avatar here.

If someone visited the cabin while Saul was gone, he would sense something amiss upon his return.

As night fell, Saul stepped down from the carriage, only to spot Lokai waiting there at a glance.

He had already learned from Byron that Lokai had once teamed up with Jero to intercept the carriage he and the others had been on, though he himself hadn’t been present at the time.

But that day, as soon as Saul returned to the second storage room, he discovered that among the corpses Nick had sent in a few days earlier, one bore a hidden command for the Soul Devouring Flower mark.

Whether or not Lokai and Jero had successfully blocked the carriage that day didn’t matter—Land Drifters’ informants were already capable of influencing the Soul Devouring Flower mark.

Saul jumped down from the carriage, told the mushroom driver to head back, and then walked straight toward Lokai.

“What a coincidence, President Lokai.”

Lokai stared at Saul, and his expressionless face suddenly bloomed into a dazzling smile.

“Heeheehee, congratulations, Saul! You’re the fastest person I’ve ever seen to reach Third Rank apprentice. As expected of the Tower Master’s personal student. I suppose I’ll have to start calling you Senior Saul from now on.”

“No need, just call me Saul,” Saul replied with a polite smile.

Lokai, the president of the Mutual Aid Association, seemed to be twenty-seven or twenty-eight this year, but he never showed the urgency typical of older Second Rank apprentices. He spent his days either organizing networking events or giving lectures to First Rank apprentices, as if he had no intention of ever advancing to Third Rank.

“Are you heading out?”

“No, I waited here especially for your return,” Lokai said with a grin. “I had several First Rank apprentices stationed here… and at the other entrance, watching every day to see when you’d come back.”

“Is something the matter?” Saul’s thoughts raced.

Was this fallout from his last return to the tower? Or was it about the formation at the lakeside cabin?

“Heehee, what could be the matter? After the last exchange meeting, a lot of people wanted to invite you again, that’s all.”

“Sorry, I’ve just taken on a task from my master, and things are a bit hectic. I’ll attend when I have time.”

Lokai’s grinning expression dimmed slightly. He naturally understood who Saul’s master was.

“What a shame. So many people were hoping to trade with you. But of course, the Tower Master’s business takes priority.” A smile crept back onto his face. “I’ll notify you every time there’s a gathering. I hope one day you’ll show up again.”

Smiling, Lokai stepped back into the shadows, clearing the path into the Wizard Tower.

Brushing past the maliciously grinning Lokai, Saul hurried back to the second storage room.

He sent a message to Hayden, telling her to resume her participation in the afternoon experiments starting tomorrow.

Then Saul went straight to a corpse.

“If there’s any vessel most suited to Herman’s soul, it has to be this one.”

In front of him stood Herman, now unrecognizable after being altered by the embalmer.

Saul removed the mercury seal from his left hand, which still maintained the form of an octopus tentacle. Suspended in the center of the semi-transparent appendage was a black shadow.

“Even though a corpse doesn’t have vital points anymore, the location for storing a soul still needs to be considered.”

Saul recalled the history he’d glimpsed while staying inside Little Algae.

In the underground lab, Gorsa stood behind the ever-chattering Lady Yura and sliced open her skull with one swift motion.

In the final moments of that vision, Saul remembered Gorsa… taking off the upper half of Lady Yura’s skull.

“Master placed Lady Yura’s soul into the skull of a vessel. But Herman’s situation is a bit different. He’s now purely a soul, relying on my injected soul energy to maintain a stable form. If a soul consists of an original soul and foreign soul energy, would the body reject it?”

With that in mind, Saul reached toward Herman’s corpse—specifically, the chest.

He didn’t choose the head, because clearly Gorsa’s experiment had failed. Besides, Saul believed the skull was an important but dangerous location.

This was his first experiment, so he wanted to play it safe.

Let’s see whether Herman’s body would reject his own soul.

Carefully, Saul brought the black glow representing Herman closer. His arm slowly morphed during the motion, changing from a tentacle into a massive syringe.

“As I thought, altering the shape helps me direct my mental energy. It’s a form of psychological suggestion.”

The syringe’s needle pierced into the corpse’s chest and began its slow injection.

At the same time, Saul extended a strand of mental power to wrap around Herman’s soul, monitoring its state at all times.

The black soul seemed to sense the shift in position and started to tremble.

The closer it got to the corpse, the more violently it shook.

“Is the soul instinctively afraid?”

“A soul fearing its own body? No, this vessel is conceptually distinct from his original body. Perhaps I should be ready to abort the experiment at any moment.”

Retrieving a soul requires constructing a mental realm, but sending one back was easy—just let the diary reabsorb it.

That could also help purify any contamination it had picked up while outside.

Although Saul had noticed Herman’s abnormal response, he didn’t terminate the experiment right away.

Still, his mind was alert. If possible, he didn’t want Herman’s soul to fail so quickly.

The syringe had nearly finished its work. The black soul gradually disappeared into Herman’s body.

The strand of mental energy Saul had released continued feeding him stable feedback.

The next second, Saul suddenly found the soul his mental thread had been wrapped around… was gone.

“What the—”

Just as his brow furrowed, Herman’s body opened its eyes.

None of the corpses in the storage room had eyes—those had been stored in a special area of the Wizard Tower.

So when Herman’s corpse opened its eyes, what Saul saw was a pair of hollows.

But when the head dipped and the void stared into Saul’s gaze, he felt as though something was watching him from the darkness beyond.

“Herman?”

“Pig!”

Saul’s face turned black. “Straighten your damn tongue before you speak!”

(End of Chapter)

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