Oasis Tower, level 1111.

The pinnacle of this towering structure, a new landmark in Songyang City, now marked the city’s highest point.

At this very moment, as Zhang Yu stood at this zenith, he could see within the grand hall a multitude of employees from the Oasis Corporation.

A resounding boom echoed from the heavens!

Streaks of divine lightning blossomed into a magnificent fireworks display. Intertwining and crackling, the electric arcs painted the characters “Ten Billion” in the night sky!

Within the hall, the emcee bellowed, “In celebration of our Food Loan venture surpassing ten billion in scale, all food and elixirs are free tonight! And everyone’s bonus for this month is doubled!”

“Let us give our thanks to CEO Wang!”

A thunderous cheer erupted from the crowd. CEO Wang chuckled and waved dismissively, saying, “Keep up the good work, everyone! Strive to expand the Food Loan venture to a hundred billion, a thousand billion, even ten thousand billion!”

“In the future, this very hall will spawn one hundred billionaires!”

The crowd erupted in ecstatic screams, the atmosphere reaching a fever pitch!

Someone shouted, “CEO Wang! Red envelopes!”

CEO Wang roared with laughter, and with a mere thought, countless debt-free red envelope talismans manifested, raining down upon the crowd, triggering another wave of cheers and pushing the atmosphere to its absolute zenith!

Bai Zhenzhen cheered alongside the rest, diving into the fray to snatch up the red envelopes!

CEO Wang approached Zhang Yu, his curiosity piqued. “Why aren’t you grabbing red envelopes?”

Zhang Yu forced a smile. “I wouldn’t dare compete with the ordinary employees for such trifles!”

CEO Wang guffawed. “That’s the spirit! You’ll only become wealthier in the future. Once a man is wealthy, he must learn not to contend with his subordinates over such small sums!”

He then scanned Zhang Yu’s skin. “Come with me; I’ll show you something worthwhile!”

He promptly led Zhang Yu to another room!

There, stood a youth of roughly the same size as Zhang Yu. Upon seeing them, he immediately bowed respectfully!

Just as Zhang Yu was wondering what this was all about, CEO Wang declared, “Shed your skin and let Zhang Yu wear it!”

To Zhang Yu’s astonishment, the youth, as if removing an outer garment, peeled off his own skin, revealing the raw flesh beneath!

CEO Wang patted Zhang Yu on the shoulder, chuckling. “I told you to get a real skin, but you refused. So, I took it upon myself to procure this cultivation hide for you!”

Noticing Zhang Yu’s stunned expression, CEO Wang elaborated with relish, “The highest-grade cultivation hides come from humans. To maintain their potency, they must be nourished daily with essence blood, treated with secret arts, and worn on a ‘living mannequin’ who cultivates and trains to maintain the hide!”

“Such handcrafted hides are incomparable to the mass-produced garbage you wear!”

“I specifically chose this hide from a seasoned body cultivator. Wearing it will strengthen your body protection techniques and break through your current limits!”

“You might not know, but our Netherworld University has a divine art called Blood God Spawn, which specializes in skinning and leathercraft. While my own skills in this area are lacking, my eye for quality is impeccable!”

“Come, come, quickly change into it! Throw away that fake skin of yours and never wear it again, lest you embarrass me!”

Looking at the youth, the so-called “living mannequin,” Zhang Yu couldn’t help but ask, “Doesn’t it hurt?”

The youth paused, a faint smile appearing on his bloody, mutilated face. “We have our pain receptors blocked before entering this profession!”

“Rest assured, esteemed guest. I’ve been in this line of work for over a decade, and I have extensive experience caring for real hides. There won’t be any blemishes on the skin!”

Watching the youth brandishing the skin, ready to drape it over him, Zhang Yu cursed inwardly, “Madness! This Kunxu is truly mad!”

CEO Wang noticed the resistance on Zhang Yu’s face, frowning. “You don’t like this skin?”

The youth, fearing the deal might fall through, quickly added, “Esteemed Mr. Zhang, if you don’t like this one, we have other types of real skins in our shop. Should I call them in?”

CEO Wang picked up the skin, examining it meticulously, occasionally draping it over the youth to check its fit, his expression puzzled. “The quality of this skin is excellent. There’s no problem with it!”

Watching CEO Wang’s movements, Zhang Yu felt that, despite the other man selecting equipment for him, intending to gift him a present, he was feeling a sense of dread from CEO Wang, more so than anyone he’d met before.

Observing him manipulating the youth and the human skin as one would a mannequin and its clothing!

Gazing at the look in his eyes as he surveyed the youth and the human hide!

Zhang Yu felt as if he suddenly understood why there was no animosity in the other man’s eyes, only friendliness!

“That isn’t the gaze one gives to a person, but the gaze one gives to property, a pet, a small animal!!”

