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Was Tang Luo injured?

Of course he was, and badly.

But his injuries had nothing to do with Jack the Ripper.

The weakness and helplessness he had shown just now had all been an act.

Jack the Ripper was different from the Resurrected One, a Corrupted Abomination that possessed a physical form in this world.

It was merely a mass of resentment.

It had no physical body.

If it had to be said to have one, then in its weakest state at the beginning, it had used that rust-covered dagger as an "anchor."

As its strength grew, Jack the Ripper possessed other people, still retaining the dagger's features.

But it no longer needed the dagger.

Come to think of it, if Tang Luo and the others had found the dagger at the beginning and destroyed it,

the mission would have been complete.

After all, Jack the Ripper had initially been so weak that it couldn't even kill Li Liang.

It had merely drained Li Liang's body, allowing its power to grow. Only later had it been able to kill Bi Wanhui and the others.

It was only after draining Li Liang once that Jack the Ripper had gained its "freedom."

Now free and without a physical body, Jack the Ripper was in this World of the Dead.

As long as it didn't truly reveal itself,

Tang Luo couldn't find it.

Not unless he destroyed the entire world.

But Tang Luo, injured as he was, didn't have that ability for now.

So he could only fall back on his old tricks.

Pretend to struggle against the monsters Jack the Ripper had spawned.

Give Jack the Ripper the illusion that "if I just push a little harder, I can win."

As some of the few "Living Souls" in this World of the Dead,

Tang Luo and the others held tremendous appeal for Jack the Ripper.

It longed to kill and devour them.

That was why they had been "visited" by Jack the Ripper as soon as they arrived.

Living Souls in this world were like fireflies in the night, shining bright and dazzling.

No matter where Tang Luo and the others hid, Jack the Ripper would "sniff out" their scent and find them.

And as a Corrupted Abomination, Jack the Ripper had no true intelligence.

It acted on instinct.

Its primal urge to kill and devour, along with the primal fear that arose when it "saw" Tang Luo,

kept Jack the Ripper from acting rashly.

It only lurked in the shadows and corners, waiting for the right moment to lunge in and take a bite.

At first, Jack the Ripper didn't dare face Tang Luo, even when possessing "someone else."

The "Hodge" it had been possessing was killed in an instant, and that had hurt Jack the Ripper.

But it kept growing stronger by devouring others, and after reaching a certain threshold, it began another large-scale killing spree.

The other residents of Small City

were also "food" that could make Jack the Ripper stronger.

They simply weren't as effective as the "Living Souls" led by Tang Luo.

But a change in quantity could still bring about a change in quality.

Now that Jack the Ripper's true form had appeared, its hollow "eyes" and "mouth," as well as the exposed internal organs,

were all made up of the dead souls of Small City's residents.

Vengeful, clumsy, twisted, and immensely powerful.

Tang Luo, the strongest of the "Living Souls," was also the one Jack the Ripper feared.

He was undoubtedly the most tempting prey of all.

It desperately wanted to eat him, yet feared it would choke to death.

It had no intelligence, but Corrupted Abominations still possessed a little "hunting intelligence."

In that respect, Jack the Ripper was much "smarter" than the Resurrected One.

It never confronted Tang Luo head-on. Even after growing stronger, it only tested him bit by bit.

The incident with Old John had been one of Jack the Ripper's tests.

Tonight at Scotland Yard, the Possessed One's direct attack on Tang Luo had been another test.

And so had Tang Luo's grave-digging, followed by the strongest Twisted Monster it had spawned apart from its true form.

The tests had shown that Jack the Ripper's urge to kill and devour had overcome its fear.

It was going to eat the Living Soul before it!

This wasn't a thought.

It was an emotion.

Once it took hold, it was like a wildfire sweeping across a dry grassland, impossible to suppress.

Jack the Ripper no longer had any "reason"—or at least, the "reason" it had seemed to possess on the surface was gone.

Even though Tang Luo now looked like he was saying, "You finally showed up to get beaten,"

it still wouldn't back down.

"Mas..."

Chu Chongtian managed to make a faint sound. It was the only part of his body he could move.

He had plenty of questions, and plenty of fears.

Tang Luo didn't answer him.

With a pile of merit points right in front of him, of course he was going to claim them.

It was fate.

Even if Tang Luo himself had brought it about, it was still fate.

No one said that "fate" had to come to you passively. When living as a person, you had to make full use of your initiative.

The same went for being a Buddha.

Chu Chongtian's vision blurred. Tang Luo, who had been there a moment ago, had vanished.

When Tang Luo reappeared, he was already above Jack the Ripper's head.

The enormous head beneath his feet was still slightly bowed.

The ceiling of the tomb chamber in its hand hadn't been released yet.

To put it plainly, its true form was

all of its resentment and power gathered together.

That was why it was so enormous, and so powerful.

But compared with the Possessed One, and the Twisted Monster that was a step above a simple possession,

the true form had greater strength, but was relatively slow and clumsy.

To a large extent, that was because of its immense size.

Against most prey, even this "slow" speed was more than enough.

