19. Analyzing Again: Fierce as a Tiger

"Hey, snap out of it!"

"Did you hear what I said?"

"I'm talking to you!"

Xiao Chu waved his hand frantically in front of Xiao Zhou.

The high school student, bound by chains, didn't react at all. His face remained blank and vacant.

"He looks like he's gone stupid."

Xiao Chu looked at Tang Luo.

Tang Luo walked over and placed a hand on Xiao Zhou's head. A faint golden light shimmered in his palm.

"Huh?"

Xiao Chu froze for a moment.

That light was exactly the same as the one that had burst from him last night!

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

Xiao Chu blurted out.

I refuse to believe it! This can't be true!

"It was this humble monk." Tang Luo withdrew his hand and admitted it. "Just a little trick, nothing worth mentioning to outsiders."

"..."

Xiao Chu wished he could sink into the ground.

He'd even told Zhou Zhenguo he'd gained some kind of skill, thinking he was a one-of-a-kind God and Demon Walker.

Who knew how much Master Xuanzang had been laughing at him in his heart.

Master, you're actually a bit of a schemer, aren't you?

"Then just now, when I suddenly could move again—" Xiao Chu asked.

"That was this humble monk as well." Tang Luo nodded with a smile.

He had no intention of showing off with I'm your lifesaver and making people feel indebted to him. Besides, he wouldn't be short on merit either way.

Victorious Fighting Buddha saved people without expecting anything in return!

That was the level he was on.

But since Xiao Chu had asked so earnestly,

Tang Luo would of course magnanimously reply, "That's right. This humble monk has saved your life several times, benefactor Chu."

"Thank you, Master."

Xiao Chu scratched his head, unsure what to say. Then he pointed at Xiao Zhou and asked, "Master, what happened to him?"

He could only change the subject a little.

Being someone's lifesaver was a pretty big deal.

He couldn't exactly get down on his knees and grovel, could he?

I, Chu Chongtian, still have my dignity!

"Evil energy has entered his body. He's riddled with holes and broken to pieces," Tang Luo said. "Even the gods can't save him."

Merit had many wondrous uses, but it wasn't omnipotent.

Using merit to save someone would naturally earn merit as well.

But there was no connection between how much one spent and how much one gained.

Spending more didn't mean you'd earn more.

Xiao Zhou's condition was one even the gods couldn't save him from.

Riddled with holes and broken to pieces wasn't a figure of speech. It was a literal description.

The reason he still looked "whole" was that a wisp of foreign energy was sustaining him, preserving the appearance of "vitality."

And that wisp of energy was the culprit behind Xiao Zhou's current state.

In other words, what Tang Luo had called "evil energy entering his body."

Even if Tang Luo used merit to heal him, it would be a "high-risk operation" with a slim chance of success.

The cost would be considerable, too.

If Xiao Zhou were strong to begin with and Tang Luo had a vast reserve of merit, he could give it a try.

For now, he'd pass.

Tang Luo wasn't Guanyin, the merciful bodhisattva, or Ksitigarbha, who vowed not to become a Buddha until hell was empty.

Maitreya's assessment of him back then had been—

Golden Cicada reborn, with a nature like a demon.

In plain language: You look like some kind of demon monk!

"Is he in any danger?"

Zhou Zhenguo's voice came from the stairwell.

"Can't be treated, can't be saved, no danger."

A definitive three-part verdict.

Xiao Zhou was an empty shell now. Li Liang could definitely beat him at this point.

Xiao Zhou wouldn't even fight back.

As he walked back, Zhou Zhenguo released the chains.

He'd used his skill twice, but neither time had it been of much use.

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

"Old John's leg really was lame," Zhou Zhenguo said. "We were all fooled. What happened to him?"

Xiao Chu relayed what Tang Luo had just told him to Zhou Zhenguo.

He also told him how Tang Luo had saved them.

"Thank you," Zhou Zhenguo said to Tang Luo.

He was definitely a veteran.

He didn't dwell on that, either. "What about the other two?"

"I'll go check." Xiao Chu headed for the stairwell.

A while later, Li Liang's loud cries rang out.

His face was still quite swollen as he followed Xiao Chu downstairs.

Xiao Chu was perfectly calm.

So what if it was a corpse that had been nearly split in two?

There wasn't even any blood. What was there to be afraid of?

Chu Chongtian had seen far worse than this.

"What happened to your face? What's going on?" Zhou Zhenguo asked, looking at Li Liang, whom Xiao Chu had brought back.

Li Liang bared his teeth in pain. His face still hurt.

"..."

A few minutes later, Zhou Zhenguo and Chu Chongtian were looking at Li Liang strangely.

They'd gotten into a fight among themselves?

And he'd lost, getting beaten into a swollen-faced mess?

Then he'd fallen asleep, practically unconscious?

He had no idea what had happened?

In the end, Chu Chongtian had woken him up.

Of his two original companions, one was missing and the other had evil energy in his body, was completely dazed, and couldn't be saved even by the gods.

Yet somehow, he'd emerged unscathed.

