Was Tang Luo injured?
Of course, he was, and badly at that. However, his injury had nothing to do with Jack the Ripper.
His earlier weakened state was but an act. Jack the Ripper was different from the Resurrected, an evil being who possessed a material body.
In the beginning, Jack the Ripper had been an entity born by the fusion of resentful aura, and it had no physical existence.
If one had to say that he did, then the rusty dagger, where he had been residing in while in his weakest form, would be his material body.
Even as Jack the Ripper's strength had been increasing, he had kept manifesting the dagger, though he no longer needed it.
If Tang Luo's group could have found and destroyed the dagger from the start, this mission would have been completed already.
In the beginning, Jack the Ripper had been so weak that he couldn't even kill Li Liang. He had only hollowed out Li Liang's body to strengthen himself so that he would be able to kill Bi Wanhui and the others later.
Jack the Ripper had also gotten to be free only after hollowing out Li Liang.
In this world of the dead, even if the free Ripper, who had no physical body, were to appear before Tang Luo and the others, they would be unable to see him—unless Tang Luo destroyed the whole world.
Unfortunately, the injured Tang Luo was unable to do so for the time being.
Thus, he had to use his old tricks and pretend to have a hard time fighting against Jack the Ripper's monsters. It was all to give Jack the Ripper the illusion of being able to win with a bit more effort.
As the rare living souls in this world of the dead, Tang Luo's group was very attractive to Jack the Ripper.
He longed to kill and devour them. That was why Jack the Ripper had visited them as soon as they had entered.
The existence of living souls in this world was like fireflies in the night, bright to the point of being dazzling. Wherever they hid, Jack the Ripper would find them by following their scent.
Jack the Ripper, as a fallen, evil being, didn't have real consciousness. He acted on instincts, such as the primitive desire to kill and to devour and the primitive sense of fear he felt after seeing Tang Luo.
These factors made Jack the Ripper not dare act lightly.
He had merely been lurking in the shadows and corners, waiting for the right moment to go out and take a bite.
In the beginning, Jack the Ripper hadn't dared to meet Tang Luo even if he had been possessing others.
Hodge's instant death had hurt Jack the Ripper. However, by devouring other people, the Ripper had continued to get stronger, and after reaching a certain threshold, it had begun massacring en mass.
To Jack the Ripper, the city's residents were also food that could strengthen him. Unfortunately, the effect was not as good as living souls, such as Tang Luo's group.
Nonetheless, quantitative changes could also produce qualitative changes.
Now that the Ripper had a physical form, its hollowed-out mouth and eyes and the exposed internal organs were all formed by the city's residents' dead souls.
He was resentful, clumsy, twisted, and extremely powerful.
Undoubtedly, Tang Luo, who was the strongest among the living souls and made the Ripper fearful, held the greatest attraction to the Ripper.
Jack the Ripper was craving to eat him but feared he would burst. He had no consciousness, but the fallen, evil being more or less had some wisdom for hunting.
On this point, the Ripper was much smarter than the Resurrected.
He had never fought against Tang Luo directly. Even after strengthening, he would only test his opponent cautiously.
Back when they had encountered Old John, it had been a test set by the Ripper. The same applied to the possessed that had dared to attack Tang Luo at Cotland Yard tonight. Last but not least, the twisted monster, which had been born when Tang Luo had been digging the grave, was the strongest apart from the Ripper's true form.
The tests' results only intensified Jack the Ripper's killing and devouring desires and suppressed his fear.
Now, he wanted to devour the living soul before him!
This was not a thought but an emotion.
Once it surfaced, it went out of control like a fire on dry grassland.
Jack the Ripper was no longer rational, nor did he appear to be.
Despite Tang Luo's you've-finally-come-out-to-be-beaten look, the Ripper would not back down anymore.
"Mas—"
Chu Chongtian struggled to make a little bit of sound. This was the only place on his entire body that could move.
He had many questions and many fears.
Tang Luo did not answer Chu Chongtian.
There was such a pile of merits in front of him that he had to take it.
This was fate.
Though it was created by Tang Luo himself, it was still fate.
Nobody ruled that fate had to be received passively. A person should make the most of their initiative.
The same was true for a Buddha.
Something flashed across Chu Chongtian's eyes, and Tang Luo, who was with him just now, had already disappeared.
When he reappeared, Tang Luo was already on top of the Ripper's head.
The huge head under Tang Luo's feet remained slightly bowed, while his hands held the crypt's roof.
The so-called true form was all the resentful aura and powers gathered together. Thus, Jack the Ripper appeared particularly huge, and his powers were extremely strong.
However, compared to the twisted monsters, which were one level higher than simple possessed forms, the true form may be powerful, but it was relatively slow and clumsy.
This was to a large extent due to its large body size.
Against the vast majority of prey, such a slow speed was still more than enough, but it was far too slow in Tang Luo's case.
Tang Luo was about to stomp onto Jack the Ripper's head with his right foot. He actually wanted to break it by stomping on it!
