The Special Match

Asher felt a mix of curiosity and slight concern swirl in his mind. He wasn't someone naive; when Elsa mentions methods that are 'far too complicated,' he could gather there could potentially be shady practices being done.

Although Asher did find his interest piqued on the various Elsa could teach him to make money. He would never want it to come at some expense for him.

Moreover, Asher already had a sunken opinion of Elsa's family. Whatever they were attempting, he knew he would have to do it with extreme caution.

Still, Asher didn't put a damper on Elsa's obviously rising mood from being able to teach him something.

He simply said to her, "I see….now you have my interest. In any case, let's see what this organization has to offer."

Elsa nodded in silent agreement and had then taken the lead walking towards the Audience vendor.

While Asher and Elsa had their brief discussion, they had luckily taken enough time where there was nobody currently at the Vendor now.

Asher and Elsa were impressed; they truly have good customer service here.

It wasn't even like Asher and Elsa talked for a long time, and there was a sizable amount of people that were on line at the Vendor. But it was like in a blink of an eye, everyone got served in a split second.

For their first impressions, Asher and Elsa expected to see some highly capable-looking person behind the vendor counter.

However, what the duo did see left them both confused.

They scan their Aura Sense over and over again at the vendor person, but they got the same result. What they sensed was so incredibly strange to them that Asher and Elsa had nearly tripped up when coming up to the counter.

Behind the counter was a simple middle-aged man who was wearing an all-black suit. This man was only wearing some kind of unique eye mask so Asher and Elsa could identify his appearance.

Most obviously, the strange part about this man wasn't his appearance.

The actual strange aspect was that, no matter how hard Asher and Elsa inspected this middle-aged man, they couldn't sense a speck of Magical Aura on him.

And this time, it wasn't like they were sensing some unfathomable expert.

When Asher couldn't sense Vice-Principal Mia's presence or Magical Aura, he still didn't dare to underestimate her.

Even though Vice-Principal Mia expertly suppressed her prowess, she could not get rid of the subtle sense of danger that mixed in with every breath she took.

Asher can't sense Vice-Principal Mia's prowess, but he for sure could feel the immense danger that was locked inside her.

However, for this middle-aged man, there wasn't any sense of danger. Legitimately, Asher and Elsa sense they could simply raise their Magical Aura a bit, and this man would be grasping to his knees.

Before the duo fully made it up to the counter, a realizing flash lit in both Asher and Elsa's eyes.

This kind of weak condition was something they honestly rarely encountered around Pearlcrest City.

This middle-aged man was a completely ordinary mortal!

These types of people hold absolutely no power at all, and they would never be able to cultivate in their lives.

Even though the areas where Asher and Elsa lived were nearly populated, all with Spirit Tier cultivators, there were always exceptions to this rule. Ordinary mortals like this man could never awaken their System's soul, leading them to live a more grueling life than the average folk.

In fact, ordinary mortals could barely match up to the lifespan of someone who had just awakened their System's souls.

Considering their numerous, unbalanced disadvantages, Asher and Elsa couldn't understand why the Burning Night Pit Organization has an ordinary mortal working here.

It was especially strange seeing how every System's soul cultivator here carried an unfathomable high prowess and great touch of subtle arrogance.

Various thoughts like this swam around in Asher and Elsa's minds as they made it within inches to the Vendor.

Before either of them could say anything, the middle-aged man greeted them first.

"Greeting esteemed customers. Are you here for the special tonight? And would you like to make a bet?"

Asher and Elsa could admit that this middle-aged man certainly had a persuasive tone in his voice. He spoke with an elegance that could match any other high-class businessman.

It was a bit remarkable considering the weak condition of his body. Still, what the middle-aged man said got both Asher and Elsa's interest more than how he spoke.

"Special? I'm afraid we didn't get the chance to hear about that." Asher smoothly explained.

A calm smile graced the middle-aged man's face as he had then told the duo, "Ah yes, this was only recent news several hours ago. You see esteemed customers, today, a match is occurring between the Victim Sword and the Tiger Killer. This has quickly got on numerous buyers' radars as this will be a fight between two Late Sage Spirit Tier Cultivators."

