Diary of a Dead Wizard-Chapter 354: Saul’s Resurrection Plan

Watching Hayden completely sink into the solution, Saul withdrew his hand and shook off the liquid on it with an expressionless face.

The corrosive solution had reddened his arm, but once he was done shaking it off and rolled his sleeve back down, the skin on his arm had already fully healed.

“Brother Saul, he’s already fallen asleep.”

A silver butterfly suddenly rose from beneath the surface of the liquid. The corrosive solution had no effect on it whatsoever.

“Alright.” Saul nodded, pulled out a sheet of paper, and recorded the time and Hayden’s condition. Then, imitating the procedure used in the circular laboratory on the 20th floor, he stuck the record sheet onto the side of the stone coffin.

After that, he turned and walked toward the lab table, the butterfly fluttering behind him. fɾēewebnσveℓ.com

The silver butterfly had grown a size larger than it had been six months ago. Not only that, its ability to create dreams had also significantly improved.

Originally, Nightmare Butterfly Penny had only been able to use a fraction of her power due to being bound by the diary. But ever since Saul gave her a bit of the hidden crystal left behind specifically by Kongsha, Penny had grown larger, and the patterns on her body had become more intricate.

Hidden crystals could accelerate the growth of young Nightmare Butterflies. That tiny bit of hidden crystal had saved Penny approximately three years of natural development.

No wonder she went completely wild the moment she saw it.

But in truth, Saul gave Penny the hidden crystal as a way to test the material properties of the crystal.

The remaining hidden crystal, naturally, was kept for Saul’s own research.

This kind of substance was very difficult to preserve—it had to be stored within living flesh with perception. But Saul had no intention of being like Monroe, who put it in his eye. In the end, he chose to bury the hidden crystal beneath the skin of his wrist, nestled against bone and meridians.

That way, with every heartbeat, he could feel the sting it caused—constantly reminding him of the crystal’s presence.

Moreover, Saul's second modification of his skin made it especially sensitive to a substance like the hidden crystal, which existed somewhere between consciousness and matter.

“How long can your dream last?” Saul asked Penny as he sat down at the long table.

“It’s just the soul of a First Rank apprentice… it’ll last until he dies. Even then, the dream can continue until the soul completely fades away.”

Penny replied disdainfully.

But recalling who she was talking to, she quickly added in a slightly fawning tone, “Though, I thought Brother Saul would’ve stored his consciousness in the diary. Brother Saul is so amazing, after all!”

She still wanted another piece of hidden crystal, and would stop at nothing to get it.

After Saul forbade her from directly asking for it, she began rotating through flattery, pouting, and playing the victim.

Unfortunately for her, Saul wasn’t swayed by any of it.

“Hayden isn’t suited to stay inside the diary.”

At the moment, Saul only had one slot left for a black diary page. Until his strength improved enough to support six black pages, he wouldn’t casually assign the final slot—just in case.

Besides, he had other ways to preserve Hayden’s consciousness. Why bother putting him into the diary?

After researching soul infusion for more than half a year, Saul had gained plenty.

Using the infused soul samples as a baseline, he’d developed improved versions and, combining that with the storage of corpses practically in bulk in the warehouse, he had created multiple kinds of containers suitable for hosting soul bodies. He also found ways to reduce rejection response intensity—or delay the onset of rejection altogether.

The most successful of his methods could already delay the container’s rejection response by six months.

Though six months couldn’t compare to the two or three years soul infusion could maintain, soul infusion relied on a golden formation to forcibly lock the soul into the body and used the severing of emotional perception to suppress the chaos caused by rejection.

In other words, Mentor Rum hadn’t truly solved the rejection problem.

He had just used two different ways of avoidance to forcibly mash together an incompatible soul and body.

That the resulting body could hold together for two to three years was already impressive.

In contrast, Saul’s approach was far more sustainable. In his solution, the soul didn’t have to endure the unperceivable pain of suppression.

As a result, the rate of soul degradation and risk of mutation were significantly reduced.

Saul’s next goal was to greatly extend the time before rejection occurred—and in the process of extending that period, find a way to completely eliminate rejection altogether.

If he could truly discover such an ideal solution, then not only Lady Yura, but also other soul bodies with intact awareness and no contamination could potentially be… revived in bulk using this method!

Of course, this ideal solution was currently just a theory—whether it could actually be achieved, or how long it would take, was still unknown.

But Saul’s plan to revive Lady Yura didn’t depend on reaching that perfect solution.

That kind of ability sounded like something out of a goddess of life’s divine gift—more likely to appear in a bard’s tale.

His goal was simply to delay the rejection response for ten years.

Saul believed that if he could extend the rejection window to over ten years, he could essentially revive Lady Yura in another way.

After reading through the experimental notes provided by Master Gorsa, Saul discovered a critical issue.

The reason Lady Yura deteriorated so rapidly after soul separation was that the vessel she had chosen wasn’t capable of protecting her soul like her original body had. On the contrary, it aggravated rejection, accelerating contamination.

The body is the soul’s original sanctuary. But it must be the original body.

Lady Yura likely didn’t realize this harsh truth until she had already separated her soul and remained in an artificial vessel for a long time.

Previously, she had only temporarily left her body and resided in a fresh vessel, so she mistakenly believed she could freely switch bodies and thereby gain soul independence.

She didn’t expect that long-term residence in a foreign body would amplify soul contamination through rejection, and that transferring out of a vessel would cause secondary contamination.

Even a True Wizard’s soul wasn’t strong enough to resist that level of pollution.

So even with Gorsa continually cleansing her soul body and removing contamination, Lady Yura inevitably fell into the abyss of mutation.

It’s said that after several failed attempts, the Tower Master sealed Lady Yura’s soul, forbidding her from any further experiments.

And Gorsa himself turned from light to dark, beginning to study resurrection—a topic typically reserved for Third Rank wizards.

Third Rank wizards researched resurrection. Fourth Rank wizards could already achieve limited resurrection.

Resurrection was never meant to be the domain of First or Second Rank wizards.

But whether it was Lady Yura or the Tower Master Gorsa, both of them were proud and refused to accept the limitations of their current power.

Yet in the end, both paid a heavy price for their ambition.

Which is exactly why Saul never intended to actually resurrect anyone from the start.

He wasn’t about to lend out his diary, either.

So he chose a solution that tackled the root cause without relying on unrealistic fixes.

His plan was simple: if he could delay rejection for ten years, then the soul would remain uncontaminated during its stay in the body. When that ten-year term ended and the soul transferred into a new body, any slight contamination from the transition could be slowly repaired over the next decade.

Thus forming a cycle. A closed loop.

A form of revival, in another sense.

This experimental concept hadn’t been shared with Gorsa yet, because the final validation step still hadn’t been performed.

And that final step… would have to wait until Saul returned from the Elven Valley.

After organizing today’s experiment logs, Saul once again pulled out the Alpha Necklace Keli had given him.

“Even though I don’t think Keli would become an enemy, this necklace could still be used by others—just like Nick’s corpse was.”

“Might as well study it in advance, see if I can create an antidote. Worst case scenario, I piss off Keli and get a pair of eye rolls in return.”

(End of Chapter)