Rivers of the Night

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Theron coughed up another mouthful of blood and slowly stood to his feet. His expression was calm.

Many were probably looking to see a fierce reaction, but at that moment, in the face of a loss, he didn’t look much different than Ironvale would have.

Calm and unhurried, he moved to leave, only to find that Ironvale had taken a step toward him again.

"You aren’t bad," the new Chosen complimented.

"Not bad? I guess maybe that’s true, just not true enough," Theron replied.

"The Imperial Academy is not like the Sects. All we do here is breathe battle. Even your military stream doesn’t know what that means just yet, not until they step onto a real battlefield. Caelan’s method of victory was a bit direct, but that is also how things will work in real life.

"You have a lot of potential and are worthy of your arrogance. It seems that today won’t set you back very much. I expect that you will be much stronger when I see you next."

Theron didn’t reply, simply nodding then stepping around Ironvale.

For some reason, the disciples found it difficult to celebrate as they were before.

"Losing is part of cultivation. Learn to embrace it," Ironvale said calmly to the crowd. "Take every loss as a learning opportunity and you’ll carve yourself into a truly precious stone."

The crowd of disciples began to murmur to themselves before their eyes blazed with a bright light. Even Caelan seemed to have been fired up once again. After having to try so hard to beat someone at the Ninth Bronze Resonance, he knew that he had much more room to grow.

**

Theron didn’t have to fake his indifference. He well and truly didn’t care. Plus, he also hadn’t faked his loss, not this time. Though, maybe he had held back some other methods he could have used.

He had been practicing the new methods the old man had taught him relentlessly for the last several weeks. While he looked fine on the surface, his body was filled with micro-tears, even down to his Meridians.

Usually, he would have healed himself long ago, but this time he chose not to on purpose because he had guessed that something like this would happen.

As great as his control and acting skills were, it was impossible to leave no flaws at all while losing on purpose. The only way that it would be perfect was by, well… losing.

At that point, all Theron had to do was to control any outward signs of pain he might have had and leave his body to do the rest. And that… that had always been easy for him.

He had been through worse.

There were three main reasons he had done this along with several other miscellaneous ones.

The first and most obvious was the death of the three law enforcement disciples. But quite frankly… this was only a small piece of the puzzle.

The second and more important reason was that he couldn’t go around being hated by everyone and anything in the Sect. Not only was it an annoyance, but it could actually end up costing him his life if the right person decided to throw caution to the wind.

Now, the odds of that were significantly reduced, not only because anyone who did act against him would be likely to be weaker, but also because their reasons for hating him so much had been mitigated greatly today.

Those that still bore a grudge had seen him lose, and those with a softer stance from the start would grow to respect him more for how he had taken this loss.

Of course, he could have waited to return and then won, but that would have only pushed those with a grudge over the hill, while his arrogance wouldn’t be taken well by those who would be unlikely to try and directly harm him.

The third and final reason… was of course the upcoming Secret Realm.

That little show wasn’t just for the sake of Ironvale and the other cards, but those that would be entering the Secret Realm with him as well.

If he was correct and the Bronze Resonance limit was more so a facade than anything else, then he would certainly have enemies in there that he would need to be wary of.

When the time came, he would just have to give them a surprise.

…

Theron returned to his Chosen abode and spent the next week in full recovery. He didn’t train anything but his mind, reading through the Luminescent Moon Sect’s Forbidden Spells and studying the Verdant Bloomstone. In that span, he even found time to take a look at the Black Limbo Tortoise Shell.

In terms of the latter of the three, he didn’t make much progress. The runes he was seeing on its shell were very different from the ones he was used to.

But that alone was its own fascination to him. It allowed him to reach the interesting conclusion that spells, cultivation methods, and the like, all varied by region.

Maybe two different regions might have the same spells, but reach their "conclusion" in vastly different ways. All of that would be dependent on their environment, the beasts around them, and the Imbued Resonances they could form.

That said, Theron found that his decision to choose two such fundamental creatures of Water Mancy to form his Echoes only helped him.

Because they were the foundation upon which all others branched from… there were roots to be found in these Black Limbo Runes. And through these roots, Theron could decipher the rest.

Slowly, a picture began to unfurl, one of defense, heft, and gravity—not in a literal sense… but in the sense of density.

’Fascinating… if I can manipulate my Water Mana in this way, how much more efficient would the density abilities of the Blue Pufferfish be?’

Theron lost himself in this world as he allowed his body to recover.

And then, midway through the third week, he finally got a call from a not-so-unexpected place. The former fifth, now fourth-ranked Core Disciple, Jodie Sine.

What was interesting, though, was who was present at that meeting. Because the future husband-wife pair, and new second and third-ranked Core Disciples, were also present.

It seemed that Dean Thistles’ methods weren’t bad at all. Of the five Core Disciples… he actually controlled four of them.

But after seeing Ironvale’s influence on the disciples of the Sect… something told Theron that the Dean had been outplayed once again.