Chapter 562: Son Dead, Mother Replaces, Encirclement of the Earth Spider Matriarch

"Getting close."

More than a month later, a hundred li from Yunyang Island, a beautiful woman veiled in gauze held a blood-red arrow brimming with spiritual energy. Her eyes fixed on the direction of Yunyang Island, and faint excitement showed on her face.

Over a hundred years!

It had already been more than a hundred years since her son, the Holy Son Faguang, had died. For over a hundred years, every day and every night she had thought only of avenging him.

But sadly, there was no path to revenge. And the one who caused this was none other than Gu.

If Gu had not been such a coward, too afraid of death to return to Divine Stone Sect and tell her who the killer was, how could it be that after all these years she still had no clue about the murderer?

Fortunately, heaven did not cut her off. Today, she finally had the chance to catch Gu and force the truth of her son’s killer from his mouth.

"There are many strong cultivators on Yunyang Island. Since Gu is hiding there, I need to tread carefully. I can’t startle the snake in the grass before I catch it…"

The Earth Spider Matriarch’s beautiful eyes narrowed. With a flick of her pink sleeve, countless tiny blood-colored spiders swarmed out, spraying white webs that wrapped tightly around her.

In the blink of an eye, a plump, ugly woman at the Golden Core stage stood in her place.

But—

Just as she was preparing to enter Yunyang Island, she suddenly noticed that the "Gu" she had marked with her blood-tracking secret art was rushing straight toward her.

"Such luck?"

The Earth Spider Matriarch felt a surge of disbelief.

Her heart grew wary. She planned to back off first, gather more intel, and then capture Gu. After all, she wasn’t in such a rush. With her strength, once she confirmed Gu’s position, catching him would not be difficult.

Yet as soon as she moved, a man in a blue robe appeared a few hundred steps ahead.

He looked plain, his expression calm, his face carrying only a touch more resolve than ordinary folk. He looked like a weathered old cultivator who had wandered the world for many years.

But the Earth Spider Matriarch instantly sensed it—this man had locked onto her aura. He sealed every presence within several hundred li, including hers. There was no escape.

The feeling was absurd, because she recognized him.

"Wei Tu?"

Her brows furrowed. She remembered that a hundred years ago, when Wei Tu joined the Blood Flood Dragon Merchant Guild, he had only been an unusual early Nascent Soul cultivator. Back then, when he noticed the ambush set by her son Faguang and Gu on Jinglei Island, he had chosen to flee rather than fight.

And now, over a hundred years later, the same Wei Tu, who had once been weaker than her son, had grown to the point where he could threaten her? Impossible.

'Could it be that this boy lured me here on purpose?' The thought leapt into her mind like a certainty.

Everything was too coincidental.

By chance, Gu’s illegitimate son appeared a month ago.

By chance, she was drawn to Yunyang Island’s outskirts.

By chance, she encountered Wei Tu here, whose cultivation aura now nearly rivaled her own.

Earlier, she hadn’t considered the first two points coincidences because her strength was enough to ignore them. Even if it had been a trap, she could have turned it to her advantage.

But now things were different.

With Wei Tu here, the "trap" felt deadly dangerous.

"Faguang’s death must be tied to Wei Tu!" Her face hardened as she reached this conclusion.

But at this moment, revenge wasn’t her thought. It was escape. Escape this disaster first.

She didn’t believe she could easily break or overturn a trap set by a cultivator equal in power to her.

"Three-Flame Fire Control Technique!"

A crisp female voice came from behind her.

In an instant, pea-sized ghostly blue flames sprang into being, spreading across several li, turning the area into a cold fire domain.

Above the fire domain, a pale moon rose into the sky. It echoed with the ghostly flames, amplifying their power.

The Earth Spider Matriarch immediately felt her magic power grow sluggish, while the "Profound Nether Yin Fire" scorched both her body and her soul.

"The absolute art of Fireburn Sect?"

She was stunned. She swept a glance across the blue fire domain, spotting a woman in a white palace dress hidden within. Her brows furrowed as she flicked her fingers, tearing open a broad passage through the flames to escape.

She shook her pink sleeve and was about to slip far away from Wei Tu, taking that path.

But Cao Mi pressed her hand into a seal and said, "Congeal!" The fire domain she had conjured instantly healed and sealed off the Earth Spider Matriarch’s escape route.

