12 hours earlier, after being thrown out by Vincent, Phoebe and Joseph started flying towards the capital while they kept bickering, and after arriving in the city center, they entered a grey colored building that looked like a boxy industrial building, but on the arch at the door in golden bold letters was written "immortal club"
it was located on the opposite side of the central square, in front of the black and gold capitol building, this place was a sort of country club, but instead of rich people playing golf there were only seventh stage or higher cultivators playing in artificial dimensions, in which they could compete without destroying the city, one in particular called grievance settling plane was the couple objective
while they were walking a lot of people started to laugh and comment
"they're at it again, what will it be this time?"
"I bet a 100 credits that he forgot an important date"
"then I bet 200 that she forgot something important"
"I bet 300 that she broke one of his music records again"
at this point, a man who looked 120 years old in a luxurious white robe said "you are all wrong, I bet a thousand that this has something to do with the child" while the public didn't know, the members of the club were all of a certain caliber, they were all the cream of the crop, it was hard to keep something a secret from these people
one of the gamblers said "damn, uncle White you are right, they both look mad this time, I have already lost"
at this point, the couple reached their objective, and without bothering to activate the private setting, letting everybody see, they started to fill in the contract
on Phoebe's side, she wrote "if I Phoebe specter win, Daniel Z. specter will be homeschooled by me personally, without any stupid unfeeling machine"
on Joseph's side, he wrote "if I Joseph specter win, Daniel Z. specter will be homeschooled through the use of the virtual reality program called virtual academy"
as they finished writing they opened a cut on their thumb and pressed it on the paper, which then flew in the sky in the center of the plane that was essentially a big empty platform, it combined in a singular piece of paper before starting to burn, they had to wait for the paper, like a fuse to slowly burn out, a really slow fuse, to give people the time to bet
to use the grievance settling plane there are two ways, the first is to pay a certain amount and have a private fight with the executive director or one of the elders of the immortal club as witnesses, the second was free, but the fighters had to wait 20 minutes for the spectators to bet
since the people who could enter club immortal were all people from which ill-kept secrets could never be hidden, but that in any case wouldn't go off spilling secrets to reporters or stuff like that, the couple didn't care about making their fight private, as they didn't want to wait a few hours for a witness to be available
in the meantime the spectators were speechless, these two maniacs usually fought because of nonsense, but this time it was serious, immediately the spectators divided into two factions and the betting became intense, this time they were really fighting, their child's education depended on it and their opinions were like oil and water
it became so crazy that uncle White had to take the situation in hand, and said "calm down everyone, I understand that all of us are excited but form a line, the battle won't start for another 15 minutes it's more than enough time to bet"
all the spectators were suddenly well-behaved, they formed 2 lines and moved in order, uncle White even with his decrepit appearance wasn't a nobody, he was the inside director of the immortal club organization, which had numerous branches throughout the Sun federation, he was also the sun federation president brother-in-law, not many people would have the guts to seek trouble in his presence, especially since he was one of the eight-stage cultivators officially stationed on Verulus
soon everyone had completed their bet, and in 60 seconds the battle would start, while the gamblers were staring at the Specter couple without blinking, and could already feel their powerful energy moving around them
3,2,1 the paper popped like a little firework
immediately 2 seventh stage fake domains appeared to shock the spectators, if they didn't know any better with a start like that, the gamblers would have thought that the couple was really trying to kill each other
Joseph was a spatial element cultivator, and his fake domain was full of concentrated spatial energy in the form of void purple thunder that created fascinating tunes while
Phoebe was also a spatial element cultivator but her fake domain was full of tornadoes made from the blades formed by spatial energy and right now these two were pushing at each other
Joseph's jet-black hair were flying back and his dark purple irises were glowing as he said"I knew you would seriously try to win this time but you have no qualification to teach, our child should only have the best" emitting even more energy and making his domain advance 2 meters
just like Joseph's, Phoebe's chestnut-colored hair were flying back and her light purple irises were glowing as she raised her energy and replied "I don't care, if he was old enough he would go to a real school with real people, I don't want a machine to educate my son"
soon after both of them were at their maximum output and perfectly balanced so they deactivated their domain
one of the spectators said "what happened, why did they stop?"
