The instant the newcomer fell.
Wiland distinctly sensed the aura hovering above the square, which seemed to belong to a fifth-rank being, swoop down silently and engulf everyone near the entrance like mercury.
Around the dead newcomer in particular, the invisible aura compressed the air into tiny, snowflake-shaped scars, which vanished again almost immediately.
For those few seconds, Wiland felt as though someone had grabbed him by the ankles and submerged him in an icy lake.
He shivered involuntarily.
Apart from the North American Team's three fourth-rank beings, however, only the little black cat perched on Zheng Susan's shoulder frowned slightly. No one else present reacted at all.
A few seconds later, the aura receded.
But Wiland could clearly sense that the fourth-rank experts surrounding the square were paying a little more attention to the delegation from Xugos Planet.
The gaze of the powerful carried weight.
Those overlapping gazes abruptly made the atmosphere throughout the area much heavier. Even so, many of the North American Team's veterans failed to notice, assuming the sudden death had merely made everyone around them tense.
"Ah! Someone's dead!"
The startled cry from the crowd came belatedly.
A five-person squad of wizards quickly left the enormous stone gate and descended to the edge of the stone platform. Wiland's eyes flickered slightly—red, white, yellow, blue, and green. The five wizards wore robes of five different colors, presumably representing five different schools of thought within this institution.
"What happened?"
The Red Robe Witch stepped forward from the group, holding a roll of bamboo slips, her tone stern.
"I'm sorry. A member of our delegation was unwell... and died suddenly."
Lilith, who also wore blood-red robes, gave the witch a couple of interested looks before answering politely. Though her wording was still somewhat inappropriate, it was already a