Chapter 1076: Sigh, I'd Rather Be Punished

Meijiren was dumbfounded.

This Void Servant had just stood there during his sacred tribulation, doing nothing but mocking him?

Like Ye Xiaotian and Xiao Kongtong, Meijiren hadn't made a move against the servant because, like them, he was utterly confused.

"What's happening now?"

"Is its mind broken?"

"Where's the supposed intelligence of a Void Servant? Does it even know what it's doing? What's its motive? Is it seeking some twisted pleasure derived from human suffering?"

Meijiren's daze lasted only half a breath. The next second, he pulled out his stone sword from behind him again.

Regardless, he couldn't tolerate a Void Servant mocking him at such a critical moment, especially right after Xu Xiaoshou's demise, when everyone felt utter despair.

The sacred tribulation was too slow.

He wanted to directly slay this suicidal Void Servant before proceeding with his tribulation.

"You've come at the wrong time," Meijiren said, moving his sword.

But just then.

"Beep, beep, beep..."

The faint beeping of a communication talisman reached his ears; if he hadn't listened closely, he would have missed it.

Meijiren's sword paused, and a look of surprise crossed his face. He realized the beeping sound wasn't just coming from his own talisman; there was a second, overlapping sound.

Where?

Meijiren looked left and right, finally discovering, to his shock, that as the Void Servant leaned down, its slightly open, foul-smelling mouth held another small communication talisman, which rolled around on its tongue.

"Blehhhh!"

In that instant, Meijiren's mind went blank.

Impossible!

Absolutely impossible!

How could Xu Xiaoshou's communication talisman be in the Void Servant's mouth?

Could it be that before dying at Jiang Buyi's hands, he was robbed by this Void Servant?

Or perhaps...

"How stupid! What am I thinking?"

"Besides the 'being robbed' theory, what else could it possibly be?"

Meijiren clutched his stone sword, holding his head, completely flustered. Even the crucial matter of undergoing his sacred tribulation had been unconsciously pushed back a significant step, and the Nine Heavens Tribulation Clouds were already beginning to dissipate.

A bit confused, let me think again...

"Die!"

Behind them, Xiao Kongtong could no longer hold back.

How dare this foolish Void Servant come out and provoke them?! How dare it!

After taking Ye Xiaotian's elixir, he recovered a bit of strength and immediately condensed a sword from the void, ready to strike.

"Wait!"

Meijiren reached out to stop the impulsive Xiao Kongtong; he was vaguely starting to believe the utterly impossible possibility forming in his mind.

"Go to hell!"

While Xiao Kongtong was stopped, Ye Xiaotian, with his short temper, couldn't hold back. His Spatial Profound Array diagram immediately unfolded beneath his feet.

Having been chased by stone giants and having just witnessed Xu Xiaoshou's death, his pent-up anger hadn't dissipated. How could this creature, also a giant, dare to jump out and mock the three of them?

Even though his strength was not comparable to the two beside him, Ye Xiaotian couldn't tolerate it at this moment.

He grasped the void with one hand, ready to tear it. His area-of-effect skill transformed into a single-target attack, and "Shattered" was about to be unleashed on the giant in front of him.

"Stop!"

Meijiren panicked. A tremor from his stone sword completely suppressed the surrounding space, preventing Ye Xiaotian from casting his skill.

Xiao Kongtong and Ye Xiaotian, whose attacks were suppressed almost simultaneously, turned to look at Mr. Jiren, question marks seemingly hovering over their heads.

"I..." Meijiren opened his mouth, but for a moment, he didn't know how to explain.

"Roar," the Void Servant rumbled softly, not speaking further. Instead, it slowly extended a foot and timidly rummaged in front of Ye Xiaotian.

Ye Xiaotian: ???

This strange movement...

Although it was somewhat ugly and comical, it instantly reminded him of the foolish scene when Xu Xiaoshou, just after leaving the Heavenly Xuan Gate at the Heavenly Sang Spirit Palace, extended his foot to secretly steal his ring!

"You are..." Ye Xiaotian's eyes widened.

The Void Servant retracted its foot, narrowed its eyes, leaned closer, and spoke in broken human language:

"Your... tears... for whom... do they flow..."

The atmosphere froze at that moment.

Ye Xiaotian, whose face still bore the traces of dried tears, felt as if lightning had struck his mind, and his eyes suddenly lit up.

The next second, his entire old face flushed crimson, his fingers raised high, trembling, unable to utter a single word.

"What's happening?" Xiao Kongtong watched, dumbfounded.

Why did this Void Servant seem to know everyone?

And it seemed Ye Xiaotian had understood something through its actions?

Before he could calm down and observe further, the Void Servant turned its head and looked at him.

This giant also said little, merely extending two massive fingers, joining them gently, and then drawing a line in the void, performing the starting stance of... "Ten-Stage Sword Finger!"

