Chapter 411 : Half a Face

The memories of Haywood, hiding inside the ribbonfish, were incomplete.

He remembered that he, Kongsha, and Ivan were about to begin their body modification experiment, and he recalled the nearing promotion to become a true wizard, but everything before that was a blur, as though he was merely someone named Haywood from any random day.

“What exactly were you three planning to modify the next day?”

Saul felt that Haywood couldn’t have appeared out of nowhere. Having stayed in the interlayer for such a long time, there had to be some reason behind it.

“Actually, all of our modifications were for the resurrection experiment of the master. But out of the three of us, only one successfully completed the modification, while the others completely failed.”

Upon hearing this, Saul couldn’t help but recall Kongsha’s terrifying glass head, half of it missing, and Ivan’s bodyless, blurry figure wandering the corridors every night.

The ribbonfish continued speaking, hoping to find out the reason behind its transformation through memory.

“Kongsha’s modification was to allow her body to accommodate multiple incomplete souls for long-term observation of the body’s ability to accept different souls. Ivan, on the other hand, tried an out-of-body experience, temporarily inhabiting the corpse of a faceless man, to see if he could control two bodies at once without the original body dying, and then slowly transfer his soul completely into the new body.”

Hearing the mention of faceless men, Saul suddenly recalled that he had heard of this race somewhere before.

He muttered in his mind: “Agu, Ivan wouldn’t have used your corpse for the experiment, would he?”

[Agu: No, master. I wish my body were still intact. In reality, my body was dissected and studied by the previous master of this wizard tower. The previous master was quite curious about the physiology of the faceless men.]

Dissecting a person while allowing their soul to observe?

Seems like the previous master of the wizard tower was a ruthless one.

Saul was curious. “Who was the previous master of this wizard tower? Was it connected to Gorsa?”

[Agu: I only know name was Camus and was from the Glare Family. But one day, the previous master suddenly left, and after a few days, Gorsa arrived and took over the tower.]

Such a large wizard tower was passed on so casually.

Gorsa had once promised Saul that after the resurrection experiment succeeded, he would hand over the wizard tower to Saul.

At that time, Saul hadn’t believed it.

Now it seemed a bit possible, considering how easily Gorsa had taken over the tower.

While Saul and Agu quickly exchanged words in the diary, the ribbonfish continued recounting the tragic experiences of himself and his companions.

“…Ivan’s modification failed completely. The faceless man’s corpse underwent a mutation and began to contaminate Ivan. When Ivan tried to return to his original body midway, it rejected him severely. Sadly, Ivan lost his body altogether.”

“That’s really unfortunate,” Saul was brought back to attention and sighed.

Yura had abandoned her original body, and Gorsa had supported her.

Ivan, on the other hand, had lost his body due to an experiment—who knows if he volunteered—and Gorsa clearly hadn’t protected him as he had with Yura’s soul. Ivan had likely turned into something akin to a vengeful spirit.

Even worse than a vengeful spirit, depending on how much the contamination had affected him.

After recounting Kongsha and Ivan’s fates, the ribbonfish fell silent.

Saul believed that if the ribbonfish’s eyes weren’t so dried out, a tear would have probably rolled down by now.

“What about you?” Saul asked, taking the initiative. “What kind of modification did you undergo?”

By now, Saul still couldn’t confirm if the ribbonfish was Haywood.

This being had recent memories inside the interlayer, yet after coming out, his mind seemed confused, only retaining memories from over ten years ago.

He was talking about the modification that would happen the next day, but in the middle of his speech, he revealed the results of the experiment.

It was as if his memories were fragmented, his mind unclear.

This made Saul suspicious. Could the soul inside the ribbonfish have only seen what happened in the wizard tower through some means?

After all, it was an eye—nothing strange about spying.

And this wizard tower had many places where there were mist-like entities, invisible to both the naked eye and meditation.

If those mist-like entities came from the eyes in the interlayer, Saul would think it was perfectly reasonable.

Facing Saul’s question, the ribbonfish suddenly trembled slightly, but it seemed to not notice, continuing to answer Saul naturally.

“My modification was to be performed together with my sister Heidi…”

Suddenly, the ribbonfish’s voice stopped abruptly.

A pink finger tapped on the ribbonfish’s delicate little head.

The ribbonfish trembled violently, and its dry outer skin instantly flaked off, revealing yellowish fish flesh.

Then, the plump fish flesh began to vanish bit by bit, as though an invisible mouth was devouring it right before Saul’s eyes. Even the bones were not spared.

Saul, who had been casually sitting at the experiment table, immediately jumped to his feet upon seeing the pink finger.

“Master!”

“Hmm.” Gorsa didn’t look at Saul, still focused on his fingertip.

Once the ribbonfish’s body had been consumed, Gorsa’s fingertip still held a twisting “mist-worm,” which twisted and turned constantly.

Saul also looked at the worm, noticing the faces of terrified people on its body. The faces were contorted and howling, as if cursing something.

However, Saul couldn’t hear any sound.

It seemed as though the entities had lost the medium to produce sound.

Gorsa’s chest split open, and he reached inside, pulling out a small amber-colored box.

He then tossed the mist-worm into the box, flicked his wrist, closed the lid, and stuffed the box back into the crack in his chest.

Saul’s gaze followed the box into the crack of Gorsa’s chest, and as Gorsa withdrew his hand and the crack was about to close…

Suddenly, he saw half a face!

The face wasn’t scary—it was even quite beautiful.

But it made Saul’s heart beat wildly.

He had seen that half-face before.

It was the upper half of Kongsha’s face that had disappeared.

It pressed against the bandage about to close on Gorsa’s chest, staring directly at Saul.

“Did Master Gorsa intentionally let me see this?” Saul tried to relax his forehead and fists, avoiding revealing his tension to Gorsa. “I saw Kongsha’s original appearance in the mental battlefield, and no one else knows about it.”

Saul stood with his head lowered, waiting patiently for Gorsa to speak. He still couldn’t determine Gorsa’s stance.

He wasn’t sure how Gorsa would feel about him probing the secrets of the past in the wizard tower.

Also, Senior Byron was hiding in the Elf King’s skull, recovering from injuries. Although Saul had disguised it, he wasn’t sure whether Gorsa would notice.

If he did, what would Gorsa’s attitude be?

There was no way to fit Senior Byron into the compressed bag.

After all, the bag wasn’t as magical as the interlayer.

A soft pink sofa suddenly appeared behind Gorsa, and he stiffly sat down, then lowered his head to fiddle with the crack in his chest.

A faint magical fluctuation radiated from him, and as it swept over Saul, it sent a chill down his spine.

Saul lowered his head just in time to see his own shadow suddenly shatter, transforming into thousands of black dots, scrambling to hide into the cracks of the bricks beneath him.

Gorsa fiddled with the crack for about a minute before closing it up.

Then he finally looked up, meeting the quiet Saul.

“First, congratulations on your promotion…” His voice was filled with genuine surprise, but then slowly returned to its usual calm.

“Want to know about Haywood’s modification? Let me tell you.”

(End of Chapter)

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