As the two ice clubs flew towards him, one from the front and the other from the right side, Bai Qi pivoted his torso and sent his fists to meet them.

*Crack* *Crack*

His fists connected with the clubs of the Snow Apes, and the latter started cracking.

*Shatter*

Only to shatter a few moments later, as if they were simple ice. To this, both beasts growled in a mix of anger and surprise. But they were [Savage] beasts after all, and they would not recoil from their clubs breaking.

It was clear to them that the assumed easy prey would be not so easy, but that's all that they thought. And regretfully, for the beasts, that was a mistake. After all, if they had escaped right away, Bai Qi would not even think of following after them.

"Grrraaarh!" The [Low Snow Ape] to the right roared and drew back its right arm. Then, still holding the, now inutile, piece of ice, sent a punch.

An action imitated by the other, in front of Bai Qi, beast right away.

"It seems one demonstration isn't enough, huh?" Bai Qi didn't draw his arms back more than a few inches before sending them to counter the beasts' punches.

*BOOM*

While both beasts had attacked almost at the same time, there was a small window between the attacks. Thus Bai Qi first clashed fist against fist with the one on the right side.

*BOOM*

And less than an instant later, his left fist connected with the beast in front.

But while the first exchange ended in a stalemate, the second one turned out different.

*Crack* *Crack* *Snap*

The ape's arm first cracked, and then something inside snapped.

The beast wailed in pain and instinctively jumped back for a few feet while nursing its left arm.

Neither Bai Qi's second first was more powerful, nor the beast was weaker than its companion. It was simply the price for attacking second and giving Bai Qi a window to rotate his torso and transfer the received force from the first attack to the fist.

Angered by the fate of his companion, the first beast used its free hand to grab at Bai Qi.

*Swoosh*

Bai Qi reacted by activating 'Counting steps' and shuffling his position a few feet to the side, entirely avoiding the extended arm.

"Hmm, so my body and qi can compare to a peak 6th or beginner 7th level Warrior Lord, huh?" Bai Qi muttered to himself as he examined the results of this brief clash.

Seeing that the unharmed beast lunged at him while discarding the piece of ice in its right hand, Bai Qi considered, , and remained still, allowing the beast to try to smash him in between its two palms.

The snow ape happily snarled and, seeing that the human was neither escaping nor defending, attempted to smash him between the palms as if it was clapping.

But the palms never connected, and the beast's next snarl was one of doubt. It tried again, and then again, but every time its palms would stop, exactly, a foot from the human.

"Hmm, so my aura is one of a 7th level Warrior Lord." Bai Qi muttered to himself again, showing an absolute lack of attention to the palms, punches, and even kicks that the beast followed with.

Before, even as a Sage, Bai Qi could release a similar aura by over infusing soul power. It was strainful to his soul and taxing to his body, both he could have probably even released one a couple of levels above as well. But now, with no small surprise, he found out that he could not increase the amount of soul power in his aura. Neither he could decrease it without making the aura decrease as well.

"I see, so this is my normal aura now, huh? One four levels above my cultivation and spending no more soul power than a 3rd level would." Bai Qi continued muttering as if he had not noticed that the second beast had stopped nursing its arm and now joined the first one efforts. In fact, his eyes had closed somewhere after the first murmur.

Now that he had confirmed the two main elements used in combat, Bai Qi inwardly concluded before exclaiming, "Sorry to have kept you waiting!"

His previously kept back, simply defending him, aura surged outwards, even pushing back the two apes. His inner qi agitated as well, and as he opened his eyes, sparks of both lightning and black flames appeared around him.

But what the beasts weren't the sparks around, but the strange black, veined with purple and crimson, flames reflected in the eyes of the human. A human that from easy prey had turned into something that scared them, even if they did not understand why.

The [Low Snow Apes] were strong beasts, at least for their level, but Bai Qi had confirmed he wasn't weaker than them. As for speed, they were slower than Zhua had been at the same level, and Bai Qi had matched her as a Sage. Thus, as soon as Bai Qi decided to use his full current power, the battle became nothing but a game for him.

*Swoosh* *Roar*

The uninjured beast attempted to tackle Bai Qi while roaring, but he easily avoided it and lightly, at least for him, kicked it.

And while he did not aim at, his kick landed on the reverse of the beast's knee, where no aura-infused fur, like the one that covered most of the body, was present.

*Snap*

The beast wailed in pain as it fell to the ground, the left leg twisted unnaturally. Bai Qi disappeared from the spot and then, appearing right over the beast, landed a heavy hit on its head, stopping it wailing by sending it almost a foot under the snow.

"GRRRRRR!!!" The other beast growled savagely, and any other cultivator of Bai Qi's level would have shuddered to the fury contained in that growl. But Bai Qi? He did not feel anything but the pleasure of being able to fight at full power, and these beasts were the perfect target to test it.

