Leaving the City

"We're closed. Come back tomorrow morning!"

Chu Chongtian shouted.

"Refusing business? Are you sick?" the person outside yelled. "If you won't serve us, let someone else do it."

"Nobody's here, and I'm going to sleep," Chu Chongtian said impatiently.

The voice outside vanished, seemingly having given up.

The next second, a loud crash echoed.

The tightly shut door was kicked open by force.

A dozen or so ruffian-looking men swarmed in all at once.

"No one here is perfect—" The leader was a man wearing a deerstalker hat, one arm hanging in a sling and braced with wooden boards.

As he spoke, his footsteps and his words came to a simultaneous halt.

"Ha, it's him!"

The man in the deerstalker shouted, pointing at Tang Luo.

He would never forget this face for the rest of his life.

He had caught a fleeting glimpse of him while passing by during the day and immediately recalled the humiliation of having his arm broken and his revolver stolen that day.

He was the only one who ever robbed others!

No one had ever robbed him!

And so, he had brought men tonight for revenge.

Late at night, thanks to the "blessing" of Jack the Ripper, no one dared to walk the streets.

The probing during the day had also proven that Scotland Yard was either unwilling or unable to maintain order in the small town.

The small town was now the domain of their Ripper Gang!

"Oh, so you've come to find this humble monk."

Tang Luo said.

It seemed the karmic debt—the ill-fated connection—formed when he begged for alms would be settled tonight.

"Kid, didn't expect this, did you!"

The man in the deerstalker laughed.

"Hmm, this humble monk truly did not expect that someone would deliver themselves to my doorstep to add a few points of merit to my cultivation."

Tang Luo said.

The Ripper Gang had done work for the organization, but as a relatively tough gang, Tang Luo and the others hadn't gone out of their way to trouble them.

Now that they had delivered themselves to his doorstep...

"To deal with such evildoers, only salvation is the righteous path. Do it."

Tang Luo said, drawing Ominous and pulling the trigger.

When dealing with such demonic heretics, there was no need to talk about chivalry; they all opened fire together.

Gunshots rang out.

The head of the man in the deerstalker exploded like a watermelon.

The gunfire was intense, echoing through the silent, snowy night.

After it ceased, a pile of men lay on the ground. Some were not quite dead and tried to draw the guns they hadn't managed to pull out yet, only to be finished off by Tang Luo.

Their final thoughts before dying were:

This is so against the rules; they didn't even go through the stage of exchanging threats before opening fire!

"I feel like we're the bad guys."

Chu Chongtian said, his tone somewhat bewildered.

Six or seven days ago, he was just an ordinary college student.

Now, he could shoot and kill people without changing his expression.

Li Liang didn't have as many reflections, mostly because he had held his gun but hadn't fired.

The "results" had been "crafted" by Tang Luo, Chu Chongtian, and Zhou Zhenguo, who had recovered after more than half an hour.

"Survive first, then talk about good and evil."

Zhou Zhenguo patted Chu Chongtian on the shoulder.

He didn't want a growing, viable combatant to suddenly fall into confusion and lose his fighting spirit.

"To sever karma is not to sever lives; to kill is to protect life."

Tang Luo said, "Donor Chu, do not take it to heart. This matter began because of this humble monk, and all sins shall naturally be borne by this humble monk."

The power of merit is the same.

"I'm fine."

Chu Chongtian shook his head. "I was just sighing a bit; it's not like it's the first time."

The reason for his sighing actually had to do with the current environment.

A silent, snowy night makes it easy for one's mind to wander.

Coupled with the death of the innkeeper.

Chu Chongtian couldn't help but wonder if, when faced with someone possessed by Jack the Ripper, he would be able to show no mercy just like Master Xuanzang and Uncle Zhou.

But thinking about it carefully, there was really no need to worry.

To be honest, when facing such an opponent alone, it wasn't even a question of whether to show mercy or not.

It would be a stroke of pure luck if he, Chu Chongtian, could even survive.

"What about these people? How should we handle them?" Zhou Zhenguo asked.

A pile of people, all with gunshot wounds; they weren't as easy to dispose of as the innkeeper's corpse.

"Perfect, let's just say they killed the innkeeper," Tang Luo said. "We are special investigators for Scotland Yard; we should be rewarded for our righteous act."

Tang Luo decided that these people would be the ones to take the fall.

Master is truly ruthless, Chu Chongtian thought to himself.

The gap between people was suddenly laid bare.

Just which temple did this monk come from to be so ruthless?

The night passed without incident.

The Ripper Gang and Jack the Ripper did not appear again.

This remained the case for two consecutive days.

It wasn't just that Jack the Ripper stopped bothering Tang Luo and his group.

For some reason, even the Ripper Gang had vanished without a trace.

Tang Luo and the others couldn't be bothered to care.

They focused on searching for clues related to that dagger.

Although it was like looking for a needle in a haystack, it was still better than doing nothing at all.

Three days later, Tang Luo and his group heard some news.

Nearly a hundred more people had died at the hands of Jack the Ripper.

Some had been gathered together, while others were killed by Jack the Ripper in various different locations.

The bodies were discovered one after another.

And the people who died were none other than the members of the Ripper Gang, who had been stirring up trouble in the name of Jack the Ripper over the past few days.

No wonder neither side had continued to bother Tang Luo and his group.

So they had gone off to slaughter each other?

The destruction of the Ripper Gang naturally brought about significant repercussions.

Perhaps it was a case of extremes meeting; some people began to inexplicably worship Jack the Ripper.

They believed him to be a cleanser of sin.

Relevant church organizations were even formed, and some had already begun to preach, attracting impoverished people from the lower classes to join.

