The Old Monsters Strike as One

It was as if an enormous mute button had been pressed upon heaven and earth.

The wind stopped. The howls of distant wolves, the lingering battle cries within the city, even the breathing and heartbeats of the routed soldiers themselves—all vanished in that instant! An indescribably eerie silence, as though even souls were being drawn away, enveloped the area within a hundred zhang of the old Daoist!

The thousand or so routed soldiers at the front, closest to the old Daoist, had their cruel grins, murderous gazes, and sword-swinging motions frozen in an instant! It was as though they had been struck by an Immobilization Spell, left rigid in place in their charging stances.

But then, something even stranger happened.

The light in their eyes rapidly faded like a receding tide, becoming vacant and unfocused, as if their souls had been pulled out. Then, like puppets with their strings cut, they silently toppled forward in waves, stiffly crashing to the ground!

"Thud... thud... thud..."

Dull impacts rang out one after another as over a thousand bodies struck the ground, kicking up clouds of dust.

There were no wounds on their bodies, no blood, and even their faces still retained some of the viciousness from their charge. Yet the breath of life had been utterly severed the moment they fell! They had died without a sound, for no apparent reason!

"Ah—!!!"

The routed soldiers surging forward from behind were utterly stunned by the scene's extreme horror and strangeness!

Their charge came to an abrupt halt, as though they had crashed into an invisible wall of ghosts! Their eyes widened as they stared in terror at their comrades who had suddenly dropped dead ahead of them, then at the old Daoist, who still wore a kindly expression as though he had merely