Rivers of the Night-Chapter 289: Dual Stream

Chapter 289: Dual Stream

Theron found his way to his seat at the edge of the arena and closed his eyes slightly. He entered a gentle state of meditation, the sounds of the world around him fading away.

Predictable. It was all too predictable.

He had a hard time finding these opponents very difficult at all, but at the same time… he found something within himself stirring.

Ever since he was young, he knew that he wanted to be an Imperial Scholar. But that was because his scope of the world was limited. He thought that becoming an Imperial Scholar would mean having access to all the best information in the world, that so long as he followed this path, he would be able to learn everything he wanted to learn, to fill his mind with all the knowledge he could ever want.

But after stepping into the world of cultivation, he began to find it all ridiculous.

Was this really the best the world had to offer?

The so-called First Years weren’t really First Years at all. Much like how things worked in the Nightingale Imperial Capital, they often joined late after strong, systematic training from their noble families. Even the youngest of them was sixteen or seventeen years old.

Theron had been given access to this world for a fraction of the time they had, and yet he crushed them without much effort. freeweɓnovēl.coɱ

Honestly speaking, he didn’t think that there would be much of a difference between if he was up against First Years or Fourth Years… the result felt like it would be just the same.

I am not living for myself… Theron thought to himself in the very same gentle voice he always did.

None of them… none of this was for him.

At the very least, by the end of all of this… at least one of the heads of his enemies would be in his hands.

You weren’t supposed to kill in this gathering. Ironically enough, the death of a Gold Clan member outside the arena was probably the only place you could get away with it. Technically speaking, because it wasn’t a sanctioned fight in the gathering, it was allowed, and Chopra wasn’t punished.

But Theron knew that his best chance to kill such people would be here. His mission with the Daggers of the Night branch was too important to reveal his assassination techniques now.

If his River persona followed him here, then it would make keeping control over Daggers of the Night in secret far more troublesome, and some would put two and two together.

While many already speculated that he was both Rain and River, there was no need for him to lay it out on a silver platter—especially not given the situation.

So… he would kill one of those four shadowy figures the Sangun little prince mentioned right here. Right in front of everyone’s eyes.

Right in front of that Spirit Mancer’s eyes.

Theron’s eyes opened slowly, and his gaze locked with Chopra’s.

A pair of crimson and a duo of sapphire met across the arena, and for the second time, Chopra sensed the fire within Theron. This time, it was raging with even more fiery heat than before.

He wasn’t put off by Chopra’s presence in the slightest. He wanted to taste his blood.

But that was fine by Chopra, because he wanted to see Theron bleed even more.

**

In the depths of the night, Theron shot through the forest, once again closing in on the Daggers of the Night branch. He had still yet to gather all of the materials he needed to successfully deal with the spatial formations here, but he knew that he would still need some more reconnaissance anyway.

The first day of the gathering had ended fairly well. All of the academic stream years had gone, and the rounds could be said to be fiery, but well in hand.

The lead Theron gave them was too monumental to mess up. Though Shah slipped up a bit as their Second Year, Gengh was able to pick up some of the slack, leaving Aliza to blow them out of the water.

In the end, the winners of the academic stream rounds were clearly the Nightingale Empire. The Firewings were a strong second, just barely inching out the Aurans, who mounted a great comeback.

Honestly speaking, the Aurans had a strong showing from start to finish. It was a real question of whether they would have performed so poorly had Lyn not purposely tried to tank their chances.

It was clear by their performance that they had the ability to pull themselves out of a deficit. If Theron hadn’t done so well, it was quite likely that they would have still ended up first.

But in the end, they were third, leaving the Sangun Clan fourth and the Gold Clan fifth.

It was a resounding victory for the Nightingale-Firewing alliance, and the rewards Theron would undoubtedly receive for that were quite substantial. Dean Pennel couldn’t stop grinning ear to ear.

This wasn’t just because she had been the one to push Theron to participate, but the favor Theron had gained from a Black Clan Elder was bound to be extremely useful.

They were all doing this for the sake of the rewards the Black Clan would hand down. It would decide the future of their growth for a while, and it would likewise dictate if they would be able to weather the coming storm or not.

To have the favor of a Black Clan Elder was like adding wings to those rewards. Who knew if they just might gain a little bit extra on top thanks to Theron?

No matter who it was, so long as they were of the Nightingale-Firewing alliance, they couldn’t help but look to Theron more favorably. This was even true of the Firewings, who had quite a few reasons to dislike Theron given his history with their princess.

Now, all that remained in the tournament was the military stream round and the dual stream round.

That dual stream round… that was Theron’s real aim.