You Had Your Chance, but You Couldn't Cut It

"Long live Jack the Ripper!"

A fervent cheer came from the other side of the street.

A few thugs approached, dressed like street punks.

They shouted as they walked, occasionally making provocative gestures at the crowd.

Quite a few people glared at them.

The thugs took it as a badge of honor and strutted around smugly.

These idiots, of course, had nothing to do with Jack the Ripper.

They were members of the Ripper Gang, the lowest-ranking kind.

Yes, the same Ripper Gang Tang Luo had once begged from.

Back then, the commotion Jack the Ripper caused had been too great.

The whole Small City had been on edge, and Scotland Yard had been seeing red.

After the Crow Gang changed its name to the Ripper Gang to ride the wave of attention, they got so scared that they quickly changed it back and lay low.

Now, the Crow Gang was using the Ripper Gang name again, and its brainless rank-and-file members were strutting around once more. There was a reason for that.

It had all happened last night.

At the estate Count Thorndike had hosted a gathering of nearly every prominent figure in Small City.

"Um, Master Xuanzang, about what happened last night..." Chu Chongtian glanced at Tang Luo in the distance and asked cautiously.

"It had nothing to do with this humble monk."

Tang Luo said, "This humble monk has taken the vows. How could I slaughter innocents?"

This morning—or rather, in the latter half of last night—people had discovered that Thorndike's estate had become a charnel house.

Every single person who had attended the party last night.

Including the guards responsible for security at the estate and the coachmen waiting in their carriages for their masters.

Every one of them was dead!

Not a single person had survived.

Count Thorndike and several other prominent figures had disappeared, along with their bodyguards—Tang Luo had a good habit of shutting the door behind him.

It would take some time to discover the underground chamber.

In less than half a day.

The news swept through Small City like a wildfire across a parched plain.

The Scotland Yard inspector had also been at the estate last night, accompanied by a deputy inspector.

The one remaining deputy inspector had no choice but to take command in the crisis and lead every remaining member of Scotland Yard into action.

Then he promptly threw up all over the estate.

This was nothing like the scattered deaths of a few peasants over two or three months.

More than a hundred people had been killed in a single night, including prominent figures.

The already-panicked Small City had been pushed to the brink of total collapse.

The thugs openly shouting slogans like "Long live the Ripper!" made that clear enough.

To be honest, when they heard the news.

Chu Chongtian and the others had been stunned, almost suspecting that Tang Luo had done it.

"No, of course I'm not suspecting you, Master." Chu Chongtian hurriedly shook his head. "I was wondering how Jack the Ripper managed it."

According to the reports that had come out.

Aside from a few corpses that had been killed in unusual ways, every other victim had been disemboweled.

In other words, the culprit behind the massacre at the estate was the serial killer who had terrorized Small City for so long—Jack the Ripper.

Well, Jack the Ripper was no longer just a killer.

Calling him a maniac would be more accurate.

"How could he be so strong?" Zhou Zhenguo murmured.

His eyes were a little vacant, and he seemed to be turning into "Li Liang the Languid."

Even if Jack the Ripper could possess people and emit a chilling aura that left them numb and unable to move, that shouldn't have been enough for him to slaughter everyone at the estate.

If he really could do that.

Why had he been killing people in secret at first?

Why hadn't he killed Li Liang on the first night?

Why had he spent the remaining nights picking people off one by one instead of showing himself openly?

After all, Tang Luo hadn't been with Li Liang and the others back then.

If Jack the Ripper had always been this powerful.

What had made him suddenly unleash himself last night?

Why had he hidden his strength before?

"Um, could Jack the Ripper really be an organization?" Li Liang said. "Maybe it started as one person, but now there are lots of them, killing together?"

"Or—"

Chu Chongtian seemed to think of something. "Maybe he's been fishing this whole time."

"Fishing?"

"Yeah."

Chu Chongtian glanced at Tang Luo and said, "Thinking about it now, when Master and I went fishing on the first night, was that Hodge we ran into really just an ordinary Hodge? He dodged the staff Master threw at him before Master blasted—uh, sent him to the afterlife, right. Sent him to the afterlife."

"Maybe Jack the Ripper had possessed that Hodge."

"And maybe some of the organization's other members were possessed by Jack the Ripper too."

"Master was fishing the whole time, waiting for Jack the Ripper to come after him."

"Could Jack the Ripper have been fishing too? No, better put, he was waiting for all the fish to gather in one place before blowing them up and catching them all in one go!"

He took a sip of water and licked his dry, cracked lips. Chu Chongtian's voice turned bitter. "Maybe Jack the Ripper was just toying with us and using us to deal with the organization from beginning to end."

"If there's anyone in Small City who could stop Jack the Ripper, it would probably have to be the organization."

"Even though the organization isn't exactly good either."

After making that deduction, Chu Chongtian felt no satisfaction at all.

He didn't feel the same joy he used to when he solved a puzzle.

"We've been clearing the way for Jack the Ripper. Now he has nothing holding him back."