*Splash*

With a sound as if it entered water, the beast dove into the snow, and its presence waned.

"So, hide and seek?" Bai Qi almost laughed as his senses caught on the other beast doing the same. He did sense them close, even if he could not pinpoint their location perfectly. But in any case, it meant they did not plan to escape but were preparing to attack him.

*Step* *Step*

Regretfully for the beasts, Bai Qi rarely allowed his opponents to act as they wanted, and this time wasn't different. He took a couple of steps upwards by using his aura as a foothold, the basic manner of sky-walking, and thus, left the beasts with nothing else to do but reappear. And they did a few minutes later, only to be met with a Bai Qi that flew first to one, then to the other, and landed a lightning qi infused qi unto each, temporarily paralyzing them.

***

An hour after Bai Qi had left, followed by the two [Low Snow Apes], he returned, again followed by the same beasts. Still, the beasts looked different. They showed no aggression and heavily stomped after Bai Qi, following his steps one after another.

"What the..." Ma Su could not help but inwardly curse as she looked first at Bai Qi and then at the two beasts. Neither of the three showed signs of having fought at all!

Her opponent, a 4th level Saint Beast of the same [Low Snow Ape] race, was near her feet, defeated, unconscious, and still bleeding. Still, Ma Su was no beast tamer and had no ideas how Bai Qi planned to use the beasts as rides. At least until now, when she understood that he had only healed them and conveyed his wishes in exchange for their lives.

Ma Su's thoughts about Bai Qi's actions weren't wrong. He had indeed shown the beasts he was stronger and then healed them. Then, with a bit of consciousness coercion, traded their lives in exchange for serving as mounts for a couple of days.

But what Ma Su was wrong about was the [Savage] beasts being impossible to reason with. Indeed, a [Low Snow Ape] wasn't completely sapient and would attack anyone inside what it considered its territory. But it also followed a leader instinctively, usually the strongest and most intelligent beast around. And that served as a base for reasoning.

Obviously, taming them by beating them and infusing a small part of one's consciousness into their mind was easier than reasoning with a beast that could not speak back. But Bai Qi did not plan to take the Apes further than the [Void Palace] location anyway. So why would he actually tame them then? Controlling and especially releasing a tamed beast was far harder than taming it initially.

{Hmm, you know, when I asked you to beat it into submission, I did not expect you to damage its core and cripple the poor beast.} Bai Qi ignored Ma Su's shock and immediately approached to examine the beast.

{Cripple? The poor beast?} Ma Su's eyes almost popped out of their orbit.

{Well, it is possible to heal it, but it will be unable to move for a couple of days, so if Fan Jia also failed... Then you will have to walk.} Bai Qi continued as if nothing and quickly summoned a couple of healing pills and a bottle of blood from one of the [Sand-spike Moloch] beasts from the desert.

Dissolving the pills in the blood so the beast could absorb them, Bai Qi fed the resulting mixture to the wounded and unconscious ape.

"It will be okay after a few days of rest. Call for someone of your pack if you can." Bai Qi conveyed to the two apes, using qi for his words to be heard and a sliver of consciousness so they understood.

"Grr." One of the apes growled and nodded before raising its head and howling.

{As for us, let's go, we need to check on Fan Jia.} Bai Qi transmitted to Ma Su, but quickly corrected himself as his senses caught on the approach of both her and a beast, {It seems that we don't need to.}

Surprising Bai Qi, again, Fan Jia managed to establish a link with her ape by herself. Not only that, but she somehow made it submit entirely without wounding it!

And while Bai Qi was honestly curious, he preferred to avoid asking after considering that if she wanted to share, she would do it at some point anyway.

***

Half an hour later, the three cultivators, each carried by a [Low Snow Ape], restarted their journey towards the [Void Palace]. But their group wasn't limited just to them as a couple of 3rd level apes moved in front. These latter beasts had no hostile intentions but were escorting them. Something that Bai Qi found amusing.

After all, he had just forcefully coerced two of their kin to act as mounts, and while he did heal them, he was also the one to injure them initially. Still, after a several minutes long growling and howling exchange, two of the four beasts that arrived to pick up the wounded one, decided to accompany them.

___________________________________________________________________

While Bai Qi and his companions dealt with the native beasts of the [Lands of the Ice Exalted] plateau, the encircled and sieged [Void Palace] was beginning to falter.

As Bai Qi had thought before, a 2nd tier power like the palace did have the means to protect itself. And the methods employed by it were truly impressive. But the attackers were not only comparable in power but had come prepared as well.

Thus, what did initially, for the [Void Palace] elders, look like an unsuccessful attempt to breach the formations around the palace, was now assuming the form of a true and successful assault.

An assault that could only culminate with an all-out fight between the [Void Palace] and the [Seven Souls Sect] along with their allies...