‘That girl is obviously a Huang Dragon. But the guy across from her? He actually has a tiger tail and hair nearly like a mane.’ Amber’s sound transmission echoed in Cain’s mind.
She and Cain were closely inspecting the upcoming opponents.
One was just as Amber described, a beautiful, elegant girl who was wearing a luxurious robe with the symbol of a Dragon designed along its surface.
Her presence was powerfully captivating. She stood proudly tall, just like a sharp sword.
This girl’s cultivation was also near the peak of 1stfall Divine Origin.
Across from her was a man with peculiar animal-like features.
A long lion tail that extended for eight meters grew out right above his waist and curled around his body just like a belt. His hair wasn’t overly long. But it was incredibly filling, similar to a lion’s mane, reaching right down to his shoulders.
This man’s expression was dauntingly ferocious. His killing intent was evident by the cold sparkling gleam of his crimson-colored eyes. He was also a near-peak 1stfall Divine Origin expert.
Scanning his gaze over and over the beastman, Cain’s eyes gradually alight with realization.
He said to Amber in sound transmission, ‘From what I read before, those crimson eyes mean he’s a Crimson Lion variant beastman. This race is supposed to have superior physical strength and speed superior to a lot of other races. Also, they can absorb energies easier than humans. This should make for something entertaining.’
Amber gave a silent hum in agreement. She was more so enjoying being with Cain than really the specialties of these battles.
And moments later, the announcer of the match powerfully called for it to begin.
…
Nearly half an hour later, Cain and Amber were back on the streets.
They had thoroughly enjoyed the match between the Huang Dragon and Crimson Lion variant beastman.
Compared to Cain and Kali’s fight, their battle lasted a lot longer. It was because their strength was nearly equal to each other. Thus, both opponents needed to deploy brilliant battle tactics to gain a slight edge over each other.
In the end, the girl Huang Dragon won after a close narrow victory.
For Cain and Amber, it was entertaining to see other battle styles of people with equal strength. They found the tactics used in battle to be the most intriguing.
Amber was always an advocator for fighting wisely than harder.
While Cain focused more on how to incorporate battle tactics into his own fighting style. He never had a prime opportunity to do so far since his full strength can utterly overwhelm his enemies.
Moreover, his energies reserves capacities are immeasurably deep, allowing him to continually pull out his full power with not too considerable of energy cost.
Still, for his future enemies that are equal combat prowess, Cain knows wise battle tactics can make or break a battle.
But those complicated thoughts were for another time.
Cain re-focused his mind on enjoying his date with Amber.
Although, as the young couple was trailing through bustling streets, Amber had suddenly stopped. Amber perked her head up, taking a big whiff of a particular scent, suddenly prickling into her noise.
Moments later, her eyes light up from under her hoodie.
She said to Cain, ‘You know how I said before that Vampires have truly keen noses above many other races? Well, what do you say about following me to a place that’s even making my nose wrinkle up.’
‘Oh?’ Cain felt his curiosity grow. He recalled that Amber’s variant Vampire race has unique kinds of Source Law Marks engraved within their bloodstreams.
𝑜𝒱𝓛xt.𝑪𝞸𝐌
These Source Law Marks converge together to provide special abilities upon birth. With one of them being a powerful sense of smell.
Cain nodded in silent agreement, allowing himself to be pulled along by Amber.
Soon enough, Amber led Cain through the crowd, trailing a considerable distance from it before ending up in a more secluded street lane.
Here there was a noticeable shortage of people and buildings.
Amber took a quick whiff of that same scent before snapping her gaze on a seemingly ordinary shop.
Without any hesitation, she pulled Cain right along and directly entered the shop without any obstructions.
Cain and Amber were soon greeted to a peculiar sight.
The lobby interior wasn’t overly large or grand as other places. But was sizable enough to compare to a mortal mansion lobby.
The decor wasn’t suspicious and actually rather pleasant looking, painted with luxurious gems and artistically painted art of Dragon tattoos.
Similarly, the customers here were the same as any other ordinary citizen.
One would think it is but a simple shop at first glance.
However, Amber wrinkled her nose further when taking a whiff of the air here. Moments later, she soon identified the cause for her sudden interest.
Her body slightly perked as she spoke in Cain’s mind. ‘So it was this stench. It’s like human blood mixed in together with other races but wasn’t able to go into a full transition. They must’ve tried only moments ago. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to sense at all.’
‘Your senses were this good to pick up on it in the first place?’ Cain asks, sounding honestly intrigued. ‘Everything still smells the same to me. Your noise is surprisingly useful.’
Instead of retorting, something else had captured Amber’s attention. Her eyes snapped onto a massive bulletin board that contained numerous lists.
With her eyesight, Amber was able to tell the general thing written on these lists.
