6 Holy Orchid Institute

A/N: Thank for the support, I was free today so I'll bring another chapter to you guys~

<<<Shin Akagawa>>>

After the banquet it was finally time to make some preparation for the start of the new year in the Holy Orchid Institute, Because of that little show Shin was contacted by the Principal as he was given the choice of directly enlisting in the genius class but after thinking about it for some time he decided to refuse as he wasn't going to the institute to learn but to make connection and that also included connection with the commoners as there may be a genius worth to nurture.

The sound of metal clashing metal could be heard coming from one of the many training grounds in the Akagawa Compound.

It's almost been two years since Shin and his group arrived at Glory City, this was not only an important change for the former citizens of Fire Lotus City but even the citizens of Glory City had a big change in their life.

Inscription Patterns that once were considered a lost art are slowly getting implemented into the markets of Glory City thanks to Shin collaboration with the Inscription Association while the same couldn't be said with the Alchemy Association.

At first it was letters coming from Shen Feng the director of the northern branch of the Alchemy Association, those letters were full of empty threats demanding the recipe and the ownership of the Pills and Elixirs along with the herbs that they used for them.

Fortunately after a quick check in the Saint Judgement Hall they were able to fill in all documents necessary to have full ownership over the herbs and recipes just like how the Divine family had a monopoly on the Holy Dark Grass.

It was only after their pills started to gain popularity that even the director of the main hall of the Alchemy Association started to get in contact with Shin but they were mostly ignored or rejected as Shin planned to wait until they would get more desperate before approaching them and taking control of them in a single move.

It was a vicious move but one that Shin didn't mind doing as he understood that this place was far different than Fire Lotus City, he felt it during the banquet but while most families supported the Snow Wind family they still fought for more power with the other family in the city and while fight between smaller families were normal it was the Sacred Family that worried him more than anyone else.

His worry were still unfounded but from the small interaction he had with them and the rumors Yoru collected about them it seemed as if they were slowing gather more and more strength to one day fight for the city lord position, the only things stopping them was Ye Mo as he was the only Legend rank in the city but that would soon change as even Legend ranks would live at most two hundred years and Shin was sure he was already toward the half of his second century.

"I can almost hear all those thoughts in your head!"

Lifting his sword vertically he parried an horizontal swing that was going to hit his chest but even then the force behind it made him lose his balance a little as he fell on his side on the ground.

Looking up he saw his uncle, Daisuke Akagawa, looking down on him with a small frown on his face, Shin winced at both the physical pain and the embarrassment at getting caught with his guard off because of his carelessness.

"Sorry…"

Hearing a sigh he saw his uncle pass a hand through his red hairs, before he turned around starting to walk toward the shelf where they put their training weapons.

"There's a reason for why I refused the position and I know you have a lot to think about but remember that you won't accomplish anything unless you concentrate on what you are doing at the moment. While it's good to keep a greater picture you should blind yourself with it. We'll continue tomorrow, train your soul force and free your mind a little!"

Saying that he left the blunt sword he was using in one of the shelves before walking out of the training ground, Shin sighed as he stood up before dusting himself off.

While he understood his uncle words he also knew that he wouldn't be able to change so quickly, fortunately he has already made preparation to have the elder make a vote for when they had to decide something while he would be training in the Holy Orchid Institute as that place was probably the most second most secure place in glory city after the Snow Wind family and one could enter only with authorization form the principal or vice-principal.

Leaving his blunt sword he walked out of the training ground as he went toward his personal residence.

In these year and a half he had enough time to also expand the place and buy a lot more territory around the northern wall and also a small territory in the south but unfortunately he wasn't able to buy a big enough space for Katashi and the beast tamer clan as they still remained in Fire Lotus City while sending people over to keep in contact.

Reaching a small garden with a tree on the right side he observed what was his residence in these last months.

A small house with all the necessities necessary and a small wide tree that had its branch spread wide creating a small dome that made for a nice place to rest during the day under the shade it made.

Walking behind the house he started to take out his clothes as he prepared to enter the small lake that was behind.

