The second wave consisted of two people.
One was older, his left arm held in a sling with bandages soaked through with blood.
The other was younger, his face deathly pale and his gaze vacant, his right hand still gripping an unsheathed copper sword.
As Lu Yuan helped treat their wounds, the older man spoke.
"We're from the Seventh Team."
His voice was hoarse, sounding as if he had been screaming all night.
"Twelve of us went in, and only two came back. Just who the hell passed on that intelligence?"
【Basic Medicine: +0.1... 2.8/20】
Lu Yuan did not answer.
The third wave was only one person.
He walked in alone, covered in blood, though most of it was not his own.
After entering the door, he only said one sentence.
"I'm from the Eighth Team. I'm the only one left."
Then he sat down in the corner and fell silent.
Lu Yuan listened as he treated the wounded.
Fragmented conversations drifted in from all directions, and when pieced together, they formed the full picture of tonight's events.
"The Third Team was wiped out. They were on their way to the inner city when all the lights went out. Ghouls rushed out from the alleys, and they didn't even have a chance to fight back."
"Only the captain of the Eleventh Team is left. He carried a dead man for three streets before reaching the outpost."
"Still no news from the Fifth Team. The collapse in their sector was the most severe."
"The intelligence was completely wrong... they said the ghouls were concentrated at the collapse points, but the roads were full of ambushes..."
Someone lowered their voice, their tone heavy.
"I heard the collapse in the inner city is even larger than the outer city. All three sites are mass contamination events, and the numbers pouring out..."
He didn't finish the sentence.
But everyone understood.
The teams in the inner city were in even greater danger.
"I hope the captains over there are all right."
Someone whispered from the corner. No one responded.
Silence stretched for a few seconds.
Then the older Nightwatcher from the Seventh Team suddenly looked at Lu Yuan.
"I heard the team you're leading went to the North Ward?"
"Yes."
"What's the situation over there?"
"The collapse point is massive. The main force of the ghouls is underground, and the density is extremely high." Lu Yuan's tone was flat. "We couldn't plug it, so we had to retreat."
The Nightwatcher nodded as if he had expected as much.
Then he asked, "How many of you made it back?"
"Nine went out, and nine returned."
The Alchemy Workshop fell silent for a moment.
It wasn't a deliberate silence.
It was as if everyone's movements had frozen at the same time.
The hands bandaging wounds stopped, the cloth wiping weapons went still, and even those resting with their eyes closed in the corner opened them.
"Not a single one missing?"
The one who spoke was the sole survivor of the Ninth Team.
He looked up at Lu Yuan, a very complex expression in his eyes.
"Not a single one."
No one spoke.
Bo Er sat in the corner with his head down, not interjecting.
But his hand, gripped around the hilt of his copper sword, tightened slightly.
After a few seconds, the older Nightwatcher let out a bitter laugh.
"No wonder the Vice Director appointed you as captain."
Lu Yuan didn't respond and continued his work.
Just as the group was taking a brief moment to rest, Lu Yuan was the first to sense something wrong.
It wasn't a sound.
It was a sense of overwhelming pressure.
A thick, concentrated aura of mutation was surging from the direction of the inner city.
Pure pollution.
Pure evil.
It was so intense that even an ordinary person could feel something was wrong.
【Sanity: -2... 41/120】
The moment Lu Yuan saw the prompt, his pupils constricted suddenly.
'How is this possible?!'
Lu Yuan then bolted upright and rushed to the window.
The others felt it too.
"What is that!?" someone cried out in alarm.
Lu Yuan pushed open the window and looked toward the inner city.
The sky had changed.
A mass of black, cloud-like matter was rapidly spreading from the direction of the inner city.
It was something alive.
The black clouds churned and expanded, spreading in all directions at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Then Lu Yuan saw what was within the clouds.
Eyes.
Countless pitch-black eyes.
They were embedded within the churning black clouds, large and small, packed densely together. No whites, no pupils, only a pure, bottomless black.
Every single eye was turning.
They were gazing.
Gazing down at the city below.
Gazing at every single person in the city.
That sensation of being watched wasn't fear; it was something much deeper.
It was like suddenly realizing you were standing on an endless deep sea, while something beneath the surface was slowly rising.
He couldn't see its full form.
He could only see its eyes.
Countless eyes that were currently opening.
【Sanity: -2... -2... 37/120】
Inside and outside the Alchemy Workshop, everyone was stunned.
The wounded were no exception. The Nightwatcher who had lost a leg propped himself against the wall, standing on one foot with his copper sword in hand, his gaze fixed on the black eyeballs slowly turning in the sky.
"What is this..."
Someone's voice was trembling.
Within seconds, the black clouds had covered most of the Bronze City.
The moonlight was obscured, and the world went dark.
It wasn't the darkness of night, but a murky, malicious gloom brought about by being watched by countless eyes.
Immediately following that, a massive boom echoed from the inner city.
Boom—!
It was the shockwave generated by the release of some kind of power.
The walls of the entire Alchemy Workshop trembled, and the jars and bottles on the shelves clattered.
At the same time, grey-white text flickered wildly at the edge of Lu Yuan's vision.
【Target Detected: Guardian】
【Beyond Cognition】
Lu Yuan's heart sank abruptly.
The Guardian.
He had seen this aura before. At the entrance of the Alchemy Workshop, that white-haired old man had merely stood there, and it had caused the Vice Dean of the Polymath Tower to flee in panic.
But that time, the Guardian hadn't made a move.
This time was different.
From the center of the churning black clouds in the direction of the inner city, an invisible wave of power suddenly rippled outward.
The eyes within the clouds froze for a moment, scanning everything beneath the Bronze City.
Then, the ghouls outside began to shriek.
It was a scream of agony and despair.
Lu Yuan rushed to the door and looked toward the perimeter of the outpost.
At the edge of the light from the march lamps, a few remaining ghouls were undergoing a violent transformation.
Their limbs convulsed, and large black scorch marks appeared on their grey-red fleshy membranes.
That invisible power was dismantling them from the inside out.
One ghoul's body began to collapse, its muscles dissolving, bones softening, and skin membranes rupturing as dark brown liquid seeped from every pore.
In the blink of an eye.
A complete ghoul had turned into a puddle of steaming pus.
It wasn't just one.
As far as his eyes could see, every ghoul was undergoing the same process.
Screaming, collapsing, and dissolving.
It was as if someone had flipped a switch, draining all of their life force simultaneously.
In the distant streets, more shrieks rose and fell, then were extinguished one by one.
Lu Yuan stood at the door, watching it all.
He knew the Guardian was strong.
But he hadn't imagined he would be strong to this degree.
It wasn't targeted at one or even a group. It covered the entire city.
"Lord Guardian..."
A trembling voice came from behind him.
Lu Yuan turned to see the older Nightwatcher from the Seventh Team staring intently toward the inner city, his eyes red.
"This is Lord Guardian's aura!"
His voice was hoarse, carrying an indescribable excitement.
Immediately after, a second wave of changes arrived.
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