When a Person is Bound, They Cannot Resist

"What, Li Liang is dead!"

The exclamation caused Tang Luo to open his eyes, simultaneously halting his futile, drop-in-the-bucket healing efforts.

"He was gutted, ripped wide open."

Zhou Zhenguo stated.

There was no need for further explanation; everyone immediately thought of Jack the Ripper.

"Shall we go take a look?"

Xiao Chu pushed up his sliding glasses and suggested.

Zhou Zhenguo nodded and led the group toward the restroom. Just as they were about to reach it, he suddenly stopped in his tracks and took a step back.

The sudden movement startled Xiao Chu and the others, causing them to scramble back several paces as well.

Only Tang Luo kept walking, stepping past Zhou Zhenguo.

He reached the tightly shut door and pushed it open, completely straightforward.

"Careful!"

Zhou Zhenguo shouted.

He hadn't closed the restroom door when he left, yet now it was shut tight, and even the bloody footprints he had left behind had vanished without a trace.

Such an anomaly spelled danger.

Tang Luo pressed his palm against the door, paused for a moment, and applied a slight force.

The locked door swung open with a bang, slamming against the wall with a crisp crack.

"Ah!"

Li Liang, who had been sitting on the toilet behind the door, let out a yelp and tumbled off, looking around in a daze.

He looked exactly like someone who had just woken up from a nap.

"He isn't dead."

Tang Luo stepped back to clear the way, allowing Zhou Zhenguo and the others to see the newly awakened Li Liang.

Zhou Zhenguo's eyes widened.

Xiao Chu and the others shifted their confused gazes back and forth between Zhou Zhenguo and Li Liang.

So much for being gutted and ripped open?

"I clearly saw..."

Zhou Zhenguo muttered.

"Saw what?"

Li Liang stood up, bewildered, and began to walk outside, completely oblivious to the situation.

Zhou Zhenguo's reaction was intense; he pointed at Li Liang and shouted, "Stop right there!"

Li Liang stopped instinctively.

"Uncle Zhou, calm down. We can sit down and sort this out slowly to figure out exactly what happened," Xiao Chu suggested.

The others nodded like bobbing chickens.

A few minutes later.

Li Liang looked incredulous. "What the hell! I just sat in the restroom for a while and fell asleep! How could I be dead? Don't try to scare me like that, Uncle Zhou."

Zhou Zhenguo, however, stood with his arms crossed, staring at Li Liang without saying a word.

He trusted his own eyes and his own judgment.

Therefore, the Li Liang standing before him was no longer Li Liang!

Jack the Ripper in this God and Demon Game mission could not possibly be the "ordinary" serial killer from history.

He must possess some kind of special ability.

Zhou Zhenguo had been mentally prepared for this.

"Uncle Zhou, could it be that you saw wrong?"

Xiao Chu asked hesitantly.

"Perhaps... did I really see it wrong?"

Zhou Zhenguo frowned and stepped closer to Li Liang, as if to examine him more thoroughly.

Then, he suddenly thrust his hand out.

Aiming at Li Liang, he made a clenching motion.

On the ground, a black chain materialized out of thin air, coiled once around Li Liang, and then burrowed back into the floor on the other side.

The black chains tightened, binding Li Liang directly and pinning him firmly in place.

This was a skill Zhou Zhenguo had acquired—

Binding Chain.

It could bind a target and lock them in place to restrict their movement.

With Zhou Zhenguo's current proficiency, to use this ability, he had to be within ten meters of the target and spend a moment marking them; once successfully marked and locked, it would trigger immediately.

There were also requirements for how to mark: Zhou Zhenguo had to see the target with his own eyes while focusing his attention entirely on them.

The target's movement, excessive visual obstructions, or even a lapse in Zhou Zhenguo's own focus or concentration would result in the skill failing to activate.

In other words, in the heat of intense combat, this Binding Chain was actually quite difficult to use.

However, as Zhou Zhenguo became more proficient, the success rate of triggering Binding Chain would increase.