After hearing Chu Chongtian's words, Li Liang sneaked a glance at Tang Luo, afraid that Master Xuanzang might get angry.

After doing all that, it turned out they had been helping the enemy?

And his own companion had just pointed it out.

Anyone would be angry in that situation.

Thankfully, Tang Luo's expression remained as still as a quiet well, without a ripple.

He even looked relaxed and at ease.

Chu Chongtian suddenly realized that what he'd said might have sounded like he was blaming Tang Luo. He hurried to make amends. "Master, I'm not blaming—no, I don't resent you—damn it!"

"Heh."

Tang Luo chuckled. "It's fine. Chu, your analysis makes a lot of sense."

"If the organization is a beast lurking in the shadows of Small City, then Jack the Ripper is a venomous snake in those same shadows."

"Regardless of which one is stronger, they must have kept each other in check, or at least been wary of one another."

"We're outsiders, a third force. It's entirely possible that we disrupted the balance and caused one side to suddenly grow stronger."

Chu Chongtian breathed a sigh of relief. At least he wasn't angry.

Then his eyes lit up, and he asked, "Master, could the revolver you got be the key to dealing with Jack the Ripper?"

Powerful bosses like that usually had a fatal weakness.

It was hard to beat them head-on, but finding their weakness could change everything.

Only a storm could fell a tree!

Jack the Ripper was elusive, and his true identity had remained hidden to this day.

He could possess people and emit a "chilling aura" that made them stiff.

What was his weakness?

His true identity had to be Jack the Ripper's weakness.

Otherwise, their mission wouldn't have been to find Jack the Ripper.

But what if they hadn't found his true identity yet?

What were they supposed to do?

After thinking it over, the only thing Chu Chongtian could come up with was Omen.

Perhaps its skill, Blood Vitality Bullet, could damage Jack the Ripper from a distance by hitting someone he'd possessed?

Ending Storm—uh, that skill didn't seem to have any connection to Jack the Ripper.

"Perhaps."

Tang Luo still had his "Whatever you say makes sense, but I'm neither agreeing nor disagreeing" attitude.

Simply put, he left things to fate.

Sometimes it gave people the frustrating feeling of throwing a punch and hitting nothing.

What could Chu Chongtian do with a master who left everything to fate?

All he could do was smile.

"Actually, this might not be a bad thing."

Zhou Zhenguo took one last long drag on his cigarette, then pressed the butt into his palm, jolting himself alert. He seemed to have adjusted his mindset and recovered.

"Before, Jack the Ripper was so well hidden that he never left a trace. All we could do was wait for him to show up."

"Things are different now. We're at a disadvantage, but we still have a chance to turn the tables!"

"That's right!"

Chu Chongtian said, "We still have Master Xuanzang. Don't forget, Jack the Ripper has never dared to face Master directly. We're not at a disadvantage at all. We have a huge advantage!"

"We charged in and got a game over."

Li Liang muttered under his breath. Chu Chongtian glared at him, and he immediately grinned sheepishly.

"Everyone, you should make more preparations."

Tang Luo said.

Two hours later, the three of them looked at Omen before them and couldn't help sighing.

Master Xuanzang had been very generous and taken out Omen right away.

He said they could use it to fight Jack the Ripper.

Tang Luo himself wasn't the least bit afraid of Jack the Ripper, but he wouldn't turn down another useful fighter.

Omen wouldn't do much to improve his combat strength.

His foundation was already too strong.

But in someone else's hands, it was different.

The improvement would be tremendous.

The problem was that Omen's recoil was nothing like the revolvers Zhou Zhenguo and the others had been using over the past few days.

Even with a warning, Chu Chongtian still had the gun fly out of his hand after firing once. His finger had nearly been broken.

Zhou Zhenguo managed to keep hold of it and fired a few shots.

But he missed the target by miles. He couldn't have hit a cow ten meters away.

As for Li Liang—never mind Li Liang. A slacker like him didn't need this.

They had all tried Blood Vitality Bullet too.

After firing one shot, they really did feel tired.

Chu Chongtian and Zhou Zhenguo could each manage at most six Blood Vitality Bullets.

After six, they felt as tired as if they'd just sprinted a thousand meters, though that was still a little better than Zhou Zhenguo's weakened state.

When they tried to force out another shot, they immediately felt drained and short of breath.

They could barely keep hold of Omen.

When they used it, the number of Blood Vitality Bullets they could fire happened to match Omen's original six-round capacity.

That meant that with a full load, they could fire twelve shots in a row.

Blood Vitality Bullets did as much damage as ordinary bullets.

There was nothing special about them. At most, after hitting and injuring a target, they would dissipate on their own.

At most, they left behind some dark red bloodstains.

Bullet Storm had no recoil and consumed nothing.

But since it had a ten-hour cooldown, they hadn't tested it.

They had a "divine weapon" right in front of them, yet they couldn't use it.

Zhou Zhenguo really wanted to say to himself, "You had your chance, but you couldn't cut it!"