At present, Haywood only had the strength of a First Rank apprentice. Saul could easily deal with him if he wanted to.
But in the end, Saul chose not to take that route.
He suddenly wanted to keep Haywood alive.
This Haywood possessed a remarkably clear consciousness and the ability to respond intelligently—sothing that a simple illusion couldn't achieve.
Saul wanted to find out exactly what power had constructed this Haywood within the illusion.
Having made up his mind, he began searching through the room.
At first, Haywood rely kept staring at his three candles.
After a while, as the commotion around him grew louder, he couldn’t help but glance over.
That single glance made him turn his entire head.
“What are you doing? Didn’t I tell you we need to stay quiet at night?”
But Saul had already started drawing a circle on the floor, using materials scavenged from the pile of junk.
While working, he casually answered Haywood’s question.
“I’m drawing a magic formation.”
Haywood had initially been a little angry, but when he saw the formation Saul was drawing, he hesitated and walked over.
Although his strength was now lacking, his knowledge remained intact. He imdiately recognized that Saul’s formation was no ordinary thing.
“Is this a defensive formation?” His eyes lit up. Perhaps Saul could offer another way to resist the pollution lurking in the darkness.
“More or less,” Saul replied as he continued selecting materials from his hand, answering offhandedly.
After all, he wasn’t lying. The best defense... was an offense!
Haywood grew even more interested.
Though he no longer had the power to activate a formation like the one Saul was carving, he suddenly realized sothing he had completely overlooked—he could have Saul activate it!
“It seems that a hundred years have really dulled my mind,” he thought, feeling excitent he hadn’t felt in a long ti.
Haywood clenched his withered hands and leaned closer. “Is there anything I can help with?”
Just as Saul happened to pause, he smiled and said, “Of course. There’s plenty of material here, but most of it lacks energy. I need sothing like a magic crystal to supply magic. Are there any left?”
Haywood’s face imdiately fell. “The magic crystals were exhausted long ago.”
Saul had expected that possibility, so he wasn’t too disappointed.
After completing the last rune, he stood by the magic formation, thinking.
“This place is a special environnt, likely constructed of ntal force. Without sufficient magic, can I activate the formation using just ntal force?”
It seed worth a try, so Saul imdiately stepped into the formation and attempted to activate it.
However, the formation remained inert.
Saul raised his eyebrows. “So magic really is indispensable?”
He couldn’t help but press his hand to his forehead. “As expected, this world has a hidden logic beneath it all. If it weren’t for the diary I saw, I might have once again believed this world to be real.”
With that sigh, Saul still needed to find a suitable source of magic.
His gaze involuntarily shifted to the candles behind Haywood. "Would those work? But how should I persuade Haywood to let use them?"
Saul carefully phrased his words. "Haywood, I need a sufficiently strong magic dium—"
"Sure," Haywood interrupted before Saul could finish.
Could it be that he had many more candles?
Saul was just about to ask when, to his shock, he saw Haywood tear off his own right arm!
His eyes widened instantly.
"This magic formation of yours is very powerful. If used correctly, it might just carry us beyond the cursed range of the Wizard Tower!" Haywood’s murky eyes seed to clear sowhat. As he offered the bloody arm, he kept a wary eye on the gap under the door. "But be careful. Before the formation is complete, don’t let the magic fluctuations get too large. Otherwise, we'll attract them, and then we're in real trouble."
Saul accepted Haywood’s arm with a sigh.
Such material—he had indeed used it often in the past. The only difference was, back then, he always took it from corpses.
This was the first ti he had received sothing still warm.
According to the logic of this world, although the aged Haywood no longer had much ntal force, his body still retained the strength of a peak Third Rank apprentice. Coupled with his physical enhancents, the magic stored within his flesh was imnse.
If materials were graded, this arm would definitely belong in the second warehouse!
Without much hesitation, Saul imdiately processed the arm to guide the magic, then placed it at the energy source node of the magic formation.
He had drawn this formation countless tis before; there was no need to double-check.
Haywood, anwhile, stood cautiously at the edge of the formation, carefully studying the runes and structure. Before he could fully comprehend it, Saul stepped into the center of the formation.
