Chapter 16 The First Guidance

Chapter 16: First Guiding Session

It was 11:30 PM.

Supervisor Xu Ming notified everyone on the third floor to gather, preparing to begin the Guiding Staff’s work for the day.

Li Yi awoke from his meditative state, feeling refreshed and not at all sleepy.

This was one of the benefits of being a cultivator: during meditation, the body and mind were already in a semi-rested state, and combined with the body’s evolution and transformation, cultivators were almost always full of energy, showing no signs of fatigue or weariness.

When he stepped out of his room, the others had already appeared in the corridor.

What surprised Li Yi was seeing Wu Zhen also standing at the doorway; although his face was bruised and swollen, full of contusions, and his eyes were bloodshot, he didn’t seem to be in particularly bad shape, could move freely, and had no lingering effects.

One had to admit, the physical quality and recovery ability of cultivators were truly different.

If it were a normal person, they would already be lying in a hospital, unable to get out of bed for at least a week.

“Did I go too easy on him? Or is it that ordinary punches and kicks no longer have much effect on cultivators?” Li Yi pondered to himself.

This Wu Zhen, without even activating his Spiritual Medium, had such resilience; if it were a more powerful cultivator, wouldn’t physical attacks become a joke? Could it be that one needed to use hot weapons to deal with cultivators?

As he was pondering this question, Wu Zhen also stared at Li Yi from a distance.

He was seething with anger; no one who suffered such a great loss could swallow their pride.

But Wu Zhen dared not show it; he knew this Li Yi was a ruthless character, and if they clashed again, it might genuinely lead to a death.

“Just you wait, don’t let me catch an opportunity, or I won’t let you off,” he could only swear to himself, wondering if he could get his revenge later.

“All Guiding Staff, please follow me. This guiding work will take place on the top floor,” Supervisor Xu Ming said. “The previous batch of guides will finish their work in twenty-five minutes, so you all have about twenty minutes to prepare. During these twenty minutes, you must enter meditation and begin guiding Cosmic Energy.”

“There’s another batch of Guiding Staff? Who exactly is this employer, to be so wealthy and powerful?” Zhang Gao was surprised to hear this.

Supervisor Xu Ming said, “Not just that, we’ve hired four batches of Guiding Staff in total. Each batch works for six hours, ensuring a continuous twenty-four-hour supply of Cosmic Energy. Your batch is responsible for the night shift, so you won’t see the other two batches during the day.”

“But none of this concerns you. You just need to do your guiding work well. Now, please follow me to the top floor using this dedicated elevator.”

Soon.

Several people took a spacious and comfortable dedicated elevator directly to the top floor.

The entire top floor was equipped with heavily invested cultivation equipment. Here, Li Yi saw top-tier medical pods, and also the golden-yellow nutrient solution. He even saw many antique-level old weapons, including swords, long spears, and halberds, in some tempered glass display cases.

And in the very center of the building, there was a huge, semi-circular “egg.”

“That half-egg is a cultivation pod? Oh my god, I’ve only seen this thing in the news, never in real life. It’s said that once this cultivation pod is activated, it can isolate the pollution from our world, keeping the energy inside pure. If combined with a sufficient number of Guiding Staff, it’s equivalent to artificially creating a pure energy field, and cultivating inside it is comparable to possessing qi objects.” Someone’s eyes widened in shock.

“Cultivating comparable to qi objects? Isn’t that like cheating?” Zhang Gao was also startled.

The person said, “Bah, what cheating? This is the power of technology. No, this is the power of money; you wouldn’t understand.”

“New Guiding Staff, keep quiet,” a cold voice suddenly came.

The voice was not loud, but it buzzed in his ears, carrying a strange deterrent force.

Li Yi’s expression changed, and he looked towards the direction of the voice.

It was a middle-aged man in his early thirties, dressed in a black long gown. Although he was just sitting there with his eyes closed, he gave off an indescribable sense of danger.

“This person’s cultivation level is very high. Is he a bodyguard?” Li Yi glanced briefly, not daring to stare, and quickly averted his gaze.

The others also sensed the danger from this person and immediately fell silent.

Li Yi then focused his gaze around the cultivation pod.

At this moment, there were eight cultivators sitting beside the cultivation pod. They were both male and female, all placing their hands on specific positions on the cultivation pod, continuously guiding pure Cosmic Energy into the pod. They had been in this state for nearly six hours.

“It’s truly terrifying. One batch of seven or eight Guiding Staff, four batches in total, guiding Cosmic Energy non-stop for twenty-four hours, plus the cultivation pod and top-tier nutrient solution. What kind of cultivator are they trying to cultivate?”

Li Yi secretly clicked his tongue.

Look at how others cultivate, then look at how ordinary people cultivate.

No wonder ordinary people, even if they cultivate, can’t rise up and can only work as Guiding Staff.

The gap in cultivation between the rich and the poor was no longer something that could be simply compensated by cultivation values, unless everyone was like Li Yi, lucky enough to risk their lives in the Waste District and pick up a qi object.

