Pursuit

The icy wind blew Hermione awake from her unconsciousness. She opened her eyes groggily and, through her blurred vision, realized the state she was in. Startled, a flush rose to her cheeks, and her body began twisting instinctively.

"Don't move!" Zhao Xuan was gliding through the air, wind and thunder rolling beneath his feet. With a single touch of the ground, he could surge forward more than ten meters.

Hermione's sudden movement caught him off guard, and he nearly failed to hold on and let go.

With a soft, warm body in his arms, Zhao Xuan's thoughts began to wander as well. The girl's breath was fragrant like orchids, and the moist heat of it was especially clear in the cold night.

"What happened?"

Her mind was still muddled, and Hermione's memories after being kidnapped were fragmented.

Zhao Xuan's divine sense remained locked onto the bedraggled figure fleeing ahead, following closely behind.

Hearing this, he said irritably, "What happened? You were kidnapped. If I hadn't noticed in time, who knew what might have happened?"

Hermione frowned as her fragmented memories gradually connected. She remembered standing at the mouth of an alley, waiting for Zhao Xuan. Then, it seemed a hand had reached out from the alley and covered her mouth and nose. After smelling a strange fragrance, she remembered nothing that followed.

"I was kidnapped?" Clarity returned to Hermione's eyes. She blinked, still unable to believe it, and a wave of lingering fear washed over her.

Suddenly, her nose twitched. She frowned and asked uneasily, "What's that smell on you?"

Zhao Xuan replied expressionlessly, "Blood."

"Blood?" Hermione froze at first, then her pretty face turned deathly pale.

"You killed someone?!" A thought rose in Hermione's mind, one she found hard to believe.

"That's right. Those guys were planning to kill