Vajra's Wrathful Gaze, Thunderous Methods

"Cross-dressing..."

Xiao Chu's mouth twitched uncontrollably.

Monks these days, why are they acting like some shut-in otaku!

"Correct."

Tang Luo nodded. "Benefactor Chu is the most suitable candidate."

Of the four men present.

Tang Luo was definitely out; tall and handsome, no amount of dressing up would make it convincing.

Li Liang's body was hollowed out, half-dead and listless.

Gao Er was a sallow, dark-skinned youth with unkempt fuzz on his upper lip, giving him the look of a petty clerk.

Xiao Chu was different.

Of medium height and slender build, he was prime material for cross-dressing, possessing great potential.

Xiao Chu frowned, thought for a moment, then nodded and said, "Fine, Master, my life is in your hands!"

He was decisive and straightforward.

If he couldn't participate in the mission and complete it together, what was the difference between him and a salted fish if he ended up with no rewards?

Xiao Chu saw things very clearly.

Even if he could cling to a powerful thigh to survive this time, could he do it the next? Every time?

Without experiencing danger and paying a price, how could one become stronger?

Wealth is sought in the midst of peril.

This wasn't a game from a certain rich penguin company where you could just pay to win.

This was the God and Demon Game!

"Good, then we shall act tonight." Tang Luo set the time.

The night grew deep.

The hotel gates were shut tight.

Tang Luo grabbed Xiao Chu and leaped up, clearing the hotel's reinforced two-meter-high wall and landing in the dark alley behind the building.

"Master, and you said you didn't know light-foot skills!"

After landing, Xiao Chu clutched his pounding heart and spoke.

His tone held a hint of excitement.

The more capable Master Xuanzang was, the safer he would be, and the higher the probability of completing the mission.

"It is merely jumping a bit higher," Tang Luo said, showing no trace of pride.

Indeed, there was nothing to be proud of.

What are light-foot skills?

Graceful and elegant, skimming over grass, walking on water.

Divine abilities and dharma methods were on a higher plane altogether.

As for Tang Luo, when he truly traveled at speed, he was like the Hulk, leaping hundreds of meters and leaving a trail of destruction in his wake.

There was absolutely nothing to be proud of there.

Looking up at a forty-five-degree angle toward the night sky, Tang Luo reminisced about the days when he could ride dragons and horses.

Little White Dragon, your master misses you dearly.

"I will follow you; be careful."

Tang Luo patted Xiao Chu on the shoulder, and the Merit Jade Lotus shimmered with a faint light that vanished in a flash.

A sliver of merit was consumed, forming a layer of protection around Xiao Chu.

Xiao Chu nodded and began to walk forward, shivering slightly.

As for Tang Luo, he leaped onto a nearby rooftop, looking down from above, able to observe everything in all directions.

The city in the dead of night was not actually quiet.

It wasn't filled with the clamor of people, but one could frequently hear the cawing of crows and the sound of their wings flapping.

At first, Xiao Chu was startled by it.

As time passed, he gradually grew accustomed to it.

After walking for over half an hour, let alone Jack the Ripper, he hadn't even seen a single shadow.

Xiao Chu began to walk with larger strides, specifically choosing to traverse various narrow alleys.

By the end, he didn't even know where he was anymore.

They had also moved far away from the relatively bustling areas of the Small City, with nothing but the bleak moonlight and the dim light leaking from the windows of houses.

There were no other light sources in the vicinity.

Xiao Chu's speed slowed down once again.

"Creeeak!"

Suddenly, the sound of an old door opening came from diagonally ahead.

Following that, two overlapping cries of alarm rang out.

One was from Xiao Chu, and the other was from the person who had opened the door.

Both of them had been startled by the other.

"What are you doing!"

The person who opened the door was a man; it was too dark to see his appearance clearly, and although he shouted loudly, his voice sounded somewhat shaky.

"What are you doing?"

Xiao Chu retorted, his voice sounding somewhat distorted, not quite like a man's.

"Not going home in the middle of the night, are you looking for death!"

The man realized that the person who had startled him seemed to be a woman, and feeling much more confident, he cursed angrily.

"None of your damn business!"

Xiao Chu was not one to be outdone.

"Get lost! Get lost! Stop wandering around my house. If it weren't for the fact that you're a woman, I would have tied you up as a thief already..." The man's voice lowered, and he slammed the door shut.

It was unclear what he had even opened the door for in the first place.

"Sicko."

Xiao Chu muttered, continuing to walk forward, his pace actually becoming much lighter.

Although they had just exchanged a few insults, it had somewhat dispelled the chill of the night.

However, Xiao Chu did not notice.

The man who had just been arguing with him quietly opened his window, squeezed his way out, and followed silently behind him.

It could be vaguely seen that the man was holding a coil of rope in his right hand.

Jack the Ripper?

Tang Luo, on the rooftop, thought to himself, but felt it didn't seem like him.

There were no rope-binding marks on any of the corpses.

In other words, Jack the Ripper did not need rope to kill.

The man was holding a coil of rope, not a knife; was it more likely that he was someone who had been struck by a sudden lustful impulse?

Perhaps his own words from a moment ago had served as a reminder, igniting the evil thoughts in his heart.

Thus, he decided to go for it, figuring that Jack the Ripper could take the blame anyway.

Xiao Chu did not notice the danger approaching at all, and by the time he heard the footsteps behind him, it was already too late.

A black blur flashed before his eyes, and a rough rope was pulled tight across his mouth, turning his cry of alarm into a muffled groan.

