Chapter 27: Chapter Twenty-Seven: Gazing into the Abyss

With great difficulty, I got the horses to stop and drove them to stand under a big tree by the roadside.

We barely managed to avoid the wind and snow.

Li Liang knocked on the carriage door and shouted, "Master, it's no good, the snow is too heavy; let's take shelter here for a while! Let me in."

The carriage wasn't large, but it could barely fit four people.

"Master?"

I knocked a few times on the door, but there was no response from inside the carriage.

Li Liang leaned in dubiously to look through the dirty glass.

Inside, there were indeed three people sitting; could they be asleep?

Surely not?

The feeling of fear piled up like snowflakes falling on snow, bit by bit, beginning to occupy Li Liang's heart.

Li Liang swallowed, drew his pistol, placed his other hand on the exterior door handle, and pulled hard outward.

There was no resistance as imagined.

The door opened easily, and Li Liang saw three people sitting inside the carriage.

But these three people were not the Tang Luo trio.

They were three complete strangers!

No, they weren't completely unfamiliar.

They were the three patrollers we had seen when we passed the manor earlier.

When were they swapped out?

Li Liang's heart pounded with shock, and he instinctively pulled the trigger.

The bullet shot into the cramped carriage interior.

Li Liang saw blood spurt from the three people, yet these three strangers kept their original sitting posture, motionless.

The six rounds were quickly expended.

A "click-click" sound came.

This sound reminded Li Liang, who had unconsciously kept pulling the trigger, that he was out of ammunition.

He tossed the revolver into the carriage and turned to run backward.

He hadn't taken a few steps when a hand reached out from behind Li Liang.

It pressed down on his shoulder.

A tremendous force came; Li Liang fell backward, slamming hard onto the ground, gray snowflakes scattering.

A burning pain flared in his back.

Li Liang lay on his back on the ground and saw three faces appear above him.

Three faces that had been shot by bullets, which should have been dead.

They stood there, slightly bent over, looking down at Li Liang from above.

Their eyes held no spark, like corpses or puppets.

Each person held a dagger mottled with rust.

Li Liang saw clearly that the blotches on the dagger were not only rust but also bloodstains.

He could even smell the blood emanating from the dagger.

"The dagger shouldn't be fake; is it merely some kind of illusion?"

"Can the Ripper possess three people at once?"

"Can Ripper Jack also possess and control corpses?"

"If he could possess and control corpses, why did he flee after being 'beaten to death' by Uncle Zhou that night?"

"Master, when did they disappear?"

In an instant, Li Liang's mind filled with doubts.

Like a revolving lantern.

These doubts, for him, would never be answered.

The dagger fell.

Li Liang's body glowed, forming a light curtain that blocked the dagger.

Yet he didn't even have time to release or shift his emotions.

The second dagger fell likewise, the light curtain wavered and dimmed.

At the same time, the third dagger "shattered" the light curtain.

Li Liang's body trembled, thrashing wildly like a fish out of water, beating the ground.

Then he ceased struggling.

Blood stained the gray snow red, then turned it black.

"The snow is so heavy."

Chu Zhongtian looked out the side window of the carriage; the heavy gray snow obscured the scenery on both sides of the road.

"Thump-thump!"

Zhou Zhenguo banged twice on the carriage wall and shouted loudly, "Xiao Li, stop the car, come in and take shelter, the snow is too heavy!"

The answer was the horses' neighing.

The carriage jolted, and the horses pulling it suddenly began to run at high speed, Benz.

Zhou Zhenguo and Chu Zhongtian couldn't stay seated; their bodies swayed, their foreheads bumped together, and they saw stars.

The carriage shook wildly.

It feels like sitting on the back of a frenzied bull.

"Jump off."

Tang Luo opened his eyes and slapped open the door beside him with one palm.

He shook his head, and Zhou Zhen'guo jumped down first, falling onto the ground covered in gray snowflakes, not knowing whether he was injured.

Chu Zhongtian gritted his teeth and also jumped down.

That posture was obviously much uglier than Zhou Zhen'guo's.

He let out a muffled grunt and almost hit the wheel.

Tang Luo didn't rush to jump down; half his body hung outside the carriage as he looked ahead.

The original driver, Li Liang, had disappeared without a trace at some point.

After a brief pause, Tang Luo stepped forward and landed directly on the ground.

It was as if he had stepped down from a stationary carriage, with no effect.

When he turned his head to look at the carriage.

The two galloping horses had already carried the carriage away into the wind and snow.

After glancing twice, Tang Luo turned back and walked toward the direction they had come from.

After walking back for about ten minutes, Tang Luo finally saw Zhou Zhen'guo and Chu Zhongtian already gathered together.

Both of them looked somewhat disheveled.

They also had some scrapes, but fortunately nothing serious—at most the pain would briefly hinder their movement.

A short rest would be fine.

"Xiao Li—" Seeing Tang Luo appear alone, Zhou Zhen'guo wanted to say something but hesitated.

"He's missing." Tang Luo said, "If you can walk, let's go look for him together."

"Okay."

The two nodded.

The incident happened far too suddenly and strangely.

Although they didn't want to admit it deep down, they all knew that the heavy snow of these days was absolutely not a normal natural phenomenon.

