"I'm not sure. We found you lying on the ground when we arrived. What's your name? Who are you? What happened here?"
"I..."
The person on the ground covered his head and sat up, unsure if it was due to his own headache or because Seele's ability caused a spiritual outburst.
"My name is Zhi Yan... I'm a Cloud Knight... Today, at the Cloudford dock, I was attacked by a Mara-Struck colleague."
The other party also seemed to be recalling memories lost in the corner of his mind.
"I..."
"I seem to..."
"Right, I'm Mara-Struck!"
The person in front suddenly remembered something and exclaimed loudly, then looked at his hands.
"I... this is... Mara-Struck!? No, why am I still conscious!?"
Zhi Yan grabbed the helmet-like object on his head with both hands.
"Can't... take it off..."
"Am I really Mara-Struck?"
Takatsuki and Seele watched as the person in front of them held his head, falling into confusion and muttering to himself.
"Ahem, although I don't know what you mean by Mara-Struck, you can use this to see what you look like now. Is this what you call Mara-Struck?"
Takatsuki extended his hand and projected a mirror in front of Zhi Yan.
"Ah... ahhh..."
Looking at his reflection in the mirror, Zhi Yan tremblingly took the mirror: "Yes, this is Mara-Struck, but... those who are Mara-Struck should fall into madness. Why am I still rational...?"
"If you're asking about that, it's because we enhanced your spirit a bit."
"Enhanced spirit...?"
"Is this the way to break free from Mara-Struck...?"
Seeing Zhi Yan fall into ecstasy and confusion, Takatsuki interrupted, "I still want to remind you that this power has a duration, and according to what you just said, there's more than just you like this?"
"Ah! Right! And everyone else!"
Zhi Yan finally realized his current situation and looked at Takatsuki and Seele: "Right, I haven't had a chance to ask, who are you two?"
"We are from the Astral Express. We just got off the train. Our companions disembarked before us. Have you seen them?"
"Astral Express, huh..."
Zhi Yan thought for a while before seemingly finding the term from the depths of his memory: "Cloudford has countless merchants every day, but it has been sealed for several days due to the anomaly, and it's temporarily impossible to leave. You two must have been on the train, so you escaped. If your companions disembarked earlier, they should have left days ago."
Takatsuki and Seele listened to Zhi Yan's words without responding. Cloudford was sealed? Then how did they get in?
They couldn't answer that.
"But what exactly attacked you and turned you into Mara-Struck?"
"I... I don't know. Anyway, it's very dangerous here now. Let me take you away from here first."
Zhi Yan stood up from the ground. Although he had just been beaten into a state of suspended animation, he could now move freely again. This reminded Takatsuki of Bucciarati in the story, who, immediately after dying, was injected with a large amount of life energy, forcibly moving his dead body with the power of his soul.
Zhi Yan's current state was similar, except that his body was special and hadn't actually died. If the Gold Experience's power disappeared, he wouldn't die, but rather enter the state of losing his rationality that Zhi Yan mentioned earlier.
Following Zhi Yan, Takatsuki and Seele saw many people in the same condition as Zhi Yan along the way.
"Let me awaken them."
Seele's words startled Zhi Yan: "Guests, be careful. They are all Mara-Struck, and in this state, they can't even recognize each other."
"Don't worry, look at your current state, isn't it the same as theirs? And if they are enemies, I'll deal with them."
Hearing Takatsuki's words, Zhi Yan remembered that his own state was also Mara-Struck. He immediately stopped objecting and stood guard beside the two.
Under Seele's ability, one by one, the Mara-Struck people lying on the ground were awakened.
Just like Zhi Yan, their first reaction was confusion, then they saw other Mara-Struck people standing nearby. Before they could even check their own condition, they tried to Stand up and attack.
Then they were instantly pressed to the ground by immense pressure.
With Observation Haki combined with Conqueror's Haki, Takatsuki could instantly suppress them before they even formed the thought of attacking.
And with the explanations from others, they also understood their current situation.
Being able to maintain rationality after becoming Mara-Struck was something they couldn't even imagine.
For Xianzhou natives, Mara-Struck was an ever-present shadow, like death for ordinary people, and what Seele did was nothing short of extending their lives.
"Since this body can still be of use, I shall do my utmost to safeguard the peace of Xianzhou."
For Seele, who saved them, these Cloud Knights called her: The Goddess of Medicine.
Of course, not all Mara-Struck individuals were Cloud Knights, and these individuals were invariably subdued and pinned to the ground by the restored Mara-Struck soldiers.
As for these individuals, Takatsuki showed them his terror.
"Hey, look here."
In a place only Seele and Takatsuki could see, a phantom hand pressed onto the other person's head, reaching into their mind, and pulled out a rectangular object.
A slice of memory, also known as a Light Cone.
Heaven's Stairway used Void Energy from memory to read the contents of the Light Cone.
"Do you know about Disciples of Sanctus Medicus?"
Several Cloud Knights exchanged glances, then shook their heads. Although their eyes were long gone, it was unclear how they saw things.
"In this guy's memory, I saw that an organization called Disciples of Sanctus Medicus attacked this place, using special methods to stimulate some Cloud Knights who were about to become Mara-Struck to accelerate their transformation."
As soon as Takatsuki's words fell, the few people in front of him became agitated: "What! These guys! To do such a thing!"
Takatsuki shrugged: "This person doesn't know much, only that it was their mission."
"It seems their tasks are all different; his task is to spread some kind of powder in Cloudford."
"Lord Guardian of the Goddess of Medicine, if that's the case, does that mean if we capture a few more people from Disciples of Sanctus Medicus, you'll be able to find their mastermind?"
"Well, if you can find someone who knows about this."
Looking at the energetic group, Takatsuki smiled at Veliona: "I've become the Guardian of the Goddess of Medicine."
"Takatsuki, don't tease me…"