Chapter 563: Coy Seduction, The Power Gathered by the Righteous Society

At first, she thought Wei Tu’s strength was about the same as hers.

So when she saw Cao Mi summon the Yin-Yang Demon Corpse, though she took it seriously, deep down she didn’t think it meant she couldn’t break free of their siege.

But now… all she felt was despair.

Deep despair.

A mid-stage Nascent Soul cultivator who cultivated both body and magic already had power rivaling late Nascent Soul. Even the weakest among them could crush someone as mediocre as her.

With Wei Tu stepping in, how could she possibly escape?

"Fellow Daoist Wei? When… did I ever offend you?"

The Earth Spider Matriarch feigned ignorance. Even though Wei Tu and Cao Mi were likely the ones who killed her son Faguang, after watching her spider puppets wiped out, she quickly spoke up, trying to buy herself a chance to flee.

At the same time, she tore off the "cocoon robe" that disguised her as an ugly woman, revealing the flawless beauty of a youthful matron.

"This is the Earth Spider Matriarch?"

Wei Tu looked at her with faint surprise.

Though she was known throughout the Red Algae Sea, she had always kept her true appearance hidden. Few cultivators had ever seen her real face.

Now, her features brimmed with fear. Her voice trembled, eyes shining with tears, the mole at the corner of her lips adding to the pitiful air. She looked like a bullied woman begging for mercy, stirring an urge to protect her.

"Much better than Yuan Ying."

Wei Tu gave her silent praise.

He remembered when he had hunted Yuan Ying, the eldest princess of the Ying Ding Tribe. She too had begged him for mercy back then, but she’d been far more foolish, not even lifting her disguise, freckles dotting her face.

Of course—

With his temperament, he wouldn’t spare the Earth Spider Matriarch just because she revealed her beauty.

The reason he hadn’t killed her yet was simple: his real target was Lüqiu Jinyuan. Killing her outright wasn’t the plan.

In truth, he wanted to capture her alive. Slaying her here would only waste her value.

When she noticed Wei Tu not striking again, her eyes lit up. Whispering "a chance," she steeled herself and sent her Nascent Soul flying out to escape.

As she fled, she thought that Wei Tu and Cao Mi were still young and inexperienced. Once she got away, she would definitely report this to Lüqiu Jinyuan and have him avenge her.

But less than half a breath later, she regretted it.

Because outside the ghostly blue fire domain, Wei Tu had already laid a giant net woven of gray radiance.

That gray radiance specialized in restraining Nascent Souls.

Her escape was no different from flying straight into a trap.

"Yuan Gravity Divine Light?"

Caught in the net, realizing she had outsmarted herself, her face twisted with regret. At the same time, she recognized Wei Tu’s technique.

This divine light was famous throughout the cultivation world, a legendary power of restraint.

Even so, Wei Tu didn’t destroy her body. After binding her Nascent Soul with the gray radiance, he pressed a dozen seals into it and shoved it back into her body.

Then, with a rope artifact, he bound her slender figure.

"Double insurance."

Wei Tu looked satisfied.

Using the Evil Spirit Enslavement Art to control her and trick Lüqiu Jinyuan into the trap was one of the assassination strategies he had devised before this capture.

The key to that plan’s success was her body remaining intact. If it were damaged, Lüqiu Jinyuan would see through the ruse.

"I am willing to serve Fellow Daoist Wei…"

"Please, Fellow Daoist Wei, spare me."

Her pleading voice rang in his ears.

"Hm?" Wei Tu looked down, surprised.

Bound tightly by the rope artifact, her body traced graceful curves as she begged beneath him.

He had heard many pleas for mercy.

But this was the first time from a mid-stage Nascent Soul female cultivator.

After all, she was practically another "Lady Jin."

A noblewoman’s plea was not the same as a common mortal’s.

And she was his enemy, with a child’s blood feud between them.

That she could swallow such hatred to flatter him showed how iron-hard her will was.

"I have mastered many dual cultivation arts. If Fellow Daoist is willing—no, if Master is willing—then this very moment, I will serve Master…"

The Earth Spider Matriarch rubbed her fair cheek against Wei Tu’s thigh, her breath quickening as she spoke.

