Fangyi City!
Dynasty Corporation.
The company's headquarters is located on the top floor of a skyscraper over seventy stories high.
An entire floor of the building belongs exclusively to Wang Tiancheng.
Although Wang Tiancheng is not a martial artist, he is nevertheless a near-legendary figure.
From a small vendor in his early days to the decision-maker of Dynasty Corporation now, holding over 90% of the shares, Dynasty Corporation is truly his personal empire.
And early this morning.
He was directing a few secretaries, pushing a fully loaded cart into the company.
He said to the secretary beside him, "Gather everyone in the conference room, and within half an hour, I want to see everyone there."
With that, he pushed the cart into the conference room.
Fifteen minutes later.
The conference room was already packed with employees.
More than three hundred employees looked at their boss curiously, unsure what the sudden meeting during work hours was about.
Isn't this boss the one who hates meetings the most? He even declared that if this conference room is used more than three times in a year, the one hosting the meeting would be fined.
This was one of the reasons why the employees liked him a lot.
Wang Tiancheng coughed a few times and said, "Alright, since the year-end is coming up, I'll talk about the bonus in advance today."
The secretary next to him whispered, "President Wang, it's only July now."
Wang Tiancheng corrected himself smoothly: "We'll give out a mid-year bonus first. Relax, it won't affect the year-end bonus at all. The year-end bonus will remain the same, but in the future, our company is establishing a mid-year bonus."
The crowd below erupted immediately.
"Long live President Wang!"
"Mid-year bonus... I've only heard of year-end bonuses, never of a mid-year bonus."
"Are you stupid? Is it bad to get a bonus? If you don't want it, I can take it for you."
The employees below were all beaming with joy.
"Hahahaha, you guys are overthinking. This isn't a bonus, but prizes!"
Wang Tiancheng laughed loudly and said, "Come on, hand out the prizes!"
The secretaries, with peculiar expressions, pushed the carts, directing the employees to line up and receive their prizes one by one.
Before long, the contents of the cart were all claimed.
A second cart was pushed in.
Still full of items.
Three hours later.
Hundreds of employees were holding unfamiliar items and matching cards in bewilderment.
The items were new to them.
But beautifully crafted, it seemed they put a lot of thought into them, and each one came with annotated cards.
................
"Sword of Oath and Victory? The sword of Altria, King of Great Britain, made from faith as the raw material, crystallized inside a planet as one of the ultimate divine weapons among the strongest fantasies?"
An employee looked up in puzzlement, thinking his perfect score in history might have been a waste.
He understood the individual words, but the whole sentence made no sense to him.
Besides, where is this country called Great Britain?
Why have I never heard of it?
And who is this Altria, anyway? The name seems to have a taste of the Baoxue Empire... Could it be history from the Ordinary Cosmos before Blue Star ascended to the Extraordinary Cosmos?
"Top Ten Martial Artists? Xuan Wu True Skill? Are you kidding... this sounds like some badly written novel, though quite mystical?"
"A mecha standing on the earth? What a finely made robot, looks great, suddenly makes me feel excited."
"On the day you were born, the forest of Lordaeron whispered your name, Frost's Sorrow? This sword looks nice, but the name is weird... I wonder if there's a Fire's Joy."
................
Wang Tiancheng tapped the microphone and introduced: "Every mid-year prize comes with a detailed description of the item. Remember to memorize them after you go back; I will quiz you. If anyone fails to memorize it well, a third of your year-end bonus will be deducted!"
"What?"
The crowd below suddenly wailed in despair.
Someone asked, "If we memorize them well, can the year-end bonus be increased by a third?"
Wang Tiancheng sneered and said, "Isn't it common sense to memorize your boss's words? Since when do you need a reward for basic duties? Just memorize them well... relax, if everyone memorizes them well, the year-end bonus could be increased... "
He quickly calculated in his mind, halved it, then halved it again before speaking.
"Increased by one-tenth for you!"
Although it's a tenth, it's basically an additional month's income.
The employees below immediately cried and howled.
