[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-diary-of-a-dead-wizard":3,"chapter-diary-of-a-dead-wizard-diary-of-a-dead-wizard-chapter-407":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"english","Diary of a Dead Wizard",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},1380628,1828,"Chapter 407 : The New Lunar Calendar...","diary-of-a-dead-wizard-chapter-407",407,"\u003Cp>\"The candles of the Wizard Tower never go out.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The candlestick in Haywood’s hand had been pulled straight off the wall.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"That used to be the first rule in the apprentice handbook. Now, it’s the only rule: at night, the candles must never go out.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Saul moved closer to the candlelight.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Not long after they entered the West Tower, the sky had gone completely dark.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It happened so fast, it felt unnatural.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It made Saul feel, once again, that this place wasn’t part of the real world.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He glanced around the messy room, feeling stifled.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"After nightfall, the atmosphere here becomes... strange.\" Saul tugged at his collar—the air was too heavy, and he felt a faint sense of suffocation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After nightfall, Haywood had barely spoken.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He curled up in a corner, staring at the candlestick about a meter away, as if terrified it might go out at any moment.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I feel like someone’s watching us,\" Saul said as he walked toward the door.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The door was cobbled together from pieces of what must have been a dormitory door; the gaps were wide, and cold wind howled through.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Of course. Lots of people,\" Haywood muttered, moving slightly—a rare response. \"Don’t look around. Wait until morning.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But Saul wasn’t as cautious as Haywood.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He had no intention of lingering in this illusion for a hundred years.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The key to breaking an illusion was disrupting its order.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although the illusion was so real that it made Saul doubt himself at times, he still leaned toward believing this wasn’t the real future.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But if he stayed here any longer, his grasp of reality might grow dangerously blurred.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He already knew plenty about this place, but he hadn’t yet found a sufficient crack to shatter the illusion.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Maybe the way out isn’t inside the Wizard Tower.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Saul leaned toward the door gap.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Outside, the patch of grass teeming with skulls stretched before him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The wind howled as ever, flattening the dark green grass.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Pale skulls bobbed up briefly before being swallowed again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As he watched, Saul had a strange illusion: somewhere among those countless skulls, a living face—of flesh and blood was hidden, staring at him through the gap.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Someone is watching me. This isn’t just my imagination.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Suppressing the goosebumps bristling across his skin, Saul scanned every skull peeking through the grass but he still found nothing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Slowly, Saul looked upward.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Tonight, there was no moon but countless stars.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The starlight shimmered across the sky, yet something about it felt... wrong.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Aren’t these stars... packed a little too densely?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Saul squinted, focusing more intently.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The more he looked, the more certain he became: These weren’t the stars he remembered.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Among these stars, there seemed to be a small black dot at the center of each one.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Each black dot pointed straight toward Saul—like the pupil of an eye.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Eyes?!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Saul placed a hand on the door, ready to step outside.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"What are you doing?\" Haywood’s voice suddenly cut through behind him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Saul turned back.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He saw Haywood staring at him, wide-eyed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Large swaths of whites around tiny pinpricks of pupils.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Just like the \"stars\" outside.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Saul smiled faintly. \"Just stepping out for a look.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Never stay where there’s no light,\" Haywood said darkly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"The stars are so bright out there. Does that still count as 'no light'?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Haywood froze.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"There are no stars outside,\" he said hoarsely.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Something seemed to click in his mind.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He immediately scrambled to the corner, pulling out more candles, lighting every single one without the slightest concern for wasting them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As he lit them, his hands, clutching the firestone, visibly trembled.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Seeing Saul still standing at the door, he shouted in near panic:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"What are you doing, just standing there?! Help me light the candles! You’ve attracted the grudges! We need more candlelight to suppress them!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Saul had no real intention of listening.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He was itching to go outside and investigate those stars.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But at that moment, the feeling of being watched surged even stronger.