Are you joking?!

How could a Void Servant know such flashy techniques?!

Xiao Kongtong: ???

"You... you... you..."

The "Big Mouth of San Yue Immortal City" instantly transformed into the "Big Stutterer of San Yue Immortal City," his eyes wide with shock. He, too, seemed to understand something.

"Your... imitation... is simply... crude..." the Void Servant continued, its words broken.

Xiao Kongtong's face immediately turned green.

Was it mocking his imitation of his teacher, saying his acting was terrible and completely unwatchable?

"I just deceived Jiang Buyi moments ago, if that Semi-Saint Edict hadn't appeared!" Xiao Kongtong roared internally.

Meijiren stared blankly at the dramatic scene unfolding before him, taking several deep breaths, but still unable to quell the shock in his heart.

The Void Servant finally looked at him and spoke again: "Humans... believe... in yourselves..."

It paused, and while the three men before it were completely dumbfounded, this three-hundred-zhang black super-giant practically lay flat on the ground. Then, in front of everyone, it extended its right hand, its five fingers pressed together at a single point, forming a gesture like a flower bud opening.

"Mind... open..."

This sentence seemed to possess a time-stopping magic; all three were instantly petrified.

It took a long while for anyone to snap back to reality.

"Open my mind, my ass!"

Ye Xiaotian was nearly mad. He wiped away the tears from his face, feeling a mix of joy and anger, shame and fury. He wanted nothing more than to kick the Void Servant away, yet he also longed to embrace this huge "cutie" fiercely, to deeply feel the joy of his friend's disciple being resurrected.

But weighing his own height against the Void Servant's massive size, Ye Xiaotian abandoned that impulse.

"Xu Xiaoshou..."

"Xu Xiaoshou isn't dead; he's alive!"

"But he's been cursed, transformed into a Void Servant, like a prince turned into a frog in a common fairy tale..."

Ye Xiaotian's heart swelled with wild joy.

As long as he wasn't dead, there was hope for salvation.

No matter how fantastical or dramatic the twist, as long as you're alive, everything is fine.

The three men grasped this point almost simultaneously.

Yet, even so, looking at the giant before them, and then back at the spot where the "true Xu Xiaoshou"—the one who had been so convincing that even Semi-Saint Jiang Buyi was fooled—had apparently perished...

In broad daylight, it felt dreamlike and illusory.

This feeling was too hazy!

"Why?"

"How did he do it?"

"What exactly did you do in the middle of this battle?"

Their minds were filled with endless questions, but none of them spoke out.

The tragic outcome brought by Jiang Buyi's sudden move was still vivid in their minds. No one knew if the Semi-Saint had left any further contingencies in this place.

Xu Xiaoshou had already paid half his life to teach the three of them a bloody lesson.

No matter how strong one was, even if they held the dominant hand in the situation, they couldn't afford to be complacent when facing a Semi-Saint. If a Semi-Saint wanted to escape, you couldn't stop them; if they had a backup plan, you couldn't counter it.

Without absolute certainty of a kill, any "relaxation of vigilance," even for half a moment, would only lead to one outcome: death!

Anyone who had lived to their age wasn't a fool; they were all old foxes.

Yet, now they found themselves severely lectured by a junior who used himself as an example, making their faces burn with embarrassment.

Therefore, they naturally wouldn't be foolish enough to call out Xu Xiaoshou by name or exchange information openly while he was communicating with them in the body of a Void Servant.

"Let's talk somewhere else."

Meijiren tried to calm his mind, cautiously erecting a Grand Void World before transmitting a message to the three men before him.

As Xu Xiaoshou's future teacher, he had just arrived only to be taught a lesson by his own student!

And Meijiren still hadn't figured out the principles behind this lesson!

"Golden Cicada Shedding Its Shell?"

"No... this must be 'Giant Cicada Shedding Its Shell'! How on earth did he do it?"

Before entering the fray, Meijiren had been wondering how Xu Xiaoshou would resolve the situation, intending it as a first lesson to teach his students.

Now, Meijiren realized that Xu Xiaoshou's level was not beneath theirs at all; in fact, he surpassed them—he had even played Semi-Saint Jiang Buyi!

It should be said that in this game, everyone had been played by Xu Xiaoshou!

They were played without understanding, completely bewildered, forcibly turned from chess players into pawns, while the true mastermind only now appeared, in the body of a Void Servant.

This kid, apart from his weakness in strength, was absolutely flawless!

"Mr. Jiren is right."

"Let's leave first."

The two beside him nodded in agreement, no longer daring to stay in this cursed place.

Not to mention whether Jiang Buyi had any further contingencies, the forbidden attributes of the Forest of Miracles, suppressed by the Semi-Saint battle, were now reawakening and activating layer by layer.

