Arion gives up...

Moments ago, Master Chen had went to Heka sect to visit Arion.

He had no doubts about safely escaping from the Silver Palace, and he expected Arion to have found a clue about the person responsible for his family's death.

"I never wanted to help him in his quest for revenge, but I eagerly want to do so now that I know the person may be living within Golangane's wall. We will find the culprit together, Arion, and do you justice," he said as he approached the Heka's entrance door.

Master Chen dashed through the sect's entrance, only to realize he shivered.

It was as if he had passed through am electric source or iceland that sent shivers down his spine.

Master Chen stopped in his tracks and looked back at the entrance,

"Perhaps my entire body system was accessed as I passed through the door. It doesn't matter to me, though, since nothing in my body seems missing."

The guards by the door leading to another corridor bowed and opened the door for Master Chen.

As he entered the corridor, he expected to see some passerby. He thought he could ask about Arion's whereabouts from them, but unfortunately, there was nobody there.

"I think I should ask those guards," he returned outside, and as he attempted to speak, the two guards bowed, showing they were paying attention to what he had to say. "Do you, by any chance, know where Arion is? He's the stable worker."

"Arion? I don't know anyone by that name, master," one of the guards replied with a confused and doubtful look.

Master Chen immediately looked at the other guard, folding his arms behind his back, prompting the guard to shake his head in response.

"Neither do I know him, master."

Master Chen smiled, having expected the guards' responses.

"I had known they might not know him. After all, Arion is anti-social," he thought as he walked back into the corridor.

He decided to visit Lysander in his chambers and maybe, ask about Arion from passersby.

Just at the moment, he heard a feminine voice questioning the guards about the same thing he had asked.

"Have you seen Arion around? He works in the stables, and he's the one I usually move around with," the feminine voice asked.

The guard who had previously answered Master Chen's question realized who the man in question was as Liora made mention of the one she was close with, and then, and replied,

"I know him, Lady Liora. However, I haven't seen him pass through this entrance since he left four days ago."

Liora panicked upon hearing this. "What do you mean?" she asked, her voice trembling.

She feared it was true that Arion hadn't returned since the day he left. Where could he possibly have gone? Was he even safe? She believed he had no relations, no friends, nobody he cared about, which is why he had always been emotionless and anti-social.

Guilt overcame her as she thought, "Could it be I made him uncomfortable because I was too clingy? Am I the cause if he gets injured? I made him leave!"

A hint of fear and tears flashed in her eyes, and she was already losing her attention, trapped in thoughts of regret and guilt of having caused Arion's misfortune.

"What the hell are you all talking about?! Arion never returned?!" Master Chen yelled in anger. He walked at in fury.

The guards froze from the fiery attitude of the usually calm man, and when they finally composed themselves, they replied with their heads turned down, "No, he has not returned, master!"

"Goddamn it! Arion is not back?!"Master Chen roared under his breath and dashed out of the entrance door.

Though he felt the same strange sensation as he went through the door, he didn't care at the moment.

He was determined to save Arion at any cost, even if it meant going against the Silver Palace alone. After all, it was Arion who had saved him when all he cared about was revenge.

"He saved me and Sarah, even when names like ours weren't in his dictionary," Master Chen thought.

"Uncle!" Liora ran after him as she learned that he was also looking for Arion from the guards.

She was ready to do whatever it took to save Arion and make amends for her actions.

Master Chen thought that the next place Arion might be if he wasn't in Heka was the northern mountain; that was his initial house.

Meanwhile, at the moment when Arion was shot with arrows and falling from the high cliff...

"What's happening? He's falling!" Liora panicked, screamed, and her legs were about to propell her toward Arion to rescue him from the thin air before he would crash to the ground when she was restrained by Master Chen.

"Going into thin air will only attract danger for us and him as well. He will survive this; you just have to trust him," Master Chen reassured her, though worry was still evident on her face.

Arion crashed to the ground. His body lay in a pool of blood, his vision was blurry, and he struggled to keep his eyes open but eventually gave in.

"Arion!" Master Chen screamed.

Both he and Liora rushed to Arion's body. Liora implored Master Chen to do something as Arion was losing a lot of blood.

Fortunately, Master Chen had a student who was a doctor and had a homestead within that mountain.

The shirt on Arion was soaked in blood, his face was bruised from the vicious attack, and a part of his hair, the long part tied at the top and allowed to fall freely, was also bloody.

"Lift him onto my back. We've got to move him quickly," Master Chen instructed as he rose from his squat, bent down, and turned his back toward Liora, urging her to lift Arion onto him.

She hesitated. "Wait a minute. Can you check his pulse first? Checking a victim's pulse is the easiest way to determine their condition...!"

