Chapter 393: Busy Zhang Yu

As his proficiency in refining Azure Sand reached Level 2, Zhang Yu felt countless images of Azure Sand refining flash through his mind—how various mana and qi courses operated, how materials were handled, how the heat was controlled, the details of spraying fiber composite films, and the experience of stabilizing mana circuits.

One after another, refining memories surfaced in Zhang Yu’s mind, granting him a sudden, deeper understanding and insight into Azure Sand refining.

So when he next attempted to refine Azure Sand using only one-tenth of the materials, his success rate immediately increased by a considerable margin.

Moreover, the quality of the Azure Sand had visibly improved.

Watching the finished Azure Sand Zhang Yu had produced, Ye Xingli felt a slight surprise: “The color is bright, and the impurities and purity seem much better than before… Is this Level 2 Azure Sand?”

“Was it luck? Or is he really improving that fast?”

Ye Xingli continued observing, but soon noticed Zhang Yu had again started recklessly compressing the refining time, and the Azure Sand he produced returned to Level 1 quality.

By the time the full six hours of practice ended, after repeated attempts Zhang Yu had roughly managed to compress the Azure Sand refining time down to fifteen minutes.

“With materials reduced to one-tenth, that’s 0.003 spirit coins.”

“The venue and equipment rental cost is 0.7 spirit coins for six hours. After splitting with Ye Xingli, that’s 0.35 spirit coins.”

“If I keep each batch at fifteen minutes from now on, I can complete twenty-four batches in six hours.”

Zhang Yu silently calculated: “Factoring that in, the cost per batch is pressed down to about 0.01758 spirit coins.”

“And this isn’t the limit yet.”

Zhang Yu thought of his Formless Warriors and Deep Chill Warriors.

Just as when he was at the construction site he could use Formless Warriors and Deep Chill Warriors to work, he felt the same could be done for artifact refining.

Zhang Yu mused: “The compression of materials and time can now be fixed. Next time… I’ll activate quadruple-thread thinking and see if I can synchronously refine four batches of Azure Sand.”

“If successful, not only can I push costs down further, but my training efficiency will also skyrocket.”

“Besides, after continuously refining Azure Sand, if I sell some of the Azure Sand to recoup funds, the spirit coins spent can be pressed even lower.”

With that in mind, Zhang Yu turned to Ye Xingli and asked, “Senior, if I want to sell some of the products I make for practice, where would be the most convenient place to ship them out?”

Ye Xingli thought of Sovereign Magnetic Pole’s instructions and said directly, “If you trust me, you can just leave them with me from now on.”

“I have a bit of a network in the Artifact Refining Department and can help you sell them.”

“But basic refining outputs won’t fetch high prices; at best, it’ll just help you recover some costs.”

Zhang Yu quickly nodded and said, “I understand. That’s fine. Just being able to recover some costs is enough.”

After they both left the lab, they bid each other farewell.

Watching Zhang Yu’s retreating figure, Ye Xingli sent a message to Sovereign Magnetic Pole: “Master, Zhang Yu and I have come out of the lab.”

Sovereign Magnetic Pole: “How did Zhang Yu perform?”

Ye Xingli: “His talent in artifact refining is passable. During the six hours, he did produce Level 2 Azure Sand a few times.”

Ye Xingli: “But his attitude is problematic. As a beginner, he likes to recklessly change the quantities and times.”

Ye Xingli briefly described what she had observed.

Sovereign Magnetic Pole replied: “I understand.”

Sovereign Magnetic Pole: “If he wants to sell his outputs later, temporarily help him with consignment.”

Sovereign Magnetic Pole: “As for the lab fees, you can split them with him as well.”

Hearing that Sovereign Magnetic Pole wanted her to help Zhang Yu like this, Ye Xingli could no longer suppress her confusion.

She asked, “Master, Zhang Yu is a student in the Civil Engineering Department, isn’t he? His artifact refining talent is hardly outstanding. Why go to such lengths to help him?”

Sovereign Magnetic Pole: “Director Gao of Civil Engineering wants to transfer this disciple of his to the Artifact Refining Department.”

Sovereign Magnetic Pole: “Though I don’t really recommend that he do so.”

Sovereign Magnetic Pole: “But we’ve had centuries of friendship. Since he insists, even if it means taking a loss, I still have to help out.”

Reading the message from Sovereign Magnetic Pole, Ye Xingli couldn’t help but admire the friendship between Sovereign Magnetic Pole and Director Gao.

She silently thought: “So it is. It’s not Zhang Yu himself, a mere Civil Engineering student, that interests Master, but the fact that it’s for Director Gao.”

Ye Xingli found this much more reasonable—after all, a Civil Engineering student was, just like a Security Department student, essentially a “junior college student” in Wanfa University. With Master’s standards being so high, how could he possibly be interested?

I'm afraid you'd have to accept a red envelope before even saying a word.

"But Master and Director Gao… is this friendship between ancient cultivators?"

"Although Master has kept up with the times, always learning the cutting-edge immortal arts and following Kunxu's trends, at the end of the day he's still an ancient person. Deep down… he can't help but be influenced by the dregs of ancient culture."

Just as Ye Xingli was pondering, Magnetic Pole True Lord sent another message.

Magnetic Pole True Lord: This matter is still classified. Even if you ask Director Gao and me to our faces, we won't admit it.

Magnetic Pole True Lord: Remember, don't leak this.

Ye Xingli: Master, rest assured about my lips. Even if someone throws 1,000 spirit coins at me, I won't say a word.

…

At the same time, Zhang Yu on the other side was walking to the construction site on the 667th floor.

