Before a towering skyscraper in the city center.

Zhang Yu craned his neck, gazing at the building that pierced the clouds, as if trying to penetrate the sky. He could vaguely see what looked like a celestial palace faintly appearing at the top.

This was the office building of Immortal Rhyme Group in the heart of Songyang City.

Beyond that, Zhang Yu could also spot a much taller structure in the distance, seemingly connected to the very edge of the heavens. He knew it was the tallest building in Songyang City, the 999-story Central Tower, a landmark he often saw on his way to and from school.

Now, he turned his gaze back to the office building before him.

“Immortal Rhyme Group, huh?”

On his way here, Zhang Yu had already searched for information about the Immortal Rhyme Group online.

It was a massive enterprise under the Myriad Laws Sect, involved in developing cultivation techniques, selling them, providing immortal path education, and creating related books and cultural products.

The Myriad Laws Sect was one of the Ten Great Sects. In this Kunxu world, people’s lives, from the necessities of life to birth, aging, illness, and death, were inseparable from the Ten Great Sects, and immortal cultivation was even more so.

Therefore, Zhang Yu wasn’t surprised that a giant corporation like the Immortal Rhyme Group belonged to the Myriad Laws Sect, one of the Ten Great Sects.

He lowered his head and entered the building. After explaining his purpose at the reception, he went through registration, contract signing, and a brief physical examination before being led to a place resembling a classroom.

He saw several students already seated inside.

After waiting for some time, once the number of students in the classroom reached fifteen, a middle-aged man in a suit and tie walked in and began to explain the content of today’s technique trial.

“Hello everyone, I am your instructor for today.”

“All of you here have already signed contracts, but I must remind you that everything we discuss here today is not to be spread outside. If our company discovers that anyone has leaked information, we will find you, no matter where you run to.”

The students felt a chill in their hearts, knowing that the other party was not exaggerating. With the power of the Immortal Rhyme Group and the backing of the Myriad Laws Sect, it would indeed not be difficult to do so.

“The cultivation technique you will be trying to learn today is what we call Experimental Technique No. 113. Now, please watch the instructional video first…”

According to the introduction in the video, this technique was a Qi Refining stage breathing method, but unlike basic breathing techniques, this one was much more complex, as if it required establishing a certain circulation of magical power throughout the entire body.

After watching the video, most of the students trying out the technique were still completely lost.

It wasn’t until the instructor’s detailed explanation that the students vaguely gained a general understanding, but they felt their scalps tingle even more.

“Seriously… are we supposed to cultivate this kind of technique? Are we even worthy?”

The energy circulation route of this technique was simply too complicated and difficult, akin to drawing the Along the River During the Qingming Festival scroll on a piece of A4 paper.

If Zhang Yu were to describe it, it would be as difficult as carving patterns on manure.

Forget following the energy circulation route in the instruction, the students present couldn’t even memorize it. They forgot most of it almost as soon as it was explained.

Forget spreading it, the students had no confidence at all in whether they could successfully cultivate this technique and complete the experiment.

Seemingly sensing the emotional changes in the students, the instructor said from above: “Don’t worry, this experiment does not require you to master this technique.”

“In fact, beginners cannot possibly master this technique on their own.”

“What we want to test this time is the auxiliary cultivation equipment that matches No. 113…”

Next, the students were sent to a testing room, where magical power detection patches were attached to their hands, feet, chest, back, and other areas.

Then, things resembling silver needles, connected to wires, were sent to the students by robotic arms.

The instructor continued, “When you start cultivating, the detection patches will monitor the state of your magical power circulation in real-time.”

“And the meta-magnetic needles, under the operation of the robotic arms, will stimulate your magical power circulation routes, assisting you in identifying and correcting them…”

Zhang Yu understood after listening for a while: it was just an automatic pathfinding system… no, not an automatic cultivation system, was it?

Because the magical power routes of this No. 113 technique were too complex, with high requirements for the timing and points of spiritual energy and magical power circulation, it was necessary to detect the cultivator’s cultivation path while using meta-magnetic needles to stimulate various parts of the body to guide them.

However, the process was not without danger, because the energy circulation route of 113 was too intricate.

Under such a complex energy circulation route, if there was the slightest error in the energy circulation path, it would cause the magical power to lose control and dissipate within the body, causing itching and pain, and alternating hot and cold sensations, easily leading to even greater loss of control.

If it dragged on for too long, it would also lead to internal injuries, and the longer it dragged on, the more serious the internal injuries would become.

After that, one would either have to go to the hospital and pay a high price to ask a powerful expert to suppress the out-of-control magical power in the injured person’s body with tyrannical power, or rely on physical strength to resist, waiting for the magical power to exhaust itself and dissipate, or the cultivator would master the technique themselves and use the method of circulating the energy to actively gather the out-of-control and scattered magical power on the energy circulation route.

At the same time, the instructor continued, “…As stated in the contract you signed, the remuneration for this technique trial will be distributed according to the percentage of the energy circulation route you complete. Only by completing 100% of the energy circulation route will you receive the full ten thousand yuan.”

“If the magical power only circulates halfway, then it will only be five thousand.”

“Alright everyone, if there are no questions, please begin.”

Zhang Yu glanced at the information displayed on his feather book.

[Celestial Qi Gathering Technique: Level 0 (0/1)]

He thought to himself: “Does this mean it’s complete after cultivating it once?”

