Approximately in Winter

If it doesn't work, don't use it.

Zhou Zhenguo did not force the issue, nor would he be hot-headed enough to push forward regardless of the consequences.

Isn't it the nature of a young man to be hot-headed?

That saying did not apply to him.

Zhou Zhenguo had a fellow townsman who once believed in the "Hua Qiang" hype, only to end up behind bars.

When he finally got out, he saw his former idol actually acting cute on a variety show!

His faith collapsed instantly.

From then on, he would mutter things like, "Actors are heartless; it's all just acting."

Zhou Zhenguo would never be that foolish.

Night fell, and everyone sat in the hotel lobby.

The owner sat behind the counter, glancing at Zhou Zhenguo and his companions from time to time, his expression conflicted.

Old John had gone missing...

The owner didn't know if it had anything to do with these out-of-town detectives.

He felt quite apprehensive inside.

But with Jack the Ripper having slaughtered the entire manor and the small town sliding toward the brink of collapse, the presence of these detectives provided at least some measure of security for his hotel.

Earlier that afternoon, a nearby shop had been robbed.

Damn gang members!

"Gentlemen, aren't you going to get some rest?"

The owner brought over a few glasses of wine, placed them on the table, and asked.

"No," Zhou Zhenguo said. "It's not peaceful lately, so we'll be staying here tonight. You can go get some rest; consider it us helping you watch the shop."

"How could I impose like that..."

The owner smiled and headed toward the kitchen.

About half an hour later, he returned with some dishes: "This is on the house."

Tang Luo and the others didn't stand on ceremony and began to eat.

Whether they would encounter Jack the Ripper tonight was an unknown.

Filling their stomachs was still quite necessary.

"Hiss, why does it feel like it's getting colder?"

After finishing the meal provided by the owner and sitting idly for another hour, Li Liang couldn't help but stand up and stomp his feet vigorously.

"Are you feeling weak?"

Chu Chongtian asked.

"Don't even mention it. I've been feeling weak ever since the first night," Li Liang said—a true slacker dares to face a bleak life with a kidney-deficient body—"but not this weak."

"It is indeed getting a bit cold."

Zhou Zhenguo said, his expression suddenly turning grave. "Could it be the Ripper?"

He still remembered the bone-chilling, numbing, and stiffening aura of coldness very clearly.

The group immediately reached out and grabbed the pistols hidden inside their clothes.

"Gentlemen, why don't I lock up now? The weather is so cold," the owner said, also noticing the inexplicable drop in temperature. "It shouldn't be dangerous if I lock the door tight, and you won't need to keep watch."

As he spoke, he walked toward the hotel door, which was left slightly ajar, intending to lock it.

Before locking it, he instinctively pushed the door open to peer outside.

The owner let out a sudden exclamation.

"Swish!"

Zhou Zhenguo and Chu Chongtian drew their guns simultaneously!

Li Liang, on the other hand, scrambled backward before drawing the revolver from inside his jacket just to make a show of it.

"It's snowing."

The owner didn't realize that his actions had caused the three men to overreact.

He said this, walked out the door, looked up at the sky, and reached out his hand.

A few snowflakes fell into his palm.

Without anyone noticing, a heavy snowfall had begun outside.

The ground was already covered in a thin layer of snow.

But it was not white snow, but gray snow.

It appeared extremely inconspicuous in the dark of night.

"Why is it snowing?"

Zhou Zhenguo was somewhat puzzled.

The season here was winter, but the weather was not cold enough to reach the point of snowing.

Moreover, in the afternoon—no, it should be said that just an hour ago, everything was fine.

A sudden drop in temperature to the point of snowing?

It was clearly abnormal!

He stood up, walked to the doorway, and peered out; gray, goose-feather-sized snowflakes were indeed drifting down outside.

It gave one a very uncomfortable, filthy feeling.

He reached out to catch them, and the icy snowflakes landed in his palm, melting quickly.

"Boss, don't look anymore, this snow isn't clean," Zhou Zhenguo said, preparing to step back inside.

The boss turned his head slightly, revealing a smile toward Zhou Zhenguo as he said, "Alright, I will just—"

The light from inside the room cast upon half of the boss's face, revealing a sense of eeriness.

Zhou Zhenguo's eyes widened abruptly.

He saw the boss's strange smile, and he also saw a dagger that had appeared in the boss's hand out of nowhere!

At this moment, Zhou Zhenguo's focus was unprecedentedly sharp.

"Binding!"

Almost instinctively, he roared and reached out toward the boss.

The sound of clashing chains rang out.

Illusionary black chains emerged from the ground, circled the boss once, and then "burrowed" back into the ground.

The boss's turning motion was forcibly halted in mid-air.

His entire body remained in a bizarre posture, with his lower body facing outward and his upper body facing Zhou Zhenguo, twisted nearly 180 degrees.

His right hand was pressed tightly against his side.

His left hand was raised, pinned against his chest.

The dagger held within it was pressed against the edge of his own throat.

That was the assassination strike that had been interrupted by the chains.

After binding the boss—no, it should be said, Jack the Ripper—Zhou Zhenguo did not hesitate or delay.

He clenched his right fist, and a white light flared upon it, appearing somewhat blinding.

It was as if he were clutching a glowing lightbulb.

Powerful Strike!

Zhou Zhenguo unleashed his only offensive skill.

