Swallowing the Stars: 100x Return for Teaching Apprentices

Chapter 93 Clocking in for Work
virtual universe.

The continent of Lanting is home to 'Cloud Mist Island'.

This is an incredibly beautiful island shrouded in a light mist, its size comparable to the Eternal Island where Qi Yuan had previously stayed.

Throughout the entire Cloud Mist Island, shrouded in mist, one can vaguely see palaces that look like they are made of purple crystal.

The palaces varied significantly in height and grandeur.

The most dazzling and magnificent structure on the entire island is undoubtedly the towering amethyst palace, which stretches for tens of thousands of kilometers, located in the center of the island.

The sunlight from the sky above poured down, accompanied by the ever-present, hazy mist, rendering the entire amethyst palace extremely colorful and dazzling.

Surrounding this majestic palace, in other directions of Cloud Mist Island, are numerous palaces that are much shorter.

These palaces range in size from hundreds of kilometers to just tens of kilometers.

This Cloud Mist Island is like the Qianwu branch where Luo Feng worked in the original novel; it is the office of the Virtual Universe Company's branch in the Lanting Universe Country.

Because the universe is so vast, the offices of these universe country branches are naturally located in the virtual universe.

Cloud Mist Island Teleportation Point.

call!
With a shift in light and shadow, a figure dressed in a silver-gray uniform robe suddenly appeared here.

"Ha, I never thought I'd have to wear a 'work uniform' at this Lanting branch. It's like going back to my days as a corporate slave."

Qi Yuan looked at the director's uniform, which was simple in style but exceptionally gorgeous, and couldn't help but silently complain to himself.

Since he accepted the invitation to become a formal member of the Virtual Universe Company's Lanting branch, he naturally gained access to Cloud Mist Island.

However, this is the first time he has come to "clock in" for work.

woohoo~~~
The clouds and mist in the surrounding sky rippled slightly.

Immediately afterwards, a burly man with a full golden beard and wearing a silver-gray robe, though slightly different in style from Qi Yuan's, quickly landed.

"Haha, Qi Yuan, you've finally arrived!"

A hearty laugh reached Qi Yuan's ears.

Qi Yuan's eyes lit up when he saw the newcomer, and he quickly went to greet him.

"Lord Xingzhan, why did you come here in person?"

The burly man was none other than the person who had recruited him earlier, the head of the Lanting branch in the Blue Bay Starfield, the immortal god 'Xing Zhan'.

"Since this is your first time here, you may not be familiar with Cloud Mist Island. Let me introduce it to you."

Xing Zhan was quite friendly to Qi Yuan, and did not make him feel the slightest bit of the airs of an immortal god.

"Come with me, I'll take you to see our Blue Bay Star Region's offices first."

"Yes, thank you for your trouble, Lord Xingzhan."

Qi Yuan followed Lord Xing Zhan and flew forward.

Around the two, hazy clouds and mist drifted everywhere, making it feel as if they had entered a fairyland.

"Our entire Lanting is divided into the Military Department, the Commerce Department, and the Military Department. The highest-ranking officials in the entire division are the three ministers who are in charge of these three departments."

The entire Cloud Mist Island was incredibly vast, and during the flight, Xing Zhan took the opportunity to explain the basic situation of the Lanting branch to Qi Yuan.

"Do you see that largest palace in the center? That's where the three ministers and the core departments of the entire branch work!"

Xing Zhan solemnly instructed, "Remember, unless you are summoned, you are not allowed to enter the central palace at will."

"Understood." Qi Yuan nodded, but couldn't help recall the scene of Luo Feng taking up his post in the original novel.

Back then, Luo Feng was directly serving as the special envoy of a branch of a universe country, and his status was no less than that of the three ministers. He could even subtly restrain them.

On his first day at work, he was told that without a special summons, he could not even enter the central palace at will.

However, since everyone has different circumstances and pursuits, he wasn't too envious.

"Haha, but apart from the central palace, there aren't many other restrictions."

The burly man, Xing Zhan, then relaxed, saying, "Besides the core organization directly managed by our three ministers, our Lanting branch also oversees more than 10,000 star regions and hundreds of millions of star systems!"

“Each star region will also have a ‘secondary branch’. Among them, the Blue Bay Star Region, which has a relatively large territory, and the Eternal Star Region where Soya is located, are mostly managed by immortal gods. Some smaller star regions are either managed by some peak realm lords, or a single immortal god directly manages multiple star regions.”

"Under each of the 'secondary divisions' there are also departments similar to the 'military department' and the 'commerce department'. However, the heads of the military department and the commerce department under the secondary divisions can only be called 'directors'. Under each director, there are more domain lord-level deacons responsible for the specific affairs of each star system and some ordinary universe-level employees."

"The entire Lanting branch, apart from the three ministers at the Marquis level, has a total of 352 Immortals, over 100,000 World Lords, and 860 million ordinary members at the Domain Lord, Universe, and Stellar levels."

Even though he had already read about it in the original novel, Qi Yuan was still slightly surprised as he listened to Xing Zhan's account.

