Chapter 2299: Secrets

Zu An was a bit stunned. He'd never expected to hear such a response. After all, ever since the moment he first met the monsters, they'd always attacked ferociously. Judging from the way they behaved, it seemed as if they had already destroyed many worlds before, bringing only calamity and tragedy to countless places. He had speculated about the monsters’ motives too, but he usually attributed it to greed and cruelty. He'd never thought that it was because their world was also facing destruction.

“What kind of thing can destroy your world?” Zu An asked gravely.

Judging from his interaction with the monsters, they were all incredibly strong. Even if there was a world barrier to limit their strength, they were still at the absolute peak of this world’s power. They all had various incredible skills and abilities too. Without this world’s restrictions, one could imagine just how powerful they were. There wasn’t just one or two of those kinds of monsters, but rather a huge group! Just how powerful was the Monster World?

So how could a world that powerful experience the threat of destruction?

“Even though our world is powerful, there are still too many stronger and more mysterious beings in the universe.” The True Demon Emissary seemed to have thought of something. A look of fear appeared on his face as he continued, “An Annihilation Beast has arrived in our world. Some worlds call it a celestial weapon.

“From the moment it arrived, our world was thrown into chaos and natural disasters, with many cyclones that are even more powerful than this world of yours has ever seen. If your celestial body were thrown into those cyclones, it would be instantly swallowed up and ripped to pieces.” As he spoke about it, the True Demon Emissary still felt lingering fear. He had clearly experienced the threat of annihilation.

Zu An was speechless. At first, he hadn’t been too affected when he heard the Emissary mentioning the wild cyclones. After all, no matter how powerful cyclones were, how could they threaten a powerful world? Even his own world’s strong cultivators wouldn't fear such natural disasters.

But when he heard what came after, he immediately knew that he had underestimated the threat. He'd never expected that cyclones could actually be this powerful!

“Have you never thought about fighting back? Judging from how it seemed when I faced the monsters, there are quite a few individuals from your world who are pretty strong.”

“We tried, of course,” the True Demon Emissary said with a bitter expression. “But those cyclones appeared too abruptly and destroyed ninety percent of our world’s civilizations instantly. Then, over thousands of years, we tried to counterattack several times, but we always returned without any success. The only thing we could do was create cities underground for the survivors to just barely continue living. But after thousands of years of torment from the cyclones, our world lacks cultivation resources, and even food has become lacking. As a result, we've become weaker and weaker.”

Zu An thought,

No wonder the Demon race’s clan masters said he needed a lot of cultivation resources and food. So it was because of this.

“So that is why you were looking for a new world outside and decided on this one?”

“That’s right. At first, the pro-war faction was the majority and wanted to kill that mysterious Annihilation Beast, but thousands of years of defeat made them acknowledge reality. That’s why they began to gradually search for other worlds as a way out,” the True Demon Emissary said with a bitter smile. “But our world’s innate nature is violent. In the innumerable years prior, we already completely conquered the worlds we could find nearby and couldn't find any others anymore.

“That was, until someone remembered our failed attempt to invade this world of yours in the past. That was why they regrouped to try again.”

Zu An finally understood the whole story with that explanation. “Just what is the whole story with the attack on this world several thousand years ago?”

The True Demon Emissary shook his head. “I don’t know too well either.” He could sense a frown appearing on Zu An’s face. He immediately panicked. “I really don’t know! The great battle thousands of years ago is something the entire Monster World kept an absolute secret. Many records have been obliterated. It seems only a few elders know some details.”

“Obliterated?” Zu An frowned. He hadn’t expected to hear that word.

“That’s right, obliterated,” the True Demon Emissary repeated. “I also sensed that there were some secrets hidden in that battle thousands of years ago, and that it was deliberately covered up. But our entire world is facing the threat of destruction, so I didn't have a chance to investigate that either.”

Zu An became quiet. He recalled Imperial Gate Bei Qing, whom he had met in the sealed land. The words she'd spoken were mysterious and concealed all kinds of secrets. It seemed the battle back then wasn’t so simple.

But he couldn't obtain any concrete information right now, so he decided to not let himself be entangled by that problem. He concerned himself with practical solutions instead. “When did you schedule your meeting with the Monster World using the Four Symbols Stones transport formation?”

He planned to make use of his home field advantage to set up a trap and catch all of these monsters in one go.

The True Demon Emissary shook his head. “We didn’t schedule a time; it was just my own private movements. I found records of the Four Symbols Stones from an ancient text and didn’t report it. I merely followed the other monsters into this world, then found some excuse to leave the main party, trying my luck with the Demon race here. Then, my luck was actually pretty good, and I really found the Four Symbols Stones...”

𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

He suddenly felt dispirited.

What good luck? I ended up meeting this real monster. It was nothing but the worst luck of my life.

“So you're the only one who knows about this?” Zu An asked, surprised. He'd thought that the Monster Lord’s schemes ran incredibly deep, such that even though he claimed to have implemented three main strategies, he had actually concealed this secret path. It seemed Zu An had been worried for nothing.

“There are only a few people who know. I planned to go back and report to the Monster Lord, so I could use this to obtain more benefits for me and my clan. Unfortunately, everything failed at the final step,” the True Demon Emissary said, sounding really discouraged.

“How about you tell me about your own clan’s situation now?” Zu An said.

The True Demon Emissary hesitated. “Will you let me go if I speak?”

Zu An gave him a cold look. “If you give me a satisfactory reply, I can consider not sending you into the Continuous Hell.”

The True Demon Emissary sighed in relief when he heard that. He didn’t actually carry much hope of Zu An letting him off, not after having tried to take advantage of his woman.

Sigh, did I have pig lard in my eyes or something back then?

It seemed he'd gotten overconfident and got carried away in the end. One really couldn't slip up at any time.

Still, the promise to not be put in that terrifying Continuous Hell was already enough. He began, “My clan is the highest-level one in the entire Monster World, just like how the Yun clan is among the Demon races...” He then roughly explained the related information.

Zu An nodded slightly as he listened. The information he had received today was quite valuable.

“Is the strongest being in your world the Monster Lord? Who is stronger between him and the Lord of Slaughter?” Zu An continued. He had a premonition that sooner or later, he would have to face this Monster Lord. As the saying went, know yourself and know your enemy, and you will be ever victorious.

“The strongest is naturally the Monster Lord. The Lord of Slaughter was once the leader of our Monster World. His status was on par with that of the current Monster Lord. He was very strong, but the Monster Lord has the experience of his predecessors to draw on, and progress has been made across the eras. The Monster Lord should be a bit stronger,” the True Demon Emissary answered.

Zu An nodded. This True Demon Emissary wasn’t completely a useless young master and was actually quite competent;is analysis was perfectly reasonable. Thus, he continued, “What kinds of abilities and treasures does the Monster Lord have?”

“The Monster Lord...”

When the True Demon Emissary got to the middle of his sentence, Zu An’s expression changed. The True Demon Emissary’s head actually split apart, and his entire being was destroyed on the spot!

He had encountered similar things before too. These monsters thought they would be reborn in the Monster World, but actually, the Monster Lord had set up restrictions on their bodies. If they revealed some key pieces of information, they would immediately perish. He'd thought that keeping their souls in Hell would avoid that, but it was actually ineffective.

It seems the restriction that the Monster Lord set up is mysterious after all. It worked even in Hell!

When he realized that, his expression became a bit more grave.