Zhang Yu looked at the heavenly blue sand Level 1 (0/10) on the Yu Shu and couldn’t help but sigh at the long road ahead in his artifact refining journey.
But the next mont, the chill of ritual power surged in his heart, reminding him to keep going and interrupting his sighs.
Zhang Yu imdiately suppressed his distracting thoughts and began the second refinent of the heavenly blue sand.
"I bought the rights, rented the lab and equipnt, costing nearly 1 spirit coin; refining just once isn’t enough."
Zhang Yu checked the ti. The first refinent of heavenly blue sand took about 20 minutes, and he had rented the lab and equipnt for a total of 6 hours.
"Keep refining!"
Zhang Yu imdiately lifted his Gang Qi, sweeping it toward the materials on the side.
This ti, Zhang Yu’s actions were much more skilled, with waves of Gang Qi sweeping out as he simultaneously operated the materials and tools.
Zhang Yu felt that the process of refining the heavenly blue sand was quite similar to his usual cultivation techniques.
It’s just that he was treating the raw materials in front of him as his own body, using various immortal path techniques to transform them and finally achieve the desired immortal path effects.
And the process of progress was like the stronger his cultivation techniques beca, the more powerful the execution. The higher the level of refining the heavenly blue sand, the better the effect of the finished product.
Ye Xingli, standing by, watched Zhang Yu start the second refinent of the heavenly blue sand again and initially didn’t think much of it. Suddenly, she frowned slightly and said, "Isn’t the weight of the ore a bit less?"
Zhang Yu smiled and explained, "I want to save on material costs so that I can refine more tis."
Ye Xingli cautioned, "Different weights of ore will an different steps in the process, including the usage of Gang Qi, mana, and the temperature of the fire in the furnace."
"It’s better for a beginner to do everything according to the standard amounts. Once you improve your skills, then consider adjusting the quantities yourself."
Zhang Yu, of course, didn’t accept Ye Xingli’s suggestion.
Seeing Zhang Yu’s reluctance to listen, Ye Xingli just shook her head and didn’t push further, though she thought to herself, "This kid... his talent for refining isn’t anything special, but he’s quite stubborn."
However, Ye Xingli wasn’t surprised by this. Many beginners are like this.
Especially those who have already achieved good results in other fields often feel confident and need to stumble a few tis in the field of artifact refining to learn to be down-to-earth.
Ye Xingli watched as Zhang Yu continued refining this small portion of heavenly blue sand, eventually seeing that about half of the materials were successfully refined while the other half were wasted.
Ye Xingli shook her head vigorously, thinking Zhang Yu should understand by now.
Yet Zhang Yu looked at the heavenly blue sand Level 1 (1/10) on the Yu Shu and nodded to himself: "Indeed, even with changes in quantity, it still counts as one attempt."
Zhang Yu decided to continue reducing the portions to see the minimum amount of material he could use while still having the Yu Shu register the effort.
"In this way, I can further reduce the cost of my artifact refining practice."
Thinking of this, Zhang Yu turned to Ye Xingli and asked, "Senior, since I’m just refining heavenly blue sand, I don’t really need the other things in this lab. Do you want to use it?"
Ye Xingli’s heart was moved upon hearing this.
It wasn’t because she wanted to save money by cutting down on lab rental costs, as this amount of spirit coins wasn’t significant to her.
Rather, it was because, standing idle by Zhang Yu’s side, she might as well use the ti to do sothing of her own.
A few spirit coins aren’t important to her, but gaining a few hours for study and cultivation is very important.
Ye Xingli nodded, "Just in ti, I’m adjusting the magic remains in my body, so I could indeed use the equipnt here."
"I won’t take advantage of the lab rental fee; we can split it evenly."
"If you have any questions about artifact refining, feel free to ask anyti."
Zhang Yu watched as Ye Xingli dismantled her right arm, manipulating the magical remains with Gang Qi and then placing it onto a nearby device, observing the data while infusing it with waves of special mana.
In his heart, Zhang Yu thought, "The things I’m currently refining are too simple. Using a lab alone is too wasteful."
"If I could share lab rental with soone in the future, splitting the cost, I’d save more spirit coins."
Since successfully completing the first refinent of heavenly blue sand, Zhang Yu had been pondering how to spend fewer spirit coins to advance his artifact refining journey.
"If I could also sell the heavenly blue sand, perhaps I could even make so money?"
But Zhang Yu quickly dismissed this idea: "No, it’s impossible to make money; at best, I could recover so costs."
Zhang Yu knew that sothing as basic as heavenly blue sand was already mass-produced in many companies and factories.
Not only was their cost lower than his, but their average quality was also higher.
If he wanted to sell heavenly blue sand, he would probably have to sell at a loss just to recoup so costs.
"And mass production, given my current conditions, is completely impossible."
Zhang Yu knew that whether it be magic treasures or magic remains, producing these items manually one by one was entirely different from the mass production on an assembly line.
"To set up a mass production line, either buy one or build one yourself."
"The forr requires a lot of funds, while the latter needs much less but requires high levels of artifact refining skills."
Obviously, Zhang Yu was not yet capable in either aspect.
