Chapter 555

After finishing the gift-giving matters with Zhang Yu, Magnetic Pole True Lord asked about Zhang Yu's preparation for the design competition.

Magnetic Pole True Lord: "What work do you plan to design? Do you have a direction?"

Zhang Yu: "I'm currently investigating college students together with my senior sister..."

So Zhang Yu talked about collecting intelligence on colleges, intending to create a product suitable for the college and even lower-level school markets.

Hearing Zhang Yu's words, Magnetic Pole True Lord frowned slightly and replied, "There is indeed commercial potential."

Magnetic Pole True Lord: "But you have to know that there are no college students among the judges."

Magnetic Pole True Lord: "If your design is too 'college-flavored,' the judges may not buy it."

Zhang Yu: "I understand."

Zhang Yu: "From what I've learned so far, college students themselves don't like the 'college flavor.' I will make adjustments in this regard."

Magnetic Pole True Lord: "It's good that you have a plan."

Magnetic Pole True Lord: "After you finish the design drawing, you can send me a copy, and I'll help you review it."

Magnetic Pole True Lord: "Although you can submit only the design drawing and still win awards in the design competition, if you can include an actual product, it will be easier to stand out and impress the judges."

Magnetic Pole True Lord: "Of course, you need to have the artifact refining skill. After designing, if you don't have time to refine a good product, don't send one."

With Magnetic Pole True Lord's pointers, Zhang Yu gained more understanding of the key points for participating in the design competition.

In the following days, Zhang Yu received more and more daily videos from college students.

As the acceleration within Taiqing Realm unfolded, the daily lives of college students appeared before Zhang Yu.

Broken earth, collapsed teaching buildings, one ruined campus after another appeared in Zhang Yu's eyes, making him feel like he had entered a war zone.

He even saw, from the perspective of a college student's eye, a flying sword coming from the horizon, attacking their campus.

According to the college students, similar flying sword thunder sounds often rang over the campus.

They had already gotten used to immediately hiding in underground fortifications after each thunder sound.

"Is college so heavily affected by the war?"

Zhang Yu couldn't help recalling the civil engineering work he had done in colleges before: "It's much more intense than before."

Besides the war clouds hanging over various colleges, Zhang Yu also saw financial scars left by various Nascent Soul duels, such as teaching buildings that had been half sold off, campus land used to build factories, dormitories forcibly demolished...

And under the shadow of war, the spread of various demon cults within colleges seemed to become more frequent.

Although Zhang Yu didn't see a single demon cultist, through the constant anti-demon cult propaganda, inspections, and advertisements seen from the college students' perspectives, he could feel the tense situation.

Zhang Yu had seen more than once college students on the street being subjected to surprise inspections, especially those walking on the street during work or class hours, who were suspected of being demon cultists.

Various rumors about factory attacks causing shutdowns often circulated. Some said it was done by rival colleges, others said demon cultists did it to get a break. The chaotic news mixed together made it hard to see the truth.

And the aftermath of war, demon cults, financial crises... these various factors led to a sharp increase in stress among college students.

"The medicine price has gone up again."

"Alas, the principal said the pharmaceutical factory must first meet the needs of the giant enterprises above, so the production of medicines for our teachers and students has to be cut."

Giant enterprises... Zhang Yu had heard some people mention them.

They were giant corporations headquartered on levels 7 to 10 of Kunxu, with many businesses serving the Ten Great Sects.

Their status was in some aspects even higher than the Ten Great Universities, and compared to ordinary companies, they were completely on a different level.

Although the primary task of these giant enterprises was to serve the sects, in the process of serving, they inevitably had an impact on levels 1 to 6 of Kunxu.

Although their headquarters were on levels 7 to 10, they had a large number of subsidiary companies on levels 1 to 6, either responsible for import and export trade of each level or participating in local businesses.

If the first goal of these giant enterprises was to serve the sects, then their second goal was to frantically make money, earn resources, and produce products—because only in this way could they achieve the first goal.

As video after video jumped, Zhang Yu saw the last college daily video received today.

This college student was named Shui Haiyu, from a junior college under Wanfa University, named Shanhai Vocational University.

In the video, he was eagerly signing up for a club.

"Hello? Is this the Dual Cultivation Club?"

[]

"Can it really improve my grades?"

"Fine, then I'll sign up."

…

End of March.

Zhang Yu sighed quietly as he looked at his account.

"Sigh, over a hundred spirit coins gone just like that."

Not long ago, Lord Magnetic Pole had taken him to meet several judges in the spirit world's reception room, where he handed over the prepared spirit coins to each of them.

Fortunately, Zhang Yu's monthly income was now considerable, so the expenditure of a hundred spirit coins did not delay his artifact-refining plans.

The entire process of handing over the money was swift, quick, and simple—in Zhang Yu's view, there was almost no idle talk; it was just seeing people, introducing himself, and then stuffing the coins into their hands.

Zhang Yu even wondered whether these Nascent Soul Lords serving as judges had arranged for artifact spirits to receive them, because their manner of taking the money was far too procedural.

"I wonder how many contestants in this design competition have given them money."

"If there are more than ten, wouldn't each of them end up dividing several hundred spirit coins?"