Time returned to the previous night.
When Alban Regis watched Wu Ling beat Davis down with one hand, without even opening his Martial Soul, the shock to his young heart was enormous.
In Alban's eyes, his eldest brother Davis had always been the most talented Spirit Master under heaven. Davis was like a mountain that could never be crossed, pressing down on Alban's heart so heavily that even life inside that magnificent palace felt suffocating.
But last night, the mountain in Alban's mind was destroyed.
A person said to be Spirit Hall's Holy Son, a person who looked only about the same age as Davis, had knocked that mountain down one casual punch at a time.
After watching that one-sided fight, Alban returned to his residence in a daze. He dismissed every attendant, then silently took a backpack from a hidden corner. He had prepared it long ago, but he had never been able to make the final decision.
Originally, he had planned to challenge Davis one last time today. If he lost again, then he would leave. But after watching last night's battle, he finally understood how ridiculous that thought had been. In all the dozens of previous matches, Davis had never once taken him seriously.
The mountain collapsed, and Alban saw how small he truly was.
"It is impossible. I am only a Spirit Adept. How could I possibly defeat my brother when he is already a Spirit Meister?"
Alban stared fixedly at the backpack in front of him and comforted himself.
"There are people outside who are stronger than him. Right. This is not running away. I am going out to learn. As long as I have time, I can still defeat him. Right. I am not fleeing. I am only fighting for the time that should have belonged to me."
After hypnotizing himself with those words, Alban's gaze grew firm. He slung the backpack over his shoulders. Just as he was about to leave, he suddenly stopped and stared blankly in a certain direction.
That was where the fiancée whose name he still did not know lived.
As his fiancée, someone tied to him by fate, she had once been a harbor for his heart on the road to challenging Davis. He often wrote letters to that fiancée. She had only replied a few times, but that was enough for him to feel that someone was walking this road with him.
That was also why he had always refused to learn her name. He wanted to defeat Davis first, then rely on his own strength to stand before her and ask her personally.
But now, he was going to run away and abandon a fiancée he had never met, whose name he did not even know.
"Blame the place you were born, then."
That fiancée had indeed been his heart's harbor on that road. But since he was leaving the road itself, he no longer needed that harbor. Besides, this was a harbor without a known name or face. Abandoning it did not weigh very heavily on his mind.
Before leaving, however, Alban still found a cat and tied one final letter to its back.
"Treat this as parting on good terms. I hope she can marry someone else in the future... no, no, that is not right. I am going out to train. I will definitely come back and defeat my brother. How can I call this parting? It is only a temporary departure. Yes, temporary!"
As he hypnotized himself, Alban never thought about what would happen to that fiancée after she lost him. Or perhaps, in his heart, she was only a "fiancée" in name.
After releasing the cat, Alban left the palace through a secret passage without looking back. His disappearance was not discovered until the next morning, when attendants came to wake him.
After an entire morning of searching, the steward responsible for Alban confirmed that he truly was missing. He had not merely gone out early for a walk as he sometimes did.
The Star Stripe emperor discovered the matter during breakfast.
"Where is the third prince? How dare he make a guest wait!"
"R-reporting to Your Majesty, His Highness the third prince has not yet been found."
The Star Stripe emperor understood at once. If the attendant dared say he had not yet been found, that meant Alban was missing.
The emperor had already expected this. In his heart, he sneered.
"Hmph. So he really ran like a coward."
The first thing the Star Stripe emperor did after learning that his son was missing was not worry or anger. He glanced at Wu Ling.
After all, family shame should not be aired in public. If Spirit Hall's Holy Son decided that he had failed to teach his son properly, then the entire royal family's face would be lost.
In the emperor's eyes, only one of his three sons could remain in the end. That person was now almost certainly the eldest prince. Since that was the case, the life or death of the other two princes no longer mattered.
If Alban died outside, then it could simply be treated as if the eldest prince had killed him. If he became powerful outside and returned to seize the throne, then that would prove his ability.
Seeing that Wu Ling showed no reaction or interest, the Star Stripe emperor tilted his head slightly. A Spirit King standing behind him stepped forward.
"They failed in their duties. Kill the third prince's attendants and steward. Make it clean," the Star Stripe emperor quietly instructed the Spirit King at his side.
The Spirit King did not ask a single question. He only nodded and left the room.
"The third prince is young, ignorant, and willful. I have let Your Highness see something embarrassing. Let us eat first."
After speaking to his subordinate, the Star Stripe emperor's tone changed completely as he addressed Wu Ling, who had still been waiting.
Wu Ling smiled without saying anything. Acting as though he knew nothing, he picked up his chopsticks and began eating.
Beside the Star Stripe emperor, the eldest and second princes had already understood something. The former's eyes held a little worry. The latter was also worried, though who he was worried for was unknown.
After breakfast, the Star Stripe emperor claimed he had important matters to handle and would not accompany Wu Ling further. Wu Ling naturally brought up his own departure. After a brief discussion, he decided to leave before noon.
Before that, however, Wu Ling chose to tour the Star Stripe Capital in daylight. Yesterday, he had been busy from the moment he arrived. By the time he had been free at night, the street vendors and shops were already closed.
Looking around at the shops, Wu Ling cared little for the goods, but certain local foods caught his attention.
"I should buy some before leaving at noon and try them."
Just as Wu Ling decided what he would eat for lunch, thick smoke rising in the distance caught his attention.
In a place like Soul Land, there were no factories. If a large amount of smoke suddenly rose from somewhere, there was only one possibility.
Something was on fire.
"A fire in the capital. Interesting. Let us go have a look."
With a few leaps, Wu Ling arrived at the burning site and found that it was actually a flower field. Judging from the torch in the hand of the person inside, this was deliberate arson.
Then, beneath the large tree at the center of the flower field, Wu Ling saw a young girl.
A young girl who looked somewhat familiar.