Chapter 2353: Destruction is Easier than Creation

“This is just a precaution to ensure safe transport later.” Zu An’s words immediately interrupted Salamay’s order.

“Precaution?” Salamay’s expression turned cold. “You’ve caused such a disturbance that the Monster Lord will definitely come here to investigate, and yet you’re still calling it a precaution?”

She’d already received warnings from the hidden sentries she placed in the surroundings, sying that palace emissaries were already coming here to investigate.

Zu An chuckled. He pointed at the giant transport formation around him and said in an unhurried manner, “When this kind of world-crossing transport formation is activated, it will inevitably create a disturbance. The Monster Lord will definitely be able to sense it then. Meanwhile, there will be a delay between the activation of the formation and the actual transportation. If the Monster Lord attacks us in that time, we might not be able to reach our destination and might even get stuck in the void.”

Salamay’s expression changed. She knew that what Zu An was saying was true. Still, she asked, “But wouldn’t this kind of noise draw the Monster Lord here sooner?”

As soon as she finished her sentence, the world shook intensely. Cracks appeared in the dome of the underground city.

When they felt the encroaching power of destruction, all of the monsters present were horrified. Over the course of thousands of years, this terrifying power had already been carved deeply into their very bones.

“The energy of the Annihilation Beast!” the True Demon elder cried out, his face pale.

Even Salamay’s side was trembling. There were traces of fear and despair in their eyes.

Salamay looked up into the air. She quickly noticed the Monster Lord rushing upward from the distant palace and was surprised. She gave Zu An a look and asked, “Was all of this your doing?”

“That’s right.” Zu An nodded. He looked at the distant Monster Lord with a calm expression.

This underground city was the last bastion of the Monster World, which was why its defensive ability was also unprecedented. Zu An had looked around it whenever he had time. With his knowledge of formations, he had quickly seen that there was an ultra-large-scale formation that wrapped around the entire underground city. It not only fended off the destructive power outside, but also cut off the aura of the entire underground city so the Annihilation Beast couldn’t discover it.

He had spent quite some time thinking about how to completely get rid of the potential future disaster that was the Monster World. Even though the Monster World was already on death’s door, there were still countless powerful cultivators still here, let alone the most powerful of them all, the Monster Lord. If there were a frontal clash here, Zu An’s side would have no chance of survival at all.

Additionally, he’d unexpectedly learned that the Monster Lord knew he was a fake the entire time, but pretended otherwise the entire time. The Monster Lord was clearly scheming something even greater. Unfortunately, Zu An was never able to figure out just what exactly that was.

In that case, he’d just destroy everything. That way, he wouldn’t have to worry about the Monster Lord’s schemes anymore. And the easiest way to destroy this underground city was simply to borrow the power of the Annihilation Beast outside. As long as he could destroy the underground city’s defensive formation, the power of destruction would naturally rush in. The Annihilation Beast would also soon notice this place. Once it arrived, this entire world would be completely destroyed.

But how could it be that easy to destroy the underground city’s defensive formation? It was extremely large-scale, and it was the very lifeline of this Monster World’s survival. That was why its security was highly prioritized and comprehensive. The important formation nodes were all heavily guarded, and there were other formations used to protect these spots. If an attempt was made, the attacker likely wouldn’t even be able to destroy those protective formations before the palace emissaries and even the Monster Lord could find and kill them.

Furthermore, the entire formation’s core was hidden deep in the castle where the Monster Lord personally oversaw it. Many guards and palace emissaries patrolled the palace, not allowing anyone near.

Zu An could have changed his appearance and snuck inside, but if he’d done that, no one would be working on the transport formation outside. Without a way out, even if they succeeded in destroying this formation, it would be game over whether it was the Monster Lord or Annihilation Beast that went after them.

That was why he and the women had devised this plan. As someone who had already held a position of high authority for a long time, he understood well how other authority figures thought. No matter how much they claimed to trust their subordinates, they still made sure to have certain special methods of control. For instance, if a great army went out to battle, their family and children had to remain in the capital, and so on.

Furthermore, the Monster Lord already knew that Zu An wasn’t actually Donaire. He could even already know Zu An’s true identity. That meant he definitely needed some way to keep Zu An under control. And what, in this entire underground city, could be a better form of control than Pei Mianman and the other women?

Everything had gone the way Zu An anticipated. The Monster Lord had sent people to take the women into the palace as hostages, which provided them with the chance to approach the formation core.

Destruction was far easier than creation! Even with Zu An’s current skill in formations, he likely still wouldn’t be able to make a massive formation like this. But if all he needed to do was destroy the huge formation, that would be much easier.

Even though the formations in the palace had many strong cultivators guarding them, Zu An was now proficient in the Secrets of Spatial Distortion, and he’d made some special formations that let him influence the balance of the formation core without making direct contact. Once the balance of the core was broken, problems would happen across the entire defensive formation. The terrifying destructive power outside would then have a chance of getting in. At that time, the entire underground city would be brought to the brink of collapse. No matter how many schemes the Monster Lord had, he wouldn’t have the leisure to carry them out.

Of course, the special formations Zu An had made couldn’t be placed too far from the formation core. Someone had to enter the palace. Meanwhile, Pei Mianman and the others had just been invited into the palace as hostages, which made things much easier. Naturally, just in case, the formation discs he’d given the women were each one part of the whole, and they had all been disguised as personal items. That made it harder for others to find out that they were formation discs.

Now, it seemed as if Pei Mianman and the others had successfully completed their plan.

Salamay was shocked and furious, exclaiming, “You actually chose to destroy this entire underground city to hold him up?!”

She’d wanted to save her father to make him the king of this world again. But if there was no world once he came back, wouldn’t everything become meaningless?

Even the True Demon elders’ expressions changed. They wondered whether to immediately contact their clansmen so they could be transported away together.

Zu An took in their reactions. He explained with a smile, “The first miss is worrying too much. How powerful is the great formation of this underground city, after all, and how could I destroy such a thing so easily? With the Monster Lord repairing it, the entire underground city should be fine.”

This transport formation could only carry a limited number of people, so he naturally couldn’t let them do whatever they wanted.

“Is that so? But it doesn’t seem like a small matter to me,” Salamay said skeptically.

She looked at the dome and saw blazing meteor-like objects crash down from it. There were screams and wails everywhere, as if it was the end of the world. She knew they weren’t meteors, but rather magma from deep underground. In order to hide from the Annihilation Beast, the entire city had been built deep in the planet’s core. There was naturally magma all around them. There were only burning stones falling, but a rain of fire could soon ensue.

Zu An smiled. “Is it that you don’t have enough confidence in the Monster Lord and countless geniuses, or do you have too much confidence in me?”

Salamay figured that what he said made sense. A great formation that condensed the knowledge of countless generations of geniuses couldn’t be destroyed this easily. That would make less sense.

“In that case, we should hurry and leave. Otherwise, if the Monster Lord realizes what’s going on, we won’t be able to leave anymore,” she said, then ordered her subordinates to supply the formation with energy according to Zu An’s instructions.

Jiang Luofu gave the monsters a look.

Ah Zu’s mouth can fool others to death without having to pay a thing himself…

After all, their plan was indeed to completely destroy this entire underground city. Not even genius formation masters could achieve such a thing, but Zu An and Xie Daoyun were the cream of the crop in this field. The two had learned the Secrets of Spatial Distortion in a single night and already come up with a rough outline of this plan.

Jiang Luofu really wondered just how they had learned all of this that night, allowing them to come up with such an ingenious method.

Indeed, destruction was easier than creation.