Chapter 456: Yin Artifact Solved, Dual Degree

Within the Taiqing Realm at this moment.

Zhang Yu was seen conducting a simulated upgrade experiment on the Taiyi Golden Liquid Pill.

As the experimental equipment activated, under the scorching of multiple flames, the state of the Taiyi Golden Liquid Pill was constantly changing.

This was Zhang Yu using his newly learned Qi Hub Phase Change technique to transform the Taiyi Golden Liquid Pill between solid, liquid, and gaseous states.

Once successfully refined, the Taiyi Golden Liquid Pill could freely undergo transformations among the three states and merge into the cultivator's Gang Qi, causing the Gang Qi to transform along with it, gaining various marvelous uses.

Zhang Yu thought to himself, "Once this artifact-refining skill reaches level 20, I can try to upgrade my Taiyi Golden Liquid Pill in the real world, and also merge those several Taiyi Golden Liquid Pills I have into one."

He mused inwardly, "Although the Divine Power of Mount-Moving from Heavenly Kunlun has astonishing destructive power and control, it still lacks defensive methods."

Recalling the process of the previous battle, Zhang Yu thought, "Especially attacks like the Great Sun Myriad Forms, neither the Divine Power of Mount-Moving from Heavenly Kunlun nor the Nine Heavens Cloud Empty Force can block them."

"I can't rely on my body to endure every time."

"I need defensive power in this area."

Zhang Yu thought very clearly: as his strength increased and he could compete with military-grade forces, what his magical artifacts needed during upgrades was to fill the gaps in various aspects of his abilities.

For example, defensive ability against attacks like the Great Sun Myriad Forms, as well as mobility, reconnaissance, stealth, and so on in battle.

Just as Zhang Yu was working hard on self-improvement,

deep within the Spirit Realm.

True Lord Magnetic Pole looked at the project reports from this period, and a hint of surprise emerged in her heart.

The work to decipher the Nascent Soul Yin Artifact progressed quickly at the beginning.

But as the deciphering work deepened, the progress became slower and slower because the complexity of the talismans within increased nearly exponentially, making everyone's efficiency increasingly slow.

However, in the report that True Lord Magnetic Pole was looking at, she discovered that a student named Zhang Pianpian had made a significant breakthrough during this period, even discovering some unique talisman patterns related to the Nascent Soul Yin Artifact.

"This greatly increases the deciphering efficiency. If everyone learns the method Zhang Pianpian mentioned, perhaps it can be completely deciphered in just a few days."

Thinking of this, True Lord Magnetic Pole became increasingly curious about Zhang Pianpian.

Upon briefly flipping through the other's file, True Lord Magnetic Pole discovered that Zhang Pianpian and Zhang Yu had an unusual relationship.

"They already knew each other in high school."

"After coming to university, they even lived together."

"They seem to have been supporting and helping each other all along?"

But what surprised True Lord Magnetic Pole even more was that Zhang Pianpian's file contained a large amount of classified information.

"Even I'm not allowed to see it?"

However, though she couldn't see it, True Lord Magnetic Pole was experienced and shrewd. Through various clues and the information-gathering ability of the Nine Heavens Primordial Yang Tower in the Spirit Realm, she quickly made some judgments.

"Is it related to the Ministry of All People?" True Lord Magnetic Pole thought. "And this Zhang Pianpian seems to be able to use some high-spec Spirit Realm cave mansion's computational resources, and it is through this method that she accelerated the deciphering progress."

"To be able to use Heavenly Court resources like this, Zhang Pianpian's connections are extremely unusual."

"Zhang Yu's artifact-refining progress is also very fast; could it be that he benefits from this as well?"

"But Zhang Yu isn't in the Talisman Department... Is he simply being personally taken care of by Zhang Pianpian?"

"Could this Zhang Pianpian owe him a lot of debt, and that's why she helps him like this?"

True Lord Magnetic Pole shook her head; for now, she didn't have enough information to clarify the relationship.

