Since the start, Bai Qi had felt uneasy. Before the inquiry of the strange Warrior King or even further back - even knowing the answer to the unexpected question, Bai Qi had not felt even a drop of ease among the ocean of worry he felt.
In fact, one could say that neither the ambush, unexpected petition, Pan Tong's question, nor the woman's answer - who had turned out to be the leader of the [Soulrend Elders] Warrior Kings - created even a single ripple in Bai Qi's spirit since they were teleported to this northern area of the city.
His initial worry of all this being a trap was only confirmed further as his name was called upon.
While someone else could feel warmth from an absolute refusal to the woman who introduced herself as Su Bo, no one else than the already infamous [Agony's Embrace] of the [Soulrend Elders], as she declared that everyone could leave without issue if they gave upon Bai Qi and Dongpo Dayang, Bai Qi could only worry even more. After all, while Dongpo Dayang was a truly unexpected companion to his new predicament, the way that his name was called and the several looks exchanged among the Warrior Kings could mean only one thing, the idea was there. And if one was realistic, it meant that the trap suspected by Bai Qi already started, with the only change being that he was not just a target but an exchange item.
No matter how important he was for some plan of theirs, with Dongpo Ao unable to complete a full picture because of his disappearance for several years, his agents unable to get the same information as a Warrior Emperor, he couldn't be on the same level as the heirs, and now as the main target, how could he not worry even more, especially as now the trap was literally related to him?
Granted, he had several trump cards, but from the dreadful woman that had just introduced herself, Bai Qi felt enough threat to understand that Kui Mulang's transformation full usage wouldn't be more than an ant attacking an elephant, as for his Mind power, even if he had enough time to prepare spells to fight against an Emperor, it only meant he could fight against one for a while, not win or even escape!
----------------------------------------
Among the Warrior Kings present, only Protector Boling had some talk with Bai Qi, the others only had some information about the youngster, Lei Su, and Zhu Chen had the barest of interaction with Bai Qi, as for Du Ten, the latter had only seen him for less than half an hour without having any interaction at all.
Even so, while they considered Dongpo Dayang just disposable goods, even if Dongpo Ao was now an ally of their powers, they couldn't simply ignore Bai Qi, a target of their powers. They couldn't just go and disregard that the young lords and lady of their respective powers had just shouted out a rebuttal and were forced to keep silent while forming an aura barrier no lesser than of the quality of a Warrior Emperor as their four auras intermixed under their commands.
And thwarted they were indeed, as how else, from a position sold so high by Dongpo Dayang, someone who appeared an elite of the city's Warrior Lords and considering Dongpo Ao's choice to send them here, would now house no reinforcements or help but a foe?!
----------------------------------------
"Righteous powers, hmph!" Su Bo grunted as she received the answer from her prey, even if the latter didn't know they had been reduced to such a status.
_______
It wasn't like Su Bo hadn't full confidence in her preparations or the new plan forced on them by the Lord, but she would still prefer for the opponents to have at least a few setbacks and spend a bit more time before the fight started.
After all, since the start, the plan had been to attack the city, and most of the infiltration work had been into the different secondary nodes of the city's protective formation. The latter, to make the so-called best method more of a danger to the defendants and help to the attackers, the same as they had done in [River Tree City], but now, she had to go into a direct battle against four genius Warrior Kings while having nothing more than a the pretty-mediocre third generation of the five subordinate Kings, the first and second generation, the ones who held at least the best talent, already killed or depleted to the utmost in the missions before.
_______
*Crash*
[Shadow of Torment], [Bloodreaper], [Wraith's Grasp], [Harbinger of Pain], and [Voidblade] followed the simple command given to them by the leader so ingrained in their methods that they would have to follow it even if it was one of sending them to their death, crashed their auras against the ones of Protector Boling, Zhu Chen, Lei Su, and Du Ten.
*Crash* *Crack*
But even with a number advantage, one that could, in the right conditions, ignore the difference in cultivations, as except for the called [Bloodreaper], the others were just high- and peak- 8th level Warrior Kings fighting against two true 9th level ones as well as Lei Su who held a strength comparable to a peak of a surpassing level, their aura didn't last long before cracking. Their individually sent auras unable to beat the one controlled by the four enemies, one created by cooperation so deep as to allow their auras to combine.
A moment later, Dongpo Dayang and Gao Xiulan sighted in relief, even if only Dongpo Dayang did it in a fashion that everyone present heard her, the Warrior Lords' and Warrior Kings' senses expanded to the max during the moment, but even as the relief came with [Voidblade]'s sudden retreat from the aura battle, making the advantage held by the defending party even clearer - it would still be just momentary relief.
