Guide Her to Nowhere (NPH) - Chapter 42: The Boss's Heart Is Truly Dark
Chapter 42: The Boss’s Heart Is Truly Dark
Qu Tang settled into the small building and gradually learned about Yi Jin’s team. It wasn’t that she was prying; as Shen Qi had hinted to Le Zhi, she only planned to stay for a short while, so she didn’t want or need to know. The reason she knew was because Yi Jin and the others had inadvertently revealed the information.
Qu Tang was well aware of their intentions, but she had to pretend not to know and not respond.
Currently, the main members of Yi Jin’s team were four people: Yi Jin as the captain, Shen Qi as the deputy, and the members Le Zhi and Le Li. There were also some non-resident team members who didn’t live with them, roughly seven or eight in total.
They didn’t have a fixed residence; for instance, this small building in District Six was merely rented. Once Shen Qi finished his mission, they would leave and disappear from here.
Regarding their missions, they didn’t talk much, and Qu Tang didn’t want to know either.
Yi Jin was in charge of the three meals a day in the small building, which surprised Qu Tang a bit. His cooking skills weren’t particularly good, just average, similar to hers, fitting into the self-taught category for those without a natural talent for cooking.
Upon hearing Qu Tang praise Yi Jin, Le Zhi wasn’t to be outdone, “Little sister, we can cook too, and the deputy can as well, but the boss’s cooking is just a bit tastier. He doesn’t want to compromise his own taste buds, so he took on all the cooking.”
Qu Tang looked at Le Zhi and Le Li, then thought of Shen Qi, “I couldn’t tell.”
“Before we came together, we were all struggling on our own. Over time, even those without the skill learned a bit.” Yi Jin spoke lightly, but the stories behind those words were likely filled with hardship.
The world had been in apocalypse for nearly a hundred years. Although humanity had built high walls and established a somewhat stable social order, life was still tough.
After dinner, Qu Tang began training her spiritual force.
Her room was on the third floor, where besides her, only Yi Jin and Shen Qi resided, though Shen Qi had never stayed there overnight.
There was an open-air balcony on the third floor with a small gazebo, a little tea table, and two chaise lounges. Qu Tang spent her time training her spiritual force here, except for meals and sleep, resting on the lounges when tired.
For spiritual force training, Qu Tang used a crystal ball about the size of her two fists, containing water and a hundred small beads, fifty red and fifty white, given to her by Yi Jin.
“These response balls are inexpensive yet practical, commonly used by sentinels. Although your spiritual force is unstable, guides generally have better control over their spiritual force than sentinels, so this should be just right for you.”
Qu Tang took the crystal ball; it felt heavy in her hands. She turned it, feeling the friction between the response balls and the glass.
“How do I use it for training?”
“There are several stages. In the first stage, try to use your spiritual force in a stationary state to move the response balls one by one from the bottom to the top.”
“In the second stage, separate the red from the white, placing them at the top and bottom respectively.”
“The third stage, under movement, separate them… we’ll talk about that later.”
“Okay.” Qu Tang attempted to move one response ball with her spiritual force, but all hundred balls moved upward simultaneously at a high speed, causing the crystal ball to slip from her grasp, only to be caught by Yi Jin in time.
“It’s hard at first; you’ll get better.” Yi Jin saw Qu Tang’s surprise and spoke lightly, his tone seemingly amused.
He handed the crystal ball back to Qu Tang, who stared in astonishment at the response balls now forming a three-dimensional polar bear inside, with red balls filling the inside and white ones covering the surface, looking lifelike.
With a slight movement of his spiritual force, Yi Jin made the polar bear swim and flip inside the ball, its movements smooth and natural, like a living creature.
Qu Tang held the crystal ball, eyes wide with wonder, “Yi Jin, you’re really amazing.”
Yi Jin’s cheeks and ears turned slightly red, “This isn’t much; you’ll do better than me.”
The two brothers eavesdropping whispered to each other.
Le Zhi: “The boss’s heart is truly dark, but I support him.”
Le Li: “+1.”
Yi Jin had told Qu Tang the truth, but what he didn’t mention was that response balls come in different grades. The one he gave Qu Tang had a dullness level of B, suitable for B-level sentinel training.
Although Qu Tang was a guide, her spiritual force was only at a D level, and not stable. The difficulty of using a B-level response ball was unimaginable.
Yi Jin’s goal for Qu Tang was to be able to move the two colors of response balls in opposite directions, clockwise and counterclockwise simultaneously, without them touching. Even as a guide, achieving this would take at least one to two months.
Truly, he was the boss.