"Dress up as a woman…"
The corner of Little Chu's mouth twitched non-stop.
'Seriously, monks these days, why are all of them like fat geeks!?'
"Yes." Tang Luo nodded. "Benefactor Chu is a relatively more suitable candidate."
Among the four men present, Tang Luo was definitely a no-go. He was tall, well-built, and handsome. No matter what, he wasn't going to look like one.
Li Liang's body had been hollowed out and was currently in a half-dead state.
The high school teenager in light green was tanned, and the black fuzz on his upper lip even left unshaved. He gave off quite the feel of a private advisor of olden times.
Little Chu, on the other hand, was different. He was of medium height and a slender build. Thus, he was great material for dressing up as a woman and had extremely high potential for it.
Little Chu frowned while thinking about it. He soon nodded and said, "Alright, Master, my life is in your hands!"
He was surprisingly decisive and clear-cut about it.
If Little Chu was unable to join in the mission and complete it together, leading to failure to obtain rewards in the end, how would he be any different from salted
Little Chu had thought it through very clearly.
Even if he could get by this time by cozying up to someone powerful, could he do the same thing the next time? Could he do it every single time?
If one didn't go through some danger and sacrifice a thing or two, how could they possibly become stronger?
As the idiom went, "Wealth is sought in danger."
This wasn't a game by
This was The Game of Gods and Demons!
"Alright, in that case, we'll act tonight." Tang Luo set the time.
The sky gradually darkened.
The doors of the hotel were tightly shut.
While holding Little Chu in his grasp, Tang Luo sprung off the ground. He leaped over the fence, whose height had been specially increased by the hotel past two meters high, and landed in the dim little alley behind the hotel.
After they landed, Little Chu exclaimed as he pressed his hand against his pounding heart, "Master, you said you didn't know qinggong!" He sounded rather excited.
This meant that the higher Master Xuanzang's combat ability was, the safer he would be. At the same time, it also indicated that the higher it was, the higher the possibility of them clearing the mission would be.
"I'm just able to jump a little higher than most, that's all," replied Tang Luo without any hint of self-satisfaction.
There was indeed nothing much to be self-satisfied about.
What was qinggong?
It was flying across grass plains and drifting on water surfaces elegantly and gracefully.
Divine powers and techniques were of an even higher realm.
As for Tang Luo, he hurried along swiftly, crossing several hundred meters in a jump and causing destruction everywhere he went, just like the Hulk.
He couldn't' find anything about this that he could be self-satisfied about at all.
Lifting his head, he gazed at the night sky at a 45-degrees angle. Tang Luo missed the days in the past where he could ride on dragons and horses.
'Little White
"I'll follow you at the back. Be careful."
Tang Luo patted Little Chu on the shoulder. The Jade Lotus of Virtuous Merit gave off a weak glow, which disappeared in a flash.
He expended a bit of the power of virtuous merits and formed a defensive barrier of a certain degree around Little Chu.
Nodding, Little Chu started to walk forward timidly.
As for Tang Luo, he leaped onto the roof of a house beside them. From a high vantage point, he could see and hear everything around him.
The city in the late night was actually not a quiet one.
It wasn't so much the loud and boisterous voices of humans, but rather, it was because one could frequently hear the caws of crows and the sound of their wings flapping.
In the beginning, Little Chu even got a fright. But as time passed, he got used to it.
After walking for a good half an hour or so, he didn't even run into anyone's shadow, much less Jack the Ripper.
Little Chu began to take longer strides and specially picked various small alleys to walk into.
Towards the end, even he himself didn't know where he was anymore.
Little Chu had also strayed far from the relatively more prosperous area of the city. Other than the pale moonlight and dim light coming from the windows of houses, there were no other light sources in the surroundings.
Little Chu's speed slowed down once more.
Creak!
All of a sudden, the sound of a door that had seen better days opening could be heard coming from diagonally in front of him.
What followed were two overlapping cries of surprise.
One of them belonged to Little Chu, while the other came from the person who opened the door.
Both of them got a shock.
"What are you doing!?"
The person who opened the door was a man. Because of the darkness, one couldn't see what he looked like. Although his voice was loud, he sounded rather shaky.
"What are you doing?" Little Chu asked instead. His voice was a little distorted and didn't sound like a man's voice.
"Are you tired of living, being out here so late at night instead of going home?!"
After determining that the person who had given him a shock seemed to be a woman, the man's heart settled back down, and he swore furiously.
"What goddamn business is it of yours!" Little Chu was not to be outdone.
"Bastard! Bastard! Don't you loiter outside my house. If you weren't a woman, I'd have treated you like a burglar and tied you up!" The man's voice faded as he slammed the door shut.
No one knew why he had even opened the door earlier.
"What a crazy guy." Little Chu grumbled as he continued walking forward. His gait, however, became significantly more relaxed.
Even though they had a heated exchange earlier, it chased off some of the night frigid chills.
Except that Little Chu didn't notice something.
The man, who had exchanged insults with him just now, opened the window quietly. He squeezed through it to the outside and followed behind him silently.
One could faintly make out that the man was holding a bunch of ropes in his right hand.
'The Ripper?'
On the rooftop, Tang Luo wondered to himself. Yet he didn't think that he seemed the part. None of the corpses had signs of being tied up.
In other words, Jack the Ripper didn't need ropes when he was killing.
The man was holding a bunch of ropes but not a knife. The stronger possibility was that he was someone who had conceived lustful ideas in his head?
His own words earlier had probably reminded himself and set off the wicked thoughts in his heart.
Thus, he had decided to give it a go. After all, he could just let Jack the Ripper shoulder the blame.
Little Chu didn't realize in the least that danger was approaching. By the time he heard the footsteps behind him, it was too late.
