34 A Secret of the Institute?

In the private room of a tavern, after the incident with Alwick Castle and Feron Nightbringer.

Kael had just left the City Lord's residence and was now resting within the private room. He was ruminating on the next course of action that he should take now in between the time it was taking for the Myriad Fledgling Institute to accept him.

Thinking till here, Kael frowned. The Institute sure was taking a long time to respond to his contribution to Fledgling City. Could this delay be linked to the secrets that the Institute might contain? Kael was sure that there was something amiss within the Institute.

In the other realms that he had been to when he was the Invoker, there never was a sect nor academy that had such a strange requirement. It seemed that these requirements were linked to the secret being held within the Institute. However, Kael could only come to a conjecture. The validity of his guess could only be confirmed after he had been admitted into the Institute.

Over the past few days, Kael had managed to obtain quite a bit of information from Richard Duran regarding the Myriad Fledgling Institute. It was a stand-alone power that didn't interfere in the affairs of Fledgling City. As such, it was neither in the control of the City Lord faction nor was it subservient to it.

Kael knew two of the Institute's students, Mirana and Thrump. They were the ones that Kael had met when he had first woken up in this new body in the graveyard in the periphery of the Black Heart Forest. They were only at the Commoner Rank Lower Phase. However, their strength was not representative of the power in the Institute. Kael found out from Richard Duran that some of the students had stepped into the Herald Rank Lower Phase, the same cultivation level as Richard Duran.

These elite students would not be confined to the shackles of the Myriad Lower Region. They had set their sights on making a name for themselves in the Myriad Upper Region. Their aim after the Myriad Fledgling Institute was to secure a placing in the Five Great Academies in the Upper Region. That was where all the elite young generation of the Myriad Domain was found in.

Due to the fact that Kael had never come to the Myriad Domain when he was the Invoker, he wasn't privy to the information of even the most popular place in the Myriad Domain, which was the Five Great Academies. However, Kael now knew that was the dream of many people. Only when one was in the Five Great Academies would one have the chance to shine as a cultivator in the Hundred Realms.

For Myriad Fledgling Institute, they would be given two slots bi-annually as entry into the Five Great Academies. Due to its relatively low stature and the fact that it was from the Lower Region, the Institute was only given a token number of slots. However, these two tickets represented endless hope to the student cultivators in the Institute. They were willing to train day and night just to enter one of the Five Great Academies.

This was the difference between Myriad Fledgling Institute and Fledgling City. One was in pursuit of cultivation while the other was tied down with the mundane affairs of the world. Therefore, though they co-existed, they never really interacted much nor helped each other out much.

This was also the reason why, despite Richard Duran's recommendation, that the Institute was slow in extending an invitation out to Kael. This requirement of a great contribution to the city could be said to have never been fulfilled, and only God knows why they had set such a requirement. Perhaps because there was never such a precedent, the Institute's management was still discussing as to whether they should admit Kael in.

However, Richard Duran pointed out that the Institute represented the hidden strength of the city. Many years ago, before he became the City Lord and was a student of the Institute, Fledgling City had suffered an attack from one of the cities in the Lower Region. The City Lord faction then tried to resist the enemy, but found themselves to be at a disadvantage. Just when the defenses of the city was going to be breached, a group of student cultivators came from the Institute to the aid of the city. They flooded through the city with their strength, killing off every single invader that tried to step foot in the city.

Since then, other cities knew that despite the meagre strength of the City Lord faction, in times of crises, the real enemy that they had to watch out for was hidden deep within the Myriad Fledgling Institute. It was even said that the Headmaster of the Institute was a Guardian Rank Lower Phase monster, whose strength was unparalleled in the whole of the Myriad Lower Region.

Kael found this point weird as well. Normally, an organization with the greater strength would be the main leading force of the region. Take the Five Great Academies for example. They were the true leaders of the Upper Region, instead of the surrounding City Lord factions. This Myriad Fledgling Institute however, had relinquished all city management powers to Fledgling City. If they even wanted, all the neighboring five cities within the periphery of the Black Heart Forest would be under its control as well. After all, there was literally no one who could oppose a Guardian Rank cultivator in this region.

This analysis made Kael even more sure that there was a hidden secret within the Institute waiting for him to uncover. These facts led Kael to the conjecture that the Institute existed to protect something. Kael wasn't clear of what that thing was, but it was of paramount importance to say the least. His instincts were gnawing at him, yet he had to suffer in silence and wait for the Institute's reply.

Kael could choose the option of storming into the Institute's grounds. That would be an unwise decision however, for he would have to suffer the wrath of a thousand cultivators, something which even Kael would find a headache to deal with. Hence, he could only play the waiting game.

Thinking till here, Kael took out the flask containing the essence blood and the Ice Artifice from his item bag.