Chapter 624: Chapter 563: Infiltrating the Sect?
After discussing the matter of gift-giving with Zhang Yu, the Magnetic Pole True Monarch asked about Zhang Yu’s preparations for the design competition.
Magnetic Pole True Monarch: What kind of work are you planning to design? Do you have a direction in mind?
Zhang Yu: I’m currently working with senior sister to investigate college students...
Thus, Zhang Yu talked about his plan to gather information about college students, aiming to create a product suitable for the college and underclass markets.
Listening to Zhang Yu’s words, the Magnetic Pole True Monarch slightly furrowed his brow and responded: It does have commercial potential,
Magnetic Pole True Monarch: But remember, there are no college students among the judges.
Magnetic Pole True Monarch: If your design carries too strong a likeness to college students, the judges might not buy into it.
Zhang Yu: I understand.
Zhang Yu: From what I’ve gathered so far, college students actually don’t like to be too associated with that identity. I’ll make adjustments in that aspect.
Magnetic Pole True Monarch: It’s good that you have a grasp of it.
Magnetic Pole True Monarch: Once your design diagram is done, you can send a copy to me; I’ll help you review it.
Magnetic Pole True Monarch: While it’s true that a design competition allows just design diagrams for participation and awards, showcasing an actual product can make you stand out, capturing the judges’ attention.
Magnetic Pole True Monarch: Of course, that requires refining expertise; if you don’t have time to forge a quality piece, don’t send the product out.
With the insights provided by the Magnetic Pole True Monarch, Zhang Yu gained a deeper 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.
With the accelerated pace within the Taiqing Realm, the daily lives of college students have appeared before Zhang Yu.
The shattered earth, collapsed lecture buildings, and destroyed campuses appeared in Zhang Yu’s eyes, making him feel like he was in a warzone.
He even saw, from a college student’s eye perspective, a flying sword descending from the sky, attacking their campus.
According to the students, similar flying sword thunders are frequently heard above the campus.
They have become accustomed to immediately rushing into underground defense bunkers whenever the thunder sounds.
"Is the impact of the war on colleges this severe?"
In Zhang Yu’s heart, he couldn’t help but recall his past civil engineering work at college institutions: "It’s much more intense than before."
Besides the war clouds looming over various colleges, Zhang Yu also saw financial scars left by divinity transformations, like half-sold lecture buildings, campus land taken for factories, and dormitories forcibly demolished...
Under the war clouds, the spread of demon sects in colleges seems even more frequent.
Though Zhang Yu didn’t see a single demon cultist, the frequent anti-demon sect propaganda, inspections, and advertisements seen from the students’ perspectives made the situation feel even more tense.
Zhang Yu has seen more than once the sudden checks on students walking the streets, especially during work hours or class time, with anyone walking the streets suspected as demon cultists.
File factory attacks causing production halts also occasionally surface, some saying it’s done by rival institutions, others claiming it’s demon cultists taking a break; chaotic messages intertwine, obscuring the truth.
War, demon cult, financial crisis aftermath... all these factors have resulted in increased pressure on college students.
"The medicine prices went up again."
"Alas, the principal said, the pharma factories must first meet the elite enterprise needs, reducing the drugs produced for our school’s teachers and students."
Elite enterprises... Zhang Yu had heard people talk about them before.
They are mega-corporations headquartered between the 7th and 10th Kunxu layers, doing considerable business serving the Ten Great Sects.
In some respects, they even surpass the Ten Great Universities in stature, compared to ordinary companies, they’re entirely another dimension of existence.
Though their primary mission is to serve sects, in doing so, they inevitably impact the 1st to 6th Kunxu layers.
Although headquartered on levels 7 through 10, they have numerous subsidiaries in levels 1 through 6, responsible either for import-export trade or engaging in local business.
If these elite enterprises’ first goal is serving sects, then their second is crazily making money, acquiring resources, and producing products... because only then can they fulfill their first goal.
As the videos skipped one by one, Zhang Yu saw the last college daily he received today.
This college student named Shui Haiyu is from a college beneath Wanfa University, called Mountain and Sea Professional University.
In the video, he excitedly enrolls in a club.
"Hello? Is this the Dual Cultivation Society?"
"Can it indeed improve my grades?"
"Okay, I’m signing up."
...
End of March.
Zhang Yu looked at his account and sighed secretly.
"Alas, over 100 spirit coins are just gone."
Just recently, the Magnetic Pole True Monarch took him to the Spirit Realm’s guest room to meet a few judges separately, sending prepared spirit coins to each.
Fortunately, Zhang Yu’s monthly earnings are sizable, so spending these 100 spirit coins hasn’t delayed his artifact refining plan.
The whole process of bribing was swift, quick, and simple. To Zhang Yu, it seemed almost without any nonsense; just meet, introduce, and then hand over the money.
