Roughly nine days later, the Mist City Guards who were responsible for collecting tolls of travelers who wanted to enter the city were standing guard and going through each individual one by one who were lined up. It was still very early into the morning but one of the guards after yawning looked over and quickly got the attention of some of the other guards next to him that were not taking their job too seriously.

In the distance getting closer and closer to their location, was a youth that looked younger than thirteen years old slowly walking towards them. What made them all chuckle was the fact that this youth was clearly carrying a large sack of worthless rocks that the only use was to waste some space. Who would carry a sack of rocks in this way while traveling when one could actually fill up a sack with sellable items and treasures?

These guards did not know this, but the youth who was doing this was in fact Timothy and his face had a big smile as well as a river full of sweat falling off his body. He was in this moment slowly sprinting towards Mist City since he felt that soon he would no longer have to carry this large sack of rocks around with him that caused quite a few travelers who had passed him up until this point to have a similar reaction that the guards had towards him. Upon arriving, Timothy let out a large breath and compared to everyone else present in line, he looked to be the most eccentric appearance wise to the point where no one even gave him a look.

The toll to enter Mist City was one gold piece, and travelers from all over the region would visit the city whether to meet old friends, to build up their businesses, or even looking for new opportunities such as Timothy was here to do. The line had at least one hundred people ahead of Timothy, but within ten minutes it was finally his turn to pay the toll after being examined by the guards and answering a few questions.

"Oh, you are here to take an exam to join the Imperial Academy? You still have to pay the toll but let one of us escort you there directly. It is the governor's order to receive potential students and for us to properly escort them over so it is your lucky day. You are also in luck, because you are a week late compared to the actual yearly entrance examination but because the Imperial Academy is open to all that meet their requirements to study within, even if you waited an additional month, there would still be someone to test you."

For the most part, city guards across the empire were also originally students of their local Imperial Academy, and some would receive offers from smaller and weaker regions such as the one they were in to be stationed within. These guards were only Rank 3, and a handful were only Rank 2 but if they were to try to receive an offer anywhere else, they probably would not be treated as nicely due to having such low cultivation levels.

This also meant that they were kind to the youths who were trying to join the Imperial Academy as they once did as youths themselves. If they were not kind to such youths, it was possible for them to shy away from the Imperial Academy which was always rather desperate to find good talents to build off of. And so just like that, Timothy was able to enter into the city with a Rank 2 guard leading the way and very quickly the guard was able to get Timothy to the entrance of the Imperial Academy.

Compared to the other local organizations that were situated within Mist City, the Imperial Academy looked slightly lower in stature, but this did not mean that the Imperial Academy looked run down by any means. If he had to make an estimate, it would take the Iron Will Sect to amass at least one hundred years of wealth using every last bit of resources they had in order to even think about building something similar.

At the gate was an older looking man who was clearly an instructor and spotting the guard and Timothy, he took the initiative to walk over. "Oh is this youth here to take the entrance exam?" the older looking man asked the guard. After learning that Timothy was in fact there to take the entrance exam and that he wanted to before doing anything else actually pleased this older looking man who was introduced as an instructor of the Imperial Academy.

There were many reasons that the instructor would have looked pleased at this moment, and one of these reasons was because he could clearly detect that Timothy was already at Rank 1 as a cultivator. The Imperial Academy's only real requirement was that they wanted students who were on the path of a mage and not a warrior. For the most part, as long as a youth showed that they were able to cultivate, it was enough for a branch like this one in a very weak region to want to bring them in.