Player Reload
Chapter 408 - 377: Crossing

Chapter 408: Chapter 377: Crossing

On the surface of the giant three-legged frog, the half-melting bodies of more than a hundred members of the Tu family were sprawled.

Upon closer inspection, these people were in a half-dead state; Tu Qiouru of the second branch of the Tu family had his skin, including his eyelids, melted away, revealing ghastly white bones and vacant eyeballs, melted into the forelimb of the giant three-legged frog.

The fourth branch’s Tu Wangmo was melted into the left eye of the giant frog, while her daughter, Tu Wangjuan, was in the right eye.

The members of the never-before-seen first branch of the Tu family also lived up to the imagination, their bodies mostly deformed, melted into the neck of the giant frog, exhibiting a texture akin to a Divine Shedding Scale.

Zhang Fulu felt a chill in his heart, instinctively sensing some sort of pattern in this scene, yet unable to pinpoint it.

"Do you still remember the murals in the stone chamber?"

Li Cheng said calmly, "The paintings depict that the king of the Cangze Ancient Country once fell into the sea and lamented to strange rocks.

The strange rocks wept blood, equipping the prince with fish gills, whale tendons, a seahorse’s belly, pearl eyes, and a frog’s tongue, allowing him to resurrect and return to shore.

The prince became king, and his five sons each inherited a non-human organ from their father. For instance, fish gills and a frog’s tongue.

At first, I thought these murals were religious allegories made by the ruling class of the Cangze Ancient Country to justify their legitimacy, suggesting that great figures were born different, that kings and princes were descendants of gods and the like.

But those murals were not exaggerated; everything depicted actually happened."

Cold rain drizzled down, the excessive operation of the Great Strength Bull Demon Technique caused Lu Hu’s limbs and bones to ache, so he could only grit his teeth and quietly wait for Li Cheng to explain.

"At the end of the corridor in the stone chamber, there was a prophetic painting clearly depicting Sikong Lan and Zhang Fulu’s figures.

That is to say, the king of the Cangze Ancient Country, from those strange rocks, gained the ability to foresee prophecy. Three thousand years ago, he foresaw that one day Sikong Lan and Zhang Fulu would appear in the corridor."

Li Cheng continued, "Meanwhile, Superintendent Lu came to the island because someone sent a letter to the Jinyi Guard of North Zhili. Daoist Zhang came to the island because someone sent a letter to Dragon Tiger Mountain. Both letters, one north and one south, were accompanied by paintings."

Sikong Lan’s pupils quaked, blurting out, "The Tu family’s ancestor was the king of the Cangze Ancient Country, and the Tu family also inherited the ability to speak."

"To be precise, it was one of the branches among the five of the Tu family."

Li Cheng snapped his fingers, "The five princes of the Cangze Ancient Country inherited fish gills, whale tendons, a seahorse’s belly, pearl eyes, and a frog’s tongue from their father, respectively.

The first branch of the Tu family, with their ugly and deformed appearance and fish-like heads, corresponds to fish gills.

The second branch of the Tu family, Tu Qiaohua, who went mad in the courtyard a day before the birthday banquet, possesses infinite strength, comparable to a martial artist even without training. This corresponds to whale tendons and strength.

The third branch’s Tu Dongcong, a playboy with the most concubine rooms, corresponds to the seahorse’s belly and reproductive ability.

The fourth branch, Tu Wangmo and her daughter Tu Wangjuan, wearing sunglasses, corresponds to pearl eyes and the ability to foresee.

The fifth branch of the Tu family hasn’t appeared, but surely, it should correspond to the frog’s tongue and the ability to create illusions."

Everyone looked down, and as Li Cheng said, the positions where the hundreds of members of the Tu family were melted corresponded to their family branches.

Half the layers of mist were cleared as the Kuyu Monk took a deep breath, "Namo Amitabha, Pifu Benefactor, this poor monk still has two things unclear.

First, why did the Tu family go through so much trouble to make the entire clan look like this?

Second, if those two letters were indeed sent by the fourth branch of the Tu family, why did they do it?"

"The Tu family went through all this trouble to complete the ’Homecoming,’ and the letters sent by the fourth branch of the Tu family were also for ’Homecoming.’"

Li Cheng said calmly, "Three thousand years ago, in ancient times, there were many Baiyue countries south of the Central Plains, including the Cangze Ancient Country.

The Cangze Country revered stone frogs as gods, built bronze giant ships, exhausted national power, and eventually perished in history.

Imagine if the king of the Cangze Ancient Country had a foresight ability spanning three thousand years, how could he let his kingdom collapse?

Not to mention, he could foresee future climate changes, natural disasters, agricultural technologies... As a king, there are ten thousand ways to make a country prosperous.

This is like turning on wallhack in a shooting game or unlimited tech in a strategy game, an auto-save feature in a galgame, or indulging in microtransactions in Tengzi games; you’d hardly lose."

Lu Hu and the others did not understand what Tengzi or galgame meant, but they could mostly understand Li Cheng’s implication.

"Unless that king didn’t care about the rise and fall of Cangze. He might even have calculated the collapse of Cangze."

Li Cheng said, "He foresaw that after his death, Cangze would gradually decline;

foresaw that a portion of the population would migrate to the coast and become Tanka people;

foresaw, two thousand eight hundred and fifty years later, which is a hundred and fifty years ago now,

a common and extremely poor Tanka ancestor of the Tu family six generations ago would rediscover Cangze’s inheritance under the sea.

Gather immense wealth, rise and thrive, and eventually become the Tu family as it is today.

The objective of the king of the Cangze Ancient Country and these six generations of the Tu family is consistent, to complete a fusion with the Frog God.

As for the benefits of the fusion, it’s nothing more than the usual religious clichés, such as eternal youth, longevity, celestial bliss, and more."

"..."

Standing in the rain, everyone pondered Li Cheng’s words.

A scheme spanning three thousand years truly exceeded their limit of comprehension. Three thousand years ago, King Wu hadn’t even conquered Zhou, and Emperor Qin Shi Huang was an unknown in history.

"The first question is explained, but I still don’t understand why the fourth branch of the Tu family with foresight abilities sent out the letters."

Su Konghu was puzzled, "Did inviting the Jinyi Guard and Dragon Tiger Mountain benefit the Tu family’s plan? Shouldn’t such a conspiracy proceed in secret?"

"Because if the letters were not sent, the prophecy couldn’t be completed."

Zhang Fulu understood and slowly exhaled, speaking solemnly, "At that time, at the end of the corridor in the stone chamber, the three of us pieced together the star map of ’[Seven Sunset... New Great Star and Fire],’ then the corridor shook, and the rocks collapsed.

The three of us were also teleported from the Divine Shedding Scale.

In retrospect, the timing of the collapse of the corridor just coincided with the start of the slaughter at the banquet.

In other words, someone had to complete the star map for the Tu family’s Homecoming ceremony to commence."