Inside the residence.
The sounds of fighting in the front courtyard, colliding soul power, and guards shouting crashed into the silent main hall like thunder.
"What's going on?!" Madam Lin abruptly rose, uncertainty and alarm appearing on her dignified face for the first time as she looked in the direction Wu Mingde had gone.
Dou Congtong sprang up. "Mother! Outside... are they fighting outside?"
She instinctively tried to rush out, but Madam Lin stopped her with a stern look.
Xiao Dongxiang, the household steward, hurried in and said gravely, "Madam! Those people have forced their way in. Sister Yidan-Aunt Fang-has already gone to stop them."
Xiao Dongxiang was Mu Jingming's wife. Their couple and the Wu-Fang couple were all Dou Jing's house retainers: one Soul Emperor and three Soul Kings.
They were also the only four people in the D mansion who knew Madam Lin's and Dou Congtong's origins. Everyone else had been recruited from outside.
"Forced their way in?" Madam Lin's heart sank. She drew a deep breath. "Come. Let's take a look!"
She straightened her robes and rose, her expression still and somber as water, then headed down the corridor toward the clamorous front courtyard.
She would see just what sort of "unwelcome guests" dared to come battering at the D mansion's gates with such arrogance!
From behind, despite her gentle, delicate appearance, she also had a pair of long, smooth, jade-like legs.
As soon as Madam Lin reached the corridor eaves adjoining the front courtyard, the entire scene came into view.
Wu Mingde was locked in fierce combat with a burly man clad in thick stone armor and wielding an enormous tower shield.
Soul rings flashed rapidly around them. Every collision between fist and shield erupted in a muffled boom, and the surging blasts of air