Chapter 195: Mother-in-Law

Hum—

A tearing sound erupted behind them; the slash wave of the Six Styles Mist Foot surged forward, striking straight for Zhao Zijing's nape.

At the critical moment, Grey Rain hastily raised his hand; the back of his palm transformed into an arced shield, covering Zhao Zijing's occiput, barely blocking the blow.

A whole patch of tall grass, severed by the Mist Foot impact wave, rose belatedly into the air.

Revealing Cliff's contorted expression deep within the grass.

"Chairman, we meet again."

Cliff grinned wildly, stomped the ground, leapt high, and slammed down a punch.

Li Cheng manifested his rhinoceros beetle horns and armor, activated the Instant Thunder skill, pushed his strength to its limit, gripped the rusted cleaver with both hands, and slashed upward with full force toward Cliff's fist.

Clang!

The metallic clash was piercingly shrill; Cliff's fist tip was coated in Armored Color Haki, forcibly shattering the blade.

Fist shadow and blade edge clashed repeatedly; in an instant, Li Cheng's Hukou split open, blood spraying from both hands. He fired his bat-wing hooks, embedding them into the distant ground to teleport urgently, barely evading the pursuit.

Grey Rain immediately stepped forward, his hands transforming into metal drill bits, spinning rapidly as they stabbed toward Cliff's heart.

Cliff simultaneously activated Armored Color Haki and Six Styles Iron Body; he clasped the drill bits with both arms, his muscles swelling again, veins rising like entwined vipers.

Sparks exploded from the grinding drill; Cliff planted his feet into the mud, carving two grooves over ten meters long, halting his backward momentum.

"My turn."

Cliff tilted his head slightly, exposing his skull, then clamped both arms around the drill bit, leaned back, and hurled Grey Rain backward like a WWE wrestler.

The drill's length plus his height exceeded five meters; Grey Rain urgently shrank his stature, barely avoiding being sheared off by the tops of the tall grass.

At the brink of death, the Bandaged Man pulled out the superpower syringe from his chest and injected it into his arm vein.

Unknown how drastically his genes mutated, one of his eyes rapidly melted; the burn bandages wrapped around his body floated away, entangling Cliff's limbs and delaying him for less than half a second.

Li Cheng slashed Cliff's neck, piercing through the Armored Color Haki defense, carving a deep wound down to the bone.

The corpse-like Mithril on the ground also unleashed all his spiritual power.

His mind-enchanted ability allowed him to detect and influence others' minds, altering or dominating their behavior.

Such as Disgust, Charm Human, Dominate, etc.

High-level mind-enchanted spiritualists could kill with just a glance.

Mithril's resurrection progress bar was far from full—barely at Lv10, nowhere near his former strength.

His mental ability could only briefly pause Cliff's punch.

Zhao Zijing controlled two arrows (one from the previous loop) and fired them consecutively at Cliff's eyes, creating openings for Li Cheng and Grey Rain.

"Chairman, if you hadn't stubbornly insisted, we wouldn't have been cursed by the Corpse Web."

"Bi Huang, Hua Jia, Platinum Iron—all the others in the guild wouldn't have died."

Cliff coated his hands in Armored Color Haki, precisely grasped the two telekinetic arrows flying through the air, snapped them with a sharp crack, his face twisting into a manic snarl: "But they brought you back. Good. Good."

"I can kill you again."

Cliff flung away the broken arrows and charged forward, heading straight for Mithril in the mud pit.

The Bandaged Man tried to release his bandages, forming a spiderweb to block him.

Cliff casually grabbed them and flung them aside; the Bandaged Man flew horizontally, crashing through a patch of tall grass with a clatter.

At the critical moment, Li Cheng hurled a gravity energy sphere, attaching it to Cliff's left arm.

Grey Rain stomped the ground, transforming midair into a massive iron ball chained with iron links. Nearly a ton in weight, combined with sprinting acceleration and the extra pull of the gravity energy sphere,

struck Cliff like a meteorite, blasting him away into the grass.

"Don't let him kill Mithril."

Li Cheng's voice was calm; he mounted the bat-wing weight motorcycle, hooked the chain of Grey Rain's iron ball to the bike's rear, and sped into the tall grass.

This tactic had been used in the previous scenario mission; Li Cheng floored the throttle, dragging Grey Rain's iron ball through the grass like a battering ram.

Cliff, dazed and half-buried, crawled out of the ground, shook his head, and saw the iron ball hurtling toward him again.

Clang!

The muffled impact echoed through the grass, fading into the distance.

The loop ends when everyone dies; it restarts when most are killed and one survives.

If Cliff kills Mithril and grinds his bones to dust, there's no guarantee the next loop will retain the charge previously stored.

Therefore, Mithril absolutely cannot die—at least not now.

"What's that?!"

Catherine stared in shock, pointing toward the horizon. A brand-new hot air balloon drifted slowly across the sky; faint figures could be seen aboard.

The surviving figures of the Crimson Riders and others.

Zhao Zijing's mind buzzed—another hot air balloon appearing in her vision meant a new loop had begun.

Previously, her short arrow had been stolen from her control by an unknown telekinetic force.

The arrow pierced the balloon's envelope, causing it to crash and hurl everyone into the grass.

Now recalling it, the source of that telekinesis was clear—it was herself.

The rhythmic thudding of the iron ball striking the ground had ceased; likely, Cliff had broken free—or worse, had killed Master Pi Fu outright.

Time was running out.

Realizing this, Zhao Zijing's expression hardened decisively; she raised her hand toward the sky, sensing the invisible telekinetic arrow.

Catherine, stunned, asked: "Young Lady, what are you doing?"

"Bring down the hot air balloon. Get the new battery."

Zhao Zijing turned to look at the fallen Mithril: "If a thirty-percent battery revived you, a seventy- or eighty-percent battery should be enough to restore you to Lv20."

At this point, Catherine understood Zhao Zijing's intent—she intended to shoot down the hot air balloon and charge the still-living Mithril with the new battery.

"But in this cycle, we've never seen the other version of ourselves before."

Catherine stammered, "Doesn't this mean it's fundamentally impossible to charge twice in the same cycle?"

"Try it and you'll see."

Zhao Zijing held her breath, focused completely, the image of the psychokinetic arrow in her mind growing ever clearer.

She clenched her fists, struggling with her other self for control of the arrow.

The arrow pierced Pidgeot clean through, then rebounded to stab through the hot air balloon, tearing a massive gash.

The balloon plummeted freely, and everyone tumbled into a nearby thicket of tall grass.

"Your arrow." Li Cheng's voice came from deep within the grass. "Are you all okay?"

Midnight Howl said, "We're fine."

Mendoza coughed and said, "I'm alright."

These words felt eerily familiar. Zhao Zijing parted the tall grass, stared at her other self, utterly stunned, took a deep breath, and said, "No time to explain—grab the battery and follow me."

"Uh..."

The new Li Cheng glanced at Zhao Zijing, whose temples had turned gray and whose brow now bore deeper wrinkles from the temporal current, then turned to the younger Zhao Zijing and said, "Why didn't you tell me you had an older sister?"

??

Hey, that kind of remark is for meeting your girlfriend's future mother-in-law—not in a situation like this!

The gray-templed Zhao Zijing's eye twitched violently—this insolent remark could only come from the real Master Pi Fu.

(End of Chapter)