Everyone was now throwing him strange, judgmental gazes, and he felt deeply humiliated.All his life, he had never experienced this kind of disgrace. Never once had he been shamed like this.With nowhere else to vent his rage, he directed all his anger at the cashier.“You are doing this on purpose, right? You want to disgrace me, you bitch. I know everyone here. It’s up to no good. Do you know who I am?” His voice grew louder with every word.He was now desperate and burning with shame, especially after seeing Samuel’s payment of over two million go through successfully.The manager soon came over, followed closely by security personnel.“What happened here?” he asked.The cashier explained everything to him. The manager then requested the card and inserted it into another machine. After a few minutes, he removed it and looked up.“I’m really sorry, sir, but it appears that your bank account has been frozen. Please return the items you picked and desist from harassing our cashier,” t

The grand elder pouted but did not say anything. Old Man Brown walked past them and overheard the conversation.“It’s truly a sad thing to see that you people don’t trust my master’s judgment,” he said with a sorrowful tone.“Why should we trust him when the candidate he suggested has such low and absurd qualifications?” Grindock argued.“Then you are all truly foolish,” Brown snapped. “Isn’t the solution obvious? Pit him against the older competitors and see how he fares.”There was a brief silence before Staten slowly nodded.“It really should have been that simple,” Staten agreed. “You know what, instead of pitting him against one of the competitors, we should pit him against someone who could replace him if he fails.”“No,” Grindock rejected immediately. “That would give the impression that we lack confidence in the candidate we chose. Let’s pit him against the weakest of the other four. If he loses, we can simply say he was injured during a friendly spar and sent home. No one wil

Looking a short distance away, a small group was gathered. They were probably their subordinates. It seemed they had brought more than one person along.“Now, Samuel. What you are required to do is simple. This man here is called Benjamin, one of the five competitors who will be following you to the tournament. You need to either defeat him or fight to a satisfying level to assure us that you can represent us well,” Staten said.The shorter man with the annoying smirk stepped forward.“Hey, Benjamin. If you can make him unable to wake up for months, I’m going to reward you handsomely,” Grindock said suddenly.Samuel frowned. Where had he offended this man? He had noticed the offensive looks thrown his way earlier, but now the man was even willing to pay a huge sum just to see him beaten.He marked Grindock’s face in his mind. This debt would be repaid in the future.A huge stage was immediately set up in the middle as everyone moved back.Benjamin walked to the center and bowed deeply

“Don’t mind Carson. He’s just bad at socializing, but he’s a good person. My name is Amelia.” The black-haired beauty finally spoke to Samuel.He nodded and followed calmly. In his mind, he had already written Carson off. He did not like the guy at all, and if Carson ever pissed him off, he was certain he would give him a good beating.They were eventually led to a hidden room. Standing before them was an elevator. The moment they stepped inside, instead of moving upward, it descended continuously.Samuel estimated that they had already gone down at least ten stories, meaning they were now underground. It also did not seem to be moving straight down vertically.After several minutes, the elevator came to a stop and opened. When they stepped out, they found themselves inside what looked like a small store. It was extremely cramped.They exited through the store, and what greeted them was a bright blue sky and several massive, heavily modified aircraft.They were in a huge airport. Not

“Even more reason we should go downstairs. I’m famished, and I heard they have an open buffet there,” Amelia said.“That sounds better.”Soon, they arrived at the main hall, which, just as Amelia had said, was gradually filling up. People from different countries and races gathered in the room. Some stood in groups, while others were already seated.“Over here!”Someone waved at them. It was Amber, and as expected, Benjamin was with her. He was, as usual, trailing after her.His cheerfulness after the defeat wasn’t surprising. Samuel had only punched him once—hardly a devastating blow. As a cultivator at the Golden Core realm, it was nothing serious. If he couldn’t recover quickly from something so minor, he would truly be useless.He sat across from them, next to Amelia.“So,what are you guys having? Pasta, I see,” Amelia said, her eyes sparkling.“I’ll go get something for us. Tell me what you’d like,” Samuel said, since he was heading to get food anyway.“Um, I’m not sure. You coul