No Money to Cultivate Immortality?

”Did he refuse?”

”I see.”

”No worries. You can go back to what you were doing.”

After ending the call with Le Mulan, a thoughtful look flickered across Yin Jiurao’s face.

”A Foundation Establishment student from the Civil Engineering Department, and he won’t even sell his fertility rights? Not even the seed samples?”

”There’s definitely something fishy going on here.”

As a professor in the Pharmacology Department, Yin Jiurao normally wouldn’t care about the genetic material of a Civil Engineering major, not even one who’d broken into the competition’s top ten as a sophomore.

But a certain acquaintance had asked her to look into Zhang Yu’s data—and had even tipped her off with a shocking piece of information.

The Nascent Soul disciple Wen Wuya from Heavenly Sword Sect University was Zhang Yu’s dual cultivation partner.

If Wen Wuya was interested in dual cultivation, then Zhang Yu had to be hiding something.At first, Yin Jiurao dismissed it as idle gossip.

Especially after reviewing the biological data from the Life Sciences Department—some of Zhang Yu’s bodily samples had been sold there—she felt even more certain it was nonsense.

She had found nothing special in his bloodline data or dual cultivation potential.

A dignified Nascent Soul cultivator—why would someone like that choose a student with no dual cultivation aptitude?

Until… another piece of news reached her.

”Wen Wuya has transformed himself into a biological female?”

”But his gender identity is clearly male.”

A guy who identifies as male… so why undergo female transformation?

Staring at Zhang Yu’s file, Yin Jiurao was suddenly struck by a wild, borderline unbelievable guess.

”Don’t tell me Wen Wuya did it just to dual cultivate with Zhang Yu…?”

Maybe she had underestimated this kid. Maybe there really was something special about him.

And now that he had outright refused her offer, it only made her more suspicious.

”Heh.”

”If you won’t sell it, I’ll just have to take it another way.”

Yin Jiurao decided it was time to activate her Seed Theft Plan.

She muttered to herself, ”I wonder when Wen Wuya and Zhang Yu will have their session? If I can use that moment to piggyback and steal Wen Wuya’s bloodline data too… that would be a huge score.”

…

Feng Tingting: Zhang Yu, why haven’t you installed a Law Husk?

Feng Tingting: Don’t tell me you’re one of those Artifact School boomers?

Feng Tingting: Ugh, our Artifact Refinement Department has both Artifact and Law Husk factions. Those old professors from the Artifact faction are always pushing this ‘Artifact supremacy’ nonsense, calling Law Husks unorthodox junk.

Feng Tingting: They’re obsessed with making soulless production lines and insist that keeping any flesh to install a Law Husk is a waste. They say everyone should just go full Artifact and ditch their bodies altogether…

Zhang Yu stared at Feng Tingting’s messages with mild amusement.

Ever since that party where they met, this upperclasswoman from the Artifact Refinement Department had added him as a friend—and had been casually bombarding him with all kinds of random gossip ever since. She seemed to treat him as a close confidant.

Zhang Yu had the growing sense that she was slowly maxing out her friendship level with him via daily chats.

Still, after hearing enough of her stories, he’d made up his mind to say little and listen more. Who knew how many people she’d repeat his words to?

Closing the chat window, Zhang Yu returned his focus to the artifact he was currently refining.

He hadn’t gone to the pharmaceutical plant site today. Instead, he’d taken the time to train in the Artifact Refinement Lab.

With the production technique for Azure Sand now meeting the standards required by the Azure Cloud Pouch, Zhang Yu had begun preparing to refine the artifact itself.

With every wave of mana light, a small azure pouch gently descended. A Level-1 Azure Cloud Pouch had been successfully forged.

The whole process had cost him around 8 spirit coins. He had no plans to make a second one. His next step was to level up the Azure Cloud Pouch using simulations in the Spiritual Realm—constantly tempering and tweaking it to raise its grade.

Beside him, Ye Xingli turned to look at the pouch in his hand and smiled faintly. “Congrats, Zhang Yu.”

Compared to Azure Sand, the Azure Cloud Pouch finally counted as a real artifact in her eyes.

“Thanks, senior. I really appreciate your help these past few days,” Zhang Yu replied.

After a bit of polite chatter, he asked curiously, “Senior, I heard Wen Wuya say you placed top five in the Law Husk Design Contest across a hundred schools?”

Ye Xingli waved it off nonchalantly. “It was just one design. Some folks are better than me overall at refining, but that particular time, I had a good idea and beat them.”

“Like our department’s Nascent Soul disciple Yan Qianji—he only got tenth place that year. A lot of it comes down to inspiration.”

Zhang Yu nodded. “Senior, I’m not too familiar with intelligent artifacts. Do you think this Azure Cloud Pouch can host a Soul Cultivator?”

…

At the pharmaceutical plant construction site.