Since leaving the small town until now.

How long has it been?

From clear skies to the current blizzard.

Obviously, some unknown force is preventing them from leaving the small town.

"Jack the Ripper?"

They don't know; frankly, they don't want to think about it further, nor do they want to ponder what hidden power lies behind this.

Ignorance is sometimes a blessing.

Zhou Zhen'guo and Chu Zhongtian sank into grim faces and slowly walked toward the direction where the carriage had disappeared.

There is only one road here.

Going on, it's nearly an hour.

Both felt their toes were about to freeze stiff.

They pressed their hats low and pulled up their collars, leaving only a pair of eyes exposed.

Even so, they could not keep out the bitter cold that seemed to seep into their bones.

"Found it!"

In the wind and snow ahead, the outline of a carriage appeared, right in the middle of the road, completely still.

"No one."

Approaching the carriage, whether the cabin or the driver's seat, both were empty.

Not only that.

Both carriages were completely covered by a thick layer of ice spikes, frozen solid.

Including the two horses, which seemed to stand in the wind and snow as if they had been dead for countless years.

"What the hell."

Chu Zhongtian said in a voice full of dejection.

It seemed that after the Manor Night, everything had completely departed from their imagination.

Like a wild horse breaking free of its reins, they galloped madly toward an unknowable future.

Standing beside the horse that looked like an ice sculpture, Chu Zhongtian couldn't help but walk a few steps forward.

Suddenly, there was nothing beneath his feet.

The rustling of snow under his feet did not sound; the snow beneath his feet began to fall away.

Beyond the direction of the horse's head, the ground had already completely disappeared at some point.

In its place was a black, bottomless abyss.

Gray snowflakes fell before Chu Zhongtian into the black abyss.

Chu Zhongtian's body, having lost balance, likewise fell.

Then, his collar tightened around his neck, a huge force flung him upward, and he landed behind the carriage.

He sat heavily on the ground, and Chu Zhongtian's pain made him forget his surprise.

"What's going on?"

Zhou Zhen'guo walked over to Tang Luo and asked.

He wasn't really asking Tang Luo; he just wanted to say something.

Tang Luo, who had grabbed Chu Zhongtian and thrown him back, said: "It's obvious we can't leave the small town anymore."

This suddenly appearing chasm was impossible to see the bottom of at a glance, and equally impossible to see its edge.

Tang Luo didn't think that walking a few hundred meters to the left or right would make the black abyss disappear.

One can imagine that the small town has already become an isolated island.

The hunting ground belonging to Kaitangshou Jieke!

Nobody can escape.

Let's go.

Zhou Zhen'guo said, since there's no way to escape, we can only face it.

He and Chu Zhongtian turned around and walked back, but noticed that Tang Luo hadn't left, still standing beside the black abyss.

He stared at it in a daze.

Is this the legendary "When you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes back into you"?

"Master?"

Chu Zhongtian spoke.

"The poor monk is wondering what's down there, and feels like going down to have a look," Tang Luo said.

"Ah?"

The two shuddered; could Master Xuanzang really be intending to jump down?

"Master, calm down!" Chu Zhongtian hurriedly shouted, "Don't jump down!"

"Hah."

Tang Luo chuckled, "No need to worry, the poor monk isn't a reckless fool; I'm just thinking about it."

……

"That's good then." Zhou Zhen'guo gave a dry laugh.

But they naturally didn't know that, if it weren't for the injury.

Tang Luo might really not just be thinking about it.

I, Tang Xuanzang, fear nothing—wait, not now; I can only charge forward recklessly and happily after I've retrieved my disciples.

Without the carriage, everyone could only step unevenly through the snow.

All the way back, they didn't see Li Liang's figure.

The footprints that should have been there in theory were also not seen.

As they gradually approached the small town, the heavy snowfall in the sky gradually weakened.

By the time they reached the vicinity of the manor, the sky was already clear and cloudless.

Only the caps, shoulders, and clothes bore traces of melted snowflakes, reminding the three of what had just happened.

Chu Zhongtian walked back distrustfully, and the snow began to fall again in the sky, the temperature dropping sharply.

It clearly told them that their activity range was only this small.

"Did previous missions have restrictions on the activity range?" Tang Luo asked.

Zhou Zhen'guo thought for a moment, shook his head, and said: "I'm not sure; usually, the activity range of our gods and demons' movements is centered on the mission and radiates outward. Even if we don't intend to complete the mission, we wouldn't stray too far. Such an explicit limit, practically compulsory, I've never encountered."

"Did previous missions have restrictions on the activity range?" Tang Luo asked.

"I don't think so; he's that strong, why would he hide it? Perhaps it's really the limitation of the gods and demons." Zhou Zhen'guo sighed.

Being able to turn the small town into a dead zone, creating a black abyss as a moat.

Was it done by Kaitangshou Jieke?

Zhou Zhen'guo really didn't want to think about that.

Three people are missing.

Tang Luo's voice made Zhou Zhen'guo and Chu Zhongtian look at him.

"The manor's guards are down by three, leaving only..."

Upon reaching the manor's tightly shut gate, Tang Luo reached out and knocked on the door.

Leaning against the door, the Gelan Field inspector, with his back to them, shuddered and collapsed straight to the ground.