"Uncle Zhou, what are you doing?"

Everyone was startled by Zhou Zhenguo's sudden outburst.

Li Liang naturally began to struggle.

The chains rattled incessantly, creating echoes throughout the empty church.

Zhou Zhenguo lowered his hand and instead took a step back, choosing not to approach any further.

Binding Chain did not mean that once a target was locked, they would remain trapped indefinitely.

Beyond the current two-minute time limit, it also depended on the target's own strength.

If one encountered a powerful target, they could easily break free from the restraint.

Zhou Zhenguo was certain that with his current Binding Chain, even the strongest weightlifter in the real world could not break free.

It was even more impossible for an ordinary person like Li Liang.

But the question was, was the Li Liang before him truly an ordinary person?

Could the Jack the Ripper disguised as him break free from the chains?

That was an unknown variable.

If he got too close and was suddenly counter-killed by the opponent, it would be a joke.

Zhou Zhenguo walked two steps to the side and grabbed a candlestick from the altar.

The candle had burned out, leaving the nearly finger-long spike used to hold it in place exposed, making it sufficient to serve as a weapon.

Upon entering the God and Demon Game, one could not bring in any miscellaneous items from the outside.

The scenario of bringing one's own weapons or rations did not exist.

Want a weapon?

One had to adapt to the circumstances and scavenge on the spot.

"Zhou! What are you doing!"

Seeing Zhou Zhenguo's actions, Li Liang's struggling movements suddenly became violent.

This guy, who had always been so kind, was suddenly turning hostile?

Had he gone mad?

Or was everything since entering the mission world just a facade, and this was his true face?

"Uncle Zhou!"

Xiao Chu and the others shouted from the side, attempting to intervene, but they made no real move.

Faced with a veteran who had turned hostile, they, as newcomers to the God and Demon Game, were extremely weak and powerless.

No one was willing to confront a veteran player head-on for the sake of a stranger they had just met.

The two girls retreated several meters, already prepared to flee.

This uncle was unreliable!

Weighing the candlestick in his hand, Zhou Zhenguo approached Li Liang and said, "I don't know if you really can't break free or if you're just pretending—"

Before he could even finish his sentence, he raised his right hand holding the candlestick high and brought it down.

He didn't even have the intention to waste words.

That half-sentence just now was merely to confuse the opponent and lower their guard.

The candlestick whistled through the air, descending toward the immobilized Li Liang.

The candlestick had significant weight and a sharp spike, and Zhou Zhenguo's strength was not trivial.

If this blow landed solidly, Li Liang would be dead or at least severely wounded.

Everyone's mission is to find Jack the Ripper.

This is actually a rather broad concept.

In a looser sense, it might not be necessary to see the Ripper himself; like a deduction game, identifying the true identity of the Ripper could count as finding him and completing the mission.

In a stricter sense, it might require capturing Jack the Ripper with one's own hands.

Merely seeing him or confirming his identity might not be enough to complete the mission.

Regardless of how the scope is defined.

Killing Jack the Ripper would certainly count as completing the mission.

Zhou Zhenguo's face was ferocious, his actions ruthless.

"Ah!"

Li Liang let out a miserable shriek.

The sharp spike of the candlestick was less than two centimeters from his eye, close enough that a slight movement of his head would make contact.

His head, barely able to move, was tilted back to its limit.

Pain radiated constantly from his neck; Li Liang even suspected he had snapped his own neck.

Zhou Zhenguo's hand stopped in mid-air.

Despite being only a "step away" from Li Liang, he could not advance an inch, unable to move at all.

The strength coming from the hand gripping his forearm made Zhou Zhenguo feel as if he had been locked by a Binding Chain.

"Amitabha."

Tang Luo, who had blocked Zhou Zhenguo, chanted a Buddhist name and nodded slightly.

A force of merit was born from the void and absorbed by the Merit Jade Lotus.

With a flash of light, the merit just absorbed was used directly by Tang Luo.