"For now, I should lay a solid foundation and focus on improving my artifact refining skills."
Zhang Yu continued to repeatedly adjust the quantities of materials, constantly experinting with refining cyan sand.
Finally, he discovered that as long as the material usage was over one-tenth, each refining completion could increase the completion count of Yu Shu by 1.
He thought happily to himself, "Great, this way, I can reduce the cost of practice materials to one-tenth."
After trying adjustnts in quantities, Zhang Yu decided to make changes in actions and timing to see if he could further reduce the ti spent on each refining of cyan sand.
After all, Zhang Yu understood that using Yu Shu’s specialized abilities for cultivation was logically different from regular cultivation practices...
Just like his previous cultivation techniques, as long as he completed one full operation, the count would increase by 1, gradually improving the technique’s level.
As for the process of running the cultivation technique, his actions and quality could undergo certain adjustnts and reductions, as long as they remained within a certain range.
Zhang Yu had always used this thod to speed up the progression of his cultivation techniques.
Of course, the function of Yu Shu was not without its flaws.
For example, every technique transferred to Yu Shu’s specialization would start anew from Level 1, needing to be improved through repeated practice.
Thus... even if Zhang Yu had practiced a lot of similar martial arts or various body refining techniques, if he started practicing similar techniques again, it wouldn’t have an effect of imdiate understanding, but would need to build up from Level 0, one step at a ti.
The sa logic applied to artifact refining skills in his view.
"It also requires repeated practice to push the level upward."
"But the quality and timing during practice, I believe, can be compressed."
"My cultivation logic is entirely different from ordinary people practicing cultivation techniques or refining artifact skills..."
As Zhang Yu repeatedly adjusted the refining process of cyan sand, Ye Xingli occasionally observed, becoming more speechless with each look.
"Zhang Yu... how is he making it so ssy?"
"Not only saving materials, but also randomly adjusting actions and timing?"
Ye Xingli knew that since the integration of the immortal path by the Ten Great Sects, everything had strived to beco standardized and digitized. Now every aspect of immortal path technology was systemized.
Artifact refining naturally was the sa.
In contrast to the past, where every sect felt like a handicraft workshop, even the refined magic treasures had only rough realm divisions, lacking detailed level distinctions.
The evaluation system for magic treasures and the refining process were now extraordinarily sophisticated.
And for a cultivator to improve their artifact refining skills and create higher-level magic treasures, they need to continuously learn and conduct high-quality practice.
"Zhang Yu, your random practice is not effective."
Ye Xingli couldn’t help but advise, "If you want to save on practice costs, there are more formal, comprehensive thods than this."
"For example, you can sell the cyan sand you refine to recoup so money."
"After all, cyan sand is a basic material required in many magic treasure refinents. Many teachers and students in the Artifact Refining Departnt would buy it."
"You could also use the Spirit Realm’s simulation lab to conduct simulation practice, which costs significantly less than physical practice."
Zhang Yu was naturally aware of these money-saving thods that Ye Xingli ntioned.
But judging by his current cost compression results, he believed he could bring costs lower than the simulation lab while also obtaining so finished cyan sand.
Ye Xingli naturally didn’t know Zhang Yu’s inner thoughts and began to introduce other cost-reduction thods.
"It’s not only simple products like cyan sand that can have their cost reduced for practice."
"The sa applies to more advanced magic treasures. Besides the simulation lab, you can also use low-cost materials for substitution and practice by producing inferior versions."
"For more advanced magic treasures, even after the initial refinent is completed, repeated maintenance, adjustnts, and enhancents can improve artifact refining skills, and these processes cost much less as well."
"Like my master’s Nine Heavens Primordial Yang Tower, which was improved step by step through repeated tempering, repair, and enhancent, raising the magic treasure level from Level 31 to Level 40."
"During this process, my master’s artifact refining skills greatly improved, reaching Level 40 in manufacturing technology of the Nine Heavens Primordial Yang Tower."
Zhang Yu knew that achieving Level 40 in manufacturing technology for the Nine Heavens Primordial Yang Tower ant that with complete materials and production environnt, Magnetic Pole True Monarch could directly refine a Level 40 Nine Heavens Primordial Yang Tower.
"But this thing sounds expensive just by its na, surely requiring a lot of effort," Zhang Yu thought to himself. "Unless soone offers a high price, Magnetic Pole True Monarch probably wouldn’t easily produce a second one."
Ye Xingli actually had another important cost-saving thod she hadn’t ntioned, which was to participate in school refining projects, using project funds to purchase materials, rent space, and buy equipnt to enhance one’s refining skills.
After all, the field of artifact refining is exceedingly costly. Even Ye Xingli, who is quite wealthy, always feels that money is never enough, and the refining budget is always overrun.
Therefore, as a top student in the Artifact Refining Departnt, she participates in various refining projects.
Asking for funding is seen as an essential skill for becoming a refining expert, one that must be learned.
However, as Zhang Yu is a student in the Civil Engineering Departnt, still at an introductory level, this is too far out of reach for him, so she simply refrained from ntioning it.
And as Ye Xingli was advising Zhang Yu, he finally completed another refining of cyan sand.
Cyan Sand Level 2 (0/20)
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