Seeing Claw turn towards Bai Jingshen, Bennet quickly butted in:
"Didn't you want our disciples to have a fight Claw? But I'm really not sure if your two upstarts would have a chance against the people I trained for months. See that kid over there? He's our newest recruit. He reached the 9th stage of the Body Refinement Realm all by himself and I haven't even trained him for a second. So how about letting your disciple fight against him and after you loose you get out of here?"
Seeing the smirk on Bennet's face, the youngest of the three men spoke angrily:
"Are you insulting us, old man? What upstarts? Me and my brother are honor students of New Haven Academy and have been training under Master Claw for 4 years now. I will just wipe the floor with this newbie."
Hearing the young man talk about himself, Bai Jingshen swiped his gaze over the young man's body. Claw's disciple definitely had an inkling of his master's aura. Their bodies were similarly built, and Bai Jingshen was certain, that they trained in the same cultivation technique. The former emperor quickly lost interest in him though, as he was sure this boy wouldn't be a challenge to him. Letting his eyes wander further to the right, Bai Jingshen also began to analyze the last man.
Bai Jingshen was surprised, as he seemed to have the same aura with a different vibe to it. His body was lean and muscular and despite their similarities, Bai Jingshen was certain that this man had a different understanding of the same cultivation technique. Looking into his eyes, Bai Jingshen felt like he had met a calm, veteran hunter rather than a bird of prey. In the experienced fighters opinion, the last man, who seemed to be the slightly younger of the two brothers, already showed more potential than his brother and even his master. Although both disciples were at the 9th stage of the Body Refinement Realm, Bai Jingshen would bet a whole planet, that the older brothers would loose 10/10 fights against the younger.
Compared to his master, Bai Jingshen didn't even feel any hostility from the older brother, as he seemed to be very focused on himself. He didn't even react to any provocation, contrary to his younger brother, who now took a step up to confront Bai Jingshen:
"You, newbie. If you kowtow right now and apologize, I might forgive you. Otherwise, you won't get out of here without having every bone of yours broken."
Bai Jingshen just sighed at such a cliché phrase, which somehow appeared to be standard for every weakling. It really felt nostalgic for him, hearing this phrase again after millennia. Well, at least his opponent should make a decent training dummy for him, so he could get used to his new body. Sadly he couldn't train the White Illusion Arts before reaching the Qi Gathering Realm, as they required Qi to be used, or else this fight would have been over before it began.
Bennet smiled at seeing Bai Jingshen turn around without a word and heading towards room 3 again. He might think, he led the inexperienced Bai Jingshen into a fight, but little did he know, that Bai Jingshen could already imagine how the situation would turn out, as soon as Claw opened his mouth. The old emperor trapped in a young man's body simply didn't care much, as he already knew, becoming part of Thobar Bionics would certainly mean making enemies.
As Bai Jingshen suddenly turned around, the older disciple was perplexed and quickly shouted:
"Are you coward or what? How can you just walk off? HEY! I'M TALKING WITH YOU!"
Claw threw his disciple an annoyed look while berating him:
"Just follow him already. He's obviously going towards the training grounds."
Prompted by his master, the young man shot his mouth and ran after Bai Jingshen. Claw and his other disciple followed along, while Bennet turned towards the reception. He proudly presented the sweets he bought to Dahlia, asking her of she wanted to come along. Dahlia was happy about Bennet showing interest in her and also curious about how confident Bennet seemed in the new recruit, so she agreed with a broad smile. When Bennet and Dahlia arrived in room three, Bai Jingshen and Claw's disciple were already saluting each other on the fighting stage.
"Bai Jingshen, 9th stage Body Refinement."
"Terr Iros, 9th stage Body Refinement. Dragon Tail's next big star. Disciples of the famous Instructor Claw… "
"Are boasting or fighting?", interrupted Bai Jingshen calmly.
Before any of the two made a move however, Claw talked to Benett.
"What do you think Benett, a normal fight isn't really all that interesting, right? Let's up the stakes a bit."
Bennet threw a knowing look at his adversary.
"I knew you had a purpose for coming here. Spit it out, what do you want?"
"Haha, you just know me to well.", laughed Claw, sending a shiver down Bennet's spine.
"I will just get to the point then. How about a bet? If we win in this match, your RSS won't be participating in the upcoming newcomer competition. What do you think?"
Bennet now understood Claw's devious plan. The newcomer competition was an event held throughout the whole Republic. Every half a year a new batch of recruits were sent to the New World. Most organizations agreed to this rhythm, as it was easier to keep track of logistics this way. The republic thus sponsored a competition in every city before sending the newcomers off. Normally, every organization would send their recruits to participate. Whilst showing off and building connections was important, the price for first place really drew people's attention. Winning the competition would grant you two of the most coveted items in the universe: an access pass for the Scholar's Tower and an access path to the Rising Dragon Union.
The Scholar's Tower represented all scholars in the universe. It was one of the most powerful organizations right now, on par with the big five empires. They held control over most of the Rising Force World's knowledge. In order to prevent knowledge from falling into the Great Cultivation World's hand, a lot of it was strictly controlled. Even in your own organization, you couldn't just hand down precious studies to your new recruits. Someone aspiring to become a scholar had to be recommended by an official organization or established master and then registered with the Scholar's Tower. In order to stay impartial, the Scholar's Tower declared its neutrality and its goal to further the Rising Force World's strength as a whole.
The Rising Dragon Union on the other hand was a much looser organization. Its members helped train geniuses of all kinds, but most organizations sent their representatives there in order to keep a lookout for potential recruits. Still, countless geniuses went there to test themselves against people at their age and to form connections. Joining the Rising Dragon Union was also much easier, as you just had to beat a simple test.
For Thobar Bionics, getting these prices would be very important at this time. Especially the pass to the Scholar's Tower might represent a future scholar, which they severely lack right now. Their company only had two scholars left, one of them even being Elena Thobar. This led to their research speed slowing down to a crawl. As soon as they fall behind their competitors, it would spell game over for the company.
Even though Dragon's Tail wasn't a competitor of theirs, they were very much interested in seeing Thobar Bionics going down. Dragon's Tail made a big business out off gathering resources. Even before the New World existed, they were successful in invading unaffiliated planets and taking everything they could. Without their strong backing they would simply be labeled as pirates and eliminated, but that's just how politics work. After the New World's descent, Dragon's Tail set their sight on the beast and secret realms all over the New World. With their philosophy of quality over quantity they began to recruit many elites in order to defeat the strongest beasts.
This proved to be a very successful strategy and they now had a lot of raw material. But with growing success, their greed also grew. They were now no longer content with just selling material, but they wanted to make their own products. For Dragon's Tail it came only naturally to set their eyes on a weakened Thobar Bionics. Multiple times they tried to take over the company, but so far Elena Thobar proved to be hard to overcome for them. Therefore, Claw's suggestion didn't surprise Bennet very much. Completely contrary to his expectations though, the latter agreed immediately:
"Sure, no problem. But you wager is kind of big this time. So, if you lose, we get twenty tons of tier 2 materials."
Claw grew a bit suspicious by now, but for their company these materials wouldn't hurt them that much, so he readily agreed. Tier 2 material would mostly be used in the Qi Gathering Realm anyways, they weren't very important. Therefore, the two men held their bracelets next to each other, letting their AIs automatically form a contract between them. With the formalities out of the way, they could finally concentrate on the fighting stage.