Chapter 745: Eight Revered Masters Do You Take Me for a God?

"Heh, you mean the Void Island?" Eight-Armored's voice came through the communication bead, accompanied by a couple of chuckles. He clearly wasn't bothered by Xu Xiaoshou's slip of the tongue and chose to get straight to the point.

"Yes!" Xu Xiaoshou quickly composed himself, returning to the main topic. "With the defenses now redirected to the Imperial City, the Cloud-Soaring Mountain Range must be unguarded. The Void Island is supposed to descend there, isn't it? This is an opportunity!"

Eight-Armored: "Who told you the Void Island would descend on the Cloud-Soaring Mountain Range?"

Xu Xiaoshou was startled. "It isn't?"

"It's uncertain. Until that moment, even I won't know where the Void Island will ultimately land," Eight-Armored replied.

Confused, Xu Xiaoshou asked, "Then why is the Sacred Temple making such extensive preparations to defend the Cloud-Soaring Mountain Range?"

Eight-Armored: "It's merely the most probable landing spot for the Void Island."

After a long pause, Xu Xiaoshou offered a constructive suggestion: "So, at this crucial moment, with no one in the Cloud-Soaring Mountain Range, why don't you just summon the Void Island there directly? That would solve everything, wouldn't it?"

Eight-Armored: "Do you think I'm a god?"

*You aren't?**Haven't you always acted as if you're omnipotent?**And now you're saying you can't?*Xu Xiaoshou's skepticism grew, and their conversation picked up pace.

Xu Xiaoshou: "Don't both the Black and White Factions revere you?"

Eight-Armored: "But the Void Island doesn't revere me."

Xu Xiaoshou: "Then what are you waiting for? Where's your trump card? After lying low for so long, you wouldn't miss such a good opportunity, would you?"

Eight-Armored: "Trump card? What trump card? Who told you I had one?"

Xu Xiaoshou: "???"

He was stunned. Utterly dumbfounded.The Sacred Temple had gone to such great lengths, creating such a grand display, and yet, Eight-Armored had made no preparations whatsoever?

Shaking his head, Xu Xiaoshou refused to believe it. He suspected Eight-Armored didn't trust him and didn't want to share any plans.He pressed on, "If you don't have a trump card, then what am I? Isn't bringing me to the Imperial City part of your contingency plan?"

Eight-Armored's tone remained teasing and amused throughout, as if every one of Xu Xiaoshou's remarks hit him in an unexpected way. He finally said:

"You've truly misunderstood."

"Placing you in the Imperial City was simply to proactively create opportunities for chaos. If they arise, great; if not, no harm done.""But whether they do or not, it doesn't matter. As the old saying goes, 'the boat will find its way to the bridge when it gets there'.""When the Void Island descends, I will emerge. It's as simple as that.""As for other times..." Eight-Armored paused. "We can only wait."

Xu Xiaoshou was once again flabbergasted.*Just wait to die, then!*The Sacred Temple was making such a huge fuss, and Eight-Armored had nothing? Just waiting? Staring blankly?

Xu Xiaoshou sighed, feeling helpless. "Has anyone ever mentioned that they don't want to remain with the Holy Slaves anymore?"

"No." Eight-Armored knew Xu Xiaoshou had always harbored rebellious thoughts and genuinely appreciated this about him, not minding it at all.

Xu Xiaoshou boldly complained, "Perhaps you should pay more attention to the true feelings of your subordinates. They might not be speaking their minds; after all, it's hard for people to feel secure with someone like you..."

"You don't feel secure?" Eight-Armored sounded genuinely surprised this time, then spoke seriously, "Aren't the three words 'Eight-Armored' enough to make you feel secure?"

Such immense confidence!The calm, serious words coming from the communication bead instantly rendered Xu Xiaoshou speechless.He wasn't afraid of deliberate, forced arrogance, because usually, when he spoke up in such situations, the other party's pretense would shatter.However, Eight-Armored's effortless, natural display of dominance, combined with the legendary myths surrounding him, gave the impression that he was simply stating a fundamental truth.

Xu Xiaoshou conceded. He took a deep breath, deciding not to prolong this futile argument with Eight-Armored. He simply said, "There's a small favor I might need your help with."

"Speak!" Eight-Armored's smile widened.

Xu Xiaoshou sighed. "As I mentioned before, I might need you to go to the Cloud-Soaring Mountain Range and spread the message that you can summon the Void Island, just to let the Sacred Temple know."

"Feinting?" Eight-Armored asked.

