Chapter 163: Soul Drift

"Ah—" With a sudden scream, the desperate cry abruptly turned into a mindless howl.

The sound pierced through his eardrums, and Saul quickly stepped back a few paces.

The shrill cry, which had come so suddenly, was cut off just as abruptly.

Saul looked up and found that Madam Yura's face had disappeared, but he simultaneously realized something even more absurd.

His body had fallen to the ground with a "thud" right in front of him.

Looking down at his chest, sure enough, the Soul Gathering Lantern had lit up again.

His soul had been forcefully expelled from his body by Madam Yura's scream.

Saul couldn't help but rub his temples. "So how incompatible are my body and soul that I can just fall over from walking or get knocked out by a scream?"

Thankfully, he spent most of his time alone, but if this happened in front of others—if his soul suddenly detached and his body collapsed—that would be a serious problem.

He still felt uneasy when recalling the disfigured face he saw in the mirror earlier.

"This situation is severely affecting my life. It must be solved as soon as possible."

But how could he solve it?

Saul turned his gaze to the journal on his left shoulder. "Looks like I'm going to need your help again for a while."

After his previous soul separation, Saul hadn't figured out the farthest distance he could move from his body. He simply walked in a circle and returned to his body.

So this time, he decided to limit his range to the bathroom and try a much smaller circle.

As Saul took his first step, he immediately felt a pull between his soul and body.

It seemed that to return to his body, he didn't need to find the farthest point from it. He just had to complete the movements outlined in the Corruption Diagram to make it back.

However, after two steps, Saul stopped again. The pull disappeared immediately.

"Maybe I can find a closer distance, the closest distance."

Saul walked close to his body, almost touching it, then tilted his body, attempting to return to it with just two steps.

But this time, the pull between his body and the tips of his fingers didn't appear.

"No, is it because I'm too close?"

Taking advantage of the fact that he was in a relatively safe dorm, Saul continued to experiment, repeatedly trying different methods.

The more he understood his body's situation, the better he could avoid being helpless if danger arose.

Saul slowly backed away, and each step he took backward, he would side-step and walk in a clockwise direction. If something felt off, he'd stop and try again.

After retreating once more, Saul was less than two meters away from his body.

This time, as he followed the Corruption Diagram's walking pattern, he felt the connection to his body again.

One, two, three, four, five... He was just one step away from returning to his body.

But Saul hesitated at the first step.

"I have time, there's no need to rush back yet," Saul thought. "This is West Tower, the dorm area. The danger level is relatively low. I might as well search for the farthest range of separation this time."

Starting from his body, Saul tried to trace the invisible boundary of his range, hoping to find the maximum distance he could be separated from his body.

After just a few steps, he confirmed that the circle had expanded.

"If this keeps going, one day, the circle might touch some forbidden area. Even if my soul doesn't reach that far, it could still be harmed by the contamination of the domain."

Lost in thought, Saul left his dorm and entered the next room.

There were no residents here, and a dim light from a candle illuminated the room.

The desk and the floor were bare, devoid of any personal presence, making it feel like a quiet grave.

Saul continued walking, and as he rounded the corner of the circle and was about to enter the hallway, he stepped into another dorm.

The candlelight brightened. Someone lived here.

Saul stood in the corner of the room and looked up.

The layout of the dorm was identical to his own. There was hardly any furniture, and even the books and experimental tools were scarce, making it feel like a cold prison cell.

Opposite him, on a large bed, a girl was curled up against the wall.

It was Angela.

Saul hadn't even noticed when she was promoted to level two, and he didn't know she lived just next door.

Suddenly, Angela looked up and whispered, "Get out!"

Saul froze. Could Angela sense him?

Before he could test it, Angela cried out again, "Get out of my body, you demon!"

After shouting, she buried her head in her knees and began to sob.

However, Angela's left hand lifted and gently stroked her hair as though someone was standing beside her, comforting her sadness.

"Angela doesn't seem to have noticed me. But is this a case of split personality or is she being haunted by a spirit?"

Saul wasn't interested in digging into Angela's secrets, nor did he plan to help her resolve her troubles.

His own problems with his eyes, arms, and soul were already overwhelming enough!

He continued walking, leaving the dorm and entering the corridor.

The corridor was quiet, not a soul in sight.

Suddenly, a grey shadow appeared from the end of the hallway, moving quickly like someone running. But as the shadow approached, Saul realized that it wasn't a person, just a shadow without a body.

When it brushed past Saul, he saw that it was still a two-dimensional plane.

The shadow rushed past him, then abruptly stopped, its head swaying as if it were searching for something.

Seeing this, Saul quickly retreated into the dorm.

He silently counted to himself, then stepped back into the hallway.

This time, the corridor was empty, and the grey shadow was nowhere to be seen.

"Sure enough, even though most people can't see me in my soul form, some anomalies can still sense my presence. I need to be extra cautious even in West Tower."

Though Saul had only explored a few dozen meters, he could roughly estimate the range of his movement based on the changes in the arc of the circle.

He returned to the bathroom, preparing to re-enter his body, but just as he was about to take the final step, he stopped again.

"That's strange..." Saul rubbed his chin. "I'm in soul form, able to pass through walls, but why am I still being supported by the ground?"

Saul stomped his foot, trying to push it down, and was surprised to find that his foot could actually sink into the floor.

"So I'm not really standing on the ground, but floating in the air."

With this thought, Saul lifted one foot and pretended to walk up an invisible staircase.

"Can I fly?" Saul's eyes lit up. "No, I can float!"

He lifted his foot, taking one step at a time, until his head emerged from the floor of the thirteenth level.

"This floating motion is a little awkward. I must not have mastered the true essence of spirit movement yet."

Saul's head turned left and right as his body followed, emerging from the floor.

The room looked familiar.

"Isn't this Kongsha's dorm?"

Ever since Saul had delivered a few heads to her, Kongsha had frequently requested missions to go out.

Saul hadn't seen her in a year, and their trade of delivering heads had naturally stopped.

At this moment, the dorm was brightly lit, and the sound of water splashing from the bathroom could be heard.

"Kongsha's back? Taking a bath?"

Kongsha's figure was very alluring.

Saul, a fake teenager, couldn't help but start imagining what the scene in the bathroom might look like when he heard the sound of her bathing.

"That picture must be beautiful... but I can't look up. Kongsha is also a ruthless one. She doesn't want her beautiful face and ruin it."

Saul shook his head, pushing those thoughts that were distracting him away.

He looked up at the ceiling, planning to go up to the fourteenth floor.

That floor was for level three apprentices.

Saul turned his head and spoke to the journal: "Should I go up and have a look?"

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