Chapter 399: Reduce Refining Costs

Zhang Yu looked at the Azure Sand Grade 1 (0/10) display on his Jade Scroll and couldn't help but sigh at the long road ahead for artifact refining.

However, the next moment, a chill from the ritualistic power surged within him, reminding him to persevere and cutting short his lament.

Zhang Yu immediately suppressed his distracting thoughts and began the second refining of Azure Sand.

"Buying the blueprint, renting the laboratory and equipment—it cost me nearly one spirit coin in total. One refining session is definitely not enough."

Zhang Yu checked the time. The first refining of Azure Sand took about 20 minutes, and he had rented the lab and equipment for a total of six hours!

Time to continue refining.

Zhang Yu immediately channeled his Vital Qi, sweeping it towards the materials beside him.

This time, Zhang Yu's movements were much more skilled. Streams of Vital Qi surged out as he simultaneously manipulated the materials and tools.

Zhang Yu felt that the process of refining Azure Sand was quite similar to his usual cultivation of martial arts.

It was merely treating the raw materials in front of him as his own body, using various immortal techniques to transform them to achieve the desired immortal effects.

The process of improvement was like martial arts: the more you practiced, the stronger the effects.

The higher the refining level of Azure Sand, the better the quality of the finished product.

Beside him, Ye Xingli watched Zhang Yu begin his second Azure Sand refining session. Initially, she paid little attention, but then her brow furrowed slightly. "Is the amount of ore a bit too little?" she asked.

Ye Xingli advised, "If the ore quantity is different, then all subsequent steps—including the channeling of Vital Qi, the exertion of magic power, and the heat of the Molten Fire Furnace—will also need to be different! As a novice, it's best to follow the standard proportions for everything. Once your skill improves, then you can consider adjusting the quantities yourself."

Zhang Yu naturally did not accept Ye Xingli's suggestion.

Seeing Zhang Yu ignore her advice, Ye Xingli shook her head and didn't press further. She thought to herself, "This kid! His artifact refining talent is mediocre, but he's incredibly stubborn!"

However, Ye Xingli wasn't surprised; novices often behaved this way.

Especially novices who had already achieved notable success in other fields were always full of self-confidence and usually needed to stumble a few times in artifact refining before learning to be practical.

Ye Xingli watched Zhang Yu continue to refine the smaller batch of Azure Sand. In the end, only about half of the materials were successfully refined, with the other half wasted.

Ye Xingli shook her head vigorously, thinking that Zhang Yu should understand now.

Zhang Yu, however, secretly nodded as he looked at the Azure Sand Grade 1 (1/10) display on his Jade Scroll. "Sure enough, even with a changed quantity, it still counts as one attempt!"

Zhang Yu decided to continue reducing the quantity to see how low he could go while still having the Jade Scroll count the attempts.

"This way, I can further reduce the cost of my artifact refining cultivation!"

As this thought crossed his mind, Zhang Yu looked at Ye Xingli beside him and asked, "Senior Sister, since I'm only refining Azure Sand and won't be using the other equipment in this lab, do you need to use any of it?"

Hearing this, Ye Xingli's heart stirred.

It wasn't that she wanted to save money or cut down on lab rental fees; after all, a few spirit coins meant little to her.

Rather, she was standing idly by, watching Zhang Yu, and thought it would be better to use the time to do something of her own.

A small amount of spirit coins was insignificant to her, but a few extra hours for study and cultivation would be very important.

Ye Xingli nodded. "Coincidentally, I've been adjusting the magical skeletal arm on my body recently, and I could indeed use the equipment here! Oh, about the lab rent, I won't take advantage of you; we can split it. And regarding artifact refining, feel free to ask me any questions you have!"

Zhang Yu watched Ye Xingli detach her right arm, manipulate the magical skeletal arm with Vital Qi, then place it on a nearby instrument, observing the data while channeling streams of specialized magic power into it.

Zhang Yu thought to himself, "The things I'm refining right now are too simple. Using this lab alone is too wasteful. If I could rent the lab with someone else in the future and split the rent, then I could save another chunk of spirit coins!"

Ever since he successfully completed the first refining of Azure Sand, Zhang Yu had been pondering how to spend fewer spirit coins to advance his artifact refining journey.

"If I could also sell the Azure Sand, then maybe I could even earn some money."

"No, I probably wouldn't make money. At most, I'd just break even!"

But Zhang Yu quickly dismissed this idea. He knew that basic materials like Azure Sand were already being mass-produced on assembly lines by many companies and factories.

Not only were their costs lower than his, but their average quality also surpassed his. If he wanted to sell Azure Sand, he'd likely have to sell at a loss just to recover some cost, and mass production was simply impossible under his current conditions.

Zhang Yu understood that for the production of items like magical artifacts or skeletal arms, manually refining them one by one was entirely different from mass production on an assembly line.

"To set up a mass production line, you either buy one or build one yourself! The former requires a lot of capital, while the latter requires much less capital but demands very high artifact refining skills! Clearly, Zhang Yu currently met neither of these conditions. For now, I should focus on building a solid foundation and improving my artifact refining skills!"