At that crucial moment, the dead souls in the hollow-like eyes and mouth on the Ripper's skull howled and morphed. Numerous dead souls gathered into three positions, transformed into three gigantic tentacles, and then turned into three shadows.
In the next instant, they attacked like a venomous snake and slammed Tang Luo's back.
Tang Luo turned his head slightly and glanced at a certain direction. It seemed he had confirmed the tentacles' position.
Without showing any intention of evading, Tang Luo continued stomping. At the same time, he turned his body slightly and waved his horizontally backward!
The three pillar-thick deal-soul-formed tentacles burst open in the instant they came into contact with Tang Luo's arm!
Tang Luo did not forget to stomp the Ripper's head with his right foot, either.
Chu Chongtian could see ripples spread from the place where the two collided—they were visible to the naked eye.
After that, a gust of roaring wind swept the place.
Chu Chongtian's originally stiff body could move again. His legs felt soft, and Chu Chongtian fell, sitting on the ground. His hands supported his body from the back, stopping himself from falling down entirely.
Then he saw Jack the Ripper's huge body—numerous black cracks appeared at breakneck speed from the top of his head. And like an avalanche, his body collapsed from top to bottom rapidly.
However, this kind of avalanche would devour everything on the way with a wave of snowflakes.
After Jack the Ripper collapsed, there was nothing left of him. He had turned into nothingness.
Suddenly, a dull sound reverberated throughout the crypt. It came from the intact part of the roof—the Ripper had been holding and had no time to place on the ground—that landed on the ground.
"Is this what the so-called saving a wicked soul means?"
Chu Zhongtian didn't know why he suddenly had this thought.
"Dead?"
Zhou Zhenguo's voice came from the other side. He sounded astonished, as everything happened too fast.
While they had been trying to open the impassable iron gate, the seemingly weak and heavily injured Tang Luo had appeared to inform them that this was the world of the dead. The coffins engraved with their names being the proof.
Before they had time to figure out their situation, a gigantic monster had grabbed up the roof.
At that time, Zhou Zhenguo had been in total despair.
Then, the situation took a sharp turn, and just as Zhou Zhenguo's despair was about to take root, Master Xuanzang killed the gigantic Jack the Ripper.
It was not the battle of life and death Zhou Zhenguo had pictured in his mind nor a back-and-forth fight. Instead, it was an instakill with overwhelming power and dominance.
'Wasn't he very weak just now? I thought monks are not supposed to lie!'
"Dead." Chu Chongtian said, "It should be all over, right?"
"Probably." Zhou Zhenguo looked toward the words on the stone wall and said, "Oh yeah, this crypt…"
Zhou Zhenguo, Chu Chongtian, Li Liang, Bi Wanhui, Cheng Jing (Cheng Cheng), Zhou Yuze (Little Zhou), and…
"Eh?"
This was the place where Master Xuanzang's real name was supposed to appear, but a piece was missing from those engraved words!
Probably, a few pieces of gravel had struck the wall and smashed a part of it. The small piece with Tang Luo's name on it had already broken into pieces. His complete name and time of birth couldn't be distinguished.
Only the character Tang was visible.
"Tang… Xuanzang?" Zhou Zhenguo froze in place.
Tripiṭaka, Tang Xuanzang, Tang Sanzang, such names were definitely familiar to native Chinese people.
Zhou Zhenguo knew that Xuanzang was a Dharma name, and Sanzang was actually a general term for Buddhist classics.
Monks who were well-versed in Buddhist classics would be respectfully called Venerable Sanzang.
And the character Tang was as in the country
The so-called Tang Seng, Tang Xuanzang, and Tang Sanzang were actually a form of self-introduction.
It was like saying:
"A monk from the country Tang."
"A monk with the Dharma name Xuanzang who came from the country Tang."
"A monk from the country Tang who was well-versed with the Sanzang Classics."
'This Master Xuanzang probably just happens to have the surname Tang. That's why there's such a strange coincidence.
'By the way, he can't be calling himself Master Xuanzang because his surname is Tang, right?
'This monk is so funny.
'Tang Xuanzang, such a code name is pretty interesting.'
"What Tang Xuanzang?" asked Chu Chongtian.
"Nothing," replied Zhou Zhenguo.
There was no point to discuss deliberately such things.
As they were conversing, a figure appeared at the door. Tang Luo had already walked back. He smiled in a Buddha-like way, looking not the least bit injured.
The power of virtuous merits he gained from killing the fallen evil being, Jack the Ripper, was used to heal his injuries. Tang Luo increased the maximum level of strength that he could use without affecting his injuries from 6% to 8%.
Naturally, Tang Luo would smile in a Buddha-like way.
Unfortunately, the recovery of his injuries wasn't consistent.
In the beginning, the consumption would not be too great, but with gradual recovery, the power of virtuous merits required would be greatly increased.
After recovering to a certain level, it would start decreasing again. It was somewhat like a relatively smooth parabola.
"Master…"
Zhou Zhenguo and Chu Chongtian approached him.
"Open the coffin, let's go back," replied Tang Luo.