The Thorne of Destiny
Chapter 104: It simply didn’t add up.

Chapter 104: It simply didn’t add up.

Adrian gritted his teeth and turned towards the staircase. He was too curious not to climb up the staircase. He was taking a risk, but in his opinion, it was worth it.

Plus, when he thought about it, this was the only realistic solution. The mystic realm was small, and the only structure inside was the castle. There was no other place he could hide from them.

Also, the exit was most likely connected to this place. The only other exit he could think of was the formation on the cliff that he arrived at when he entered the mystic realm.

However, that option would require him to travel back through the maze, something he was unwilling to do. Going through the maze was most likely a death sentence for him at this point.

He climbed the staircase and was soon on the first floor. To his relief, he didn’t see anybody there. Maybe they were on the higher floor, or they had left the mystic realm completely.

The second floor was noticeably smaller than the ground floor. It also had fewer things inside. He noticed two shelves that were still standing, unlike the ones on the ground floor. However, both shelves were empty.

Not a single book, tome, or scroll could be seen on the shelves. If there was something here before, Julian and his group seemed to have gotten to it first.

He sighed in reluctance. Even though he expected such a result, it still felt bad not to find anything. He guessed that the shelves would contain cultivation techniques and martial skills like the ones on the ground floor.

Since Julian and his group took it, it meant that they were of rather high rank. Gold rank, maybe? Or perhaps Spirit rank? Adrian wandered to himself before turning his attention towards the weapons rack.

His sword, which was still in his hands, was immediately raised when he saw what was there. He instantly became vigilant when he saw the bisected body of the young man lying in two parts.

His eyes darted around, trying to see if the danger that was on this floor was still around. After a few minutes of focused vigilance, he slowly relaxed his stance when nothing happened.

He gently moved closer to the dead body and began inspecting it. From the robes, he could tell that he was a disciple of the War Machine sect, one of the members of Julian’s group.

The blood had already coagulated and blackened in colour. His insides that had spilled out had already begun emitting a faint rotting smell. He realized that his death wasn’t recent. This body had been here for at least a day.

His stance and grip relaxed even further after that. If the body had already been here for at least a day, that meant that whatever had killed the man would have been dealt with already.

The members of his group would have certainly fought off whatever had killed their teammate, right? Also, judging by how there were no other corpses here, they certainly had to have been victorious, right?

Although he couldn’t see any signs of fighting on this floor. Adrian’s brows furrowed slightly as he examined the room again. The absence of any signs of combat was a bit troubling.

It simply didn’t add up.

If the man had been killed by a beast or an ambush, there would have been a struggle. Yet the clean cut across the corpse suggested otherwise. The slice was precise, horizontal, and smooth. A sword strike, expertly delivered.

A faint thought crept up in his mind. Perhaps it wasn’t a trap. If his guess was right, the real danger wasn’t a trap or puppet, it was his own group members. That possibility made his skin crawl more than any formation or illusion.

’’What reason would they have for killing one of their own?’ He thought as he continued examining the corpse. He could tell that this man wasn’t the leader of the group.

Though when he was tailing them, he was too far away to see their faces, he could still tell them apart slightly by their silhouettes. The man who was their leader was slightly taller than the man in front of him.

That meant that it wasn’t a coup. They weren’t trying to dethrone their leader.

’Perhaps it was the leader himself who ordered his execution?’

’What could have happened that led to him ordering his death of one of his teammates?’ Different questions that he didn’t have the answer to kept popping up in his mind.

Adrian took a slow, deep breath, calming the storm in his mind. He stepped away from the body, careful not to disturb it. There was nothing he could do for the dead, and there was no point in lingering. Whatever the reason was for killing their teammate, it was none of his business, so long as those blades weren’t pointing at him.

He resumed searching the floor, trying to find anything of value. He took a glance at the weapons rack to see that it was completely empty. Every single weapon that had been here had been taken by Julian and his group.

In fact, the whole floor seemed to have been wiped clean by them, leaving nothing behind. He was a bit jealous, knowing that whatever they had found would have been very valuable.

He was even reluctant to continue exploring the castle further, thinking that they would have already stripped it clean. If he knew that Julian also carted away with a huge amount of Qi stones, who knew how he would feel?

He ultimately decided to check out the second floor, just in case they missed anything important, though he highly doubted it. He started walking towards the staircase, which was at the other end of the floor.

He immediately noticed the two flags flanking the staircase, like two bodyguards. He recognized them almost instantly as soon as he saw them.

"Formation flags." He muttered to himself quietly. How couldn’t he? The ones he saw in front of Thorne City and the House of Thorne were still fresh in his mind.

He still remembered the beautiful illusions that hid the ugly truth of what happened in the city. Adrian closed his eyes and quickly suppressed his emotions that were threatening to erupt from within him.

He took deep breaths, and soon his emotions were under control. When he opened his eyes, a cold determination simmered within them. Every reminder of that day only strengthened his resolve to grow stronger and get revenge.

That was why he had to at least check out the second floor, to see if there was anything that could help him there.

His legs took him to the staircase, where he started climbing without hesitation. He had only taken a few steps when he felt the pulse of spirit energy coming towards him.

Unlike Julian, who didn’t even notice it, Adrain felt it as soon as the attack was launched. He had been hit with similar attacks far too many times in the maze for him not to recognize it.

However, even if he recognized it, there was nothing he could do about it. He had no way to shield his soul or counterattack. He could only stand there as the spirit energy crashed into him and headed straight for his sea of consciousness.

"Mmngffh!" Adrian let out a muffled scream as he clutched his head, feeling the familiar piercing pain. No matter how many times he felt it, it still hurt terribly.

However, he was able to endure it. Unlike Julian, he had developed some sort of tolerance towards the pain. He was able to stay awake, without being thrown back to the ground.

If any cultivator were to witness Adrian’s display here, they would certainly be shocked. To develop tolerance to something, one had to be exposed to it multiple times.

That would mean that Adrian had been exposed to attacks that targeted the soul multiple times. For a Foundation Establishment realm cultivator, that was unheard of.

Nascent Soul realm cultivators fear soul attacks, and they were vastly superior to him. He gritted his teeth and continued climbing the staircase. He had expected more soul attacks, but thankfully, they never came.

When he stepped onto the Second floor. He immediately collapsed on the ground. His soul was still injured previously, and he just took another serious blow to it.

He might not have shown it, but he was not in good condition. He was only able to continue climbing the stairs through sheer grit and determination.

He fell asleep almost immediately after taking a Rank 4 healing pill. It was one he was given before coming to the Misty Mountains the first time. He only had a few of them and kept them for serious emergencies.

Well, he was in a serious emergency. While they weren’t made to nourish the soul, they could still help, albeit only a little. Still, anything was better than nothing for him at this moment.