---o---
"Someone who shouldn't have entered?" A thought flashed through Lygus's mind, and he immediately thought of Fu Zhu. "Are you two referring to Fu Zhu?"
"And why should I tell you?"
Herta's expression remained unchanged, a faint smile playing on her lips. Her gaze inadvertently swept over a small mark of redstone dust on Lygus's body, and the smile at the corners of her mouth grew even wider.
Standing opposite her, Lygus could clearly see the shift in Herta's expression. Why is she suddenly smiling so joyfully? Did she discover something good?
"Why are you smiling so happily?"
"Of course, it's because of a small gift someone left behind. It allowed me to discover something fun."
Lygus had a vague feeling that something was wrong, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.
Could it be that Fu Zhu had secretly contacted Herta and Screwllum? But based on Fu Zhu's previous actions, he possessed the means to leave Amphoreus at any time. There was no need to secretly leave clues; he could have just told Herta and Screwllum face-to-face.
And yet, the expression on Herta's face didn't seem fake…
A sense of powerlessness washed over him, leaving Lygus incredibly frustrated.
"My apologies, but regardless of what you say, Amphoreus is closed to outside visitors."
"Is that so? Knocking was just a courtesy. I never said I intended to be this polite about entering. Screwllum, let's do it!"
Just as Herta and Screwllum were about to make their move on Lygus, a very familiar spatial rift opened between them. Fu Zhu stepped out, carrying the Yamato.
"Well, for crying out loud, where did you send me? Is this the Divine Tree Court?"
Herta, who was in the middle of raising her staff, froze when she saw Fu Zhu emerge.
"Fu Zhu?"
Fu Zhu followed the sound of the voice and saw Herta and Screwllum.
"Huh? You two are here?"
Seeing Fu Zhu approach them without any guard up, Screwllum quickly called out a reminder, "Fu Zhu, there is an enemy behind you!"
Fu Zhu turned his head just in time to see Lygus charging toward him, roaring with fury.
"The grudge of the past will be repaid—today!"
Then, he dived headfirst into the still-open spatial rift that Fu Zhu had created.
This move caused the three people present to raise their eyebrows in unison.
Herta let out an annoyed sigh. "He's certainly decisive when it comes to running away."
She had been quite happy when Fu Zhu appeared. Three against one, it was a sure thing.
But she hadn't expected the opponent to be even more decisive, choosing to flee instantly.
"Don't worry about him. I'll go catch him later."
With the power of Finality, Fu Zhu wasn't worried about Lygus escaping. As long as he still existed on the timeline, Fu Zhu could dig him out from any corner of the long river of time.
"Back to business. Since you two are here, does that mean you've already met with Himeko and the others?"
Screwllum and Herta nodded. The former gave Fu Zhu a simple rundown of their meeting.
Fu Zhu felt a wave of relief upon learning that the Xianzhou Alliance had arrived. Although Celenova and Asat Pramad were still out there, as long as the Ender Dragon was present, they would surely be on their guard.
Therefore, the situation outside was currently in a strange state of equilibrium. As long as nothing unexpected happened, war wouldn't break out for the time being, which gave him more time to resolve the matter of Amphoreus.
Though time was tight, he couldn't afford to waste too much of it.
"I understand the situation outside. Time is short, so I'll exchange some information with you, and then I have to go back. The matter with Stelle and Dan Heng, I'll have to trouble you with it."
Fu Zhu quickly explained his discovery that Amphoreus was a data world, along with the information about the Chrysos Heirs and the Twelve Titans.
After hearing Fu Zhu's account, Herta and Screwllum looked at each other in astonishment, the same guess appearing in both their minds simultaneously.
"To be able to simulate to this degree, and as a data world at that… could it be that the essence of Amphoreus is an Emperor's Scepter?"
"An Emperor's Scepter?" The term was somewhat unexpected for Fu Zhu. An Emperor's Scepter was an incredible artifact, directly related to Nous.
Even a genius like Screwllum had spent over a hundred years just to dismantle a single Emperor's Scepter and stop its operation. He never expected there to be another one here.
However, for Fu Zhu, this was good news. As long as he could find the physical location of the Emperor's Scepter's main body, he could seize control of it from Lygus.
Thinking about it, perhaps the center of the world mentioned in Elio's prophecy was referring to this.
"If it is an Emperor's Scepter… you two, help me keep an eye out for the location of its core."
The moment Herta heard Fu Zhu's request, she understood his plan.
"Alright, we'll keep an eye out for you."
"Okay, then I'll head back to Amphoreus first. I'm entrusting the matters outside to you."
Fu Zhu raised his hand and once again opened a spatial rift, then stepped inside.
After watching Fu Zhu leave, Herta turned to Screwllum.
"Now that the nuisance is gone, we can try to see if we can break through the Emperor's Scepter's firewall and get inside."
---o---
On a certain wasteland within Amphoreus, a spatial rift suddenly opened, and Fu Zhu stepped out.
He glanced at his surroundings, which were the same as when he had opened the rift before, and then opened his minimap.
His original plan was to use the Yamato to save travel time and go directly to the Divine Tree Court, but without precise coordinates, the portals it opened were simply too random.
The result wasn't too bad, though. He had successfully met up with Herta and Screwllum and had also gained the coordinates for the periphery of Amphoreus.
The only flaw was letting Lygus use his portal to return to Amphoreus.
Is he in such a hurry to get back because he's worried about losing control of something? Like a kindling, for example?
Fu Zhu scanned the minimap. Although he couldn't find Lygus or the Divine Tree Court, he saw another city about fifty kilometers away. He decided to head there first to ask for news about the Divine Tree Court.
Fu Zhu once again drew the Yamato and opened a spatial rift. Since the minimap could display the location of that city, he naturally had its precise coordinates. There was no need to worry about being sent to some bizarre place this time.
---o---
At the same time, in another location.
A cat-eared girl with tattered clothes was running barefoot through the streets. She paid no mind to stepping in puddles of filthy water, nor did she care that golden blood was flowing from the wounds on her body. She just kept running forward.
But after turning a corner, the cat-eared girl found that she had unintentionally run into a dead end. Behind her, the sound of dense footsteps was rapidly approaching.
Just as the cat-eared girl was about to climb the surrounding wall, a block of cobblestone materialized out of thin air right above her head, perfectly blocking her way up.
The appearance of this cobblestone block cast a shadow of despair over the cat-eared girl's eyes.
And on top of that cobblestone block, Fu Zhu landed steadily. He sized up his current altitude, feeling a bit helpless.
"The coordinates were right this time, but the altitude is a bit too high."
Just as Fu Zhu was muttering to himself that he'd have to pay attention to the altitude next time, he saw a group of people run into the area below him. They were all wielding clubs and looked menacing.
Seeing them all turn their gazes toward him, Fu Zhu couldn't help but raise an eyebrow.
"I just got into the city, haven't done anything yet, and I'm already a target?"