Damien turned his head towards the direction of the voice. He slowly got up while the guard was busy opening the cell gate.

Even though the language in this world was different from the one in his previous life, he perfectly understood the guard since he naturally had Damien Ward's knowledge.

And he felt like he could converse in this language without any awkwardness, unlike what he expected.

The guard looked at him from top to down and said, "Brat, I can't imagine how unlucky you are to not die. And here I thought you would pass away in peace tsk tsk. Anyways I don't know how you managed to escape from the clutches of death, but you are going to regret it hehe." The guard snickered.

Damien squinted his eyes. He knew that he had almost zero chance of getting out. But he still wasn't used to how this world worked since there was never a slavery system in his previous life.

So he just wanted to try his luck and asked, "What do you mean? Surely you must have a way to just let me go. I neither have the strength nor skills to be sold to anyone."

The guard answered, "Haha brat you can't be so naive to think that you can get out of this place alive, not that I blame you. You don't need any strength or skills for what they have planned for you since you will only serve as entertainment to just earn some money. Anyways your match will be the commencement for today's entertainment matches since you are the weakest of the bunch. Don't worry, you will be facing off against ethereal beasts only because pitting cultivators against you would be boring. I wonder how many seconds you are going to last hehe."

Damien had a taut expression on his face as he tried to brainstorm and see if he could find any way to come out of his predicament alive. He was not afraid of fighting, but he didn't want to die a dog's death.

He was prideful enough to not let his life end in the hands of his enemies in his previous life, so how could he just let a mere beast decide his life and death.

Knocking out the guard was out of the question as he could feel that he had no chance to even hurt him since he could feel a sense of powerlessness while standing in front of him.

CLANG!

Suddenly a bell sound rang out, and the guard spoke, "Guess it's time already. Let's move."

Damien didn't resist as the guard moved forward to catch his arm.

While they were walking, Damien asked the guard, "What do I have to do to get out of this alive? How strong is the beast I am facing? Will I even get a weapon?"

Hearing Damien shooting out these questions one by one, the guard looked at him as if he were looking at a fool, "Brat, I underestimated your naivety. You are just at the first level of the Initial Ethereal Realm. The beasts you would be facing against would be at least from the second level of the Initial Ethereal Realm. This is also considering that an ethereal beast would always be stronger than an average cultivator with the same cultivation. Well, for weapons, we will see haha.

The only way you will get out of this alive is if some esteemed customers who would be watching the matches take a liking to you to purchase you as their servant or slave. But all you can do is dream about it since most of them only purchase the finest warriors who are at least in the late stages of the Nascent Ethereal Realm. But you are just trash who would only serve as a warmup before the upcoming matches. So all you can do is dream about it haha."

Damien lost his hopes after hearing these things from the guard. He would rather die than be a slave for someone else. But his fighting intent was lit since he refused to go down without a fight even though he had no idea of the strength difference between levels.

Soon they came out in the open, and the daylight made Damien squint his eyes as he lifted his hand towards his face to block the sunlight.

His eyes slowly adjusted to the light. He saw an arena but with a transparent barrier covering the whole arena that seemed to be made to restrict the fighters in the arena and prevent the surroundings from being affected by the ethereal energy when both parties were in combat.

Audience seats filled with thousands of people surrounded the arena, where some of them had either hooded clothes covering their whole body or with masks on. At the same time, some did not disguise themselves at all.

Obviously, those who were in disguise didn't want their identities to be leaked out since they were all from the empire's upper echelons.

There were also few areas in the topmost section of the audience area separated into multiple box-like rooms surrounded by tinted glass, which seemed like a VIP seating area where one can't see what's inside from the outside.

Since the things that were happening in this black market were illegal or not righteous in the eyes of the common people, people who came from prestigious backgrounds wouldn't dare to risk their identities being found out in this place lest they besmirch the reputation of the place they belong to.

He saw an elevated stage in the topmost section of the audience seats where a group of people was seated discussing some things between themselves.

He speculated that those people naturally are the ones who hold and coordinate the matches to be conducted.

'Great, just a business cum entertainment version of gladiator games.' Damien sneered to himself.

The guard threw a meaningful glance towards the stage, and soon, a middle-aged man on the stage wearing a dark brown robe stood up.