This time, Xu Xiaoshou finally found his confident footing. *This guy's uncultured!* He firmly retorted, "That's 'Besieging Wei to rescue Zhao,' not 'feinting'!"

"Alright," Eight-Armored agreed. "Anything else?"

Xu Xiaoshou was perplexed by how quickly he agreed without a single comeback.*That's it?*His mind raced, and he instantly realized: *So, you actually understood everything I said earlier, but just because I didn't explicitly say "I need help," you simply ignored it?*

"I..." Xu Xiaoshou was internally exasperated.Eight-Armored was clearly determined to make Xu Xiaoshou indebted to him, refusing to frame the conversation as an "opportunity for him" or to give him a choice.This guy understood everything, after all!

Gritting his teeth, Xu Xiaoshou conceded. "In that case, if you're helping, help all the way... The trade fair site might still need assistance. If you could send a dozen or so Path-Severers, that should resolve the situation."

"Alright," Eight-Armored agreed again.

"Alright?" Xu Xiaoshou was startled again, voicing his suspicion. "You can really send a dozen Path-Severers? If so, adding two or three Grand Void experts wouldn't hurt either..."

"Alright."

"Alright?" Xu Xiaoshou was utterly shocked now. If two or three Grand Void experts were possible, "What about a Half-Saint?"

"Alright."

This time, Xu Xiaoshou finally caught on and exploded in anger. "You're bluffing!"

Eight-Armored: "Since you've started dreaming, why should I wake you up? It's indeed the time when normal people should be sleeping. What you're experiencing isn't a daydream; it's a perfectly normal dream."

Suddenly, a string of curses flashed through his mind, and he abruptly realized he was regressing into his junior sister's tendencies. He quickly pushed these unrealistic curses out of his head.

"Back to serious matters!"

Thinking of his junior sister, Xu Xiaoshou said seriously, "How much do you know about the 'Hell' organization? If I'm not mistaken, they want to seize the Tears' Eye."

"Indeed," Eight-Armored confirmed this time. "I've been watching Hell for a long time, but now isn't the time to confront them. Try to keep your distance for now; don't concern yourself with them."

*Confront...*The moment Xu Xiaoshou heard Eight-Armored's choice of word, he understood. Hell was likely far more terrifying than he had imagined.He hesitated, then said, "I don't want to cause trouble, but they've already come for me."

Eight-Armored was surprised. "They came for you?"

"Yes." Xu Xiaoshou nodded. "Not only did they find me, but they also fought me. They wanted to steal from me... Uh, well, nothing much, we just had a fight."

Silence fell on the other end of the communication bead. After a long moment, a voice emerged. "Do you have the Tears' Eye?"

"No," Xu Xiaoshou denied instantly.

"If you don't, they wouldn't come for you," Eight-Armored stated.

"My junior sister has it, you should have figured that out."

"Then they're likely looking for your junior sister."

"Fine! I admit it, I have it..." Xu Xiaoshou gave up the struggle. "But I snatched this eyeball from the Jiang clan, not the Tears', so its origin is completely legitimate."

Eight-Armored: "..."

He fell silent again for a moment, then suddenly asked, "The Half-Saint Jiang clan? How on earth did you manage to snatch something from them?"

Xu Xiaoshou: "That's none of your business!"

Eight-Armored paused, and his voice held a trace of realization. "No wonder I was thinking that not even the storytellers knew I'd entered the city, yet suddenly some factions knew I was here and started spreading rumors. So, you're the one leaking secrets...""You impersonated me?"

Upon hearing this, Xu Xiaoshou's lips twitched. He moved the communication bead away and spat twice, preemptively stopping any potential stutter. Then, he brought the bead back and calmly replied, "That's not true. Don't speak nonsense."

Eight-Armored: "The communication bead's audio quality isn't as bad as you think."

*Damn it!**How can this abnormal, fast-thinking freak have no flaws except for his seemingly frail body?**I curse you, old masked man, for your mind to become as weak as your body, and to bear child...*"Hmph!"He suddenly snapped out of it. Xu Xiaoshou immediately shook his head, forcefully casting off the junior sister's influence.

He gripped the communication bead, wanting to squeeze it tightly but not daring to.

"That useless token of yours is completely worthless!" Xu Xiaoshou decided to change the subject, bringing up Eight-Armored's token. "I encountered a masked man from Hell, and I thought, 'This is a major power, it should meet your deterrence standard.' But when I pulled out the token, he just attacked even more ferociously."

