After Michael's herbs were sold to Noah, many items such as weapons, spell scrolls including an epic scroll, and artifacts were auctioned to the highest bidders. Most of the items ended up in the hands of noble houses as expected.
"I picked up a tail" Exiting the downstairs, Gaya saw a couple of bodyguards of House Oswen following her behind.
"I put the gold into your space ring. Just get the rock and find a place to change your face"
"Young Master Ghost, someone is waiting to meet you," Michael said, opening the door to see the servant boy he saw when he entered the auction house.
"Who?" He wasn't surprised and in fact, he was expecting someone to meet him. After all, he just showed everyone that he still has one Silk apple remaining. The servant boy then took out the Silk apple he gave to the host a while ago. The boy's hands were shaking as cold drops of sweat appeared on his forehead. He tried his best not to make any sudden movements. It was obvious that the boy was terrified of Nightmare regardless of Nightmare's cultivation level. Nightmare on the other hand just avoided making direct eye contact with the boy. The little dragon hated when people were terrified of him for no reason. On the contrary to Gaya's advice to make people fear you, Nightmare didn't enjoy making people terrified of him.
"The elders of House Kane and House Fisher, Young Master. House Kane is waiting for you in VIP room one and House Fisher is in VIP room two. If you say the word, I'll lead you to them" For a few seconds, Michael just stood there calculating the pros and cons about meeting either of them for the third time in his mind.
Taking a deep breath, he decided to go with what he always planned,
"Let's go meet House Kane first", that being said, the servant boy began to walk towards the rooms at the far end of the second floor.
While he was following the boy, one of the oak doors slammed open as a group of middle-aged as well as old men stormed out of the room. Their black hair with strands of grey hair was neatly combed to the back while some of them sported a ponytail. Michael could smell a faint fragrance of lavender and weirdly, the smell of hair gel. All of them wore a brown long coat with a silver embodiment of a panther on their chest. On their backs hung long golden spears that kept radiating an extremely low-frequency whistling sound.
"I want that bitch alive!"
"We have to make an example out of her!"
"I've already sent the men tailing her. The moment she steps out of the auction manor premise, we'll get her" in their anger, they failed to notice Michael walking past them.
"House Oswen," Michael thought. He noticed that all of these men were at the Core Strengthening stage. If Gaya was to get into trouble with them, unless she could perform a miracle, she would be captured and probably tortured to death. Good thing, she had the mask to change her face wherever she wanted. All she had to do was find the lady's restroom, change her face, put on new clothes, and walk out of the room as a new girl.
"They're really pissed," Nightmare commented, staring at the disappearing figures. Gradually the sound of their boots hitting the wooden floor lessened.
The servant boy didn't dare to comment on the scene as he silently led Michael to a door that had a beautifully calligraphed number 1 was drawn on. The door was just opposite of the door that had number two drawn on.
"Young Master" the boy halted his steps, gesturing at Michael to enter the room.
"Keep it" Michael retrieved a pouch with a few gold coins in it before throwing the pouch to the boy. Just the clinking sound of the gold coins was enough to make the nervous boy smile in excitement.
"Thank you, Young Master" The boy grinned ear to ear as Michael entered the room after giving a gentle pat on the boy's shoulder.
When he entered VIP room number one, he was welcomed by three elders who had the looks of an old man in his early or mid-sixties. A wide fake smile was plastered on their faces. Behind those three elders stood seven bulky bodyguards. The bodyguards were armed to the teeth as Michael couldn't see a part in their body that hadn't been covered by metal.
Anyone with a little battle experience could tell this much armor would restrict movement speed, especially since the wearer was just at the Core Formation level. A naked eye could only see ten people in the room but Michael could see with his Environmental scanning on top of his eyes. His scanning revealed that there are five more level 10 Core Formation beings hiding in the dark corners of the room as well as above him.
Nightmare also noticed these hidden beings,
"System you know the drill. If something goes wrong, buy a teleportation scroll and activate it"
[The host means buy two teleportation scrolls right? One to teleport the host to subordinate Gaya and another one for teleport the both of you out of here]
"She can change her face and get out of here" he telepathically said to the system.
