So afraid of death he did plenty of things only the fearless would do

Horcrux, as powerful creations of Dark Magic, are difficult to detect without magical vision.

Because Horcrux can be considered alive in a sense, the soul fragments inside can actively influence others, or they can actively hide themselves.

Unless it's already very conspicuous, there's nothing that can be done.

Judging from Hagrid's wrongful conviction back then, although the Wizard of this world possessed magic, they clearly lacked meticulousness and the obsession to uncover the truth when investigating cases.

Testing all potentially suspicious items with Charms is something Manus considers perfectly reasonable, but Wizard are unlikely to do it.

If it were a precious treasure, it might be inspected, and the investigating Wizard might even take it away without permission.

But a blank notebook... and a blank notebook belonging to a student, that's so normal that no one would even bother to investigate.

"That's it? Are you saying this purpose is too evil, and you're afraid that revealing it will provoke my hostility? As a Horcrux created to kill?"

Manus looked at Big Tom, and the oppressive aura emanating from him still inspired fear:

"Furthermore, even if you understand yourself and know that the soul fragment in the ring will most likely lie to me and say it's the first Horcrux, lying to me is still an extremely risky thing to do. And the thing that would make you take such a risk... is just to fulfill Slytherin's last wish?"

Manus sighed:

"Do you really think I'm that easy to fool? Or have you used that Pure-bloodism so many times when you were recruiting that you've started to believe it yourself?"

"..."

Big Tom thought about it carefully, and the reason did seem a bit far-fetched, but...

"What other purpose could I have? Aside from appearance and meaning, there's no essential difference between choosing Horcrux. I chose that Diary for that reason."

"Hmm... that's the truth."

Manus squinted, and after Big Tom breathed a sigh of relief, he said:

"But the truth can also be used to deceive, to downplay the seriousness of the matter, or to give an irrelevant answer."

Big Tom:... Why do you seem to know this so well?

Manus: The Zone of Truth isn't some difficult magic.

"The essence of Horcrux is indeed the same, and there's only one thing that you care about so much: your life—"

By combining Big Tom's performance with previous information, Manus can easily deduce a line of thought:

"You're telling the truth, so your approach to this special Horcrux will differ from Horcrux. To fulfill Slytherin's last wish, you won't seal the Diary away; instead, you'll give it away willingly."

"You concealed the reason it was made, just to hide this one special characteristic... You don't want me to find this Horcrux? But why? What else is special about this Horcrux that makes you value it as if it were your own life?"

As Manus spoke, he sensed Big Tom's reaction. Both his soul and his physical body contained a great deal of Manus's own interpretation. Directly digging into the other's memories wouldn't fool him, but emotional perception was still no problem.

Judging from Big Tom's reaction, Manus was right.

The outline of this story is becoming clearer, but one thing remains unclear: what was Big Tom's motive for doing this?

There are two possibilities: one is that Manus hasn't found the key yet, and the other...

Manus's expression suddenly became somewhat subtle:

"You don't actually think that Horcrux can be used to save your life, do you?"

Big Tom remained unfazed:

"I don't know what you're suddenly talking about."

"It really is? Don't you have any understanding or research into how Horcrux work?"

Sensing Big Tom's inner turmoil, Manus's eyes widened in surprise:

"Even if you didn't have one at the beginning, by the time you were created, it was already the third Horcrux you made, right? This is something you use to save your life, and you dared to use it without doing thorough research? How dare you?"

No, think about it carefully. After Voldemort obtained the method for making Horcrux, he dared to directly practice splitting his own soul, and even thought of splitting it a second time or more.

In comparison, it's really hard to say which one requires more courage.

Perhaps this is what they mean by ignorance is bliss?

Because Voldemort came from Muggle orphanage and had never received any magical education before, he had no idea how insane Horcruxes were after seeing Horcrux.

Voldemort might have thought that the most important reason Horcrux were forbidden was that their Horcrux involved killing people?

Because he was afraid of death, Manus did more than one thing that anyone with even a little bit of fear of death wouldn't have done. To be honest, Manus was genuinely a little afraid of Voldemort at this point.

"What did you mean by what you just said?"

Voldemort's expression began to betray his growing unease; Manus's words and his current expression both hinted at a possibility that made him quite uneasy.

His intelligence allowed him to analyze what the possibility was, but his emotions made him unwilling to believe it.

"Well..."

Manus looked at him with a hint of pity:

"If Horcrux can be used to make the Horcrux immortal, what's the difference between a soul fragment and the main soul? Wouldn't the Horcrux magic then directly grant immortality?"

If that's the case, unless the soul is directly harmed or even destroyed, the Horcrux will protect the main soul from death, and the main soul will protect the Horcrux from death, creating an infinite spiral of growth, just like Righteous Qi and Black Qi...

Adding extra layers of protection to the Horcrux would be a life-saving measure that would truly pique Manus's interest.

It's just splitting a soul, isn't it? Everything has a rate of return. Compared to this level of gain, splitting off a small part of the soul isn't an unbearable price to pay. Manus doesn't even need to kill anyone to split a soul.

Unfortunately, there are no "what ifs." The cost of Horcrux far outweighs their benefits.

"Think about it carefully yourself. Besides this matter, there are also things about the future—you should know that if things continue like this, your situation will only get worse."

Manus no longer looked at Big Tom's utterly devastated expression:

"I hope that next time you come in, you can offer some more valuable suggestions on how we should interact in the future... It would be a good way for you to pass the time."

Manus and Tom's cooperation is based on a common goal: to kill Voldemort himself.

This cooperative foundation, coupled with their subordinate position, made Tom and his companions willing to cooperate with Manus, providing him with various intelligence about Voldemort and helping Manus deal with him.

Of course, this provision is reserved, reluctant, and passive.