The Thorne of Destiny-Chapter 89: Further into the maze

Back inside the maze...

Time passed. Minutes? Hours? Adrian didn’t know.

He awoke slowly, his body aching and drenched in cold sweat. His breathing was ragged, and his limbs trembled as though he had just gone through an intense battle.

Technically, he had, only it wasn’t with a blade or fist.

It was within his sea of consciousness.

Adrian sat up slowly, wincing as another wave of pain surged through his skull. Though the worst of it had passed, a lingering headache still pulsed like an echo. His vision was a bit blurry, and his ears rang faintly, but at least he was awake.

"I’m... still alive," he whispered.

His hand instinctively reached for the pendant at his neck, towards the Blood Star. He heaved a sigh of relief when he felt the pointed edges of the Blood Star.

He looked around. The corridor around him was unfamiliar, different from the one he had entered initially.

"Well, I guess I can’t follow a planned route anymore." He said to himself, attempting to make light of his current situation.

One would have expected him to be sad and despondent over his recent experience, but that wasn’t the case. He had already grieved his family over the past few months.

It wasn’t that he wasn’t sad; he was. It’s just that he had his priorities in order. Getting through this maze was the most important thing on his agenda currently.

He knew he had to hurry up. He didn’t know how long he had been trapped in the illusion, but he knew it wasn’t a short amount of time.

He was already behind Julian and his group before he entered. Now, the gap between them would have widened even more. He just didn’t know by how much.

Adrian had to make up for lost time. His body was weak, but his mind felt sharper, clearer. It was as though something had been peeled away, like a veil lifted from his perception.

Every breath of air, every flicker of Qi, he could feel it more distinctly than ever before. He tried to stand, but his legs buckled.

Adrian leaned on the cold stone wall for a few seconds longer, then finally let go. His legs trembled, but they held up. He took a step, then another. Slowly, steadily, he moved forward, each footfall deliberate and cautious.

The maze around him had changed. He hadn’t paid attention to his surroundings since waking up.

Only now did he look around and take in the scenery. The walls were covered in jagged carvings, symbols he didn’t recognize, etched deep into it.

He stared at the formations in wonder, a bit amazed at their intricacy. For some reason, they looked familiar to him.

For someone who had never studied the runic language before, suddenly recognizing them was indeed baffling.

He didn’t pay much attention to it, chalking it up to his mind still being confused because of the recent events.

He quickly made his way through the corridor, advancing further into the maze. He was a bit surprised that there were no dangers along the way.

He didn’t know that he had just escaped from the biggest danger of them all. The illusion that he broke through wasn’t something that could be broken casually.

If an ordinary cultivator had been caught up in the illusion, it would have most likely ended in their death.

The illusion wasn’t made from an ordinary formation array. In order to deceive the individual’s soul in the sea of consciousness, something more potent was required.

The fragrance that he had been inhaling when he entered the corridor was precisely that thing. Adrian didn’t know what that fragrance was, but it was clear it wasn’t something ordinary.

He continued walking for about half an hour, taking precautions against any danger. He didn’t think too much when he encountered forks in the road.

He couldn’t follow the path he had initially prepared anyway. He even speculated that even if he knew where he was, he wouldn’t be able to follow that path out of the maze.

If he could, that would have made it too easy. Anyone would have been able to clear it, making it useless.

Adrian turned a corner and was faced with a particular situation.

He came upon a fork in the road. There were three different paths to choose from. Adrian wasn’t sure, but he could instinctively feel that this was the next challenge he was going to face.

This time, instead of choosing haphazardly, he carefully pondered his choice. He studied each of the paths carefully, trying to discern if there was anything noteworthy about them.

However, he couldn’t find out anything about them. Seeing that he was just wasting time here, he resolutely picked one of the paths.

He stepped onto the path on the left and immediately felt the shift in the atmosphere. It wasn’t anything overly dramatic. He could just feel that something was different.

He immediately brought out his sword, preparing himself for any sort of attack. His heart was beating rapidly as he made his way slowly through the passage.

He walked slowly, making sure he wasn’t stepping on anything that could trigger a trap. He was even paying attention to the wall, checking if there were any runes or formations carved on it.

However, to his surprise, nothing happened. He didn’t know if he was lucky or if he just hadn’t reached the area where the danger was.

He made it to the end of the corridor, where he was able to turn and continue advancing. Now he was genuinely surprised.

From the way the air changed when he stepped onto the path, he was sure something was going to happen.

’Perhaps I’m becoming too paranoid.’ He thought to himself. However, he soon found out that, in fact, he wasn’t being paranoid.

A few more turns and he found himself back at a fork in the road. A very familiar fork in the road. The three paths that he thought he had left behind now stood in front of him again.

At first, he thought it was a different one, perhaps there were more than one on the path. However, a quick survey of the surroundings made him discard that idea.

He could still see his own footprints on the ground from when he had initially arrived. This made him know that he was indeed back where he started.

He didn’t know what to do. He stood in front of the three paths, trying to decide what to do next.

This time, he decided to try the middle path. With his sword in hand, he was immediately vigilant as he stepped onto the path.

Just because there weren’t any enemies on the previous path didn’t mean it would be the same on this one. In fact, he thought that the real path would be the one filled with enemies.

He ventured through this path as well, keeping an eye out for any special detail. He reached the end of the path without any issue and was able to exit it safely.

However, he didn’t let his guard down. He knew he wasn’t out of the woods yet. He made the same couple of turns before he found himself before a sight he didn’t want to see.

His steps quickened, and he soon found himself back in front of the familiar fork in the road. This time, he was amazed. He had been paying rapt attention, but still ended up back to square one.

This time, his gaze landed on the path to the right. He had tried the other two paths, and they didn’t work, leaving him with no other option.

"This has to be the right path, right?" He asked himself quietly. He took a deep breath before he entered this path without hesitation.

He felt the familiar change in atmosphere but didn’t pay any attention to it. He gripped his swords tightly with both hands, preparing himself for conflict.

Since this was the only path left, he was sure that it had to be the right one. He was paying even more attention to his surroundings, not letting anything escape his vision.

He continued this way until he made it out of this path as well. A foreboding feeling washed through him as he felt the familiarity of his next course of action.

He moved forward, hoping that the previous two occurrences wouldn’t happen again. However, he seemed to be out of luck.

He turned the familiar corner and found himself staring at the same fork in the road, with the same three passages.

He didn’t want to admit it, but it seems he was trapped here again.

"Why did it have to be another illusion?" He muttered in frustration. He had just escaped from one not too long ago, and now he was back in another.

However, this one seemed to be different from the previous one. It didn’t matter if he knew he was in an illusion formation. He still couldn’t escape it.

Of course, this was due to the fact that the illusion wasn’t in his mind, but rather in his surroundings.

He couldn’t use the same tactics he used to escape the previous one to get out of this one.

Even if he could, it was uncertain if he would do it. His soul was already strained as it is. Any more, and he could end up seriously injured.

He wasn’t an expert in formations, so he couldn’t even discern where it was. Even if he knew where it was, he had no clue how to dispel it.