If Ill Omens couldn't be used, Zhou Zhenguo wouldn't use it.
Young and reckless was not a phrase suitable for describing Zhou Zhenguo. He wasn't stupid and wouldn't force himself to do it.
At night, everyone sat in the hotel lobby.
The hotel proprietor was sitting behind the counter and occasionally glanced at Zhou Zhenguo and the others. The expression on his face was a bit conflicted.
Old John was missing…
The hotel proprietor didn't know whether it had something to do with these foreign detectives.
There was still some fear in his heart. But at a time when Jack the Ripper had slaughtered a whole manor, and the panic-stricken city was on the verge of collapse, the presence of these detectives more or less brought some security to his hotel.
In the afternoon, a shop nearby was robbed.
F*cking gangsters!
The hotel proprietor brought a few cups of wine, put them on the table, and asked, "Not going to rest, gentlemen?"
"No," said Zhou Zhenguo, "It hasn't been peaceful recently, we'll be here all night. You can go and rest, just let us watch over the hotel for you."
"How can I do that…" The hotel proprietor smiled and started walking towards the kitchen.
After about half an hour, he returned with some dishes. "This is my treat."
Without being overly courteous, Tang Luo's group started eating. It was unknown if they would encounter Jack the Ripper at night, so it was necessary to fill their bellies.
After finishing the meal, they sat dully for another hour. Li Liang couldn't help but stand up and stomp his feet hard.
"Psst, why do I feel it's getting colder and colder?"
"Your body's weak, eh?" said Chu Chongtian.
"Don't mention it. I've been very weak since the first night," replied Li Liang.
A real salty fish would not dare to face their tragic life and weak body directly. "But not this weak."
"It's a bit cold," said Zhou Zhenguo.
Suddenly, his expression turned serious. "It couldn't be the Ripper, right?" He would never forget the icy, piercing cold that made one numb and stiff.
They all reached out into their clothes to grab their hidden pistols at once.
"Gentlemen, I'll shut the door now. It's so cold." The hotel proprietor also noticed the inexplicable drop in temperature. "There shouldn't be much danger if the door is locked properly. You guys don't have to stay up."
As he spoke, he walked to the slightly open hotel door and prepared to lock it.
Before locking, he instinctively pushed the door open and looked out.
Suddenly, the hotel proprietor yelled in surprise.
Swoosh!
Zhou Zhenguo and Chu Chongtian drew their pistols at once!
Li Liang dodged to the back, before drawing out the pistol in his jacket, just for show.
"It's snowing."
The hotel proprietor didn't realize that his actions caused the three people to overreact.
He said something, walked out, looked up into the sky, and reached out.
A few snowflakes fell into his hands.
Heavy snow was falling outside. He didn't know when it started.
The ground was covered with a thin layer of snow. It was not white snow, but gray snow.
It was far from visible in the darkness of the night.
"How did it start snowing?" Zhou Zhenguo was puzzled.
It was winter there, but the weather was not so cold enough for snow to form.
Besides, in the afternoon, no, even one hour ago, the weather was fine. How could it have possibly cooled down to the point of snow? It was abnormal!
Zhou Zhenguo stood up, walked to the door, and looked around. It was indeed snowing heavily, with gray snowflakes.
It gave one a feeling of dirtiness and discomfort.
He reached out to catch snowflakes. The cold snowflakes fell into his palm and melted quickly.
"Hotel proprietor, don't look anymore, this snow isn't clean," said Zhou Zhenguo as he was about to go back.
The hotel proprietor turned his head slightly, smiled at Zhou Zhenguo, and said, "Okay, I'll—"
The light from inside the door illuminated half of the hotel proprietor's face, creating a sense of creepiness.
Zhou Zhenguo's eyes abruptly widened as he saw the hotel proprietor's creepy smile… and the dagger that had somehow appeared in his hand!
At that moment, Zhou Zhenguo was unprecedentedly focused.
"Imprison!"
Almost instinctively, he roared, and his hands stretched out towards the hotel proprietor.
In the next instant, the sound of chains colliding came as mist-like black chains drilled out of the ground and rotated around the hotel proprietor once, before going into the ground again.
The hotel proprietor was stopped while turning back. His lower body faced outwards while his upper body faced right at Zhou Zhenguo, forming a strange posture of twisting almost at 180 degrees.
The hotel proprietor's right hand was pressed tightly against his body, and his left hand was lifted and pressed against his chest. The dagger was placed on the edge of his neck.
The assassination attempt was stopped midway by the chains.
After imprisoning the hotel proprietor, no, Jack the Ripper, Zhou Zhenguo didn't hesitate. He clenched his right hand into a fist, on which white light shone, looking a little dazzling. It was like he was clenching a shining light bulb.
Powerful Single Strike!
Zhou Zhenguo used his only attack skill, focusing his strength on his right fist. The right fist, shining with white light, violently burst open the Jack-the-Ripper-possessed hotel proprietor's forehead.