"Refuse the toast and drink the punishment instead?" the Earth Spider Matriarch muttered, her face shifting as she strode halfway through. She thrust her right hand forward, forming a giant hand of mana that reached for Cao Mi. It looked like a desperate strike, as if she meant to fight to the death.

But in truth, this attack was a feint, meant to force Cao Mi to dodge so she could flee with ease.

Right after the conjured hand appeared, she used the same trick again, splitting open a new escape path to break out.

After all, with Wei Tu watching like a tiger beside her, she needed to save at least 70 percent of her strength to guard against his ambush. How could she use everything just to deal with Cao Mi, who was only an early Nascent Soul cultivator?

Of course, there was one way to solve this situation—kill Cao Mi in a short time.

But to achieve that? Easier said than done.

An early Nascent Soul was weaker than a mid-stage Nascent Soul, but that didn’t mean they had no way to fight back.

At the very least, the Earth Spider Matriarch didn’t believe she could kill a seasoned mid-stage Nascent Soul within a short time unless she used her trump cards.

"Fire Lotus Art!" As the mana hand crashed down, Cao Mi’s face stayed calm. Her seals shifted, and countless ghostly blue flames wrapped around her, turning into an icy glass-like lotus that enclosed her completely.

Crack! Crack!

The mana hand clenched against the icy lotus. Its power crushed the lotus stem and leaves, but when it struck the lotus core, it was like hitting something indestructible. It couldn’t advance further.

"Impossible?" The fleeing Earth Spider Matriarch froze in disbelief, her face full of shock.

Even though the mana hand was only a casual strike, its power should have been enough to injure Cao Mi, if not kill her outright. At the very least, it should have left her with some wounds.

Yet she wasn’t even scratched.

The next moment, an "Yin Corpse" burst out of the icy lotus, answering the Earth Spider Matriarch’s doubts.

That Yin Corpse’s power already rivaled a mid-stage Nascent Soul. Not only had it blocked the mana hand for Cao Mi, it also cut off the Earth Spider Matriarch’s path just as she was about to escape the ghostly blue fire domain.

"A fourth-tier corpse…"

Her expression darkened completely.

She now understood. Escaping unharmed from Wei Tu and Cao Mi’s encirclement today was as hard as reaching heaven.

If things went poorly, she could die here.

The combined power of two working together was far more than one plus one.

And she was exactly the kind of mediocre mid-stage Nascent Soul they could overwhelm.

Worse, Cao Mi’s techniques specialized in "area control," giving perfect support to someone like Wei Tu.

Together, if she lasted fewer than a hundred moves, she would surely lose.

'Wei Tu hasn’t even acted yet. He might just be using me as a whetstone… If so, maybe that can be turned to my advantage. Maybe it’s my only chance to escape…'

Failing to break free of the ghostly blue fire, the Earth Spider Matriarch did not despair. With a strong cultivator’s mindset, she calmed herself and thought clearly.

On the surface, her strength was weaker than the combined might of Wei Tu and Cao Mi. That much she could admit.

But strength did not equal victory.

There were countless examples of cultivators who underestimated their foes, only to be killed in turn.

In her long years of cultivation, the Earth Spider Matriarch had seen it herself. She had once slain so-called "overconfident" experts like Wei Tu and Cao Mi.

To her, this was nothing more than history repeating.

"Ten Thousand Spiders Control!" she growled coldly, finally unleashing her true power to meet this deadly battle.

The moment she spoke, nearly ten thousand fist-sized blood spiders appeared around her, whirling in endless circles.

At the same time, those blood spiders spat out threads of blood silk, weaving massive webs that spread across the entire ghostly blue fire domain.

In that instant, it no longer looked like Cao Mi’s fire domain was trapping her. Instead, the Earth Spider Matriarch’s blood webs imprisoned Cao Mi inside.

"Spider One, Spider Two, strike!"

Her lips moved, chanting.

The swarming spiders fused into two spider-human puppets, each over ten feet tall, spider bodies below and human torsos above.

These two spider puppets moved swiftly, darting across the webs with eight legs, blades in hand, streaking forward like beams of light.

The moment the web formed, Cao Mi’s movements were restricted. Her Profound Nether Yin Fire could burn the blood webs, but there were too many. She burned them slower than they regenerated.

So when she saw the spider puppets, she had nowhere left to dodge in the cramped space.

"So this is the strength of mid-stage Nascent Soul?"

Cao Mi felt a flicker of fear. But even then, she didn’t send a message to Wei Tu for rescue, as they had agreed before the battle.

