"Daoist masters! Please leave at once. The Duke of Zheng's Mansion is a vital site of the Sui. No one may approach it without permission! If you keep pressing us, don't blame us for taking action! Don't think your life beyond the mundane world gives you leave to provoke the nobility!"
When the group arrived at the Duke of Zheng's Mansion, the entrance was already crowded. No one was making a racket, but figures thronged the gates. Some had the air of immortals; others stood as still and imposing as mountains. Most wore Daoist robes, carried long swords or held fly-whisks. Dressed every inch like people from beyond the mundane world, they regarded the soldiers blocking their way without joy or anger.
Yet none of them tried to force their way in. They merely displayed their spellcraft, bearing down on the guards at the gate with aura pressure!
Anyone with sufficient cultivation to send their divine sense beyond their body could detect it by concentrating: faint purple qi was constantly spreading from the courtyard, enveloping the area and separating the cultivators from the mansion.
After Wang Shichong's carriage arrived, the purple qi grew denser still!
Wang Shichong stepped out and looked at the crowd, but did not approach at once. Instead, he murmured to Elder Wu, "These cultivators didn't come by carriage either. How did they get here before us? Could it be that their cultivation, like yours, wasn't affected?"
Elder Wu narrowed his eyes and studied them briefly. "Not necessarily. I see no obvious fluctuations of spirit light around any of them. They have likely fallen to the level of ordinary mortals, just as we have. But cultivators generally temper their bodies. Even without magic power or True Essence, their strength rivals that of Martial Path experts, and over