A few moments before meeting Wang Yating;

Bai Qi wasn't a good person, at least with all of his acts during both his current and past lives. Still, he was a true cultivator that no one could accuse of committing crimes, even if they were just rumors.

While very aware of the intentions of the people blocking his path and all of the possible retreat routes, he still first attempted to act as a junior should, even referring to Wang Yating, still unknown to him, as a senior. Though his intentions - inner, as he kept them hidden - were already clear to both him and Ma Su, he still would gain justification enough to act as he planned them to do.

Were Bai Qi's thoughts as their path was blocked, and he confirmed that no one could threaten him, not with Ma Su there.

Even having decided on following Bai Qi since the events preceding the [Void Palace] and having pleaded herself under the [Heavens] as a follower, without being asked, before the events in [Zihoadao], Ma Su still sucked in a breath of cold air as she arrived at the conclusion.

But no matter their thoughts, the result was there - with Ma Su's aura blocking the three Warrior Kings present, all of the Warrior Kings were left free, or so it could appear, at least until Bai Qi showed his own 6th level Warrior Lord aura, as well took out a high-tier Earth-tier treasured weapon, a King armament, the [Glaive of Desire] gifted to him.

"You!" While Ma Su's aura canceled her own and prevented her from acting, the two levels of difference and the deterrence of the rose-hued magnolias acting up, she still managed to sense the difference between the elites of her Warrior Lord [Blue Owl Alliance] and Bai Qi.

So she thought. But regretfully, for Wang Yating, she would have no way to advise her followers to flee, as she hadn't even finished shouting out her first word as Ma Su's aura suddenly came towards her with a crushing might, even forcing the so-proud leader of the [Alliance] to fall down to her knees, and then even to hug the ground while being unable even to send a qi-transmission, what to say about voicing out something.

{You sought this, so stay put and observe} A cold and detached, as it should be, though this time it felt more like the truth and not just an effect, qi-transmission entered her ears. Sent by Ma Su, the same one that as she pressured down her former senior also entirely froze the two Warrior Kings present.

And so, Wang Yating, someone who was still a Warrior King of some repute, even having over a hundred subordinates, would turn into nothing more than an observer. An observer to her elites, the best of the best among the members of the [Blue Owl Alliance] left into her care, one after another, killed as if nothing..!

While Ma Su had identified the ones attacking them, not that it was too hard for anyone knowledgeable about the area, especially with the blue-hued owls embroidered on the robes of the attackers, Bai Qi didn't care about either rank or standing. They had ambushed and surrounded him, and even after he treated them with respect, they refused to talk, and their leader sent the command to attack. Thus, they were enemies, ones that he could kill without any remorse. And most importantly, this was a situation that no observer and Bai Qi didn't doubt the existence of such, could later invert against him.

After all, Bai Qi still had nearly no official backing. Even if the [Void Palace] and the [Delicate Flower Palace] interjected for him, they would not place him in the same spot as their own geniuses, the same as [Shoumen] city. No matter Bai Qi's talent, he was still a rogue - someone who hadn't accepted to join any power. And so, he should, and he did, think of the image he presented. And indeed, between a rogue who could become the genius of their power and who committed no crime but being himself and an evildoer, who would the powerful of this world protect? Who would they try to rope inside their clans, sects, and palaces with all their strength?

Bai Qi inwardly smiled as his aura battled over control of territory, even with Ma Su's. So what to say about the Warrior Lords present - the so-called ambushers who were so scared that they hadn't even spoken a word since the beginning of the aura clash? The same ones that now stood there, fearful not only for their lives but also for the existence of their entire [Blue Owl Alliance].

***

Seeing that even the two 9th level Warrior Lords shivered and hadn't attempted anything, not to say about the other seventeen Warrior Lords of the so-called [Alliance], didn't dare to move, Bai Qi felt that he somewhat overdid it. Yet, what he had done couldn't be changed. Still, his intention to test his current strength, even against such crab generals and shrimp soldiers, was there. Thus, Bai Qi went out of her way to provoke them and even commanded Ma Su to stay off the battle between the nineteen Warrior Lords present and himself.

"No matter who wins in the battle among the Warrior Lords, the Warrior King seniors will not do anything, at least I will not. As for them, I doubt they can even dream about it. So, how about you try and win your lives? Or at least spar against him, and if you can at least wound him, leave unharmed." While Ma Su considered Bai Qi's challenge something that he could avoid - or, as she actually thought, stupid - she still supported him as soon as she saw that not even one of the nineteen dared to move against him.