The sound of a skull fracturing and a neck bone breaking echoed.
The huge burst of power almost sent Jack the Ripper flying, but it wasn't easy to break free from the Imprisoning Chain.
The hotel proprietor's head almost disappeared from Zhou Zhenguo's vision. The back of his head was pressed against his back, with only a little bit of skin and fleshing connecting them.
After waving his fist, Zhou Zhenguo abruptly backed up two steps and reached out to press on the door, not letting himself fall.
He lifted his other hand, prepared to shoot—he needed to shoot to kill Jack the Ripper!
"No need, it's already gone," said Tang Luo, pressing down the pistol in Zhou Zhenguo's hand.
Zhou Zhenguo stepped back and leaned against the door, gasping for breath. He only had the strength for one attack.
The hotel proprietor was still standing due to the restraint of the chains. The dagger that he had been originally holding had disappeared.
Life was gone from his body.
A stinging headache overwhelmed Zhou Zhenguo. For the first time, he felt that he couldn't maintain the Imprisoning Chain anymore. Thus, he released it.
The corpse collapsed on the ground with the creepy smile still plastered on its face.
Fortunately, it was nighttime, and it was snowing heavily.
The fear induced by Jack the Ripper had almost turned the night streets into graveyards. Therefore, no passersby witnessed this creepy scene.
"This won't do." Zhou Zhenguo said, "Jack the Ripper keeps possessing others, we'll be exhausted to death."
Finally, they now had a clear criterion for judging whether someone was possessed by Jack the Ripper—the rusty dagger!
Zhou Zhenguo had seen the hotel proprietor holding a dagger in his hand. When the punch had landed on him, the dagger had disappeared, meaning that Jack the Ripper had also left this body.
To be honest, this was not good news. It meant Jack the Ripper's possession-type ability didn't require any preparation, or the possessed to be touching anything special.
It was arguably without any limitation, and even leaving only took an instant. He only needed to continuously possess others.
Even if it couldn't effectively harm Tang Luo's group, it could still cause them to fall into a serious crisis.
Jack the Ripper's attacks were not the only forms of crisis. Another factor was the trouble that Tang Luo's group caused by killing the possessed to protect themselves.
At a moment of life and death, nobody would think of holding back.
If Jack the Ripper 'visited' a few more times, Cottland Yard would certainly target Tang Luo's group.
Luckily, so far, Jack the Ripper would possess others only at night. Also, he seemed to be able to possess one person per time.
The question was whether or not a second possessed would appear in the night to judge his ability's upper limit.
"At least, we have a method for judgment now: it's Jack the Ripper if there's a dagger in his hand," said Chu Chongtian after hearing Zhou Zhenguo's analysis.
After dealing with the hotel proprietor's corpse, they returned to the hotel lobby.
They lit the fireplace, mildly chasing away the chilliness around them.
"We'll see whether someone else will attack us tonight. If there's none, we can conclude that the Ripper can only possess one person once in the same night," said Zhou Zhenguo.
"Wait, no." Chu Chongtian recalled something. "Hodge from the first night! And Old John. That makes it two people."
"Are we sure that Hodge was possessed by the Ripper?" asked Zhou Zhenguo.
"Pretty much. Master, what do you think?" Chu Chongtian looked towards Tang Luo.
To be honest, he had never really come face to face with Hodge.
At first, he had spoken one sentence. Then, Hodge had attacked him from behind.
When Chu Chongtian had turned around, Hodge had already been a headless corpse.
"It's most likely Jack the Ripper. An ordinary man can't avoid a cane hurled by me," said Tang Luo.
"So, we can conclude that Jack the Ripper has a possession-type ability. The possessed have martial abilities far beyond ordinary people and a creepy aura that can suppress people and make them unable to move." Chu Chongtian concluded, "He can only possess others at night, and not two people at once. This point has yet to be confirmed. Maybe he can change the target of possession more than once in the same night. Hodge, Old John, and Little Zhou's disappearance can prove this."
"The identity of the targeted body is uncertain. There should be very little limitations. The feature is a dagger that can disappear. The real identity is unclear, and our ultimate reliance is on Master Xuanzang.
"Let's hope my analysis is not wrong this time."
Li Liang asked, "About his real identity, we have no clue at all. Can we only passively wait? I remember that Cotland Yard gave us a name list."
"It's not much help." Chu Chongtian said, "Jack the Ripper can possess others and kill. All the clues are meaningless."
None of them were super-detectives, how could they be able to catch a body-possessing murderer?
"Wait, that dagger is a clue!" Zhou Zhenguo recalled the dagger that almost killed him because when the light at the door shone on it, he could see the rust on him.
The dagger's image was also engraved in Zhou Zhenguo's mind.
Maybe they could find the Ripper if they searched anything related to the dagger.
Bang, bang, bang!
A series of banging sounds came from the door.
"Hotel proprietor, open the door! We want to spend the night here!" yelled a man from outside, interrupting the conversation.