“Leave the palace?” The Monster Lord frowned.
Zu An explained, “If the lord stays in the palace, there just doesn’t seem to be any opportunity for me to help Salamay save Mojard. Even if they did save Mojard, Salamay and Mojard would definitely suspect that it was the lord deliberately letting them leave, and then they would suspect me too. But if the lord just didn’t happen to be in the palace when they saved Mojard, it would make much more sense.”
The Monster Lord grinned. “That’s right. You’ve thought things through quite thoroughly. Then when do you think I should leave?”
Zu An thought for a bit. “How about the evening two days from now?”
The Monster Lord nodded. “A good choice. That way, it won’t be too slow, nor will it be so fast that it draws Salamay’s suspicion. Then, let's go with the evening two days from now.”
“I wish to thank the lord for helping me succeed.” Zu An then asked to test the waters, “I wonder what the lord wants me to do after gaining Salamay’s trust?”
“I already said you were to help them save the Lord of Slaughter. As for what comes after, I will tell you when the time comes,” the Monster Lord said indifferently.
“Understood!” Zu An replied. He was getting even more confused now, but he couldn't show it.
…
When he returned to the cave dwelling, the women all sighed in relief. “Ah Zu is brilliant after all! You were able to return safely.”
“It was just through a fluke. I still haven’t figured out what the Monster Lord is really planning, and that makes me a bit uneasy.” There wasn’t a trace of pride on Zu An’s face.
Yun Yuqing said in confusion, “If the Monster Lord and Salamay both trust you, they should be able to easily complete this task together. Isn’t that a good thing?”
Zu An shook his head. “That’s just a facade. If we don’t know what the Monster Lord is plotting, and he decides to move his plan forward all of a sudden, it will be nearly impossible to make a comeback then.”
Pei Mianman remarked, “Ah Zu, aren’t you worrying a bit too much? There’s not enough information right now, so it’s not surprising at all that we can’t figure this out. Besides, you're currently also the True Demon race’s young master. The Monster Lord’s enemies are definitely the Lord of Slaughter, Salamay, and the Annihilation Beast. Why would he pay that much attention to you? This will only make you even safer.”
Jiang Luofu also chimed in. “That’s right. Your Myriad Transformations skill is just too incredible; we can’t even see any flaws in it. How could the Monster Lord notice anything? You’ve been too tense recently and need to rest for a bit. You shouldn’t be so nervous.”
“I hope that's the case.” Indeed, Zu An felt he had been way too nervous recently. If he continued this way for too long, that would be too taxing. His thoughts would easily become sluggish.
Ji Xiaoxi offered, “Big brother Zu, why don’t I give you a head massage?”
As she spoke, she moved behind Zu An. Her slender and fine fingers rubbed his temples. She was an amazing doctor to begin with, and she cared a lot about Zu An, so she naturally poured in a hundred and twenty percent effort. Her finger glowed with a faint white light, and Zu An suddenly felt a cool sensation spread out from his head. His fatigue decreased considerably.
When Yun Yuqing saw that, she made a note to ask Xiaoxi to teach her the technique later. Then, she would help Zu An do this in private.
Pei Mianman’s face reddened. If it were just the two of them, she could let Ah Zu lie in front of her breasts.
He likes being massaged like that the most.
But right now, only Xiaoxi could be this intimate with him without looking strange.
This is so frustrating!
Her eyes shifted to Ji XIaoxi’s chest, which seemed unremarkable compared to her own. Only then did she feel a bit better. But she immediately felt ashamed that she had such thoughts…
Xie Daoyun gave Ji Xiaoxi an envious look. She and her big brother Zu had clearly experienced a lot together and even kissed, and yet she'd always just felt as if there was one last barrier she couldn't break down. It was really hard for them to act as natural together as Xiaoxi did with him.
Meanwhile, Suolun Shi had already managed to collect her thoughts. These other women all had a special relationship with her big brother Zu, while the two of them were just friends who were a bit closer than usual.
She sighed, and her thoughts returned to the topic at hand. “Big brother Zu, is it time for you to contact Salamay?”
“There’s no rush. She'll definitely become suspicious if I tell her that I’ve already dealt with the Monster King. We’ll have her wait two days,” Zu An said with a calm expression. However, he quickly opened his eyes and asked the women, “How far have you gone in the study of the jade strips?”
