Gazing into the Abyss

It was a struggle to bring the horses to a halt, driving them to stop beneath a large tree by the side of the road.

They had to barely manage to shelter from the wind and snow.

Li Liang knocked on the carriage door and shouted, "Master, this won't do! The snow is too heavy; let's hide here for a while! Let me in."

The carriage was not large, but it could barely seat four people.

"Master?"

He knocked on the door a few times, but there was no response from inside the carriage.

Li Liang leaned in suspiciously to peer through the grimy glass.

There were indeed three people sitting inside; could they have fallen asleep?

That shouldn't be possible, right?

A sense of dread, much like snowflakes settling upon the ground, began to accumulate bit by bit, starting to occupy Li Liang's heart.

Swallowing hard, Li Liang drew his pistol, placed his other hand on the door handle, and pulled outward with force.

There was none of the resistance he had imagined.

The door opened easily, and Li Liang saw three people sitting inside the carriage.

But these three people were not Tang Luo and his companions.

They were three complete strangers!

No, not entirely strangers.

They were three of the patrolmen he had seen when passing the manor just moments ago.

When had they been swapped out?

Panic surged in Li Liang's heart, and he instinctively pulled the trigger.

The bullets tore into the cramped carriage.

Li Liang saw blood erupt from the three bodies, yet these strangers remained in their original seated positions, not moving an inch.

The six rounds were spent in a flash.

The sound of "click, click" echoed out.

The sound reminded Li Liang, who had been pulling the trigger unconsciously, that he was out of ammunition.

He tossed the revolver into the carriage and turned to run.

He hadn't made it more than a few steps when a hand reached out from behind him.

It pressed down on his shoulder.

A tremendous force followed, sending Li Liang reeling backward until he slammed hard into the ground, sending grey snowflakes flying.

A searing pain flared across his back.

Lying on his back, Li Liang saw three faces appear above him.

Three faces that had been struck by bullets and should have been dead.

They stood there, leaning over slightly, staring down at Li Liang from above.

There was no spark of life in their eyes; they were like corpses, like puppets.

In each of their hands, they held a rusted dagger.

Li Liang saw it clearly: the mottling on the daggers was not just rust, but dried blood.

He could even smell the stench of blood wafting from the blades.

The daggers shouldn't be real; aren't they just some kind of illusion?

Can the Ripper possess three people at once?

Can Jack the Ripper also possess and control corpses?

If he could possess and control corpses, why did he run away after being "beaten to death" by Uncle Zhou that night?

When did the Master and the others disappear?

In an instant, Li Liang's mind was filled with a flurry of questions.

They flashed by like a revolving lantern.

For him, these questions would never be answered.

The first dagger descended.

A radiance bloomed from Li Liang's body, forming a screen of light that blocked the blade.

However, he didn't even have time to process or shift his emotions.

The second dagger fell, causing the light screen to flicker and dim.

At the same time, the third dagger "shattered" the light screen.

Li Liang's body began to tremble, thrashing and slapping against the ground like a fish cast upon the shore.

Then, he stopped struggling.

Fresh blood stained the gray snow, which then turned black.

"The snow is so heavy."

Chu Chongtian looked toward the car window beside him; the gray blizzard was so thick that even the scenery on both sides of the road was obscured.

"Knock, knock!"

Zhou Zhenguo rapped twice on the carriage wall and shouted, "Little Li, stop the carriage! Come inside and take cover, the snow is too heavy!"

The only answer was the neighing of horses.

The carriage lurched, and the horses pulling it suddenly began to gallop at high speed.

Neither Zhou Zhenguo nor Chu Chongtian were sitting steadily; their bodies swayed, and their foreheads collided, leaving them seeing stars.

The carriage shook violently.

It felt as if they were riding on the back of a maddened bull.

"Jump."

Tang Luo opened his eyes and slapped the closed carriage door open.

Shaking his head, Zhou Zhenguo jumped out first, landing on the ground covered in gray snowflakes; it was unclear if he had been injured.

Chu Chongtian gritted his teeth and jumped out as well.

His form was clearly much uglier than Zhou Zhenguo's.

He let out a muffled grunt, nearly colliding with the carriage wheel.

Tang Luo was in no rush to jump; he hung half his body out of the carriage and looked ahead.

Li Liang, who had been driving the carriage, had vanished without a trace.

After lingering for a moment, Tang Luo stepped out and landed directly on the ground.

It was as if he had simply stepped off a stationary carriage, completely unaffected.

When he turned to look at the carriage, the two galloping horses had already disappeared into the wind and snow with the carriage in tow.

After a brief glance, Tang Luo turned back and walked in the direction they had come from.

After walking back for about ten minutes, Tang Luo finally saw Zhou Zhenguo and Chu Chongtian, who had already regrouped.

Both men looked somewhat disheveled.

They had some abrasions on their bodies, but fortunately, nothing serious; at most, the pain would hinder their movement for a little while.

A short rest would be enough.

"Little Li, he—" Seeing Tang Luo appear alone, Zhou Zhenguo hesitated to speak.

"He is gone," Tang Luo said. "If you can walk, let's go look for him together."

"Alright."

The two nodded.

The incident had happened too suddenly and too strangely.

Though they were unwilling to admit it in their hearts, they both knew that the heavy snow these past few days was definitely not a normal natural phenomenon.

How long had it been since they left the small town?

It had gone from clear skies to this blizzard.

