Re-analyzing: Fierce as a Tiger

"Hey, snap out of it!"

"Are you even listening to me!"

"I'm talking to you!"

Chu Chongtian waved his hand frantically in front of Zhou Zhenguo's eyes.

The high school student, bound by chains, showed no reaction at all, his face remaining blank and dull.

"He seems to have gone senile."

Chu Chongtian looked toward Tang Luo.

Tang Luo walked over and placed his hand on Zhou Zhenguo's head, a faint golden light shimmering from his palm.

"Huh?"

This caught Chu Chongtian off guard.

This light was exactly the same as the one that had erupted from him last night!

"Master, was that you last night? That wasn't an ability I awakened?"

Chu Chongtian exclaimed.

I don't believe it, this can't be true!

"It was this humble monk." Tang Luo withdrew his hand and admitted it, "Just a minor technique, not worth mentioning to outsiders."

"..."

Chu Chongtian wished he could crawl into a crack in the ground.

He had actually told Zhou Zhenguo that he had acquired some kind of skill, thinking he was a one-of-a-kind God and Demon Walker.

Back then, Master Xuanzang must have been laughing to himself.

Master, are you actually black-hearted on the inside?

"Then just now, when I was suddenly able to move again—" Chu Chongtian asked.

"Also this humble monk." Tang Luo smiled and nodded.

He had no intention of showing off that "I am your savior" to make people grovel in gratitude; the power of merit would be earned regardless.

The Victorious Fighting Buddha does not seek rewards for saving lives!

His realm is simply that high.

But since Chu Chongtian had asked so sincerely.

Tang Luo naturally showed great mercy and replied, "That is correct, this humble monk has saved you many times, Withdraw—no, Benefactor Chu."

"Many thanks, Master."

Chu Chongtian scratched his head, not knowing what to say, then pointed at Zhou Zhenguo and asked, "Master, what is wrong with him?"

He had to change the subject.

The status of "savior" was just too heavy.

He couldn't exactly just kneel down and start licking his boots, could he?

I, Chu Chongtian, still have my dignity!

"Evil energy has entered his body; he is riddled with holes, fragmented and shattered," Tang Luo said. "Even the immortals could not save him."

The power of merit has many miraculous uses, but it is not omnipotent.

Consuming the power of merit to save someone naturally earns one merit, but there is no direct correlation between the amount consumed and the amount gained.

It is not as if the more you spend, the more you receive.

Zhou Zhenguo's situation was truly beyond the reach of immortals.

"Riddled with holes, fragmented and shattered" were not adjectives, but a literal description.

The reason he appeared "intact" was because a strand of external energy was acting as a support, maintaining a facade of "prosperity."

And this very strand of energy was the culprit behind Zhou Zhenguo's current state.

It was what Tang Luo called "evil energy entering the body."

Even if one were to use the power of merit as a healing method, it would be a "high-risk surgery" with a slim chance of survival.

The required consumption would also be significant.

If Zhou Zhenguo possessed formidable strength himself, and Tang Luo had an ocean of merit, it might be worth a try.

But for now, forget it.

Tang Luo was not the Great Merciful Guanyin, nor was he Ksitigarbha, who vowed not to become a Buddha until hell was empty.

Back in the day, Maitreya's assessment of him was—

The Golden Cicada reincarnated, its nature akin to a demon.

To put it in plain terms: you look like a demonic monk!

"Is he out of danger?"

Zhou Zhenguo's voice came from the direction of the stairs.

"Can't be cured, hopeless, no danger."

The definitive triple-verdict.

The current Xiao Zhou was nothing but an empty shell; Li Liang could certainly beat him now.

Because Xiao Zhou wouldn't resist at all.

Zhou Zhenguo walked back while undoing the chains.

He had used this skill twice, but unfortunately, it hadn't managed to serve any real purpose.

Xiao Zhou remained sitting in the chair, neither happy nor sad.

"It really was Old John, and his foot was indeed lame," Zhou Zhenguo said. "We were all deceived. What happened to him?"

Xiao Chu relayed Tang Luo's words to Zhou Zhenguo.

He also took the opportunity to mention how Tang Luo had saved them.

"Many thanks," Zhou Zhenguo said to Tang Luo.

He was definitely a veteran, no doubt about it.

He didn't dwell on that issue either: "What about the other two?"

"I'll go check," Xiao Chu said, running toward the stairs.

A moment later, Li Liang's wailing voice rang out.

He followed behind Xiao Chu, his face still quite swollen.

Xiao Chu was very calm.

It was just a corpse split almost in two, wasn't it?

There wasn't even any blood, so what was there to be afraid of?

He, Chu Chongtian, had seen scenes far more intense than this.

"What happened to your face? What occurred?" Zhou Zhenguo asked, looking at the Li Liang brought over by Xiao Chu.

Li Liang spoke with a grimace, his face still throbbing with pain.

"..."

A few minutes later, the way Zhou Zhenguo and Chu Chongtian looked at Li Liang was rather strange.

Infighting?

And he lost, getting beaten into a pig's head?

Then he fell asleep in a near-comatose state?

He didn't even know what had happened?

And finally, he was woken up by Chu Chongtian.

Of his original two companions, one was missing, and the other was possessed by evil energy, rendered completely demented and beyond saving.

Yet he himself was unexpectedly fine.

With treatment like that, he could be promoted from a salted fish to a lucky charm.

"It wasn't me, I really don't know what happened," Li Liang insisted repeatedly.

Zhou Zhenguo didn't know what expression to make.

