“Steady your mind! Attack them!” Margaret shouted sharply. The short sword in her hand gleamed with a cold light, and a sword aura slashed toward one of the approaching gray shadows. The sword aura passed through it—the gray figure twisted and rippled, thinning slightly and letting out an even sharper shriek, but it did not dissipate completely. Instead, it lunged forward even more ferociously. The other guards’ attacks had similar results. Their blade auras and sword Qi had limited effect against these misty wraiths—each took several blows to barely destroy. The wraiths’ attacks, however, were disturbingly strange. They could easily penetrate ordinary protective Qi barriers and directly touch the body. Once entangled, a wave of freezing cold would surge through the victim, and their vital energy would drain away like floodwaters through a broken dam. One guard, caught off guard, was struck on the arm by a wraith. His arm instantly turned gray and shriveled, as though all moisture...