Logan Sullivan glared at her with a dark expression for a while, then fished a cigarette out of his pocket, clamped it between his lips, and was just searching for his lighter when suddenly a hand reached over and, without a word, snatched the cigarette away.

Logan Sullivan: "..."

He rubbed his nose, feeling as if this action was somehow familiar.

"I've looked into your file," Logan Sullivan said, rubbing his fingers awkwardly, "You died in 1713, which was the second year of the internal strife among the Hanga people that you mentioned. What happened? Where is the body you're looking for? Was the offering under that big pillar just now placed there by you? What was that thing?"

Soulwarden interjected from the side: "That wasn't a big pillar, that object is called Terra-Spike."

The name sounded familiar. Logan Sullivan thought for a moment, then suddenly frowned: "Is it one of the Four Sacred Objects?"

Soulwarden nodded: "The Lord is indeed knowledgeable."

First the Reincarnation Sundial, now the Terra-Spike—the Four Sacred Objects had been lost to the human world for many, many years, and they weren't exactly cabbages you could buy for a couple of coins at the market. Yet in half a year, he'd run into two of them. If he really had that kind of dumb luck, Logan Sullivan thought he should have switched to buying lottery tickets full-time long ago.

This made him start to get suspicious, and in an instant, countless possible causes and effects flashed before his eyes—the mysteriously spotless office at Blackstone University when he went back, the hungry ghost that just happened to target Quinn Barnes, the inexplicably missing and still unaccounted for Reincarnation Sundial, the wanted Netherbeast, and... the sudden warning from Soulwarden.

Logan Sullivan's expression grew serious. From the tangled mess of thoughts, he immediately picked out the most urgent question: "What exactly is the Terra-Spike?"

"People say 'ghosts and gods hold the power over life and death,' but that's not really true. Since the dawn of time, when all things first awakened, there was good and evil, and the earliest judgments of good and evil were carved onto the Terra-Spike. The Terra-Spike is the essence of a hundred thousand mountains and rivers condensed into one, stretching from the heavens above to the underworld below. On it are inscribed all the destinations of the eighteen levels of hell, and later, it became the basis for all the verdicts in the Book of Life and Death. Even now, some believe that mountains and rivers have spirits—this belief started back then."

Soulwarden paused for a moment, then added: "Because the Terra-Spike was originally used for suppression, over time, tens of thousands of evil spirits became bound within it, to be used at will. But after it was lost, someone with ulterior motives used it to imprison their own people inside the Terra-Spike for generations, never to be released."

"It's nothing for others to get close, but you..." For once, Soulwarden's voice hesitated. After a pause, he said vaguely, "Your soul is naturally unstable. If you approach such a soul-sealing artifact recklessly, you'll be affected much more than others."

This was the first time Logan Sullivan had heard such a thing. He asked in surprise, "My soul is unstable? My three souls and seven spirits are perfectly fine—why would they be unstable?"

Soulwarden was silent for a moment, then said, "There are three true fires atop a person's head and shoulders. You were born missing the fire on your left shoulder. In old beliefs, this is called 'a ghost patting the shoulder,' so your three souls and seven spirits are easily unsettled. Please, Lord, be extra careful in the future."

Logan Sullivan frowned and glanced down at his left shoulder, but soon lost interest and continued, "So the Hanga people used the Terra-Spike to activate the Forbidden Rites of Robra, right?"

Soulwarden nodded: "They burned the beheaded person's body, then used the Tri-Sign Shadow Binding at the mountaintop to forcibly bind the soul in the valley, which would naturally be sucked into the Terra-Spike. With the remaining head, they could command the spirits within the Terra-Spike."

Logan Sullivan pointed at Zach Warren and asked, "What about her?"

Soulwarden glanced at Zach Warren, and that look made Zach Warren shiver, feeling as if he could see through everything about her past and future.

Soulwarden said, "The young lady died by beheading, but it seems her head and body were preserved by some means, so she escaped the Convergence Array and the Terra-Spike."

Zach Warren gave a bitter smile: "Yes, I was young and foolish back then, unwilling to accept my fate, so I possessed a living person. That's how the previous Lord caught me and sealed me into the Soulbound Order. 'Zach Warren' isn't my real name—it's the name of the girl I possessed... My real name is Glen, daughter of the leader who died in that rebellion."

