Diary of a Dead Wizard - Chapter 790: Mental Purification

Saul sat inside a massive hourglass.

The entire hourglass was made of brass mixed with mithril and magic mirrors, with hollowed-out star cloud patterns carved on it, allowing air and sunlight to penetrate inside while ensuring that the interior couldn’t be seen from outside.

Hourglasses were originally used for timekeeping, but when they lost the ability to observe the sand inside, their timekeeping function was naturally abandoned.

Saul’s current location was inside a large experimental chamber at Sky City’s Academy of Practice.

Some time ago, Ophelia had personally ordered the Academy of Knowledge and Academy of Practice to help Saul quickly improve his magical power and mental strength.

The magical power enhancement had been preliminarily completed. Since Saul was already a third-rank wizard, others had limited means to help him improve his magical power.

After taking some potions and conducting several enhancement experiments, the Academy of Practice finally brought out their ultimate weapon for improving personal mental strength.

This was the massive hourglass where Saul currently sat—the Blood Sand Hourglass.

The preparations took two weeks before they called Saul over.

“Knock knock knock.”

Someone gently tapped the hourglass from outside, the echo reverberating within.

“Lord Saul, we’re about to release the sand. Please sit on the central axis and don’t move.”

“Alright, I’m ready.”

Saul had been sitting at the central axis position since entering and hadn’t moved while others prepared.

“Good,” Shaquille gave final instructions. “When the blood sand completely covers your head, you can begin meditating. During this time, don’t use magical power, or the hourglass will immediately stop and the entire experiment cannot continue. In the short term, our remaining blood sand is insufficient for a second experiment.”

“I understand.” Saul’s voice was very steady.

Shaquille stepped back, retreating all the way outside the experimental chamber, and ordered the entire chamber to be sealed.

This was to prevent other people’s magical power from entering the experimental chamber and forcing the instruments to shut down.

Actually, to ensure the experiment went smoothly, normally they should have put magic-prohibiting shackles on the wizard sitting inside the hourglass. But since Saul was a third-rank wizard and an honored guest of City Master Ophelia, no one dared mention this before the experiment.

Even if they ended up wasting large amounts of blood sand, it was better than being resented by a powerful third-rank wizard.

When the experimental chamber was completely sealed, Shaquille directed his subordinate wizards to operate a massive metal lever, opening the sand release valve.

As the metal lever was pulled down, inside the experimental chamber, a pipe above the metal hourglass opened.

Crystal-red fine sand fell from the pipe into the upper half of the hourglass.

After nearly filling the upper half, the pipe stopped releasing sand.

Then a massive mechanical arm moved over, its claw gripping the lid of the hourglass’s upper half and gently placing it down.

The lid fit perfectly with the hourglass body, finally secured with screws.

When everything was complete, sand began falling inside the hourglass.

“Swish swish swish swish…”

Large amounts of blood sand fell through the hole in the sand opening, directly onto Saul’s head, then rolled down his clothes to the ground.

Each grain of sand that fell and struck Saul’s head felt like a small hammer directly hitting his soul.

Though he was meditating, the world in his mind had changed from pitch black to a red ocean.

He himself had also become a small boat struggling to survive in giant waves.

As the blood sand covered Saul’s body, the small boat was also struck head-on by huge waves and submerged beneath the surface.

His body felt like it was falling apart, with salty seawater pouring into his body, blocking out air.

Having already experienced many illusions and mental attacks, Saul didn’t panic. He steadily adjusted his spiritual body, not resisting the giant waves but letting himself transform into a small fish. Even when rolled continuously by the giant waves in the seawater, he wouldn’t suffocate.

Once he regained balance, he could swim freely in the sea.

At this time, the blood-red sand in the hourglass had also covered Saul’s head.

Shaquille, who had been carefully observing from outside, immediately ordered, “Invert the hourglass!”

Several strong wizard apprentices struggled to pull two brass chains.

The chains made “clatter clatter” sounds, driving the gears overhead to turn continuously.

The massive hourglass in the experimental chamber slowly inverted.

Finally turning upside down, Saul moved from the bottom of the hourglass to the top.

However, a miraculous scene occurred.

Despite not using any magical power and having no fixing facilities, Saul still sat in his original position. Even though he was upside down, he didn’t fall.

The sand covering him obeyed gravity and rustled downward.

As the sand gradually separated from his body, Saul felt like an onion having its layers peeled away one by one.

After peeling to the end, he was no longer a small fish in the deep sea, but completely and cleanly himself.

There were no longer red towering waves around him.

Only a quiet space-time remained.

No gravity, no sound, seemingly no concepts of space and time either.

Saul quietly floated in this clean world, surprisingly not feeling the loneliness of that extreme tranquility.

“So this step is the most important in this blood sand hourglass, and the step that most enhances one’s mental strength.”

This thought flashed through Saul’s mind, then he quickly emptied it.

This was an extremely rare experience of purifying the spiritual entity. He must treasure every minute and second—thinking too much would actually affect the results.

Better to let himself return to being a small infant, thinking of nothing, completely emptying his spirit and accepting complete baptism.

This hourglass experiment lasted five full days, far exceeding Shaquille’s initial plan of one to one and a half days.

Almost all wizards in the Academy of Practice had suspended their original work for this experiment.

But seeing Saul not coming out for so long, Shaquille couldn’t let the entire Academy of Practice just wait like this, so on the second evening, he sent others back while personally guarding outside the experimental chamber as the experiment’s organizer.

It wasn’t until the evening of the fifth day that Saul emerged from inside the hourglass.

Since all the blood sand had been completely utilized, transforming from blood sand to black sand, Saul didn’t need to worry about the restriction on using magical power. He directly teleported from inside the hourglass to outside.

How did he teleport?

Naturally, he first released the nightmare butterfly, then had it become his positioning coordinate outside.

Due to the appearance of powerful magical fluctuations, the sand grains that had originally become black sand suddenly cracked open with crackling sounds.

As Saul’s figure appeared outside the hourglass, the interior sounded like a thousand firecrackers going off simultaneously, rumbling loudly.

“My hourglass!” Academy of Practice Dean Shaquille’s mouth twitched, his heart bleeding.

Though he knew this step would happen before the experiment, when the hourglass was actually damaged, he still couldn’t help but feel heartbroken.

Saul walked out of the experimental chamber, his entire being refreshed and revitalized, his spiritual entity and bodily magical power reaching a new balance. The hidden dangers from previous contamination seemed to have been cleared away.

At the same time, the long period of solitude had given Saul deeper understanding of his own power.

In short, his gains, like his time using the blood sand hourglass, far exceeded others’ expectations.

Only no one but himself knew this.

Looking up at Shaquille’s twisted expression, Saul smiled apologetically, but quickly put away his smile and said seriously to the dean who was also a third-rank wizard, “Dean Shaquille, please tell City Master Ophelia that I’ll come find her in three days.”

(End of Chapter)