Right now Shin was already in the territory near the center/south of the city just a dozen of minutes away from the Institute, Glory City was so full of different fields and clan compounds that to reach the main residence in the Northern section one would take a full day and a couple of hours in a carriage while a Black Gold rank would still take a couple of hours.

Submerging his body up to his neck he looked at the darkening sky as he concentrated on the Cultivation Technique left behind by the Founder of Fire Lotus City, The Blood River Cultivation Technique was such special technique that Shin would probably be the only person in the Akagawa clan to ever practice it.

This Cultivation Technique could be practiced only by someone with a River type soul form with the Water, Wind and Blood attribute.

While Shin was born with the Water and Blood attribute he still lacked the Wind attribute but that's where the Seizing Moon Cultivation Technique came into play as that special technique that was able to change one's own soul realm changed Shin soul realm giving him the Wind attribute.

Entering his Soul realm he looked around as he saw the changes that were happening during these months, the one small lake now occupied 90% of the Soul realm 'floor' while the orb in the north was almost fully created, its shape already visible if one squinted their eyes.

But the new change was the small whistle sound coming from the sky along with the weak current of what seemed air circulating in Shin's Soul realm.

Concentrating on the soul force present in his soul realm Shin started to move it with a familiar ease but to his surprise he saw the air current slowly synchronizing with the same flow he was giving to his soul force.

Moving the soul force in a circular motion inside his soul realm he created a small vortex and before long the air current and his soul force were already moving as if they had been one from the very beginning.

'This is the first stage of the Blood River Technique?'

In the Blood River Technique they explained different stages one could reach by cultivating it, and the first one was the Flowing Stream stage. This stage was reached when one had their own soul force move like a flowing stream in their body without any help form the Demon Spiritualist giving them a constant boost in their strength and agility along with a small increase in recovering soul force after or during a battle, and while it sound too great to be only the first stage it was also noted that these boots were small enough that once one reached the Silver rank they would become mostly useless.

Redirecting the soul force that was moving in a vortex to move across his body he felt an immediate feeling of tiredness as his body slowly got accustomed to the feeling of rampaging energy coursing through.

"I need to quickly get to the first stage of the Prime Titan Body Technique to easily withstand this."

Shin couldn't help but feel extremely lucky as all of his techniques seemed to complement each other, the Blood River Cultivation Technique would help in increasing his cultivation while the Seizing Moon Cultivation Technique would change his soul realm giving him more attributes and increasing the quality of his soul force. As for his body he had the Prime Titan Body Technique that would give him an edge over all other Demon Spiritualist as they would not train their body as much and lastly to attack he had the Blood Lotus Special Technique and while he had to wait until he had a bigger pool of soul force in soul realm to use it at its first stage he could still call upon the power of it giving him a small boost in his attacks.

Like this Shin spent the remaining time training all of his different techniques while also training his sword and halberd art with Daisuke until the first day of school came.

<<<Holy Orchid Institute, Shin Akagawa>>>

Reaching what would soon be his classroom for the next month he stopped as he looked at the door deep in thoughts.

'I already left most of the work to the elders and they have far more experience in ruling so they shouldn't mess anything up. Besides I told them to warn me if anything else happened so there shouldn't be a problem… So why am I feeling this strange feeling…'

Shaking his head he pushed open the door as he entered there he immediately saw already a lot of people seated down while other were speaking between each other as they most probably knew each other, this wasn't actually the first day for most of the people here as commoners and even some guys from the smaller nobles clan had sent their kids a couple of month prior as they would taught about the basic to put them on par with the descendant of the noble families.

Steadying his face he gave a single look over everyone's face trying to see if he recognized anyone and much to his surprise he did in fact recognize someone.

The first was a kid he once saw working in the field of the Heavenly Marks Family helping his father planting the herbs they gave to them, he wasn't sure what his name was but his face remained on his mind because of the unique pigment of his hair as they were a bright orange.

The other was Ye Ziyun as he surely wouldn't miss it with the purple hair and eyes that made her stand out, he never got her name but he was at least 90% sure she was the daughter of Ye Zong as the similarities were simply too much to ignore beside the fact of the Snow Wind family not having any other young female member at the moment.