"Shut up!"

At the same time, a heavy, panting male voice reached his ears.

Damn it!

Ten million alpacas stampeded through Xiao Chu's mind, and in an instant, his thoughts raced with extreme speed.

He almost immediately reached the exact same conclusion as Tang Luo.

The person behind him was likely not Jack the Ripper.

But rather someone who had been "struck by a sudden lustful impulse"!

At the same time, Xiao Chu remembered a news story he had once read.

It said that a certain cross-dressing celebrity was returning home from a comic convention when he was ambushed by a pervert; after the other party discovered he was a man, not only did he not stop, but he became even more excited!

He had originally thought it was just a fabricated piece of fake news, but he never expected it to be happening to him for real at this very moment.

Just as the rope tightened around Xiao Chu's mouth and he was being forcibly dragged backward.

A golden light suddenly erupted from Xiao Chu's body.

The protection Tang Luo had bestowed upon Xiao Chu by consuming a portion of his Merit Force activated on its own.

The golden light formed an arc-shaped screen, directly separating the rope and the person behind Xiao Chu.

However, it became incredibly dim because of this, like a candle in the wind, ready to vanish in the next second.

After all, it was only a tiny, minuscule sliver of Merit Force.

Looking at the arc-shaped screen that had inexplicably appeared on his body, Xiao Chu was filled with immense shock.

What is this?

Could this be the legendary "Gene Lock" that opens between life and death, and the ability born from it?

No, according to the settings of the God and Demon Game and what the veteran Old Zhou said, this should be a benefit obtained during the mission, right?

So, this is how one obtains such benefits?

Being young and naive, Xiao Chu did not take this golden opportunity to run away or pull out his revolver to fight back.

Instead, he stood there in a daze, lost in pleasant surprise.

The man behind him did not stop; he simply dropped the rope, reached into his bosom, and pulled out a short blade.

The man said nothing, thrusting the blade directly toward Xiao Chu's back.

It seemed that since he couldn't kidnap him, he had switched to murder.

The blade struck the arc-shaped curtain of light, and without a sound, the curtain rippled and transformed into specks of starlight.

Like sparks, they drifted away and vanished into the dark night.

Xiao Chu, however, remained completely unaware, a smile still on his face.

Just as the blade was about to pierce Xiao Chu, a sharp, whistling sound tore through the air.

A black streak arrived like lightning.

The man's reaction speed was even faster; he moved his body and retreated several meters.

The black streak grazed his body and landed where he had been standing, burying itself almost entirely into the ground.

Once it came to a rest, the part of the black streak exposed could be seen clearly: it was the top of a cane!

Xiao Chu was also jolted awake by the sharp whistle, realizing he was still in danger, and immediately turned around.

Then, he saw—

A black figure, like a hawk or a bat spreading its wings, blotted out the dim moonlight and descended from the sky.

Almost the instant the man landed after dodging the cane, Tang Luo was already in front of him.

His black trench coat flared, and he reached out a hand.

He pressed it onto the man's face, his five fingers curling inward.

The man's head was clamped firmly within Tang Luo's palm.

Tang Luo grabbed the man's head with one hand, as if holding a large doll, lifted him up, and then pivoted his elbow.

He slammed him downward with force!

The stone-paved road beneath them made intimate contact with the man's head.

A cracking sound echoed, making it impossible to tell for a moment whether it was the stone or the skull that had shattered.

Or perhaps, it was both.

At the moment of impact, Xiao Chu felt as if the ground itself had trembled.

By the time he regained his senses, he found that Tang Luo had already stood up, bent over to pull out the cane, and swung it a couple of times, seemingly checking for damage.

Behind him.

One could see a headless corpse, its head having completely merged with the sunken crater.

They were indistinguishable from one another.

A pungent smell of blood wafted over.

It triggered a fit of dry heaving in Xiao Chu.

After retching for a long while, Xiao Chu looked at Tang Luo and asked with a trembling voice, "Master, you killed him?"

It was, of course, a redundant question.

"Mm."

Tang Luo looked at the damaged tip of his cane; even with the use of technique, such a collision had still caused some damage.

"When he pulled out the knife, I thought he was Jack the Ripper," Tang Luo explained. "So I didn't make an effort to spare his life."

"Heh."

Xiao Chu let out a dry laugh.

Back at the church, he spoke of having the virtue of cherishing life, yet when he actually took action, he was so violent, immediately breaking his vow against killing.

Heh, men. Heh, monks.

"It is a pity he wasn't; otherwise, we would have completed the mission by now."

Tang Luo continued, "Amitabha."

He finished with a chant of the Buddha's name.

"That's true."

Xiao Chu felt a twinge of regret; if this person had truly been Jack the Ripper, the mission would have ended right then and there.

"However—"

Tang Luo looked at the headless corpse he had created, "This humble monk does not believe that this person was an ordinary man."

"Hm?" Xiao Chu was confused.

"If he were an ordinary man, he would have died the moment this humble monk threw the staff; there would have been no need for me to take action personally," Tang Luo said. "Yet, he managed to dodge it. Let us go, let us check his house; perhaps we might find some clues."

Having witnessed Tang Luo's "Vajra's Angry Glare and thunderous methods," Xiao Chu certainly had no objections.

Master, everything you say is correct!

Leaving the headless corpse behind, the two walked toward the house the man had just emerged from.

The weather has turned bitterly cold, and my hands and feet are freezing while typing at night; I need recommendation votes to keep warm.

There will be a second update tonight.