Jack the Ripper had initially killed without discrimination.

But these two large-scale hunts—one targeting high-ranking officials and nobles, the other targeting a gang—were different.

For the impoverished lower classes, both groups were like mountains pressing down upon them.

Some were ignorant, while others had ulterior motives.

There were also those who were afraid, and some even developed Stockholm syndrome.

Jack the Ripper fever.

It was hard not to suspect that Jack the Ripper was pushing this from the shadows.

After all, he possessed the ability to possess others.

Jack the Ripper had transformed from a shadow into a "visible dark cloud," shrouding the entire small town.

"If this continues, he won't even need to possess anyone; he can just send those fanatical followers to kill us," Zhou Zhenguo said. "Could it be that we have to leave the town and take refuge elsewhere?"

If there was truly no other way, that would be the only path left.

Zhou Zhenguo had experienced five missions in total, and this was his sixth.

Among them, two had been failures and two had been successes.

One instance was a solo mission by a big shot, so it counted as neither a failure nor a success.

That is to say, if he failed this mission, it would be his third failure.

If his luck was bad, he would disappear.

This was absolutely not what Zhou Zhenguo wanted to see.

But if the situation was truly impossible, it was better to gamble than to throw his life away to Jack the Ripper.

After all, it was only three times; the probability of disappearing shouldn't be that high.

Given the current situation, Zhou Zhenguo no longer felt that Master Xuanzang could handle it.

Even if he could handle it.

He would likely only be able to protect himself; wanting to protect all of them as well would be difficult, difficult, difficult.

"That is the only way." Chu Chongtian's thoughts were much the same as Zhou Zhenguo's.

This was his first mission, so it wouldn't matter even if he failed.

His will to fight for survival and risk his life was not very strong.

"Then let's go now."

Li Liang let out the voice of a salted fish.

"Wait a little longer."

Zhou Zhenguo said.

After all, they had worked hard for so long, and there was still the issue that everyone generally agreed existed—

The issue of "mission participation and contribution value," which related to the quality of the final rewards.

Unless absolutely necessary, no one would give up halfway.

Zhou Zhenguo had heard of several cases where people gave up halfway, only for others to complete the mission, leaving them with nothing.

If you can fight, you fight.

"How about I leave now?" Li Liang asked cautiously.

"Mm, alright." Tang Luo nodded.

Seeing Master Xuanzang give his consent, Li Liang breathed a sigh of relief.

Once far from the small town, no matter how powerful Jack the Ripper was, he couldn't possibly leave the city to hunt him down, right?

Adhering to the principle of seeing a task through to the end, everyone rented a carriage and decided to escort Li Liang out of the city together.

It could also be considered "scouting the path" in advance; if they needed to run, they would at least have a direction.

It was strange, to say the least.

Even though Jack the Ripper was rampaging and Scotland Yard found it difficult to even maintain public order.

No one was moving their entire household to leave the small town.

On the road leading out of the town, there was only Tang Luo and his group's carriage.

Leaving one's home and native land was likely a difficult choice for the people of this world.

For true outsiders like Tang Luo and the others, it was very simple.

They didn't even need luggage.

The four of them sat in a carriage with an enclosed cabin.

Tang Luo and the others sat inside the cabin, while Li Liang was responsible for driving.

The horses were professionally trained, so even a novice like Li Liang could command them to move forward or stop.

There was only one road, and there wasn't even a single vehicle coming from the opposite direction or traveling alongside them.

"Driving" couldn't have been simpler.

Passing by Count Thorndike's manor, the main gate was tightly shut, with four Scotland Yard inspectors sitting inside the iron gates.

They glanced twice at the carriage as it drove by.

A bloody crime had occurred at the manor, so as a crime scene, it certainly had to be "protected."

It wasn't as if there were no people who would risk their lives to come in and steal things.

Scotland Yard had no choice but to send people to guard it.

If no one was guarding such a place of slaughter, then they had no choice but to let long-term temporary workers do the job.

Looking at them—huh, they seemed quite happy?

They had probably secretly pocketed some benefits.

Expecting the horse to run while refusing to let it graze—how could such a good thing exist?

The carriage drove past the manor, and the inspectors only withdrew their gazes after watching the carriage disappear.

"...It's snowing again."

Li Liang pulled on his hat and tightened his coat.

Without him noticing, the sky had begun to darken, and gray, goose-feather-sized snowflakes drifted down.

This was the fourth snowfall in just a few days.

In the span of a few short days, the small town seemed to have plunged into the depths of winter, with gray snow falling every so often.

"This isn't right, why is the snow so heavy!"

After traveling for another half hour, Li Liang could no longer handle it.

The original gray, goose-feather snowfall had gradually escalated into a raging blizzard.

Everything before his eyes was a hazy gray, with visibility reduced to less than ten meters.

The temperature was also dropping rapidly; even with gloves on, the hands Li Liang used to grip the reins had already gone numb.

It was clearly nearing noon, the time when the sky should have been at its brightest.

Because of the heavy snow, it felt closer to nightfall than dusk.

The two horses neighed uneasily, their pace quickening from a trot; as a novice, Li Liang no longer had any way to properly control the carriage.

"Whoa!"

"Whoa!"

Li Liang shouted loudly while pulling on the reins, but he ended up with a mouthful of snowflakes and immediately began to retch.

The gray snowflakes of the Great Industrial Age.

They were nothing short of poison.

He hadn't felt anything when they landed on the ground or his clothes, but once they hit his mouth—

Li Liang felt as if someone had shoved a mouthful of raw meat into it, the kind that was still dripping with blood.