He contemplated whenever to greet her or not but as she turned to look at him he didn't have a choice to at least acknowledge her as she perked up recognizing him before waving her hand as if beckoning him to come sit near her seat, sighing mentally he ignored the curious gaze he received from the other people as he went to seat on a seat at her right separated only by the steps that were used to climb up the classroom.

"Why did you choose that seat when the one at my left is free…"

As she pouted at him he ignored her as he sat down calmly before slowly looking at her.

"Don't you know of the trouble that would cause if I just went and sat down near you? Beside som-"

"I don't see why that would matter as I'm not someone famous or someone from a powerful Noble clan."

As Shin was speaking she cut him off her use of words giving him a clear message.

'You're here hiding your family name?'

"It doesn't matter whether you are famous or not as some rumors would still start nevertheless."

Deciding to not blow her cover he changed his words while still trying to make his point come across.

Just as she was about to answer something the door of the classroom opened once again as Shin saw her glance at the door freezing on the spot, curious he also looked toward the entrance as he also froze.

There, walking slowly, a girl with long orange hair wearing a dark blue dress made her way toward the seat in front of the classroom.

She was about to take her first step ignoring the gaze that all the other people were giving her before she glanced up, her bright orange eyes met Shin eyes as a familiar sensation started rising from his chest.

The two locked gaze for a couple of seconds that felt like hours for them before She regained her composure before him as she continued to make her way to her seat but just before she sat down Shin saw her eyes glancing one last time toward him before she sat down with straight back as if refusing to turn around until the end of the morning classes.

Shin stood there confused and curious as he tried to not look at her back to not seem creepy or a pervert, He didn't know why he would react like this at just seeing a beautiful girl his age, even thought he could hear the small teasing voice of Yoru telling him he already fell for said girl he knew this was far stranger than that.

'Well if we are going to become classmates then I'll have a lot of opportunities to understand what's happening…'

Fortunately for both, nobody noticed the scene as everyone was already preoccupied with their own thoughts.

As the teacher entered the room, class started as Shin decided to worry about this later.

As the first few classes passed rather peacefully Shin was getting ready for the next one as he heard a whisper come from one of the seats in front of him.

"I heard that the new teacher, She Xiu, is one of the Sacred Family's 3-Star Silver rank Demon Spiritualists!"

Looking at the students excitedly discussing the new teacher, Shin couldn't help but grimace.

'That was just what I needed, one of the teachers being from the Sacred Family…'

As the teacher in question entered the classroom, the voices died down as they looked at her. Dark red long hair flowing behind her covering her back with equally red eyes filled with pride and arrogance, she walked slowly toward the podium with a straight back as if wanting to appear even taller than she already was.

Shin couldn't control the frown that appeared on his face as he wondered whenever a teacher of a class full of hormonal teens should be wearing that sort of dress that covered just barely the important part leaving open and for the world to see her long legs.

Shaking his head he gave a glance around as he saw the faces of the various boys lit up and while Shin could agree that she was beautiful, mostly thanks to her high cultivation that slowly perfected her body, just from the eyes he could tell what type of person she was.

Looking to his left he saw Ye Ziyun look at him as if wanting to see his reaction at the new teacher and as he turned toward her she gave him a small smile and a thumbs up before looking in front again leaving him even more confused.

As Shen Xiu started to explain the difference between Demon Spiritualist and Fighter Shin decided to ignore her as he decided to take advantage of the free time as he subtly moved his soul force through his body.

Just as Shin was calmly cultivating he suddenly felt a ripple in the air inside the classroom as he opened his eyes he saw Shen Xiu now merged with her own Demon Spirit, a Scarlet Flame Fox, a powerful Demon spirit that was suitable for Fire attribute Demon Spiritualist.

Suddenly feeling another strange wave of soul force he glances behind only to find nothing other than students paying attention or sleeping.

'Maybe it was the rebound from when she merged?'

Shin senses were as perfect as he wanted them to be yet so it was normal for him to make a mistake here and there.

"For the next two years, all of you are my students. Although the principal mentioned that Holy Orchid Institute's students are equal, I have to let you know the ugly truth. In this world, equality doesn't exist!"

