No Money to Cultivate Immortality? - Chapter 834 (Patreon)

Chapter 834: A Young Man Joins the Committee; Let the corpse unit Fly a While

According to the information obtained by Tu Mu, the director of the Construction Bureau, by the time the first day had completely ended, almost no berserk corpse units had been sent to Zhang Yu for handling.

And so, on the second day, as Tu Mu led his subordinates in clearing out corpse units, they became even more cautious, as though waiting for a possible counterattack from Deputy Chairman Zhang Yu.

But even after an entire day had passed, the office area of the Labyrinth Realm remained unusually calm. Nothing special happened at all.

Meanwhile, all the corpse units suppressed by Tu Mu’s team had already been dismantled into materials of various kinds and sold to recycling companies.

Looking at the large sum of immortal coins that had come in, Tu Mu handed over one portion, kept another portion as funding for the Construction Bureau, and distributed all the rest as bonuses to himself and his many subordinates.

For a time, morale in the Construction Bureau soared like a rainbow. Many cultivators wished they could keep working hard to suppress corpse units.

Looking at Zhang Yu, who had remained unmoved from beginning to end, Tu Mu asked his subordinate, “How many corpse units were sent to Zhang Yu on the second day?”

The subordinate laughed. “Not a single one. This Zhang Yu is just a bare-pole deputy chairman now. In my view, from now on, no one in the whole development zone, top to bottom, will listen to him anymore.”

Hearing this, Tu Mu relaxed. He smiled faintly and said, “I heard he talked big during the meeting. I thought he had some impressive methods, but now it looks like he’s just a hotheaded rookie.”

“If he thought that just because he occupied a position, the moment he gave an order, all of us would have to listen to him and work wholeheartedly for him, then he was far too naive. He understands far too little about how a sect operates.”

The subordinate beside him laughed. “After all, he’s a young kid who climbed up from the lower world. It’s normal for him to know nothing.”

Tu Mu understood that Zhang Yu’s very first order had ended without any result. His authority would certainly suffer a major blow from this. Add in his insufficient strength, and in the future, he would probably be unable to take a single step smoothly within the management committee.

Then, as his subordinate, Tu Mu would have no need to take this superior seriously in the future.

Tu Mu said, “Our deputy chairman can just stay up there and be an auspicious mascot.”

After seeing that Zhang Yu had no countermeasures, Tu Mu no longer had any reservations in the following operations. He led his many subordinates in frantically speeding up their sweep for corpse units, then earned material recycling fees from the major companies.

The money distributed down made the cultivators under him more and more enthusiastic. The only thing that made Tu Mu unhappy was that some outsourced Demon-Kin cultivators were actually demanding better treatment.

“A pack of beasts, and they dare make demands of me?”

Tu Mu frowned. “I said it long ago. With these beasts, when you beat them every day, their only demand is that you stop beating them. Now that you don’t beat them, their demands will only keep increasing.”

Thinking that the Demon-Kin’s increasing demands would reduce his own profits, the mana inside Tu Mu’s body seemed to stir slightly.

The subordinate beside him did not dare speak, because he knew that bringing in Demon-Kin was a decision made by the higher-ups and involved the Hunyuan lineage. It was not something he could recklessly comment on.

Tu Mu continued, “Forget it. Go tell those beasts that from now on, I’ll personally take a dump every day and divide it among them to eat. That should be enough, right?”

Although he would merely be giving the other party the impurities from his body, Tu Mu still felt unhappy. He had not taken a dump in a very long time, yet now he had to specially take one for a group of demons to expel impurities. And so, he made up his mind that tomorrow, he had to clear out even more corpse units and earn more immortal coins back.

At the same time, on the other side, Deputy Chairwoman Xie Lanyin of the management committee also received the news about Zhang Yu.

“No one is paying attention to him?” Xie Lanyin shook her head. “If he can’t even get past this hurdle, then I’m afraid that all the way until the reconstruction work in the development zone ends, Zhang Yu won’t even be able to tame that group of subordinates under his own jurisdiction.”

Meanwhile, near a Cave Heaven Bridge Zhang Yu had set up on the outer side of the Labyrinth Realm.

Shi Huaiyu and Feng Tingting looked at the deserted site before them, worry appearing in both their eyes.

Shi Huaiyu said worriedly, “Today, no one even sent a single corpse unit here for processing. This can’t go on.”

Feng Tingting, standing beside her, said, “I heard from outsourced cultivators in other cleanup teams that… the situation here has already spread throughout the whole management committee. Some people are even saying Deputy Chairman Zhang only got promoted by carrying a child for the higher-ups, that he doesn’t actually have any ability, and that the higher-ups only put him here to coast along with a title.”

