Sam is currently in the city along with Nali and the Ice elf guards.
They are walking through the streets as Sam looked at the stone houses which are completely covered with snow and even a thin layer of ice.
Even the street itself looked like it is a sculpture of ice.
After roaming around for a while, Sam found a spot on the marketplace and said.
"I need this spot to set up a shop. What should I do?"
"Shop? What would you be selling Sir?"
"Food. My chef will sell his food here. I only need it for a day or two." Sam replied.
"It is not too difficult sir. There are many travelers that come for business here. In fact, we have many beneficial policies for foreign businessmen."
"Okay, please direct me to the relevant authorities, I would finish the procedures."
He was then led to the authorities and Sam finished the procedure as fast as he could.
"Now, I would like to get permission for fishing once again."
"Fishing? I thought you wanted to go hunting."
"Not anymore. I would like a fish a bit more."
"Sure."
He finished those procedures too and then finally made Nali work on setting up a simple stall and left to fish after a few hours, he can with a spatial ring full of fish and other creatures.
"You have full freedom on what you want to cook with them. Save a portion of every recipe for me and then sell the food to the locals. But do not accept spirit stones as payment. Ask them to barter with some other local food or game from hunting. One portion for one portion."
Nali was surprised and so were the guards.
"But boss, wouldn't we make a loss?" Nali asked.
"No need. I don't really care. After all, I am on a vacation, not a business trip. This trip is all about my pleasure. Not business. So just focus on getting as many ingredients as you can. If they can be used to cooking, just take it.
If anyone asks for recipes, it is your wish to sell them. But I highly doubt any of the ice elves here can cook with their ice element."
He then turned towards the guard and said.
"I would like to meet someone with high status in the government administration. Would that be possible?"
"According to our customs, someone of your cultivation will greet you. You can meet with one of the elders here."
"Just give me directions, you don't have to take me everywhere. You have the guard duty I suppose."
"No need to worry sir. It is my duty to assist the foreigners that to people of your stature."
"Your wish then."
Sam was then escorted to an Elder's office where Sam met with a woman who has very distinctive features.
Her hair is unbelievably long and thick and anyone could guess that by the large bun she has on her head.
Since he came here for the past five minutes, she didn't do anything but sizing Sam up. She didn't speak, didn't ignore, just sized him up.
After five minutes are up she finally spoke.
"What can I do for you?"
"I would like a sparring match with ice elves. A person with the same cultivation level as me would do."
"You have that many elements, you are practically a multiple elemental creature, isn't one person going to be too easy for you?"
Sam's expression immediately changed and a coldness appeared in his eyes along with faint killing intent.
The elder flinched and said with a smile.
"Don't get the wrong idea. It is just I am too sensitive to elements and I can feel all the elemental energies of your body from this close. It is too hard to ignore and it is indeed not fair."
Sam was still suspicious, but he still said.
"I am only using fire element in this spar. So, you don't have to worry about that."
"Actually it is the courtesy of our ice elves to accommodate our foreign friends. But a sparring match with you… Before we proceed can you say something about your background?"
"Why?"
"I mean, it would be best to have a conversation over a meal and build up our ties before we go into the sparring and what not?"
"Don't beat around the bush and just cut to the chase"
"Well, if you say so."
The woman took a deep breath and continued.
"We wouldn't do the sparring for free. You would need to pay for it."
"You could have just said so. How much?"
"Ten million Spirit stones?"
"Sure. Please bring your strongest Initial stage cultivator of Astral Plane Pre-transcendence. I don't want to waste my time on easy fights."
"Of course. Would you be paying now?"
She asked with an overexcited smile.
Sam just gave her the money and left. By now, money is just a number to him anyways. The income from the whole organization is booming and as an owner of that, his personal share and profit is enormous, to say the least.
He doesn't have to think to spend a few billion on a whim.
"You can wait in the Imperial Training hall. I will bring your opponent there."
Sam was once again escorted by the guard.
The elder immediately ran towards the Head of the Ice Elves. The Queen of Ice elves.
The Queen and the elder have many similarities, including that unnaturally long hair.
The elder immediately narrated the whole story and the queen replied.
"Some paid to us in normal spirit stones? Is he stupid or does he really not know."
The queen replied in surprise.
"No, I think it is more like he doesn't care at all. He seems to be filthy rich. Our younger generation is currently in desperate need of these spirit stones, but all our channels are costing us enormous prices which we couldn't bear in our current situation.
He is the only one who is ignorant enough to pay us like this at this moment."
"Does he have interest in anything that is available here? We can try to conduct some trade." The queen said.
"No, I don't think so. He is even giving away the fish from the northern glacier just for the exchange of food items. He doesn't care about the value and from what the guards heard, he is here on a vacation."
"Which idiot spars in a vacation? And which idiot comes to this godforsaken place for vacation?"
The queen muttered and after some time both of them looked at each other with the same weird smirk on their face.
"Let's go. It seems like some lamb is willing to be slaughtered." The queen said calmly and walked out.
"But what if the people behind him get angry?"
"We will just give a bunch of our resources as a gift with approximately of an equal value at the end. So, they wouldn't have a reason to."
As the elder went into deep thought, the queen.
"My dear little sister, think of all the young geniuses we have now. All that is lacking to use their talent is a proper source of spiritual energy. Don't you think this is the best chance? We might be cheating him, but we are not making him suffer a severe loss. We are exchanging something for it, right? Please harden yourself."
Sam doesn't know that these people are trying to scam him, he just waited in the training hall as he observed the atmosphere.
Soon, the queen, the elder, and some other ice elves came.
The Queen is a late-stage Pre-transcendent cultivator of Astral Plane and the elder he met earlier is a middle stage one. Even though he was told that he would meet someone of his own level, he has yet to do so, and finally, the candidates that are behind the queen and the elder are someone of that level.
"Hello, I am the queen of the Ice elves, I heard you want to spar with one of our strongest opponents."
"Not one the strongest, it would be better if it is the strongest of my level."
"Well, the problem is, the four of them behind me think they are the strongest and they don't want to fight normally. They want to wager."
"But I already paid the fee for a sparring match and there was no mention of this at that time."
"Well, how about this. You can accept their wager and we will give your fees back."
"Fine by me, but are you sure they are the strongest? No offense they don't seem like much."
The four elves instantly became enraged.
"Then if you want, you can fight multiple opponents." The elder chimed in.
"That is not a bad idea. So, what is the wager if I want to fight all four?"
As the four elves are about to explode in anger, the queen silenced them with a glance and said.
"Hundred million each. Four hundred million in total. If the elves win, you have to pay that. All in neutral spirit stones. If we can't we will give something of equal worth. How about that?"
Sam raised an eyebrow at the queen's eager smile and from the expressions of the elves and the awkward expression from the elder.
He felt something is fishy.
The queen is too eager for the bet and the elves in the rear are too irritated to be seen as interested in this and the elder is clearly feeling guilty about something.
He caught on to the expressions since the start but decided to ignore them. But when the massive bet was placed, he understood. They are trying to fleece him.
The same thing happened in the previous place. But they wanted to con him in a different way. Sam felt like he was being treated like an idiot.
The ten million fees is already suspicious enough on top of the guards' weird behavior around foreigners. Sam would really be an idiot if he didn't see these hints. But since he decided to ignore them to not spoil his own vacation mood, they are treating him like an extreme idiot. Since they want to play, he would play.
"I don't do small wagers like that."
"Two hundred and fifty million each. One billion. Are you down?"
The room instantly turned eerily silent and serene all that remained of the emotions are the shock of six faces and the smirk on Sam's face.
