Chapter 2320: Another Path

When he saw Salamay, Zu An gave the distant mountain peak a look. He wondered if Manman and the others were safe.

“Why aren’t you replying to what the first miss asked yet?” Mojard looked at him coldly.

Zu An calmly replied, “The first miss and I have a cooperative relationship; I am not her subordinate. I must ask your respected self to ease up on the formalities.”

“You...!” Mojard was furious. “You’re courting death!”

You have successfully trolled Mojard for +444 +444 +444...

Then, a powerful pressure erupted from his body.

But a second later, Salamay placed her hand on his shoulder. “Uncle Mo, please don’t be angry. What the young master says is correct. We're just fellow cooperators.”

When he felt her touch, Mojard immediately pulled back the pressure. He immediately reacted when he heard the first miss’ private ki transmission. This was the True Demon clan’s territory. If the True Demons' great elder came, that would be a difficult situation to clean up.

Salamay greeted Zu An and said, “Young master, please excuse us for that hiccup. The main reason for our frustration is the disappearance of a few important colleagues of ours. Uncle Mo was feeling a bit restless as a result, so that was why his way of speaking was overly rigid. Don't take it to heart.”

Mojard harrumphed. If even the first miss was speaking like this, he naturally wouldn’t make her lose face.

“Are the colleagues you're talking about the Mad King and the Green Iguana King?” Zu An had a weird expression.

“How did the young master know?” Salamay was stunned. Even Mojard gave him a look of surprise.

“That's because I've just returned from the Monster Lord’s palace. I personally saw him kill them,” Zu An said calmly.

“What?!” Salamay and Mojard’s expressions changed greatly. Those two were clearly extremely important to them.

Zu An then gave them a rough account of what happened.

“Our pitiful brothers... The Monster Lord is too cruel!” Mojard cursed furiously. He looked extremely moved.

Salamay took a deep breath before finally managed to calm herself down. She gave Zu An a suspicious look. “Even they were killed, so why is the young master fine?”

Mojard’s face darkened when he heard these words, and he walked over to the other side of Zu An. He was ready to attack at a moment’s notice.

Zu An gave her a surprised look. “Why would anything happen to me? I just met with you guys. No matter how good the Monster Lord’s information network is, he shouldn’t have found out that quickly, right?”

Salamay had a relieved smile as she said, “What the young master said makes sense. It was the two of us who overreacted.”

Mojard wanted to say something, but when he saw the gesture the first miss made, he swallowed those words back down.

“However, it does seem like a bit too much of a coincidence. The Monster Lord executed those two before you. I wonder what the intention behind that was.” Even though Salamay was smiling, her eyes were flickering with other thoughts.

“Killing the chicken to warn the monkeys, I reckon. He wanted to do that to warn me not to become disloyal,” Zu An replied.

“Then what has the Monster Lord asked of you?” Salamay suddenly asked.

Zu An replied, “To help him open up a path to the Monster World, of course.”

Salamay became quiet for a moment. Then, she said, “Young master, there is something I'm very curious about. The Monster Lord still has the advantage, and he just killed the Mad King’s group. Why didn’t you use this chance to sell me out? The Monster Lord would have rewarded you greatly as a result.”

When he heard her say that, Mojard was shocked and quickly looked around. He sighed slightly in relief when he couldn't sense any other monsters waiting to ambush them.

Zu An hesitated for a moment before replying, “That’s right, if I had sold out the first miss at the time, there would be a good return indeed. However, the Monster Lord is very temperamental; heaven knows when he would rescind our cooperation and decide to just settle things on the spot. Besides, the Monster Lord’s end is already in sight. Why would I tie my fate to someone like him? I figured it would be more worthwhile to take a bit of risk and see if I could gamble my way to survival.”

Salamay was really happy to hear that. “The young master has penetrating insight, as expected. I misunderstood you earlier, and I offer my apologies here.”