When Shi Huaiyu heard this, she could not help saying, “Someone must be fanning the flames. Now, the more no one hands corpse units over to Deputy Chairman Zhang for handling, the less anyone will listen to Deputy Chairman Zhang after this.”

Shi Huaiyu sighed. “It’s just like stocks. The less people believe in one, the more the share price falls, and then even fewer people believe in it. A vicious cycle like that… in the end, it completely becomes junk stock.”

Thinking of this, both Shi Huaiyu and Feng Tingting became deeply worried.

At the same time, a message from Yu Xinghan appeared before Zhang Yu’s eyes.

Yu Xinghan: Zhang Yu, whatever method you have, use it quickly.

Yu Xinghan: Right now, all the cleanup teams are refusing to hand the corpse units over to us for handling. They’re all selling them directly to companies. If this keeps going, the work won’t be able to start.

Zhang Yu replied: It’s fine. Let the corpse units fly a while longer.

After replying to Yu Xinghan, Zhang Yu looked at the cultivator from a sect company in front of him and said, “Manager Lin, how is this batch of corpse units?”

The cultivator known as Manager Lin nodded and said, “Good… very good.”

“Not only have their complete structures been preserved, they can even operate normally. Even the various self-modifications from their berserk period have mostly been retained…”

Manager Lin understood that damaged and dismantled corpse units were sold as materials.

But corpse units that could operate normally could be sold as equipment.

The prices between these two were clearly not on the same level.

As for the various self-modifications and special abilities of berserk corpse units, those had even greater research value. They had already gone from mere equipment to research material.

In Manager Lin’s eyes, this batch of corpse units Zhang Yu had handled was clearly much more valuable than the corpse units brought over by other cleanup teams.

He could not help looking at Zhang Yu and asking, “Deputy Chairman Zhang, how exactly did you do it?”

Zhang Yu smiled faintly and said, “It’s all the mighty power of an immortal inheritance. In that case, Manager Lin, this matter is settled.”

Zhang Yu said, “A pleasure doing business.”

Manager Lin said, “A pleasure doing business.”

…

On the third day after cleanup began in the Labyrinth Realm’s office area.

Tu Mu looked at the income from the past few days, a sharp light flickering in his eyes.

“If this continues, by the time the entire Labyrinth Realm has been fully cleared, the profits will be enough for me to pay off quite a few loans in one go.”

Of course, it was impossible for Tu Mu to repay his loans early.

At this moment, Tu Mu was already secretly calculating whether he could purchase another Immortal-Class Technique or Immortal-Class artifact for himself to further enhance his work ability.

Just then, a message from his subordinate came through. “Director, Manager Lin has lowered the price for corpse unit materials!”

Hearing that this concerned his interests, Tu Mu immediately diverted a great deal of attention over and said sternly, “Is it a normal drop in material prices?”

Tu Mu knew that as the entire Labyrinth Realm was gradually cleared and large batches of corpse units were recycled, the supply would increase. It was within expectations that recycling prices would gradually fall.

But his subordinate said anxiously, “The recycling price dropped by fifty percent in one go!”

Hearing this, a faint Divine Transformation Aura vaguely surged around Tu Mu. He said gravely, “Have you investigated why? What about the recycling prices from the other companies?”

The subordinate said helplessly, “They’ve dropped. The recycling prices for dismantled corpse unit materials from all companies have all taken a huge dive. And…”

A bad premonition rose in Tu Mu’s heart. “And what?”

The subordinate said, “Manager Lin told us privately that from now on, when we catch corpse units, we should immediately send them to Deputy Chairman Zhang. Only corpse units processed by Deputy Chairman Zhang can be sold for a high price.”

Tu Mu asked, “What about the other companies?”

The subordinate said in a shocked tone, “The same. All of them are telling us to hand the captured corpse units over to Zhang Yu for processing first, then send them to the major companies for recycling.

“And their wording is all about the same. They say that the recycling price for dismantled corpse unit materials may fall even further after this, and only corpse units that Zhang Yu has processed will have a high recycling price.”

Tu Mu’s heart shook when he heard this. “Zhang Yu… has he finally made his move?”

But Tu Mu did not understand how Zhang Yu had manipulated the major companies and actually made all these companies support him.

One had to know that most of these companies did not belong to Myriad Laws Sect, but rather to factions such as Heavenly Demon, Netherworld, and Whitebone. They had practically no connection to Zhang Yu at all.

“How exactly did he do it?”

…

At the same time, Manager Lin was crossing the Spiritual Realm and communicating with Zhang Yu.

Manager Lin said, “Deputy Chairman Zhang, I have completed the arrangements. There should be people sending corpse units to you for processing now, right?”

Zhang Yu looked at the corpse units being sent one after another into the immortal grotto-heaven. He felt thread after thread of Grotto-Heaven Power being extracted by him, and the dimensions of the immortal grotto-heaven slowly grew once again.

