Kate felt Saul release his scruff and immediately jumped to the ground.

After releasing the orange cat, Saul immediately looked around. “The white-bearded wizard hasn’t come out yet?”

But he had wandered the nighttime city for a long time without finding the white-beard, thinking the other party had already found an exit.

Actually, if Saul hadn’t been looking for an opportunity to steal the tree seed, he wouldn’t have needed to stay inside for so long.

“Oh, you don’t need to worry about Wilder. That guy is very cunning—he won’t die in there.”

After being brought out by Saul, Kate was obviously much more flattering.

The black liquid from earlier had left him with lingering fear.

He was afraid that if Saul got unhappy, he might spray his face with it.

“Wilder?” Hearing this name, Saul had a moment of realization. “It’s unlikely to be a coincidence. I didn’t expect the captain of the Land Drifters to be hiding here. Does he already know who I am?”

“Bayton Academy has become like this, so their dean probably turned into a flower bud too. What we’re looking for… eh?”

Kate stopped mid-sentence because he discovered that on the originally empty tree stump, a person had suddenly appeared.

An old man with disheveled hair, a face full of wrinkles, and confused eyes.

“Dean Pond.”

Although it had been a long time since they’d met, and although the other party’s appearance and demeanor had greatly changed, Saul immediately recognized his identity.

Bayton Academy, Dean Pond.

“He’s Dean Pond?” Kate was delighted and was about to approach, but stopped when he saw what was behind Pond. “Those are the rootlets we encountered!”

Behind Dean Pond, densely packed thin rootlets were actually growing.

These rootlets were connected to the center of the tree stump.

The thin root tubes looked like human blood vessels, and you could vaguely see something being transported through them toward the aged Dean Pond.

“Why would these rootlets appear here?”

Saul slowly walked forward. “These are originally the roots of the Inverted Tree. It’s normal for them to appear both inside and outside. Don’t get too close yet.”

After speaking, Saul stepped forward and came before Pond. “Dean, do you still remember me?”

The dean, looking completely bewildered, raised his head slightly upon hearing Saul’s voice, then quickly lowered it again.

“Is he like those black shadows inside, having lost all self-consciousness?” Kate was obviously very concerned about the dean.

He was still hoping to get the method for opening doors from the dean.

Saul also wanted to have a good conversation with Dean Pond.

Although the other party wasn’t the actual controller of Bayton Academy, he had led the academy for so many years and must have more understanding of Beth and the Inverted Tree.

Although he had already sent Shaya to steal the tree seed, it didn’t prevent Saul from making another effort through Dean Pond as a channel.

To ensure success, he didn’t mind making a deal with the dean as well.

“Can you hear me speaking?” Saul released a wave of mental power, scanning Dean Pond’s entire body.

Unexpectedly, the other party’s physical condition was very good—so good it could almost rival a second-rank wizard at peak level.

But Dean Pond’s mental state definitely had problems.

When Saul scanned him with mental power, his spiritual body didn’t even show the most basic stress response.

“Maybe his soul body is inside the Inverted Tree, with only his body remaining outside?”

Saul raised his hand, transforming his index finger into a tentacle shape and touching Pond’s forehead.

After a moment, Saul released his hand. “Strange, the soul is still there, and there’s no excessive pollution.”

Saul stepped back two paces and observed for another moment, then suddenly smiled. “I’ve encountered so much pollution recently that my thinking has become rigid. This isn’t an effect caused by pollution—it’s magic.”

He cast a 0th-rank “Clear Mind” spell on Dean Pond.

Although it was only a 0th-rank spell, when cast by him as a third-rank wizard, the effect was almost comparable to 3rd or 4th-rank magic.

After a moment, the numb-faced Dean Pond suddenly shuddered all over. He nearly collapsed but was pulled back upright by the rootlets piercing his body from behind.

Sweat immediately broke out on his face like beans. Obviously, while Saul had awakened him, he had also restored his sensation, making him suffer from the torture of the rootlets behind him.

But the dean was also a tough person. Although he was nearly knocked down by the sudden pain, he quickly adapted, enduring the pain from behind and raising his head to face Saul.

“Is it you?” Pond actually showed a smile on his face. “I heard you went to the Borderland. I didn’t expect that when we met again, you’d already advanced to second-rank wizard. Worthy of being Gorsa’s student.”

Saul turned his head to look behind Dean Pond. “Aren’t you concerned about your own condition?”

Pond slightly turned his head back, wanting to see his back, but his neck had only twisted halfway when the pain became unbearable.

Even though he was an experienced old wizard, he could barely endure it.

He smiled bitterly and said, “I’d rather not be concerned—it reduces the suffering somewhat.”

Since the other party wasn’t worried about his own body, Saul didn’t waste words either. “Beth turned all the bodies of people in the inner city to ash to cover up the fact that she absorbed these people’s spirit bodies, right?”

Pond immediately showed a pained expression.

Even Saul couldn’t tell whether this emotion was real or fake.

“I wanted to save her… but she deceived me. She’s no longer the original Bethstana. For the sake of resurrection, she doesn’t even care about the academy’s inheritance.”

“Inheritance? You mean the Inverted Tree? Beth’s resurrection efforts are also harmful to the Inverted Tree, right?”

Pond smiled bitterly. “Although I don’t know where you learned about the Inverted Tree, you’re right. Forcibly resurrecting Beth would consume a large amount of the Inverted Tree’s essence, causing irreversible damage to it, even potentially causing the tree to wither. Previously, we had always deliberately slowed the resurrection progress to ensure the Inverted Tree wouldn’t suffer too much damage.

But when that madman Shaya stole the tree seed, both Beth and the Inverted Tree suffered severe damage. At that point, according to our original plan, we should have prioritized protecting the Inverted Tree, but Beth… she chose to protect herself first, almost overdrawing the Inverted Tree’s essence!”

Speaking of this, Dean Pond’s face again showed pain. “She wasn’t originally this kind of person. She clearly sacrificed herself to protect the academy’s inheritance.”

Time can change a person, as can experiences.

Saul was also someone who had died once, but he had forgotten the process of death.

Thinking about it now, perhaps that was his fortune.

However, Saul didn’t have time to lament Pond’s situation. He frowned and said, “What Shaya stole was the Inverted Tree’s… seed?”

Kate’s whiskers behind him trembled as he forcibly suppressed laughter.

Seeing the person who suppressed him in trouble, Kate was very pleased. “Still making deals with people, treating the other party first, but it turns out the thing he wanted was right on the person and they didn’t give it to him! Served him right, didn’t it?”

Pond nodded, confirming Saul’s guess.

Saul touched his chin. “That shouldn’t be right.”

He narrowed his eyes, confirming that the causality principle had been achieved. The other party only had first-rank strength, and even if he had become second-rank inside the Inverted Tree, he couldn’t resist the guidance of fate lines and causality.

“Since the causality principle has been achieved, either Shaya doesn’t know that what he stole was the tree seed. But this possibility is small. Or in that situation, he couldn’t hand the tree seed over to me.”

Saul wasn’t angry. He thought, “Fortunately, I habitually kept a backup plan.”

Then he smiled at Pond again. “Dean Pond, shall we make a deal?”

(End of Chapter)

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