"Is that the truth?!" A Warrior Lord of the 7th level, someone who had recently joined the [Blue Owl Alliance] after being kicked out of the [Watchers of the Underwood] because of an incident involving him and the daughter of an elder, had no plans to die for the [Alliance]. And while Bai Qi's aura appeared strong, he, a mere Warrior Lord, didn't comprehend the heaven-defying battlepower it held. And so felt it as nothing but an unexpectedly forceful 6th level one.

"It is." Both Ma Su and Bai Qi responded in unison.

"Then pardon my insolence!" Shouting this, the 7th level Warrior Lord's aura flared, and he summoned his own weapon before launching against Bai Qi.

One could say that the combination of a muscular man in his late twenties, a two-handed mace shaped after a golden bell adorned with snakes, a 2nd step in weapon mastery, and an aura more robust than average, was an impressive sight, coupled with the bravery to fight back in such a setting and the fact that he actually launched forward while releasing a martial skill that caused all of his body to glow golden as his weapon. All of that showed that he was not a coward nor talentless. Even Wang Yating, deep inside, wished for him to be able to beat Ba Qi, not to mention the others present.

Regretfully, it would not be enough to face Bai Qi. Or even to cross weapons with him - more than a single time.

*CLANG*

As the mace, reinforced by this opponent's unnamed martial skill, broke through air and aura while closing into Bai Qi, the latter didn't move. In fact, he didn't move at all - something that even Ma Su could testify about. It was simply that the glaive suddenly turned in Bai Qi's hand and blocked the strike, almost as if by itself.

*Shatter* *Blergh*

Following the clash between the weapons, everyone heard a shattering sound, which turned out to be nothing but the man's martial skill breaking, without Bai Qi even having to do anything! Even more, the man would take a couple of steps back, both his arms shivering from the sheer force of the impact, and even vomit blood as he dropped down to one knee!

"Impossible!" The few Warrior Lords that could do so exclaimed. And what else could they cry out about, where in front of them, a 6th level Warrior Lord, and with absolute ease blocked an attack, broke through a martial skill, and even wounded someone an entire level above him?!

"All of you, come together if you want a chance." Bai Qi was not so bloodthirsty as to go and kill everyone who crossed his path. But right now? He actually planned to do so.

After all, didn't the wise say [Killing a few to scare many]? Who, if not him, knew that where there was one ambush, others would follow? Who, if not him, knew that there would be no chance that the riches, even if no one saw them, that he obtained as the first rank of the [Martial Path of the Herbs] would be desired not by a few?

Even if he could have Ma Su make them scram or challenge the Warrior Lords to a spar and engrave in them his might without killing them, Bai Qi was planning to do the opposite. And he would do it.

***

[Frightening] and [Massacre], only such two words could come to the mind of anyone observing the battle that followed Bai Qi's words. Although it would be hard to call it a battle, as only a few moments after he had launched himself against the still frozen members of the [Blue Owl Alliance], it all would already conclude.

To the defense of the [Alliance] Warrior Lords, it should be said that only a couple did attempt to escape or plead for their lives, as nearly each of them did resist.

Some took out their weapons, even though the Spirit-tier and a single low-quality Earth-tier blade couldn't resist even a single clash against the glaive in Bai Qi's hands.

Others used techniques and skills, although they did not have enough time to prepare them, and so they would all disappear as smoke against the sheer pressure of Bai Qi's aura.

The two 9th level Warrior Lords would even try to fight Bai Qi's aura with their own, but regretfully, as their aura attempted to surface, it was so badly pressured that one of them would directly vomit blood. Not that it was surprising, after all, Bai Qi's aura may be of the 6th level on the surface, but with 4 [Heaven Secret] levels crossed, even if they had partially been absorbed into his usual aura during the [Heavenly Tribulation], the one he faced when crossing into the Earth Realm and the fusion with Kui Mulang's soul, it had now, after his latest breakthrough, once again cemented out as one to cross three levels of cultivation.

In fact, one could say that it would be capable of crossing four as it had been during Bai Qi's time as a Yellow Realm cultivator if not for the distance between Lords and Kings being too significant to be skipped over just like that.

*Splatter* *Splatter*

Just as Bai Qi finished with the last of the present Warrior Lords, Ma Su's aura pressure strengthened, and the two low-level Warrior Lords of the [Blue Owl Alliance] were simply crushed to death.

To have all of this happen before her eyes, without being able to do anything and knowing not only that it was she who decided to ambush the one who she considered no more than a lucky rogue, and also aware that she would be the one to follow, as who could believe that someone bloodthirsty as these two will allow her to be free, one can only imagine just how miserable and regretful was feeling Wang Yating at this point...