As the person in the middle spoke, a girl's sweet and pleasant voice sounded with a tint of immaturity but carried a noble undertone "Court Master Oswin, does this place even sell kids? Isn't this going too far? His strength is barely much different from an average seven-year-old."

Oswin Rong answered with a sigh, "Your Highness, coming here was a mistake. This place is far too cruel and vicious for someone like you to witness. If only you had allowed us to come here alone, you wouldn't have to bear witness to these ugly things."

The girl raised her hand halfway from the armrest in a protesting way "Court Master Oswin, you very well know the kind of problems we are facing in our empire. I turned sixteen yesterday, so you don't have to continue treating me like a child. I am a princess first and foremost, and I should be familiar with how cruel the world is. I cannot forever hide from it. Otherwise, how am I expected to deal with our problems?"

"We have even tried every best option available, but this is our only chance left. Besides, I am not here to purchase a 'slave'. I just need a loyal aide who can at least provide some sort of assistance and help regarding our problems. Since you told me that the people here have no family or place to go back to, I thought I would be able to find a warrior who won't betray us."

The man sitting on her left side spoke, "Your Highness, things are just not that simple. Even if these warriors are proclaimed to have a clean background, we can never be truly sure. And you can never expect complete trustworthiness from these people once you let them out of your sight. Placing an ethereal seal on them won't necessarily guarantee their complete loyalty. There can always be loopholes in the seal placed by these people."

The girl turned towards the man, even though her hood and mask covered her face, he could tell that she had an unhappy expression on her face.

She said, "Vice Court Master Nestor, are you telling me that I should just give up and accept my fate?"

"Of course not, Your Highness. I am just reminding you to be more careful. Please forgive me if I overstepped my boundaries."

The girl shook her hand. "It's fine. Indeed, I don't have much idea of how this place works or what kind of place it is. But I don't have any other choice."

—

Damien was standing before the weapon rack. He already knew which weapon to pick. Without any hesitation, he chose the dull sword with his right hand.

In his previous life, before even his powers awakened, he was an expert swordsman. Though it was the twenty-first century, he had an extreme fascination with the ways of the sword. Basically, no one would imagine someone using weapons like swords when guns were faster and deadlier.

But people who knew his expertise wouldn't think it was wrong for him to use a sword. He was so good at it that he can deflect powerful attacks, even bullets using his sword. By training his swordplay, he had increased his speed, reflexes, agility, stamina, and durability to a state where no human can contend with him.

He was also equally good at close combat and had lots of combat experience. He can infuse his movements with powerful kicks, knees, punches, takedowns, throws, and various other sporadic attacks, as well as do quick parries, simultaneously attack and defend and swiftly counter.

Basically, no one would dare to take him head-on. And that's without taking into account his powers.

With his powers and sword skills coupled, he was virtually invincible.

Everyone wondered who taught him the ways of the sword and close combat. But strangely after 'The Great Calamity' ,he couldn't recall who his master was, how he became an expert swordsman in such a short amount of time or the knowledge he had regarding various things.

It's like there were some memory gaps, and he felt like he forgot some of the most important details about his life.

The sword he picked up was just a typical long sword, and the edges of the sword were dulled with some rust here and there. It won't be an overstatement to say that it was the lousiest sword Damien had ever seen.

The barrier came down as Damien made his way towards the combat arena. The Grey Wolf was suppressed by Elder Faust's aura so that it would not run away or start the fight prematurely. A practitioner can use his aura to suppress another living being completely as long as the former's cultivation is significantly higher than the latter.

Once he got inside, the barrier was activated again as he came face to face with the ferocious Grey Wolf. It was already enraged for being captured and locked inside. Now, it had a chance to vent its fury on a meat bag.

Elder Faust spoke in a loud voice, "Let the match begin!"

The Grey Wolf was freed from his suppression as it pounced towards Damien with a snarl. Damien quickly dodged and rolled over to avoid its attack.

He wanted to test out the Grey Wolf's abilities, but he didn't feel much pressure as he faced its attack. Finding out that he had a chance to kill it, he readied his sword as he prepared to fight it for real.

The moment he got prepared to fight, his body emitted an incomparably sharp and piercing aura as if his entire person had become a sharp sword.

The audience also felt how Damien's aura changed and was surprised at how he was exhibiting a sword intent and sword force that they had never seen before and shouldn't exist in a person with such low cultivation and age.

Even ignoring the concept of sword force which one usually exhibits at least after the Spirit Ethereal Realm, sword intent is something that only experts can exhibit who have high attainments in sword mastery. And that expertise usually comes with age and high cultivation or with high innate talent in swordsmanship.

The Grey Wolf got slightly intimidated seeing the change in the aura of its prey. Still, it was angry at seeing its attack being dodged. Its grey eyes were staring straight at Damien as it exploded in a manic aura, and with a roar, its aura stifling, it came pouncing over.

Furrowing his eyebrows, Damien suddenly jumped up when it came close and leaped above the Grey Wolf as he slashed towards the wolf's neck while twisting his body in mid-air.

Swish~~

The wolf seemed to be running forward as if in a daze.

*Thud*

When it suddenly collapsed lifelessly on the ground as its severed neck went rolling away a few meters with blood gushing out from its lifeless body as if from a spring, dyeing the arena ground red.

'Tch, this sword is so lame.' Damien clicked his tongue in frustration as he inspected the rusty and dull sword in his hand.

The Grey Wolf dropped dead just like that! Within one move!

Within just a single breath of time and a single strike, a fifteen-year-old crippled kid easily killed off an ethereal beast at the second level of the Initial Ethereal Realm with just pure physical strength and without an ounce of ethereal strength.

In his previous life, he had the knowledge of medicine, and the biology of living beings supposedly taught to him by the very same person who taught him swordsmanship. Since he had the knowledge of a living organism's workings, he aimed for its weak spot based on a guess.

If it were a human being, he wouldn't need to guess as he can even aim at the vital spots even with his eyes closed.

He wasn't surprised that the Grey Wolf's neck had been severed easily. After all, he didn't clearly understand the difference between cultivation bases much. In fact, his reaction was as if what happened was only natural.

But contrary to his reaction, the audience's reaction was quite the opposite. Their expressions were of incredulity and disbelief.

"What did I just see? How can a kid at that level produce sword intent? Am I imagining things or…"

"Is this kid really just a vagabond? Even those prominent geniuses from major families didn't exude such sword intent at his age, even with their superior cultivation base. I never knew a cripple could exude such sword intent."

"This kid's background can't be simple. But it's a pity he is crippled and ended up here."

Forget about Damien not even circulating his ethereal energy to infuse to his strike or his lousy sword; an ethereal beast would always be stronger than an average practitioner with the same cultivation.

But the Grey Wolf was even a minor realm higher than him, which was more than enough to cause a bit of aura suppression on Damien, probably more since he was a cripple.

It would even be considered miraculous if Damien could survive for ten seconds under its attacks.

But the end result was quite the opposite. It seemed like the wolf didn't even stand a chance against him and was instead suppressed by him.

The reason Damien did not circulate his ethereal energy was that he couldn't. His ethereal core points were crippled, and thus the inability to form an ethereal core in his body. Without the ethereal core, he wouldn't be able to channel ethereal energy in his body.

And the reason he was able to suppress the Grey Wolf was due to his sharp and deep sword force and sword intent even though it was nothing compared to the sword intent he could exude in his peak condition.

It basically canceled out the Grey Wolf's aura, and thus it didn't even stand a fighting chance.

But the reason he was able to cut off its head cleanly wasn't only due to his sword intent but also because of his high attainments in the way of the sword!