The one who made the sound was Wicked Woman. She had nearly pressed herself against the outside of the Dome, her eyes wide as she stared fixedly at the gray-black robe Kael wore.
"What is it?" Gray Merchant looked at Wicked Woman in confusion.
"That robe... that robe... there's absolutely no mistake..." Wicked Woman muttered as though possessed, as if she had entered a world of her own and was completely unresponsive to the outside world.
Gray Merchant did not know what had happened to Wicked Woman, but her muttering drew his attention to that gray-black robe as well. The moment he looked at it, however, his brow furrowed slightly.
To the naked eye, the robe could not have looked more ordinary. But when he observed it through spiritual power, it underwent a startling change.
The robe was like filth dropped into clear water, black smoke continuously seeping from within and billowing outward.
Looking closely, the robe resembled a gaping abyssal maw, its interior pitch-black as sinister black mist constantly leaked from it.
Gray Merchant had not seen this black smoke, detectable only through spiritual power, for the first time. The resentment, hatred, and unwillingness of powerful Demonic Beasts could manifest after death, producing this black mist akin to baleful aura.
If ordinary people came into contact with such baleful aura, the damage would be severe. Not only would their temperaments turn violent and cruel, but as time passed, they would be completely corroded by it, becoming walking corpses that knew only slaughter.
For transcendents, however, this baleful aura posed limited harm. If paired with the resentful soul of a powerful Demonic Beast, it might cause backlash to a transcendent. But this robe clearly no longer had any resentful soul. Pure baleful aura would not affect its wearer.
From this