Chapter 402 : Heart Stirred

Falling asleep in the second warehouse and unexpectedly entering the dreamscape of a souls fragment was something Saul had never anticipated.

In fact, he had never even considered that soul fragments could dream.

Could it be that after gathering enough fragments, they somehow formed a whole?

But now wasn’t the time to dwell on that.

A thought suddenly struck Saul—if soul fragments could dream, didn’t that mean they also possessed stable memories?

That was why Saul had grabbed the soul fragment’s mouth before it could escape.

“You, you’re asking…”

“You guys just said another person entered. Judging by the way you recognized me earlier, you weren’t talking about when I was dragged in over a year ago.” Saul shook the mouth he was holding. “So, has someone else recently entered the tunnels?”

Ordinary apprentices definitely couldn’t enter the tunnels, and none of the current True Wizards were skilled enough at reshaping their forms to squeeze into them either.

So whoever entered must have been a soul body.

Could it have been Senior Byron?

“Yes.”

“Was it… a complete, independent soul body?”

The mouth gaped open for a while, as if trying to think. “No, not a complete soul body.”

Saul’s heart sank, but he sensed the mouth still had more to say, so he didn’t interrupt.

“It wasn’t a soul body that entered. It was a living person. We watched as he crawled deeper and deeper inside.”

Saul froze in place, and after a moment of hesitation, asked, “A living person?”

How could it be a living person?

Could a living person really enter the candle tunnels?

“Where did he go?”

“Deeper.”

“What’s deeper?”

“Deeper is where we can’t go.”

“Explain!”

“It’s where those eyes dwell. He was lucky he didn’t end up in the places where the hands are.”

“Eyes… the eyes in the interlayers?”

Saul immediately thought of the eyes surrounding the second warehouse—the ones that had once seared his soul body.

There was no reason to hesitate anymore.

The places where those eyes dwelled were definitely not safe.

He had to confirm what was going on.

Saul casually tossed the mouth aside and noticed the soul fragment was fleeing rapidly.

Closing his eyes, the butterfly wings on his back instantly crumbled into fragments, and when he opened them again, he had returned to the real world.

Saul leapt from the bed at once, throwing on the cloak hanging by the headboard as he moved.

The interlayers where the eyes dwelled were extremely dangerous, but according to the mouth, a living person entering there was considered luckier than entering where the arms were.

Maybe because in that place, there was at least some chance of survival.

Saul decided to find Heywood.

Last time, Heywood’s sister—or rather, his curse, Heidi—had also entered the interlayers and managed to survive for at least half a night inside.

Though she had paid the price of her eyes before Saul finally pulled her out, it still proved that she had ways to survive within.

And Heidi’s state was similar to the living person that had entered. At the very least, Heidi was not considered a soul body.

Saul himself couldn’t stay long in the interlayers with the eyes. After five seconds, he’d be cooked alive.

Even with his recent surge in strength, that hadn’t changed.

Therefore, if he wanted to enter the interlayers where the eyes were, he would need help.

Ten minutes later, Saul appeared outside the first warehouse and made his request to Heywood, who was inside.

Upon hearing Saul’s request to borrow Heidi, Heywood didn’t immediately refuse.

He rested his chin on one hand, tapping his lower lip with his fingers.

“I must know what you intend to do with Heidi.”

“I need to search for something in the interlayers outside the second warehouse. If possible, I’d like Heidi to help retrieve it as well.”

“What thing?”

“I can only tell you it’s not a soul body.”

If Heidi managed to bring the living person back, she would naturally realize it wasn’t a soul body. Saul was merely stating something Heywood would eventually find out anyway.

“How long do you need?”

“I don’t know how long a search will take until I find the lost item.”

Heywood tapped his lips faster, one of his two-colored eyes fixed steadily on Saul, while the other darted about randomly.

Saul waited for Heywood to name his price.

But to his surprise, Heywood flatly refused. “I’m afraid not. Heidi can survive there, but only briefly, and only if she’s extremely careful to suppress her presence. If you have her searching without limit, you’re essentially sending her to her death.”

Saul understood Heidi was Heywood’s sister, but he had come prepared to negotiate.

“What if the search only lasts an hour?”

His previous talk about unlimited time had just been to leave room for bargaining.

One hour—if Heidi was cautious enough—she could still avoid the eyes’ detection and carefully maneuver through the space.

“You don’t understand, Saul. Heidi is my sister, but she also shares this body with me now. If she dies, not only would I grieve, but I’d suffer serious damage too. I might even lose all hope of promotion.”

Heywood’s eye that was already focused on Saul narrowed slightly, while the other continued spinning erratically.

Saul spread his hands open. “Heywood, without losing Heidi, you’re already stuck where you are, aren’t you?”

The spinning eye suddenly froze, jerking stiffly to fix on Saul with an angry glare, as if ready to punch him.

But Heywood’s expression remained relaxed, showing no anger at Saul’s provocation. Instead, the blue eye that had always calmly watched Saul now revealed a hint of surprise.

“I thought you were here… to borrow something.”

Saul answered seriously, “To be precise, for an equivalent exchange.”

“So you’ve already prepared something for the trade? Are you sure I’ll be interested?”

As he spoke, Heywood gestured toward the warehouse behind him.

As the keeper of the tower’s largest warehouse, Heywood lacked for no magical materials.

And given his strength as a peak Third Rank apprentice, no one had ever dared claim they could offer something he couldn’t already obtain.

But Saul was confident.

Because what he intended to trade was something he had created himself.

“Heywood, I believe your locator device must be extremely powerful, and very well-suited to you.” Saul began by complimenting him. “But the real reason you can’t advance is your own strength.”

Saul raised both his hands. “No offense intended, but I suspect your locator device isn’t well-suited for dealing with soul forms, is it? Under the locator’s enhancement, your physical body became overwhelmingly strong, far exceeding your soul. So you had to host a cursed soul inside yourself to maintain balance.”

This time, Heywood’s purple, vicious eye widened slightly, while the calm blue eye narrowed.

“Probing a wizard apprentice’s locator device is a very dangerous act.”

The air temperature suddenly spiked.

Not actual heat, but the surrounding elemental particles had grown restless.

Still, Saul remained calm and snapped his fingers lightly.

A wave of spiritual resonance and mental ripples spread outward like a stone cast into a pond.

As that mental force expanded, the restless elemental particles quickly calmed.

The room returned to its original coolness.

And along with it, Heywood’s darkened expression lightened once again.

“This is…” Heywood looked at Saul’s hand, surprise flashing in his eyes.

“I have a physical enhancement potion. This potion can allow your skin to be like mine—able to host soul and mental forces. What do you say? Isn’t that enough of a trade to let Heidi take a little risk?”

Heywood stared intently at Saul’s hands.

He hadn’t mistaken it earlier—the spiritual ripples had indeed spread from Saul’s hands!

Saul’s skin could accommodate soul forms!

This was exactly Heywood’s biggest weakness right now!

He was thoroughly, completely tempted.

(End of Chapter)

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