The Thorne of Destiny
Chapter 122: Losing On Both Ends

Chapter 122: Losing On Both Ends

Now Julian was terrified. He couldn’t move his body even an inch. His eyes widened in terrified realisation. He had finally noticed the other person in the tent with them. He had seen this woman with Bella multiple times and knew that she was not ordinary.

He couldn’t even sense a wisp of her aura. That was the first sign that she wasn’t to be messed with. He had even received a letter from his father, seriously warning him not to anger that woman, because even he would not be able to save him if she wanted him gone.

However, seeing as she hadn’t acted throughout most of their journey, he had inadvertently forgotten about her. Now he had received a staunch reminder.

Julian’s body trembled under the crushing weight of Elder Glenda’s aura. His fingers dug into the dirt as he struggled to even lift his head, his pride shattered in an instant. Sweat beaded on his forehead, mixing with the dust beneath him.

Bella watched him with cold indifference, her fingers tapping lightly against the armrest of her seat. "You dare raise your head without permission?" Her voice was soft, but the threat in her tone was unmistakable.

Julian gritted his teeth, his mind racing. He had underestimated her. No, he had underestimated the sheer gap between their strengths. He was a Golden Core cultivator, a rising star in the War Machine Sect, yet before her, he was nothing more than an ant beneath her boot. The power to order someone of that strength was something he could only dream about.

"I—" His voice came out strained, barely audible. "Forgive me, Lady Vyre. I spoke out of turn."

The pressure lessened slightly, allowing him to breathe, but he remained on the ground, not daring to move.

Bella leaned forward slightly, her eyes glinting with irritation. "You made me cut my trip short on some wild goose chase. Now you have nothing to show for it. What if the beasts start rampaging again because no one has found out the reason? How will you compensate for my wasted time?"

Bella asked question after question, while the pressure on him began intensifying slowly. Julian swallowed hard. "The cultivator must have had a way to conceal himself. We’ve checked every person leaving the mountains-"

"And yet, he is gone." Bella cut him off sharply. "Which means you weren’t able to find him."

A tense silence filled the tent. Julian’s fists clenched, but he forced himself to remain still. There was no winning against her right now.

Bella exhaled slowly, her expression shifting from anger to icy calculation. "It doesn’t matter now. If he’s already escaped, then we’ve lost our chance." She stood, her robes flowing gracefully as she walked toward the tent’s entrance.

Just as she was about to leave, Julian finally spoke up once again.

"Lady Vyre, please wait," He said through gritted teeth. He wasn’t going to give up now, not while he had a chance to make an impression on this woman in front of him.

His mind spun with ideas until he finally came up with something. "The nearest city to the Misty Mountains is Stonehold City. Even if he was able to escape from the inspection, that’s the only place he can head to first.

Please let me make up for my mistake. I promise to find him within Stonehold City," he said with his head still pressed into the ground. The entire tent fell into silence after Julian’s bold statement.

Only the sound of his forced breathing could be heard as both Bella and Elder Glenda were contemplating his words. Bella couldn’t help but admit that there was some merit to his words. While it wasn’t certain that the mysterious cultivator would stop at Stonehold City, there was a good chance of it.

Anyone coming from the Misty Mountains would almost certainly stop by in order to rest and replenish their supplies. Seeing as Julian was confident enough to proclaim that he would find him in the city also made Bella contemplate further.

She cast a questioning gaze towards Elder Glenda, who didn’t say anything and just nodded her head slightly. "Very well, I’ll give you another chance to find this so-called mysterious cultivator. Make sure you don’t disappoint me again."

With that, Bella and Elder Glenda left the tent, leaving Julian alone with his face still planted on the ground. Once they left, Julian was finally able to breathe properly. He picked himself off the ground and dusted off his clothes.

His face had a complicated look on it. He had never expected that he would be humiliated this way. Having his face planted in the dirt without even being able to do anything about it hurt his pride greatly. The hate brewing in his heart intensified, transforming into something cold and calculating. As for who that hate was directed at, well...

However, his bad day seemed like it hadn’t ended yet. As soon as he stepped out of the tent, he ran into a group of disciples from the War Machine sect, specifically Clara and Wyatt. Both of them were releasing a fierce aura of bloodlust that made others afraid to get close.

As soon as they saw Julian, both of them smiled deviously.

"Hoh, if it isn’t our Rank 1 outer disciple. Why do you look like you are in such a terrible state? You look like someone shoved your face into the ground and made you eat it. Hahaha"

It was Wyatt who began taunting Julian. He let out a mocking laugh that drew the attention of those around. After over a month in the Misty Mountains, most of the disciples had already returned. Only these three returned the latest.

It wasn’t surprising. Everyone had already expected it. What they didn’t expect, however, was the ranking they had received. This exercise in the Misty Mountains was set up as a test for their outer disciples. It was scheduled as a competition among the teams of outer disciples.

The beasts were given different point values based on their rank, and the teams that could gain the most points were the winners and would receive rewards from the sect.

The disciples of the sect were shocked when they left the Misty Mountains to find out that Julian, the rank 1 outer disciple, wasn’t able to get the top spot in the competition. In fact, his team barely made it into the top ten. Clara’s team was the one that got the top spot, with Wyatt coming in at a close second.

Various speculations were made as to what happened, and even the Elders who ventured into the mountains were surprised. However, when he came back alone and with a different group of people, they refrained from questioning him there.

They immediately recognized who this group of people was and didn’t want to antagonize them. They might be battle crazy, but they weren’t stupid. They simply resolved to ask him what happened when they went back to the sect.

Of course, the disciples didn’t know this, and many rumors started spreading. They even escalated when they saw Julian without any of his teammates. Rumors about them encountering a terrifying beast that they couldn’t handle, causing all of them to lose their lives, spread amongst the disciples.

Normally, Julian would not have cared. In his mind, the rewards from the sect were only secondary to what he could get if he were able to conquer that mystic realm. A few rumors would not have been able to deter him.

However, things had taken an unexpected turn. Not only was he unable to get the most important resources from the mystic realm, but he also almost lost his life because of a mysterious Foundation Establishment realm cultivator. Now he was stuck as some sort of search dog looking for him.

Now he had seemingly lost out on both fronts. That realization made him even angrier. Wyatt being there to mock him didn’t make it any better.

Clara also had a smile on her face. Even though she hadn’t said anything to mock him, it was obvious she shared the same sentiment as Wyatt. If there was something both of them could bond over, it would be their mutual dislike for Julian.

Seeing that Julian wasn’t responding, Wyatt took it a step further.

"Ohh, don’t have a response. What happened to your cool and collected act? From what I’m seeing, you don’t look like either.

I wonder how badly things went for you to come back looking like that. Sacrificing your teammates just to escape. Tsk tsk. Someone like you doesn’t deserve to be a disciple of our sect." Wyatt seemed a bit bolder today, completely disrespecting Julian.

He was capitalizing on his current failure to hit him even harder. Julian sacrificing his teammates was just one of the many rumors floating around. No one could confirm whether this was true or not; however, Wyatt didn’t care. He was going to take this opportunity to tarnish Julian’s reputation as much as possible.

His words seemed to work as the way the disciples who had gathered around them changed a bit. Their gazes towards Julian were now filled with speculation and apprehension. If Wyatt was telling the truth, then he truly didn’t deserve to be a disciple of their sect.