At this rate, he could graduate from being a couch potato to a lucky charm.

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

Zhou Zhenguo didn't know what expression to make.

"Master, Old John was clearly dead. Why hasn't our mission changed at all? Wasn't he Jack the Ripper?"

Chu Chongtian looked at Tang Luo as he asked.

"Perhaps your theory is right," Zhou Zhenguo said.

"Hm?"

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

"Maybe." Chu Chongtian wasn't as confident as he'd been at the beginning.

"Possession," Tang Luo said.

The three of them froze.

Including Li Liang, the newly crowned lucky charm.

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

"That's it!"

Chu Chongtian slapped his palm. "Old John didn't give himself away because he really wasn't the murderer. Jack the Ripper was just possessing him."

"Jack the Ripper committed all those murders and was impossible to track because he never left any real clues. He 'wasn't even a person' to begin with."

"This complicates things."

Zhou Zhenguo nodded. This theory was more plausible than Jack the Ripper being an organization.

But it also meant he'd be harder to find.

An organization was a group of people, and the more people there were, the more likely they were to slip up.

But Jack the Ripper was just one person. If he wanted to hide and could possess people, how were they supposed to find him?

It would be difficult even to ask Scotland Yard for help.

Jack the Ripper had the ability to possess people and had been using them to commit his crimes.

If they said that out loud,

the detectives at Scotland Yard would probably arrest Tang Luo and the others as con artists.

At least on the surface, there was no supernatural power in this mission world, this small city.

If they had to classify it,

it was probably like a ghost-themed horror movie.

The ghosts were powerful, the people were weak, and they had almost no way to fight back.

Here, Jack the Ripper was a "ghost." As for the God and Demon Walkers, they were like Taoist priests, exorcists, monks, and the like—people who could fight against "ghosts."

There was no chance of getting help from the local authorities.

Well, maybe it wasn't entirely impossible.

The Resurrected One created by the organization could be considered a "supernatural being." Under the right circumstances, it might even help them fight Jack the Ripper.

If a clever strategist came along, they might be able to play the tiger against the wolf.

Then they could sit back and reap the benefits.

Unfortunately, Tang Luo had already punched that thing into oblivion.

"If Jack the Ripper can possess people, could they still be alive?"

Chu Chongtian suddenly thought of a question.

Bi Wanhui and Chengcheng had ultimately been listed as "missing."

Could Jack the Ripper have taken them away to use as vessels for possession?

Was that why their "corpses disappeared"?

But what Zhou Zhenguo had seen on the first night—how did that fit in?

Could Jack the Ripper have more than one special ability?

The more Chu Chongtian thought about it, the more tangled his ideas became. He realized he really wasn't cut out to be a strategist.

Maybe he should learn from Master Xuanzang and overcome cunning with strength.

He wouldn't have to think about anything. He could just flip the table and solve the problem.

If that didn't work, it meant the table he'd flipped wasn't big or heavy enough.

"Whether they're dead or not isn't important. What matters is that we've lost every lead," Zhou Zhenguo said.

"We haven't lost every lead."

Li Liang had been listening for a long time and had figured out what was going on. Suddenly, he said, "The first night, when you saw me get killed, Jack the Ripper probably wasn't possessing that John guy, right? Could he have been possessing the priest, or a nun..."

"Why are you all staring at me?"

Li Liang didn't finish. Chu Chongtian and Zhou Zhenguo were both staring at him.

"I was thinking, what if you were possessed on the first night and only made it look like you'd died?"

Chu Chongtian reasoned. "That would explain everything."

"Jack the Ripper possessed you and pretended to be a corpse, planning to kill someone else. But the person he ran into was Uncle Zhou. Uncle Zhou's a veteran, so he must have had some trump card or life-saving trick. Jack the Ripper saw that things weren't going his way and chose to leave."

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

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

"So on the second night, Jack the Ripper possessed Old John, killed Chengcheng, and took her body away to create panic."

"Tonight, he used Old John again to kill Bi Wanhui, took the body, and drove Xiao Zhou insane."

"If Uncle Zhou hadn't been alert and greeted him with chains as soon as they met, it wouldn't have been Old John ambushing us. It would've been 'Xiao Zhou.'"

"With Xiao Zhou restrained, Jack the Ripper switched back to Old John and was finally killed by Master Xuanzang."

"But only Old John died. Jack the Ripper himself escaped. And possession definitely isn't as simple as it sounds—the person being possessed has far more 'combat power' than a normal person."

After laying out his theory in one breath, Chu Chongtian thought, That really does make sense.

Maybe he should stick to being a strategist after all?

"Well said!"

Zhou Zhenguo clapped twice, agreeing with Chu Chongtian's analysis.

Young people really did think fast.

"Oh, is that so..." Li Liang decided he'd better keep lazing around.

"But what good does that do? We still don't have any clues."

Chu Chongtian gave a wry smile.

His analysis had been as impressive as a tiger's pounce, sure.

But how did it help with their current situation?

They were still without a single clue, not even given the chance to follow a lead.

Why did I have trouble sleeping after catching a cold? So strange...

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