But after thinking, she laughed again: "Civil Engineering Department, Artifact Refining Department, and now Talisman Department... This disciple of mine really gets around."

Inside the dormitory.

Within the Taiqing Realm.

The Taiqing Realm was now enveloped in layers of clouds and mist, continuously emitting an unfathomable aura as if from the Nine Heavens.

Zhang Pianpian slowly opened her eyes in the main hall and thought to herself, "With the simulation capability of the side hall, I can smoothly disguise the Taiqing Realm as a resource of the Heavenly Court."

"Lord Magnetic Pole should have been misled."

"In that case, even if Zhang Yu reveals a bit more of the tremendous progress he's made in artifact refinement through the Taiqing Realm, it shouldn't strike Lord Magnetic Pole as too surprising."

At this thought, a faint smile curled at Zhang Pianpian's lips, but the next moment she suppressed it and returned her focus to the talisman research before her.

"Time is running shorter and shorter."

"I need to step it up too."

…

Inside the Civil Engineering Department office.

Director Gao was reviewing the project progress from Zhang Yu's side.

He nodded in satisfaction: "This kid is getting more skilled and more on the right track."

"Next time, I should introduce him to a few more people."

"After all, the more projects he takes on, the more money he makes, the further he can go on the path of immortality."

At this moment, Director Gao felt that even if Zhang Yu couldn't lead a team to the top three in this year's intercollegiate competition, he could fully accept it.

After all, Zhang Yu was still young, only a junior now. "If he loses this year, there are still seven more chances."

In that moment, Director Gao seemed to already envision Zhang Yu leading the competition team to dominate the university civil engineering competition, holding first place for a full seven years, driving the company's stock price ever higher and winning every project bid.

After graduation, Zhang Yu would pursue his master's and doctorate under Director Gao's guidance, eventually pass the review, advance to Nascent Soul, and become his top lieutenant.

"Who knows, maybe this kid will even go to the battlefield with me one day, take part in future university wars, and completely change the civil engineering landscape of Wanfa University, even the entire university world…"

Just as Director Gao was lost in his daydream, Lord Magnetic Pole sent him a message.

Lord Magnetic Pole: Did you hear that Old Wang from the Security Department's closed-door disciple didn't get his graduation degree?

Director Gao: Mm, I know. Is it because of the subject imbalance?

Lord Magnetic Pole: Such a good student—who would've thought it would come to this all of a sudden?

Lord Magnetic Pole: But luckily, this student has a dual degree.

Lord Magnetic Pole: Even though he didn't get the degree from the Security Department, he still has another degree; otherwise, ten years of study would be wasted, and he'd be finished.

Director Gao: Why did you suddenly think to tell me about this?

Lord Magnetic Pole: I've been thinking—more and more schools outside are pushing dual degrees, because a single major is no longer enough for students' cultivation.

Lord Magnetic Pole: To put it bluntly, if one major's job market goes bad, the other major can back them up.

Lord Magnetic Pole: Learning two degrees together saves time, fosters cross-disciplinary thinking, makes them more competitive, and builds cross-disciplinary connections—don't you agree?

Reading Lord Magnetic Pole's message, Director Gao frowned, pondered for a moment, then replied: The coursework pressure is already heavy enough; it's hard to persuade students to take on another major.

Lord Magnetic Pole: The two of us together—can't we overpower a single student?

Lord Magnetic Pole: With our centuries of friendship, surely you'll support me on this.

Lord Magnetic Pole: You're not going to oppose me, are you?

Lord Magnetic Pole: Old Gao?

Director Gao frowned slightly as he read Lord Magnetic Pole's message: "What does that Magnetic Pole guy mean… Could it be…?"

While Director Gao was hesitating, doubting, and worrying in his heart,

Lord Magnetic Pole sent another message: Tomorrow I'm going to tell Feng Tingting to come to the Civil Engineering Department for another degree.

Lord Magnetic Pole: From then on, she'll dual-cultivate civil engineering and artifact refinement, become a plug-and-play compound talent, and focus on the field of intelligent construction.

