Chapter 374: Rising

As the massive vessel slowly rose, the gravity disruption zone expanded rapidly.

The entire island shook violently, lifting sand, stones, plants, and everyone near the deep pit into the air—even the eight-hundred-kilogram gray rain flew upward.

Li Cheng crouched on a roof eave, gazing downward, seeing nearly half of Chi Hai Island emerge from the sea like a pimple being squeezed out.

In the surrounding waters, hundreds of ships bearing the Great Ming flag floated plainly.

Waves rose and fell unpredictably, causing the ships to sway and rock.

The commander on the flagship shouted loudly, ordering subordinates to blow horns and signal with flags. After a brief delay, all warships opened fire from their broadsides, launching cannonballs at the giant frog in the air.

The closer to the giant frog, the more pronounced the gravitational effect became.

Cannonballs no longer bound by gravity vastly exceeded their intended range, smashing through obstructing trees and striking the giant frog and the bronze vessel beneath it.

Boom—

Blinding fireballs erupted across the surface of the bronze vessel, halting its ascent momentarily.

As for the giant frog, its body was torn open by multiple gashes, oozing black grease.

The Frog God slowly lowered its head, belatedly emitting a furious hum; the second wave of cannonballs approaching it inexplicably shrank, shrank further, becoming tiny marbles too small to pierce the bronze hull.

This spatial scaling ability originated from the same source as the traits displayed by the Divine Molt scales—like the Wall of Sighs, repelling all external attacks.

Lu Hu's face shifted through several expressions as he clearly saw: the fleet floating on the sea was unmistakably the Great Ming Navy.

What Master Pi Fu, Wang Biliu, and Tu Wangjuan had said was entirely true.

"."

Flashing before his eyes were scenes from over thirty years of life: the hardship of working in a border garrison as a child, the restless frustration of studying in the Embroidered Uniform Guard as a teenager, the proud vigor of wearing the flying-fish robe and wielding the ornate brocade saber as a young man.

His body trembled instinctively, limbs cold, palms sweating.

He had never been this nervous—not when he killed his first fugitive, not on his wedding night, not even when he first held his own child.

"Brother Sikong,"

Lu Hu rasped, offering a resigned smile to Sikong Lan, who looked at him in confusion, "I entrust your care to my family from now on."

Sikong Lan suddenly realized what was happening and reached out to grab Lu Hu—but it was too late.

Lu Hu activated the Great Ox Demon Art again, stomping on floating trees and leaping swiftly through shattered rocks, heading straight for the bronze vessel.

He discarded his single-shot rocket launcher, tightly binding his brocade saber to his right hand with cloth strips, gripping the edge of the bronze ship with his left, flipping onto the deck, and facing the Frog God directly.

Hundreds of writhing, melted human bodies, mixed with unidentifiable decaying matter, formed the frog's skin.

Merely glancing at it caused the mind to burn, thoughts to blur; thousands of whispered voices spanning three thousand years echoed in the ears.

But so what?

In the end, it's simply this:

To repay the emperor's golden platform's trust, I carry the Jade Dragon to die for him.

Lu Hu gnashed his teeth in a fierce grin, his aura subtly breaking through the Peak of Primordial, swinging his blade into the Frog God's surface, his torrential internal energy clinging to the edge, slicing through the resilient skin.

Riiip.

The skin split open, gushing black oil like blood.

The giant frog roared in fury, raising its front limbs and slapping Lu Hu away, smashing him hard against the bronze bow. Then it unleashed invisible force, compressing space.

Lu Hu, originally 1.9 meters tall and broad-shouldered, visibly shrank. Even his brocade saber shrank proportionally.

Thud!

Lu Hu stomped the bronze deck and leapt again, charging straight at the Frog God.

Cannonballs flying from afar were shrunk into marbles by the spatial scaling ability,

but if close enough, perhaps the limit could be broken.

And that distance is

"Six zhang!"

Lu Hu's voice echoed through the sky; as his body entered the twenty-meter range of the Frog God, the shrinking slowed abruptly.

Yet against the mountain-sized, extraordinarily resilient giant frog, he was still like a mantis trying to stop a cart.

The three-legged Frog God, now wounded across its body, lost all patience; it balanced on one hind leg and slammed both front limbs left and right toward Lu Hu.

At the last possible moment, two hands seized the collar of Lu Hu's coat and yanked him away.

He turned his head—there stood Ku Yu, Wang Biliu, and Li Cheng.

All three had shrunk to varying degrees; especially Li Cheng, who had been targeted most, stood barely at 1.5 meters, looking rather comical.

Lu Hu stared in shock, "You?"

Wang Biliu ignored him, silently gripping her dagger and staring at the Frog God. Ku Yu took a deep breath and solemnly said to Lu Hu, "I'm not doing this for the Yong'an Emperor—I'm doing it for the people of Great Ming."

Nearly half of Chi Hai Island had already risen into the sky, its ascent speed differing from that of the bronze vessel.

In other words, once the bronze ship left the surface and flew toward the moon to return home, the island's own hundreds of millions of tons of rock would still fall back to earth.

Either crashing into the sea to trigger a tsunami, or striking inland to cause earthquakes.

Estimated casualties: incalculable.

"Thank you."

Lu Hu didn't know if he was thanking himself or the people of Great Ming; he rose, leaning on the deck, and stood shoulder to shoulder with the others, facing the Frog God.

The full moon's light bathed the bronze vessel; the farther from the sea, the more stable the giant frog's form became, its gaze clearer.

Clang!

Li Cheng, now 1.5 meters tall, drove his steel flag spear into the deck, stretched his limbs, and said calmly, "When the fighting starts, keep your distance from me."

Before the other three could ask questions, Li Cheng drew the Taiyi Blade from empty air, its jade blade slicing from his left shoulder to his right hip.

Amidst the blood mist formed by boiling, evaporating blood, his insect-form emerged,

his knees reversed, his powerful legs leaving deep imprints on the deck, crossing the bow in an instant, slashing at the giant frog with his mantis-bone blades.

"Croak—"

The vocal sacs on either side of the Frog God's head swelled violently, emitting a muffled sound, and a fierce hallucination slammed straight into everyone's mind.

Wedding candles, name on the honor roll, returning home in brocade, success and fame.

An unprecedented sense of satisfaction filled the heart, making one feel as if floating, almost like an immortal, unable to resist getting drunk on it.

"That's it? Feels less thrilling than eating a plate of cold tossed 'see-hand-blue' mushrooms and pretending I'm playing a VR game."

Li Cheng grinned coldly, and the 【Vast Sea Soul-Locking Bell】 on his wrist jingled, shattering every hallucination.

The 【Instant Thunder】 and 【Leopard Leap Double Jump】 skills activated simultaneously, his speed surging once more, and just as he was about to slash the Frog God,

Clang!

Over a dozen iron-ball cannonballs, magnified several times over, came hurtling straight at him, blocking Li Cheng's path of advance,

He could only twist his body and change his move, dodging and retreating, pulling distance open once more.

The Frog God likewise possessed prophetic ability, able to predict Li Cheng's next move.

At the same time, although its zoom ability had a minimum range of twenty meters and could not distort objects too close,

It could remotely control cannonballs flying in from beyond twenty meters, enlarge them, and under the pull of the gravity field, turn them into its own barrier.

(End of this chapter)