Zhang Yu even suspected that these Nascent Soul True Monarchs who served as judges might all have arranged for the Artifact Spirits to meet them, as their money-taking actions were 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 get hundreds of spirit coins?"
Thinking of how easily the judges earned money, Zhang Yu secretly envied them.
However, he soon discarded these distracting thoughts and focused on the experiment table.
Today was the day Zhang Yu officially started crafting the Taixiao Holy Law Sword Formation.
This military-level magic treasure consisted of twelve flying swords forming a sword array, incorporating a lot of flying sword technology and the mysteries of array techniques.
If not for Zhang Yu being blessed by Yu Shu, possessing the Taiqing Realm, and accelerated by his talents in Artifact Refining, he would perhaps take another year to even begin crafting.
Unlike now, as the blueprints of pre-required magic treasures were practiced to Level 20, the related technologies of the Taixiao Holy Law Sword Formation were deeply etched into his mind.
"First, the initial flying sword."
Next, Zhang Yu planned to first refine the initial Taixiao Sacred Law Flying Sword, then step by step refine to Level 20.
Only by mastering Level 20 technology like this, can the subsequent refinement of eleven Level 20 flying swords be much simpler.
With the mana inside him turning, a genuine fire already boiled under his control, simultaneously locking the purchased sword material tightly under the electric light ignited by the refining equipment at the experiment table.
On the other side, the third-level spiritual mechanism, cleaned and purified by assistants, was also extracted by Zhang Yu.
Spiritual mechanisms have levels too, purified and impurity-removed spiritual mechanisms play various roles in spellcasting and artifact refining.
But Zhang Yu naturally had no time to do these tasks, leaving them to Zi Yunzhen and Su Yuni.
Watching the sword embryos unfold, Zhang Yu began to infuse them with Spirit Realm restrictions.
"The communication technology of the Taixiao Sacred Law Flying Sword is crucial; it’s key for the future sword array to convey Sword Intent and cut through the Spirit Realm..."
In the coming days, apart from watching college students’ daily activities and collecting related information, most of Zhang Yu’s energy was devoted to refining the Taixiao Sacred Law Flying Sword.
But an incident that day drew him away from sword refining.
...
Dark Spirit Realm.
The projections of Fu Ji and Zhang Yu sat on chairs, looking at the thousand-footed, thousand-handed Xi Shen before them, saying: "Oh? You want me to help?"
"Hmph, I’ve already helped you more than once, haven’t I?"
"Yet you offered some vague intelligence as compensation, with no sincerity at all. Why should I help you again?"
During this time, Fu Ji would occasionally communicate with the Evil Gods, both collecting information about them and understanding their current status, situation, and trends, as well as building further trust with them.
The existence of the Dark Spirit Realm, because of its safety zones, allows the Evil Gods a basic space for communication, without immediate calls for violence.
Previous collaborations and exchanges have established basic trust between Fu Ji and Xi Shen.
Fu Ji is very interested in the plans and whereabouts of the Evil Gods.
Xi Shen is also interested in Fu Ji’s arrangements and power at Wanfa University, and has hinted several times for Fu Ji to join their plan.
But whenever Fu Ji asked what their plan really was, Xi Shen would always evade the topic with a smile.
Yet, through multiple probes and exchanges... Xi Shen increasingly sensed Fu Ji’s veteran status. Coupled with her frequent mentions of deeds involving the Evil God King, he could perceive the profoundness of this Fushen, who even knew various secrets like the back of her hand.
Until today, sensing the time is right, Xi Shen said: "Fushen, haven’t you been wanting to know what we plan to do?"
Fu Ji and Zhang Yu’s hearts twitched, ears pricked up to listen to what comes next.
Xi Shen said: "To show sincerity, before asking for your help this time, I can divulge a little more information."
"Our target is to pinpoint the reincarnated great figures within those sects."
Fu Ji’s heart skipped a beat: "Qiongjiang Divine Monarch?"
The thousand eyes over Xi Shen’s thousand hands and feet seemed to narrow, revealing slight amusement: "Correct, Qiongjiang Divine Monarch has secretly transferred cultivation for numerous reincarnated great figures, and their avoided Five Heavenly Taxes is astronomical."
"The sect disciples implicated are enough to shake the Ten Great Sects, making even Immortals furrow their brows."
"However, our aim is certainly not to help Immortals with anti-corruption."
"Our aim is, through Qiongjiang Divine Monarch, to discover the list of reincarnated great figures and their secret transfers of cultivation, tax evasion records."
Fu Ji’s heart trembled: "You plan to use this method to blackmail these reincarnated great figures? To infiltrate the sects?"
"You have tremendous audacity."
"But merely you cannot accomplish that."
"There are higher-ranking Evil Gods above you, aren’t there?"
"There must also be someone in the sects coordinating with you; who is it?"