But to Tang Luo, it was far too slow.

His right foot was already about to land on Jack the Ripper's head.

He was actually trying to crush it with one kick!

At that critical moment,

the howling dead souls inside the hollow eyes and mouth in Jack the Ripper's head twisted.

The dead souls in all three places formed three enormous tentacles.

They blurred into three streaks.

Like striking snakes, they slammed toward Tang Luo's back.

Tang Luo turned his head slightly and swept his gaze over them.

He seemed to pinpoint the tentacles' positions.

He made no attempt to dodge. His downward kick continued unchanged as he turned slightly and swept his right arm backward!

The three tentacles, each as thick as a pillar and made of tangled dead souls,

burst apart the instant they touched Tang Luo's arm!

At the same time, Tang Luo's right foot came down on Jack the Ripper's head.

Chu Chongtian saw visible ripples spread out from the point where they met.

Then came a howling gale.

His previously rigid body could move again.

His legs gave way, and Chu Chongtian fell to the ground.

He braced himself with both hands behind him, keeping himself from falling over.

He saw the gigantic body of Jack the Ripper.

Countless black cracks appeared at the top of its head, spreading at tremendous speed.

Then, like a real avalanche,

it crumbled rapidly from top to bottom.

But an avalanche formed a wave of snow that swallowed everything in its path.

Once Jack the Ripper crumbled, nothing was left.

It had no fate but to vanish into nothingness.

Oh, and the ceiling Jack the Ripper had been holding fell to the ground before it could even let go, landing with a dull thud.

"So this is probably what they call salvation."

Chu Chongtian didn't know why the thought had suddenly occurred to him.

"Is it dead?"

Zhou Zhenguo's voice came from the other side,

tinged with disbelief.

It had all happened too fast.

Everything had happened far too fast.

The iron door that no one could open, Tang Luo appearing gravely wounded and weak, telling them this was the World of the Dead.

The "coffins" carved with their names.

Before they could even figure out what was going on, the enormous monster had seized the ceiling.

At that moment, Zhou Zhenguo had been utterly desperate.

Then everything had taken a sudden turn.

Before his despair could even spread,

Master Xuanzang had killed the enormous Jack the Ripper.

It hadn't been the life-or-death battle he'd imagined, or even a back-and-forth fight.

It had been a crushing victory, an instant kill.

Hadn't Tang Luo been so weak just moments ago?

And what happened to monks not telling lies?

"Dead,"

Chu Chongtian said. "It should all be over now, right?"

"Probably,"

Zhou Zhenguo said. "By the way, this tomb chamber..."

He looked at the words on the "stone wall."

Zhou Zhenguo, Chu Chongtian, Li Liang, Bi Wanhui, Cheng Jing (Chengcheng), Zhou Yuze (Xiao Zhou), and...

"Huh?"

Where Master Xuanzang's real name should have been,

part of the carved inscription was missing.

It had probably been knocked off by some flying rubble just now.

The small piece that had been dislodged lay on the ground, shattered.

His full name and birth date couldn't be made out.

Only the character "Tang" was visible.

"Tang... Xuanzang?"

Zhou Zhenguo stood frozen.

Tang Seng, Tang Xuanzang, Tang Sanzang, and similar names—

As a native of Huaxia, he was certainly very familiar with them.

Zhou Zhenguo knew that Xuanzang was a religious name, and that "Tripitaka" actually referred to the Buddhist scriptures as a whole.

A monk who mastered the Tripitaka was honorifically called a "Tripitaka Master."

And "Tang" referred to the "Tang" of the Great Tang in the Eastern Land.

Strictly speaking, names like Tang Seng, Tang Xuanzang, and Tang Sanzang were a kind of "self-introduction."

A monk from the Great Tang in the Eastern Land.

A monk from the Great Tang in the Eastern Land whose religious name was Xuanzang.

A monk from the Great Tang in the Eastern Land who had mastered the "Tripitaka."

Master Xuanzang probably just happened to have the surname Tang, which was why there was such a strange coincidence.

Wait, hadn't he called himself "Master Xuanzang" because his surname was Tang?

This monk sure knew how to have fun.

Tang Xuanzang—that was quite an interesting codename.

"Who's Tang Xuanzang?" Chu Chongtian asked.

"Nothing," Zhou Zhenguo replied.

There was no need to bring something like that up.

As they spoke, a figure appeared in the doorway. Tang Luo had already returned.

He wore a serene smile, looking not the slightest bit injured.

He had gained merit power from slaying the Corrupted Abomination Jack the Ripper and used it to heal his wounds.

Without aggravating his injuries, Tang Luo could now bring his strength up to 8%, compared to the previous limit of 6%.

Of course Tang Luo could "smile serenely."

In fact, healing wasn't a steady process.

At first, it didn't take much, but as he gradually recovered, the amount of merit power required increased dramatically.

Then, once he had recovered to a certain point, the amount needed began to decrease again.

It was something like a relatively smooth parabola.

"Master..."

Zhou Zhenguo and Chu Chongtian went over to him.

"Open the stone coffin. Let's go back,"

Tang Luo said.