Indeed, no more than half a breath later, as Su Bo joined her aura and controlled the other four auras of her subordinates, the previous moment and hope of relief turned into despair, with even the most stoic Lei Guiying among the Warrior Lords and two of the Warrior Kings groaning as they all started to feel the suppression of a superior aura.
Only three of the nine present people resisted Bo Su's reinforced aura, and she immediately directed her attention to them. While she didn't feel much shock from seeing Du Ten, a peak Warrior King and renowned fighter, or Lei Su, whose talent had not only earned but essentially confirmed her ascension to the Warrior Emperor realm, resist her aura-controlling method at the moment, the one that truly surprised her would be the main, or no, only target, Bai Qi.
This assumed knowledge eradicated any restraints on her determination to fulfill the Lord's orders unequivocally. Her intentions transformed from mere desire and gratitude to an imperative compulsion spurred by his unmatched knowledge.
______
Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.
Knowing well that any attack on a so-far city as [Eastern Inscription City], one that even if was morale concerning one, would be very well investigated, as to find any intentions from the newly appeared force, as there were dozens of better targets with a similar distance, the Lord had commanded to target at least not only someone from the city itself along with the main target for both the Warrior King and Warrior Emperor group but also to ride upon the whispers and rumors about the rewards offered by the [Demon Worshipping Region] for the heads of any [Great Forest Region] cultivator, especially heirs and elders of the latter.
Rewards so juicy that even the [Shadow Lotus], while an openly only-in-name a subordinate of the so-called [Coalition of the Chosen], moved all of their members while provoking the entire cultivation-world dark side, even nearly accepted powers, ones that had far a lot to lose - to move along the usually neutral [Shadow Lotus].
Thus, the Lord didn't concentrate his plan on just his true target Bai Qi, or call the misleading order to implicate someone from the [Dongpo] clan but also asked his [Soulrend Elders] to kill everyone they could from the [Great Forest Region].
If one scrutinized the order change in the entirety, it wasn't that the order of destroying [Eastern Inscription City], or originally [Jade Inscription City], changed. It was just that the main condition of a successful outcome changed from what happened to [River Tree City] to successfully capturing Bai Qi while still working towards the initial goals!
Thus, Su Bo as the main Warrior King and every one of the four Warrior Emperors of the now-called [Ten Soulrend Elders] had went with not only the main plan but also tried to attack a target each, not to mention that they refused to battle in the void or align to any other understandings between combatants, in turn, trying to cause more and more damage to the city itself.
Even the ones reluctant to follow the Lord after his constant commands and no actual movements towards their promised objectives couldn't help themselves from trying and getting the rewards from the region's overlords. Rewards already promised to them without any of them taken by the Lord, with only obtaining them being the true condition!
----------------------------------------
While he could greatly improve his senses by using his mind power to reinforce them, Bai Qi's senses weren't truly omnipotent even in the Warrior King realm. Mind power, up to the 15-th level could improve one senses, and if considering the relevant texts, elevating a level for each level of the former, making someone like Bai Qi, whose actual senses only reached the 3rd level, get a level above a Warrior Emperor whose maximum sense level was of just 12, it wasn't so easy.
After all, not only do the senses have to be trained, something that the Mind power couldn't transcend easily, but one's cultivation also sets some forceful limits. Especially the Earth realm minor realms, which were far more limited than their counterparts in the following Sky realm. The first and only major realm in which every cultivator, now immortal, could strive and reach a path of their own, the [Heavens], for the first time, truly allowing so, limits and levels ignored as one gathered the [Dao] and the latter's understanding.
And so, while Bai Qi's mind power improved senses had allowed him to scout the entire city previously, as there was no real hostility against him, at least above his cultivation and the surplus of mind power protecting him against being discovered, by now, with a hostile attack, and an Emperor battle just some breaths at full speed from him, even his improved senses barely detected what was going on after the leader, if the words were to be trusted, of the [Soulrend Elders] Warrior Kings acted.
He could still sense the hostility and prepared attacks to a level far above his own. But with such interference, not even he could tell where the suddenly disappeared [Voidblade] went, Su Bo's forceful aura preventing him from even attempting to do so, lest he wanted to disclose both his mind power trump card or paint an even bigger target over him.
***
As if they could win in a single round now that Su Bo acted, the three remaining Warrior Kings, apart from her, attacked at once and at full strength.
High-tiered Spirit-level weapons surfacing in their hands, reinforcing their already released aura, were summoned. And if controlled by the same mind, the pair of sleek black daggers, a blood-red scythe with a serrated blade, a ghostly and ethereal whip that constantly phased in and out of reality, and a pair of gauntlets covered in spikes and small hooks vibrated all at once, each of the weapons releasing a martial skill of the highest possible grade, riding on the aura suppression, gaining not a small amount of extra power.
