Pale Shadow stopped speaking and ignored him as if she hadn't just accused him of being too proud. She looked forward in a daze as if something interesting was happening in the empty air before her.
Again, Arthur didn't mind her weird behavior. He wasn't even surprised by it. He just took it in stride like the bigger man that he was.
The banquet continued on that note of awkward silence. The people below just went through the motions until it was time for the banquet to end. Then Pale Shadow led everyone to the Blood Skull sect.
Arthur and Pale Shadow led the way in the air while everyone else followed along on the ground. Even the junior elders at the third mortal coil who could fly had to walk on the ground in respect of the golden core elders.
They went from the banquet hall in the city outside the sect to an outpost at the edge of the sect. At this outpost, everyone from the Blood Skull sect registered their identity as visiting guests and was given a token of access.
This token of access was very important, as without it, they wouldn't have permission to step into the Purple Flower sect properly. It was only after everyone got the token that they moved on to the sect.
The Purple Flower sect is very big. It is not as big as the Blood Skull sect, but it is still big enough to contain a large city. This was even without adding the space of the secret realm hidden somewhere in their territory.
Their entire territory was sealed off from the world by three formations that Arthur could sense. He is very acute when it comes to formations, but if a formation is at least rank 5, he might not be able to sense it.
When he was at the second mortal coil and just awakened his mind, he could sense rank 4 formations such as the barrier formation that sealed the Blood Skull sect. This was because he had the sense to perceive this formation.
He was able to do that despite being two ranks apart from the rank 4 formations. But he might not be able to sense rank 5 formations despite being only one rank away. This is because some of them have a spiritual component.
An example of a rank 5 formation that can hide from him is the formation used in the Blood Skull sect to hide the location of the entrance of the inner sect. Only with the sect ID card can a hint of them be revealed.
As formations whose purpose is to hide something, it is not surprising that he can't sense them. The same will be the case if there are formations around the Purple Flower sect that are hiding themselves well.
But from what he could sense, the first formation around the sect was for attacking and sealing the sect off from intruders. It is a barrier-type of formation that is entrenched deep into the earth and has attacking capabilities.
The second was for confusing trespassers. It created a black fog that shrouded the whole sect. The job of this black fog is to confuse senses, including that of the divine sense. So anyone who wanders into it will get lost and be unable to enter the sect.
Finally, there was a third formation to detect entry and exit into the sect. Its main job is to detect the access token and instruct the other two formations to let the visitor through. But it can also alert the authorities of the sect of an intrusion.
These three formations were layered from the third one to the second one and finally to the first one. The third formation was the one on the outermost layer and the first formation to be encountered. The first formation is the last one to be encountered before entering the sect.
From what he could tell, the first formation, whose purpose is to attack and block access to the sect, is currently half activated. The sealing part of the formation hasn't been activated yet, so anyone can enter the sect.
However, only the people with the access token should pass through the formation. If an access token is not detected by the third and outermost formation, anyone who breaks through the second formation and reaches the first formation will be attacked.
This kind of defense is not that different from the one outside of the territory of the Blood Skull sect. The main difference is that the barrier around the Blood Skull sect is completely activated, so no one, not even birds or a gust of wind, can enter or leave the territory of the sect.
The only way to enter or leave the Blood Skull sect is to use the teleportation halls. But here in the Purple Flower sect, they don't have teleportation platforms, so anyone can pass through their formations safely as long as they have the access token.
While Arthur was examining the formations around the Purple Flower sect, he was also wondering if he could gain the permission to try and break their protective formations.
He wanted to ask for this so that he could give his formation breaker an assignment that involved working on the formations to crack them.
He would very much appreciate it if he were given permission, and he would even be willing to compensate the Purple Flower sect for any damages that their formation incurred during the process of being cracked.
But he doubted that they would let him break their protective formation. Especially since he is from the Blood Skull sect. They would think that he wanted to crack their formations so that the Blood Skull sect would be able to easily bypass them and attack their sect.
So he thought to himself, "Forget about it. I don't want trouble."
He said that, but trouble still came. When he was about to pass through the outermost formation, which is the monitoring formation, he was flagged for trying to smuggle people into the sect.