Chapter 498: Get Out Quickly

Saul pushed the door open and saw that the wizards outside were all people he knew.

At the front stood none other than white-haired Julie.

Saul raised his eyebrows—wasn’t she supposed to be secretly investigating the pollution source with Shaya?

Had their mission already ended?

Julie looked a bit awkward when she saw Saul. She didn’t come up to him like she used to, just gave a little wave as a greeting.

Saul walked past the corpse, which had been isolated by a magical defense formation. “You’re leading the team today?”

“Just happened to be free, so they called me in for overtime,” Julie secretly winked at Saul.

Another wizard who had once worked with Saul on a wraith-hunting mission came over.

“Wizard Saul, could you describe again how Wizard Kent was contaminated?”

Saul put on a cooperative look. “Of course. After Wizard Kent and I discovered that the pollution source might be on the rooftop, we came back here immediately. We arrived just in time to see a bizarre, giant flower already breaking through the rooftop’s defensive formation and fighting with my two subordinates. There were also some humanoid figures made of black powder…”

Saul pointed to a pile of black ash that had stopped moving after its master died.

“After Wizard Kent killed those humanoid figures, he was about to chase the fleeing giant flower, but he had barely taken two steps when he suddenly froze. Then his head swelled to several times its normal size, covered in strange eyes. But the eyes didn’t last long. They all exploded, turning him into what you see now.”

“And what were you doing at that moment?”

“When Wizard Kent froze, I was fighting the other black humanoid smoke figures. Everything happened too fast—I didn’t see exactly what occurred to Wizard Kent. Perhaps the Academy can investigate further.”

The questioning wizard looked at Saul with suspicion. He had a gut feeling that Saul might have been the one who got Kent killed.

But he had no proof.

Besides, Kent had shown up at Saul’s place without notifying anyone, so it wasn’t like Saul had lured him into a trap.

And as a official mentor of the Academy, he also knew some of its secrets. He knew that the bizarre giant flower was likely something Kent had conjured himself.

Planting a monster in someone else’s home, then enthusiastically helping to get rid of it…

No matter how you looked at it, the intention wasn’t pure.

And Kent’s reputation in Bayton wasn’t good enough for anyone to avenge him by confronting Saul. So, after a routine round of questioning—and with Saul being incredibly cooperative—the wizard simply recorded the events and left.

Julie made a face at Saul and silently mouthed the words, “Serves him right.”

Saul wasn’t sure how Kent had pissed Julie off this time.

Judging from her expression, she wasn’t happy—seemed like she had just gone through something very unlucky.

“Could it be that she and Shaya ran into something during their investigation?” Saul thought to himself but didn’t pursue it further.

Originally, he had wanted to investigate the pollution source to learn more about Caugust City and the secrets of Bayton Academy, to see whether the city was worth staying in long-term.

But now, there was no need to dig any deeper.

He was sure—this place had serious problems.

The ordinary people living here weren’t here to work. They were the city’s nourishment.

Bayton Academy’s cleansing teams weren’t assembled to protect the residents.

They had turned the entire city into a giant petri dish.

Though he didn’t yet know what Bayton was cultivating, based on the diary’s warning, Saul was fairly certain that he himself was an extremely high-quality nutrient source.

That’s why the diary had warned him—not even the tiniest bit of himself could be left behind.

If the diary hadn’t stopped issuing danger warnings, Saul would’ve already run far away by now.

“By the way, with such a big scene today, didn’t Shaya come?” Saul asked, sounding casual.

Mentioning Shaya made Julie’s expression even uglier. “Don’t bring up that guy. He’s good for nothing but running away!”

Saul raised his brows. “Judging by Julie’s reaction… could it be that during the investigation, Shaya ditched her and ran off alone? With his personality, that does seem likely.”

While Saul was chatting with Julie, someone else entered his room—it was Wizard Jonah, who almost never left the Academy.

Jonah specialized in the dark element and had been called in to handle Kent’s contaminated corpse.

He entered without greeting anyone, crouched just outside the isolation formation, and stared at the unrecognizable remains of Kent.

“These eyes are really strange… I’ve never seen this kind of pollution before. Did anyone witness Kent’s transformation in full?”

“Only Saul saw the whole process,” Julie said, arms crossed.

Jonah turned and finally noticed Saul standing beside her.

He moved his lips as if muttering something, clearly unwilling.

But after thinking for a moment, Jonah still walked over to Saul. “You saw the entire transformation.”

Saul nodded and repeated what he had witnessed.

Jonah asked a few more questions, but they were all about the eyes—he didn’t care why Kent was at Saul’s place or what Saul had been doing at the time.

“This is really strange. I’ve never seen anything like it…” Jonah was visibly excited, tapping the ground with alternating feet. “But your servants are all dead—why are you completely unharmed?”

The room fell silent for a moment.

Apparently, the others had been wondering the same thing but hadn’t dared to ask Saul directly.

“I’m not sure either… Maybe it’s because my mental strength is relatively high?” Saul replied casually. Deep down, though, he suspected it had something to do with the stars surrounding his mental realm.

“Let me see if there’s any residual pollution on you,” Jonah said, lifting both hands to rub his eyes.

After a few seconds of rubbing, when he pulled his hands away, his eyes were now on his palms.

He suddenly thrust his hands forward, stopping less than three centimeters from Saul’s face.

Saul didn’t flinch, allowing the examination.

After a few seconds, Jonah covered his face again and returned his eyes to their sockets.

Only, this time they were crooked—one vertical, one tilted.

“Can’t see anything… Maybe your high mental strength really did protect you from Kent’s pollution.”

Jonah staggered back to Kent’s corpse, waved his hand, and said, “Call two guards, blindfold them, and have them carry the body out.”

A nearby apprentice hesitated. “Mentor Jonah, won’t ordinary people get contaminated even if they’re blindfolded? They might last longer, but…”

Jonah waved him off. “Losing two regular folks is better than losing two wizard apprentices, don’t you think?”

The apprentice’s face turned pale and nodded like a pecking chicken. “Yes, yes, you’re absolutely right.”

Once the corpse was taken away, Jonah led the rest of the wizards out of Saul’s room and advised him to move elsewhere.

Saul agreed.

On the way back to the Academy, Jonah remained silent.

Julie looked at him curiously, wanting to ask something, but Jonah refused to let her get within three meters of him.

Ignoring Julie’s constant eye-rolling, Jonah carefully tucked his hands into his robes and pressed them against his racing heart.

“Damn it!” he thought. “Why did I see even more eyes on Saul’s body? No! I have to suggest to the Dean that we get Saul out of Caugust immediately. If he stays any longer, this eye-related pollution could spread on a massive scale!”

(End of Chapter)

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