She felt slightly weird the more she read. ‘Ah? So there is openly a slave trade market here? Oh, well, I guess I have to say ‘servant trade’ in this place.’
‘Hm?’ Cain had also turned his attention to the bulletin board, reading that it was tilted as ‘Servants For Sale.’
Feeling a rise of intrigued, the young couple sauntered over to the bulletin board, making sure to be as casual as possible.
The bulletin board actually had several other people crowding around. These customers came in all shapes and sizes.
Some appeared far wealthier than others. While others looked utterly dangerous to encounter as an enemy.
But the similar theme among them is how each of them was at least a Peak Mortalhood cultivator.
Those already in the Divine Origin realm were the majority.
As Cain and Amber approached, they faintly listened in on the groups, not bothering to hide their conversations.
“I wonder if the new batch produced any good results. Heard from a source that some interesting events were happing around Yellow Dragon forest.”
“I wouldn’t count on it. You know how hard it is to modify these servants. And I doubt we’re getting lucky today.”
“Yep. Best just to stick with what we already know.”
When Cain and Amber arrived near the bulletin board, they had a rough understanding of this place.
The list highlighted here showed the prices for human and beastman servants for sale. These prices varied all over the place. But the general them was that the servants with a rich bloodline are far more expansive than others.
As they read on, Cain and Amber just curled their brows slightly.
‘Back in Azure Lightning City, I heard of slave trade markets. And they were actually similar to here. The more morally upright organizations like to call it servant trading. While organizations that lean on loose morals will simply call it slave trading. Either title means the same thing, really. Anyone who owns these people will forever be their masters.’
Amber spoke while recalling specific memories, her tone still retaining its usual calm.
Slave trading honestly had no sway on Amber’s mental state. She really only cared about her family and the race of Vampire. And though it doesn’t manifest quite as hard as her other family members, Amber still has her own pride as a noble Vampire.
Naturally, she would prioritize her own variant race above all others.
‘I see…’ Cain’s tone was similarly just indifferent.
He, who once was a human, genuinely felt nothing about other humans being sold as slaves.
When deeply thinking about it, Cain realized he practically felt the same way about the blunt harshness in his previous homeworld.
The lives of these people made him recall a sudden memory about his previous dear sister, Lisa.
….
In the ordinary streets of Earth, Cain’s previous self was silently walking with an ordinary-looking girl, his sister Lisa.
The area they were strolling down was where they had lived for a period of time, and it was a grimy-looking, suspicious-filled neighborhood.
The sidewalk the siblings traveled down was an example of poor poverty. Cracks splitting the ground, piles of dirt in alleyway corners, and the occasional boorish looking person walking the sidewalks.
An invisible dreary atmosphere filled the air and could lower anyone’s mood into a deep depression.
However, neither Cain nor Lisa seemingly cares. They already experienced withers and storms of life, having seen neighborhoods even worse than this one.
The siblings were simply satisfied enough with a place to comfortably live in.
Their walks were slow and quiet as per usual.
The siblings are and have always kept to themselves, not daring to bother any stranger. Moreover, it didn’t matter the type of stranger it was.
Such as when Cain and Lisa briefly stopped when a small figure blocked their way.
With no other choice, the siblings glanced down, only to see it was a small, dirty-looking little girl no older than eight years old.
Her clothes had patches of yellow stains, her hair was slightly unkempt, and her expression appeared quite pitiful.
When seeing two adults who had a far less shady look than the average folk around here, the desperate little girl took a chance.
She pleaded to Cain and Lisa, begging them, “Please, Mister, Mam. Do you have any leftover food or money? My mommy and me are so hungry…”
“Ah! Alice!”
And at this time, an older-looking woman with a similar appearance to the little girl hurriedly came over.
She was in the same poor state as the little girl but had an apologetic expression as she bowed her head to Cain and Lisa. “I’m sorry for this. It’s just been so…no, never mind. Sorry again.”
“Mn.” Cain merely grunted with an indifferent tone before hurriedly pulling Lisa along.
His face didn’t change, nor did he look back at the poor mother and daughter. Such scenes can no longer affect him in any noticeable ways.
“Haaah…I still feel a little for them, though.” Lisa suddenly spoke, her tone clearly dripping with sympathy. “I mean, those kinds of lives are basically the dregs of society. At least we don’t have to worry about when will our next meal will be.”
“And we need to solely focus on our lives to keep it this way. Like I always say, one wrong move from us and we can end up in the same dead-end ditch. There’s only so much we can do with an Associate and High School degree.” Cain calmly explained.
Closing her eyes for a moment, Lisa’s expression soon returned to normal as she said, “Right, right. Let’s just hurry up home.”
There were perhaps lingering sentiments of sympathy, but Lisa quickly suppressed them.