"Boss, this way he can't escape?"
Li Jiehao took a step or two back and confirmed.
"Of course, I'm a professional— Asa, move aside a bit."
Isaac shifted the nail in his hand, and Carlo nodded. "Alright, this is it."
"Is there any significance to this position?" Isaac calibrated the position.
"Being symmetrical to the previous one, from a practical point of view, it will make the force distribution more even; from an aesthetic point of view, it will make those with obsessive-compulsive tendencies look at you with gratitude."
Isaac aimed at the nail and smashed it down with his hammer. Halperin screamed, but no sound came out.
Li Jiehao glanced at the head on the table beside him. "His head isn't even connected to his body, so what's he calling it?"
Carlo shrugged. "The purpose of this nail is to nail him down on a spiritual level. Although he's acting separately now, his body and head are still connected spiritually. If his body gets poked, his head will naturally cry out in pain."
Isaac hammered in the last nail, put down the hammer, and checked again the chair in front of him. He saw Halperin's body, wrists, and ankles, with four nails driven into the shriveled flesh and wedged between the bones.
This is a binding ritual that binds and locks the other person spiritually by driving specially treated nails into the body.
Carlo checked the positions of the four nails and nodded in satisfaction. "Alright, you can put his head back in place now."
Isaac lifted Halperin's head, walked back to the chair, and placed it on the severed neck.
Flesh buds emerged from the cut, intertwining and connecting with each other, completing the connection in a few breaths.
Halperin let out a gurgling sound, followed by a hoarse gasp. He coughed twice, then looked up, his gaze fixed menacingly on Carlo: " Schuster —you actually betrayed me!"
"Really?" Carlo raised an eyebrow. "You actually used the word 'really'? I've never had any moral baggage, didn't you know that? It seems you really can't judge a book by its cover."
Halperin: "..."
Carlo pulled up a chair and sat down opposite Halperin. "Alright, now we can talk."
"I've already given you my terms," Halperin's voice was hoarser than before, his throat not yet fully recovered, "And you choose to treat a willing ally this way."
"Wow, negotiating? Are you mistaken? You're a criminal telling a cop, 'If you help me regain my boss position, I'll only steal and never kill again.' That's incredibly generous; I was almost moved."
"Do you really want to be an enemy of the Cult?"
"I have many enemies, Cult probably doesn't even rank among them. So don't even think about negotiating with me. You're a criminal suspect on the arresting block, not a partner at the negotiating table."
Halperin stared at Carlo, his gaze dark. Carlo looked at Li Jiehao: " Jacob, there's a saying, 'Resist and you'll be punished severely'—"
Li Jiehao shouted, "Resist and you'll be punished severely! Go home for the New Year!"
"Tsk, is that something you should say in your current position?"
"Huh? Oh!"
Carlo turned to Halperin: "Let me clarify the situation for you. You are now on my turf, under my control. Annabelle has almost completely wiped out your influence in the Cult. Even if I release you, you will be a lone commander. And the intelligence you thought you could use for negotiation, the part about the Tree in the Lake and Lake Pote, we already know."
"Even if you think you have a better conscience than Anna, you've still harmed plenty of people. It wouldn't be unreasonable for me to execute you on the spot. So think about it, what do you have left to exchange for your life?"
"----What do you want me to say?" Halperin began, the anger in his voice subsiding somewhat.
"There's a lot, like when Anna started plotting to seize power, whether she has anyone backing her, how many resources she controls now, and what her next plan is—tell me everything you know," Carlo said. "Of course, let's start with the first question: who is this Anna you're talking about?"
Halperin paused for a moment, then said, " Annabelle Croft, I met her twenty years ago. She was twenty-two, fresh out of college. I observed her, spoke with her, and confirmed that she was a suitable person for the Cult, skilled in handling corpses, and unafraid of the dead."
"You absorbed them yourself?"
"Yes, I first gave her the basic manuscript and let her study it on her own. Six months later, she said she understood the contents of the manuscript and hoped to further explore the doctrines of the Cult. So I arranged for her to enter the lower levels of the Cult and start with the most basic work of collecting corpses."
"She's very smart and learns quickly. In three years, she could independently preside over small ceremonies, and after five years, she was already able to handle some tasks for me."
0
Li Jiehao scratched his head. This whole thing seemed familiar. He, or rather, the original owner of Jacob Hamil, seemed to have started in the same way, except that the guide disappeared, interrupting the original owner's next step into the Cult.
"Sounds like a model apprentice, so what?"
"She climbed the ranks step by step, participating in the Cult's internal decision-making, getting to know key figures from various factions, building her own network of connections, and fifteen years later, she formed her own faction."
"Pretty fast."
"Not slow," Halperin admitted.
What are the tenets of her faction?
They believe that the cycle of life and death depends on life energy. As long as one can continuously absorb life energy to replenish oneself, one can break through the limitations of lifespan and achieve immortality.
"This idea—it's a bit old-fashioned, not exactly novel within the Cult, especially considering there's a group of vampires in the south as an example. I've heard of about a dozen similar factions. This doctrine isn't anything special; establishing an independent faction like this probably isn't so simple."
Halperin didn't reply. Carlo sized him up for a moment. "Let me guess, she's your... lover?"
Halperin froze for a moment, his limbs, pinned to the chair, tensed for a split second. The four nails pulled at his limbs, preventing him from making any larger movements, but that brief moment of movement was enough to make a difference.
Li Jiehao's eyes widened. "Holy crap, how did you figure that out?"
"It's not hard to guess," Carlo said. "There are quite a few veterans in the Ghoul Cult. Having ability alone isn't enough; without someone supporting them all along, they couldn't have risen so quickly. Anna's rise within the Cult has been too rapid."
"Since Hailin recruited her, it's not hard to imagine that as the person in charge, he can make things easy for her, share his power with her, and let her grow up under his wing."
"Moreover, the fact that she was able to steal the Life Box, which is the lich's lifeblood, suggests that there is an extraordinary level of trust and closeness between the two of them."
"It's not easy to find a relationship that can earn such help and trust from an old man. I picked the most exciting possibility to try, and it seems I made the right choice."