Yet—

Before her words were finished, a layer of frost suddenly appeared on the Earth Spider Matriarch’s forehead.

In the blink of an eye, her entire body was sealed in profound ice, forming a pristine lotus of frozen crystal.

"Third layer of insurance."

Cao Mi smiled faintly as she stepped out from behind Wei Tu.

But after battling the Earth Spider Matriarch for so long, using this Fire Lotus Art left her slightly breathless as she stood at Wei Tu’s side.

…

After capturing the Earth Spider Matriarch alive, Wei Tu wasted no time. He immediately returned to the Five Elder Mountain cave residence and began a soul search, digging into her memories for any trace of Lüqiu Jinyuan.

But not long into the search, Wei Tu’s face showed surprise.

"Elder of Ruyi Tower?"

He could hardly believe it.

He never expected that the Earth Spider Matriarch, who seemed to have no connection with Ruyi Tower, was secretly one of its elders.

Ruyi Tower—he had learned of it from the Fireburn Sect Patriarch.

Back then, after hearing of the industries this shadowy force controlled, he suspected they might have been the ones who abducted Cao Mi’s master, Ancestor Luo.

But because the force was too vast, and his strength too lacking at the time, and because Ancestor Luo’s ties to him weren’t particularly deep, he set the matter aside instead of pursuing it.

"Makes sense. The Red Algae Sea has only a little over 100 Nascent Soul cultivators. Ruyi Tower’s reach is wide… her being tied to them is nothing unusual."

After thinking it through, Wei Tu felt calmer.

The circle of power was small.

Connections overlapped everywhere.

He himself wasn’t only one of the four great masters of the Ying Ding Tribe, but also a member of the Flying Immortal Alliance. A century ago, he drew Cao Mi and the others into forming the New Righteous Society. Now he served as one of the Six Mountain Lords of the Five Elder Mountain.

For Nascent Soul experts like the Earth Spider Matriarch, personal cultivation alone could no longer carry them forward. To have any hope of breaking into late Nascent Soul, they needed to expand their connections and seek opportunities.

Sure enough, the next fragments of memory confirmed his guess.

As expected, she hadn’t been part of Ruyi Tower from the start. Only after finding her path blocked did she, through introductions, join them and eventually become one of its elders.

"Ancestor Luo’s matter can wait. For now, I need to see what she knew of Lüqiu Jinyuan…"

Wei Tu shook his head and deepened the precision of the soul search.

Ruyi Tower was linked to her, yes.

But it wasn’t where she had met Lüqiu Jinyuan, nor where their exchanges took place.

Their contact was simply Lüqiu Jinyuan, as the crown prince of the Donghua Demon Kingdom, recruiting forces as part of normal political maneuvering.

After a while, all of her memories of Lüqiu Jinyuan were absorbed.

What disappointed Wei Tu was that she had no method to reach him outside of Yuanjun Island. It had always been Lüqiu Jinyuan appearing unpredictably at the Spider Heart Sect to contact her.

That meant he couldn’t use her as bait to hook Lüqiu Jinyuan, as he had planned.

"Lieyun Island… Demon Blood Pill…"

Half a day later, Wei Tu finally found a potential opening in her memories.

According to what she knew, every 10 years, Lüqiu Jinyuan personally went to Lieyun Island to collect the Demon Blood Pills crafted by a certain Alchemist Miao. He would swallow and refine them himself, never delegating the task.

The reason was simple: the pills were strongest at the moment of completion. Once too much time passed, their potency dropped sharply.

As a fourth-rank alchemist, Wei Tu had made such short-lived pills before. He knew their traits better than anyone.

In just 3 years, it would be time again for Lüqiu Jinyuan to visit Lieyun Island for the Demon Blood Pills.

"If I were Lüqiu Jinyuan, I’d never let such a weakness show to others. Lieyun Island has plenty of earthfire, perfect for alchemy, but finding a place like that on Yuanjun Island wouldn’t be hard."

But after thinking further, Wei Tu shook his head.

Lüqiu Jinyuan might fool those ignorant of alchemy, but deceiving him—a fourth-rank alchemist—was near impossible.

Lieyun Island was almost certainly a trap. A pit Lüqiu Jinyuan had laid over the years to draw out and eliminate potential enemies.