With four, or five - as the paired daggers released a different skill each, incoming skills and a lack of ability to defend against them with aura, already suppressed by Su Bo's masterful control, Protector Boling, Zhu Chen, Lei Su, and Du Ten had no other option but summon either their defensive methods or take out their weapons as to clash directly against the all-out attack of the [Soulrend Elders] Warrior Kings.
Protector Boling was a cultivator of a path considered mostly meant for assassinations, but he had always been a protector instead. Thus, he didn't summon a weapon or even turn to the shadows, but in place, he used a skill called [Shadow Construct], meant to create a fake target for any attack aimed not at him personally but at someone near him. A skill that worked fully as it blocked the [Phantom Lash] sent by the one called [Wraith's Grasp], as it was aimed at Lei Su of all of the targets.
*Crash* *Gulp*
While the [Phantom Lash] was a skill that phased through dimensions, lashing out with invisible strikes that ignored physical defenses and targetted only the target's soul, it had no homing quality. It was easily misled by the [Shadow Construct] and devoured by the shadows confirming the latter as soon as the two connected.
Zhu Chen had, since forced out of the [Zhu Clan], changed weapons from the direct spear to the far more versatile halberd, and his new patrons didn't miss the change as they granted him the quasi-Earth-level [Heavencleaver Glaive]. A weapon that while not housing a spirit and made from Spirit-grade materials was still capable of facing Earth-tier weapons.
*Crash* *Crack* *Swoosh*
Now, facing the [Crimson Harvest] of [Bloodreaper]'s scythe, he not only summoned the [Heavencleaver], but while using the wide arc of blood created by the opponent's skill, he also used the special quality of the weapon, coming from the [Fake-Heaven Metal] used for it's crafting, to instantly switch between offense and defense, sending his own skill at his attacker.
Lei Su, with the attack aimed at her already countered by [Pan Trade Company]'s Protector, didn't summon her weapon, the [Whispering Wind Sword], but used a defensive skill known as [Shearing Blades] against the three unresolved skills aiming at Du Ten.
*Swoosh* *Clang* *Swoosh* *Clang* *Crack*
Lei Su's defensive skill would not only resist two of the incoming attacks on Du Ten while even expending some of the third one as it went through but still made Du Ten, who had been ready to resist the three, able to attack at ease, the remaining force of the surviving but weakened [Injuring Whirlpool] sent by [Shadow of Torment]'s left dagger causing him not more than a few easily resolvable skin cuts, far opposed to the actual deep wounds that the skill was meant to cause.
*Crack* *Crack* *Crack*
Not worrying about the hostile skills, Du Ten not only summoned his own weapon, the first true Earth-tier weapon to appear in the fight but also urged the spirit of his [Earthshaker Warhammer] to go all out as he released a good dozen hits, each imbued by an activation of a martial skill created by himself in partnership with his weapon's spirit, [Shaking Destruction].
[BOOM] [Shatter]
[Shaking Destruction] was a true high-level martial skill, and being supported by Du Ten's cultivation and directly related weapon, it surged out impressively. Even the preparation-stage swings allow him to not only destroy [Shadow of Torment]'s right dagger [Hidden Injury Slash] with ease but even allocate four to fly against the visible opponents of a lower level.
The [Shaking Destruction] skill required one to swing their weapon a dozen times before releasing the true thirteen swing, which would be the actual attack. But as one practiced it, the amount of actual preparative swings lowered, allowing the user to use the remaining, according to their mastery, swings as half-strength but still martial skills attacks.
As for Du Ten, even if he wasn't a genius cultivator and his actual talent for understanding skills was even a bit lower than the average, he had still obtained a decent level, mostly from using this trump-card-level move during every battle he faced, allowing him to become proficient at using the skill, freeing him not one or two but five of the twelve preparative swings as to be used!
*Swoosh* *Swoosh* *Swoosh* *Swoosh*
As the four secondary offensive swings derived from the skill thanks to his advancement were sent off, Du Ten concentrated all of his might and power into the 13th, decisive strike, as his eyes narrowed, selecting the target.
*Crack* *Crack*
Being fully charged and with the target in plain sight, Du Ten's [Shaking Destruction] affected both [Void] and the mortal world as it cracked the boundaries of both, creating destruction even before it was sent.
*Swoosh* *Boom*
And as the true power of the [Shaking Destruction] was released, it would even create an explosion that shook the entire enclosed battle area, affecting the already targeted enemies and gaining even more power from the destruction it caused as it flew against Du Ten's target, the most logical for everyone, Su Bo!