With power gathered in his right fist, the glowing white fist slammed into the forehead of the boss possessed by Jack the Ripper.

The sounds of a fracturing skull and a snapping neck bone rang out simultaneously.

The immense force made Jack the Ripper nearly fly backward.

However, the Binding Chain was not so easily broken.

With a series of clattering sounds, the head of the boss possessed by Jack the Ripper "disappeared" from Zhou Zhenguo's line of sight.

The back of his head was pressed completely against his back, connected only by a sliver of skin and flesh.

After throwing the punch, Zhou Zhenguo abruptly took two steps back, pressing his hand against the door to keep himself from collapsing.

His other hand was raised with difficulty; he was actually preparing to deliver a follow-up strike—no, a follow-up shot.

"No need, he has already fled."

Tang Luo's voice sounded from beside him, pressing down the gun Zhou Zhenguo had raised.

Zhou Zhenguo retreated, leaning fully against the door, gasping for breath.

He truly only had the strength for one strike.

Under the binding of the chains, the innkeeper remained "standing."

The dagger he had been holding had already vanished.

His entire body no longer held any signs of life.

A needle-like headache struck, and for the first time, Zhou Zhenguo felt that he could no longer maintain the Binding Chain, so he voluntarily deactivated it.

The corpse slammed onto the ground, a bizarre smile still plastered on its face.

Fortunately, it was nighttime, and a heavy snow was falling.

The terror brought by Jack the Ripper had turned the night streets into a graveyard.

Not a single passerby had witnessed this scene.

"This won't do."

Zhou Zhenguo said, "If Jack the Ripper keeps possessing people, we'll be exhausted to death."

There was now a clear way to determine if Jack the Ripper was possessing someone.

That was the rusted dagger.

When Zhou Zhenguo had seen it, the boss was holding the dagger in his hand.

But the moment before the fist struck, the dagger vanished.

This signified that Jack the Ripper had already departed from that body.

To be honest, this was not good news.

Because it meant that Jack the Ripper's possession.

Seemed to require no preparation, nor did the possessed need to come into contact with any special objects.

It could be said to have no limitations, and even leaving took only a split second.

As long as he kept possessing others.

Even if he couldn't inflict effective damage on Tang Luo and the others, he could still plunge them into a serious crisis.

The crisis did not just come from the assassination attempts by Jack the Ripper.

It also came from the trouble caused by Tang Luo and the others killing the possessed in self-defense.

At a life-or-death moment, no one would think about holding back.

If this happened a few more times, Tang Luo and his group would certainly be targeted by Scotland Yard.

Fortunately, Jack the Ripper's possession had, so far, only occurred at night.

Moreover, it seemed he could only possess one person at a time?

We would have to see if a second one appeared tonight to determine the upper limit of his abilities.

"At the very least, we have a way to judge: whoever is holding the dagger is Jack the Ripper."

After hearing Zhou Zhenguo's description, Chu Chongtian said.

After disposing of the boss's body, the group returned to the hotel lobby.

They lit the fireplace, slightly dispelling the surrounding chill.

"We'll see if anyone attacks us tonight. If not, then we can conclude that the Ripper can only possess someone once per night, and only one person at a time?"

Zhou Zhenguo said.

"Wait, that's not right."

Chu Chongtian remembered something, "Hodge from the first night! And Old John, that should be two people."

"Are you sure that Hodge was possessed by the Ripper?" Zhou Zhenguo asked.

"It should be correct. Master, what do you think?" Chu Chongtian looked at Tang Luo.

To be honest, he had never truly been "face-to-face" with Hodge from start to finish.

At first, a sentence was exchanged, and later, Hodge had launched a sneak attack from behind.

By the time Chu Chongtian turned around, Hodge was already a headless corpse.

"It was most likely Jack the Ripper. An ordinary person cannot dodge the walking stick thrown by this monk." Tang Luo said.

"So, the conclusion we can draw now is that Jack the Ripper possesses a possession ability. The 'possessed' after being taken over by him have agility far exceeding that of an average person, and at the same time, they possess a bizarre aura that can suppress others, making them unable to move."

Chu Chongtian summarized, "He can only possess others at night, and cannot possess two people simultaneously—this point is in doubt, but he can change his target at least once in the same night. Hodge, Old John, and the later disappearance of Xiao Zhou confirm this."

"The conditions for possession are unknown, the restrictions should be very small, and the identifying feature is a dagger that can disappear."

"His true form is unknown, there are no clues at all, and our final trump card and reliance is Master Xuanzang."

"I hope my analysis isn't wrong this time."

Li Liang asked: "Regarding his true form, do we really have no clues at all, and can only wait passively? I remember Scotland Yard gave us a list."

"It's useless." Chu Chongtian said, "Jack the Ripper can possess people to kill; all those clues are meaningless."

They weren't super detectives; how could they have the ability to catch a killer who could possess others?

"Wait, that dagger, it's a clue." Zhou Zhenguo remembered the dagger that had nearly cost him his life.

Because they were at the doorway and the light had shone onto the dagger, Zhou Zhenguo could see the mottled rust on it.

The appearance of the dagger was also etched into Zhou Zhenguo's mind.

Perhaps he could find the real Jack through that dagger.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

A series of thumping sounds came from the door.

"Boss, open up! We need a room!"

A man's shouting from outside the door interrupted everyone's conversation.

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