Diary of a Dead Wizard-Chapter 181: Let It Air

"Who brought them back?" Saul asked in surprise.

Both of them had died in Hanging Hands Valley, killed by the wraith Morden. At the time, they were being pursued and had to leave in a hurry—there was no chance to retrieve the bodies.

He hadn’t expected to see them again.

"Probably Mochi Mochi. He lives in Black Castle Forest, near the border. When you’re out traveling in the future, you can rest at his place."

Mochi Mochi was that long, slender man, whose home was also long and slender.

Saul hadn’t expected him to manage bringing the corpses back from such a dangerous place.

But the two bodies looked a little different from how they had in life.

It wasn’t from postmortem changes like livor mortis or gigantism, but something more subtle.

Herman’s skin had become coarse. Looking closer, it wasn’t that the texture had roughened—it was now covered in tiny pores.

It was as if someone had taken a silver needle and poked little holes into an orange peel. On closer inspection, the difference was obvious.

“Is that… something that secreted out from under his skin?”

Heywood gave a slight smile. “A kind of silver metal. You’ve probably seen it before. But after it emerged, the corpse deformed badly. For aesthetic purposes, I had to fill it in with other materials.”

He tapped the glass-like transparent case. “It hasn’t fully dried inside yet. Be gentle when moving it.”

Saul opened the lid of the case and pulled a metal rod from his coat, lightly pressing it against the back of Herman’s hand.

A milky white fluid began to ooze from the pores on the back of the hand. But once Saul withdrew the rod, the liquid slowly receded.

“The seepage rate’s a bit high. I’ll let it air out a bit before putting it in with the rest,” Saul said. Then he turned to Bill’s corpse. “Anything I should know about Bill’s body?”

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Heywood replied, “Nothing major. Mentor Godu already helped neutralize the toxins in his system. Though it’s still necessary to—”

He didn’t finish the sentence, as Bill’s lips were suddenly pushed open by a puff of air.

Pfffft—

“—let it vent,” Heywood finished the sentence with an unfazed expression.

Saul: “…”

“Alright then, I’ll air this one out too.”

The two of them filled out the handover paperwork, officially registering the two freshly processed specimens into Warehouse Two.

Heywood nodded in satisfaction and, seeing that Saul had already moved the two transparent containers, turned to leave.

At that moment, a split appeared in the hood behind him. A pair of eyes gleaming with excitement peeked through the opening.

But the excitement didn’t last long.

“Where are your eyes???” A raspy female voice shouted from the back of Heywood’s head, clearly frustrated.

Before Saul could respond, Heywood chuckled and said, “Obviously, you hid them.”

He turned back to Saul and added with a grin, “Of course, if you ever change your mind, we can still make that trade… for that beautiful pair of eyes you’ve hidden away.”

Still smiling, Heywood stepped back and left Warehouse Two.

“Did he recognize the Nightmare Butterfly? Or did he just sense the cocoon’s value?” Saul couldn’t be sure. All he could do was stay alert around someone with such uncanny perception.

He moved Bill and Herman’s bodies into storage.

Since the new specimens were still unstable, Saul left them in their transparent containers.

“Interesting… Their consciousnesses are with me, and now their corpses are right here too. I suppose they’ve been reunited.”

As he mused on fate’s twists and turns, a sudden chill swept through him and rushed toward the two new specimens.

White frost began to form on Saul’s eyebrows and the tips of his hair.

He quickly stepped back two paces to avoid the cold wave. Only then did the room’s temperature return to normal.

It felt like something had slipped into the corpses from all around, carried on the air.

“That wasn’t just a drop in temperature—was it a spirit?” Saul entered a semi-immersive meditation and scanned the two newcomers but found nothing. “The chill’s already gone. Whatever it was, the phenomenon ended before I could observe it. I’ll have to remember to monitor spirit fluctuations more closely next time a new specimen arrives.”

He made a note while thinking it over.

By now, it was almost time for his appointment with Kongsha, so Saul temporarily set aside the inspection of the new specimens.

He made his way between the shelves to the item stored beneath Collection No. 117.

He had already checked each numbered item while organizing the warehouse in the past.

Some of them looked terrifying and dangerous, while others resembled ordinary objects.

"Item 117, Whispers of the Elves." Saul carefully took down a bottle filled halfway with translucent liquid.

Inside, a twig stood tilted, its tip submerged, with two tender green leaves sprouting just above the surface.

It looked full of life—delicate and cute.

The “Whispers of Elves” was actually the branch inside the bottle—not the bottle or the liquid itself.

Those two components were used to preserve the Whispers of Elves.

According to the warehouse manual, the warnings for Item 117 read: Do not pour out the liquid inside the bottle. Do not remove the branch from the bottle. If either rule is violated, immediately inform Mentor Kaz or Master Gorsa. If you encounter a creature with pale skin, golden eyes, and long ears, do not initiate contact!

Besides that, the manual didn’t record any usage methods for the Whispers of Elves, but Kongsha clearly had her own way. Saul didn’t need to worry about that.

Their agreement was: Saul would move the item just inside the bronze door. At the appointed time, he’d open the door and let Kongsha in to use Whispers of Elves. She would have one minute, and then leave immediately.

The most dangerous part for Saul was transporting the Whispers of Elves.

But he wasn’t a powerless First Rank apprentice anymore.

Who hasn’t broken a few rules as a student?

So, after confirming that his diary didn’t issue any warnings, Saul placed the bottle containing Whispers of Elves onto a cart.

Before leaving, he also grabbed a small hourglass timer.

He only planned to give Kongsha a minute—just in case something went wrong.

To Saul’s slight surprise, he reached the bronze door without any trouble.

He pulled out the tiny hourglass and waited for 7:55 PM.

It was already 7:53—he wouldn’t have to wait long.

But the wait felt like forever.

Saul kept tapping the cart’s handle with his index finger, growing more and more irritable.

After 60 taps, he looked down at the hourglass again.

Still 7:53…

“Is my sense of time off, or is the hourglass broken?”

He turned away and counted sixty seconds again. But when he looked back, it was still stuck at 7:53.

“Something’s definitely wrong.” Saul glanced at the tender green branch on the cart. “I didn’t touch it. I didn’t open the bottle. So even moving it affects things…”

He calmed himself and pushed away the sudden frustration, entering a meditative state on the spot.

In meditation, he realized there had indeed been a minor disturbance in his mental state earlier—but he hadn’t noticed at all. Fortunately, it wasn’t severe and could be corrected through meditation.

Saul quickly stabilized his mental fluctuations. When he looked at the time again—7:56.

He immediately let go of the cart and walked to the bronze door, pushing it open.

Outside stood Kongsha, her face partially hidden beneath a hood, waiting in the dark corridor.

Darkness seemed to press in on her, as though trying to expel her from the first floor of the East Tower.

At the sound of the door opening, she lifted her head like a statue coming to life.

“You’re a minute late. What happened?” she asked.

(End of Chapter)