Chapter 329: Seeing Through Without Saying It Aloud |
“Yes, p—Master,” Herman forced his mouth open with great effort.
“You can’t even speak properly?” Saul took two steps back and looked at the corpse that had started moving again. “What do you feel like right now?”
“It’s like... my limbs are numb.”
Saul thought for a moment. “Like you’ve been hit by a spell?”
Herman gave a slow nod.
Saul grabbed Herman by the collar and carried him toward the lab table.
“If you can’t even bend your tongue and your movements are sluggish, then I’ll take the lead for now. You need to keep working on controlling your body better.”
He propped Herman upright on one side of the table, like a plastic mannequin on display.
“I’ve gone through the experiment logs on soul infusion. None of the containers in those records had control issues like yours. I need to look into what’s going wrong here. If you notice anything—good or bad—you need to tell me right away.”
Saul rubbed his forehead. “Well, this is just one of my trial runs. It’s normal for it to fall short compared to Mentor Rum’s years of research. No headaches... no headaches…”
The next day, when Hayden showed up at Saul’s second storage room dragging her battered body, the first thing she saw was the tall man standing behind him.
“Master, who’s he?” Hayden immediately tensed up. She didn’t know who this person was, or whether Saul had told him about her situation.
After a night of intense adaptation, Herman could already walk on his own, without Saul having to drag him around.
His tongue, however, was still not cooperating.
His face covered in black cloth, Herman turned his head toward Hayden. Her way of addressing Saul made his vision go black for a moment.
“Master,” he repeated as well.
Clear and unambiguous!
Saul glanced sideways at Herman and silently accepted the form of address.
Then he waved Hayden inside and casually said, “He’s in a similar situation as you. You can call him... Herl.”
Calling him Herman directly wasn’t appropriate, so Saul swiftly cut off one syllable.
“Herl?” Though Hayden’s face remained impassive, the wariness in her eyes softened when she looked at Herman.
She even leaned in, a gesture that could be called friendly. “So we’re in the same boat. Are you newly transferred into this vessel? Your movements still seem a bit off.”
Herman lowered his head and stared at Hayden’s beautiful face, immediately realizing that this was Saul’s assistant in his wizard experiments.
He hadn’t expected the assistant to be this pretty…
“Yes.” Herman slowed his pace, trying to avoid walking side by side with her.
To his surprise, Hayden slowed down as well, seemingly trying to accommodate the less agile “Herl.”
She even seemed unusually friendly.
“When did you enter the vessel?”
Herman glanced at Saul walking ahead. It seemed the master didn’t mind them talking, so he responded as naturally as he could.
“Yesterday.”
“What?” Hayden was taken aback. “You adapted that fast? For the first three days after I entered my vessel, I couldn’t even move.”
Upon hearing this, Saul immediately stopped and turned to Hayden. “You couldn’t move at all for the first three days?”
He’d focused more on post-transfer responses of soul bodies and had overlooked the initial stage after entering the vessel.
And in the experiment notes, that stage was often glossed over as well.
Hayden nodded.
Saul turned to Herman again, thinking, So the soul originally belonging to a body really is different. The compatibility is much higher.
Once inside the storage room, Saul immediately began recording the states of both subjects.
He found that while Hayden was better than Herman in nearly every respect, she had been in her body for nearly a month, whereas it was only Herman’s second day. By comparison, Herman had actually surpassed her in several areas.
“So, even though it’s technically a corpse now, the flesh still has strong compatibility with its original soul. And... the original body doesn’t necessarily require the soul to be of the opposite sex.”
As Saul watched the two continue testing their responses in the lab, he pondered.
Then he noticed something odd.
Hayden kept subtly looking after Herman.
Like a cold beauty suddenly pampering a blank-faced paraplegic.
Saul suddenly understood and chuckled quietly. “So our reclusive Hayden, always holed up in the corpse chamber, reacts like this around the opposite sex?”
But Saul had misunderstood her.
Hayden’s quiet attention toward Herman wasn’t just due to mistaking “Herl” for a woman. There was another crucial reason: she thought they shared the same burden.
She believed she could relate to “Herl’s” awkwardness. But instead of pointing it out, she chose to quietly offer comfort through her actions.
“See, I know you were originally a woman. Actually, I’m not really a woman either.”
What she didn’t know was—Herman really was a man.
Hopefully, she’d never find out.
On the fifth day after Herman returned to his own body, Hayden took a day off to return to Mentor Rum for a re-stabilization of her vessel-body connection.
So Saul decided it was time for Herman’s next experiment—transferring into another corpse vessel.
After making all the necessary preparations, Saul warned Herman carefully, “When you enter a body that’s not your own, you’ll likely feel strong rejection. Don’t resist it. But if you sense signs of contamination or mutation, report immediately.”
“Yes,” Herman replied instantly. Then, after a pause, he added in a soft voice, “…Master.”
Saul chuckled lightly and began taking notes. “Roughly seven days before the tongue—being a distal organ—can be flexibly controlled.”
Then began the soul transfer experiment.
Saul used a magic formation designed for soul-locking and energy containment to trap himself, Herman, and two other corpses within it.
Then, using his own arm—capable of absorbing and expelling soul matter—he first extracted Herman’s soul into his arm.
During this process, he noticed the vessel hadn’t developed any adhesive traits.
Is it only me who experiences a powerful suction force when entering other containers? Corpses seem to have no desire to retain their original soul. Why, then, do they prevent my soul from leaving them?
Researching his own soul would have to be put on the agenda soon—but Saul feared his soul’s special properties came entirely from his transmigration or the diary’s influence.
Compared to that, researching resurrection seemed almost simple.
Herman’s soul was successfully extracted, but it failed to enter the first male corpse.
The rejection was intense, almost magnetic. The closer he got, the stronger the repulsion.
Saul could have forced it—but under the pressure of both forces, Herman’s soul showed signs of disintegration.
Saul immediately stopped.
“Luckily, I’ve got a backup corpse.” Saul turned to the nearby female body. “Let’s try this one.”
He gently guided Herman’s spirit into the female corpse.
This time, the repulsion was much weaker—still present, but nothing like what Saul himself faced.
Thanks to the lesser pushback, Herman barely withstood the pressure and fully entered the female corpse.
“This situation is much closer to a standard soul infusion,” Saul muttered. He didn’t look pleased, though—just flipped over a sandglass he’d prepared earlier to start timing.
(End of Chapter)
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