"As expected of Lüqiu Jinyuan, flawless."

After mulling it over for a long while, still finding no sure method against him, Wei Tu sighed in admiration.

Back then, it looked like Lüqiu Jinyuan lost to him in a single exchange, his avatar destroyed.

But in truth, if not for Ancestor Chilong guiding him, and if not for having secret arts like Blood Escape of the Cursed Ghost and Nine Secrets of Life Capture… the one who would’ve died was definitely him.

Lüqiu Jinyuan’s defeat came only because he never realized how "special" Wei Tu was.

"Too special!"

At this thought, a sudden flash of insight struck Wei Tu.

A meticulous schemer like Lüqiu Jinyuan always anticipated a hundred steps ahead, crushing opponents of the same realm through layer after layer of traps. The Lieyun Island trap, Lüqiu Qingfeng’s downfall—both had been the results of his precise calculations.

But all of that was inside the chessboard.

If one stepped outside the board and looked from beyond… those calculations became rigid and predictable.

And Wei Tu was exactly that kind of "special outsider." No matter how far Lüqiu Jinyuan schemed, he couldn’t account for him.

"Soul-Devouring Wood!"

Wei Tu narrowed his eyes, thinking of a new bait.

He was sure Lüqiu Jinyuan would be extremely interested in this once-lost treasure.

A tool for transformation into greater strength.

If it resurfaced, Lüqiu Jinyuan would never let others seize it. He would definitely act personally.

…

Although the captured Earth Spider Matriarch hadn’t provided much in terms of assassination opportunities, her mind did reveal several of Lüqiu Jinyuan’s secret bases in the Red Algae Sea, along with details of some of his agents.

For Wei Tu, this was priceless.

Only with this intelligence could he use the Soul-Devouring Wood as bait to lure Lüqiu Jinyuan out without alarming him.

But before carrying out the plan, Wei Tu needed Fu Zhizhou to return to Five Elder Mountain.

After all, the Soul-Devouring Wood had already been refined by Fu Zhizhou.

Only when Fu Zhizhou came back and agreed to the plan could they proceed.

"I agree!" A few days later, Fu Zhizhou returned safely and, without much hesitation, nodded to this risky undertaking.

"Fourth Brother, think carefully. This is far more dangerous than spying on the Divine Stone Sect. You might face Lüqiu Jinyuan directly. His strength may even surpass mine. Killing someone like you, in early Nascent Soul, would be nothing to him."

Wei Tu warned.

He knew Fu Zhizhou wouldn’t back out at such a crucial moment, but some things still needed to be said aloud.

Fu Zhizhou only shook his head and kept silent.

If this had been centuries ago, back when they had just met, he might never have agreed to step into such danger. But now… with Wei Tu’s past kindness in saving him and his son, even if it meant certain death, he wouldn’t refuse.

"After this battle, the debt of the Soul-Devouring Wood is cleared."

Wei Tu laughed, just as he had years ago when gifting the Yin Corpse to Cao Mi, and handed over the Soul-Devouring Wood to Fu Zhizhou under a fitting pretext.

The Soul-Devouring Wood was priceless—

But so was Fu Zhizhou’s willingness to risk his life for him. Repaying that loyalty with this treasure was only right.

"Thank you, Third Brother."

Fu Zhizhou didn’t argue. He looked relieved, the heavy weight in his heart lightened, and even managed a smile.

After that, Wei Tu summoned Cao Mi and explained the details of the plan to her.

He also revealed the Earth Spider Matriarch’s hidden identity.

His meaning was simple.

Once they killed Lüqiu Jinyuan together, as repayment he would help Cao Mi resolve the matter of Ancestor Luo being trapped by Ruyi Tower.

Just as with persuading Fu Zhizhou, Wei Tu made things clear.

If Cao Mi joined him this time, he couldn’t promise to keep her safe in the battle against Lüqiu Jinyuan.

This was nothing like their previous battles together.

The gap between Lüqiu Jinyuan and Cao Mi’s realm was simply too great.

"Hongying said Uncle Wei weighs benefits clearly—indeed, that’s true."

"I agree."

Cao Mi nodded lightly, a smile on her fair face.