Azure Bird.

People screamed and ran towards the stadium exit. It was a chaotic scene. However, no sound reached the Duke's ears. His heart was left in shock. Everything happened so fast when he rushed towards the room, but the powerful energy had already destroyed it and everything inside. Then all fell silent.

The Duke's face was pale, and his hands were shaking. The next moment, he jumped into the hole without hesitation, but there was only dust as if everything that was once inside was now completely pulverized. His mind panicked and his eyes searched for a trace of her, though he knew it was to no avail.

'No! No! This can't be happening! No!'

He looked everywhere, lifting things, throwing rocks, but nothing could be seen. She was nowhere, she was gone.

He kneeled on the hard rock and punched the floor over and over again as if trying to dig something. But there was only dust.

He felt robbed as if the most important thing in his life was taken away from him and would never return. What he feared the most for the last few weeks happened. She disappeared and it was all his fault for letting go of her hand. He was the one to make her promise, but he broke it first.

'I let her go… I let her go.' He became desperate and irrational. The pain in his heart was suffocating.

He just sat there listlessly. His eyes were moist for the first time in his life. Sadness was something he had already forgotten, but now it hit him with hard. Then his mind was invaded by guilt and anger, so much anger that a powerful aura gushed out of him. The stadium began to crumble, and the workers and Madam Lu felt the intense pressure that prevented them from moving.

He wanted to destroy everything, he felt that nothing had meaning anymore. He understood that from the first moment he saw her she had already become his world. She was too important, and due to his plans, he lost her. The pain in his heart couldn't subside, he wanted to blame and kill and make his pain go away because it was too much. He realized how much she meant to him, how much he had already fallen in love with her.

"Brother Lian!" Luo Xin's voice could barely be heard. "Brother Lian, stop!"

When he heard her, his eyes turned furious and then cold. He stood up and turned around to look at her a look filled with disgust. Luo Xin was stunned.

"Bro… brother Lian?" She felt scared.

He condensed energy in his hand and was about to shoot it when he noticed something on the ground. His eyes widened.

***

"Ouch… that hurts." Xueling landed in a big field filled with daisy flowers.

"Where I am?" she looked around, but she found nothing or anyone.

Suddenly, a small chirp came from her side and she felt something soft in her hand.

"What?"

It was a small bluebird, the size of her palm. It looked really cute, but it was injured. She took it in her hands and began to focus her energy. Thanks to the gathering ring she felt a warm feeling transmit to her hand very quickly, then she directed it towards the little bird.

"Here you go, little friend."

His breathing steadied and he opened his eyes. Then he got weakly to his feet. Xueling noticed the beautiful azure feathers that were shimmering under the sun. She was too distracted to realize that the little bird was playing with her hand had picked her finger, dropping a bit of blood.

"What? You little…" Suddenly a bright light blinded her, and the little bird disappeared. "What just happened?" She felt a sting in the back of her hand and saw a blue tattoo in the form of a bird. She stroked it but it didn't react.

After a moment trying to focus her energy on the mark, nothing happened. Then she wanted to stand up, but her legs didn't move.

"What?" She tried to move again but couldn't. She became desperate. "This can't be happening." She sat there for a few minutes focusing and checking if other parts of her body could move. She remembered the powerful force that blinded her in the stadium and then she lost consciousness, she thought she was going to die but appeared on that field and seemed to be quite alive except for her legs. She felt no pain but that was definitely not a good signal.

Suddenly a sound came from behind her. A man in a black robe and red eyes was walking towards her.

"Are you alright?" Seren's nonchalant voice was not what she wanted to hear.

"You are… What are you doing here?"

"Well… shouldn't you be grateful?"

"What are you talking about?"

"I saved you."

She narrowed her eyes as if she didn't believe him.

"I created an array before the energy hit you." He said with a serious expression.

"This… Thank you." She felt suspicious.

"That's all? You should show more gratitude."

"What do you want?"

"Come to my country with me."

"…" She didn't know what to say.

"Do you think the Duke would save you or even care about you when he already has his woman? Don't you understand that you would be discarded at any moment?" He mocked her.

"What does it matter to you? Why are you interested in me? Who are you?" She was exasperated, she didn't want to remember the couple hugging in the stadium.

"Come with me and you will understand."

"… I can't... I can't move my legs. Can you fix them?"

"... I can't… for now." He looked at her with a complicated expression. "Let me help you, I saw a town nearby." He carried her and started walking.

"Can't you fly?" She expected the man would leap into the sky like the Duke.

"I used too much energy saving you…" She felt a little guilty and remained silent.

They walked down the road to a nearby village with rustic houses and huge farmlands. However, there was something different in the way they irrigated their fields. She noticed several gathering columns around the territory. And some magical artifacts were moving around watering the plants. Several magical chains were connected to them and to the columns.

"Where are we?"

"We are in the farmlands on the south of Jin. I don't know exactly how far it is from the Duke's estate."

He looked at her, she was frowning.

"They won't be looking for you. They must think you are dead."

Her big blue eyes looked up at him in surprise.

"What do you mean?"

"The explosion was too strong, only a high-level magic shield could contain it."

"They could find the array you made"

"It is unlikely, I made it a few seconds before the explosion. Any remainder is now dust."

She clenched her mouth. 'He must think I am dead. Will he even care? I think this is the best for now.'