Chapter 561: A Hundred Years of Grudge, Fu Zhizhou’s Calculations

While Wei Tu and Cao Mi were practicing tactics, on the other side—

After more than a month of traveling, Fu Zhizhou also rushed from Yunyang Island to the border of the Donghua Demon Kingdom.

"Divine Stone Sect…"

Fu Zhizhou restrained his aura, pressing his cultivation down to Foundation Establishment. Then he locked onto a direction and skimmed low across the land.

Divine Stone Sect was the mother sect of the old sect master Gu.

According to Third Brother Wei Tu’s guess, when Gu fled from the ruins of Flying Serpent Island, to avoid being held accountable by the Earth Spider Matriarch, it was very likely that he would not return to Divine Stone Sect.

But even so, going to Divine Stone Sect was still necessary.

Even if Gu did not go back there, Divine Stone Sect was still one of the places he was most likely to return to.

Since that possibility existed, Fu Zhizhou had to investigate it.

…

Just like Fu Zhizhou, the Earth Spider Matriarch had also been searching.

Ever since she saw the soul tablet of her son, the Holy Son Faguang, shatter within the Spider Heart Sect, she had spent more than a hundred years investigating the whereabouts of Gu, Faguang’s partner.

The Earth Spider Matriarch was certain her son’s death was inseparable from Gu. Most likely, Gu had abandoned him on the battlefield. Otherwise, how could he have avoided her for so many years?

But even after more than a hundred years, she still hadn’t found any concrete information about Gu’s whereabouts.

Yet on this day, things seemed to change.

"Master, Leader Liu found a Foundation Establishment cultivator near Divine Stone Sect who was asking around about Gu’s whereabouts…"

A loose-haired cultivator entered the Earth Spider Matriarch’s bedchamber. He glanced at the beautiful silhouette sitting gracefully on an embroidered stool behind the gauze curtain, then bowed and reported softly.

"Foundation Establishment?"

"Asking about Gu?"

The silhouette turned slightly, frowning as she asked.

Gu was a Nascent Soul Patriarch. The people he associated with should have been at least Golden Core. How could he have ties to a Foundation Establishment cultivator?

But then she thought it through. If this person wasn’t just a Foundation Establishment cultivator with no access to higher circles, he wouldn’t have dared, in broad daylight, right under Spider Heart Sect’s nose, to collect information on Gu.

After all, their sect’s search for Gu over the years had been so noisy that any normal cultivator would avoid suspicion and never expose themselves so openly.

"This person claimed to be Gu’s illegitimate son. It’s possible he’s just borrowing Gu’s name to cheat and swagger about within Divine Stone Sect’s territory."

The loose-haired cultivator explained.

"Illegitimate son?"

Hearing those words, the Earth Spider Matriarch felt a faint ache in her heart. Her own son, the Holy Son Faguang, had once been her illegitimate child.

Back then, when she was the Holy Maiden of the Spider Heart Sect, she became pregnant before marriage. To protect her position, after giving birth to Faguang, she sent him away to be raised in secret outside.

Later, when her position in the sect became stable, only then did she bring Faguang back into the sect.

So to the Earth Spider Matriarch, who had lived through the same thing, this so-called "illegitimate son" that others dismissed as a scam might actually be real.

A crafty rabbit always digs three burrows.

Even the strongest cultivator, to avoid extermination of their clan, would secretly leave behind a hidden bloodline.

"Bring this person to me!"

The Earth Spider Matriarch’s face turned cold as she gave the order.

If Gu really had an "illegitimate son," then she could use blood-tracking secret arts to find Gu’s exact location.

But by the next day, she never saw even half the shadow of this supposed "illegitimate son." What her subordinates brought her instead was only the shattered remains of his body, destroyed when he self-detonated while fleeing.

Yet the Earth Spider Matriarch did not scold them too harshly.

After all, even this remnant body was enough for her to perform blood-tracking and locate Gu.

"Toward Yunyang Island…"

Half a day later, as the blood mist rose from the remains, pointing distantly toward Yunyang Island, the Earth Spider Matriarch’s eyes turned cold. She instantly vanished from the Spider Heart Sect, chasing in that direction.

…

At the same time, outside the Spider Heart Sect, Fu Zhizhou hid in the shadows. When he saw the Earth Spider Matriarch’s escape light flash out, he immediately understood what it meant.

"Looks like after Gu left the ruins of Flying Serpent Island, he wasn’t captured by the Earth Spider Matriarch. His whereabouts are still unknown…"

Fu Zhizhou’s lips curled slightly as he thought to himself.

Wei Tu had given him a mission: investigate Gu’s whereabouts, find out whether the Earth Spider Matriarch knew the real culprit who killed her son Faguang, and then search for a way to deal with her.

But in truth, he only had one real goal—set up a trap to lure the Earth Spider Matriarch out, and do it in a way that wouldn’t arouse Lüqiu Jinyuan’s suspicion.

So, when he came near Divine Stone Sect and realized he could no longer use normal means to ask about Gu, he set up this plan. By observing the Earth Spider Matriarch’s reaction, he could judge the truth.

To get this kind of "yes or no" information, he didn’t need traditional spying or infiltration. A bit of indirect probing was enough.

If Spider Heart Sect reacted weakly, showing little concern for the so-called illegitimate son, then that would prove that Gu had already fallen into their hands.

But if their reaction was swift and intense, then it almost certainly meant Gu had escaped and his whereabouts remained unknown. The odds of that were over 90 percent.

What Fu Zhizhou didn’t expect, though, was how smoothly the plan worked—and that it also drew the Earth Spider Matriarch out of the sect. Two birds with one stone.

The so-called illegitimate son’s blood wasn’t real. It was fake blood, crafted with demonic methods and given to that Foundation Establishment cultivator.

The source of the false blood pointed straight back to part of Zhuang Nanqiu’s remains on Five Elder Mountain.

"Blood-tracking secret arts can lock onto an enemy’s trail, but they’re not suited for high-speed escape."

"If I hurry, I should be able to tell Third Brother before the Earth Spider Matriarch reaches Yunyang Island."

A short while later, once the Earth Spider Matriarch had completely left his divine sense range, Fu Zhizhou immediately carried out the plan. He used his emergency escape technique, rushing toward Yunyang Island.

At early Nascent Soul, his normal speed couldn’t compare to a mid-stage Nascent Soul cultivator. But once he used this escape art, his speed far outstripped that of an ordinary mid-stage Nascent Soul cultivator.

Of course, in most cases, such escape arts could only be used for a short time, not continuously.

But Fu Zhizhou dared to set this plan precisely because he had confidence in its success. That confidence didn’t come from his escape art, but from the long-distance communication tool he shared with Wei Tu—and the deep trust and coordination they had built as brothers over many years.

As long as he reached the sensing range of the tool, he could send Wei Tu the crucial information: that the Earth Spider Matriarch was heading for Yunyang Island.

In truth, that meant the distance he needed to travel was much less than hers.

So unless her escape speed was outrageously fast, she wouldn’t escape his scheme.

And even if something unexpected happened, Fu Zhizhou trusted that with their years of brotherhood, Wei Tu had the ability to handle those "unexpected situations."