Next, Zhang Yu continued to adjust the material quantities and repeatedly attempted to refine Azure Sand.

Eventually, he discovered that as long as the material used was more than one-tenth of the standard, each successful refining attempt would increase the Jade Scroll's completion count by one.

He rejoiced inwardly, "Excellent! This way, I can reduce the cost of practice materials to just one-tenth!"

After experimenting with quantity adjustments, Zhang Yu decided to also adjust his movements and timing to see if he could further reduce the time spent on each Azure Sand refining session.

After all, Zhang Yu understood that cultivating using the Jade Scroll's proficiency ability was logically different from his other daily cultivation.

"It was like his previous martial arts cultivation: as long as he fully executed a technique once, it would count as one attempt, gradually increasing the skill's level. As for the process of executing the technique, his movements and quality could have some deformation or reduction, as long as they remained within a certain range."

Zhang Yu had always used this method to accelerate his martial arts cultivation speed.

Of course, this function of the Jade Scroll was not without its drawbacks.

For instance, any skill switched to the Jade Scroll's proficiency mode would need to start from Level 1 and continuously improve through practice attempts.

Therefore, even if Zhang Yu had already practiced numerous similar martial arts, such as various body-tempering techniques or protective spells, practicing another similar technique would not grant him an 'instant mastery' effect. He would still need to start from Level 0, stacking attempts one by one to level up.

The same applied to artifact refining skills in his opinion.

"It also requires repeated practice attempts to advance its level! However, the quality and time during the practice process should be compressible!"

My cultivation logic was completely different from how ordinary people practiced martial arts or refined artifacts.

As Zhang Yu repeatedly adjusted the Azure Sand refining process, Ye Xingli, observing him from the side occasionally, became increasingly speechless.

"This Zhang Yu... why is he making such a mess of it! Not only is he trying to save materials, but why is he also randomly adjusting his movements and timing?"

Ye Xingli knew that ever since the Ten Great Sects had compiled and integrated immortal cultivation, everything had been standardized and digitized as much as possible. Now, every aspect of immortal techniques had a systematic design.

Artifact refining was naturally no exception.

Unlike the past, where various sects felt like handicraft workshops, and even the refined artifacts only had broad categorical divisions without detailed level distinctions.

The current artifact evaluation system and refining process were already extremely perfected.

For cultivators to improve their artifact refining skills and create higher-grade artifacts, they needed to constantly study and then engage in high-quality practice.

"Zhang Yu, you can't just practice so haphazardly!"

Ye Xingli couldn't help but remind him, "If you want to save on practice costs, there are more formal, established methods, not this way! For example, the Azure Sand you refine can be sold to recoup some of your investment! After all, Azure Sand was a basic material needed in the refining process of many artifacts, and many teachers and students in the Artifact Refining Department would purchase it. You can also practice in the Spirit World's simulation labs; it's much cheaper than practicing with real materials!"

Zhang Yu, of course, knew about the money-saving methods Ye Xingli mentioned. But based on his current cost-reduction results, he believed he could lower the cost even further than a simulation lab while still producing some finished Azure Sand.

Ye Xingli naturally had no idea of Zhang Yu's thoughts and simply continued to introduce other cost-saving methods.

"It's not just simple products like Azure Sand that allow for low-cost practice! The same goes for more advanced artifacts; besides simulation labs, you can also substitute cheaper materials and practice by producing inferior versions! As for even higher-end artifacts, after the first refining, you can also improve your artifact refining skills by repeatedly maintaining, adjusting, and strengthening them, which also costs significantly less!"

"For example, my master's Nine Heavens Primordial Yang Pagoda was refined again and again through tempering, repairing, and strengthening, raising its artifact level from 31 to 40! During this process, my master's artifact refining skills also greatly improved, and the manufacturing technique for the Nine Heavens Primordial Yang Pagoda reached Level 40!"

Zhang Yu knew that "the manufacturing technique for the Nine Heavens Primordial Yang Pagoda reached Level 40" meant that, with complete materials and a suitable production environment, True Lord Magnetic Pole could directly create a Nine Heavens Primordial Yang Pagoda of artifact Level 40.

However, just hearing the name of that item suggested it would be very expensive and definitely time-consuming.

Zhang Yu thought, "Unless someone offers a high price, True Lord Magnetic Pole probably wouldn't easily produce a second one!"

Ye Xingli actually had one more important money-saving method she hadn't mentioned: participating in the school's artifact refining projects and using project funds to purchase materials, rent venues, and buy equipment to advance one's artifact refining cultivation.

After all, artifact refining was incredibly expensive. Even though Ye Xingli was already wealthy, she always felt she didn't have enough money, and her artifact refining budget was constantly over budget!

Therefore, top students in the Artifact Refining Department like her virtually all participated in various artifact refining projects. To her, soliciting funds was an essential skill for becoming a powerful refiner, something that had to be learned.

However, as a civil engineering student who was just starting out, Zhang Yu was too far from these opportunities, so she simply didn't mention them.

And just as Ye Xingli was advising Zhang Yu, he finally completed another refining session of Azure Sand!

Azure Sand Grade 2 (0/20)!