But Master Chen urged her to lift the injured man onto his back rather than checking his pulse.

Three days later, Arion opened his eyes. His gaze met a wooden ceiling, which had gaps between the wooden planks, allowing light to filter through and shine into his eyes.

He wasn't surprised to be alive since he had inherited Rowan's immortality.

The light temporarily blurred his vision, triggering memories of the attack.

He propped himself up on the soft surface he was lying on and was surprised to find himself on bed.

Besides, he assumed, no one was there to save him when he was attacked.

So he thought that his attackers had simply left him there after he had passed out.

"Am I being given VIP treatment for being their hostage?" Arion mused as he got out of bed.

He noticed a pair of shoes by the bed, made from woven dry leaves, the kind used by commoners.

Assuming that this was how his kidnappers treated an important hostage, he put on the shoes and said softly, "Although I don't know why I am being treated this way, I still don't care. I am powerless, and I'll have to live my life as a commoner forever. Let's enjoy this special moment, for it might be my last."

"But damn, horse dungs will be so irritable to clean. Anyways, I may live forever as an Enthralled Shadow if I get so lucky," Arion said.

Arion's mind was unburdened, much like that of a child's, free of worries and grudges against anyone.

He believed that seeking revenge for his family all alone was unfair in the first place, and giving up on it seemed just.

"Me losing my powers is a mystery that shouldn't have happened. Didn't the heavens gift me that power for a particular purpose? So why would I lose it? If only it's fair in the first place, I should have never had a magical stone!" he lamented as he made his way to the room's entrance door. "So let's keep doing this. I won't ever try to regain my powers, and I will stick to whatever personality I have from today onward."

Fuming but resolved to accept whatever awaited him outside the wooden house with a wooden roof, he stepped out, and the light once again temporarily blurred his vision.

Unexpectedly, he saw a man, apparently in his youthful age, with long blonde hair, dressed in ragged clothing, bending in front of a large rock and striking one piece of metal against another.

"I won't ask who you are. My question is, am I going to work here forever? Teach me how you bend those; both of us are obviously slaves."

Arion asked, showing no emotion.

Unexpectedly, the man grinned and seemed delighted that Arion was awake.

"You're awake!" the man exclaimed, dropping the metal and standing up to dust his dirty hands on his ragged clothing.

Arion continued, "What were you doing?"

The man replied with delight, "I was forging a sword. Do you want to try too?" Arion declined, and the man introduced himself, "Your wounds have disappeared, and you are in good health now. That's good! My name is Stephen, Stephen Mhi. I'm a student of your savior, Master Chen. He brought you here when you were unconscious."

"So, you mean, I wasn't abducted? How is that possible?" Arion asked, perplexed.

"Master Chen and a lady saved you and you have been in coma for the past three days," said Stephen. "I am so glad you are awake."

Arion smiled and commended Master Chen for his unwavering loyalty. "That man! He's actually one of the great ones."

Just then, he heard Master Chen's cheerful voice and saw him waving in delight. Although Arion thought he might be about to smile, he restrained himself.

"So glad you're awake!" Master Chen said loudly, beaming with joy.

Arion managed a wave in response, and as Master Chen gestured for him to join him at the large wooden table in the house's compound, where he was seated, he turned to the man referred to as Mhia or something—he still struggled with remembering people's names.

"Do you have wine, Mr. Mhia?" Arion asked.

The man corrected him, "No, it's Mhi...not Mhia."

Arion remained silent, and then he inquired about wine again.

The man mentioned that he had homemade wine at home, and Arion was delighted.

"Please let me have two bottles. I'm going to have a drinking contest with that old man," he said, and smiled.

Arion glanced at the sky as Stephen went inside the house to fetch the wine. It was then he realized they were still in the mountain, as he spotted his dark cave in the distance.

Meanwhile, in another part of the realm, Lysander wondered why Liora and his brother were looking for Arion, and Master Chen decided to head to the mountains first.

Why the mountain, of all places? He had read their minds as they passed through the invisible formation.

"Why did I see a dragon in the young man's mind the first day he was in my sect? Actually, why...did I think he's different from othe people?"

As Arion looked up at the sky, his expression turned somber, and he thought,

"All of you jerks involved in my family's death are free. Poor me can't take a step anymore, I lost everything that qualifies me as an avenger. Finally, I want to stop trying to get at you anymore. You have won!"

Tears welled up in his eyes, although he didn't want to give up that easily.

"The Silver King can have it all."

Master Chen could sense that something was wrong by looking at him, and he feared that Arion was about to give up, not knowing that this assumption was true.