Chapter 373

"Wang Miss, you?"

Su Konghu's mind short-circuited: two months ago, while traveling and sightseeing, he had accidentally rescued Wang Biliu, who claimed she was being forced by her stepmother to marry a widower, and along the way, feelings had quietly grown.

Now, looking at her again, it was as if she were a stranger.

Li Cheng watched this scene coldly, not at all surprised: "Since the Yong'an Emperor has already made his deal, he naturally wouldn't place all his hopes solely on the Brocade Uniform Guard and the Longhu Mountain Daoist Priests."

He must send reliable spies as a final fallback."

"When necessary, he'll slaughter everyone who stands in his way—including his own loyal Brocade Uniform Guard."

Li Cheng dragged up Ku Yu the Monk, still holding considerable respect for this monk whose moral standards far exceeded those of his contemporaries.

He casually took a small engine from a warehouse, directly inserting it into Ku Yu's chest to replace his damaged heart.

"?"

Ku Yu thought he was already dead; suddenly revived, his square face was blank with confusion, and he spat out a mouthful of diesel.

Wang Biliu stepped back half a pace, smiling on her face, but her eyes filled with coldness and vigilance.

She deliberately ignored Su Konghu's pained, bewildered expression, fixing her gaze on Li Cheng, who had revived Ku Yu the Monk: "Your Excellency revives the dead and mends bones—truly divine arts, not a Fangshi yet surpassing one."

"Would you be interested in serving His Majesty?"

"Not really. Last time I worked as a deep-sea diver, my boss kept saying I lacked service spirit—that I should treat customers like gods. So I hung the customer's son on a cross, and before I could nail his palms, I got fired."

Li Cheng shook his head, intrigued: "By the way, which department are you from?"

"The palace? The Eastern Factory? The Western Factory? The Inner Service Factory?"

Wang Biliu did not answer, instead holding her dagger backward and silently spinning it.

In over two hundred years of the Great Ming, there had been barely a handful of Wudao Sect Masters; each one, once clad in armor, could cut down heads from ten thousand troops, carving through enemy ranks like a god.

Even matchlock and flintlock bullets could be deflected by their protective true qi.

But facing Li Cheng, Wang Biliu had no confidence at all of defeating him.

Especially since beside him stood Hui Yu; from the deep footprints on the ground, the latter had surely cultivated a top-tier technique like Thousand-Pound Descent.

"Fine, don't answer."

Li Cheng smirked lightly: "Last question: what's the deal with the white fish meat?"

"Each of the Five Branches of the Tu family inherited one of their ancestor's organs, each playing a distinct role in the plan."

"The Third Branch inherited the seahorse's belly and fertility—seemingly less critical than the Fourth Branch, which possessed precognition, or the Fifth Branch, which had hallucinogenic powers."

"But it has its unique function: 【Recrossing】."

Everyone's faces changed instantly. Recrossing was a special hybridization method in genetics, crossing the first-generation hybrid back with one of its parental lines—a common technique in plant and animal breeding.

As early as the Northern Song, Wang Yucheng's "Xiao Chu Ji: Record of Horses" recorded that Fu Yanqing's horse-breeder had mated young colts with their mothers to breed superior warhorses.

(Incidentally, that article noted the colt died after mating by crashing into a gate—the point being to warn against decadence and inbreeding in noble families. The article itself was never widely circulated in the Song; only in modern times did marketing accounts misrepresent it as the culprit behind Song dynasty horse-breeding collapse.)

"The Tu family is certain they can achieve immortality; Tu Wangjuan has already promised the Yong'an Emperor immortality. So why couldn't the Cangze King, who made prophecies three thousand years ago, also be immortal?"

Li Cheng said coldly: "If I'm not mistaken, that old king has long since merged into the surface of the Giant Stone."

"And for later Tu descendants to merge into the Giant Stone, they must reacquire their bloodline inheritance from the old king."

"That is, using the Third Branch's reproductive ability to breed as much as possible."

"Then mating the offspring with the轮回亲本—the old king."

"Repeating this process endlessly, so that the offspring's overall traits and characteristics gradually shift toward the轮回亲本."

"Tu Dongcong of the Third Branch would rather die than merge into the Giant Stone—likely because he found the family's method of inheritance utterly repulsive."

"As for the white giant salamander, it is a discarded specimen from pedigree selection, inheriting defective genes."

Zhang Fuluang's face turned pale: "Wait, you mean—"

Li Cheng pushed up his glasses: "Correct. The white giant salamander is the Tu family infant who failed to develop a human form."

"And those giant vats in the Third Branch? They're 'cribs.'"

"Ugh—"

Those who had eaten fish sashimi suddenly felt their stomachs churn violently.

Hui Yu also felt nauseous, frantically pinching his own belly until he vomited everything out, cursing: "Openly violating food safety—where's the law?"

"Tu family, don't go anywhere next year on March 15—just wait and see if I don't report you."

"Internal vote initiated. Forced exit in progress."

"Agree f11"

"Oppose f12."

Are you playing CS here? Dreaming of 300 million mouse clicks?

"Master Pi Fu,"

Wang Biliu spoke slowly, cautiously: "The Great Ming's navy is now sailing toward Chi Hai Island and will soon land to take control. The Great Ming has no intention of opposing you—so long as you do not interfere, everything is negotiable."

"Interfere? You're mistaken. I have no interest in the Cangze King's schemes, the Tu family's conspiracy, or Tu Wangjuan's deal with the Emperor."

Li Cheng surveyed the scene: Ku Yu the Monk was outraged, Zhang Fuluang's face was ashen, Su Konghu was tormented and conflicted, Lu Hu and Brother Sikong were bewildered and lost.

Finally, Li Cheng's gaze settled on Tu Wangjuan and Wang Biliu, and he sighed softly: "The two of you—and the Yong'an Emperor—think yourselves the players, but you're still pawns."

Wang Biliu's eyelid twitched violently; her grip on the dagger tightened unconsciously: "What do you mean?"

"It's about time."

As Li Cheng spoke, the ground at the bottom of the abyss split open, and surging seawater gushed forth, lifting the bronze colossal ship.

The ship's internal machinery began to roar to life, generating invisible, intangible energy waves that swept outward, disrupting gravity.

"What's happening?!"

Lu Hu and the others lost their footing, floating uncontrollably. Soil, stones, building debris, flowers, trees—all rose into the air.

The Return Home has begun. The ship slowly ascended. The Frog God slowly opened its eyes—formed from the melted bodies of Tu family members—gazing at the full moon.

【Second Phase Mission Objective: With the invitation in hand, board a ship to Red Haidao, and survive until the birthday banquet ends.】

【Mission Time Limit: 48 hours】

The living's birthday banquet had long since ended, yet the system still had not made an announcement, which meant—

Li Cheng floated up into midair and declared in a clear voice: "The birthday banquet — what it celebrates is not Old Madam Tu's birth, but rather, the three-thousandth year since the Frog God's descent upon the mortal world!"

(End of Chapter)