A strange aura drifted over the Guardian of Rectitude garrison. The craftsmen who had been busy at work suddenly felt exhausted, yawning incessantly before collapsing limply to the ground one after another.
The armored soldiers responsible for guarding the place swiftly followed in their wake, falling in batches without the slightest power to resist.
The cultivators within the garrison also sensed that something was wrong. In fact, they were the first to notice the anomaly, yet not one of them could send out a warning in time.
For by the time they sensed something amiss, they had already discovered that some strange foreign thing had invaded their bodies and was spreading at a frenzied speed. They had no choice but to sit cross-legged, trying to use their arcane power and Heartlight Seal to stop its spread.
Yet these actions were of no use at all. To their shock, the more they tried to resist, the faster their Heartlight Seal and arcane power drained away, rapidly nearing exhaustion. Their bodies slumped, and they toppled to the ground.
Outside the camp, Ban Lan was speaking with those natives, while He Li stood behind him. At that moment, he suddenly saw the natives standing guard outside flush red in the face and swaying unsteadily, their formation rippling like waves toward the camp.
Without the slightest hesitation, Ban Lan and He Li each transformed into a streak of escaping light and flew out. They moved so fast that no one in the temporary tents could react. The native leader's smile was still frozen on his face, but in the next instant his expression changed, his eyes rolled white, and he collapsed.
In just a few breaths, utter silence had fallen both within and outside the garrison.
Only Yue Luo remained standing alone atop a