Zhang Yu understood that more and more teams, under pressure from the major companies, were voluntarily sending the corpse units they had captured to him for processing.

Hearing this, Zhang Yu smiled and said, “Don’t worry, Manager Lin. Since I promised it, I’ll definitely do it.”

Not long after Zhang Yu and Manager Lin cut contact, Yu Xinghan came to find Zhang Yu with an excited expression and said, “More and more teams are sending over the corpse units they caught. I heard the major companies joined forces to pressure them. Zhang Yu! How did you do it?”

Zhang Yu brought Yu Xinghan into the immortal grotto-heaven. Looking at the corpse units being sent over one after another along the Cave Heaven Bridge, he explained, “Theoretically speaking, it isn’t that the major companies joined forces to pressure them. Rather, the people in charge of the corpse unit recycling project in the development zone for the major companies… these people chose to support us.”

Yu Xinghan said, “Why would they support us?”

Zhang Yu said, “Because we can bring them more profit…”

While Zhang Yu was explaining to Yu Xinghan, Fu Ji in his mind was saying the same thing. “Heh. Berserk corpse units that can operate normally have greater resale value for companies, and their post-berserk self-modifications also have greater research value. For these people in charge, the performance results and credit for recycling complete corpse units are naturally higher than recycling a mess of miscellaneous materials.”

“But that’s only the official side.” Fu Ji chuckled and said, “The bigger reason… is still that complete corpse units have higher recycling prices, which means larger profit margins and more room to maneuver, and that can provide these people in charge with more kickbacks.”

“For these people in charge, every additional corpse unit processed by us means earning another sum of immortal coins. Then every time they directly take in a batch of corpse units from a cleanup team without our processing, doesn’t that equal earning one less sum of money?”

“Earning less means losing money. In that case, these people in charge will naturally do their utmost to pressure others for us, acting as vanguard corpse-herders to drive all the cleanup teams’ corpse units to us.”

Fu Ji said, “The people in charge get money and achievements, while we obtain processing rights over the corpse units and Grotto-Heaven Power. This is a win-win.”

Zhanxian said, “If you add in those obedient cleanup teams… when they hand corpse units over to us for processing, they can also obtain higher profits. That makes it a triple win.”

Fu Ji laughed loudly. “That’s right. We can let them temporarily take a little more profit in exchange for our control over them.”

At the same time, Zhang Yu had also finished explaining things to Yu Xinghan. A sigh of admiration rose in Yu Xinghan’s heart. “Zhang Yu… he’s converting the ability granted to him by the immortal inheritance as much as possible into layers of authority, influencing and controlling even more cultivators.”

“Zhang Yu… he’s becoming more and more formidable.”

At the same time, batch after batch of cleanup teams sent the corpse units they captured to Zhang Yu’s side for processing. The berserk corpse units that had Grotto-Heaven Power extracted from them no longer lost control, no longer needed violent suppression, and could still operate normally.

After these corpse units were sent to companies for recycling, the cleanup teams also obtained greater profits.

As a result, seeing their profits increase, even more cleanup teams sent over the berserk corpse units they had captured.

The cultivators in the sect possessed powerful strength, rapidly operating thoughts, and channels of fast communication such as the Spiritual Realm.

And so, in the face of changing circumstances, the cultivators’ reaction speed and movement speed were also extremely fast.

When Tu Mu, director of the Construction Bureau, also sent someone to transport newly captured corpse units to Zhang Yu, he saw that a long line had already formed outside the registration point, each person waiting for their own corpse units to be processed.

And because the ones in charge of registration were two outsourced personnel, the cultivators who came to register had no choice but to adjust their settings, lower the transparency of outsourced workers in their eyes, and make the outsourced workers manifest.

Just then, faced with the constantly increasing number of corpse units, Yu Xinghan walked out and announced to everyone, “Because the number of corpse units requiring processing is constantly increasing, for ease of management, all corpse units sent here from now on must be uniformly registered, uniformly processed, and uniformly recycled…”

Listening to Yu Xinghan’s explanation, Tu Mu understood that they would no longer process the corpse units sent by each cleanup team one by one. Instead, everyone would have to register their corpse units and then directly store them with Zhang Yu, who would make unified arrangements for processing.

“Then Zhang Yu will sell them to the companies and transfer the payments to each cleanup team…”

Tu Mu did not know the principles behind the immortal inheritance. He did not know whether doing this would truly make Zhang Yu’s work more efficient. But at the very least, the whole process certainly sounded more convenient than separately processing the corpse units sent by each cleanup team.

But Tu Mu knew that this was not the key point…

“In this way, Deputy Chairman Zhang has essentially become the middleman between all the companies and all the cleanup teams.”

“In the future, all corpse unit recycling in the development zone will have to pass through him first.”