Clearly, some unknown force was preventing them from leaving the town.

Jack the Ripper?

They did not know, and to be honest, they were unwilling to dwell on it or ponder what kind of power was hidden behind all this.

Ignorance, at times, is a blessing.

With grim expressions, Zhou Zhenguo and Chu Chongtian walked slowly in the direction the carriage had disappeared.

There was only one road here.

They walked for nearly an hour.

Both men felt as though their toes were about to freeze solid.

They pulled their hats low and their collars high, leaving only their eyes exposed.

Even so, they could not block out the bitter cold that seemed to seep into their very marrow.

"Found it!"

In the wind and snow ahead, the silhouette of the carriage appeared, sitting motionless in the middle of the road.

"No one."

Approaching the carriage, both the cabin and the driver's seat were completely empty.

That was not all.

The entire carriage was covered in a thick layer of ice, frozen solid.

Even the two horses stood as if frozen in the wind and snow, looking as though they had been dead for countless years.

"What the hell is this?"

Chu Chongtian muttered, his tone filled with dejection.

It seemed that ever since the Night of the Manor, things had completely spiraled beyond their imagination.

Like a wild horse breaking free of its reins, everything was galloping toward an unpredictable future.

Standing beside the ice-sculpted horses, Chu Chongtian couldn't help but take a few steps forward.

Suddenly, his foot met empty air.

The crunching sound of stepping on snow never came; instead, the snow beneath his feet began to crumble and fall.

The ground beyond the horses' heads had vanished at some unknown point in time.

In its place was a black, bottomless abyss.

Gray snowflakes drifted past where Chu Chongtian had been, plummeting into the dark void.

Chu Chongtian's body, having lost its balance, began to fall as well.

Then, his collar tightened, and a tremendous force yanked him upward, tossing him back behind the carriage.

Landing hard on his backside, Chu Chongtian was in too much pain to even feel surprised.

"What is going on here?"

Zhou Zhenguo walked over to Tang Luo and asked.

He wasn't really asking Tang Luo; he just needed to say something.

Tang Luo, who had grabbed Chu Chongtian and thrown him back, replied, "It is quite obvious. We can no longer leave this small town."

This chasm that had suddenly appeared had no visible bottom, nor could its edges be seen.

Tang Luo did not believe that walking a few hundred meters to the left or right would make the black abyss disappear.

It was easy to imagine that the town had become an isolated island.

A hunting ground belonging to Jack the Ripper!

No one could escape.

"Let's go," Zhou Zhenguo said. Since there was no way to escape, they had no choice but to face it.

He and Chu Chongtian turned to head back, only to notice that Tang Luo had not moved, still standing beside the black abyss.

He was staring into it, lost in thought.

Was this the legendary "when you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you"?

"Master?"

Chu Chongtian called out.

"This poor monk is wondering what might be down there. I am somewhat tempted to go down and take a look," Tang Luo said.

"Huh?"

Both men shuddered. Surely Master Xuanzang wasn't planning to jump down, right?

"Master, please calm down," Chu Chongtian hurriedly shouted. "Don't jump!"

"Heh."

Tang Luo chuckled. "Do not worry. This poor monk is no reckless brute; I am merely thinking about it."

"..."

"That's good then," Zhou Zhenguo gave a dry laugh.

However, they naturally did not know that, had it not been for his injuries, Tang Luo might not have just been thinking about it.

I, Tang Xuanzang, fear nothing—wait, not right now. Once I find my disciples, then I can be bold and happily charge headfirst into danger.

Without the carriage, everyone had to trudge through the deep snow.

Walking all the way back, they did not find any sign of Li Liang.

The footprints that should have been there were nowhere to be seen.

As they gradually approached the small town, the wind and snow filling the sky began to subside.

By the time they reached the vicinity of the manor, the sky was clear and cloudless.

Only the melting snowflakes on their hats, shoulders, and clothes served as a reminder of what had just occurred.

Chu Chongtian refused to accept it and walked back, but snow began to fall from the sky once more, and the temperature plummeted abruptly.

It was a clear indication that their range of movement was limited to just this small area.

"Have missions ever had restricted movement ranges before?" Tang Luo asked.

Zhou Zhenguo recalled for a moment and shook his head. "I'm not sure. Generally speaking, the range of movement for us God and Demon Walkers radiates outward from the mission as the center. Even if someone doesn't intend to complete the mission, they wouldn't stray too far. I have never encountered a restriction as explicit, or rather, as forced as this."

"...Is it the ability of Jack the Ripper?" Chu Chongtian asked.

"I don't think it's likely. If he were that strong, why would he need to be so secretive... Perhaps it really is a restriction imposed by the Gods and Demons." Zhou Zhenguo sighed.

To be able to turn a small town into a death trap and create a black abyss as a natural barrier.

Was it done by Jack the Ripper?

Zhou Zhenguo really did not want to think in that direction.

"Three people are missing."

Tang Luo's voice made Zhou Zhenguo and Chu Chongtian look at him.

"The guards of the manor—three are missing, and the one that remains..."

Walking up to the tightly shut gate of the manor, Tang Luo reached out and knocked on it.

The Scotland Yard inspector, who had been leaning against the gate with his back to them, shuddered and fell straight to the ground.

Thanks to Mo Ai Mo Li, Tyrannosaurus Journey, Frost Soul, and Emperor Ying for the tips!

There will be another update tonight; please vote for recommendations.