He walked towards the center of the stage, looking around the audience seats as he spoke in a clear and loud voice:

"This humble one is one of the Dark Sky Guild's Elder, Elder Faust, and it is an honor to be given the opportunity to satisfy the needs of esteemed customers from faraway lands. I thank all our loyal and honored customers for your continued patronage. I hope today's events will be to everyone's satisfaction."

'Heh, the way he is talking seems as if things like these are natural. As expected of someone working in this business' Damien scoffed inwardly.

Elder Faust continued, "Before we move on to the main matches, we would have a warmup match to help settle down our guest's moods. As all of you might know, our rules allow all of you to call out when you see an interesting warrior you want to recruit by just pressing the yellow jade stone on your armrest, and the match would be stopped immediately. Of course, only the highest bidder would be able to complete the transaction. Also, please do remember that we maintain absolute confidentiality and trustworthiness with our customers."

"For the warmup match, we would be having beasts facing off against the weakest practitioner. After that, we would be having our usual matches among warriors. Unless any bids on the warriors are made or one of the warrior's surrender, all the matches will be fought to the death. Only some fine warriors have the right to surrender because of their previous performances. Now let's proceed with our warmup match involving the Grey Wolf beast known for its ferociousness as one of the combatants."

The barrier came down as a gate opened in the corner of the arena. A grey-colored wolf almost 1.5 meters tall, baring its fangs, was let into the arena.

Damien was expecting some huge beast but only to find out it didn't look much different than an ordinary wolf he knew in his previous life, other than being slightly bigger.

The only main difference he could notice was the aura the wolf was emanating. It was a strange and murderous aura that he has never before seen in a wolf.

'I guess the beasts are different too. Can I even defeat it?' Damien wondered to himself and started thinking of ways to fight the beast.

Elder Faust looked towards the guard and examined Damien through his spiritual perception. He had glanced at him as he came out before, but now he was surprised when he inspected him.

He furrowed his brows as he sent a sound transmission to the guard, "What the hell is going on? I thought this kid was supposed to be at least half-dead. How is he able to even walk now?"

Practitioners can send mental transmissions to each other using ethereal energy if they are nearby or within their sight.

Elder Faust had planned a short warmup match since he wanted to entertain the guests as most of the audience were either sadistic in nature or wicked and cruel in many ways.

He knew only those kinds of people would visit or involve in these kinds of businesses even though they might be from righteous families.

The guard's voice quivered, "M-My Lord, actually, I only came to know about his condition when I went to bring him out. Before that, he was surely poisoned and was almost dead."

Elder Faust became irritated as he said, "Tch if I had known he was healthy, I could have at least sold him off as a servant or as a boy toy at least. Haa...forget it. Just end this fast. What a waste."

The guard turned towards Damien as he said, "Brat, it's time. Pray to the beast so that it will end your miserable life fast otherwise, hehe." The guard grinned wickedly.

'Ugh...what a sadist.' Damien thought.

The guard pushed Damien towards a weapon rack having swords, spears, shields, and some other primary weapons, which all seemed quite ordinary.

When the people in the audience seats saw Damien being pushed towards the weapon rack, they all understood he was the fighter selected to fight in the warmup match.

"Eh...a kid? Is this a joke or what? Even kids are sold as warriors here hahaha."

"I don't know whether this could be fun or boring. A match between weaklings. How long do you expect a kid at the first level of the Initial Ethereal Realm to last against a beast at the second level of the Initial Ethereal Realm? "

"No wonder he is fighting in the warmup match. He is just going to die a painful death. Well, it would be at least a bit entertaining if he could put up some kind of struggle haha."

"That kid looks like he is in his teens but still at the first level of the Initial Ethereal Realm. He can't be more trashy haha."

"Of course, otherwise why would they try to get rid of him. At least he will serve some purpose in this match as an entertainment."

Sounds of snickers and ridicule filled some of the areas in the audience.

There was a VIP glass box inside which three hooded figures sat on the east side of the seating area.

The middle figure seemed to be an important person being protected by two bodyguards as the two people on either side of that person seemed to be on constant alert and mindful of their surroundings even though they were in the so-called VIP box.

Apparently, these three were visiting this place for the first time.