Chapter 173: High-Quality Imitation Kills the Original

Chapter 173: Imitation So Good It Kills the Original

No sooner said than done.

Saul inflicted a fourth wound on himself to collect a little blood and muscle tissue.

Then, he prepared the basic materials for making a candle, added the accompanying flower juice, his flesh and blood, and a small piece cut from the original candle to craft a brand new one.

This new candle looked very similar to the ones on the candelabra, but due to the added flesh and blood, it turned red instead of white.

"I diluted it as much as I could, and it's still this red. Should I extract serum instead, or maybe use some other colorless tissue?"

Although the color of the first product was off, Saul decided to test it anyway.

He fixed the candle onto the table and tossed a small fireball at the wick.

But the flame floated over the wick without igniting it.

"Is there something wrong with the material, making it less flammable? Wait a minute!"

Saul then pulled out a lighting device, took a few steps back, and aimed the nozzle at the candle wick.

"Sss!"

This time, the red candle lit successfully. The wick burned with a pale white flame!

"It’s identical to the flames on the candelabra?" Saul compared it to the candlelight overhead and grinned with surprise.

"Did I really succeed on the first try? Am I that much of a genius?"

After a brief moment of joy, Saul forced himself to calm down.

"After all, most of the components are substitutes, and the accompanying flower juice doesn't meet the requirements. So the actual effect might be far inferior..."

Suddenly, Saul shivered. Goosebumps rose across his body like they had a will of their own.

He turned around in shock—only to find the space between the shelves behind him crowded with figures!

It was all the corpses from outside!

He hadn’t even noticed them move. Some squeezed into the aisle between the shelves, while others, unable to fit, stood behind the shelves, staring at him through the gaps between the goods.

But Saul instinctively felt—they were all staring at the candle in his hand.

Just a moment of distraction, and the horde had crept closer.

Without hesitation, Saul grabbed the knife from the table and snuffed out the candle.

A wisp of green smoke rose from the scorched wick, and the eerie sensation of being watched slowly faded.

Saul turned again and noticed the corpses had somehow drawn even closer.

Though they still wore blank expressions and had their eyes closed, Saul could sense a strange feeling of disappointment from them.

He had always suspected they had some consciousness, but he'd never seen them move of their own accord.

And now the red candle had exposed them.

Saul looked at the candle in his palm and thought, "Did I accidentally create something incredible?"

"What is that???"

A woman’s voice suddenly echoed from above Saul’s head.

He looked up and saw a black shadow seeping from the roof. The viscous droplet-like form gradually took the shape of a woman.

Eventually, the shadow fully detached from the ceiling and landed on the floor—nearly overlapping with Saul’s own shadow.

"Lady Yura?"

"Don’t call me Yura—call me Vinnie!" the shadow snapped, clearly annoyed. But she quickly moved past the issue, tilting her featureless face left and right as if sniffing. "Where did that smell go?"

Smell?

Saul looked down at the red candle beside him, but he couldn’t smell anything.

The shadow immediately noticed Saul's line of sight and followed it—to the red candle.

"This... you made it?"

Vinnie’s shadow leaned closer. She crouched down, resting her hands on the table so she could gaze at the candle at eye level.

"Its smell makes people feel... calm," the shadow murmured as she tilted her head back slightly. "Can you light it again?"

"Calm?"

That was strange. Saul hadn't added anything specifically meant to soothe souls.

Even the flower juice in the original white candle—known for stabilizing spiritual forms—had been diluted several times.

Logically, this candle should be less effective than the original.

Yet Vinnie showed no interest at all in the other candles burning in the warehouse.

"Vinnie, if I light it again, those things will rush over."

Saul pointed at the zombie horde still lingering around the shelves.

The shadow glanced back and dismissed the concern. "It’s fine. They just feel good when they’re near it. As long as you don’t break any taboos, they won’t harm you. Now light it, quickly…"

Reassured by Vinnie’s words, Saul picked up the lighter and reignited the red candle.

A pale white glow flickered to life.

The warehouse fell silent.

