The True Form Finally Appears

Zhou Zhenguo scrambled to his feet.

What had just happened looked dramatic and brutal.

But in reality, the barrier of light that had now disappeared had absorbed most of the damage for him.

It had turned what should have been a fatal attack into "someone shoving him hard and knocking him to the ground."

A fall like that was no problem for Zhou Zhenguo's "old bones."

"What was that?"

Zhou Zhenguo looked in the direction he had been sent flying from.

A figure stood motionless there.

No, standing wasn't quite right. It was "lying" on the ground, its back toward the earth and its face toward the sky.

How could anyone lie on their back with their face to the sky?

First, a person bent backward, farther and farther, until their raised hands could brace against the ground.

Then their joints "snapped" and "twisted" in ways that completely defied nature.

They became like the limbs of an arthropod.

Like the legs of a spider.

And that wasn't all. Its shadow-covered head, with only three hollow openings, had spun around 180 degrees.

The hollows where its eyes should have been were on top, and the hollow where its mouth should have been was below.

It had a human-sized body and ashen-blue skin, and its entire body was covered in stitched-up wounds.

Some of the wounds had split open, revealing black organs inside that were completely motionless.

The monster's hollow eyes stared at Zhou Zhenguo.

Its limbs flailed, quickly leaving four shallow pits in the ground.

The only reason this twisted monster wasn't continuing to attack Zhou Zhenguo was that someone stood beside it.

Tang Luo had one foot on the monster's chest, and in his other hand he held another monster that looked just like it.

Chu Chongtian had fallen onto the ground, his mouth hanging open, still shaken.

A rustling sound came from behind the three of them—the sound of feet trampling through the snow.

The hole Tang Luo had dug was now completely shrouded in dense black fumes.

More of the same monsters slowly crawled out.

Their guess had been right!

Jack the Ripper really was growing stronger.

Every time Jack the Ripper killed one of Small City's residents, it grew a little stronger.

At first, it had been too afraid to show itself. Later, it had controlled large numbers of people. And now it had become a powerful, twisted monster.

Jack the Ripper.

The sheer strangeness and power it possessed now sent chills down their spines.

The twisted monster raised its head high and let out a long, soundless howl.

Visible ripples spread from its "mouth," but not a sound could be heard.

The shock wave struck the ground, kicking up snowflakes.

Zhou Zhenguo and Chu Chongtian both clapped their hands over their ears, their faces contorted in pain.

They felt as if someone were jabbing needles into their eardrums.

Their bodies seemed to be slowly bound by chains, too.

"You two go on ahead. This humble monk will hold them off."

Tang Luo tossed the monster in his hand at the howling creature, stopping it from making any more noise.

The two monsters crashed together, but this time things didn't go as they had before.

They were no match for Tang Luo.

He wiped them out in an instant, with overwhelming force.

The two monsters tangled together, merging into a humanoid spider that grew even more twisted and bizarre.

"Jack..."

It spoke the name, but the venomous sound it made had no real meaning.

"Go!"

Tang Luo repeated himself, then stamped down hard, driving the monster beneath his foot deep into the mud.

"Master!"

Chu Chongtian cried out, moved. Then he scrambled to his feet and ran without looking back.

Before he left, he remembered to toss Omen toward Tang Luo.

Zhou Zhenguo was even quicker than Chu Chongtian. He didn't even shout—he just ran.

This wasn't some melodramatic scene in a soap opera.

There was no need for some foolish line like, "No, I won't leave! If you go, I go too!"

With Tang Luo holding the rear, they could escape.

If they stayed, they would only get themselves killed—or cause Tang Luo more trouble.

Watching Chu Chongtian and Zhou Zhenguo run off,

Tang Luo turned his gaze back to the twisted, eight-legged monster and smiled.

The ground beneath his feet suddenly sank.

A shallow pit appeared, with a mangled monster at its center.

"This is nowhere near enough to kill this humble monk," Tang Luo said with a smile.

The black fumes rising from the tomb began to churn.

One monster after another struggled to emerge, giving the impression that entirely new lives were being born.

Tang Luo put Omen away, tossed off his hat, rolled his neck, and headed toward the tomb.

An aura of violent menace gradually radiated from him.

"Ha... ha..."

This was probably the fastest they had ever run in their lives. Definitely a new record, and likely one they'd never beat.

Chu Chongtian and Zhou Zhenguo were back in the burial chamber they had come through.

They braced their hands on their knees and panted heavily.

It felt as though they were breathing in not air, but flames.

And the flames had only passed through their throats, never even reaching their lungs.

"Ugh!"

After gasping for breath a couple of times, Chu Chongtian couldn't hold it in. He braced himself against the "coffin wall" and vomited.

His right hand felt a series of indentations. They were carved names, along with birth and death dates.

Only after he had thrown up everything did Chu Chongtian feel a little better.

Zhou Zhenguo walked to the iron door leading underground and reached out to pull it.

"Hm?"

"What is it?"

Chu Chongtian looked up and asked.

"It's locked again," Zhou Zhenguo said.

"But... didn't we open it when we came in? Maybe... you have to push it inward?" Chu Chongtian's words still came in fits and starts.

They had run at full speed for who knew how long.

All they knew was that it had felt like they were suffocating for their lives.

Even with Tang Luo holding them off, and no monsters created by Jack the Ripper following them,

who could say whether Master Xuanzang could hold them back a hundred percent?

What if one or two slipped through?

When you were running for your life, you had to keep going and not look back.

Looking back could get you into trouble.

"No, I kicked it open," Zhou Zhenguo recalled. Back then, he had kicked the iron door down.

Someone had probably reinstalled it since—perhaps the Priest.

There was no problem pulling it outward.

"Together."