uncle white said "shut up idiot, how is this stopping"
after half a minute of staring at each other, they both stomped and flew towards each other, they had decided to compete with hand-to-hand combat techniques, and with terrifying speed, Joseph threw a left hook, but Phoebe dodged and responded with a kick to his left side
Joseph sidestepped making the kick miss for an inch, then he used the chance to grab her leg and threw her to the floor, but she wasn't even fazed and flexibly tried to grab his arm, still on her ankle to put him into a vise
but since he already knew her style he released her ankle planning to stomp on her, without knowing this was her plan and with a strange turn she gave him a kick in the gut and he flew a hundred meters before crashing to the ground
Joseph said "that was vicious" while cleaning the blood that appeared at the corner of his mouth
Phoebe cleaned some blood at the corner of her mouth before saying "since when do we worry about vicious" while smiling and a moment later they flew towards each other starting the second round
the spectator's eyes were fleeing out of their sockets, these two were usually violent but not this much, anyone seeing them would think that they were enemies with a blood feud, not a married couple
the fight kept going on for several hours till the both of them were covered in dirt and blood, and barely standing, at this point every single spectator was thinking they should file for divorce while still waiting to see if they won some money
a spectator asked uncertainly of what was happening "at some point they will have to stop, right?"
uncle white responded "I don't know anymore"
the battle was fun and all but at some point, they were so exhausted that the performance dropped sharply, and now after hours was at too low of a level for these people to care, they became numb and just hoped it would end soon
at this point Joseph and Phoebe were looking at each other, Joseph went from looking like a delicate scholar to looking like a beaten-up beggar and Phoebe went from a valiant tomboyish woman to pretty much looking like a beaten-up beggar too
after an intense staring competition Phoebe said "for now we are even"
but Joseph responded "no we are not, one of us has to win, and you know that you aren't good at teaching, your last apprentice joined the war with the hive as a normal soldier to run away from you"
at this point, a furious Phoebe put together all she had left and went forward to end the battle, but she had already lost, with her judgment clouded, her movements were too simple for Joseph who took advantage of the situation, and after dodging, hit her on the back of the head making her pass out, and winning, he would pay later for his words, but his son education was now safe, as an educator himself he knew best what Daniel needed
the battle ended rather unceremoniously and the club members just went away, without cheering or fussing, some happy with their money and some not, but all of them with a bitter aftertaste, if the battle it's too balanced it becomes a boring fight of attrition, a blood boiling fight shouldn't last this long
an hour or so later Phoebe woke up, to find that her wounds were already tended to, and Joseph was dozing off cough . . ., I mean meditating in a lotus position by her side, she was still a bit unwilling to let Daniel be taught by a program, but she also knew that Joseph wasn't going to back off and since he himself was an educator by profession, she decided to trust his judgment and let this one go after losing
Phoebe was the youngest admiral in the history of the Sun federation, so technically she worked for Obelix who was the leader of all military affairs, and her student was actually her disciple Lana Singh who was too much of a wimp, so she basically forced her to go get some experience in a warzone with the hope of toughing her up, being too sheltered could be detrimental, but Phoebe never explained that to anyone, that for those who knew the both of them translated to, Lana run away
Phoebe raised to a lotus position and noticing her movement, Joseph said "I won"
Phoebe said "your punishment for your poor choice of words it's still to be decided, on the other end the battle was fun, it's been a while since we fought so seriously"
Joseph responded "how could I marry this battle maniac, a lot of sweet and gentle beauties were pursuing me, you made all of them run away"
Phoebe glared at him and started to walk towards the door pouting, Joseph rose up and ran after her and said "wait for me, honey"
as they were exiting Phoebe said "since you won I think we should go buy the necessities, Daniel doesn't have spiritual power so he will need one of those virtual reality coffins that monitor vital signs and stuff"
Joseph responded "yes, but we also need to buy one of those technological communication devices, without spiritual power he can't use the ones we already have at home"
phoebe changed course and said "there is one of those technology stores in obsidian square let's go there"
when they arrived they went inside, this place from the outside followed the city architecture, but inside looked like a spaceship, the walls were covered in metal, with glowing strips and were full of appliances like cleaning tools, cooking tools and so on
but on one side there were a lot of different models of virtual reality pods, making the store look like a cross between a funeral home and an appliance store, being a cultivator civilization, almost all their technology was based on the user infusing spiritual energy into something, and this went from a phone to a spaceship, the few technologies still available to everyone where based on necessity and entertainment, so they had to make some changes to the specter castle for Daniel
while they were looking for a clerk, the people around were looking at them strangely, they soon realized it was because of their clothes but couldn't care less, it wasn't the first nor the last time that they went around in dirty and partially torn clothes, and even if they had a change in their spatial devices it's not like they could strip in a store to change clothes
soon they found a tiny woman with the polo shirt worn by the store staff and a small nameplate with Elena written on it and Phoebe asked "hi Elena we need directions, we need a communication device, and a coffin to be used by a noncultivator, whatever it's best"
Elena just from this question could smell business and with a welcoming smile said "what would you like to take a look at first"
Elena was the daughter of the store owner, and a budding businesswoman, she couldn't care less about what they were wearing, just a few of the accessories on them were obviously precious things even if covered in dirt and blood
phoebe thought for a moment and said "whatever is closest"