Something's not right

Thorne City was the main city that the Thorne family resided in. It was run solely by the members of the Thorne family. No other family besides them could reside in the city.

All the shops in the city were either run by the Thorne family or had to pay tax to them.

This was the situation in basically all the major cities run by the great families.

As Adrian stared at the array flags planted outside the city gates, he became increasingly anxious.

What was even weirder was that the guards at the city gate were preventing people from leaving the city. People could only enter the city but none could leave. This made him even more skeptical of the situation.

'Whats's going on?' he thought. He didn't rashly enter the city. Who knew what kind of arrays were set up. Perhaps rashly entering would trigger something unexpected.

Adrian decided to sneak into the city. He climbed over the city wall from the west side of the city gate, far away from the array flags.

This was an easy feat for him as someone at the fifth level of the foundation establishment realm.

He used a scarf to cover his face and entered into the city streets quietly. After entering, he began to make his way back to the House of Thorne briskly.

Usually, he would have called a carriage to take him back but now he didn't think that was good idea.

As he made his way silently through the city, he noticed some men wearing black robes and hoods all over the city. Normally,he wouldn't have paid attention to them because there were all kinds of people in the city and people wearing hoods were not uncommon on the streets. What drew his attention to them was that they were constantly walking back and forth through the streets. It was as if they were patrolling.

Adrian made a mental note to inquire about them as he continued to make his way back to his home while stealthily avoiding them.

The closer he got to his house, the more black robes individuals there were. It made it increasingly difficult for him to avoid them.

He has to make a lot more detours in order to avoid them. Even though nothing has happened and the streets looked relatively normal, he still decided to avoid them until he knew exactly what was going on.

One thing about Adrian was that he always trusted his instincts. Only after verifying something thoroughly would he choose to engage in it. This was part of his upbringing as the heir of the Thorne family. Someone who was going to inherit the family could not make decisions rashly.

As his thoughts wandered, he turned the corner of a street and finally could see the entrance of the Thorne family.

Adrian narrowed his eyes. Everything looked alright. Through the gates, he could see many servants going about their work normally. After observing for a few minutes, nothing seemed amiss.

'Perhaps I'm just paranoid', Adrian thought. After spending so long in the mountains where he had to constantly be at alert in case of a wild beast attacking him, perhaps he had indeed developed the feeling that everything was out to get him. Although there were no guards at the entrance of the family gates, everything else looked fine.

Adrian started walking towards his family house.

Immediately he stepped through the gates, the scene around him changed. Countless corpses were everywhere as the thick smell of blood hung in the air. Bodies of soldiers, servants and even members of the branch families could be found strewn all over the ground. It was a strong sight to behold.

As Adrian stops there shocked and overwhelmed by the sight in front of him, he almost couldn't believe it. 'What was going on? Why were there bodies everywhere?Weren't they all fine just now? As his thoughts spun, he realized that the reason he didn't see any guards outside was because they were all here.....dead.

Adrian's mind suddenly thought of something, arrays. That's right only an array could conceal what was going on here. He suddenly remembered the arrays flags he saw when he arrived outside the city.

The feeling of dread had already reached the max right now. He knew that something had happened to the Thorne family and whatever it was, it definitely wasn't good.