Logan Sullivan was annoyed to realize that his Special Investigation Bureau was basically a club for the children of officials.

Zach Warren continued, "The rebel was named Zane Shaw. His mother was my mother's hairdresser, originally a slave. In our tribe, there were no commoners—only the leader, nobles, and slaves. So when Zane Shaw grew up, he naturally became a slave too. He was brave and capable, quickly standing out among the slaves and becoming my father's horse keeper. By today's standards, I suppose he was... the kind of outstanding talent everyone envies."

At this point, Zach Warren gave a sour smile: "But in our Hanga tribe, no matter how talented, a slave is still a slave. A slave's life is like that of a domesticated pig, dog, cow, or sheep—bought, sold, and disposed of at will. Zane Shaw was handsome and wealthy, had everything except dignity. Later, my father took a liking to a young slave girl and got her pregnant, which made my mother furious. That slave girl was Zane Shaw's sister. My mother took it out on Zane Shaw's mother, found some trivial fault, and had her beheaded. Zane Shaw's father was whipped to death by my eldest brother. As for his sister... that slave girl was forced by my father, and after all that happened, she hanged herself with a horsewhip."

Logan Sullivan pulled out his last pack of beef jerky, eating as he commented, "Your dad was really a piece of work."

Zach Warren: "..."

Soulwarden noticed his mood was still low, so he gave a dry cough to break the tension and asked, "I saw that there was originally a sacrificial stone at the base of the Terra-Spike, pressed under the offerings. Normally, it should record the names of the souls suppressed within, but while the stone remains, the list has been scraped off. Was that also from the time of the rebellion?"

Zach Warren nodded: "After Zane Shaw and his brothers won, they finally reached the forbidden ground—that is, the Terra-Spike. He said that from then on, everyone in the tribe would live equally and with dignity. So he used a big file to scrape off the inscriptions. The leader... my father, mother, eldest brother, the nobles, and their attendants and guards were all hanged and killed in the courtyard of the mountain-guarding house. From then on, the Hanga tribe had no more slaves or nobles."

"What about you?" Logan Sullivan asked. "You weren't executed that year because you secretly helped Zane Shaw, right?"

Zach Warren lowered her head: "He and I... we've known each other since childhood. When my father sent people to hunt him down, I hid him... I really just didn't want him to die. I never, never imagined what would happen later."

Chapter 38 Terra-Spike …

Logan Sullivan looked at her, frowning: "Are you out of your mind?"

Zach Warren didn't answer, staring straight at the ground. When she looked in one direction like that, she always seemed to be lost in thought. After a long while, she finally said softly, "I was still young then, not even seventeen, ignorant and naive. When I opened my eyes, I could only see what was happening right in front of me, and all I could think about was stubbornly following one path to the end. I... Zane Shaw and I grew up together. Even though our statuses were different, I never saw him as an outsider. When my father wanted to kill him... of course, of course I couldn't accept it."

"You hid him like a middle school girl hiding a love letter from her parents," Logan Sullivan said bluntly.

A faint smile flickered across Zach Warren's face: "I suppose so. Actually, at the time, I blamed my father. I thought he was wrong, and it brought shame to me as well. He... he was our leader, my great father—how could he do something so shameless?"

Logan Sullivan said nothing, his expression still sour, but his gaze softened ever so slightly as he looked at her. After a long silence, Zach Warren finally sighed softly: "Is there really a place in this world where everyone is free, where all are born equal?"

No one answered her. After a while, Logan Sullivan suddenly spoke: "There is."

Zach Warren and Soulwarden both turned to him. Logan Sullivan's lower lip was still stained with a trace of bright red blood, his face especially pale. Against the dark gray collar of his shirt, the man looked almost haggard, but his eyes were astonishingly bright—his eyes were always bright, as if nothing in the world could dim that light.

Logan Sullivan paused, then said slowly, "In the face of death."

Soulwarden's face was still shrouded in mist, unreadable, but at these words, he couldn't help but speak: "Doesn't that mean there's no hope anywhere? What, then, are mortals struggling and searching for all their lives? Lord, your words are too cold."