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A faint, sharp screech came from the door gap behind him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Saul spun around, and was shocked to find that the gap outside was now pitch black.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No more grass.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No more skulls facing the Wizard Tower.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No more myriad stars across the sky.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Get over here... hurry, hurry! Stay too long in the dark... and you’ll die!\" Haywood’s voice had gone hoarse.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The moment the words fell from his lips, Saul felt it—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A murderous intent, sharp and electric, raced from his fingertips to the base of his spine.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Danger!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His instincts screamed at him to dodge immediately.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But Saul stood frozen in place, braving the bone-deep cold.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then, he saw it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The diary within his mental realm suddenly flipped open.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[May 14th, Year 317 of the New Lunar Calendar.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>You are looking at the scenery through the door,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And the one watching the scenery…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Is watching you.]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No death warning!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This was a crisis alert!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The moment Saul finished reading the diary entry, he sprang backward three steps, landing beside Haywood.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The suffocating sense of danger weakened, but did not disappear.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In fact, as the seconds ticked by, it was growing stronger.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Haywood had filled the ground with lit candles, holding two more in his shaking hands, but his terror hadn’t lessened one bit.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"They’re coming! They’re coming!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Who’s coming?\" Saul turned his head toward Haywood.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But Haywood just stared at the door, his facial scars twitching.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Receiving no answer, Saul looked back at the door—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And realized—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The door gap was widening!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"No—it’s not that the gap is growing—it’s that the door is shrinking!\" Saul felt a wave of cold run through him. \"The darkness is devouring the door!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That old, almost forgotten sense of horror surged through his bloodstream, and within that terror, Saul found a familiar clarity.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He calmed down instantly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His gaze dropped back to the diary.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"New Lunar Calendar, Year 317. So, this is still the present!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Earlier, when he sensed the danger, Saul had deliberately hesitated before retreating—waiting for the diary’s prediction.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And the diary recorded the date!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"My initial analysis was right. This is an illusion—part of the black light’s attack!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"The illusion isn’t complicated, nor is it directly lethal. If I’m right, the darkness won’t fully invade this room either.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Unlike Haywood, Saul wasn’t gripped by fear, but neither did he foolishly step forward to provoke the dark.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Sure enough, after a few minutes of tense standoff between light and dark, the blackness slowly receded from the door.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Haywood let out a long breath.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He reluctantly blew out the excess candles, leaving only three for safety.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then, in a much lower voice, he said to Saul:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Don’t explore at night.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If you draw in more pollution, we’re dead.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Unfortunately, Saul—who had just confirmed his theory wasn’t listening at all.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I was right. This illusion doesn’t focus on fatal aggression. That’s why the diary only gave a crisis alert, not a death warning. But it plays heavily on human doubt. Anyone else, trapped here long enough without finding a way out, would start doubting themselves more and more. Seeing the illusion laced with fragments of logical truth, they’d start to believe. Maybe this really is a hundred years later.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"The more they doubt, the more trapped they become. Eventually, they’d hypnotize themselves. They’d persuade themselves this really is the future, and they’d be trapped in this layer forever.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Now that he had confirmed it was an illusion, Saul had a few ideas for how to break it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He rubbed his chin thoughtfully.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"This illusion likely covers just a hundred meters or so around the Wizard Tower. If I try to leave, I’ll probably trigger an immediate, overwhelming danger. And those 'stars' overhead. They must be the eyes inside the layer. They’re powerful. Very powerful.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Now, two options lay before him: One, walk into the darkness and fight the pollution head-on— though judging from the diary’s warnings, the battle would be fierce.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Or two—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Kill Haywood. Kill the one broadcasting this world’s setting.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Saul slowly turned his head—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Looking at the aging Haywood, lost in a daze as he stared into the flames.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>(End of Chapter)\u003C\u002Fp>",1360,"2026-06-05T22:22:08.872Z",1,"novelbin.me","9ee66cb91c5e3d8ce8c9e0bd2d5db6cce9f842a1d24ece7d97b8605ea1ef957e","diary-of-a-dead-wizard-chapter-408","diary-of-a-dead-wizard-chapter-406",1037,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fdiary-of-a-dead-wizard-cover.jpg"]