"Master Ghost, it's nice to finally meet a gifted youngster like you. I'm Walter Kane of House Kane" the old man with a scar across his left eye greeted Michael with a wide smile.
"This is Edison and Martin, my fellow elders of House Kane" he repeated the words, House Kane, with a sense of pride and glory. Edison and Martin looked like typical old men in their sixties, nothing special about them except for the shiny letter 'K' embroidered on their chest.
Michael shook each elder's hand firmly as they gestured at him towards the sofa.
"Nice Dragon" Elder Edison said, staring at Nightmare. His greediness could be seen in his eyes yet the greediness quickly disappeared when his eyes fell on Michael.
"Yeah, got him from Nether Realm. So, Elders although it's nice to see figures such as yourselves of a proud house, I can sense there's something you wish to talk about"
"Not a person beating around the bush heh? I like it" Elder Martin chuckled approvingly towards Michael's attitude of straightly getting into the business.
"We do have something we wish to talk to you about. But before we do that, we'd like to know more about what you said earlier, especially the part where you got the herbs from the Treacherous Ocean" Although Elder Walter had the decency not to show his doubt on his face, Michael could see the Elders' doubt as clear as a day in their eyes.
"If you're thinking how the hell did a Core Formation guy like me survive the Treacherous ocean, I didn't, at least not alone. I had the help of a Fusion Stage cultivator" His words immediately shocked the elders as Michael continued,
"I cannot reveal his name as he likes his anonymity so much. Long story short, he wanted my Alchemy skills inside the Treacherous ocean in return for his word to protect me" he effortlessly lied through his teeth but as any professional liar would do, he mixed a small amount of truth into the lie to make it believable.
"A Fusion stage cultivator" Elders mumbled. After Michael's lie, the elders slightly leaned forward instead of leaning on their back as a sign of fear and respect because anyone with a Fusion Stage cultivator as his friend must be treated with respect. The elders did know he might be lying or telling them the truth, either way, they didn't want to get on the wrong side of this young man. If they did, the majority of House Kane would sacrifice them to avoid a conflict with a Fusion stage cultivator. After all, these elders were not part of the main Kane family. However, it didn't mean these elders were expendable and powerless. On the contrary, these elders held quite a lot of power through connections and favors inside the family. It's just that this power wouldn't save them if they were to become a reason for a conflict with a Fusion stage cultivator.
"How else could I get out of the Treacherous Ocean alive?" Michael chuckled to lighten up the mood.
The elders and the bodyguards also laughed with Michael,
" I wonder if the House Fisher will also have doubts about my adventure into the Treacherous Ocean" He asked, playing with Nightmare by gently rubbing the little dragon's head.
"Well, we can find out when we meet them next door" Nightmare's words caused the elders' smiles to vanish from their faces in a blink of an eye.
"They are waiting for you?" Elder Walter asked, leaning forward. His usually calm face now seemed tensed,
"Yeah, but I chose to meet House Kane first. So elders, why am I here?"
After the elders realized that the House Fisher might be looking to meet him for the same reason they did, they chose not to waste any more time, asking irrelevant questions.
"We want to buy the Silk apple and any herbs you still have"
"If you have any," Elder Walter said after Elder Martin.
"I do have two more silk apples and a few more herbs. I'll give them to you but I don't want gold coins' ' his answer didn't put a smile on their faces, instead, it made the elders frown.
"What do you want?" Elder Walter asked
"I want to be House Kane's friend. As you elders know, my growth is already making me quite a few enemies. I prefer to have more friends in powerful places rather than enemies"
Surprisingly Elder Walter grinned hearing Michael's words. In his old mind, he already decided to gamble on Ghost's future. Looking at Ghost's cultivation level at a young age, he was positive that Ghost would break into the Half Immortal stage or even Immortal stage. If House Kane were to ally with him from this stage, it would be House Kane who would make a powerful ally. Besides, allying with Ghost first would prevent House Fisher from gaining an ally like Ghost.