“The first miss speaks too modestly.” Zu An gestured for her to stand back up.

Salamay then continued, “We will definitely not let the young master down for placing your trust in us here.”

Zu An naturally didn’t treat these words with much importance; he said, "I'm still entrusting the matter of the Monster Lord’s treasury to the first miss.”

Salamay voiced her agreement. “The Mad King and Green Iguana King’s deaths have affected our progress, but you don't need to worry. I'll get access to the storehouse as quickly as possible and will contact you then.”

Zu An nodded, then pretended to ask nonchalantly, “By the way, when do you need those Demon race saintesses?”

Salamay had a look of surprise on her face when she heard that, but she quickly covered it up. “They can just stay with you for now. Just remember that they can't lose their purity.”

Zu An felt ice-cold inside. At first, he had been worried that the Monster Lord was just deliberately driving a wedge between them, but it turned out to have been true. It seemed like there was no way to reconcile this conflict of interest with Salamay after all.

They spoke for a while longer before Zu An excused himself.

When they saw him leave, Mojard walked up to Salamay. “First miss, do you truly trust him?”

“So what if I trust him, and so what if I don’t?” Salamay chuckled. “Whether he's loyal or a spy, it’s enough as long as he does what we need him to do.”

Mojard was full of admiration. “The first miss is wise!”

...

Meanwhile, Zu An returned to the cave dwelling. He saw that Ji Xiaoxi was nervously watching the entrance. She was really shy, but she bravely held her weapon while craning her neck to look outside. Zu An felt warm inside.

Xiaoxi really is cute. Whenever I see her, I want to give her a hug.

“Big brother Zu is back!” Ji Xiaoxi was extremely excited when she saw Zu An.

The other women rushed out when they heard the news. All of them surrounded him, concerned that he could have been injured or maimed.

“Don’t worry, I’m fine.” Zu An then shared everything that had just happened with them.

When they heard that the powerful Mad King and Green Iguana King had died just like that, the women's faces paled. That Monster Lord’s strength really was profound and mysterious. But they felt even more admiration for Zu An’s quick reactions, as well as the fact that he'd been able to avert disaster in that kind of a situation.

When they heard that Salamay was actually preparing to use them as blood sacrifices, however, all of them gasped.

“This Salamay really is treacherous and sinister. She was talking about cooperating with you, but she already planned to scheme against you a long time ago!” Yun Yuqing couldn't help but curse.

Jiang Luofu frowned. “What I'm more worried about right now is that what you said to Salamay earlier might have already exposed your identity. She might already have guessed that you're a fake Donaire.”

Xie Daoyun said quietly, “It’s probably not that bad, right? Big brother Zu made up for it a bit. Salamay might have concluded that she misunderstood.”

When he sensed the women's worries, Zu An said, “We don’t need to care if she trusts me or not. She needs me right now, and that’s enough.”

The women nodded. They admired this calm and collected side of him.

Pei Mianman couldn't help but ask, “What do we do now? Could it be that we really have to help the Monster Lord deal with Salamay? If Salamay’s side is defeated, we’ll be losing their side's ability to keep the Monster Lord in check.”

That was what the women were all most worried about. The current situation was quite awful.

Zu An said seriously, “Judging from the information we currently have, the Monster Lord can easily get rid of Salamay’s side. That would be true regardless of whether we help or not. What I don't understand is why the Monster Lord is letting them do as they please, and why he even wants me to help her with her plans.”

Suolun Shi was surprised. “There is definitely a vital piece of information that we still don’t have!”

Zu An nodded. “That’s right. So far, we've been swimming around in the circles that the Monster Lord and Salamay have set up. No matter what we do, everything will still be within their control. What we need to do is to jump out of the plots they've designed and open up an alternative path.”

“Did you already think of a way, big brother Zu?” Ji Xiaoxi blinked. She felt as if she was back on the mountain, exploring with him. Back then, this was exactly how he'd looked when he had a plan in advance.