"Is he really going to activate the magic formation now?" Haywood shuddered in fright and almost tried to stop him, but he saw that the magic within the formation was already beginning to flow.
Noticing the obvious magic activity, Haywood imdiately looked toward the door gap.
Sure enough, the world outside disappeared once more, swallowed by darkness.
It was already too late to stop!
Resigned, Haywood grabbed a candle from the ground with his only remaining hand and placed himself between Saul and the door gap.
He was actually preparing to buy ti for Saul.
When Saul confird that the formation had been successfully activated, he looked up—only to see Haywood standing protectively in front of him.
This was truly beyond his expectations.
He had thought Haywood would hide in the corner of the room, clutching a few candles as before.
But after observing the formation Saul had drawn, Haywood had quickly made his judgnt, and chosen to take the risk together!
"This Haywood..." Saul narrowed his eyes thoughtfully.
Then, he suddenly spoke, "Haywood, co here too. Stand on my left side."
Joy flashed across Haywood’s heart, though he kept a straight face as he hurriedly moved beside Saul, still holding the candle.
Saul focused on the increasingly blackened door gap, simultaneously circulating his magic and ntal force.
"There’s no Penny to stabilize my emotions this ti... never mind. My ntal force has grown stronger again; let’s see if I can control my emotions on my own!"
The formation Saul had constructed this ti was the ntal realm.
He intended to counter consciousness with consciousness!
As the magic flowed, Saul’s entire skin began to turn semi-transparent, and soon a layer of white frost ford across his body.
Imdiately, he felt a bone-chilling cold, as if even his blood was about to freeze.
It was Saul’s first attempt at altering the "temperature" of his soul body; before this, he had only ever changed its "shape."
And the extre cold numbed his brain.
His muscles shivered uncontrollably, but his gaze grew increasingly calm.
Even as the door outside was completely swallowed by darkness, there was no ripple in his eyes.
At last, he closed his eyes, and darkness and night descended together...
When he opened his eyes again, Saul found himself standing on a vast, circular stone platform suspended within unknown darkness.
He stood at the center of the platform, with the enormous diary floating overhead.
Around them, countless stars flickered within the darkness.
"A pure soul body can also enter the ntal realm," Saul thought without expression.
Although his attempt had succeeded, the frozen state of his emotions left him feeling no joy—he imdiately entered analysis mode.
"In that case, if those entities trying to interfere with my mind still intend to strike, they should appear here."
His gaze swept over the platform and the diary above, finally landing on the distant starry darkness.
Although the surroundings of Saul’s ntal realm were originally enveloped in blackness, he now noticed that the darkness had beco even thicker.
As if soone had poured a thickening agent into water.
Moreover, that darkness had begun to erode the stars, as if trying to turn the entire space pitch black.
Soon, the stars started blinking—twinkling on and off—as if resisting the invasion of darkness.
"I’ve never tried controlling those stars before. I wonder whether the diary protects only on this platform... or if it protects the stars too?"
As Saul pondered, he suddenly noticed that the blinking of the stars sped up—almost as if soone were rapidly blinking their eyes.
"Blinking? Eyes?" For so reason, Saul suddenly felt that these stars resembled the eyes seen in the interlayer.
After the stars' rapid blinking, the previously thickened darkness gradually returned to the clear vastness of the night sky.
But the darkness was not willing to give up. Soon, it surged forth again, polluting the night sky even more fiercely, targeting the stars, seemingly wanting to devour them first.
However, this ti, the stars—which had been blinking—suddenly burst forth with an incredibly brilliant radiance.
Even Saul, observing from the center, was temporarily blinded.
A few seconds later, when his sight recovered, he saw...
He saw the stars had turned the tables and were now devouring the invading darkness.
The invaders finally realized they had run into real trouble, but it was already too late to flee.
The sticky darkness was not rely repelled—it was trapped, forever unable to leave.
The darkness was drawn bit by bit into the stars, making them shine even brighter.
And throughout the entire process, the diary had not needed to act!
When all the invaders had been absorbed, the ntal realm once again returned to its usual tranquility.
But Saul knew—his ntal realm had likely absorbed sothing very frightening!
(End of Chapter)
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