Just then, two figures entered the room: Sheng Jie and Tan Shishan, both of whom had also passed the Foundation Establishment Qualification Exam!

However, their aura was vastly different from before. Every breath they took caused the surrounding spiritual energy to tremble, emanating an overwhelming pressure!

CEO Wang glanced at them. “Oh? You’ve both achieved Foundation Establishment?”

Sheng Jie quickly bowed, saying, “Our families pooled some funds to allow us to achieve Foundation Establishment early, to get accustomed to it and have more advantages when we enter university in the future!”

Although Zhang Yu’s income had exploded, he still needed about half a year to gather enough money to buy a Celestial Spiritual Root!

But for Sheng Jie and Tan Shishan, who had already reached the peak of Qi Refining, as long as they passed the Foundation Establishment Qualification Exam, they could rely on their family’s support to achieve Foundation Establishment!

Seeing this scene, Zhang Yu sighed inwardly!

The disparity in wealth meant that, although he was more outstanding than them in the Qi Refining stage, he would lag behind them in Foundation Establishment!

And if he wanted to achieve Foundation Establishment before graduating high school, he ultimately couldn’t do without CEO Wang’s support!

CEO Wang ignored the two who had reached Foundation Establishment and instead looked at Zhang Yu, smiling. “I’ve checked it; there’s no problem. Hurry up and put it on so I can see!”

And so, amid the living mannequin’s joyful gaze and Sheng Jie and Tan Shishan’s envious stares, Zhang Yu silently donned the cultivation hide sent by CEO Wang!

CEO Wang roared with laughter. “I knew I wouldn’t pick wrong; this skin is indeed suitable for you!”

“From now on, wear this to meetings, understand?”

Within Zhang Yu’s mind, the image of the Crippled Ox that was being visualized by the Crippled Ox Sacrificial Heart Incantation inexplicably ground to a halt!

Seeing that the Crippled Ox, no matter how the incantation was circulated, no longer moved in his mind, Zhang Yu thought to himself, “What trash incantation!”
“Must I suffer and toil, constantly endure pressure, and plunge into crises for you to function effectively?”

“I want to buy a Heavenly Spiritual Root! I want to establish my Foundation!”

“I don’t want to be poor in Kunxu my whole life, I don’t want to lose to those rich people because I have no money!”

Moreover, cultivating skills often leads to shedding skin, which is normal in Kunxu, just a piece of equipment, nothing special!

In the blink of an eye, another month passed!

It was now May!

Inside Songyang High School!

Zhang Yu looked at the 29 million in his bank account and thought to himself, “Almost there, almost enough to buy a Heavenly Spiritual Root and establish my Foundation!”

Suddenly, he heard the sound of fighting!

Zhang Yu frowned and looked over, discovering that Zhou Chechen was being besieged by more than a dozen students!

“You think you’re still the student council president? Your Zhou family is failing, you have no sway with the board of directors!”

“Zhou Chechen, you’re not richer than us anymore!”

“Hand over your homework.”

“Hehehe, I’m going to taste the medicine used by the student council president today.”

Zhang Yu initially didn’t want to get involved, but after hearing the increasingly outrageous sounds, he finally couldn’t help but say, “Get lost, don’t mess around near me!”

Hearing Zhang Yu’s low roar, the many students surrounding Zhou Chechen scattered in fright!

Zhou Chechen silently got up, looked in Zhang Yu’s direction, nodded slightly, softly said thank you, and then turned and left!

But Zhang Yu knew that the Zhou family, due to a lack of competitiveness, had not obtained the opportunity to cooperate with the Oasis Group and was now declining!

Zhou Chechen’s days at Songyang High School would likely become increasingly difficult!

“But! None of my business!”

Zhang Yu went to the cafeteria to get lunch, but saw that the synthetic food in the cafeteria had increased in price, and even Qian Shen, who was sitting at the same table, seemed to be eating less than before!

That night, he went to the Oasis Building again for a meeting!

Looking at the next service to be promoted at the meeting, Zhang Yu couldn’t help but grit his teeth, thinking to himself, “Mortgaging flesh and blood?”

Following the successful promotion of food loans, the Oasis Group decided to launch a flesh and blood mortgage service, allowing users to repay debts with their own flesh and blood!

Although he knew that this was a project that already existed in Kunxu, seeing the company people at the meeting discussing how to collect the meat, how to evaluate it, how to monetize the flesh and blood, and how to store it, Zhang Yu still felt like he was watching living people being flayed alive and sent to the table!

Time passed for Zhang Yu in a mix of torment and ease, and it became June!

With the end of another college entrance examination, Zhang Yu would be entering his third year of high school in three months!

At this moment, Zhang Yu had over 33 million in his account!

But he still came to a stronghold of the dark tutoring world, intending to give lessons and earn more money!