But even possessing a qi object might only be equivalent to one of their cultivation pods.

The remaining gap would still be unbridgeable.

Although he was surprised, the work still had to continue.

After Supervisor Xu Ming briefly explained the situation, the others began to sit down around the cultivation pod one after another.

On the cultivation pod, there was a palm-sized circular area, amber-colored and slightly transparent. It was unclear what material it was made of, but the Guiding Staff could penetrate pure Cosmic Energy into it by touching it with their hands, while polluted Cosmic Energy could not enter the cultivation pod.

This was very peculiar.

But it was precisely because of this peculiarity that the cultivation pod was astonishingly expensive.

As soon as Li Yi sat down, Supervisor Xu Ming found him: “Li Yi, you signed the second contract, which pays you based on the amount of Cosmic Energy you guide. When you guide later, you don’t need to worry about anything else. This cultivation pod will individually calculate the Cosmic Energy input for each position, and you won’t be shorted a single dao coin.”

“It has that function too? I understand.” Li Yi nodded.

“Everyone can start working now.”

After Xu Ming finished his introduction, he left.

Soon.

The seven people began to adjust their states and enter meditation for cultivation.

At this time, the previous batch of Guiding Staff also awoke from their meditation.

They were all familiar with the work process, and after waking up, they left together without saying a word, while Supervisor Xu Ming took them to eat and settle their wages for the day.

Li Yi, now in his working state, was more cautious.

He didn’t immediately guide a large amount of Cosmic Energy into the cultivation pod, but rather slowly captured some surrounding Cosmic Energy and guided it in.

Li Yi didn’t want to expose the fact that he possessed a damaged qi object, so he planned to proceed gradually, controlling the amount, while also cultivating himself during this period.

Gradually.

Everyone entered their working state, and the surroundings became remarkably quiet.

Six hours of meditation, which could not be interrupted, otherwise wages would be halved.

However, for those with cultivation experience, this was not difficult to achieve, as they usually cultivated for at least seven or eight hours, or even more than ten hours, at a time.

But for Wu Zhen today, it was a bit difficult.

He was injured, and the pain persisted, causing him to wake up from meditation after two hours.

“Damn it,” Wu Zhen cursed under his breath, feeling extremely frustrated. He knew he would only earn 4,500 dao coins an hour today.

He didn’t have time to resent Li Yi now and could only adjust his state to continue working.

Fortunately, this job paid daily, so as long as his body recovered tomorrow, his wages would return to normal.

Meanwhile, Li Yi felt the time was right and began secretly guiding the Cosmic Energy from the dao coin into the cultivation pod.

As he did so, on the computer monitor nearby, the Cosmic Energy value for position six was rapidly soaring.

Thirty-five, seventy-nine, ninety, one hundred one, the value was still rising.

In a short time, Li Yi had guided over a hundred units of Cosmic Energy, which meant he had already earned ten thousand dao coins in that short period.

But he dared not let the value go too high, so after a while, he stopped.

Then, Li Yi waited two hours before repeating the operation.

The purpose of doing this was to mimic the energy bursts of wormholes.

If he continuously and stably guided a high quantity of Cosmic Energy, the employer inside the cultivation pod would immediately notice something was off about him.

But short bursts would not arouse any suspicion.

Everyone’s position was different, and the number of wormholes and the amount of dispersed Cosmic Energy around them also varied.

Even a meter apart, the difference could be like heaven and earth.

So no one could prove that Li Yi had a problem.

Unconsciously, the time had reached 6:00 AM.

The first day of guiding work was over.

When Li Yi opened his eyes, he found several unfamiliar cultivators already sitting beside him.

They had just started meditating, clearly another batch of Guiding Staff who had come to take over the shift.

Supervisor Xu Ming returned and motioned for Li Yi, Zhao Xiaoxiao, Zhang Gao, and the others to leave.

They said nothing, quietly taking the elevator to the building’s cafeteria to eat.

“The work is very easy, six hours just flew by,” Zhang Gao said with a happy laugh. “They even provide meals, that’s great. It’s a shame the employer doesn’t hire long-term, otherwise, I’d really hate to leave.”

“That cultivation pod is truly amazing; it can actually isolate polluted Cosmic Energy. I wonder how they managed to do that,” someone nearby said, very curious.

Zhao Xiaoxiao, however, said, “The most amazing thing is that glass. Pure Cosmic Energy can penetrate it, but polluted Cosmic Energy cannot.”

“That’s not glass, it’s scales,” Supervisor Xu Ming suddenly explained.

“Animal scales? What animal? A fish?” Zhang Gao pressed.

Li Yi thought for a moment and said, “If those are scales, then they absolutely cannot be fish scales. Fish on Earth don’t have scales that large, nor can they possess the ability to isolate polluted energy. Are they scales from an Overmortal Creature?”

Xu Ming said, “That’s right, those are Scales (qiu lin).”