It wasn’t because she was reckless.

It was because—

Her head lifted slightly, eyes on the cold moon hanging over the fire domain. She slapped her crown.

At once, from that cold moon descended a handsome but lifeless male corpse.

This corpse was none other than Wei Tu’s Yin-Yang Demon Corpse—the Yang Corpse.

As soon as it emerged, it opened its mouth and spat out several streams of chilling corpse qi, spraying directly onto the blood webs blocking the way.

At the same time, the Yin Corpse guarding Cao Mi also spat streams of icy corpse qi.

In an instant, Yin and Yang corpse qi merged into one. The fused Yin-Yang corpse qi burned straight through the webs standing between them.

—Inside the Yin-Yang Demon Corpse, the circulating Yin-Yang corpse qi could shatter all techniques.

At that moment, the Nascent Soul body that Cao Mi had released by striking her crown descended above the Yin Corpse’s head.

Her face turned ruthless. Without hesitation, she struck her chest hard, spitting out a stream of Nascent Soul essence that landed right on the Yin Corpse’s head.

The next instant, the Yin and Yang Corpses, who had been breaking through the blood webs with corpse qi, merged together. They fused into a red-haired corpse demon with two heads and four arms, temporarily under Cao Mi’s control.

Though it seemed complex, all this happened within just three breaths from the moment she summoned the Yang Corpse from the cold moon.

By then, the two spider puppets controlled by the Earth Spider Matriarch had already rushed down the blood webs toward Cao Mi.

"Roar!"

The red-haired corpse demon raised its head and bellowed. A blast of corpse qi scattered the mana within the spider puppets, blasting them back toward the Earth Spider Matriarch.

"A top-grade fourth-tier corpse?"

Her expression changed drastically. She no longer dared to think about exploiting Wei Tu and Cao Mi’s overconfidence.

The reason was simple.

When the gap in power was small, tactics and strategy could decide victory.

But when the gap was crushing… no flaw or trick could bridge it.

'Now, escaping won’t be easy. My only chance is to seize this girl and force Wei Tu to give me a way out.'

Her face darkened as she swiftly changed her plan. She no longer thought of defeating Wei Tu.

With a ruthless heart, she dropped her defenses against him and struck with full force.

"Ten Thousand Spiders Control!"

Her hands moved rapidly through seals. The countless blood spiders circling her surged out, transforming into spider puppets like the earlier Spider One and Spider Two.

In no time, spider puppets over ten feet tall filled the entire ghostly blue fire domain, charging at Cao Mi.

One! Two! Ten…

Protected by the red-haired corpse demon, the puppets that got close were slain and destroyed one after another.

But there were far too many.

After barely ten breaths, even with Cao Mi’s determination and the red-haired corpse demon’s power, her situation grew perilous.

The puppets were everywhere. Beyond the towering ones, there were also countless tiny spiderlings, thin as hair.

With her limited control over the red-haired corpse demon, she couldn’t clear all of them. She had to use her own arts to hold them back first, then let the corpse demon deal with them.

Back and forth, her mana thinned and her defense faltered.

"Almost there!"

Seeing this, the Earth Spider Matriarch’s heart leapt with joy. She pressed her attack, ready to end it in one strike and capture Cao Mi.

But just then, the very thing she feared most happened.

Wei Tu moved.

As Cao Mi’s protective shield was about to collapse, he flashed in from outside the fire domain like a bolt of light. With a sweep of one arm, the mass of spider puppets before him shattered into dust.

Even the tiny spiderling about to burrow into Cao Mi’s sea of consciousness was crushed to powder in his hand.

" Dao-brother Wei!" Seeing the familiar figure suddenly step in front of her, shielding her, Cao Mi’s pale face blossomed with a smile.

"Junior Sister Cao, you did well in this trial."

Wei Tu turned his head, his expression full of approval.

The reason he hadn’t acted until now was simple: he wanted to train her, to give her real combat experience against a mid-stage Nascent Soul cultivator.

Without that, he could never rest easy letting her stand beside him in the future, fighting Lüqiu Jinyuan or even stronger foes.

Fortunately, she hadn’t let him down. Facing a mid-stage Nascent Soul, she hadn’t panicked or lost her composure.

"Body Refinement fourth-tier mid-stage?"

Unlike Cao Mi, who felt safe at his side, the Earth Spider Matriarch’s face turned to terror. She had just watched Wei Tu casually crush her ultimate attack like it was nothing.