At least the atmosphere here made him feel more relaxed than at the Oasis Group!

But as the Oasis Group joined forces with various companies, companies in the education sector like the Immortal Rhyme Group and the Deep Sea Group had increased their efforts to crack down on piracy, and even had the intention of abandoning their original gangs, like abandoning a chamber pot they no longer needed!

On the other hand, as the salaries and benefits of company employees continued to decline, the number of students in tutoring classes gradually decreased!

In particular, some elderly students, after their income declined, directly exhausted their lifespan and reached the end of their lives!

Now, every time Zhang Yu walked into the classroom, he could see that some new elderly students were missing, and his income in the dark tutoring world had also sharply decreased!

July!

The weather in Songyang City gradually heated up!

Under this increasingly hot weather, Zhang Yu’s savings finally reached over 38 million!

It was also at this time that some scandals about the Oasis Group were exposed on the internet!

At the company gathering that day, Zhang Yu, who was eating with General Manager Wang, couldn’t help but ask, “General Manager Wang, about that matter of using mortgaged flesh and blood as materials for making food!”

Wang Wenyan casually said, “Oh, that matter!”

He looked at Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen’s curious gazes and smiled, “Those are just reporters making up stories, how could the company add human meat to synthetic food?”

Zhang Yu breathed a sigh of relief, thinking to himself, “Although Kunxu is crazy, it’s not crazy to that extent yet!”

Wang said, “Synthetic food is so cheap, adding human meat would be a loss!”

“We only use the flesh and blood mortgaged by users when selling to the upper echelons!”

Zhang Yu was slightly stunned, “Selling to the upper echelons?”

Wang smiled slightly, looking at the two and saying, “You wouldn’t think that we’re doing so much just to earn this small amount of money, would you? What’s the use of this little money? Even those above don’t spend much of it!”

He carefully taught the two, “You’ll know when you enter Netherworld University, those above exchange various resources from below by authorizing immortal techniques and exporting immortal products!”

“The human body is a great treasure trove, various blood, flesh, skin, bones, marrow, brains, and even resentment and souls all have various wonderful uses!”

Wang: “And if you’ve undergone human body modification surgery and cultivated diligently enough, your value is even greater!”

Zhang Yu’s expression was somewhat unsightly, “So they still pay for their own modification, feed themselves medicine, cultivate themselves, and then make themselves more valuable and easier to sell?”

Wang said, “They can improve their grades in this process. They can have more opportunities to get into good universities, and even if they fail and have to sell their flesh and souls, they can be monetized at a higher price, which is a good thing for them!”

“Besides, our Netherworld University, as well as Heavenly Demon University, Heavenly Devil University, and White Bone University, all have particularly high demand for this!”

“If there are not enough materials, how can we compete with the other ten great universities?”

“And the higher you go, the higher the cost of labor, and many places prohibit the breeding of mortals and have human body protection laws and resentment emission management!”

Wang said with some emotion, “In this regard, those above are far less cost-effective than the first layer. We are also forced to come here!”

Zhang Yu gritted his teeth and said, “So! We are selling the people of the first layer, their flesh and blood, to the people of the upper layers?”

Bai Zhenzhen on the side was also a little stunned at this moment, seemingly not expecting that there were such inside stories to the Oasis Group’s affairs!

Wang looked at the two, felt the resistance they were expressing, and said, “You are from ordinary families in the first layer, your thinking is very backward, I can understand this!”

“But you must remember, the flesh and blood on your bodies is sold by the people of the first layer themselves!”
“They wish to sell, and we shall acquire. I have offered fair compensation, making this a transaction of mutual accord!”

“Even if they did not sell to me, they would offer their wares to another!”

“This is but the natural order of the path of immortality!”

Wang earnestly advised, “Furthermore, in a year, you shall ascend to the second level for your higher studies. This first level shall no longer concern you. Cease dwelling on matters here and focus on preparing for Foundation Establishment! You possess great talent, perhaps enough to reach the fifth or even sixth level. Do not squander this opportunity!”

Observing Zhang Yu’s silence and Bai Zhenzhen’s bewildered state, Wang furrowed his brow, seemingly displeased with their reaction.

As if witnessing pet dogs guarding their food, he shook his head and sighed, “Is it I who provides you with coin, or another? Should you not heed the one who fills your coffers?”

“If you still find this difficult to comprehend, then rest for a few days and contemplate it thoroughly. You are both intelligent individuals! I trust you shall come to a clear understanding!”

Zhang Yu opened his mouth, wishing to speak, but the thought of his and Bai Zhenzhen’s tens of millions in savings, the Spirit Root of Heaven they planned to purchase, their impending Foundation Establishment, and the aspirations of joining the Top Ten…

Zhang Yu found that his body, tempered through countless trials, could not muster the slightest strength.