Saul, who was thinking seriously, had unknowingly freed himself from the influence of the eyes covering his body inside and out.

He could even look directly at all the eyes on his body, treating them merely as his new skin.

Not only that, he also began to observe these eyes in depth, comprehending how they bypassed him to directly open the doors within his body.

The extraordinarily excited eyes seemed to also sense Saul’s rationality and gradually stabilized, no longer sprouting from various parts of his body like bamboo shoots after rain.

Saul began attempting to actively close these doors within his body, while gradually guiding the star eyes to separate from his body.

At first, the star eyes were very stubborn, clinging to his “flesh and blood” without loosening. But after Saul repeatedly communicated mentally and conveyed his true intentions, the stars gradually relented.

Saul began cleaning up bit by bit, while simultaneously sensing how the stars affected his body and opened all the doors within him.

Finally, an eye with a colorful pupil suddenly separated from Saul’s body.

At first it was like a few water droplets condensing on a winter window, then gradually gathered together, becoming an eye again.

When the eye completely separated from Saul’s soul body, he also felt that the door he had just opened was closed again.

Saul looked at the eyeball that had fallen to the ground and was bouncing like a ball. It didn’t seem angry that Saul had forcibly expelled it.

It didn’t even have much reaction, just like when it invaded Saul’s soul body and arbitrarily changed Saul’s physical state—it had no purpose, just acting on instinct.

Saul had now completely freed himself from the influence. The eyes on his body closed one by one, transforming back into his skin and organs.

The eyes that had once covered his entire body disappeared like an illusion, leaving no trace.

With the eyes gone, Saul should leave the consciousness space.

He looked at the eye stopped on the circular platform, somewhat worried that once he left the consciousness space, when he returned, would this place have changed completely?

But perhaps due to direct consciousness transmission, just as Saul thought of this, the eyeball that had been lying on the ground suddenly lost its color, becoming a featureless, bumpy stone ball.

But its surface emitted a faint golden glow.

Then the sphere began to rise, faster and faster, finally becoming a reverse shooting star, disappearing again into the pitch-black “night sky” of the consciousness space.

“What exactly are they? They can’t really be stars, can they?”

This was Saul’s consciousness space, where all external forms were merely manifestations of mental power in his consciousness space.

From previous behavior, Saul had almost thought these stars also had their own independent consciousness.

But now it seemed that was more like a stress response, an instinct.

This made Saul breathe a slight sigh of relief.

If they had no independent consciousness, it meant Saul would have difficulty intuitively understanding their abilities, and controlling them would be laborious.

But it also meant he had more autonomy.

There was already a diary of unknown origin in his consciousness. The stars… the calmer they could be, the better.

Although the departure of the stars caused the doors that had been pushed open to close again, Saul, who had sensed where the doors were and understood the state when they were fully open, was no longer worried about door-related problems.

He calmed his mind, letting his just-agitated spiritual body settle down again.

Then he closed his eyes, opened them again, and the familiar ceiling appeared before him.

But what were those magical runes and magic power fluctuations floating between him and the ceiling?

Saul wanted to turn his head but discovered there was actually a row of small steel needles stuck in his face, each needle suspended with an ice crystal.

He suddenly felt a chill drilling into his organs through his bone gaps.

The delayed sensation instantly made Saul’s teeth start chattering.

But he wasn’t too worried, because when he moved his eyeballs, he had already seen Byron holding identical steel needles about to stick them in his face.

Only seeing Saul open his eyes did he stop his actions.

“What are you doing?” Saul opened his mouth, which was numb from cold.

“Don’t waste words first. You just absorbed a lot of pollution. See if you can deal with it first?” Byron asked him back.

Saul finally realized, “I just opened the doors in my body, then absorbed a lot of pollution? Where did the pollution come from?”

Byron raised his hand and pointed with his thumb at the cabinets behind him.

Saul immediately remembered that for convenience in conducting inertization experiments, he had stored some Black Tide pollution absorbed from patients there.

“So it was that kind of pollution? That’s easier to handle.”

Understanding the source of the pollution, Saul immediately closed his eyes and circulated his mental power again, gradually condensing the Black Tide pollution in his body to his fingertips.

His mental power swept through, and Saul immediately discovered his body was actually covered with pollution, his skin even beginning to show mucification.

This mucification change had just begun when it was frozen in its original state by extreme cold.

Otherwise, when Saul woke up, his skin would probably have already dissolved, truly becoming the skeleton from nightmares.

Now that Saul’s consciousness had returned, the pollution in his body that had already been defeated by him once naturally posed no threat.

He automatically severed a fingertip that had condensed all the pollution, while the prepared Agu skillfully caught it with a test tube and sealed it.

“Alright,” Saul’s teeth were still chattering lightly, “can you let me go now?”

Who would have thought Byron would raise his hand and stick the thin needle that hadn’t been in Saul’s face into his forehead.

“Let you go? I think you should continue to calm down and observe your physical condition, in case there are any hidden problems.”

After Byron finished speaking, he patted non-existent dust off his hands, got up and returned to his original experiment table, sat down and began recording something with a pen.

Saul: “?”

Agu shook his head and smiled, actually ignoring Saul and turning to take the just-sealed pollution outside.

Probably afraid of Saul performing another remote pollution absorption.

Ann didn’t leave though. She half-knelt on the ground, arms crossed on the experiment table, chin resting on her arms, aligning her line of sight with Saul’s.

“Master, are you about to advance to third-rank?”

Seeing that Ann also had no intention of removing the steel needles covering his head, Saul could only say helplessly, “No, I just accidentally opened the doors once. To formally advance, I still need to saturate the magic power in my body before I can stably control the doors.”

“I see,” Ann wasn’t without envy, but she was already dead and had no other methods to become stronger besides relying on the diary and Saul. “But Master, you’ve already solved the most difficult step in advancing to third-rank. From now on, you just need to systematically improve your magic power.”

Ann could become stronger by devouring other soul bodies, but if she devoured a few more, she would probably change from a stable consciousness body back into a chaotic composite.

Strong, but without self.

“Improving magic power isn’t that simple either. Look at Brando—he’s been stuck for a long time, his magic power is like frozen, not moving at all…” Saul suddenly lifted his eyelids to glance at the steel needles above his head and the ice crystals on them, his voice carrying excitement. “Senior?”

Byron didn’t respond, but he stopped writing and looked toward Saul.

“Senior, your inertization experiment… succeeded?!”

Byron said calmly, “Just achieved preliminary results, still needs continued improvement.”

He turned his head back, muttering, “Sure enough, the rarer the experimental materials, the easier it is to succeed. Such expensive stuff, I can’t bear to waste it.”

Saul’s eyes immediately widened.

(End of Chapter)

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