A manor that was neither big nor small, an unguarded and unattended entrance, a stream of low-level cultivators entering it but not leaving. With every step toward the supposed registration venue, Bai Qi and Ma Su found themselves even more unsure of what was happening.

Indeed, even if the festival, or just a single event, was to take place here, it was still abnormal for a renowned power to do it in such a way. No matter how reduced the scale of the occasion could be, not even a destitute 4th-tier would lower themselves to such a level, and the [Delicate Forest Palace] was anything but a low-tier power or close to being poor!

{Standing around will not help us in any way. Should we go and look more closely?} While the display before his eyes made Bai Qi doubt what was going on, he still retained the plan of attempting to approach someone from the Palace.

{Should I go first? It may be some ploy, though I can not fathom anyone risking doing anything in the name of the [Palace], not on their doorstep, and definitively not in [Baoshi Hua], a 3rd-tier power itself!} Even if she didn't believe it possible, Ma Su still offered to go first, considering that as a Warrior King, she would be fairly safe, no matter what was happening.

{No, I trust that you are right about the Palace status around here, and while it is unannounced, we overheard people talking about it on the way here. So it should be the truth.} There was no need to continue the thought, as indeed, Ma Su was correct. No one but something even more influential could fake something in the name of the Palace, one of the most renowned 2nd-tier powers and supposedly the richest in the entire region.

{A teleportation layout!} As soon as Bai Qi stepped into the manor's gates, he felt several formations activating, but while the scanning ones were nothing surprising, a teleportation one was very much so. After all, while it was elemental, connected to a single place, and short range, to have one specifically made and now keep it active for dozens over dozens of cultivators was equivalent in cost to buy a small city!

A breath later, Bai Qi found himself standing on an enormous plaza, with hundreds of cultivators visible in every direction and nearly a dozen Warrior King auras perceptible even without releasing his senses.

While to others, Bai Qi looked in a state similar to the Warrior Lords around, surprised and taken aback by the sudden teleportation and the change in scenery, his glancing around had nothing to do with either. During his original life Bai Qi had seen things far more surprising, and some formations could not surprise him.

Ma Su had been following him a single step from behind, and as they teleported, he felt her presence near, but now he couldn't sense her, at least close by!

***

Bai Qi was no saint - the actions taken against Ma Su during their first meeting demonstrated this. And yet, he always took pride in not abandoning his companions, no matter the situation or even his personal feelings. Now, with Ma Su missing, Bai Qi cared nothing about the event or else, all of his self dedicated to her disappearance.

Thoughts flying as shooting stars, Bai Qi made theory after theory, discarding each as he analyzed his surroundings.

The first two, most logical in such a setting, were quickly scrapped, his perception, even with retracted senses, catching on two Warrior Kings standing on the plaza, not away from it as the other seven presences he could feel.

Looking around and noticing only males, Bai Qi's mind threw another theory. But a moment later, as a young girl appeared through teleportation just some feet away from him, it would also be discarded.

Affiliation, prowess, looks, and everything else that Bai Qi could think of? They would be considered and then discarded in a similar way. And even his initial thoughts about the Palace singling out Ma Su and then forcefully retaining her would be; A nearby commotion proving him wrong, making him aware that there was no actual check to the users of the array-like formation that had brought him and everyone else here, to this enormous stone-inlaid plaza.

Paying the barest attention to the shouting close by, just enough to overhear the reason, Bai Qi returned to his thinking, caring nothing about the uproar caused by some known criminal appearing. Though he would not have a chance to spend much time reflecting on the matter, being forcefully brought out of his state by the start of an announcement, one that, while calmly pronounced, carried such weight and hidden force that even someone like Bai Qi, with all of his enhancements and boons from his previous life, felt goosebumps surface over all of his body.

"I both thank and congratulate everyone who found, connected, and followed the few clues left by us to arrive here, the lands of our [Delicate Forest Palace]. With the required number here, the seven teleportation formations are now closed, and no one but the brave and fortunate to be here will be receiving one of the spots for the [Martial Path of Herbs] event of this unexpected and nearly unannounced [Sword and Herb] festival." Speaking calmly, as if relating some known fact, the slightly hoarse female voice filled the entirety of everyone's mind, overwhelming senses and any defenses with pure raw power, one that, while concealed and held back, was still enough to send several people to the floor, so much pressure, willingly or not, it carried.

With Bai Qi as an exception, taking only a couple of breaths to recover from the shocking pressure, the voice would continue, speaker unseen, only after some twenty breaths, the average for the average Warrior Lord to regain their bearings, "Now, in the name of the [Delicate Forest Palace], I, Hudie Xiuying, welcome you today."

***

The opening words of Hudie Xiuying, the [Brave Hairstreak], Head Elder and leader of the Elder Council behind the [Delicate Forest Palace], had been laced with power and had driven Bai Qi out of his meditative state. Yet, for the rest of the announcement, he barely felt anything, his superior mind quickly adapting to the unseeable pressure of a peak Warrior Emperor.

