The day after Saul’s birthday.

Yesterday Rhine City had held a celebration, but Saul, the focal figure of the event, hadn’t attended at all.

Because he had completely forgotten his own birthday and had conducted a special experiment two days before his birthday, leaving him unable to go out for several days. It wasn’t until the morning of the next day that Saul saw a small cake outside his door.

Quite perfunctory—it didn’t even have cream. Only a thin birthday candle stuck in the middle. From the burn marks, the candle had been lit but quickly blown out.

“Is this a cake or bread?”

Saul picked up the cake. There was no one outside his door, so he could only go back inside, eat the cake in two bites, then go out again with his recent research results.

After returning from the Sighing Wall, Saul had focused on two things: beginning to work hard at adapting to the existence of the eyes, and urgently researching the Soul-Fixing Needle he had obtained from Sander. Thᴇ link to the origɪn of this information rᴇsts ɪn novel-fire.ɴet

The sudden appearance of the anchor point over Storm Sea made Saul feel time was increasingly urgent. The black tide no longer seemed satisfied with just bringing rotting monsters to the wizard world—it seemed to want to bring out the most terrifying pollution sources from within. The miniaturized magical array on the Soul-Fixing Needle that could restore people from aberration was obviously a defensive and healing method as important as the Inertization Formula.

Two days before his birthday, Saul had finally completely analyzed the entire magical array.

Besides himself, he had also borrowed help from the diary and large amounts of fate power, successfully completing an experiment that might have originally required hundreds of years of research.

After analysis, Saul had to figure out how to replicate the array’s effects.

The subsequent experiments required Keli’s help. Her radiation could already very well simulate black tide pollution and could even directly contact pollution sources for periods without being affected at all.

This was even more impressive than Saul, because when Saul’s body contacted pollution, it would always automatically absorb it, making it difficult to observe experimental results.

At the same time, Saul discovered that the Soul-Fixing Needle’s material itself wasn’t simple. It was a metal that was extremely inactive in terms of magical properties. When Black Flame Emperor Elo had held it for so long without discovering its essence, it was precisely because no matter how Elo cast spells, the Soul-Fixing Needle showed no abnormal reactions.

If they could find this metal or manufacture it, it would definitely enhance the Soul-Fixing magical array.

However, this was another tedious and complex task. Neither Saul nor Keli had time, so they ultimately entrusted it to Brando, who had also advanced to third-rank.

Although he wasn’t a wizard who specialized in metal attributes, every body he controlled was armored, making him very familiar with various metal properties. Moreover, he was quite stubborn, so he would definitely do his utmost to fulfill Saul’s requirements.

If they could manufacture this ancient wizard’s inactive metal, Saul could equip wizards with weapons and armor unaffected by the black tide when it struck.

“Hope,” Saul said softly.

“Knock knock knock.”

Someone knocked on the door outside. The door opened inward directly, and the steward was already standing outside.

“Master, you called for me?”

“Please call Wizard Brando for me.”

“Yes, Master. Also, there are several matters I need to report to you. Rhine City Lord Ron has something to report to you. Additionally, we received an encrypted letter from Iskaper Continent.”

Saul nodded. Any matter that could reach him wouldn’t be ordinary administrative affairs. Ron definitely couldn’t handle it himself.

“Let’s deal with them all together then.” Get full chapters from Novᴇl_Fire(.)net

Ten minutes later, Ron arrived at the Purity Wizard Tower panting.

He had originally wanted to report to Saul during yesterday’s birthday banquet, but the party’s host hadn’t appeared at all. He had no choice but to report through the tower’s steward—that elusive ghost Hope whom Saul valued highly.

He had thought he’d have to wait several days for Saul to emerge from his laboratory, but was notified to come to the wizard tower the very next day.

Ron was both nervous and excited.

He was someone Saul had cured of black tide pollution before Saul had even advanced to third-rank. Originally about to undergo mutation, he had finally seen hope of survival again.

Since then, Ron had served Saul wholeheartedly. Although sometimes he wasn’t clear why he revered Saul so much, that recognition and enthusiasm from the bottom of his heart couldn’t be faked.

“Lord Saul,” Ron entered Saul’s laboratory and bowed deeply.

Outside he was the city lord controlling the fate of a city, but here he was just a fanatical devotee.

“Sit,” Saul had no airs about him. He was a wizard and, unless necessary, didn’t like putting on airs.

Moreover, the rise and fall of forces had no meaning in the face of the world’s destruction.

“Have you encountered any difficulties recently?” Saul asked directly.

“I’m very sorry, my lord. It’s my lack of ability.”

“No need for such pleasantries. Although you manage Rhine City, you’re primarily still a wizard.”

“Yes.” Ron blushed somewhat. In truth, to help Saul manage Rhine City, he hadn’t done proper research in a long time, though he didn’t regret it. He no longer had the talent to advance to second rank anyway, so helping Saul in other ways wasn’t bad.

“My lord, recently some more settlement forces hope to join Rhine City. But Rhine City’s capacity can no longer accommodate more population. So I was wondering whether we should establish vassal towns in other places?”

“Expand Rhine City’s influence.” Saul thought for a moment and directly agreed. “Yes. Go ahead with this matter—ask Steward Hope for whatever you need. I happen to have something that needs promotion throughout the Borderland.”

“What do you need me to do?” Hearing he could also help Saul with something, all three of Ron’s eyes lit up.

“It’s not ready yet. When you’ve established several more subsidiary cities, it should be about time.”

What Saul wanted to promote throughout the Borderland was naturally the array modified from the Soul-Fixing magical array.

He planned to name this new magical array “Magical Power Stabilization,” mainly to prevent underground black tide pollution from further affecting Borderland residents and various precious magical materials. If one day the black tide truly erupted on a large scale, the wizard world would need resources to allow them to persist in battle.

After resolving Ron’s matter, Saul met with Brando, giving him a small portion of the separated Soul-Fixing Needle as a sample and having him create replicas based on this sample.

Brando was indeed very interested and said that if he successfully replicated it, he would immediately outfit all the bodies he controlled with this type of armor.

After Brando left too, Saul finally picked up the encrypted letter the steward had brought.

Upon hearing this secret letter came from Iskaper, Saul had vaguely guessed who had written to him.

Using magical power to break the seal at the letter’s opening, the target verification succeeded and the letter didn’t self-destruct.

Saul opened the letter to see only a brief sentence written on it.

“Time is running short. Please come to Glare for a discussion.”

(End of Chapter)

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