No Money to Cultivate Immortality?

“The order for the Dragonvein Treasurecasting Sutra?”

Seeing the message from Ye Xingli, Zhang Yu’s eyes lit up.

Although after transferring into the Artifact Refinement Department, Zhang Yu had already decided to tackle a prototype of the Heaven-Sun Radiant Deity first, he hadn’t jumped straight into the process. Instead, he kept stockpiling “artifact-refinement prodigy” progress.

Sharpening the knife never delays the woodcut. Given his grasp of the Chain Diagram’s set bonuses, that prodigy track was highly likely to pay off long-term for his path in artifact refining.

In particular, he had already pushed both the Appraisal Technique and the Dragonvein Treasurecasting Sutra to level 20, and the Divine Fire Mirror to level 10. He was getting closer and closer to the six techniques required for the first tier of the prodigy effect.

By his own estimate, he’d finish within two months.

The only headache left was money.

“This artifact-refinement path is great in every way—except it burns cash.”

“Practicing artifact blueprints costs spirit coins.”

“Cultivating artifact-refinement techniques costs even more spirit coins.”To cultivate the Divine Fire Mirror, besides buying fire-seeds to condense Fire-Taming True Qi, Zhang Yu also needed practice artifacts.

After all, this technique was about wielding true fire to refine artifacts, improving material strength and heat resistance.

Along the way, even though he bought secondhand artifacts, they still ate a chunk of his spirit coins.

At the start, when his Divine Fire Mirror level was low and his technique clumsy, he only bought the worst secondhand pieces—practice works under level 3. The good part was that they were dirt cheap, but low-level to begin with, and after being re-fired by his low-level Divine Fire Mirror, they were basically unsellable.

To be fair, Zhang Yu hadn’t expected those practice-grade, practice-strengthened junkers to sell at all. Later he realized even junior college students had artifact needs—their purchasing power was just too weak.

He still remembered: the more he practiced, the more he spent. At his peak, his account dropped nearly 10 spirit coins in a single day.

As his Divine Fire Mirror level rose, Zhang Yu tried buying slightly better artifacts: level 5, 9, 10, even 11.

After repeated testing, he found that artifacts at level 11 sold the best after his Divine Fire Mirror refinement.

Especially pieces like the Ground-Stabilizing Seal and the Groundfiend Bottle, which could be used for earthworks and construction.

“Level-11 artifacts reach Foundation Establishment grade. Compared to those under level 10, their performance jumps in kind.”

“And construction artifacts don’t need to chase the extreme. Make them sturdy and durable and people are happy. Lots of folks aren’t about to use a level-20 artifact to work overtime.”

“So for job sites, level-11 artifacts hit the sweet spot—lower cost, higher efficiency, the most practical choice.”

That way, the practice pieces were easier to resell and recoup some blood, greatly easing the spirit-coin drain of cultivating the Divine Fire Mirror.

“Now that the Divine Fire Mirror is at level 10, besides listing my half-finished practice pieces secondhand for the civil-engineering students, I can also open a little custom service—refining other people’s artifacts while training the technique.”

Zhang Yu did a quick mental tally. Spending while earning, pushing the Divine Fire Mirror to level 20 from here should cost another 15 to 20 spirit coins.

Every time he thought of this, he couldn’t help but sigh.

Thankfully, artifacts in Kunxu aren’t like the ones in the xianxia novels he read in his previous life—refined once and they last for decades or centuries. Otherwise who would he sell all these artifacts to?

In Kunxu, artifacts wear down as soon as they’re used. Durability and performance drop. They need maintenance, repairs, they become obsolete, get eliminated, and end up scrapped…

Zhang Yu used to complain that Kunxu’s artifacts just didn’t last. Ever since he set foot on the artifact-refinement track, he gradually realized he’d been too narrow-minded.

“If one artifact could last a few generations without repairs or maintenance, is that reasonable? Does that make sense? How would our Artifact Refinement Department put food on the table?”

“If I couldn’t rely on selling artifacts to recoup costs, pushing the Divine Fire Mirror to level 20 would burn a hundred spirit coins and still come up short. Then this artifact-refinement road would really be a dead end.”

“But once the artifact-refinement prodigy effect is unlocked, I’ve no idea how many spirit coins that Heaven-Sun Radiant Deity prototype will gulp down. I’d better hustle and make money.”

He glanced at his bank account. A 20-spirit-coin bonus had come in, but he’d paid for Mo Shangjin’s Seven Absolutes Law Husk, disbursed company payroll, and burned money cultivating the Divine Fire Mirror.

Before long, his balance was under 3 spirit coins.

“Ugh. The more I earn, the faster I practice; the faster I practice, the more I burn per unit time.”

“Spirit coins are never enough.”

Short on cash like this, he was naturally delighted to see Ye Xingli’s new order involving the Dragonvein Treasurecasting Sutra.

Zhang Yu: “I’ll take it.”

Ye Xingli: “[Zi Yunzhen]”

Ye Xingli: “Junior brother, since you’ve officially joined the Artifact Refinement Department, there’s no need to keep things under wraps.”

Ye Xingli: “Just contact her yourself.”