Seeing this message from Lord Magnetic Pole, Director Gao's eyes lit up; he was clearly very supportive of talent from the Artifact Refinement Department coming to study civil engineering.

At the same time, he sighed inwardly: "Ah, what was I just imagining?"

"Lord Magnetic Pole and I have centuries of friendship, and he's the head of the Artifact Refinement Department with so many top students under him—why would he covet the students over in Civil Engineering?"

With that in mind, Director Gao replied: No problem, I'll personally arrange it for you then.

…

In the Spirit Realm, the Magnetic Polarity True Lord looked at Director Gao's reply and smiled inwardly.

In the following time, the efficiency of cracking the Nascent Soul Yin Artifact greatly increased, pushing the progress of the entire project team to accelerate.

In the blink of an eye, time arrived at mid-February.

The Magnetic Polarity True Lord led many staff members, encircling the artifact spirit in the Spirit Realm.

Now, the artifact spirit no longer had any of its former thought fluctuations; it floated quietly in front of everyone like a blank sheet of paper.

Having led everyone all the way to this day, the cracking work achieved a major success. The Magnetic Polarity True Lord had finally succeeded in temporarily sealing most of the artifact spirit's intelligence, lowering it from the IQ of an 18-year-old to that of a 5-year-old.

The reason for choosing this approach, rather than a more violent cracking method to forcibly seize control of the Yin Artifact… was simply that the Magnetic Polarity True Lord wanted to see the Nascent Soul Yin Artifact's more original and complete operational mode, and to understand in detail the working process of its high-intelligence artifact spirit.

If he used too violent a method to forcibly take control of the Yin Artifact, it might result in the loss of a large amount of important data.

For the Magnetic Polarity True Lord and Ten Thousand Methods University, gaining control of this Nascent Soul Yin Artifact was not the most important thing.

Cracking the technology of Harmony University and cracking the technology of the Nectar Divine Lord—that was what truly mattered.

A professor from the Talisman Department beside him said, "The first phase is complete. Next, we just need to continue using this Yin Artifact for experiments, obtain a large amount of experimental data, and gradually figure out Harmony University's technology. In the future, we at Ten Thousand Methods might even be able to open another dual cultivation academy."

The Magnetic Polarity True Lord chuckled and said, "Yes, and when the time comes to fill that gap in the school, you will become the founder of Ten Thousand Methods University's dual cultivation field."

But in the subsequent attempts, the Magnetic Polarity True Lord discovered that the Nascent Soul Yin Artifact had various requirements for starting up and operating.

"It seems those with too high cultivation aren't suitable, and those with too low cultivation aren't suitable either."

"The Nectar Divine Lord is quite picky. Even though the Yin Artifact has returned to its default settings, it still has many troublesome screening conditions set."

The Magnetic Polarity True Lord thought for a moment and said, "As it stands, the best experimental subjects are still students."

"It seems that this fellow, the Nectar Divine Lord, created this Yin Artifact specifically to interact with students."

The professor from the Talisman Department beside him nodded and said, "Call a group of students to participate in the experiment."

A student from the Talisman Department’s eyes lit up, and he asked, "Teacher, how much money do we get for participating in this experiment?"

"Money?" The professor laughed. "This is a Nascent Soul Yin Artifact, and with most of its intelligence suppressed, interacting with it is bound to bring many benefits. You should be paying me."

He thought for a moment and said, "Directly announce it… no, we still need to save face for the Nectar Divine Lord. Don't make it public."

"Secretly notify the students from each department, and let them pay to sign up."

The student beside him asked, "If it's secret notification, which students are we notifying?"

The professor thought for a moment and said, "The top ten from each department. Anyone interested can sign up."

Having said that, he looked at the Magnetic Polarity True Lord beside him and asked, "Magnetic Polarity, what do you think?"

The Magnetic Polarity True Lord nodded: "Let's keep it tentative for now. We'll see how it goes first."