The living and the dead alike stared dazedly at the candlelight.

Saul still couldn’t smell anything or feel particularly calm. He scanned the surroundings. The horde hadn’t come any closer, but each one was now facing the red candle. Their expressions were less grim and more... intoxicated.

"I definitely can’t let them know the raw materials include some of my blood." Saul uneasily pressed a hand against the wound hidden beneath his sleeve. "They didn’t react to the injury itself, but they’re very drawn to the red candle. This must be some kind of sorcery reaction causing a transformation."

"But why does my blood have this effect? Could it be related to the regenerative ability of my left eye?"

The only body-wide change Saul could recall was from when he defeated the evil spirit Morden and unknowingly melted his entire body.

That incident had only come to light after Senior Byron told him about it. Otherwise, Saul wouldn’t have known he’d melted at all.

Later, when Byron examined him, he couldn’t find the cause of the fusion or recovery. At the time, they had to flee from possible pursuers, so the matter was shelved.

Even after returning to the Wizard Tower, Saul hadn’t noticed anything abnormal. But looking back now, that experience had clearly left a lasting impact—though whether it was good or bad, or if there were further side effects, remained unknown.

As Saul worried about the changes in his body, Vinnie stared obsessively at the red candle. She was already sitting on the ground, arms on the table, head resting on her forearm—on the verge of dozing off.

"How can you make a candle like this, while Gorsa can only make those smelly white ones? I told you, he doesn’t understand souls at all."

Saul could only scratch his nose awkwardly and pretend he didn’t hear her complaining about the Tower Master.

But Vinnie wasn’t done. She even started sharing Gorsa’s background.

"Back when Gorsa first founded the Wizard Tower, the situation in the western continent was chaotic. People fleeing the unclaimed lands established the Baidong Academy on the coast. Backed by the ocean, they ignored the western treaty and constantly harassed the Kema Duchy, trying to expand their territory..."

To avoid losing land and facing destruction, the King of Kema had tried to gather information on the new wizards in the region—hoping to ally with a powerful group.

Before long, Gorsa, newly arrived and all alone, took the initiative to propose an alliance.

Many forces had recently entered the western continent, and though Gorsa came alone, he had managed to claim a huge chunk of territory.

Rumor had it his family was extremely powerful on another continent, so the other factions didn’t dare provoke him.

"Back then, the Kema Empire must’ve been fooled," Vinnie said, her voice tinged with frustration. "Gorsa was probably exiled by his family. No one from his supposed faction ever came looking for him. He was feeling insecure, so he reached out to Kema."

"So that’s why the Tower Master married Lady Yura?"

"…That’s not it."

The king of the now-downgraded Kema Duchy had willingly lowered his status in order to ally with the seemingly powerful Gorsa.

Besides providing the Wizard Tower with supplies every year, they even proposed a classic noble marriage alliance.

But Gorsa rejected the idea—and instead had the duchy send people to help manage his territory. As long as they paid tribute annually, that would be enough.

Saul was surprised, but then again, this did seem like something the Tower Master would do.

If Gorsa had truly arrived in the western region all by himself, he definitely wouldn’t have the energy or interest to manage internal affairs.

Still, Saul hadn’t expected that Gorsa wouldn’t even bother finding a steward—he just handed the land back to the original rulers.

The Kema Duchy must’ve been overjoyed.

Even temporarily managing part of the land would bring in enough profit to help them recover.

"So how did Lady Yura end up marrying the Tower Master?" Saul wasn’t being gossipy—it was clear that her death was linked to Gorsa’s true objective.

Was it really about researching how to resurrect a lover? Or was it about resisting pollution?

Only by identifying the experiment’s subject and goal could the correct research plan be formulated.

"At the time, Yura was already a First-Rank official wizard. She specialized in dark-elemental magic and was obsessed with soul research," Vinnie murmured, her face still turned toward the red candle. "And Gorsa specialized in light-element magic. The moment they met, they argued about a research topic."

Saul’s ears perked up. "What topic?"

"Whether the soul... can exist independently from the body."

(End of Chapter)

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