As Shen Xiu declared with a loud voice, Shin got out of his musing as he returned to look at her.

When he first joined Glory City he made a deal with Ye Mo and later Ye Zong about sharing some of their cultivation methods and any insight they had in cultivation, because of that he felt her words were a little strange.

'Now that I think about it there weren't words about Ye Zong implementing our own method of cultivating.'

Coming to a sudden realization he now understood why Shen Xiu was acting like that.

After that she continued on explaining how they were all different and how unless one was born a member of a noble family one would never be able to reach a high level of cultivation.

The more she spoke the more indignant Shin felt, while her words about people not being equal was true it was certainly something that she should not put inside their minds as that would be the first reason for block in their cultivation as they would later push to achieve higher realms.

No matter the talent one had as long as they had the drive and a good cultivation technique one would be able to reach any rank they wanted even the Legend rank, putting all of these doubts and useless ideas in them this early on was simply a way to block these people's future achievement.

"Teacher Shen Xiu, I have a question!"

Suddenly as Shin was about to say something another voice beated him to it, turning his head he was surprised as he saw the kid from the Heavenly Marks family with his hand raised and a resolute expression on his face.

It surprised Shin as that seemed totally different from the person he saw working in the field all those months ago, this one seemed far more mature.

'Could one change so much in such a short amount of time? Did something happen to him?'

As Shin thought of that Shen Xiu snorted coldly as she spat out a "What is it?"

"Teacher Shen Xiu says that Glory City is the only one that survived the Age of Darkness, that we are the only surviving humans. What proof do you have on this statement? May I ask if the teacher ever went out of the St. Ancestral Mountains and visited the Endless Desert, the Toxic Forest, the Blood Moon Marsh, the Spirit Gulf, the Heavenly Luster Mountains, and the Northern Snow before?"

Saying that, Nie Li looked proud as Shen Xiu frowned.

"What Heavenly Luster Mountain? What Northern Snow? Just because you read the name of some random places in a book when you were younger doesn't mean they existed!"

As much as Shin didn't want to, he also would have agreed with Shen Xiu if it were not for a simple fact. He knew all of those places, they were far more distant than Fire Lotus City and he only knew of them through some wandering tribes that once came in contact with them as they told them stories about those places.

'And what does he mean only one that survived? I, the patriarch of another city who survived, is standing right in front of you!'

The more the discussion between Shen Xiu and Nie Li continued the more Shin was confused about him.

The two continued to discuss back and forth as Shin planned to sit it out until Nie Li asked whenever a commoner would always remain so as their fate was sealed in stone, it was Shen Xiu's answer that prompted them to act.

"You… In the hundreds of years of Glory City, Lord Ye Mo was the only one able to climb the peak relying on his own ability and his soul realm! You think that just because one was able to do it you also have that opportunity? Well let's see then!"

After saying that she took out a sheet of paper before laughing coldly.

"Nie Li: red soul realm, current soul force 5, strength 21! You sure talk big for someone with such low talent! With your talents you will only be able to reach Bronze rank in your life let alone becoming a legend like Lord Ye Mo you won't even be able to become a Demon Spiritualist!"

"So teacher Shen Xiu is saying that a person's talent is dictated by their soul form?"

At that moment Shin stood up as he looked directly at Shen Xiu, most people there didn't know his identity while the few people who heard about him from the banquet weren't fully sure, because of his declaration and his blatant dislike of her as if he wanted to go against the Sacred family itself.

Obviously Shen Xiu knew of him, let alone the banquet, she was also told about his and the other students' identity when she was assigned the job, because of that she was momentarily frozen as she wasn't sure on how to answer.

"What is it now, teacher? If you are so sure, why don't you also read my talents?"

A quick check in the papers she was holding she discovered something that created a lump on her throat. Remembering the image of him crushing the Sacred Family member who was at 2-Star of the Bronze rank the thought of it being wrong wasn't able to even form in her head.

"...Shin Akagawa: red soul realm, current soul force 189, strength 290…"

Reading it out loud she couldn't help but lose a lot of her previous arrogant attitude while the rest of the class was deadly silent.