Chu Chongtian stepped forward, grabbed one of the bars of the openwork iron door, and pulled outward with Zhou Zhenguo.

For some reason, the iron door wasn't cold. Instead, it felt warm.

But at a time like this, the two men had no mind to worry about that strange detail.

All they could think about was opening the door, getting back to the train car, returning to the real world, and finally catching their breath.

"Why won't it budge?!"

A minute later, Chu Chongtian stood at the iron door, his face twisted with effort.

Zhou Zhenguo looked the same.

They pulled together as if they were in a tug-of-war, their palms already bright red.

Their hands were sore from gripping the bars.

Yet the iron door didn't budge at all.

"What kind of lock is this?"

The moonlight couldn't reach into the burial chamber. The door was the only "light source."

Everything around the iron door was pitch-black, making it impossible to see how it had been locked.

It wouldn't move even a little.

Zhou Zhenguo felt around with his hands. "There's no lock. How can there be no lock?"

"Ah, maybe a bolt?"

"There's nothing!"

Zhou Zhenguo's voice was thick with undisguised terror.

"How is that possible?!"

"Move aside. I'll do it!"

Zhou Zhenguo grabbed the iron door with both hands. A faint white light gleamed around his clenched fists.

"Ha!"

He roared and leaned back sharply, using his skill, Powerful Strike.

The force he unleashed in an instant was enough to flip a sedan.

But after Zhou Zhenguo unleashed that burst of strength, he no longer had the strength to hold on to the door and fell straight to the ground.

The iron door still hadn't budged.

This unremarkable, openwork iron door had suddenly become an uncrossable chasm.

It stood between life and death.

"Can't you open it?"

A voice, as beautiful as a heavenly melody, came from behind them.

Tang Luo's shadow fell across the ground. He appeared in the doorway.

"I don't know why, but the iron door won't budge," Zhou Zhenguo said. He was leaning against the "coffin wall" and didn't even want to raise a hand, so Chu Chongtian, who was doing a little better, answered for him.

"Master, you—"

As Tang Luo drew closer, Chu Chongtian cried out in alarm.

In the moonlight, he saw Tang Luo's face as pale as gold paper, with blood at the corner of his mouth.

Not only that, his steps had been unsteady as he walked over.

He had practically been supporting himself against the coffin wall with his right hand the whole way.

Master Xuanzang was injured!

And from the looks of it, he was badly hurt!

"Cough, cough."

Tang Luo coughed twice. "It's nothing. Just a few minor injuries."

"Master, you can't say that while you're spitting blood!" Chu Chongtian was beside himself. "What about Jack the Ripper? Did you kill it?"

"No. This humble monk did all he could," Tang Luo said. "If it had been just a little stronger, this humble monk might have met his end."

"Quick, quick!"

Chu Chongtian turned around and frantically pulled at the door.

"There's no need to try, Benefactor Chu. You can't open it right now," Tang Luo said.

"Seriously? Do we have to kill Jack the Ripper to get out?" Chu Chongtian wailed.

"This..."

At that moment, Zhou Zhenguo, sitting on the ground, suddenly spoke. "Isn't that your name up there?"

"Huh?" Chu Chongtian stared at him in disbelief.

"Isn't that your name carved into this wall, Chu Chongtian?" Zhou Zhenguo shouted at him.

"What?"

Chu Chongtian walked over and crouched down.

Tang Luo stepped aside at just the right moment, letting the moonlight fall on the wall.

Chu Chongtian stared in a daze. He could clearly see what was near Zhou Zhenguo's head.

Carved into the wall was his name!

There was also his date of birth, but after a horizontal line, no date of death.

"What... happened?"

Chu Chongtian instinctively looked at Tang Luo.

"Alas, if this monk's guess is right..."

Tang Luo said, "This place is the World of the Dead. This tomb belongs to us."

"We're dead?"

Chu Chongtian looked at the other "coffin."

The name on it was unmistakably "Li Liang"!

Little Li—the salted fish who had met with misfortune on the very first night, later becoming a lucky koi, only to eventually lose that luck.

Li Liang, who had disappeared right under everyone's noses.

"We're definitely not dead. Not yet, anyway."

Tang Luo said.

Just then, the entire tomb chamber shook.

A shower of rubble fell from overhead, smashing against the stone walls on either side.

Everyone looked up and saw several enormous gray-white fingers "piercing" through.

They seized the roof of the tomb chamber as if it were a toy.

Then they lifted the roof clean off, letting moonlight spill into the chamber.

"This is..."

Zhou Zhenguo and Chu Chongtian stiffened, unable to move.

Like frogs facing a snake, rabbits facing a wolf, or an otaku seeing his anime waifu appear in the flesh right before him.

The sheer, overwhelming difference in power.

Just looking at it left them unable to move a muscle.

Outside the tomb chamber was the upper body of a gigantic humanoid figure.

Countless stitched seams, and a wound that had nearly torn its chest apart.

Its intestines and spine dragged outside its body.

Its hands were as thin as dead branches, its skin a pale gray.

Like the black shadow's head they had seen at the other graveyard, it had hollow, oval eyes and a gaping mouth.

But this time, the hollows weren't filled with an even deeper black.

Instead, countless souls writhed and twisted inside, wailing without end.

Even the exposed organs—

on closer inspection, they were made entirely of dismembered bodies and severed limbs.

This was Jack the Ripper's true form, now standing before the three of them.

"Good. He's finally willing to show his true form and take a beating."

The weakness that had weighed on Tang Luo vanished. He straightened up and looked at the enormous head staring down at them.

"Looks like this monk's acting hasn't slipped."

He spread his fingers and flexed them.

Then clenched his fist!

In the cramped tomb chamber, a wave of air surged upward, straight into the sky!