68: Chapter 68 The Strange Room No. 5
Leaving the Presidents Office, Supervisor Song took Li Yu to the Seventh Floor.
"Our Seventh Floor is divided into five halls in total. I am in charge of Hall No. 5, which was newly developed at the beginning of the year, so there aren't any old timers here."
Supervisor Song walked in front, introducing it to Li Yu with a beaming face: "Generally speaking, every hall has two Senior Cultivators stationed there. Since our Hall No. 5 just started, we currently only have one Senior Cultivator."
"Isn't one already done for?" Li Yu asked.
He was, of course, referring to the Senior Cultivator that Ming Yueguang had hunted down.
Supervisor Song smiled broadly, patted his shoulder, and said earnestly: "Well, aren't you here now? After you report for duty, Hall No. 5 will have its own Senior Cultivator."
Li Yu: "..."
Fearing that he might scare Li Yu away, Supervisor Song hurriedly added: "But don't worry, the other Breeders can handle ordinary orders; they are quite experienced. Just do as you please and take whatever orders you want."
There was one more thing he didn't say.
That is, if the other Breeders couldn't handle something, as the stationed Senior Cultivator, he would have to provide help, lend a hand, and minimize losses for the hall.
There was no helping it; although Li Yu was a Senior Cultivator, his cultivation experience was still limited, and his age was an obvious drawback.
Supervisor Song didn't expect him to help others solve much either; as long as he could produce a few high-quality evolutions of new breeds every year, that would be enough.
If there were really other things to take the blame for, his dignified Supervisor Song's body of fat could still shoulder it.
"We're here, Hall No. 5."
Supervisor Song grabbed Li Yu's wrist with the enthusiasm of a close brother and walked into the quiet Hall No. 5, his grip as tight as a pair of pliers.
Li Yu felt disgusted and wanted to break free, but he couldn't, and he was filled with surprise.
No way!
Is he really that afraid I'll run away?
"Everyone! Stand up for a moment and look over here!"
Supervisor Song closed the hall door and shouted, and then he saw round, bobbing heads popping up from the empty workstations in the hall.
Some had dark circles under their eyes, some had messy hair, others were charred black and smoking, and one even more exaggerated one was bubbling saliva from their mouth, occasionally twitching, as if they were about to be poisoned and pass out at any moment.
Li Yu: "..."
Honestly, Supervisor Song had foresight; at this moment, he really wanted to pack up and run.
Looking at the appearances of everyone in front of him, someone who didn't know better would think they had arrived at some concentration camp; not a single normal person could be seen.
No...
There was one, and it was an acquaintance.
Li Yu's gaze passed over the heads and looked at the short-haired woman standing quietly at a corner workstation.
It was Zhou Ya.
"Yo~ Old Song, you succeeded, you swindled a newcomer here." A man with dark circles under his eyes, half his soul still in a dream, teased.
"Little brother, welcome to the Hall of Suffering. Don't worry, everyone here is one of our own. As long as you don't die, just cultivate until you drop." The charred person said, a wisp of black smoke coming out of their mouth, almost triggering the smoke alarm.
Others also cast friendly smiles.
But on those strange faces, these smiles inexplicably made Li Yu feel a chill down his spine.
"Supervisor Song..." Li Yu swallowed hard and tried to break free from Supervisor Song's hand, but found he couldn't. He could only ask with trepidation, "It wasn't like this when I came before."
Supervisor Song felt guilty and smiled awkwardly, saying: "Well, it's just that everyone heard an Intern was coming, and they all care about face, so they spruced themselves up a bit to look human. Don't look at them as if they are unreliable; they are actually good people."
"Cut the crap!" the one with dark circles shouted, "It was clearly you who forced us, saying we didn't look like humans and were afraid of scaring the newcomer."
Others echoed, and although Zhou Ya didn't speak, she nodded quietly.
Now, Li Yu understood.
It was a trap!
From beginning to end, it was Supervisor Song's trap!
No wonder when he was assigned to the Seventh Floor, they chose Zhou Ya. It turned out that in this huge hall with over twenty people, only Zhou Ya looked good, while the others, one by one, were either losing their human form or had half their souls flown away.
