Saul stood at the top floor of the wizard tower that stood alone on Storm Sea, gently knocking on the door.

Before he could knock a second time, the door was opened by someone—silently, the hinges well-maintained and not rusted in this humid environment.

Behind the door stood a black human silhouette. From the graceful body curves, it could be seen to be a woman.

Saul was momentarily stunned, as if he had returned to that dark wizard tower from the past and saw Lady Yura standing before him.

But he quickly smiled self-mockingly.

“Lady Yura never opened doors.”

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“You’re correct, so I’m Heidi. I wonder if you still remember me.” The black shadow spoke with a somewhat sharp female voice, very much like an old witch’s voice from stories.

However, Saul quickly recognized this voice.

“Heidi? Heywood’s sister? You’ve actually become like this?”

Saul remembered—wasn’t Heidi that ugly face that had been parasitic on the back of Heywood’s head?

He hadn’t expected her to be transformed into the shadow form that Lady Yura once had.

“I’m honored you still remember me.” Heidi curtsied, no longer showing her former madness but appearing much more polite and rational. “However, I can’t delay your time to see Lord Gorsa. Please follow me.”

Heidi didn’t dare chat much with Saul because Gorsa was already waiting for Saul in the bottom-floor room.

Following Heidi down the stairs, halfway he saw Heywood waiting on the middle floor.

The other party seemed too embarrassed to speak with Saul, just standing guard at the corridor entrance and bowing respectfully to Saul.

Saul also nodded in return, then watched him disappear from view. After all these years, Heywood and Heidi were still third-level wizard apprentices.

Although they had been following Master Gorsa all along, the latter apparently had no intention of forcibly helping them advance.

Perhaps in Gorsa’s mind, there was no difference between third-level apprentices and first-rank true wizards.

Lost in thought, Saul had already reached the bottom floor. Heidi couldn’t proceed any further from here.

“Please go in. Lord Gorsa said you don’t need to knock.”

Saul nodded, thanked his old acquaintance, then pushed open the door and entered.

The door opened, and a dim light shone out.

Very strange—clearly the corridor lighting was brighter than inside the room, yet it was the room’s light projecting outward. Near the door, the brightness was obviously much dimmer than other places.

Saul looked at the ground and stepped into the room.

Then he felt something touch his hand, though clearly no one was nearby.

Again the feeling of being touched, this time on his arm.

Saul looked down and saw several small round black shadows beside his own shadow on the ground.

These black shadows were bouncing and touching Saul’s shadow, making him personally aware of it.

“Come in. They mean no harm—they’re just curious, seeing a stranger.”

Gorsa’s voice came from deep within the room.

Saul walked in and closed the door behind him.

The moment the door closed, he suddenly saw his own shadow also transform into countless small black dots, then get drawn away by the small dots that had been touching it earlier.

Watching his shadow split apart and disappear, Saul felt like his own child had been lured away by strangers.

He followed the lively shadows around two fully packed storage shelves and saw Gorsa standing at the far end of the room.

The other party still had his back turned, conducting experiments.

This was Saul’s first time seeing Gorsa doing experiments. In the past at the wizard tower, every time he saw him, he was either sleepwalking at midnight or sitting on that huge pink sofa reading books. He didn’t seem like a wizard at all.

Today was a rare diligence.

Saul didn’t avoid looking and walked directly to Gorsa’s side, turning his head to see him dropping a black lump into a beaker half-filled with liquid.

The black lump was like a piece of amber—slightly transparent with some elasticity. After being submerged in the liquid, it quickly began to shrink.

In just over ten seconds, the black lump disappeared completely, fully dissolved into the liquid. ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ novel⚑fire.net

“Do you know what this is?” Gorsa casually picked up an identical black lump from the experiment table and tossed it to Saul, then leaned sideways against the table.

Saul caught the black lump and observed it, then tested it with magical power.

“Black Sea Tree Source? But it should have other things added to it.”

“Mm, it has me added to it.” Gorsa pointed to his own nose and said with a smile.

Saul was startled. “Are you trying to perform wizard body transformation on yourself?”

“Already finished. Now I’m testing to see if there are other improvement methods.” Gorsa looked at the beaker where the black lump could no longer be seen. “But improvements aren’t that easy.”

Wizard body transformation was generally very private magic. Since the other party hadn’t volunteered the information, Saul couldn’t ask about the specific transformation formula.

Gorsa also didn’t seem to have any intention of asking Saul to help with ideas. After showing Saul his transformation results, he put away everything on the experiment table.

When Gorsa was casting magic, Saul suddenly felt a familiar aura.

He quickly turned to look at Gorsa. “Master…”

Gorsa showed no concealment whatsoever, smiling calmly, “You sensed it? Well, it is your soul fragment after all.”

When did Master Gorsa obtain my soul fragment?

Saul remembered that Kismet had once asked him for a strand of soul fragment. Could Master Gorsa have taken it from Kismet?

“Do you remember when you had just learned soul projection and were bitten by the mouths in the gap layer?” Gorsa reminded Saul.

“What? It was then?” Saul suddenly understood. “Right, the wraiths in the gap layer were also under your control.”

He looked at Gorsa resentfully. Had Gorsa directed those wraiths to attack him back then?

Gorsa showed no embarrassment at being caught, “It’s not my fault. Your soul was very delicious to those wraiths. I merely retrieved the soul fragments they couldn’t digest afterward.”

“Oh…” Anyway, it had been so long ago now—whatever Master Gorsa said was what it was.

Saul no longer dwelled on this. “You fused the soul fragment into your soul body? Won’t this cause soul body mutation?”

Pure soul fragments could be used to supplement mental power, but the soul fragments Saul had given Gorsa weren’t purified. Absorbing them rashly was very dangerous.

If Saul didn’t have the diary’s help in removing impurities from mental fragments, he wouldn’t dare directly absorb so many soul fragments either.

Moreover, what Gorsa had fused was Saul’s soul fragment, not his own. Not to boast, but Saul’s soul fragments contained the power of the star-shaped eyes. One careless moment, and Saul could imagine Gorsa being swallowed by eyeballs.

“It’s fine.” Gorsa showed no fear, apparently having countermeasures.

Perhaps separated soul fragments could no longer use the star-shaped eyes’ power. That way it wouldn’t be so dangerous.

Saul nodded, choosing to trust his master.

Suddenly, he noticed Gorsa’s shadow on the ground was twisting and deforming, like a cake slowly expanding and distorting in an oven, bubbling with huge air pockets.

“Master!” Saul was alarmed and quickly turned to look at Gorsa’s actual body.

In a trance, the other party’s body had actually become like the shadow.

That handsome face and slender neck swelled in an instant, bulging with irregular flesh bubbles. His bloodless lips split bit by bit until they reached the back of his head.

When his mouth opened, inside was endless darkness, as if it could swallow everything.

“You see,” his voice remarkably unchanged, as if his vocal cords had been relocated to other parts of his body, “I just swallowed a tiny bit of your soul fragment and became like this… If I could eat you completely…”

Gorsa’s upper body, still maintaining human form, leaned forward slightly. The two had been standing close to begin with, and now his mutated huge mouth was about to swallow Saul’s head!

Who would have thought—Saul neither dodged nor avoided, saying calmly, “Then you wouldn’t be you anymore.”

Gorsa: “…”

Gorsa: “That makes sense.”

The swollen skin contracted, the deformed face returned to normal.

He became the original Gorsa with that faint smile again.

(End of Chapter)

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