The Void Servant was the only one who didn't nod.

It slightly turned its head, its gaze fixed on Meijiren: "Humans... not... undergoing... tribulation... anymore?"

"What tribulation?!"

Meijiren was so exasperated he found it amusing.

"You're not dead, so why should this old man achieve sainthood and fight Jiang Buyi to the death?"

"The karmic implications would be immense, and it would be utterly meaningless, purely a brainless act of folly!"

"This old man..."

Meijiren had just opened his mouth, intending to explain something.

Suddenly, from the colossal face before him, he saw a hint of mischief in its two large eyes, along with its vivid, materialized eyebrows, raised high and dancing.

"You brat..."

Meijiren's old face flushed instantly.

So, Xu Xiaoshou wasn't ignorant; he was actually teasing Meijiren!

What nerve!

Meijiren was so annoyed his teeth ached, yet he was helpless. "Let's go first; I'll deal with you later."

"Hmm..." The Void Servant shook its head, gave the three men a meaningful glance, and turned to leave.

What was it doing?

The three men were stunned again. Xu Xiaoshou still dared to linger here?

Following its gaze, they realized that this time, Xu Xiaoshou was heading towards another Void Servant.

Under the Semi-Saint Edict, the hundreds of irrational stone giants, who only knew how to guard treasures, had their meager intelligence erased, returning to dust and earth, transforming into endless mountains, eternally dormant in the Forest of Miracles.

And among those who remained alive in the field, besides the few humans and Xu Xiaoshou, there was only the Void Servant that had lived for an unknown duration, possibly due to its experience facing a Saint and its resistance to the guiding power of the Semi-Saint Edict, which prevented it from heeding the "Return" command.

The two Void Servants met in the distance.

Immediately, they shared a tight embrace, looking exactly like kindred spirits, overjoyed and weeping after surviving a calamity, beginning to celebrate.

A desolate wind ruffled the hair of the three onlookers.

How long had Xu Xiaoshou been on Void Island to end up like this? He even had a Void Servant companion?

The absurd and dramatic scene in the distance was full of unreality, yet it also opened the floodgates of the three onlookers' long-sealed memories, allowing them to find faint traces of Xu Xiaoshou's "scheming."

Ye Xiaotian and Xiao Kongtong suddenly recalled.

When they had watched the Semi-Saint battle, there was indeed only one Void Servant present, and besides the hundreds of stone giants, there were no additional Void Servants chasing them.

And the timing of the so-called "second Void Servant's" entry was precisely when they two appeared, when "Ba Zun'an" emerged, drawing everyone's attention, and the stone giants then encircled the battle.

At that moment, he must have fished in troubled waters... sneaking in a relatively inconspicuous, averagely sized Void Servant among the countless tall giants, with its main purpose being to rescue its Void Servant companion.

This made perfect sense!

None of the three found anything strange about it.

In fact, looking back now, it seemed perfectly natural!

If Xu Xiaoshou could summon help, why couldn't a Void Servant?

Meijiren sighed.

Even he, reflecting on it now, couldn't find anything amiss.

Because at that time, everyone's attention was truly focused solely on "Ba Zun'an." Even Jiang Buyi took it for granted and didn't react to Xu Xiaoshou's entry, which was truly... terrifying!

Why "terrifying"?

At that very moment, when everyone had let down their guard, Xu Xiaoshou knew he was about to face trouble, possibly death!

Yet, he boldly emerged from his vanished state and blended into the battle. In hindsight, it seemed so abrupt and glaring, but at the time, he managed to do it without a sound.

—Truly terrifying when you think about it!

"The most dangerous place is the safest place," Xiao Kongtong murmured, closing his eyes heavily. "I am not as good as Xu."

"He guessed it. He fears death more than anyone, and he prepared his next step so far in advance," Ye Xiaotian sighed. "I am not as good as Xu."

"Is it just cleverness? It's as if he possesses the ability to foresee the future..." Meijiren no longer knew how to evaluate this young man.

Every time he appeared, he redefined Meijiren's understanding of him. Was there no limit to this person?

How old was he to be so insidious, cunning, malicious, and ruthless... Uh, wait, these weren't exactly terms one would use for their own side, were they?

Meijiren pondered, perhaps "strategizing from within the command tent" or "preparing for a rainy day" would be more appropriate?

He felt he, too, might have to exclaim, when it came to schemes like orchestration, planning, and employing cunning schemes like using others as tools... "I am not as good as Xu!"

And now!

Xu Xiaoshou, who had psychologically conquered the three men, now brazenly embraced another Void Servant in the body of a Void Servant.

No one believed he was simply playing around.

Xu Xiaoshou's actions must carry profound meaning!

One shouldn't just think one layer deep; they needed to think three layers... No! Five layers!

"What does he intend to do?"