“And everyone’s recycling payments will also be issued by him.”

Tu Mu even thought of what would come next: whose corpse units would be processed first, whose corpse units would be processed later, whose payments would be sent first, whose payments would be sent later. In the future, all of it would be decided by Deputy Chairman Zhang.

“He… wants to control all the cleanup teams.”

Tu Mu understood in his heart that with countless cultivators waiting to repay loans, renew memberships, renew artifacts, and handle all sorts of financial arrangements, even something as simple as order of priority and processing time would be enough to severely affect many cultivators’ lives.

Tu Mu thought to himself, “He never intended to fight us directly. Instead, he solved the problem at its source.”

“Can we resist? Can we stop him?”

Almost the instant this thought arose, Tu Mu shook his head and denied it in his heart.

“Impossible… as long as Deputy Chairman Zhang keeps providing profits that are always a little higher than what cleanup teams get by selling corpse units directly, then the various cleanup teams will always send corpse units to him.”

“This is driven by interest. It is the voluntary choice of all cultivators.”

Thinking of this, Tu Mu sighed inwardly. “In the end… it still comes down to the immortal inheritance. The immortal inheritance has given Deputy Chairman Zhang an ability we do not possess. He converted this ability into authority, forcing us to be driven by him.”

At this moment, Tu Mu already understood that his judgment of Zhang Yu had been completely wrong.

Although the other party was only at the Divine Transformation realm, he was not a mascot. He was a leader capable of rapidly converting his own high-level abilities into authority.

But afterward, Tu Mu began thinking even further. “Uniform processing of corpse units. Next… I’m afraid he will further squeeze the profits from the cleanup teams.”

Tu Mu had seen far too many similar things within the sect. In who knew how many fields… once decent profits could be obtained, upper cultivators would immediately appear and rely on powerful abilities to squeeze lower cultivators, intercepting a large amount of profit.

“But I’m one of his own. I’m the director of the Construction Bureau under Deputy Chairman Zhang’s jurisdiction, a direct subordinate. I’m not like other lower cultivators… He can’t accidentally hurt me.”

Looking at the long line before him, Tu Mu thought to himself, “Hm… how should I admit defeat… no, how should I let Deputy Chairman Zhang know my loyalty?”

The first thing Tu Mu thought of was naturally to open his contact list and send Deputy Chairman Zhang a message.

Zhang Yu has enabled friend verification. You are not yet his friend. Please send a friend request first…

Looking at that dazzling red exclamation mark, Tu Mu was startled.

“Not good. Deputy Chairman Zhang definitely has a huge misunderstanding about me right now.”

Tu Mu hurriedly sent a friend request.

Tu Mu: [Kowtow]

Tu Mu: [Red Envelope]

Tu Mu: [Dual Cultivation]

But it was like throwing stones into the sea. No matter what request Tu Mu sent, there was no response from Zhang Yu’s side.

This made Tu Mu feel even more anxious.

He abruptly looked toward the end of the line, quickly lowered the transparency of outsourced workers and made them fully manifest, then sent a friend request to Shi Huaiyu and Feng Tingting.

Feng Tingting, who was working on registration, felt a trace of emotion flash through her heart. Ever since she had come to the sect and become an outsourced employee, she had gradually grown used to her transparent life, and also grown used to the days when sect affairs officers did not put her in their eyes.

She knew that within the sect, she was like a wisp of dust. Only other outsourced cultivators, who were also dust, could see her.

But at this moment, she and Shi Huaiyu seemed to have become incomparably dazzling. Every cultivator who came to register, whether an outsourced cultivator or a sect affairs officer, had no choice but to look directly at her, pay attention to her, listen to every word that came out of her mouth, and even act according to her instructions.

There were also level-two, level-three, and even level-four sect affairs officers taking the initiative to add her as a friend.

“This… is power. Although it is only a tiny bit of power.” Feng Tingting sighed inwardly. “But Senior Zhang merely gave me the authority to register corpse units, and it made a little transparent person like me… become the focal point of these cultivators’ gazes.”

On the other side, when Tu Mu saw that Feng Tingting had accepted his friend request, he hurriedly sent a message over: [100 immortal coins] Thank you for your hard work.

Feng Tingting looked at this scene in some surprise and thought, “As expected of a level-four sect affairs officer. Even when he makes a move on outsourced workers, it’s 100 immortal coins.”

And Feng Tingting also sent over the reply she had prepared long ago: Deputy Chairman Zhang does not accept gifts.

Tu Mu was slightly stunned and thought, “Doesn’t accept gifts? Is he human?”

Feng Tingting continued: If you insist on sending something, then send immortal crystals to the immortal grotto-heaven.

Feng Tingting: It can be considered improving the environment and strengthening the sect’s assets.

Feng Tingting: Everything is for the sect, after all.

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