Chapter 252: The Second Golden Page |
However, Saul’s smug smile didn’t last long.
As he gently flipped open the title page, and, unsurprisingly saw the first golden page again, a slight frown crept onto his face.
“This golden page still isn’t reacting. Am I just not capable of controlling it yet?”
Saul tried several methods, but the golden page gave no response whatsoever.
“Forget it. Let’s take a look at the pages behind it, see if there are any other changes in the mental realm.”
He decided to check the section with the white pages.
When the diary first appeared before him, it had opened directly to the middle, where words began to appear. Saul had never seen the pages before that.
He was a bit curious—if the earlier white pages also had content, could they perhaps record the experiences of the diary’s previous owner?
But when he gently flipped past the first page, his eyes—full of curiosity and reverence—suddenly froze in place.
He was certain that after seeing the first golden page, since he couldn’t figure out its use at the time, he had turned to check out the newly obtained half-black page instead.
During that flip, the page following the golden one had clearly been an ordinary white page.
So where did this second golden page come from? And when did it appear in the diary?
“Not only can I still not figure out what the golden pages are for, now there’s a second one out of nowhere... When did this one show up?”
He closed his eyes, trying to recall his recent use of the diary.
“I hadn’t been paying close attention to the diary’s pages lately, so maybe this second one appeared a while ago and I just didn’t notice. But the golden page is so mysterious—it can’t have just appeared on its own.”
Saul tried to recall the scene when he first encountered the golden page.
The soul storm, the deep ocean that appeared while he was unconscious, the massive sun above his head that could be traversed...
Despite all those strange visions, the real core was that deranged man—Victor.
No, not Victor…
“I almost forgot his name.” Saul rubbed his forehead. “Oh, right. It’s Kismet.”
“That’s right,” Saul suddenly remembered something—something he hadn’t paid much attention to, and even the Tower Master had overlooked!
“That guy once sent me a letter.”
That clouded, cryptic letter had completely vanished after Saul read it.
“The appearance of the first golden page was definitely related to Kismet. This second one probably is too.”
Saul thought it very likely that the second golden page was also Kismet’s doing.
“After I got the first golden page, that guy’s attitude... seemed to shift a little.” With this suspicion, Saul immediately began recalling details related to Kismet.
“So that letter he sent afterward wasn’t just to provoke me? If he really sent the second page... then he probably knows about the diary’s existence.”
“I still know far too little about him. It’s best not to make contact for now.”
Even though the second page might have come from Kismet, Saul still couldn’t be sure of the man’s intentions.
But thinking of how the guy always orchestrated deaths through the hands of others, Saul knew he had to be careful.
Who knew what kind of hidden scheme might be behind this “gift”?
Setting aside Kismet’s possible motives for now, Saul continued examining the two golden pages.
He gently tugged at them. The texture was the same as when he’d first touched them on the ocean surface—smooth and tender like a baby’s skin. But no matter how hard Saul tried, he couldn’t leave a single mark on the pages.
And the binding between the pages and the diary was flawless, as if the diary had always included these two golden sheets.
“Hah, I’ve got absolutely no clue. But come to think of it, even though this thing is called a diary, all the writing appears on its own—I never wrote a word myself. If someday I could write on it... then wouldn’t I be able to control people’s life and death?”
Saul began daydreaming a little to soothe his frustration.
“Dead Wizard’s Diary... is it because I’m not a Dead Wizard’s yet? Or am I just missing a pen that can leave a mark on it?”
He shook his head and finally gave up. He flipped the page again—the next one was indeed a white page.
Even though the golden pages were clearly more valuable than white ones, they also meant uncontrollability, and more unexpected developments.
The following white page really did have words on it.
And these were words Saul had never seen appear before during any of his page-turning.
Maybe the diary had deliberately hidden them from him before.
But strangely, Saul couldn’t recognize a single one of these characters.
Still, from the layout and formatting, it looked just like the diary entries he had seen before.
He flipped through the pages quickly. Most of the text that followed was also unreadable.
More than that, some of the characters looked very strange, and when he stared at them, he’d faintly feel like people were walking around nearby.
But when he stopped reading and looked up, those walking figures disappeared.
Saul lowered his head again. This time, instead of staring at the white-page characters, he flipped through them rapidly.
Roughly every few pages, the diary’s script would change.
If each type of script corresponded to a past diary owner... then this diary had passed through quite a few hands.
Not only that, but Saul also noticed: the last page of each script section always had just a very short sentence.
Strangely, when he looked at those short sentences, he could somehow guess their meaning instinctively.
“You are dead.”
“Looks like the past owners of the Dead Wizard’s Diary didn’t exactly meet good ends.”
Finally, he flipped to the first page of his own entries.
This Dead Wizard Diary had set Saul on a new path, but it had also dragged him into deeper entanglements.
He kept flipping...
And flipping...
“Huh, something to be proud of at least. So far, the combined number of pages used by the previous owners doesn’t even match mine. Did none of them run experiments? Or were they not even wizards to begin with?”
He turned to the very last page—it was the diary’s warning about the Seed of Malice.
But when Saul tried to turn further, he discovered that despite the thick-looking stack of white pages left, they all flipped by at once, and what appeared before him were black pages.
It was as if the diary didn’t want Saul to know how many blank pages it had left.
Or maybe the blank pages didn’t actually have an end at all.
“Each black page represents a person’s souls. This is my mental realm, but the black pages haven’t turned into human forms like the souls Morden absorbed. The diary must’ve altered their shapes.”
“But if the diary can absorb other people’s souls and turn them into black pages, then it must consume soul energy in the process… Could that process be reversed?”
As he thought this, Saul picked up one of the black pages.
He figured he could try it out with Herman’s page.
He started by silently saying in his heart, “Restore Herman to his original soul form,” but the diary didn’t respond.
Then Saul tried channeling his mental energy to command the black page.
Still nothing.
He frowned, “This is the mental realm, and using my mind still doesn’t work. If I am consciousness itself, then...”
He gave the page a slight tug, and the black page actually tore off in his hand, perfectly whole.
Then, the page started heating up slightly, and the mental feedback to Saul’s brain began to grow erratic.
It felt like a balloon on the verge of bursting.
Saul immediately threw the page away.
It landed on the stone platform, and in an instant, it expanded—growing longer and larger, its outer appearance even gaining vibrant color.
In just a few breaths, the black page actually transformed into the form of Herman.
(End of Chapter)