Pei Mianman felt a bit depressed as she said, “It’s like reading the edicts of heaven. Only Daoyun and Xiaoxi can understand them.”
Jiang Luofu was also a bit dejected. She was quite proud of the number of books she had read, but the formation knowledge of this world was just too profound, and she really couldn't figure it out. As for medicine, she didn’t know the various ingredients, so looking at that was a complete waste of time.
Ji Xiaoxi said excitedly, “With such a comprehensive set of manuals, I believe I can produce a poison that can defeat the monsters of this world soon!”
Zu An smiled. He gave her delicate cheeks a pinch. “Xiaoxi is really awesome.”
Meanwhile, Xie Daoyun said quietly, “There are actually many areas I don’t understand. No, I should say that I’ve understood almost none of it. The formations that are recorded here are entirely different from what I’ve learned. If it wasn’t for my intuition telling me that this was an extremely profound text, I would even wonder if Salamay was messing with you.”
“Oh? Let me take a look then.” Zu An was a bit surprised. After all, Xie Daoyun’s knowledge of formations was already extremely amazing. He had even passed on the formation knowledge from the Baopu Sutra before, so she should have already surpassed even him. After all, she specialized in this field to begin with, while he had many different things to learn.
As he spoke, he picked up the formation jade strips from Xie Daoyun’s hands. He tested out his Skill System, but then he was immediately frightened when he saw the string of 0s needed to learn the knowledge contained within.
This formation knowledge actually needed such a ridiculous amount of Rage points?
He quickly gave up on using the Skill System to learn it. The Monster Lord’s plans were still unknown, so he had to use his Rage points more sparingly. If he tried to understand the information himself and develop a foundation before using the Skill System, the amount of Rage points needed swould be greatly reduced.
Of course, he was more curious as to just what kinds of formations these were for them to require so many Rage points, and for not even Xie Daoyun to be able to understand them. His divine sense entered the jade strips, and formation knowledge entered his mind.
Secrets of Spatial Distortion!
This sounded exactly like the spatial transportation formation they needed the most right now.
At first, he hadn’t held high hopes, since Salamay had said that the best formation texts were in the palace treasury. He'd assumed that she only had some leftover books from her father’s reign. But when he saw the contents, Zu An immediately became serious.
Perhaps it was because Salamay didn’t really understand the contents, but the formation texts in the palace treasury likely couldn't even compare to this book. The formation theory that was contained within didn’t seem to be any inferior to that of the Baopu Sutra. More importantly, it explained spatial formations from a different perspective.
Normal spatial formation theories were formed from the basic runes - horizontal, left diagonal, vertical, larger dot, smaller dot, line, surface, and so on. However, this Secrets of Spatial Distortion suggested that even though most people saw things in terms of the passage of time, perhaps time was merely a concept people had added on themselves. If time didn’t exist, things within the universe wouldn’t move according to the passage of time, but rather had to be seen through a different perspective. Adopting that perspective would allow one to see a different world.
However, the two worlds actually formed an integrated whole. It all depended on which criteria one used to observe things. Each perspective contained its own unique information, so both of them had their own good points. Judging from what the ‘Secrets of Spatial Distortion’ said, even though the explanation was quite abstract, it would create an exceptional advantage if these theories were applied to spatial formations.
Zu An found this more and more familiar the more he read. Why did this all feel a bit similar to the Fourier transform he had learned in college? If he used frequency as the horizontal axis, the same target’s projection would become a more concise frequency domain…
This Secrets of Spatial Distortion was none other than another way of describing this world. Even though comparing ot with the Fourier transform wasn’t too accurate, as the various details were entirely different, the fundamental principles carried similarities…
With that as the foundation, Zu An was able to understand things much easier. Otherwise, it would’ve been too abstract.
When she saw how Zu An was sometimes focused and other times amazed, Xie Daoyun became extremely excited. “Big brother Zu, you can actually understand it?”
When she saw the others' weird looks, Xie Daoyun’s face reddened. She quickly said, “That’s… I didn't mean it that way.”
She felt extremely annoyed.
The way I spoke really made it sound as if I was looking down on big brother Zu.
As Zu An carefully read through the contents, he developed a rough understanding of the fundamentals of the Secrets of Spatial Distortion. The Skill System thus stated that he only needed 100,000 Rage points to fully understand it.
He sighed in relief and said, “Come to my room tonight. I’ll teach it to you.”
When they heard what he said, the women immediately widened their eyes in disbelief.