"What's happening?" Bai Qi mulled as he sensed that he transferred outside the zone, but there was still a formation surrounding him. He tried opening his eyes, but the only thing he could see was the formation's golden light. He could not hear anything either, and his senses were locked.

A few moments later, he felt that the formation was scanning him, and he understood what was happening. Not that it was something he expected, but thankfully he was prepared for something of this sort anyway.

"Well, it seems that Senior Wu was right, Sheng Huangye is far from being a good person" Bai Qi thought as he felt the formation forcefully scan both his body and Void Ring.

After some time, he felt that another formation had activated, and as the scanning one dispersed, he found himself surrounded by a teleporting one in turn.

Bai Qi could resist, and he was aware of how to. But he did not, as there was only one candidate for ordering something like this. Not to mention that Grandmaster Li's scent was one of that he knew, and both formations were of his doing.

***

"I am sorry for this, but Lord Sheng requires an update right away. There had been several incidents in the city during these last days. And the Lord is sure that they have something to do with the Underground Land of the River events" Grandmaster Li's youthful face appeared right in front of Bai Qi. He explained in a slightly apologetic tone as he clarified about the specially prepared formation.

"Oh, I perfectly understand, Grandmaster. And in truth, it may be for the better. Some of the things that I will report require immediate action" Bai Qi made a worried expression and quickly agreed. Inwardly, he snidely remarked - "And let's forget the other formation. The one made to examine the contents of everyone's storage or void rings".

Bai Qi did not show any emotion, but he inwardly acknowledged that Wu Ren had been correct in his assessment. After all, if they were just worried to get the reports quickly, why was a Warrior Emperor in the room as well? And not just any of them, but the Guard Commander Lord Shou, who from Bai Qi's findings was the most loyal of them all. "So if I had found something too precious, refused to cooperate, or discovered something that should not be..."

***

The storage scanning formation had affected Bai Qi's initial plan of dosing his reports in a more secure and probably rewarding method. Thankfully, the 'Devastating God of Fire' was in his void pool, and normal Sage realms could not control it. And even if a formation had tried to look inside it, Bai Qi had taken enough precautions to avoid such a thing after getting the 'Insight Heart' from the surprise barrel.

He did not feel anything about losing the chance to haggle some more rewards from the City Lord either, as Zhen Zexi's puppets' ransom would perfectly cover that. So when he was led to a meeting room from the basement he had been transported to, Bai Qi feigned a servile expression and immediately bowed to the only man present, Sheng Huangye.

"Chen Guang greets Shuomen City Lord"

"Mmm, you can drop the formalities. I take that Grandmaster Li told you that a few things happened, but to avoid incorrect connections, report everything from your side first" Sheng Huangye waved his hand in a magnanimous gesture. But did not offer any of the seats to Bai Qi, which was enough indication about his views.

"Understood. So after we entered the Zone, and I reached the 'Underground Forest'..." Bai Qi did not break out of character and quickly began explaining.

***

The explanation took longer than expected, as Sheng Huangye stopped Bai Qi's retelling several times. First to confirm a few details, and then for sending a few orders via message talismans.

It was no mystery on what orders they were, as Bai Qi had explained, and even presented the two corpses, Hu Mu and Ke Liuxian, as well as revealed the information he had gathered.

Bai Qi avoided lying, mainly operating with the truth and only slightly changing two events. As well as avoiding another one that could generate questions he did not want to answer.

The first change was a few details in the fight against Hu Mu. Bai Qi avoided mentioning much of his combat methods and only concentrated on Hu Mu's ones.

He also made more information escape Hu Mu's lips during the fight. Mainly to avoid showing his conclusions or findings, simply presenting them as something that had been in the open. The fact of him being a 'Heavenly Blood Clan' member and coming her with an elder was there. So what use would have the City Lord knowing how did Bai Qi get all of that?

The second change was similar, with him omitting the mind searching spells, and just saying that the Ke clan youngsters revealed everything on their own. And again, the information was true, so why would the City Lord need to know about Bai Qi's true abilities?

As for what Bai Qi had omitted entirely, it was everything related to Zhen Zexi's true task. The City Lord would know about the 'God' sets if not even own one of them. Adding the fact that even if he did not care about the remaining sets, which was already a far-fetched idea, he would definitively be not glad about the Zhen clan's plans. And although Bai Qi did not care about the clan itself, he did not want to provoke its destruction either.

