The Thorne of Destiny-Chapter 96: Mist Puppets

From the heart, he pulled out a small fist-sized core. It had a dark green hue that made it resemble jade. Overall, it looked like a small jade marble.

The man wiped the blood from the core, bringing out its luster and making it shine like jewelry. He quickly went to present it to Bella while bowing slightly.

She took the core and merely inspected it for a bit before storing it inside her storage ring. Fourth-rank beast cores were valuable, but to her, it was only a little more valuable than a trinket.

The cultivators from the Vyre family harvested the Poison Toad in a swift and precise manner. The venom sacs, bones, and eyes were all harvested.

Even the poison sacs on its back were not spared. The other cultivators were wondering what it was useful for, but didn’t dare to voice out their concerns. Since it was the Vyres, they were sure they had their uses for it.

After a few minutes, they were done harvesting all the useful parts. What was left of the Poison Toad was just a heap of flesh. Most of the blood was also drained by them, leaving almost nothing of value behind.

"You guys can have the rest," Bella said coolly, addressing the cultivators from Stonehold city. They were initially surprised before their faces broke out in delight.

This was the corpse of a Rank 4 beast. Even if all of the useful parts had been harvested, the flesh alone was sure to net them a substantial amount of money.

"Thank you, Young Miss." They all expressed their gratitude while bowing. Bella waved her hand dismissively before instructing them.

"Just make sure that you don’t disrupt my plans next time. We’ll be leaving this area soon, so I suggest you take care of your affairs quickly."

Elder Glenda observed all of this with a satisfied look in her eye. Even though Bella’s attitude might not have been the best, her actions of giving the corpse of the Poison Toad were the right ones.

Incentives were a surefire way to make people eager and willing to work for you. She was learning how to direct her subordinates, which pleased her.

******

Back in the maze, Adrian found himself in a passage that seemed to go further into the maze. It seemed that he was able to successfully escape the mirror formation.

It couldn’t have happened too soon, as well. When he entered the passage, he felt the effects of the Soul Enhancement pill fading away. The spirit sense that he kept around him faded away, reverting him back to his normal form.

The feeling was strange for him. Spirit sense was very useful, and he was already becoming used to the feeling of using it. Going back to just using his eyes made him feel like he had lost one of his senses.

He longed for the feeling of using it again. It just ignited his desire to grow stronger and made him want to cultivate and train even more.

He followed the passage, passing through different corridors. Some of them had multiple passages, and he had to choose one of them, typical of a maze.

Choosing one of these passages led him to a long, wide corridor. Stepping into it, Adrian instinctively felt that to was different from the rest.

It wasn’t because he detected anything special, as if he were to use spirit sense. It was just a sense of danger that he seemed to have cultivated over time in this maze.

Because of all the danger he had faced in such a short amount of time, he seemed to have developed some sort of special danger sense, making him incredibly wary when he entered this place. ƒree𝑤ebnσvel.com

And it seems he was right. As soon as he took a few steps inside, a faint mist began to fill the entire passage. He instantly retrieved his sword, ready to fight anything that was coming.

However, nothing seemed to happen afterwards. He was a bit dumbfounded and skeptical of the whole situation.

’If nothing was going to happen, then why the mist?’ Well, he soon found out why the mist was there.

In the distance, three figures started to materialize from the mist. They were humanoid in shape and bore the faint outline of a normal cultivator.

After a few moments, the figures were fully formed, and he was instantly shocked. From the mist, the three figures had fully formed, and their forms weren’t what he expected.

The three figures resembled him in form and appearance. Even his black robes were copied by them, and they were even holding swords identical to his own.

The only thing different was their lack of facial features. None of them had any faces, which made them look very eerie.

Without warning, the three of them charged at him, with swords drawn. Adrian didn’t back down from the challenge. He wielded his sword in a skillful manner and faced them head on.

He was able parry the sword strike with relative ease, sending the first attacker stumbling. In the same fluid motion, he blocked the sword strike of the second attacker while simultaneously dodging the third.

However, he seemed to have underestimated these ’mist puppets’. The first one struck again, this time attempting to pierce him with its sword. He was able to block it in time, but this left him open to the attacks from the other two.

The second mist puppet thrust out its sword, attempting to impale him. He was able to dodge, but he was in an awkward position, leaving him open to attacks.

The third mist puppet didn’t waste that chance and slashed at him.

Adrian reeled backward, his breath catching in his throat as the blade of the third mist puppet sliced cleanly across his chest.

There was no blood. No tear in his robes. But he screamed.

A sharp, burning pain lanced through his chest, not in his flesh, but in his spirit.

His knees buckled as his soul trembled violently. A wave of vertigo assaulted him, and for a brief moment, his vision doubled, colors twisting unnaturally.

It seemed he had finally realised the danger he was in.

’They’re attacking my soul!’

The realization hit him harder than the strike had.

These weren’t ordinary constructs or puppets; they were manifestations of the strange mist, born from formation energy and infused with an intent to damage what could not be seen.

They weren’t illusions, yet their blades didn’t cut flesh. Each strike corroded the essence of his soul, chipping away at his will, causing him great pain.

Adrian rolled to the side just as another sword came down, narrowly missing his shoulder.

"Can’t let them touch me!" he growled under his breath, springing backward.

The three copies moved slowly at first, stalking him through the corridor. They held their swords in identical grips, their featureless faces tilted slightly, like predators observing wounded prey.

Adrian clenched his fists.

His body was uninjured, but his limbs could be seen trembling slightly. His soul, which had just recently been healed, had already been injured once again.

The damage wasn’t nearly as bad as before, but this was only the first strike. If more attacks landed on him, the injuries to his soul would surely worsen. He didn’t know how much of it he could take before risking serious injury.

He wasn’t eager to find out. The pain was too unbearable and wasn’t something an ordinary cultivator could bear much of. Even if his soul was stronger than normal, he didn’t want to take that risk.

Come to think of it, every challenge he had faced in this maze had something to do with the soul. From the illusion that trapped him in his sea of consciousness at the beginning, to the mirror illusion formation that he had managed to slip out of, everything was related to the soul.

’Did it have something to do with the passage I picked in the beginning? Damn it, if I knew, I would have picked a different one.’ He grumbled to himself internally.

He quickly retreated further. He needed distance. He needed time to think. However, the mist puppets didn’t seem to want to give him that reprieve.

They came at him in unison again, perfectly synchronized, like dancers in a deadly formation. He dodged to the side, letting the first blade slice past his shoulder. His sword lashed out, meeting the second’s blade in a shower of cold sparks.

Thankfully, he was able to block their attacks with his sword. He didn’t know what he would do if his weapon were useless against them.

It seemed that aside from their attacks that damaged the soul, they were just puppets made from mist. They had terrible defense, and this was proved during the next interaction.

After blocking the attack of the second mist puppet, he sent out an attack of his own. He couldn’t keep blocking all the time. He had to mount an offense of his own.

His sword moved swiftly, targeting the shoulder of the second mist puppet. His blade didn’t cut flesh. It pushed through the mist, parting it slightly.

However, he had to stop his offensive there for now. The third doppelgänger came from his blind spot. Adrian twisted sharply and met the strike with the flat of his sword, gritting his teeth as the force of the attack sent him stumbling back a few steps.