Li Mei had just finished folding the last of her robes into her bag when a sudden wave of noise drifted in from the courtyard—hurried footsteps, hushed whispers, and an unfamiliar flutter of qi.
Her hand paused mid-motion.
Two foreign presences…? Mortal-level, but unusually tense.
Even without divine sense, Li Mei's perception was far from ordinary. Through the subtle shifts in wind flow and the faint tug of qi currents brushing against the dojo's formations, she could sense the presence of strangers at the entrance—two distinctly feminine auras, clearly outside cultivator standards.
With a light frown creasing her delicate brows, she set her things aside and stepped outside.
…
On the other end of the courtyard—
"Mortals…" Lin Huang muttered, the sharp anger that had surged moments before gradually cooling once he noticed the complete absence of cultivation from the two cloaked figures.
No qi fluctuations. No combat will. Simply… ordinary humans.
