Chapter 26: Chapter Twenty-Six: Leaving the City

Closed for the day, come back tomorrow morning!

Chu Zhongtian shouted loudly.

"Not doing business, are you sick!" the person outside shouted, "If you won't serve, let others serve."

"Nobody's here, I'm going to sleep too." Chu Zhongtian said impatiently.

The outside voice faded, as if they had given up.

The next second, a loud bang.

The tightly shut door was kicked open by someone.

About ten rough-looking men rushed in all at once.

"Nobody's perfect——" the leader was a man wearing a hunter's deer cap, one arm hanging in front of his chest, fixed with a wooden board.

As he spoke, his steps and words stopped at the same time.

"Ha, it's him!"

The hunter-deer-cap man shouted loudly, pointing at Tang Luo.

That face, he would never forget it in this lifetime.

When he passed by during the day, a fleeting glance instantly recalled the day his arm was broken and his revolver stolen, the humiliation.

Only he ever robs people!

No one robs him!

So tonight he brought people for revenge.

Late at night, relying on Jack the Ripper's "blessing," no one dared walk the streets.

The daytime probe also proved that Gran Field had the will but not the power to keep order in the town, or perhaps "no will, no power."

Now the town is the Ripping Gang's domain!

"Oh, so you came to find the poor monk."

Tang Luo said.

The good—karmic ties forged from begging earlier, it seems will end tonight.

"Kid, didn't expect that!"

The hunter-deer-cap man laughed.

"Hmm, the poor monk indeed didn't expect someone to show up at his door to add a bit of merit for him."

Tang Luo said.

The Ripping Gang had done work for the organization, but as a relatively tough gang, Tang Luo and his crew had never gone to provoke them.

Now they have come to our doorstep voluntarily…

"To deal with such evil people, the only proper way is to convert them—take action."

Tang Luo said, pulling out an unspecified weapon and pulling the trigger.

To deal with such heretics, we don't need to talk about martial ethics—just all fire together.

Gunfire.

The hunter-deer-cap man's head burst open like a watermelon.

Gunfire roared, echoing through this quiet snowy night.

After the firing stopped, a crowd lay on the ground; some weren't dead yet and tried to pull out their guns, but Tang Luo shot them again directly.

The last thought before death was:

"So undisciplined— they didn't even go through the trash-talking segment before opening fire!"

"I feel we're like bad guys."

Chu Zhongtian said, his tone somewhat bewildered.

Six or seven days ago, he was just an ordinary college student.

Now he can shoot and kill without changing his expression.

Li Liang, on the other hand, had fewer feelings, since he was just holding a gun and didn't fire.

The "battle results" were jointly "crafted" by Tang Luo, Chu Zhongtian, and Zhou Zhen'gu, who had already recovered after over half an hour.

"First survive, then talk about good and bad."

Zhou Zhen'gu patted Chu Zhongtian's shoulder.

He didn't want a growing combat force to suddenly fall into confusion and lose its fighting power.

"Cutting karma is not cutting people; killing to protect life."

Tang Luo said, "Chu benefactor, you need not worry; this matter arose because of the poor monk, so all karma naturally falls on the poor monk."

The merit power is also.

"It's fine."

Chu Zhongtian shook his head, "I'm just sighing; it's not the first time."

The reason for the sigh is actually related to the current environment.

A quiet snowy night makes it easy to let the mind wander.

Plus the deceased boss.

Chu Zhongtian inevitably wonders, when facing someone possessed by Jack the Ripper, whether he could be as merciless as Master Xuanzang and Uncle Zhou.

But upon further thought, there's actually no need to worry.

To be honest, facing such an opponent alone, the issue isn't whether to show mercy or not.

For Chu Zhongtian to survive is already a great fortune.

"What should we do with these people, how to handle them?" Zhou Zhen'gu asked.

A bunch of people, all with gunshot wounds, not as easy to handle as the innkeeper's corpse.

"Perfect, just consider them as having killed the innkeeper." Tang Luo said, "We are specially appointed detectives of Gelan Chang, acting bravely for justice, we should be rewarded."

Tang Luo decided to let these people take the blame.

"Fierce, or is it the great master who's fierce?" Chu Zhongtian thought to himself.

The difference between people suddenly became apparent.

Which temple's monk is this fierce, exactly?

The night passed in silence.

The Ripper Gang and Jack the Ripper no longer appeared.

It continued like that for two days straight.

Not only did Jack the Ripper stop causing trouble for Tang Luo and the others,

For some unknown reason, even the Ripper Gang vanished without a trace.

Tang Luo and the others also couldn't be bothered to deal with it.

They focused on searching for clues related to that dagger.

Although it was like looking for a needle in a haystack, it was still better than doing nothing.

Three days later, Tang Luo and the others heard some news.

Another nearly a hundred people died at the hands of Jack the Ripper.

Some of them were killed together in a group, while others were killed separately in different places by Jack the Ripper.

The corpses were discovered one after another.

And those who died were not others, but precisely the Ripper Gang that had been stirring up trouble in the name of Jack the Ripper these past few days.

No wonder neither of them came looking for trouble for Tang Luo and the others anymore.

Turns out they were killing each other?

The downfall of the Ripper Gang naturally also brought considerable impact.

Probably because extremes meet, some people began to inexplicably worship Jack the Ripper.

They considered him a cleanser of evil.