"Master, Old John is clearly dead, so why hasn't our mission changed in the slightest? Isn't he the Ripper?"

Chu Chongtian looked at Tang Luo and asked.

"Perhaps your deduction was correct," Zhou Zhenguo said.

"Hm?"

"Jack the Ripper is an organization," Zhou Zhenguo said, "just not the organization we found."

"It's possible." Chu Chongtian was no longer as confident as he had been at the start.

"Possession."

Tang Luo spoke up.

"Possession?" All three were stunned for a moment.

Including the newly minted lucky charm—Li Liang.

"Jack the Ripper has the special ability to possess others," Tang Luo said.

"Right!"

Chu Chongtian slammed his palms together. "The reason Old John didn't show any flaws is because he truly wasn't the killer; he was merely possessed by Jack the Ripper."

"Jack the Ripper has struck many times, elusive and ghostly, never leaving behind any real clues because he 'isn't just one person' at all."

"This is troublesome."

Zhou Zhenguo nodded. This deduction was far more plausible than the theory that Jack the Ripper was an organization.

But it also meant that finding him would be even harder.

An organization is, after all, a group; with many people, flaws are bound to appear.

But Jack the Ripper is just one entity. If he is determined to hide and possesses the ability to possess others, how is one supposed to track him down?

Even seeking help from Scotland Yard would be difficult.

Jack the Ripper possesses the ability to inhabit others, always manipulating them to commit crimes.

If they were to say that out loud, the inspectors at Scotland Yard would likely arrest Tang Luo and the others as frauds.

At the very least, on the surface, this mission world and this small town do not possess any supernatural powers.

If one had to categorize it, it would be the type of ghost-horror film.

The ghost is strong, the humans are weak, and there are almost no means of resistance.

Here, Jack the Ripper is the "ghost," while the God and Demon Walkers—acting as Taoist priests, exorcists, or monks—are the characters with the ability to counter such "ghosts."

Relying on the assistance of local forces is impossible.

Oh, perhaps it is not entirely impossible.

The Resurrected Ones developed by the organization could also be considered "supernatural existences." Under certain conditions, they might become an asset in countering Jack the Ripper.

If a wise man were here, they might even play the strategy of setting wolves against tigers.

And finally, sit back and reap the rewards as the fisherman.

However, that thing had already been blown to bits by Tang Luo's fist.

"If Jack the Ripper can possess people, could it be that they aren't dead?"

Chu Chongtian suddenly thought of a question.

The final outcome for Bi Wanhui and Chengcheng was "missing."

Could it be that they were taken away by the Ripper as vessels for possession?

Is this the reason for the "disappearance of the corpses"?

But then, how to explain what Zhou Zhenguo saw on the first night?

Could it be that Jack the Ripper has more than one special ability?

The more he thought, the more chaotic his train of thought became. Chu Chongtian realized that he was truly no wise man.

Perhaps he should just follow Master Xuanzang's example and break through finesse with brute force in the future.

Don't think about anything; just flip the table to solve the problem.

If that doesn't work, it's only because the table wasn't big or heavy enough.

"Whether they are dead or not is unimportant; what matters is that all our leads are now broken," Zhou Zhenguo said.

"Not all of them are broken, though."

Li Liang, who had been listening from the side for a long time and had already grasped what was happening, suddenly spoke up. "On the first night, when you saw me get killed, Jack the Ripper shouldn't have been possessing that John fellow, right? Could he have possessed the priest, or a nun..."

"Why are you all staring at me?"

Li Liang's words were cut short because both Chu Chongtian and Zhou Zhenguo were staring at him.

"I just thought, on the first night, could it actually have been you who was possessed, creating the illusion of death?"

Chu Chongtian analyzed, "If that's the case, all the problems can be explained."

"Jack the Ripper possessed you, faked being a corpse, and intended to kill the others, but the person he encountered was Uncle Zhou. Uncle Zhou is a veteran and surely has some trump cards or methods to save his life, so Jack the Ripper chose to leave when he saw things weren't going his way."

"Because of what happened on the first night, we became wary of our 'companions'."

"Jack the Ripper couldn't easily possess one of us again."

"So on the second night, the Ripper chose to possess Old John, kill Chengcheng, and take away her corpse to cause panic."

"Tonight, he used Old John again to kill Bi Wanhui, took the corpse, and left Xiao Zhou in a daze."

"If it weren't for Uncle Zhou's vigilance, greeting him with chains the moment they met, I fear it wouldn't have been Old John ambushing us, but 'Xiao Zhou'."

"Xiao Zhou was shackled, so the Ripper switched back to Old John, only to be killed by Master Xuanzang in the end."

"But only Old John died; the true Ripper escaped. Possession is definitely not simple; the 'combat power' of the possessed target is far beyond that of an ordinary person."

After finishing his analysis in one breath, Chu Chongtian secretly thought, This feels pretty good.

Maybe I should stick to the path of a wise man from now on?

"Well said!"

Zhou Zhenguo clapped twice, expressing his agreement with Chu Chongtian's analysis.

Young people really do have faster-turning minds.

"Oh, is that so..." Li Liang felt he should just continue being a couch potato.

"But, what use is this? There are still no leads."

Chu Chongtian gave a bitter smile.

The analysis had been fierce as a tiger, that was true.

But how did it help the current situation?

They were still in a state of having no leads, not even given a chance to follow the vine to find the melon.

Why does one suffer from insomnia after a cold? How strange...

Thanks to Bai Ruyu, Surprised Beef Ball, Jickivence, Tyrannosaurus Journey, and Tree Heart Twelve for the tips!