"The door was shut tight, the windows unopened. I sensed no disturbance in the airflow, and there were no ripples of True Qi," Wu Dong said. "Formless, traceless, leaving not a mark-that is the only mark it left."
"I sensed no" and "there were no" were two different ways of putting it. At the Grandmaster realm, he naturally knew every movement within a small room like the back of his hand, discerning even the finest autumn down, and should have been able to speak with certainty. Yet there were always realms above a Grandmaster's, and things finer than autumn down. By saying he had "sensed no" disturbance, Wu Dong displayed a Crane Inspector's caution and regard for facts, acknowledging the possibility that there had been no trickery, and his skill had simply fallen short.
As for his certainty that "there were no" ripples, Pei Ye could roughly guess why. While chatting about curious stories, Li Piaoqing had once told him that a Magical Artifact on the fifth floor of the Immortal Platform remained active year-round, never resting day or night. Called "Mistwater Listening to Truth," it covered all five magnificent floors. Rumor had it that if a stranger entered and so much as released True Qi, their aura would trigger its bindings; they would immediately be detected and unable to escape.
This was the impregnable line of defense that made even the boldest, most accomplished thieves shrink from the Immortal Platform. Every cultivator's "conjuring of gods and ghosts" had to rely on True Qi. Once True Qi was sealed, who could come and go freely through layer upon layer of tight defenses?
But now, in the eyes of the three Grandmasters, this artifact was far from flawless. It merely helped narrow the possibilities-An Zang had already listed three.
"First, a