"Supervisor Song, let go." Li Yu said expressionlessly.
"Brother Li..."
"Let go!"
Li Yu raised his voice, scaring Supervisor Song into hurriedly letting go. He looked at Li Yu cautiously, his fat body seemingly wobbling more than paper at this moment.
Li Yu looked at his wrist; several red marks were turning blue, showing how tightly Supervisor Song had just gripped him. If he hadn't scolded him, his bones would probably have been crushed in a moment.
He knew very well how fierce Supervisor Song's combat power was when he was emotionally agitated.
He could stab a small knife into a solid workbench just like that, and pick up an adult man weighing over a hundred pounds and throw him away. If this were in a manga, Supervisor Song, in a rage, could tear the Earth in half.
"Since I promised to stay in your department, I won't go back on my word," Li Yu looked helplessly at those strange people, "But shouldn't you tell me first what is going on here?"
Before Supervisor Song could answer.
The man with dark circles walked over with a grin, hooking his arms around the shoulders of Li Yu and Supervisor Song, and said with a smile: "The answer is two words: 'Busy' and 'Incompetent'."
Li Yu looked at the other's dark circles that rivaled a national treasure, wondering if he would collapse in the next second and then blackmail him to live a retired life.
Forget it, let's hear what he has to say.
The man with dark circles said: "Let's talk about 'Busy' first. Our hall was built less than a year ago; we have no foundation, no background, and not enough manpower. The other halls dump all the orders they don't want to take on us."
"The result is this ghostly appearance you see," he pointed to his dark circles and mocked himself, "You might not believe it if I told you, but half a year ago, I was a handsome uncle who could charm thousands of young girls."
"Speaking of this handsome uncle..."
Li Yu quickly interrupted: "Let's talk about the 'Incompetent' part instead."
"Oh right, and 'Incompetent'," the man with dark circles said, "Other halls have at least two, and many have three or four Senior Cultivators stationed there. But our hall only has one, and now they have become a missing person. Without a Senior Cultivator stationed here, we can't find anyone to consult for difficult cases or complex things, so we end up having to fumble through it ourselves."
"That's right, that's exactly it," the man with poison bubbles coming out of his mouth also shouted.
"For heaven's sake, hurry to the hospital! Don't die at the company!"
"Oh... glug glug..."
Hearing this, Li Yu understood. Hall No. 5 on the Seventh Floor was a new hall established less than half a year ago. Perhaps Supervisor Song was pulled from other halls back then just because he had no background.
In such a hall, the level of skill was limited, manpower was limited, and orders were numerous. To complete orders on time, they had to pay a price.
However...
Li Yu looked around.
Although he was a newcomer, he could feel that Supervisor Song was right about one thing in this hall—there were no "old timers".
That was good, it suited him well.
Plenty of orders?
Is that even an issue?
Those are all cultivation value!
"Understand now?" The man with dark circles saw Li Yu's expression change and immediately realized he had taken it in, so he smiled, stopped stealing the spotlight, yawned, and returned to his workstation.
"Brother Li..."
"Supervisor Song, continue. This hall looks..." Li Yu looked at the quiet, strange people, and smiled, "Not bad."
Supervisor Song was overjoyed upon hearing this, his fat face shaking with excitement.
"Everyone! I announce!" he shouted.
Everyone raised their heads, looking at them, waiting for Supervisor Song to announce the news of the new member joining. The man with dark circles had returned to his workstation and was just about to sit down.
How many words did this Old Song have?
It was nothing more than one sentence—I announce that Junior Cultivator So-and-so is joining our Hall No. 5, everyone please give a round of applause.
Look, for goodness' sake, I can even recite it by heart.
"I announce!" Supervisor Song's voice rose, "Mr. Li Yu, Senior Cultivator, is stationed at Hall No. 5, please give a round of applause!"
Clatter—
Applause and exclamations mixed together.
Thud!
A chair overturned on the floor. The man with dark circles widened his eyes, then scrambled up from the floor and shouted: "What the hell?! Senior Cultivator!"