Just those more than 100,000 World Lords are such a terrifying number!
It should be noted that in the outside world, a cosmic level is already considered a strong person, while a domain lord level or world lord level is a legendary figure that countless ordinary cultivators may never have the chance to meet in their entire lives.

Under normal circumstances, on average, only one universe-level being can appear in a star system. As for realm lords, even if we look at the entire Eternal Empire, the total number of realm lords within its borders is only close to one hundred!

However, one of the branches under the Virtual Universe Company has gathered such a massive number of powerful figures who are considered 'legendary' among ordinary cultivators.
It can only be said that Virtual Universe Company truly lives up to its reputation as a behemoth!
"Our Blue Bay branch, besides myself who is an immortal, has 11 realm lords, 102 domain lords, and nearly 6 universe-level and star-level members."

Xing Zhan continued, “However, a considerable portion of these are external members belonging to the company, and the actual number of internal employees is only about one-third.” As the two chatted, they quickly arrived at the top of a magnificent amethyst palace that was quite close to the central palace and hundreds of kilometers high.

"This is it, let's go down."

Xing Zhan laughed loudly, then landed directly at the entrance of the Amethyst Palace with Qi Yuan.

The moment Qi Yuan entered, he saw that nearly a thousand people were gathered in the spacious hall of the palace.

The moment Qi Yuan and his companion entered, nearly a thousand pairs of eyes in the hall turned to them.

"Greetings, Lord Xingzhan!"

The group of people all bowed deeply in greeting.

"Haha, no need for such formalities!"

Xing Zhan smiled and waved his hand, "Colleagues, come, let me introduce you. This gentleman next to me is Qi Yuan, the newly appointed Director of the Military Department of our Blue Bay Branch."

As he spoke, he put his arm around Qi Yuan's shoulder, displaying an extremely intimate posture.

"Everyone, I personally invited Brother Qi Yuan to take this position. Moreover, he is a powerful genius who is no less than many of the company's core members. From now on, all of you colleagues will have to give me, Old Xing, face and support Director Qi Yuan's work!"

Hearing his words, many of the realm lords and domain lords in the crowd who had initially shown slight hesitation upon seeing that Qi Yuan was merely a domain lord immediately composed themselves and respectfully responded:

"Yes, Lord Xingzhan."

"We have met Director Qi Yuan, and we will definitely support your work in the future!"

How could they dare to have any other thoughts when an immortal god, or even their own superior, had spoken?

Seeing Xing Zhan's strong support, Qi Yuan was slightly moved and silently cast a grateful glance at him.

Xing Zhan smiled and patted him on the shoulder:

"Brother Qi Yuan, these are all the core members of our Blue Bay Star Region branch. I called them all here to get acquainted with you. Why don't you say a few words to them?"

"Forget about this speech."

Qi Yuan smiled and shook his head. He looked at the nearly one thousand core members of the Blue Bay Star Region branch in front of him and simply smiled and nodded in greeting, saying, "I'm new here, so I'll have to trouble you all to help me out in the future."

Seeing that Qi Yuan didn't seem like a difficult person to get along with, the members of the Blue Bay branch relaxed and quickly responded with smiles:

"Director Qi Yuan, you're too kind!"

"It's no trouble at all, it's what we should do."

"Haha, alright, now that we've all met, let's all get back to work. We'll find a chance to get together sometime later."

After everyone quieted down a bit, the immortal god Xing Zhan smiled and waved his hand.
"Everyone, disperse. Wiggins, Uta, Sage, you guys come with us."

"Yes."

The members responsible for various specific matters of the Blue Bay Star Region branch bowed respectfully and then dispersed in an orderly manner to other offices in the main hall.

Among the crowd, three Realm Lords quickly caught up with Xing Zhan and Qi Yuan.

Soon, the group arrived at an extremely luxurious and spacious quiet room in the palace.

"Brother Qi Yuan, let me introduce you to these gentlemen."

After everyone had taken their seats, Xing Zhan then proceeded to introduce the identities of the other people.

He first pointed to an elderly fox-man with a snow-white, fluffy tail:
"This is Wiggins, the Director of the Commerce Department, our God of Wealth, and also a veteran of our Blue Bay Star Region branch."

As Qi Yuan looked over, Director Wiggins smiled and nodded at him.

"This is Uta, the head of the branch's intelligence system."

Xing Zhan continued pointing at the only woman among the three.

"Greetings, Director Qi Yuan." The alluring red-haired woman, Uta, gave Qi Yuan a seductive smile.

"Hello," Qi Yuan replied with a calm smile.

"Uta, be serious."

Xing Zhan gave a curt rebuke before continuing to introduce the last person.

He was a fair-skinned young man with blond hair who looked extremely sunny.

"This is Saji, who will be your deputy from now on. Before you came, he was the one who handled some of the work in the military department. You can just ask him to do things."

"Greetings, Director. I'll be working under you from now on!" The blond youth, Saji, smiled amicably at Qi Yuan.

Seeing this, Qi Yuan returned the smile with the same expression: "Hehe, there will be a lot of trouble from now on."

After the group had gotten to know each other, Xing Zhan looked at Qi Yuan again:

"By the way, Brother Qi Yuan, when do you have time to get together in real life?"

(End of this chapter)