A shadow flashed across his eyes, and a coarse rope tightened around his mouth, causing his cries of alarm to turn into muffled grunts.
"Shut up!"
At the same time, he heard the voice and panting of a man by his ear.
"Damn you!"
A slew of expletives hurtled across Little Chu's mind. In that instant, his mind worked at extremely high speed.
He practically reached the exact same conclusion as Tang Luo all at once.
The person behind him was probably not Jack the Ripper, but someone who conceived lustful thoughts after seeing him!
At the same time, Little Chu was reminded of a news article that he had once seen.
The article was about a guy who was famous for crossdressing. He had been assaulted by a lecher while on his way home from a comics convention. When the other party had discovered that he was male, not only did he not stop, he had instead become even more excited!
He had originally thought that this was just fake news that someone had made up. Never would he have thought that this would actually really be happening to him right now.
Just as the rope tightened around Little Chu's mouth and dragged him backward forcefully, a ray of golden light suddenly shot out from Little Chu.
The defensive barrier that Tang Luo had expended his power of virtuous merits to form around Little Chu had automatically activated.
The golden light formed a curved screen of light and separated the rope from the person behind Little Chu.
However, the light turned extremely dull because of this, like a lingering candle flame in the wind that would disappear the very next instant.
After all, that was just an extremely small amount of power of virtuous merits.
Staring at the curved screen of light that had appeared out of nowhere on his body, Little Chu was filled with endless shock.
'What is this?
'Could this be the ability born from the legendary 'gene lock' that activates during moments of life and death?
'No, according to the setting of The Game of Gods And Demons and explanation from the experienced player Old Zhou, this should be one of the benefits that players can receive during the mission?
'So this is how benefits are unlocked?'
After all, Little Chu was still young. Being 'too young, too simple', he didn't take this grand opportunity to run or take out the revolver to counterattack.
Instead, he remained where he was, stunned, and lost in his surprise.
The man behind him wouldn't stop because of this, however. He discarded the rope, reached into his bosom, and fished out a short knife.
Without saying anything, he stabbed straight at Little Chu's back with the knife.
From the looks of it, his failure to kidnap him had made him turn to murder instead.
The blade stabbed onto the curved screen of light. Without any sound, the screen of light shook for a while before it scattered into specks of light.
They dispersed like sparks of fire and disappeared into the night.
However, Little Chu didn't realize this at all. There was still a smile on his face.
Just as the knife was about to stab into Little Chu, a sharp whizz pierced through the air.
A black glint shot towards them like a flash of lightning.
The man's reaction was faster, however. He moved immediately and retreated a few meters to the back.
The black glint shot past right next to him and landed where he had originally been, almost wholly embedded in the ground.
After it stopped moving, one could see the exposed part of the black glint. It was the top of a staff!
The sharp whizz caused Little Chu to regain his senses too. Realizing that he was still in danger, he turned around immediately.
And then, he saw—
Just like a hawk or a bat with its wings spread, a black shadow covered the dim moonlight and came towards them from above.
Practically in that instant, the staff landed after being dodged by the man. Tang Luo had already arrived in front of him.
His black windbreaker lifted, and an arm reached out.
Pressing against the man's face, his five fingers closed together. Tang Luo held the man's head in a death grip. He clutched the man's head with just one hand as if he was holding onto a large plush toy. Tang Luo lifted the man, and then, with a twist of his elbow, he shoved him downwards with great force!
The head came into intimate contact with the stone pavement beneath their feet.
The sound of something cracking could be heard. No one could tell exactly whether it was the stone pavement or the man's head that had cracked.
Or perhaps, it was both.
In the instant of the impact, Little Chu felt like even the ground seemed to shake.
By the time he regained his senses, he realized that Tang Luo had already gotten up. He bent over and plucked out the staff. Then, he shook it a couple of times casually, as if checking whether it was damaged.
Behind him, a headless corpse could be seen. Its head had already fused completely with the sunken pothole in the ground.
It was impossible to differentiate between the two anymore.
The pungent smell of blood wafted over, and it caused Little Chu to retch.
After retching for quite a long while, Little Chu finally looked over at Tang Luo. With a somewhat shaky voice, he asked, "Master, did you kill him?"
What he asked was, of course, something that went without saying.
"Yes."
Tang Luo looked at the damaged end of the staff. Even if he had used a bit of technique when throwing it, with such an impact, it had still suffered some damage.
"When he brandished the knife, I thought he was Jack the Ripper," explained Tang Luo. "So, I didn't take care to spare his life."
Little Chu let out a dry chuckle.
At the church back then, he had spoken about the virtue of sparing lives. In the end, when he was truly taking action, he was this ferocious and violent instead of immediately taking someone's life.
'Hur, men. Hur, monks.'
"It's just a shame that he wasn't Jack the Ripper. Otherwise, we would probably have completed our mission at this point."
Tang Luo went on to say, "Amitabha."
He even chanted the name of Buddha at the end.
"Oh, that's true."
Little Chu found it somewhat of a pity. If that man had been Jack the Ripper, their mission this time would have ended.
"However—"
Tang Luo looked at the headless corpse he had created. "If one says that this man is just an average person, I wouldn't believe it either."
"Huh?" Little Chu didn't quite understand.
"If he had been an average person on the streets, he would have died when I launched the staff earlier. Why would there be a need for me to personally take action?" Tang Luo added, "Yet he managed to successfully dodge it. Come on, let's head to his house for a look. Maybe we'll find some kind of clue."
After witnessing and experiencing Tang Luo's 'fierce visage and swift and vicious methods', Little Chu definitely didn't have any objections.
'Master, everything you say is right!'
The two of them left the headless corpse behind and headed in the direction of the house, which the man had come out of earlier.