Zhang Yu closed his eyes and tried to circulate the technique he had just learned, starting from the dantian and moving towards his back.

At the same time, he felt a slight tingling on his back, knowing that it was the meta-magnetic needles guiding him to circulate his magical power there.

So, he followed the guidance of the meta-magnetic needles and circulated his magical power bit by bit.

……

At the same time, outside the testing room, a group of people were observing the students’ situations.

“It has begun.”

The lead researcher had messy, short hair and was staring intently at the constantly changing data on the screen.

It showed the circulation of magical power within each student after they began trying to cultivate the experimental technique No. 113.

The assistant next to him was also looking solemnly at the cultivation diagrams of each student on the screen. These diagrams were created by gathering magical power data from various parts of the students’ bodies and used to describe the route of magical power circulation within the students’ bodies.

The correct circulation route was green, while the parts where the magical power circulation deviated were marked in red.

As time passed, disappointment grew in the assistant’s eyes as he watched more and more red error reports appear on the energy circulation routes.

“Teacher, it seems that the guidance precision of the meta-magnetic needles needs to be further improved, otherwise, it cannot meet the accuracy requirements for beginners to cultivate 113.”

“It is still too difficult for beginners to master 113. Should we recruit a batch of testers with higher Dao hearts?”

The researcher, who was called “Teacher,” frowned and said, “Both 113 and the meta-magnetic needles were originally developed for beginners. I will not change this direction.”

“Besides, those with higher Dao hearts have better techniques to learn. The passive breathing effect of 113 lacks competitiveness among them. On the contrary, beginners need the passive breathing effect more…”

Just then, a student who made a mistake groaned and suddenly spat out a large mouthful of blood.

The ‘Teacher’ said coldly, “Quickly send him out. Don’t let him disturb the state of mind of the others.”

But with the appearance of the first student who spat blood, more and more students trying to cultivate the technique began to feel uncomfortable. Some had pale faces and couldn’t breathe, some screamed in pain and fainted, and some had minor injuries, only with pale faces and pain or itching in the area where they were circulating their magical power…

Watching one student after another being sent out, the ‘Teacher’s’ face became more and more unsightly.

He said dissatisfied, “The quality of this batch of students is too poor. Can’t you recruit some more powerful students?”

The assistant explained in a low voice, “Teacher, the previous testers were too seriously injured. No schools are willing to cooperate with us anymore.”

The ‘Teacher’ snorted coldly, a look of dissatisfaction appearing on his face: “They are just a group of poor students. Whether it is 113 or the meta-magnetic needles, how big is the beginner market if they can be successfully improved? What does it matter if a few hundred people die?”

At the same time, only the last three students in the testing room were still persisting in circulating their energy.

Two of them were still persisting because they had fewer errors and very little out-of-control and scattered magical power.

Another pale-faced student surprised the ‘Teacher’ slightly: “This child has made many mistakes in the process of circulating his energy. He must be in extreme pain all over his body right now. How can he still persist until now?”

The assistant asked, “Teacher, should we stop him?”

The ‘Teacher’ shook his head and said with interest, “Since he wants to earn this money so much, let’s give him the opportunity.”

“Besides, for our research, having more error data on a complete energy circulation route is obviously more beneficial.”

……

Inside the testing room, whenever Zhang Yu wanted to give up, he felt the chill from the power of the ritual, as well as the countdown that appeared in his mind.

“This moronic thing! All it knows is to nag, nag, nag. Why don’t you try it yourself if you’re so capable?”

During the process of circulating the energy, if Zhang Yu made the slightest mistake, he could feel magical power losing control and scattering from the route, stimulating various parts of his body and making him feel sore, itchy, hot, and cold all over.

He finally managed to completely circulate the entire energy circulation route once. When he glanced at the “Celestial Qi Gathering Technique: Level 0 (0/1)” on the feather book and saw that it had changed to “Celestial Qi Gathering Technique: Level 1 (0/20),” he breathed a slight sigh of relief.

Zhang Yu admitted that he had an element of gambling in his actions, but fortunately, he had succeeded this time.

At this moment, the memories of circulating this technique hundreds and thousands of times flooded out of his mind, making him feel as if he had been practicing this technique for months.

At this moment, Zhang Yu felt that as long as he wanted to, he could use the Celestial Qi Gathering Technique to gather the out-of-control magical power in his body and establish a complex magical power circulation.

However, he did not do so immediately, but slowly stood up, enduring the soreness and itching all over his body.

The instructor next to him hurriedly walked over, also somewhat surprised, and said, “This student, are you alright?”

It was the first time he had seen someone with such a high error rate persist in running this technique to the end.

Zhang Yu clutched his stomach and said, “I feel like my internal organs are burning, itchy and painful. My upper body feels like it’s on fire, and my lower body feels like it’s frozen… It’s so uncomfortable.”

The instructor hurriedly supported him and said, “Let me take you to the infirmary to check your condition.”

“No need!” Zhang Yu suddenly waved his hand and said, “What I mean is… I want more money.”

The instructor looked him up and down, watching Zhang Yu tremble constantly and his face become paler and paler, and said, “1000 yuan, and sign another contract. We will not be responsible for anything that happens to you next.”

After some back-and-forth, Immortal Rhyme Company eventually raised the price by 3000 yuan for Zhang Yu, requiring that no matter how his injuries were, Immortal Rhyme Company would not be responsible.