The Thorne of Destiny-Chapter 146: Good

The flames still hadn’t died down by the time the City Lord’s personal guards arrived at the inn. The alley, already narrow and shrouded in shadow, had become a battleground of crumbled stone, broken wards, and corrupted Qi. Ash and scorched talismans floated in the air like ghostly feathers.

Adrian stood at the center of it all, his robe torn, the Skyveil sword in his hand humming with tension. Blood dripped from a shallow cut on his shoulder, and his breaths came ragged, but his eyes were steady—unflinching as they stared down the three remaining Wraiths.

Wraith No. 4 lay motionless, his body half-buried beneath a fallen beam and a curse formation that had detonated on impact. His dagger was cracked. The void mark on his mask had shattered, leaving a splatter of corrupted Qi behind.

The other three Wraiths, however, were now silent. Their casual arrogance had evaporated. What replaced it was cold, meticulous fury.

"You weren’t supposed to be this much trouble," Wraith No. 1 muttered, voice a rasp through the edge of a broken mask. His robes were singed, the arm hanging loosely at his side clearly dislocated.

Adrian didn’t answer. He couldn’t waste breath. Not yet.

Wraith No. 2 and No. 3 split to flank him, their feet making no sound, their killing intent sharpened to a needle’s edge. They didn’t bother hiding anymore. The Veil of a Hundred Shadows still clung to Adrian’s presence, but it didn’t matter. They’d seen enough to know who he was.

"Target confirmed," No. 3 said with a cold smile.

The Void Spider mark on her arm lit up, and black chains shot from her sleeves like serpents, slithering toward Adrian. Wraith No. 2 mirrored her movement—sealing talismans flying toward the ruined ground beneath Adrian’s feet, trying to trap him in a field of stagnation.

Adrian moved.

Astral Steps blurred the air behind him as his body split into two mirror forms for a heartbeat, avoiding both the chains and the talismans. His sword flashed upward—Skyveil catching the moonlight as it severed one of the void-chains mid-flight.

But it wasn’t clean. His arm stung from backlash as the cursed Qi struck back, numbing the flesh around his wrist.

They were testing him now—testing how long he could last.

And Adrian knew: he couldn’t.

Not in a drawn-out battle. Not against three Nascent Soul assassins. His current level couldn’t sustain another ten minutes of this, no matter how clever he was or how well the sword responded.

He had to end it.

Mist clung to the valley floor like a living thing, thick and silvery, coiling around the broken stones of an ancient ruin half-swallowed by the earth. Insects dared not chirp. Birds avoided the skies overhead. Even the wind moved cautiously, whispering only when the stars weren’t watching.

At the edge of the basin, Adrian stood with Bella, Elder Laen, and a dozen Mistshroud disciples—some barely trained, others tempered by blood and fire in Stonehold’s siege. Behind them, Reya and Olivia waited with the cart. Storm, the silver-winged tiger cub, padded silently beside Adrian, eyes glowing faintly with anticipation.

The final anchor pulsed at the heart of the ruins—a jagged stone obelisk carved with sigils from another era. Cracks ran down its length, but the dark light that leaked from within was no less dangerous.

This was it—the last surviving tether of the Dust Order’s curse that had sealed the Mistshroud Sect’s legacy for decades.

Adrian stepped forward.

"Guard the perimeter," he said quietly. "And if something comes out—don’t fight it head-on. Stall. I’ll deal with the anchor."

Bella frowned. "Are you sure? We don’t know what kind of guardian it has."

"I know," he replied, placing a hand over the Bound Star Core nestled beneath his robe. "But I saw this place in Aurelia’s vision. This one’s mine."

He entered the basin alone.

Each step toward the obelisk made the mist heavier, denser, as though he were walking through memory rather than air. Flashes of a burned library, scattered scrolls, and the weeping faces of children emerged in the haze before vanishing again.

The Bound Star stirred in response.

He reached the obelisk and drew Skyveil. The sword pulsed.

"I’ve come to unmake you," Adrian whispered.

The obelisk reacted. Its surface cracked with a loud snap, and a voice echoed from within—a voice not human.

"You bear the curse and the key... You awaken the chains and carry the weight... Then let the judgment come."

The ground split.

Which meant the trap had to work.