He first glanced at the Celestial Azure Sand Level 2 (10/20) on his Feather Script, then looked at another refining skill on the same device.

Celestial Azure Cloud Bag Level 0 (0/1, Celestial Azure Sand Level 2/5)

This Celestial Azure Cloud Bag was also a magic artifact blueprint Zhang Yu had learned in his refining courses—a specialized container for storing Celestial Azure Sand.

When infused with magical power, it could spray and recover large quantities of Celestial Azure Sand.

Just like when Zhang Yu first started cultivating his technique, many refining skills required meeting certain thresholds to master.

For example, refining Celestial Azure Sand required certain levels of magical power and Gang Qi. The Celestial Azure Cloud Bag, in turn, required a certain mastery of the Celestial Azure Sand refining skill first.

"Whether it's magic artifacts or magic corpses, besides requirements for cultivation realm, Dao Heart, and magical power, there are often various prerequisite refining skills."

Zhang Yu thought to himself: "To gradually cultivate to the point where I can refine my own body into a magic corpse, besides my cultivation base, I'll need to master a large number of prerequisite refining skills."

"There's still a long way to go."

"But with so many refining skills, I probably don't need to push every single one to its limit. As long as they're good enough."

As for more distant goals, like having his own refining lab or building his own production line… Zhang Yu could only dream about them for now.

Arriving at the familiar construction site, a series of Formless Guardians materialized around Zhang Yu.

He then reached out and sprinkled a handful of Celestial Azure Sand onto these Formless Guardians.

The surging Gang Qi within the Formless Guardians flickered with a hint of Celestial Azure Sand's luster, making the guardians appear more solid.

Zhang Yu thought to himself: "Celestial Azure Sand can improve Gang Qi transmission efficiency and reduce consumption rate. It should boost my work efficiency."

So next, while Zhang Yu controlled the Formless Guardians to work at the construction site and earn money, he himself was enveloped in a cloud of Formless Cloud Gang Qi and began cultivating the seventh technique of the Martial Saint Body.

A few hours later, as dawn was breaking, Zhang Yu calculated today's pay and thought to himself: "Work efficiency has improved by about 5%."

"Not bad, not bad. If I raise the Celestial Azure Sand's level even higher later, the efficiency gain should be even greater."

"This way, even if Senior Sister Ye Xingli doesn't sell much Celestial Azure Sand on consignment, I can still use it to increase my income at the construction site."

With that thought, Zhang Yu grew even more motivated.

In the following days, Zhang Yu would rent the refining lab about once or twice a week to practice refining skills.

The rest of the time, he attended classes during the day and worked at the construction site at night, while also cultivating the Martial Saint Body technique.

On top of that, he had to make time to study refining courses in the Taiqing Realm, absorb 200%-quality magical power to improve his magical power quality, and go to Hammer Heart Residence to temper his Dao Heart…

…

Inside the lab.

Ye Xingli glanced at the three Formless Guardians beside her and thought to herself: "Such powerful multi-tasking ability."

"But doing so many things at once and producing multiple batches of Celestial Azure Sand… is that really good for improving refining skills? Improving refining skills isn't just about stacking repetitions."

In Ye Xingli's view, unless you need to meet production quotas, it's better to focus entirely on refining a single batch of Celestial Azure Sand, sensing every detail of the materials, steps, timing, heat, magical power, Gang Qi, and so on—constantly learning and adjusting. That's more effective for skill improvement.

And in the next moment, Ye Xingli's gaze suddenly shifted, landing on the Celestial Azure Sand successfully refined in front of one Formless Guardian.

"Level 3 Celestial Azure Sand?"

"Interesting."

Ye Xingli thought to herself: "Though he likes to act recklessly, Zhang Yu's talent in artifact refining seems stronger than I initially estimated."

Still, she wasn't too concerned about it, after all, the first time she had refined Azure Sand, she produced Grade-5 Azure Sand directly.

Turning her head, Ye Xingli continued interviewing her new artifact spirits.

"You graduated from Hehuan University? May I ask what your primary gender is?"

"You're a Shangxiao student? Sorry, this time I'm only looking to recruit soul cultivators from the Top Ten."

"Celestial Demon University? Welcome aboard. Treat my right hand like it's your own home from now on."

Just as he came out of the lab that day, Zhang Yu received a message from Gongshu Jin.

Looking at the content of the message, Zhang Yu's eyes lit up: "Is the buffet about to start?"

Meanwhile, Ye Xingli beside him said to Zhang Yu, "You're going to the gathering later too, right? After all, it's technically a celebration for the Civil Engineering Department."

Zhang Yu nodded. He already knew that this gathering was arranged by Mo Shangjin, mainly to celebrate the second-place finish in the inter-school league.

Ye Xingli casually said, "Then let's go together. I need to attend too."

Zhang Yu followed Ye Xingli to the 650th floor of Wanfa University. As soon as they stepped out of the anti-gravity passage, they saw Gongshu Jin already waiting outside.

Seeing that Zhang Yu was actually walking together with Ye Xingli, Gongshu Jin was taken aback.

Compared to the Ye Xingli he had first seen last year, the current Ye Xingli looked vastly different in Gongshu Jin's eyes.

That was because the ranking on her head had changed from 15th in the Artifact Refining Department to 8th in the Artifact Refining Department.

Being able to hold such a rank in the Artifact Refining Department, one of the three ace departments, made Ye Xingli a top-tier student in Gongshu Jin's eyes.

Watching the two chatting and laughing happily, Gongshu Jin thought to himself, "When did Zhang Yu become so close with Ye Xingli?"