The Thorne of Destiny-Chapter 83: The Great Tribulation War

"She looks so familiar. Have I truly not met her before?"

He asked himself that question. The House of Thorne was huge, consisting of thousands of people, including guards and servants.

It wasn’t out of the ordinary for Adrian not to know everyone. In fact, he probably didn’t even know most of the members of the branch families, let alone the servants.

However, seeing as they were the servants who worked in the Main family, he should have encountered them at least once.

Just as he was about to approach them, the conversation they were having stopped him in his tracks.

They seemed to be teaching the young girl something. Something which he had apparently forgotten.

"So, Olivia, if you don’t take care of your duties, the demons will visit you in the night and take you away."

One of them said in a scary tone, while trying her best to make her voice deeper.

Demons...

That word was like a jolt of electricity to him. He had forgotten about them completely. That was completely unheard of for any cultivator.

Even mortals, normal people who couldn’t cultivate, knew about the existence of demons. They told scary stories about them, usually meant to teach children about the dangers of encountering such an individual.

As a member of one of the Twelve Great Noble families, Adrian’s knowledge about demonic cultivators or ’demons’ as they are known to the public, surpasses that of ordinary individuals.

The stories told about them couldn’t even begin to cover the heinous actions that they engage in. They were the bane of every cultivator.

Even in a cultivation world known for its ruthlessness, there were some lines that shouldn’t be crossed. Actions that far surpassed the realm of ruthlessness were the norm for them.

They toyed with the lives of people and destroyed the natural order. It wasn’t uncommon for entire cities to be decimated due to the antics of far more powerful demonic cultivators.

Many thousands of years ago, they overran the Floating Cloud continent. The whole continent was nearly destroyed by them.

The danger they posed caused many powerful individuals, families, sects, and organizations to put their differences aside and come together in order to protect themselves.

This was the origin of the Orthodox faction and the Demonic faction. Any demonic cultivator, regardless of their identities, was automatically stamped under the banner of the Demonic faction.

The people of the Orthodox faction, now having some semblance of an alliance, began hunting those of the Demonic faction down relentlessly.

For a few years, they hunted down demonic cultivators relentlessly, bringing down their numbers by a large margin.

Ironically, the demonic cultivators had to band together under the name given to them by their foes in order to survive.

The official formation of the Demonic faction led to the war between the two opposing factions. A war that shook the entire Floating Cloud continent.

Many families, sects, and organizations in the Orthodox faction were destroyed due to the intensity of the war. An uncountable number of lives were lost back then.

It was even dubbed as "The Great Tribulation War" by the people of that era. The Great Tribulation War dragged on for years, causing the deaths of many Orthodox and Demonic cultivators.

However, the Everhart Royal family, with the help of the Twelve Great Noble families, was able to kill the demonic faction.

After the death of the Demon Lord at the time, the war finally ended in the victory of the Orthodox faction. The remaining demonic cultivators had to go into hiding in order not to be hunted down by the Orthodox faction.

This history, though lost to many, was still taught to the members of the Twelve Great Noble Families.

Adrian was very familiar with this history, which was why he was shocked at how such a thing could slip his mind. It was as if all his memories of anything related to the Demonic cultivators had been completely wiped out.

His shock soon turned to rage as an inexplicable wave of anger rose over him. His anger was so intense that the maids who were discussing earlier felt a wave of killing intent behind them.

They turned around to find their young master standing there, with a frown on his face. They all immediately stood up and bowed their heads.

They didn’t know what was going on, but they could tell that their young master was incredibly angry right now.

Some of them were already shaking in fear, thinking that they were the cause of his anger. They had no clue what they did, but that didn’t matter. If the young master wanted to take his anger out on them, no one would stop him.

Luckily for them, he simply turned around and left, not paying attention to them anymore. Even the little girl he was paying attention to earlier had been forgotten.

Seeing him leave, the maids heaved a sigh of relief. Some of them even collapsed onto their knees, the weight of the interaction sapping the strength from their legs.

"What happened to the young master?" One of them asked.

"I’ve never seen him that angry before. Whatever it is, it must be something serious." Another chimed in.

"You guys still have the energy to chatter. Let us go back to our work, in case he comes back and decides to vent his anger on us, thinking that we’re slacking off." freewebnoveℓ.com

The words of another maid brought everyone back to reality, as they all scurried off to their respective duties.

Meanwhile, Adrian had finally calmed down enough to rein in his killing intent. He didn’t know why hearing about demonic cultivators made him feel such rage.

To his knowledge, he hadn’t had any run-ins with demonic cultivators. However, his body was telling him otherwise.

Hearing about demonic cultivators lit a fire that erupted inside him. Every fibre of his being wanted to destroy them. Making them feel the same thing he felt. The same pain.