Granted, he earnestly listened to each of the unexpected host's words, but neither of them had been far from what he himself guessed to be the reason for such an event, nor were they weighty enough to make him forget about his interrupted thoughts - Ma Su!

And indeed, what about the half-hour-long discourse about the war, the efforts every power should make, the need for healing, the importance of herbs, and so on? And the following speech? It was very well planned and able to amaze anyone, indeed. But, it would be anyone but an experienced tactician and warrior. Especially if the latter had spent hundreds of years traveling around planes, taking part in more wars than any of the long-lived elders from the [Sky Tear] plane could imagine!

The only moment, or words, to which Bai Qi paid attention would be a single proclamation made by the so-well-known peak Empress, "With the cowardly aggressors, the so-called [Demon Worshippers], specializing in Yin-element methods, the Palace has decided to use our precious [Sixty-three wing flaps of the Fairy] to hasten the growth of all and each Yang-element herb. Herbs that now, you all courageous participants have the duty to collect."

While not explaining much, these few words were enough for Bai Qi to confirm several things.

First, as he suspected, the event was one to gather herbs for the war.

Second, the reason for the event to be nearly open, Yang-element herbs.

And the third? It was the most probable explanation for Ma Su missing here on the plaza.

Yang herbs weren't so rare, but like their counterpart, the Yin-element herbs, they had several qualities and requirements. From which one of the main ones would be that only beings close to the element could pick them up. On this latter, with the Yang element being function and considered dry, hot, and active while also serving as the male part of the all-encompassing Yin and Yang?

Scanning the only female near him, confirming she was a fire-element bloodline cultivator, Bai Qi guessed why Ma Su wasn't with him; Indeed, even if overlooking her sex, her entire cultivation method was related to the Yin, the moon, and the so-well-known interpretation of the latter - the Jade stone.

While his assumed causes for Ma Su's disappearance and the timing of such an event perfectly answered the questions he asked himself, Bai Qi still doubted if to play along with all of this, even as following the finishing words - "...everyone who managed to make their way here is entitled to participate, your rights to do so confirmed as soon as you touch the stele on the center of the plaza." - the said stele, a huge ninety-six feet tall wooden obelisk, appeared just some hundred of feet from his spot.

And as everyone rushed towards the enormous construct that had appeared from thin air, nearly as if it was there before, Bai Qi stood still, inwardly debating if he should actually register or not, His unwillingness to go along with some prepared event didn't even shake as the same pressure-filled voice from before added, spurning everyone, even the ones waiting for some reason, as Bai Qi, to rush towards the stele with renewed energy, "While everyone present is entitled, there are only a thousand and one spots, for all of you seven thousand valiant souls!"

***

Between the inner deliberations and the reasons at hand, no one could say if Bai Qi would simply skip over the chance to register, sit there until this part of the event concluded, and then just attempt to contact the Palace directly. Heavens, even he himself had no idea if it would be so.

And yet, as an undistinct female voice, with neither pressure nor any qualities to latch on, reached the count of seven hundred registered participants, showing no concern for either pushing or scuffles ongoing near the approach to the stele, Bai Qi suddenly rushed towards the latter. And he didn't run or in hurried as the others but invoked his lightning qi, over-infusing the so-apt named [Arrow Flight] movement technique, and reaching an impossible speed, crossed the hundred feet separating him from his objective instantly, not caring about who he pushed, displaced, ran off, or even hurt during his abrupt hurry.

"Participant 701, registered." Following Bai Qi's palm landing on the stele, uncaring about the path he cleaved or the nearby Warrior Lords jerking back from the sudden and risky release of qi caused by Bai Qi's technique dispel, the same female voice from before announced...

Anyone but Bai Qi himself could only wonder what had propelled him to take such an abrupt action, but for him? For him, it was clear as the sky above the plaza. And indeed, what else could he do but quickly assure his spot when this untitled and unknown announcer voice had entered his mind just a moment before, explaining that while Ma Su's charges were dropped as she got expelled from the [Delicate Forest Palace], it had not guaranteed her safety on return?!

While Bai Qi was unclear, himself, on how or what to consider Ma Su, the point about her being one of his people still stood, and he didn't think much as he launched towards the stele, not caring about anything but guaranteeing himself a spot, even to the expense of others.

Was it the right action to take? Would such a path attract nothing but enmity from the other participants? Did Bai Qi's reasoning derail because of his newfound path as a ruler? Not even he could answer, not then, and not now...

And yet, he did it, and as the lightning-infused qi surge, having pushed or even singed the surrounding cultivators, died off, Bai Qi didn't feel anything but rising anger,

A few moments later, though, Bai Qi had calmed enough to control and then control the qi-surge provoked by his movement skill. Even his mental state, if one could read it, would appear calm, at least if the one to read wouldn't be able to break through his nearly Warrior Emperor mind defenses and see his only thought at that moment,