Chapter 375

Boom-boom-boom!

Dozens of cannonballs swelled continuously, like giant demolition balls, spinning rapidly around the Frog God.

The giant frog knew the illusion field was useless; it immediately raised its left forelimb and remotely guided four cannonballs to smash at Li Cheng from different directions.

"Tsk."

Li Cheng's eyelid twitched—the Frog God possessed innate precognition; the cannonballs' flight paths were deliberately engineered, nearly sealing off all straight-line dashes and Bat Hook Gun escape routes.

Fortunately,

【Stony Rooting Art】

The insect-transformed body stood firmly on the deck, its entire form—from the sharp point atop its head to its hooked legs—coated in a metallic sheen, reflecting the cold moonlight.

Clang!

The heavy iron balls struck Li Cheng in rapid succession, yet failed to breach his defense.

The specific effect of 【Stony Rooting Art】 is to rapidly harden the body, drastically increasing defensive capability and accelerating injury recovery.

The insect form's defense was already comparable to a perfect-grade armor; layered with 【Stony Rooting Art】, its hardness was pushed past all limits, turning the iron balls into pockmarked, hole-riddled debris.

While the iron balls were stuck, a small, delicate paper crane flew out from the gaps, flapping its wings in the rain and wind, becoming the center of attention.

The Frog God swelled its vocal sacs; two iron balls abruptly reversed direction and slammed toward the paper crane.

The other three didn't understand what was happening, but they knew they couldn't let the Frog God succeed.

Lu Hu roared, his muscles bulging as he grabbed Ku Yu the Monk and Wang Biliu, hurling them forward.

Each iron ball weighed a thousand jin—enough to crush an elephant, and just for good measure, to let an old man step on his back.

Fortunately, gravity here was chaotic; Ku Yu kicked with the Shaolin Golden Leg technique, Wang Biliu slashed upward with her short dagger, adding just enough force to nudge the iron balls slightly off course—they missed the paper crane.

The paper crane floated lightly above the Frog God's head.

In the next instant, the 【Familiar Swap】 skill activated; Li Cheng left his original position, hovering in midair.

His left hand gripped the Bat Hook Gun, driving it into the bronze deck.

His right hand raised high toward the sky, as if waiting for something.

Shhh—

A piercing whistle drew near; the gray rain—or rather, the gray liquid-metal sludge it had become—plummeted like a meteor.

He had already activated 【Spiritual Ambush】, entering a phasing state to bypass the space-distortion field and arrive within twenty meters.

The metal sludge landed on Li Cheng's right hand, spreading along the mantis-arm bone blade, growing into a long, razor-sharp blade that drove straight downward.

With the Bat Hook Gun's pull and the insect form's enhanced physical strength, this strike was theoretically impossible to evade.

Thus, the Frog God did not dodge.

It had foreseen this moment; the instant the gray rain fell from the sky, it activated its space-distortion ability, shrinking itself by two full sizes.

Crack!

The long blade skimmed past the giant frog's hide by a hair's breadth, then plunged through the bronze deck like a hot knife through butter.

Having avoided the strike, the Frog God reared up, like a sumo wrestler, slamming both forelimbs forward.

Just as in a parallel-world anime opening, where the protagonist is hit head-on by a hundred-ton overloaded truck, Li Cheng was blasted backward; his mantis-arm bone blade tore a ten-meter-long gash across the bronze deck before he barely halted his retreat.

After knocking Li Cheng back, the Frog God did not pursue—it simply shook itself.

Puff-puff-puff—

Dozens of Tu family members from the First and Second Branches slid off the giant frog's body like tadpoles, sticking to the deck.

Unlike the mass-produced corpses, these Tu clan members were, in a sense, the Frog God's precious "flesh," each connected behind by a black-oil rope.

Under the Frog God's micro-control, the Tu members whose eyes and ears had melted crawled forward on all fours, racing to join the iron balls in attacking the others.

'So fighting someone with precognition is disgusting. You take the whole battle seriously, yet lose because of precognition—who'd ever imagine the ending would be like this?'

Li Cheng muttered inwardly, then shouted: "Tu Wangjuan, how many possible futures can you see?"

Tu Wangjuan, positioned in the Frog God's right eye, clung precariously to the remnants of clan members to maintain balance.

Hearing Li Cheng's question, her eyeball trembled violently as she shrieked: "Six hundred eighty-seven possibilities—you die. Seven hundred ninety-two possibilities—you escape. Three possibilities—you win."

The result was truly grim.

The king of Cangze Ancient Kingdom could foresee three thousand years; Tu Wangjuan believed her precognition surpassed his, yet both powers stemmed from the Frog God himself.

Whatever Tu Wangjuan could see, the Frog God saw more clearly.

The possibility of death was easy to understand: being blasted beyond twenty meters, seized instantly, shrunk to the size of an ant, and liquefied on the spot.

The escape possibility was also clear: Li Cheng held an emergency escape card—he could flee anytime.

And the mission objective was simply to 【Survive the Birthday Banquet】—meaning, he didn't even need to fight the Frog God.

He could craft a hot-air balloon, drift away, and watch the Frog God fly back to the moon, the Chi Sea Island crash back to earth, the tsunami drown millions, then return to reality once the timer ended.

As for the final possibility—winning—

Li Cheng glanced at his inventory; the only item capable of instantly boosting combat power was Xuanlei Qilin Blood Plasma.

He still charged forward, smashing aside the iron balls, his mind racing.

The Xuanlei Qilin Blood Plasma's rank was too high; using it in insect form might trigger unknown side effects.

Losing control and descending into bloodlust was the least of it—he feared total genetic collapse, beyond even rescue.

Their chance of victory was under one percent. The Frog God had foreseen this—and thus felt utterly secure.

To break the deadlock, he must surpass precognition.

His hand drew a toy factory key from thin air, spun it, and hurled it skyward; simultaneously, he activated his 【Dead Gambler】 title skill, aiming the 【Ape Regression Gun】 at the key and pulling the trigger.

The toy factory key's mystery level surpassed the Frog God's—enough to block precognition entirely.

Meanwhile, the regression bullets fired by the Ape Regression Gun could not affect the key—they simply bounced off.

Before the Frog God could intercept with iron balls, the bullet struck the giant frog's left eye; the shrunken Tu Wangmo immediately shrank further.

"Croak!!!"

The atrophy of the left eye that Tu Wangmo represented meant that the greater part of the prophetic ability had been lost.

The Frog God let out an unprecedentedly loud cry, never having been so panicked and uneasy as now. It instinctively shrank itself, retreated several steps, and summoned the iron ball and the Tu family undead to shield itself in front.

Tu Wangjuan suddenly realized Li Cheng's intent and shouted: "Quick, chop off my legs!"

Lu Hu and Bitter Elm Monk clung tenaciously to the Tu family undead, buying time for Wang Biliu.

The latter, using the Imperial Guard's lightness skill, darted and leapt through the gaps between the iron balls, drew close to the Frog God, swung her blade and severed Tu Wangjuan's legs, causing her to fall down.

At this point, the precognitive ability was completely crippled.

Li Cheng drew out the Victory Banner Spear, kicked off and leapt into the air, and hurled the self-aiming gravity energy orb toward the frog's back.

In the weightless environment, the gravity energy orb acted like an anchor, dragging Li Cheng and the eight-hundred-plus kilograms of Ash Rain straight down in a crash.

Hiss—

The banner spear pierced through the skin-sack formed by the Tu family, and also pierced through that three-legged toad stone statue.

(End of this chapter)