Adrian’s eyes darted once to the sigil circle behind the broken well—barely visible under the ash. The glyphs Olivia had helped him embed shimmered faintly, fed by the residual essence from the inn’s old defensive array.

He needed just one more step.

Wraith No. 1 saw it too late.

The moment the lead assassin moved forward to intercept, Adrian ducked low, pushed off with a swirl of Qi, and spun toward the sigil circle.

No. 2 lunged to cut him off—but Adrian wasn’t aiming to escape.

He stabbed his sword directly into the central glyph, activating it.

A pulse.

Not an explosion this time—this one was surgical.

A high-frequency burst of mirrored spirit Qi erupted from the sigil, targeting specific threads: the demonic tattoos on the Wraiths’ bodies, the concealed marks of the Soul-Binder pact they used to coordinate their attacks.

Adrian felt the resonance slam through the alley.

The Wraiths screamed—not out of pain, but outrage. Their movements faltered for half a breath as their inner formations glitched, the pact briefly severed.

That was the window.

Adrian didn’t hesitate.

He turned on Wraith No. 2, who was closest, and channeled everything he had left into a single stroke.

"Starpierce—First Gate!"

The blade surged with celestial Qi.

A silver arc cut the air, streaking across the alley and slicing straight through No. 2’s chest. The assassin tried to phase-shift, but the residual sigil energy disrupted the maneuver.

The sword landed true.

Wraith No. 2 dropped.

Adrian staggered—dizzy, light-headed, his internal Qi churning like a storm. That move had cost him. Too much.

"Enough!" Wraith No. 1 roared.

He shed his robe. From beneath, an ethereal mantle unfolded—woven from ghost-threads and the bones of infant spirits, crackling with a forbidden crimson aura.

"You’ve wasted too much time," Wraith No. 1 said to his companion. "Take his legs. I want him alive."

Wraith No. 3 didn’t reply. She flicked her fingers, and a dozen small orbs launched into the air—Soulfire bombs meant to collapse the building’s last standing walls and block any escape.

The inn shook again. Debris fell like hail.

Then—another explosion. But this one didn’t come from inside. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

It came from above.

CRACK—BOOM!

Lightning tore the night sky apart as a spear made of condensed thunder slammed into the alley, impaling the third Wraith mid-jump.

Bella descended right behind it, her aura roaring with righteous fury, eyes glowing violet with layered Qi.

"You really thought you could kill him while I was in the city?" she said coldly.

The last surviving Wraith turned to flee—but his path was already blocked.

Laen stepped through a broken wall, his glaive held low, wind swirling around his feet. On the opposite side, two of the Nascent Soul guards who’d accompanied Bella emerged with their swords drawn.

"You’re surrounded," Laen said.

Adrian almost laughed from where he stood, clutching his ribs. "Took you long enough."

Bella rolled her eyes. "You could’ve warned me you were setting fire to the city."

"You told me not to cause trouble. I was trying to wrap it up before you noticed."

From the pile of rubble, Wraith No. 1 hissed, blood seeping from his mouth. He tried to gather enough Qi for one last escape technique.

Bella was already there.

She moved with terrifying grace—her spear slicing through the air, then plunging through the center of his chest. Not a kill strike. A disabling one.

He dropped to his knees, coughing.

"I’d like to ask you a few questions before I kill you," she said calmly.

—

Later – City Lord’s Hall

Adrian sat on the steps outside, eyes half-closed, a bandage around his ribs. The stars overhead twinkled quietly, as if watching the aftermath.

The City Lord stood beside him, pale-faced and quiet.

"You understand this changes everything," he said after a long silence. "This... this was a battle between Nascent Soul realm cultivators in the heart of the city."

"I didn’t exactly plan it that way," Adrian replied. "But yes. I know."

"People will ask questions. About who you are. About why they came for you."

Adrian said nothing.

The City Lord rubbed his temples. "I can protect you for a few more days, but after that... I think you’ll need to leave Stonehold."

"I already planned to."

He stood up slowly. Olivia and Reya were waiting by the gate with a cart packed for travel. The others had been preparing ever since the first anchor had fallen.

Bella appeared at the entrance of the hall, flicking blood off her gloves.

"He wouldn’t talk," she said. "But his rings did."

She tossed a soul-ring to Adrian. "Encrypted with Dust Order markings."

His expression hardened. "So it’s true."