Chapter 2309: Gap in the Act

“A fake sky?”

“The sun is also fake?”

The women looked up at the sky and the dazzling sun in confusion.

“Hm? It seems to be a bit strange somehow,” Pei Mianman muttered to herself after looking at it for a bit.

The sky was a bit dimmer than a normal sky, and the sun was much brighter than a normal sun. That sun also seemed to be much closer to the ground, but even though it was so close, it didn't seem all that big. At first, they'd thought that it could just be because this was a different world from their own, but after they heard Zu An’s reminder, they realized that something was off.

“This seems to be a large-scale formation that imitates a real sky.” Xie Daoyun observed it carefully for a bit. Then, she cried out in surprise, “Just what incredible skill could have produced such a large formation?”

The women were also incredibly shocked when they heard her professional analysis. With their high statuses and identities, they had seen all sorts of large-scale formations themselves. The human capital’s Great Demon-Eradicating Formation was already quite incredible. But compared to creating an entire sky, it was still much less impressive.

“I didn’t expect the Monster World’s civilization to already be so advanced.” Zu An was amazed. The monsters weren’t only individually powerful; their formation knowledge was also quite advanced. And yet, such a powerful world had still ended up facing destruction. In that instant, he could really sense the dangers of the cosmos.

“What is wrong with that sun? Why does it still seem so small even though it's so close?” Jiang Luofu looked at the ball of light. She was full of curiosity.

“That’s because it's on a tall tower. It seems to be a giant illumination device that the monsters created.” With Zu An’s cultivation, he was naturally able to sense the nature of the ‘sun’.

Just as he spoke, the ‘sun’ in the sky suddenly went out, plunging the world into night. Sunsets were normally gradual, but this was more like turning a the light. It became dark just like that. Fortunately, there were many structures that produced specks of light in the distance, resembling a city... No, judging from how sparse the lights were, it couldn't even compare to the brightly-lit human capital at night.

But these lights were still enough for the group to realize what was going on with the sun. There was a grand tower, and at the very top, an eyeball-like sphere spun rapidly. It was clearly this thing that had been shining, but it was now in some kind of recovery period.

“It was this place’s equivalent to day earlier, but it's the equivalent of night now,” Xie Daoyun said.

Jiang Luofu looked around her. She even gave the air a sniff. “This place should be deep below the earth. It’s an underground city.”

Yun Yuqing sighed in amazement. “These monsters really are amazing. They actually made such a massive city underground, and even created this sort of day-night cycle.”

The whole city seemed quite massive. They couldn't see the end of it at all. The buildings' architectural style was entirely different from anything they knew from their world. For instance, their world’s gates were short and wide, while this world’s gates were tall and narrow. But beauty was universal. The sense of grandeur that the different buildings gave off shocked even these experienced women.

“They had no choice because of the cyclones. They could only go underground.” Pei Mianman’s words made the other women feel deeply worried and sick at heart. Even a world this powerful couldn't defeat the Annihilation Beast and could only hide underground.

“Lower your voices. Someone’s coming,” Zu An suddenly said quietly. The women all stopped talking and prepared to take out their weapons for combat.

Just then, a monster hurried over. Apart from his pointed ears, three black stripes on his face, and entirely black eyes, he looked like a human. He resembled the True Demon Emissary a bit; he was clearly a member of the True Demon race.

The moment he saw Zu An, his eyes lit up. He spread his arms and ran toward Zu An. Zu An was about to stop him, but that person kneeled on the ground and continued to greet him. He immediately blurted out a ton of things and looked extremely happy.

There was no way Zu An could still continue with his original plans; he was a bit stunned. This person definitely knew Donaire and was probably his subordinate. But he realized there was a serious problem. Even though there was nothing wrong with his current appearance, he didn’t know the monsters’ language!

𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

The monsters had all seemed to want to blend in and used the local language in his world, so he'd assumed that the monsters’ language was the same. How could he have known that after returning to their world, the monsters would immediately use their own language?

The other women also realized this problem. Their expressions changed a bit. They prepared to restrain the monster.

Just then, Suolun Shi spoke through ki transmission. “He is Donaire’s servant and is welcoming the young master’s return.”

Zu An was startled. “You can understand the monster language?”

Suolun Shi replied, “Their language is very similar to our Demon race’s ancient language. I made sure to study the Demon race’s ancient texts for the sake of cultivating some techniques. Even though there are some areas that aren’t quite the same, I can barely understand it.”

Zu An sighed in relief.

Thank goodness I brought Suolun Shi this time, or else we would only be able to stare blankly here.

Even though Yun Yuqing was also from the Demon race, she had been sent to the human world as an undercover spy when she was very young. She wasn’t that familiar with the Demon race’s ancient language.

Just then, this True Demon looked up at Zu An in puzzlement, as if he was confused why the young master wasn’t replying to what he was saying.

Zu An quickly said to Suolun Shi, “Talk to him for me. Do your best to get as much information as possible.”

Suolun Shi nodded. She didn’t ask for further instructions either. As an intelligent and quick-witted princess, she didn’t need the details explained. She quickly conversed with the True Demon using the monster language.

The True Demon gave her a confused look, but then gave Zu An a worshipful look.

Suolun Shi’s face turned a bit red. “He's asking us if these are the new female slaves you’ve collected.”

Zu An’s face darkened. “Tell him about your identities as the saintesses and see if you can find out what Donaire needs them for.”

Suolun Shi nodded slightly. She continued to talk with the True Demon Emissary.

Zu An used the chance to explain the situation to the other women through ki. They were also really grateful that Suolun Shi was here. However, when they heard that they'd been mistaken for female slaves, all of their eyes shifted toward Jiang Luofu.

When she saw that even Ji Xiaoxi was even looking at her, Jiang Luofu also couldn't help but feel a bit embarrassed. However, now wasn’t the time to act up.

Soon after, Suolun Shi said, “This True Demon is named Adiljan, and he's Donaire’s trusted aide. Donaire left him here to be ready to receive him at any time. He sensed the formation’s changes and helped us hide its activity. That’s why he dared to come over here.”

“Hide?” Zu An repeated, noticing something odd about what she was saying.

Suolun Shi explained, “I pretended not to know and asked. Judging from what he's saying, everything in this entire underground city is being monitored, since the various formations need a huge amount of ki stones to operate. Everything on the surface of this world has already been destroyed and lacks ki stones, which is why private use of formations is strictly prohibited. So, any usage has to be reported before the allotted quality will be distributed.”

Zu An finally understood why Donaire had gone through so much risk to install the large-scale transport formation outside. The activity that kind of interstellar transportation device could generate wouldn’t be something a single subordinate could control.

“What are the saintesses actually for?” Zu An asked.

Suolun Shi shook her head slightly. “I tried to find out more information about that, but he remained really guarded. It’s clear that he will only talk about these things with Donaire.”

Zu An felt a bit of a headache. He didn’t know the monster language at all! When he interacted with Donaire, he hadn’t sensed any language skills from the latter's body. He had tried to make contact with Adiljan too, but he hadn’t sensed any language skills he could learn either. Even if he didn’t have to worry about finding out the secret of the saintesses from Adiljan's mouth, he definitely needed to know the language when interacting with the Monster World later on.

Suolun Shi suddenly grew nervous. “He's confused as to why the young master hasn’t said anything this entire time!”