They were relatively safe in the most dangerous place, while Charles Gray and Carter Shaw, suspended on the hanging bridge, were truly hanging by a thread.

Carter Shaw made a snap decision, ignoring the commotion behind him. He immediately released the drawn bow, and the talisman that spun out summoned a bolt of lightning, as if to split the sky itself, crashing down and cleaving the ghost clan on Charles Gray’s side in two. Then he quickly turned his head, his arm turning grayish-blue again as he spun, stirring up a curtain of rain. The rainwater condensed into a giant skull, which dove down from above.

But when he turned around, he realized that behind him was not a ghost beast, but that red-eyed monster youth wearing human skin.

The red-eyed monster was a high-level ghost clan. After absorbing the chaos that leaked from the land of blasphemy deep underground, he—no, it—seemed to have undergone a complete transformation, like a fish leaping over the dragon gate. Of the two innate ghost kings, one was already dead, and the other had been bound by celestial tendons into a half-real, half-fake god. All the high-level ghost clans were feverishly targeting that position, hoping to take their place and become the new ghost king.

The ghost clan that would have been helplessly entangled by Carter Shaw’s skull now simply raised an arm to block the giant skull formed from water. With a pinch of its fingers, the skull scattered back into droplets, splashing everywhere.

Immediately after, Carter Shaw felt as if his chest had been struck by a tremendous force. His thin body was sent flying off the hanging bridge, with a thousand-meter cliff yawning below.

Without thinking, Charles Gray didn’t know where he found the courage, nor did he know what he was thinking at that moment. He climbed over the safety railing and jumped off the bridge as if committing suicide, diving toward Carter Shaw. The waist pouch he had been holding fell onto the bridge, and the soul bottles scattered everywhere.

Another rumbling, like muffled thunder, came from underground.

The Four Saints were linked together by incomprehensible ancient inscriptions, circulating smoothly with William Sherman at the center. Everyone holding the formation for him could feel the inscription William Sherman had placed in their hearts connecting with the Four Saints beside them, and they couldn’t help but silently recite those unintelligible words in their minds.

Old Barnes, holding his big bone club, seemed stirred by those ancient inscriptions. He glanced down at the ridiculous yet inexplicably solemn fat cat beside him, listening to the soft jingle of the cat’s bell, and suddenly spoke in a low voice: “Three hundred years ago, there was a man whose bones developed an incurable disease. The pain was so unbearable that he couldn’t live or die. I suppose nowadays it would be called bone cancer. His family took it upon themselves to burn incense and pray to the gods…”

Darrin Grant shuddered violently, looking up in disbelief.

Old Barnes was already white-haired, his hand trembling as he reached out, wanting to stroke the cat’s head he had petted countless times. But this time, the black cat dodged. This old man, who seemed to have a strange obsession with bones and had always been unremarkable at No. 4 Radiant Way, suddenly seemed to age ten years in an instant. His lips trembled for a moment: “But the gods didn’t come. Instead, a black cat who loved to eat fried fish appeared. The man was terminally ill, unable to leave the house, bored out of his mind every day. Whenever he saw a living creature that could breathe, he got excited, treating the black cat as a heaven-sent companion. He couldn’t even leave the courtyard, and wished he could rely on the black cat for his very life.”

Old Barnes’s eyes grew moist, as if he was about to cry, but his eyes were already so clouded that not a single tear could fall: “But later, the man discovered that the black cat was no ordinary cat, but a divine cat, able to communicate with the worlds of the living and the dead, to ascend to heaven and descend to earth. One day, the black cat accidentally wandered into the wine cellar, fell into a wine jar, got drunk, and revealed the secret of the golden bell on its neck. It said the bell was a gift from its former master, containing half its soul, able to bring flesh to bones and reverse reincarnation… That man, facing death, was so terrified he nearly went mad.”

Darrin Grant said coldly, “So you tricked my bell away from me. Thanks to you, I learned a hard lesson. That was when this dumb cat finally understood what it meant to guard against others. I heard you eventually died of old age, buried outside Shanhaiguan, and lived a few extra decades. So, how did it feel?”

Old Barnes replied softly, “Like a fishbone stuck in my throat, like maggots clinging to my bones.”

