The reactions to Lord Starsky's words were varied.
The Mages in the audience "realized" that Shang wasn't a warrior but a Mage disguised as a warrior and looked at him with disgust.
This explained so much.
Of course, there couldn't possibly be a warrior with the power of an Ancestral Mage. The chances of a Mage Lord disguising themselves was higher than the chances of such a warrior existing.
Most of them felt like idiots since they had believed such an obvious ploy.
Most of the warriors were confused and conflicted.
Was Shang truly a Mage?
However, as for the three people that recognized Shang…
"Bullshit!" George shouted. "That is Shang Sword! I know that-"
"Are you doubting the senses of a Late Mage Lord as an Initial Ancestral Mage?" Lord Starsky asked with a strict voice.
George gritted his teeth and clenched his fists in fury and frustration.
He wanted to do nothing more than to unveil Shang's identity and have him get killed by the Lightning Manor.
However, if he kept insisting that Shang was a warrior, Lord Starsky might actually kill him.
While George's desire for vengeance was strong, he also had a family and enjoyed life. He would love for Shang to die, but he wouldn't sacrifice his life for vengeance.
So, George stopped talking and only looked to the side with an enraged expression.
Oliver and Elver looked at George and Lord Starsky.
They hadn't expected that things would go this way.
They knew that this was definitely Shang in front of them.
His aura felt too real.
Additionally, if some Mage wanted to disguise themselves as Shang, they would have assumed the appearance of the Shang from back then.
One eye, black armor, strict expression.
Instead, the person in front of them had no eyes, wore white robes, and had an emotionless expression.
This was definitely Shang, but Lord Starsky was saying this wasn't Shang.
And Oliver and Elver knew why.
It was to keep the warriors in his city.
If Lord Starsky accepted that Shang was a warrior, nearly no warriors would stay in Star City and work for the Warrior Guild.
Shang's power was just too overwhelming for a warrior, and all the warriors would follow him to learn from him.
Of course, the warriors knew that Shang was the Fallen Saint and that he had brought terrifying calamities upon the warriors when he killed King Storm.
However, the incentive of power would be too powerful.
On top of that, they wouldn't even need to learn directly from Shang. They could just learn from one of the other Impose Stage warriors.
And where could one find the Impose Stage warriors?
Well, for now, no one knew, but everyone knew that, at some point, it would become public knowledge.
At the moment, they only knew that the Impose Stage warriors came from a different Empire.
In the end, a huge portion of warriors would leave the Empire, and the Empire with the Impose Stage warriors would leave the Lightning Manor's Empire in the dust when it came to warriors.
And the only way to stop this from happening was to paint Shang as a Mage.
"You sent your two strongest warriors into the tournament," Lord Starsky said. "However, they weren't enough to triumph over our warriors. That's why you created this disguise."
Lord Starsky chuckled. "I presume you weren't very confident in the disguise, which was why this Mage didn't take part in the tournament from the very beginning."
"Honestly, your first attempt was quite good, but this disguise feels more like you're grasping for straws. It's just sad."
The audience animatedly talked to each other while the warriors frowned with uncertainty.
Was all of this fake?
And then, Shang sighed.
"I knew this plan wouldn't work," he said.
A moment later, Shang snapped his fingers.
WHOOOM!
Suddenly, the power of his mind reached the level of a Mid Ancestral Mage.
And then, he floated over to the person in the blue cloak and just stopped there.
When everyone felt the power of Shang's mind, they were convinced.
This was just an Ancestral Mage!
When Lord Starsky saw that, he narrowed his eyes, and a bit of shock appeared in them.
Obviously, Lord Starsky had been lying.
There was no disguise.
But when he had lied and said that there was a disguise, Shang had put on an actual disguise that confirmed Lord Starsky's lie.
And Lord Starsky was uncertain what the purpose of that was.
"Well," Lei, the red-haired warrior, said as he stepped forward with contestant 31, "you're right. We didn't think it would work."
Lord Starsky looked at Lei with narrowed eyes.
"Come," Lei said to contestant 31 beside him. "We've only been in the Impose Stage for a bit more than 50 years. We can just return in 50 years or so. By then, I might not even need your help to win whatever tournament these people will organize."
Contestant 31 just nodded wordlessly and followed behind Lei as the two of them floated over to their three comrades.
And then, Lord Starsky realized why Shang had put on a disguise.
Shang had never been the main component of their plot!
They actually didn't need Shang!
The powers of Lei and contestant 31 were far more than enough to convince plenty of warriors to switch sides!
So what if Shang was an Ancestral Mage? In a couple of years, there wouldn't be a single warrior left in the Lightning Manor's territory that could possibly resist the power of the female warrior with the two bows!
But then, why had Shang appeared?
To bait out the biggest threat, the statement that these warriors were Mages.
Earlier, Lord Starsky could still have said that these two warriors were Mages in disguise. Sure, they might have created some impressive new powers for warriors, but they were still Mages in the end.
But now, Lord Starsky had only said that Shang was a Mage, and he had even said that the other two WARRIORS were quite strong.
He had confirmed that the two of them were warriors.
What if he said now that these two warriors were also Mages?
Not many people would believe him.
The three people put their cloaks back on and stopped behind the person in the blue cloak.
"It was an entertaining spectacle," the person in the blue cloak said. "Thank you for having us."
"We will be going back to Icy Bastion in the Twilight Dusk Family's Empire."