All along, Ye Xingli had been consigning artifacts and refinement services for Zhang Yu under True Lord Magneto’s instructions, mainly to keep his artifact-refinement ability hidden before the transfer.

Now that he’d switched departments successfully, she couldn’t be bothered to keep covering for him.

Moments later, Zhang Yu added Zi Yunzhen as a friend.

Seeing his request, Zi Yunzhen blinked. “What’s this civil-engineering guy adding me for? Don’t tell me he wants to pick my brain about the refinement courses.”

She opened the friend request message and blinked again.

Zhang Yu: “Need Dragonvein Treasurecasting Sutra services?”

Zi Yunzhen thought to herself, “Is Zhang Yu acting as a broker? Or a sales rep? Did some data platform leak my demand?”

She knew lots of lower-year artifact-refinement students with weak technique did sales or brokering off the department’s background.

Thinking he might be a refinement material valued by True Lord Magneto, Zi Yunzhen still approved the friend request.

Zhang Yu: “May I ask if you’re the one who needs Dragonvein Treasurecasting Sutra services?”

Zi Yunzhen: “Sorry, I’ve already hired someone.”

Zhang Yu: “From Senior Sister Ye Xingli’s side? She’s the one who sent me.”

Zhang Yu: “What artifact are you planning to infuse with dragonvein power?”

Zi Yunzhen replied, suspicious: “You can use the Dragonvein Treasurecasting Sutra?”

She added: “My standards are high. If your level’s not up to it, I’m not interested.”

Zi Yunzhen: “Junior brother, you just transferred from Civil Engineering. Focus on your classes first.”

Reading that, Zhang Yu knew he couldn’t pretend he hadn’t seen it.

In artifact refinement, personal reputation is like brand equity—always crucial.

Take the Jihu brand—was its technology really inferior to the Myriad Artisans Sect? Inferior to Vajra Forge?

In Zhang Yu’s view, not necessarily.

But in pricing, Jihu just couldn’t beat Myriad Artisans Sect, and its high-end models weren’t recognized outside of the Immortal Soldier University system.

That’s reputation—the difference that brand value and brand tone create.

It’s the same for individual cultivators. A student who transferred in from Civil Engineering—does that automatically mean his refinement level can’t match a “pureblood” artifact refiner?

To Zhang Yu, absolutely not.

But he understood that many people carried that bias.

This was when he had to protect his refinement name the way one protects brand value—protect his personal brand equity.

Back when he hadn’t transferred, he could hide behind Ye Xingli. Now he had to fly his own banner.

If he didn’t safeguard his personal brand, how would he make money? If he couldn’t make money, how would he cultivate?

Especially since their chat was already in the log.

If he backed down here, and Zi Yunzhen went around sharing screenshots—“This Zhang Yu knew nothing right after switching to Artifact Refinement, tried to do custom work, and I set him straight and sent him back to class”—that black history could haunt him for life. Every time he made the news, regardless of whether it was good or bad, someone would pop up to bring it up—terrible damage to brand value.

He couldn’t gamble that Zi Yunzhen wouldn’t do that; he didn’t know her temperament or character.

He didn’t know many people in Artifact Refinement, but he did know one person who’d do exactly that sort of thing… though that one had been reassigned to Civil Engineering already.

The odds weren’t low.

So Zhang Yu simply replied: “My Dragonvein Treasurecasting Sutra is already level 20. I’ve also taken several orders through Senior Sister Ye Xingli. My level in this area is solid.”

Zhang Yu: “Classmate Zi Yunzhen, if you’re unsure, take a look at my artifact—the Taiyi Liquid Gold Pill.”

Zi Yunzhen tapped it open and found the linked artifact parameters. Her gaze immediately grew serious.

Sending your artifact’s stat sheet like this was akin to ancient cultivators examining one another’s treasures—a way artifact refiners communicated.

You could talk the talk all day, but nothing was more convincing than showing an artifact you’d refined.

And refining artifacts was time-consuming and labor-intensive; you couldn’t just brawl everyone you met to demonstrate power.

In modern times, it was even simpler.

The artifact system had been standardized by the Ten Major Sects; levels and parameters were crystal-clear. One look, and you could roughly gauge the refiner’s level—more useful than a résumé for an artifact refiner.

Can’t understand the parameters?

That only proves your refinement level is far below the other party’s.

Zi Yunzhen read carefully, planning to finish and then offer a proper critique.

Temperature: 39 degrees

Martial-qi conduction: 99%

Mana storage: 999

Spirit-energy circuits: sixty-fourfold

Intelligent artifact spirit: none

Dragonvein infusion: 20 units

…

Line by line, she went through it. She hadn’t invested much effort into the Taiyi Liquid Gold Pill herself, and her current craft level in this pill was only level 10, but she could still read these parameters.

“A level-20 Taiyi Liquid Gold Pill.”

“Refined via five-plus stacked fusion batches…”

“And subjected to two passes of the Dragonvein Treasurecasting Sutra…”

The more she read, the more she felt the refinement level of this Taiyi Liquid Gold Pill was extremely high.

“Did Zhang Yu really refine this?”

At the bottom of the parameters were the refiner credits.

Refiner: Wanfa University, Zhang Yu

Secondary refinement: Wanfa University, Zhang Yu

Next Chapter >