A force, cool yet warm, surged from the jade lotus into Tang Luo's body.

It was like a bubbling spring.

It felt like someone who had been thirsty for years drinking a cup of clear water.

The instantaneous feeling of satisfaction made Tang Luo exhale slightly.

"Ah!"

This time, the scream came from Zhou Zhenguo.

The intense pain caused him to release the candlestick, which fell onto Li Liang's head as he thrashed about desperately.

After carving a gash near the corner of his eye, the candlestick hit the floor.

Li Liang felt a burning pain around his eye, but knowing he had saved his life, his body suddenly went limp.

If not for the chains holding him firmly, he would have collapsed to the ground.

"Apologies."

Tang Luo let go and stepped back.

Just now, it was like rain after a long drought, even if the "rainfall" was only a pot of water.

Thus, Tang Luo had used a little too much strength and accidentally injured Zhou Zhenguo.

"Benefactor Zhou, you were reckless."

Tang Luo said to Zhou Zhenguo.

Zhou Zhenguo's entire right arm was trembling; he felt as if his entire forearm, from the elbow down, no longer belonged to him.

The intense pain left him unable to speak for a moment.

The others breathed a sigh of relief.

Then, their gazes toward Tang Luo changed.

This monk who called himself Xuanzang didn't seem to be lying?

He really looked like he could fight.

"You don't believe me? I believe my eyes, I believe everything I saw."

Zhou Zhenguo clutched his arm and said to Tang Luo.

"Benefactor need not be angry; this poor monk did not say I didn't believe you."

Tang Luo chuckled.

"Then why did you stop me?" Zhou Zhenguo asked.

He showed no shock at Tang Luo stopping him.

He knew his own situation.

As a God and Demon Walker who had barely survived the novice period by scraping by.

Aside from the skills he had acquired, Zhou Zhenguo did not actually exceed the average person by much.

If he were thrown into a professional boxing, kickboxing, or MMA ring to go head-to-head with those professional fighters, he would certainly lose without his skills.

In Zhou Zhenguo's eyes, Tang Luo must have practiced martial arts since childhood, similar to a monk.

He was strong and likely a very capable fighter.

Furthermore, he was a bit of a chuunibyou—otherwise, why would he claim to possess methods for subduing demons and exorcising devils?

It was only natural that he could stop him.

"Heaven possesses the virtue of cherishing life; to strike to kill merely out of suspicion is improper."

Tang Luo said.

Zhou Zhenguo snorted and did not speak.

"However, since Benefactor Zhou speaks with such certainty that Benefactor Li is not himself and may be an impersonation by the Ripper to slake his thirst, this monk feels it is still necessary to verify it." Tang Luo smiled as he picked up the candlestick from the floor.

Li Liang's body shuddered, a sense of Omen washing over him: "Hey! Monk, what are you doing!"

"Benefactor Li need not worry; at most, there will be some pain, but there is no danger to your life."

Tang Luo was one step away from giving a thumbs-up to indicate "no problem."

"Hey! Hey!"

Li Liang, who had just lost his strength, made the chains rattle "clangingly" as he struggled once more.

Human potential, as expected, is infinite.

"Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!"

Miserable screams echoed through the church, but to be honest, the screaming was so high-pitched and vigorous that it was actually more of an emotional release than an expression of pain.

A moment later, Tang Luo dropped the blood-stained candlestick on the ground and nodded with great certainty: "It has been verified; this monk believes Benefactor Li is not the Ripper."

Before him, Li Liang had several bloody holes punctured into both of his arms.

"If he were the Ripper, he would not have allowed this monk to act so recklessly and would have definitely resisted, therefore Benefactor Li is not the Ripper." Tang Luo said with full confidence.

"..."

"..."

"Master, he—he is still tied up." Xiao Chu reminded him in a low voice.

When a person is tied up, they cannot resist; this is a basic law of nature.

The weather is growing colder by the day; only collections and recommendations can warm the heart.