"I can only say that I am truly amazed about your actions. Not only you did complete the task assigned to you, but also found and stopped another incident. It is a shame that two people died" Seeing Bai Qi's questioning expression, the City Lord briefly stopped as to recall something and added "Su Yawen was one, but there was another girl that died, probably at the hands of that Hu Mu as well. Geng Xinya, a disciple for one of our guest elders. She had a strong soul because of a special bloodline, and so she should have been one of the Blood Clan targets"

He then continued from where he had stopped previously "As I said, a shame, but you had no way to know without being aware of every participant. Still, you avenged her, so that's good enough"

Before continuing with a but, and Bai Qi felt that it would be a but indeed, Lord Sheng motioned for him to sit. Only starting to speak as Bai Qi did.

"But what I do not understand at all, are the reasons behind your actions towards the Ke clansmen. And of less importance, but still, something that I want to know, is why did you spare and even help Zhen Zexi?"

"If the Lord permits, let me get the latter out of the way first" Bai Qi slightly inclined his head in a questioning manner and only began talking after Lord Sheng nodded.

In cases like the ones with Zhen Zexi, the easiest way out would be to show some ulterior motive. And so, Bai Qi did, simply explaining that as he saw Mao Xun being attacked and intervened, he acted purely under the orders of preventing bloodshed. Still, killing a 12-year-old genius, and here Bai Qi did not lie at all, just for that incident appeared to him as something stupid.

Then as the Lord was about to ask the reasons behind Bai Qi's reasoning, Bai Qi sheepishly smiled and added that some valuables had helped him to decide far easier.

"So you accepted a bribe?" Lord Sheng feigned a bit of anger, but his eyes delated his true thoughts. And they were nothing else than a mix of relief and disappointment.

The first was obviously about Bai Qi's lack of involvement with other powers, as for the other one... "Can it be that he does want the city powers to fight between themselves? Well, sorry to break your plans" Bai Qi inwardly smirked.

"When the Lord puts it like that, it indeed sounds bad. Still, I did truly have the intention to solve the problem without provoking any big incident. So when I was offered some valuables for talking it out with Mao Xun, I just took them for granted" Bai Qi shrugged with the same half-embarrassed smile.

As for the Ke clan issue, Bai Qi had already prepared an explanation. He had even prepared several reasons on why leaving them alive was far better than killing them. And after listening to everything, Sheng Huangye was forced to accept that Bai Qi's thoughts were correct.

The formation only opened and closed every five years and had not many changes inside it. Killings were also forbidden, and so the insides should be considered safe. At least when there were no Demon Worshippers or traitors around. Still, the challenges were hard, and one could run out of qi, or have other issues. Not to mention the lack of any established area to rest and recover.

All of that, even the bad-intentioned plans, could be solved by having loyal people inside. The Ke clan may have been enemies and traitors, but the youngsters had not done anything but follow their orders. And their state of being forced to live inside until they died from old age was punishment enough.

So when Bai Qi simply stated that they could be used to help, guide, and even protect the City cultivators as an added penance, Sheng Huangye approved. Even promising to send some materials for a base, and some supplies during the next time the zone opened.

"Anything else you would want to add? Or comment?" Sheng Huangye wasn't hiding that he was keeping Bai Qi here until the soldiers he had tasked to confirm his information returned. Still, he did want to hear Bai Qi's thoughts and opinions.

"Well, if the City Lord could excuse me for the harshness" Bai Qi waited until Sheng Huangye nodded, and then explained his overall take on the participants.

"Greenhouse flowers? Lack of any ability to think for themselves? Not even a single worry about the others? That's indeed harsh, but I will have to agree with you, at least from the actions you described" Sheng Huangye nodded and then suddenly asked, "And what about Sheng Feng?"

Bai Qi knew that the guy would try to wind up a story and paint him as the bad guy, but he could not directly say everything that he thought about the moron either. Thus, Bai Qi resorted to the lightest words possible, "He overlooked the overall picture and so wanted to kill the Ke clansmen right away, even without interrogating them. But probably it was the stress of the moment, so I can not say much. We did not interact further after the incident either, so if the Lord excuses me, the only words that I would say would be inexperienced and vindictive"

***

It was only an hour later after Bai Qi had even repeated some things and they sat in silence that some people entered the room. Surprisingly, it wasn't just soldiers, but directly the entire close council of the Lord.

They did not speak much, and in turn, used qi transmissions. And even though Bai Qi could not intercept them without being discovered, the emotions on their faces painted him the overall picture. One that was confirmed just a few moments later, as he was sent out of the room with a brief explanation.

"You did well, and probably you are tired. Return to your residence, and I will see that you are rewarded somewhat more for your trouble. A couple of my guards will accompany you for now, as some of the people you named were not found yet"

"Understood. With your permission then, City Lord, Lords, Lady" Bai Qi slightly bowed and exited the room, closing the door behind him while thinking "It's time for me to leave the City, and preferably somewhere far. Visiting everyone was a good plan, but it has to wait lest I want to involve them in the trouble"