Rivers of the Night

"You’re getting bolder by the day," Dean Thistle said calmly, still looking down at his desk.

Theron didn’t respond, just standing there.

He thought about gathering the money himself, but why waste his time? He had just accomplished something quite good for the Thistles. Wasn’t it about time they reward him again?@@novelbin@@

If he let them decide, it would probably just be another dud like [Tidal Convergence] had been. But he had already proven that when he came forward with reasonable requests himself, he would usually get them. At least that had worked for the Fourth Year Botany Class.

"I think it’s pretty reasonable. Just a hundred thousand silvers is chump change to the Thistles."

"I’m more interested in what you need that sort of money for at Bronze Resonance," Dean Thistle continued, just as unmoved.

"I think it’s about time I integrate with an Echo."

Finally, these words made the Dean look up from his documents. He looked Theron up and down, his eyes narrowing when he noticed that Theron had, indeed, reached the Ninth Resonance.

It wasn’t just this, but Theron felt… harder to read, somehow, like his cultivation had veered down an unconventional path. Usually, the rebelling Marquise only felt this sort of feeling when trying to scan those of neighboring provinces that followed cultivation methods he wasn’t familiar with.

There was a moment of silence in the room before the Dean took out a card radiating a silver aura. It was a bank card from the Pagoda, and from a glance, Theron could tell that it had ten times the amount he had asked for.

But this only made him raise an eyebrow as he caught the card. Continue your adventure at

"You’ll be making a trip to the Luminescent Moon Sect. Your goal is to join as a disciple. That money will help you get your foot in the door. What you do with the rest has nothing to do with me.

"You will succeed within the next two weeks and form a footing. When the time is right, you will receive a call."

"You want me to join as Theron?"

"Is there a problem?"

"It seems you’re very eager for me to die. But this is hardly a problem."

After saying this, Theron turned and left.

Dean Thistle watched his back without a word.

’Is he practicing a cultivation method from outside the province? Where would he get something like that…?’

**

There were no rules against joining the Sects and the Imperial Academy. The problem was that the Sects had far stricter rules about leaving their grounds.

As such, if you joined the Sect, meeting Imperial Academy target goals was almost impossible unless you already had freedom of movement.

But, gaining that freedom of movement required being an Inner Disciple, which by extension required being a Silver Mancer. The entry age cap for the Imperial Academy was 16 years old, and the number of people that could make it to Silver Mancy before then could likely be counted in the hundreds at best.

In an empire where the population was easily counted in the tens of millions, this number was impossibly small.

Everything was so carefully selected and curated so that the Sects, run by the general cultivation world, and the Imperial Academy, run by the Imperial Clan, could draw a clean line between the two without being outwardly hostile. 𝙧ＡℕΟBЁ𝘚

When you entered the world of cultivation, you realized all too often that everything was a similar thin veneer of feigned compliance and tacit war-avoidance…. All while secretly plotting to cut one another’s throats in the darkness of night.

This, though, wasn’t what Theron was thinking about. Instead, he knew he needed to find a way to survive.

The Sects weren’t the Imperial Academy. The latter still had the civility of law, while the former were the bare face of the true cultivation world.

Were there rules against killing? Sure. But it was an even thinner veneer than what existed between the Sects and the Imperial Clan.

Right now, he was public enemy number one of the Luminescent Moon Sect after what he had done to Beifong.

Obviously, Dean Thistle was sending him there for the sake of prepping to enter whatever secret realm the Verdant Bloomstone was tied to. But that didn’t change how much danger he was putting Theron in.

However…

This much was already well within Theron’s expectations.

…

Theron leaned against a pillar, waiting silently. A bell rang and a stream of students came out.

Several gazes landed on him again, but they had changed once more.

From the dense fear that had been there just a few days ago, there were waves of fanaticism, intrigue, and a heavy dose of love-stricken-ness.

Obviously, the Thistles couldn’t have him become some sort of martyr, feared by all. They needed him to become the good face of the branch Imperial Academy, and then use him as a bridge to get more disciples to look toward the Sects and force them to enter a firmer rein of control.

Theron hadn’t forgotten that Dean Thistle wanted the attention of the students here to turn toward the Sects. While on the surface, humiliating the Luminescent Moon Sect seemed to be a step back in that regard, sending Theron there now was actually quite clever and would kill two birds with a single stone.

At that moment, a little girl that was less lively than usual walked out of class, followed by her "best friend".

Sadie’s eyes lit up when she saw Theron before they dimmed again.

Theron smiled at her and waved.

Ducking her head, Sadie scurried away. The audible sound of hearts breaking practically hung heavy in the air, but Theron didn’t seem to notice as his wife walked out of class soon after.

Malaya was just trying to weave her way through, not sure why there were so many people blocking the path when usually everyone wanted to head out and have fun as quickly as possible.

But then she saw Theron and found herself blushing.

Theron smiled, walking up and taking her hand.

"Come on, I’m taking you somewhere today."

Before Malaya could say much, she was pulled away under countless jealous gazes.