Darrin Grant turned away. “What a pity—so why did you sneak into the Special Investigation Bureau? And you stayed undercover for decades. The old scholar from back then ended up guarding our door and doing odd jobs for us—my bell was only recently recovered. When you joined, you didn’t have anything left for you to covet, did you?”

Suddenly, Old Barnes knelt down—three hundred years later, after reincarnation, he still carried the poison buried in his bones from that life, guarding the gate at No. 4 Radiant Way as an unremarkable doorman, hoping that after work each day he could feed a few crispy fried yellow croakers to the ever-plumper black cat. He thought this life would pass like this, and the next would be the same. But with the Virtue Quill hanging high above his head, every deed, every detail from the past… all finally boiled up in his heart like an eruption.

Old Barnes’s clouded tears finally fell, and the silent Virtue Quill seemed to hear something and suddenly moved—it slowly turned half a circle, revealing its red-and-black tip.

Then the Four Divine Beasts responded together—

Wood gives birth to fire, and the Soulbound Lamp suddenly shone brightly.

Fire gives birth to metal, and the Reincarnation Sundial, even without sunlight, had its shadow slowly move on its own.

Metal gives birth to water, and the patterns on the Terra-Spike flowed like living things.

The earth trembled violently, and the three old seals of the Earthmother’s Seal finally broke. The thousand-zhang resentment sealed below was about to burst forth and sweep across the world. All the lights in every city and village went out, and the light in the world of the living was as fragile as a mirage, vanishing instantly with a gust of the north wind.

At last, a voice calmly recited the sealing words: “With the Stone of Three Lives, seal the Western White Mountain.”

The stone, old before its time.

Julian West and the Embergrower’s Cauldron both felt a sudden emptiness in their chests. The inscription just now, carrying the unique Buddhist golden seal of the Darion Sect and the aura of the descendants of Embergrower Line, merged into the Reincarnation Sundial. The Reincarnation Sundial spun rapidly three times in both directions and disappeared into the air.

From due west came a loud boom, as if a giant nail had been driven deep into the earth, pushing aside the black miasma that shrouded the land and opening a clear rift. The surging blackness was miraculously dispersed.

“With the essence of mountains and rivers, seal the Northern Black Water.”

Water, frozen before it chills.

“With the source of good and evil, seal the Eastern Jade Green.”

A body, dead before it lives.

The Three Saints disappeared one by one from the Fourfold Compass, until only the Soulbound Lamp remained.

“With the soul of a deity, seal the Southern Great Fire.”

Suddenly, the entire Fourfold Compass was swept by wind and clouds, all four pillars rising. The Soulbound Lamp was moved to the very center. Logan Sullivan had no time to react before he felt the inscription pour out, and his connection to the Soulbound Lamp was severed.

A pair of arms wrapped around him from behind. Logan Sullivan whipped around, and William Sherman had somehow appeared behind him. The moment he turned, William Sherman kissed him deeply.

It was meant to be a kiss of utmost tenderness and longing, until Logan Sullivan felt something inside him rapidly draining away. He suddenly struggled violently, but William Sherman’s hand gripping the back of his head was like iron—he couldn’t break free. Logan Sullivan’s chest turned icy cold, and every memory from meeting William Sherman, to growing close, to every moment up to now, flashed before his eyes, making him acutely aware that a hand was mercilessly erasing them, bit by bit.

Flames ignited around William Sherman, and as his long hair and robe were swept into the fire, he finally let go of the now-unconscious Logan Sullivan, pushing him away and sending him into the arms of the distant, stunned Embergrower’s Cauldron.

He gave Logan Sullivan one last, deep look, and then his entire being was swallowed by the flames, never to be seen again.

So, the person he had schemed so hard to obtain, in the end, was pushed away by his own hand.

The promise of living and dying together that he had so painstakingly sought, in the end, was broken by himself first.

“Neither dying nor perishing, one cannot become a god.” He truly was born slow-witted; only at the very end, in that flash of life and death, did he suddenly understand.

William Sherman felt, for some reason, a sudden sense of relief, as if he finally deserved him. And yet…

What a pity they could never meet again.

Chapter 106 Soulbound Lamp (End) …

The ground shook violently, and beneath the Yellow Springs, it was even more tumultuous.

Uncle Seth protected Holly Harlow tightly, just as if she were still a young snake coiled around his wrist, acting spoiled. The iron-hard scales beneath his skin faintly showed, shielding her from the falling stones and sand all around.