The Captain’s words made Xu Qing think back to seeing his Master back at Forbidden by the Zombie. He had been located in a spell formation that indicated his cultivation level was similar to Sir Bloodsmelter’s. Fully convinced of the Captain’s wisdom, he nodded.7

Seeing Xu Qing agree to his suggestion, the Captain’s eyebrows danced up and down. “So, we need to go talk to Master. Of course, we can’t send a voice message, nor can we ask the Swordsage Court to relay a message for us....” The Captain blinked a few times. “We need to trick Master into coming to us! Then we can explain in person.”1

“So...?” Xu Qing asked hesitantly. Something about the look in the Captain’s eyes seemed concerning.3

“So... we’re going to need to come up with a foolproof plan to make sure Master eagerly comes charging over here at top speed!” The Captain cleared his throat. “Consider everything, little Junior Brother. You might think that telling him one of us is about to die would be the perfect scam. But we need something realistic. If we told him that I was about to die, he would probably drop everything and speed over here immediately. All in all, Master cherishes me the most. But... I can survive with my head alone and no body. So all Master has to do is put some thought into it and he’d probably realize it was a trick.”7

Face completely expressionless, Xu Qing calmly said, “Couldn’t we send him a message in code?”0

“Code? Of course not! What, you think we have some secret system of code words or something? We don’t!” The Captain sighed, glanced at Xu Qing out of the corner of his eye, then continued, “Sadly,...14