Nie Li who saw him stand up to the teacher was surprised as he didn't remember him in his past life but after Shen Xiu read out loud his name and soul force he couldn't help but be confused.

'What is he doing here!?'

In his past life after Ye Ziyun died while protecting him in the desert, after he got the Temporal Demon Spirit Book, he decided to return home for one last time before departing toward the north, it was only after a long trip that he came in contact with what couldn't even be called a city, as the outer walls were almost completely destroyed even the houses were almost all unstable as the remaining people could only camp outside in poor tents.

It was there that he found him, Shin Akagawa, probably the most talented person he saw in his past life, he was even better than those so called geniuses of the Draconic Ruins Realm as even with the poor condition he lived in and with the low level cultivation and resources he had he still was able to reach the peak of the Legend rank while Nie Li who was the same age and had the power of the Temporal Demon Spirit Book was barely at the Gold rank.

'If he's here then does it mean that this is the exact same timeline of my past life?'

With that new information Nie Li suddenly grew a little more cautious, before he felt really good as he was able to be sent back in time to make up for his wrongs and protect Glory City but this small change was enough that told him that not everything was as simple as it seemed.

Suddenly remembering what he was doing he decided to follow up with what Shin was doing as he continued.

"I feel ashamed to have a teacher like you. I can guarantee that in this class, there will be a lot of commoners exceeding your imagination. They will have unimaginable achievements. Instead of coaching them patiently, you use harsh words to attack their self-confidence. You're not worthy to be a teacher! Although my talent is weak, so what? One day, I will become a Legend rank Demon Spiritualist like Lord Ye Mo and marry the most beautiful woman in Glory City!"

Suddenly seeing someone she could take without much repercussion Shen Xiu targeted Nie Li once again.

"You! Becoming a Legend rank? This has to be the funniest joke I've heard! It's true that there may be exceptions to what I said before but I refuse to believe that you would be one of them! So rather than being such a smart mouth, why don't you do something useful for your family and start learning seriously?"

But as she expected for the matter to end there, Nie Li's next word almost made her launch an attack at him.

"A Demon Spiritualist is someone that trains to go against heaven themselves! Without the courage to turn the impossible to possible and an unyielding fighting spirit one would obviously fail at reaching the higher level of cultivation but I'm someone that won't give up so easily! So how about a bet? If I fail to reach the 1-Star of the Bronze rank in the yearly examination in two months I'll voluntarily leave the school and never cultivate ever again but if I do, you will resign! How about it?"

Even toward the end of his speech he stopped talking to Shen Xiu respectfully, something that was noticed by her as it made her incredibly irritated.

"You're funny enough to actually say that you will reach Bronze rank within two months. You think that you can raise your soul force from 5 to 100 in two months?"

"I only asked a question. Do you dare or not?" Nie Li didn't falter as he repeated what he previously said.

Gritting her teeth Shen Xiu was about to lash out but she calmed down by taking a big breath before she answered.

"If you want to waste the effort of your parents that sent you here then Iìll gladly help you. I obviously dare as I don't believe you would be able to do it! But such rudeness to your teacher can't be ignored, for the next two months you will listen to the class while standing at the back!"

Seeing the chance to bring him down she didn't hesitate to give him a punishment to remember him who was the one in control here.

"Since Teacher Shen Xiu agreed to the bet, don't regret it later!"

Saying that Nie Li went to stand at the back while not feeling a single amount of fear or embarrassment even under the ridiculing of the other students.

But just as Shen Xiu thought it was the end of it she saw another boy stand up and join Nie Li, Du Ze a brown haired guy had stood up to stand by Nie Li side as he felt touched by his word and how he protected the commoners while also being a noble and he wasn't the only soon after him four more guys followed his steps as they all joined Nie Li.

"Since Teacher Shen Xiu doesn't think much of us in the red soul realm then don't mind me not thinking much about the Teacher!"

Saying that even Shin went to stand at the back, joining Nie Li, as someone from one of the families that worked under him he couldn't possibly ignore this and even if he wasn't someone from the Heavenly Marks family he would have joined as he never said something wrong.

Like this the first day in the Holy Orchid Institute ended.