"Oh?"

Both Asher and Elsa raised instinctive exclamations of surprise.

Two Late-Stage Spirit Tier cultivators….this was the strength that was equivalent to the high-ranking Geniuses of their Academy!

Such high prowess would reasonably attract considerable attention anywhere. Moreover, as both Asher and Elsa enjoy the art of fighting, they already got hooked by the prospect of this match.

Before answering, Elsa looked towards Asher for a nonverbal confirmation of his opinion. Asher stared at Elsa at the exact same time and readily nodded towards her.

With their minds on the same wavelength, Elsa turned her attention back on the Vendor man and said to him,

"We won't be making a bet. But, how much would it cost for the two of us together?"

"Altogether, this will cost you ten Origin Crystal Beads."

Asher nearly leaked out a huge sigh. Another sky-high price!

Initially, Asher thought this place was only keeping the appearance of a fancy noble place. But with outrageous prices like this, it clicked with him that this organization may really be in the league of high-class nobility.

Thinking about it, the previous cultivators who went up before them all causally paid for these prices like it was the most common thing in the world.

Moreover, this would also align with the rumor that this place is funded by the Mayor's Forces.

In direct contrast to Asher's exasperation, Elsa didn't feel any change of emotion. True to her words, such prices like this really weren't much to her.

Elsa merely nodded, reached into her pocket to fish out another gray sack from her blue ring, and had then tossed it over to the middle-aged man.

The middle-aged man promptly caught the sack and, surprising Asher and Elsa, took out a unique-looking phone. This phone had numerous weird-looking patterns that neither Asher nor Elsa had ever seen on their phones.

Although his phone looked incredibly weird, it also had a striking resemblance to their own modern phones.

Asher and Elsa watched on with intent curiosity as that strange-looking phone released a small blue light over the gray sack, inspecting it in an instant.

This whole process took only a second, and the middle-aged man smiled afterward. He had then quickly put his phone away, reached from under his counter, and pulled out two golden tickets.

The middle-aged man had then given Asher and Elsa the golden tickets while explaining to them,

"These tickets will guide you to which entrance you should go after walking in the corridor beside us. Please enjoy the show, esteemed customers."

"Right." Asher and Elsa nodded a bit strangely, their minds still replaying how that strange phone worked.

When they get their golden tickets, Asher and Elsa focus back on the present. They took one brief last glance at the Vendor man before heading towards the corridor to the side.

Upon Asher and Elsa's first step in the corridor, they both sensed a pulse of energy ignite within their golden tickets.

For a split second, they both felt an unstoppable force, but the energy from the golden ticket immediately cleared it away.

Asher and Elsa felt their curiosity piqued, and while they walked down the exquisite looking corridor, Asher had said,

"So even they would have a defense measure like this. Without these tickets, we would just get thrown out. I suppose this is more effective than just having guards placed around."

"Mnh….not only that their technology appeared to be a strange branch I never saw before."

When Elsa finished talking, she and Asher had already made it towards a path with several wide corridor entrances split apart. Above each corridor entrance were various golden symbols that all looked distinctly different.

Elsa glanced at her ticket, looked back up, and then pointed towards one of the corridors with the last straggler of people walking through it.

"There. That symbol aligns with our tickets."

Elsa told Asher, and with a pep in their steps, they traversed down this specific corridor.

After walking for several seconds, Asher and Elsa reached the end of this corridor and ended up in a massive underground arena. And just like everything else in this place, the underground arena had a luxurious design and feel.

If it wasn't for its smaller size, Asher and Elsa would've mistaken this palace for a grand colosseum arena.

In the audience section they were in, there was undoubtedly the bustling noise of thousands of people awaiting a highly anticipated match.

But, when they compared it to how their fellow students acted, even the noise here was much more subdued than chaotically rowdy.

After taking a moment to take in the sights, Asher and Elsa quickly shuffled to two open seats. Though it was quite jam-packed here, the duo still had enough movement to freely move and take free seats next to each other.

Once they were nestled into their surprisingly comfortable seats, Asher and Elsa were about to talk to each other.

But right then, an unfathomably strong presence caught their attention.