The Second Contract

On the second floor, inside the conference room.

Li Yi, Zhang Gao, Zhao Xiaoxiao, and five other cultivators had come to apply for guide positions.

Supervisor Xu Ming said, "This recruitment for guides is rather special, so everyone who came to apply will receive two contracts. You may decide which one to sign based on their terms and requirements. However, regardless of which contract you sign, you must also sign an additional confidentiality agreement."

"Since this matter involves the employer's privacy, I hope you can understand."

After saying that, Xu Ming had an assistant hand out the two paper contracts.

Everyone carefully read through them after receiving them.

Li Yi was reading as well. At first glance, his heart could not help but leap. "Nine thousand yuan an hour? That price is really high. But the working hours are a little long, and it requires six uninterrupted hours. If the guidance stops midway due to personal reasons, then all wages for those six hours will be cut in half."

"This is the first contract. Let's look at the second one."

"The second contract is actually paid by volume? One hundred yuan for every unit of Cosmic Energy guided, with no upper limit. Six working hours, with breaks allowed in between."

"This really is hard to choose," Zhang Gao could not help saying from the side.

Someone immediately nodded in agreement. "It is indeed a little difficult to choose. A fixed wage of nine thousand yuan an hour is already very high, but one hundred yuan per unit of Cosmic Energy has greater returns—though it also carries risks. If you are lucky, you can earn tens of thousands in an hour. But if you are unlucky, you might not even make three thousand in an hour, because the Cosmic Energy spilling from captured wormholes is too unstable."

"The fixed wage is not completely without risk either. Six hours of meditation tests a cultivator's stability. If you leave meditation midway, your pay is cut in half. You might as well sign the second contract," Zhao Xiaoxiao said.

"There are pros and cons either way. It depends on what everyone chooses."

The seven of them discussed it among themselves.

But soon, someone signed the contract. "I'm not gambling on it. I'll sign the first contract."

"That makes sense. A stable salary is important to me. I'll sign the first contract too."

Watching several people rapidly sign their names, Zhang Gao asked, "Li Yi, which contract are you leaning toward?"

"The second one." Without the slightest hesitation, Li Yi signed his name on the second contract.

He had the strange artifact and could guide a large amount of Cosmic Energy. He would not let an opportunity like this to make money slip away.

Moreover, he was not worried about the strange artifact being exposed.

The energy field of the incomplete strange artifact was too small. Lin Yue had been so close to him back then and still could not sense it, so no one else would be able to either. Besides, he could cultivate while working. It was killing two birds with one stone.

There was also a clause in the contract: meals and lodging were provided during employment.

Seeing Li Yi be so decisive, Zhang Gao hesitated before ultimately choosing the first contract.

"Forget it, I won't take the risk either. I'll choose the first contract." Seeing that most people had made their choices, Zhao Xiaoxiao thought for a moment and signed her name on the first contract as well.

Of the seven people, only Li Yi chose the second contract. Everyone else chose the first.

After the contracts were signed, Xu Ming said, "Your dormitories are on the third floor. Each person will be assigned an independent suite. Working hours are from midnight to six in the morning. I will notify you half an hour in advance, so I hope everyone will be prepared. Wages will be settled daily and paid in cash. I hope you understand."

Afterward, Xu Ming had the assistant arrange for everyone to go rest in their dormitories first and begin work that night.

Before long, Li Yi was assigned Room Four.

The room was spacious and bright, clean and tidy—far better than his home in the Old Town District.

He simply could not stay here for too long. Every few days, he had to go back, because his parents were still lying in the Medical Pod at home, and he needed to make time to replace the Nutrient Solution occasionally.

Still, he was not worried about anything happening at home.

He had installed cameras in the house and could monitor it in real time through his phone. The Medical Pod also had dedicated monitoring software, allowing him to keep track of its operating condition. If anything urgent happened, his phone would sound an alarm, and Li Yi would know immediately.

"It's two in the afternoon now, and work starts at midnight. I can meditate and cultivate a little during this time, and maybe even get a free dinner." Li Yi carefully calculated, making full use of his free time.

But just as he was preparing to meditate.

Suddenly.

Knock! Knock!

Someone knocked on the door.

"Is Li Yi here?" Zhao Xiaoxiao's voice came from outside.

"I'm here." After Li Yi opened the door, he saw Zhao Xiaoxiao and several other unfamiliar cultivators standing outside.

"Your name is Li Yi, right? Hello, I'm Wu Zhen. We met earlier." The speaker was a young man around twenty-five or twenty-six. He had a crew cut, wore a white short-sleeved shirt, and had a solid build that gave off a strong sense of aggression.

"Hello. What is it?" Li Yi nodded.

"It's like this. Zhao Xiaoxiao mentioned that you signed the second contract in the conference room earlier, right?" Wu Zhen said.

"Yes. I think the second contract suits me better. Is there a problem?" Li Yi asked.

Wu Zhen smiled. "Of course there's no problem. I just wanted to give you a heads-up beforehand. You know that when guides direct Cosmic Energy, it's unstable. Sometimes there's more Cosmic Energy, sometimes less. I calculated it before—when a cultivator meditates and cultivates, the average amount of Cosmic Energy they can guide in an hour is around sixty units."