They even formed a related church organization, with people already preaching and attracting some lower-class poor folk to join.

Jack the Ripper initially killed without mercy.

But these two large-scale hunts, one targeted officials and nobles, the other targeted gangs.

To the lower-class poor, both were like great mountains weighing on their heads.

Some were ignorant and foolish, others had ulterior motives.

Others were afraid, and some even developed Stockholm Syndrome.

Jack the Ripper inspired fanaticism.

It's hard not to suspect that Jack the Ripper was secretly pulling the strings.

After all, he possesses the ability to possess others.

Jack the Ripper has gone from being a shadow to becoming a "visible dark cloud" that looms over the entire small town.

"If this continues, he won't even need to possess anyone; he can just send his fanatical followers to kill us."

Zhou Zhengguo said, "Could it be that we have to leave the small town and take refuge elsewhere?"

If that really isn't possible, then this is the only option.

Zhou Zhengguo has undergone a total of five missions; this is the sixth.

Of those, two were failures and two were successes.

One was a solo mission by a certain big shot, so it counts as neither a failure nor a success.

In other words, if he fails this mission, it will be his third failure.

If his luck is bad, he will disappear.

This is definitely not what Zhou Zhengguo hopes to see.

But if there's truly nothing that can be done, it's better to gamble than to send ourselves to death at Jack the Ripper's hands.

After all, it's only three times, so the probability of disappearing shouldn't be too high.

Given the current situation, Zhou Zhengguo no longer thinks that even Master Xuanzang could handle it.

Even if he could handle it.

He's probably only able to protect himself; wanting to protect them together is extremely difficult.

"That's all there is to it." Chu Zhongtian's thought was much the same as Zhou Zhengguo's.

He's only on his first mission, so even if he fails, it doesn't matter.

In a desperate bid for survival, the will to fight desperately isn't very strong.

"Then let's leave now."

Li Liang made the sound of a salted fish.

"Wait a bit longer."

Zhou Zhengguo said.

After all this hard work, there's still something that everyone generally agrees actually exists——

"The issue of mission participation and contribution points"—it relates to the quality of the final reward.

Unless absolutely necessary, no one will quit midway.

If one quits halfway, while others finish the mission and they get nothing, Zhou Zhengguo has heard of this situation several times.

If you can fight, then fight.

"Want to just leave now?" Li Liang asked cautiously.

"Hmm, okay." Tang Luo nodded.

Seeing Master Xuanzang's approval, Li Liang breathed a sigh of relief.

Away from the small town, no matter how vicious Kaitangshou Jieke is, he surely wouldn't go out of the city to chase and kill him, right?

Following the principle of sending the Buddha all the way to the west, everyone rented a carriage and decided to send Li Liang out of the city together.

It could also be considered a advance "scouting", so if they needed to flee, they would have a direction.

Speaking of which, it's also strange.

Despite Kaitangshou Jieke's rampage, even maintaining public order in Gelan Chang proved difficult.

Nor did anyone relocate their families, leaving the small town.

On the road leaving the small town, only Tang Luo's group had a carriage.

Leaving one's homeland behind, for the people of this world, it's probably a difficult choice.

For Tang Luo and these true outsiders, however, it was quite simple.

They didn't even need to perform any rites.

The four of them sat in a carriage with an enclosed cabin.

Tang Luo and the others sat inside the cabin, while Li Liang was in charge of driving.

Those horses had all received professional training; even Li Liang, a novice, could direct them to move forward and stop.

There was only one road, with no oncoming traffic or fellow travelers.

"Driving" it wasn't that simple.

Passing the manor of Count Sangdaike, the gates were tightly shut, and four Gelan Chang inspectors sat inside the iron door.

They glanced at the approaching carriage.

A blood incident had occurred at the manor; as the crime scene, it certainly had to be "protected".

There were certainly people reckless enough to break in and steal.

Gelan Chang had no choice but to send people to guard it.

With no one willing to guard such a murder scene, they had to let long-term temporary workers do the job.

Looking at them—huh, they seemed quite pleased?

They probably secretly gained some benefit.

Wanting the horses to run but not eat grass—what kind of good deal is that?

The carriage drove past the manor, and only after the inspectors watched it disappear did they withdraw their gazes.

"... It's snowing again."

Li Liang put on his hat and tightened his clothes.

Sometime later, the sky began to darken, and gray goose-feather snow began to fall.

This was the fourth snowfall in these few days.

In just a few short days, the small town seemed to have entered winter, with occasional bouts of gray snow drifting down.

"No way, why is this snow so heavy!"

After advancing another half hour, Li Liang could no longer endure it.

The original gray goose-feather snow gradually turned into a raging blizzard.

Ahead was a gray haze, visibility under ten meters.

The temperature also dropped rapidly; even wearing gloves, Li Liang's hands gripping the reins had already stiffened.

It was clearly approaching noon, which should be the brightest time of day.

Because of the heavy snow, it was even closer to night than dusk.

The two horses neighed anxiously; from their original trot, their speed gradually increased, and as a novice, Li Liang could no longer properly control the carriage.

"Whoa!"

"Whoa!"

Li Liang shouted while pulling the reins, got a mouthful of snow, and immediately began to retch.

The gray snowflakes of the industrial age.

They were practically poison.

When they landed on the ground, there was no feeling; when they landed in his mouth,

Li Liang felt as if someone had stuffed a piece of raw, still-bleeding meat into his mouth.