Wang Tiancheng didn't feel any pain... after all, this money will eventually be given to Xiaojun.
Moreover, those items, although they seem childish at first glance, the annotations are quite interesting upon closer inspection. It's fine to treat them as storybooks.
Although he didn't understand why Xiaojun asked him to distribute these things widely, since it was a rare request over so many years, he naturally would do his best to help accomplish it.
"Next, every grassroots employee must ensure to have a copy, understood?"
He instructed the secretary with a word.
Someone else would naturally take care of the rest of the things.
For reasons of time.
Xu Lingjun didn't give Wang Tiancheng too many items, just some technology, magic, martial arts, and other various things.
First, time was limited, and there wasn't enough time to prepare much.
Secondly, if there were too many things, their popularity could be diluted; it remains uncertain if this will work yet and is just an attempt.
If it works, maybe in the future, they can consider doing animations or making a TV show, which would enhance the popularity.
After handing the necessary items to Father Wang,
Xu Lingjun went out to do some good deeds.
In just a few days, his strength jumped twice consecutively, all thanks to Source Value's credit...
He understood very well where his foundation came from.
No harm in having more Source Value.
During this time, he also developed a large number of downlines by doing good deeds daily; he no longer needed to randomly try his luck like before.
In one day, under no life-and-death circumstances, gaining 200 points of Source Value was no big problem.
Xu Lingjun couldn't help but sigh about how idle the world's origin is, just fixating on him doing good deeds for it.
In the blink of an eye, two days passed.
During these two days, another major event occurred.
Wang Jian died.
One of the sixteen students who initially participated in the sect's assessment.
Just like Wei Hua before, Ninth Rank in Body Tempering, strong enough to be a notable figure in Qingyang High School.
He died at home.
The same misery, even more painful perhaps because he was somewhat prepared compared to Wei Hua, but the short struggle only brought more painful torment to him.
The worst-case scenario happened.
That demon beast didn't linger at the school after killing Wei Hua but hid quietly in Qingzhou City, which was troubling.
At first, Wei Hua's death might have been a coincidence.
But with Wang Jian's case added.
"In any case, Ling Jun, make sure you don't go to places with few people these days, understand?"
Zhou Qing specially came to warn Xu Lingjun, looking serious and with fatigue deep in his eyes.
He had not rested, continuously searching for the demon beast, but hiding is, after all, much easier than seeking.
He seriously said, "We estimate two possibilities. First, this demon beast is hunting students from Qingyang High School who once entered the Outer Realm. But there's another less likely, though still possible, scenario—these demon beasts might be targeting martial artists at the Ninth Rank of Body Tempering... If it's the first case, Ling Jun, you will be safe, but if it's the second..."
He sighed and said, "Ling Jun, you've just broken through to the Body Tempering Ninth Rank, maybe you're also a target for that demon beast."
"What, you... you broke through to the Body Tempering Ninth Rank?"
Beside Zhou Qing.
Ji Roufeng couldn't help but exclaim a little, looking at Xu Lingjun with astonishment and a hint of loss in her eyes.
Xu Lingjun nodded seriously, glancing curiously at Ji Roufeng and Li Lei beside him, and asked, "By the way, why are you here?"
Ji Roufeng hesitated, stuttering and unable to speak.
It was Li Lei, quick-thinking, who quickly explained, "Teacher Zhou is worried about your safety. He specifically came over to remind you not to wander around. Senior Sister Ji is worried about Teacher Zhou's safety, so she's been guarding him."
Xu Lingjun: "..................."
Ji Roufeng nodded in agreement.
Her gaze fixed intently on Xu Lingjun.
Softly she said, "I still remember just over ten days ago when I first came here, when you first bumped into me. At that time, your profile seemed to be just Body Tempering Rank 7, right? I didn't expect you to reach Rank 9 so soon. Such a breakthrough speed, I haven't seen it even in the Sect, truly impressive."
Xu Lingjun: "..................."
He didn't know why, though the facts she stated were accurate, coming out from her mouth just felt strange.
This woman, something is off.