"So the few of us came to an agreement. When we guide Cosmic Energy each hour, we'll keep it around an average figure. That way, the employer won't think we're slacking off, and we can also carve out some time to cultivate during work. It kills two birds with one stone."

"What average did you set?" Li Yi asked.

Zhao Xiaoxiao, standing nearby, said, "Considering that this job is fairly important, we set the number at around seventy, with fluctuations of no more than ten either way. What do you think, Li Yi?"

"You mean the most Cosmic Energy I can guide in an hour is eighty units?" Li Yi finally understood exactly what they meant.

"That's right." Wu Zhen nodded. "Since your contract is different from ours, I thought it was necessary to let you know."

"If I guide eighty units of Cosmic Energy in an hour, my hourly wage is only eight thousand. You're getting nine thousand an hour. Doesn't that mean I'm losing one thousand?" Li Yi said.

"Li Yi, you can't put it that way," Zhao Xiaoxiao said. "You can use the extra time to cultivate. That's a win-win situation too."

"It may be a win-win in your eyes, but to me, it's a huge loss. I'm short on money, so I urgently need to save up a sum in a short time. This kind of volume-based guide job is not available whenever I want one. I only managed to get this job through a friend's introduction after great difficulty. I refuse your proposal."

Li Yi decisively rejected their plan.

"No room for discussion?" Wu Zhen narrowed his eyes, a faint glint flashing within them.

Li Yi said, "I understand that you want to slack off at work and coast for your wages, but I want to improve even more. Otherwise, why would I sign the second contract? Besides, I'm taking risks by signing it. If I guide fewer than ten units of Cosmic Energy in an hour, I bear the loss myself."

"I'm betting that my luck won't be bad, that I'll encounter a major energy spill from a wormhole and earn a large sum in a short time. If I cooperate with you, then when I'm unlucky, I suffer the losses alone. When I'm lucky, I still can't exceed the limit of eighty and can only watch the money run away before my eyes. That means I lose no matter which way you slice it. So there's no room for discussion."

He looked at Wu Zhen with complete seriousness.

Having been rejected twice in a row, Wu Zhen, Zhao Xiaoxiao, and the other cultivators all looked rather unhappy.

"What if I want you to agree? Can you give all of us some face?"

Wu Zhen stretched out his muscular arm and draped it over Li Yi's shoulder. He stared at him intensely, and what flashed in his eyes now was no longer merely a glint—it was a ferocious light.

The threat was utterly undisguised.

The others all watched Li Yi without saying a word.

"I don't want trouble."

Li Yi glanced at the arm on his shoulder and could feel the hand steadily increasing its grip.

Wu Zhen smiled. "When you're out in the world, everyone is just trying to make money. We don't want to blow things up either."

Expressionless, Li Yi said, "Fine. I'll give you face and agree to your request. But if something comes up in the future, can you give me some face too?"

"Of course. No problem at all."

Wu Zhen immediately burst into laughter, then patted Li Yi's shoulder. "Thanks, friend."

Seeing Li Yi agree, the others all breathed a sigh of relief.

"Li Yi, get some good rest. We won't disturb you any longer. Thank you for being understanding," Zhao Xiaoxiao said with a smile.

"Let's go." Having achieved their goal, the group left one after another.

"Wu Zhen."

However, just as they had turned around and taken only a few steps, Li Yi's voice suddenly rang out.

"What?" Wu Zhen instinctively turned his head.

But in the next instant, his expression changed drastically. Li Yi's figure abruptly closed the distance before him, and then he felt a tremendous force strike his waist.

Bang!

Wu Zhen was sent flying. He rolled several times across the floor before slamming into the corridor wall and finally stopping.

"You dare sneak-attack me? You're courting death!" He instantly came to his senses, rage surging into his chest as he instinctively tried to rise and fight back.

"Wu Zhen, watch out!" someone suddenly cried out in warning.

In an instant, Li Yi's body surged forward again, closing in before him.

Wu Zhen's pupils suddenly shrank. All he saw was a knee smashing viciously toward his face.

Bang!

With a dull, heavy crash, blood sprayed from Wu Zhen's nose. His head slammed into the wall behind him, and his consciousness blurred beneath a wave of violent dizziness.

But before he could adjust, another knee strike came crashing in.

"I'm going to kill you—Bang!"

A third knee strike, then a fourth. Wu Zhen's consciousness was in chaos. He only felt someone grabbing his hair and repeatedly driving a knee into his head.

"Don't... don't hit me anymore..."

The intense pain and crushing dizziness left him unable even to fight back. He could only instinctively raise his hands, trying to block the blows.

Yet Li Yi remained expressionless, gripping his hair with one hand while delivering heavy strikes with the other.

The powerful physical strength and astonishing explosiveness brought by cultivation made Li Yi's knees like iron hammers as they crashed heavily into Wu Zhen.

Zhao Xiaoxiao and the others were all stunned. For a moment, they fell silent, utterly daring not to step forward and stop him.

At that moment, Li Yi barely seemed human at all. He was like a wild beast fighting desperately for food, filling them with fear.

Was this an honest man's rage?

Or was this fellow's true nature?