"And what was the outcome?" Eight-Armored asked.Xu Xiaoshou replied, "I attacked even more fiercely and crippled him. Then a golden-masked figure appeared, wielding temporal power. I suspect he's Hell's leader."

Eight-Armored was surprised. "You fought a King?"

"Yes." Xu Xiaoshou knew what he was thinking and explained, "It wasn't a one-on-one fight. I just happened to have all my trump cards ready, and I caught him off guard."Without the buffer time provided by A-Jie's confrontation, Xu Xiaoshou estimated he would have been defeated by the purple-masked Hell figure long ago.

After a moment of thought, Eight-Armored said, "Then you truly encountered someone foolish. You must have fought a younger Hell King.""The golden-masked figure you mentioned, who appeared last, is almost certainly Huang Quan, their leader.""In the future, when you meet someone of that level, you don't need to fight. Just throw the Eight-Character Token in front of them, draw a line, and leave on the spot. They won't dare to pursue you."

Eight-Armored's words were firm and authoritative. Xu Xiaoshou listened, stunned.*He's that confident?*"What if he pursues me?" Xu Xiaoshou asked.

Eight-Armored's tone was full of conviction. "He wouldn't dare, so there's no 'what if'."

*Unbelievable!*The Eighth Sword Immortal truly lived up to his legend as the most arrogant and domineering figure of the previous era.His words were delivered so casually, they almost brainwashed Xu Xiaoshou on the spot.

"Let's put the Hell matters aside for now," Eight-Armored stated, clearly unwilling to elaborate further. He concluded, "The assistance you requested will be provided later. For now, if there's nothing else, let's leave it at that. Don't contact me unless the sky is literally falling."

Hearing that the other party seemed about to hang up, Xu Xiaoshou quickly interjected, "Wait!"

"More questions?" Eight-Armored asked.

"Not exactly a question," Xu Xiaoshou mused, an image of the straw-hatted old man appearing in his mind. He then asked, "I just want to know about my master right now..."

"He's not dead."

*Not dead?*Xu Xiaoshou was first surprised and delighted, then, after replaying the indifferent tone in his mind, he asked, "What exactly does 'not dead' mean?"

Eight-Armored replied, "It means everything else has been experienced, except for death.""What 'everything else'..."*Beep!*Before he could finish his sentence, the communication ended.

Xu Xiaoshou stood frozen in the rainy alley, his eyebrow twitching. He swore that once he became powerful, he would thoroughly hang and beat this man.

"Not dead..."He put away the communication bead. Looking at the long street, now sparse with people due to the rain, Xu Xiaoshou carefully pondered those two words.All he knew about Elder Sang was that he had been apprehended by the Sacred Temple and was currently imprisoned in their central headquarters.And regarding a prison, Eight-Armored's "not dead" likely implied that aside from being alive, he had endured every conceivable form of torture.Rain pelted his face, and the long street felt chilly.

Xu Xiaoshou frowned, standing still for a long time, oblivious to the passage of time. It wasn't until someone nearby seemed to be loudly urging people to hurry home on this rainy night that he snapped out of his memories of the old man.

Goose Lake, the fire seed...Alchemy, burning the Spirit Storage Pavilion...The Five-Finger Imprint technique, his nostrils...Dragon Fusion Realm, fire refining the Ten Thousand Great Mountains...The Evil Sin Bow, blocking arrows...

There were too many! From feeding the fire seed to blocking the arrow.Frankly, so many memories had been packed into just a few short months. Xu Xiaoshou found it somewhat amusing upon reflection.

Finally, the memories faded into his eyes. He shrugged indifferently, twitched his lips, then twitched them again, and after a dry laugh, he muttered mockingly:"Karma, perhaps..."

With that, he pulled a straw hat from his ring and put it on. Xu Xiaoshou waved dismissively at the person who had called out to him from a distance, then walked forward without looking back.

With each step, his face gradually aged. His clothes began to fray, and his shoes looked scorched. In the rainy night street, his slender figure seemed to grow even thinner, more haggard, taking on the appearance of a withered old man. His youthful aura completely vanished. Xu Xiaoshou seemed to transform into someone else entirely.

He had contacted Eight-Armored, asking him to "besiege Wei to rescue Zhao," but he himself couldn't possibly stop. Since there were so many ongoing situations tonight, and everyone happened to love joining in the excitement, how could Xu Xiaoshou be absent?

Elder Sang's affairs were too distant. The Holy Slaves' participation in the battle was their own business. Xu Xiaoshou had his own tasks awaiting him on the path ahead.

Therefore..."Time to get serious!"