Zhang Yu was testing out the Azure Cloud Pouch he’d just crafted.

With a light tap and an injection of mana, the pouch floated up into the air. Its mouth opened wide and began spewing Azure Sand in steady waves.

Each stream of sand shot toward the Formless Golems, pouring into their humanoid bodies with pinpoint precision.

Zhang Yu nodded in satisfaction. This made deploying Azure Sand much more efficient.

As the pouch’s grade improved in the future, it would not only be able to deploy more sand with greater precision, but might even enhance the sand’s effects.

Of course, it would be a hassle if Zhang Yu had to manually split off a stream of consciousness just to control the pouch. So, after asking his senior for help, he installed an intelligent system into it.

“Old Zhao,” Zhang Yu called out. “How does it feel?”

A voice echoed from the Azure Cloud Pouch—Zhao Tianxing’s voice, full of excitement: “Zhang Yu! I’ve officially become an Artifact Spirit!”

“Every year, only a handful of seniors land Artifact Spirit gigs right after graduation. I can’t believe I’ve made it before even graduating.”

“This artifact is amazing—smooth operation, clean mana flow, does exactly what I tell it to!”

Zhang Yu scratched his head in embarrassment. It was just a dinky little Level-1 artifact. Nothing special at all.

He and Zhao Tianxing were both rookies—one just built his first artifact, the other just became an Artifact Spirit. Total noobs helping each other out.

“Alright then, Old Zhao. From now on, you’ll be in charge of the Azure Cloud Pouch.”

“No problem! This thing barely takes up any processing power. I can operate it while doing other work.”

“No need to be on standby all the time,” Zhang Yu added. “I’ll only hire you for a few hours a day at most.”

Though the pouch was simple to control and barely taxed a Soul Cultivator’s mental resources, Zhang Yu wasn’t exactly rolling in money. He couldn’t afford a 24/7 assistant.

Still, Zhao Tianxing took the job seriously. While working, he was already updating his résumé:

“Primary Artifact Spirit for a Top-100 Civil Engineering student at Wanfa University. In charge of large-scale site logistics, material management, and short-range artifact transmission.”

With that and his previous competition experience, he figured his pay rate just went up.

Zhang Yu glanced at the functioning Azure Cloud Pouch, then left three streams of thought in place to keep directing the Formless Golems. Meanwhile, he wrapped himself in Formless Cloud Qi and began training the eighth technique of the Martial Saint Body.

Despite being busy with plant construction, trial runs, Civil Engineering courses, and Artifact Refinement lessons, Zhang Yu was confident he could finish this eighth technique within the month.

“I wonder what the second-tier effect of the Martial Saint Body will be?”

As he switched his Chain Diagram suit to University Saint Body for training, he felt the Divine Spirit Root’s tendrils stir within him—beginning yet another adaptive enhancement.

Zhang Yu had long since noticed that each time he trained, the Greenlotus Sword Embryo embedded in his Divine Spirit Root evolved. It was a slow but constant growth process.

Even now, after switching suits, it still retained 1% of the previous bonus from the Chain Diagram setup.

It had only been a little over a month.

“Within a year, I bet I’ll be able to preserve 10% of the effects from my go-to setups like Civil Engineering Saint Body and Mana Pulse Flowing Stream when I switch.”

“In a few more years… it’ll come down to how far the Greenlotus Sword Embryo can go.”

Every time he thought about it, Zhang Yu was struck by how terrifyingly powerful the Divine Spirit Root was. Combined with the Chain Diagram, the effect was practically explosive.

As for the Sword Embryo’s active ability… Zhang Yu’s mind flashed to the memory of Bai Zhenzhen’s hidden flying sword wreaking havoc during the tournament.

He quickly tamped down the urge rising in his chest. “Hold it together, Zhang Yu. Using the Divine Spirit Root’s active effect is asking for trouble if anyone finds out.”

…

In the drug trial room.

Le Mulan injected the entire dose of experimental medication into Zhang Yu’s body.

He was used to this by now. The side effects were heavy, sure—but thanks to his physical durability, body activation protocols, and the University Saint Body, he could handle it all.

Even Xiao Qingxuan, who used to always accompany him, no longer bothered coming to the trials.

But this time, the moment the drug entered his bloodstream, Zhang Yu felt something was off.

His blood surged. Waves of fiery heat burst from every corner of his body, spreading a feverish intensity throughout his limbs.

He looked at Le Mulan—and an unfamiliar impulse surged up from within.

Seeing the look in his eyes, Le Mulan grew alarmed. “Zhang Yu, what’s wrong?”

Zhang Yu waved it off. “Just a minor issue. Let me suppress it with Supreme Will first.”

His eye-sockets flickered. He tapped on Lian Tianji’s avatar, opening the video link.

As the footage played, all the errant thoughts that had just bubbled up in Zhang Yu’s mind were instantly swept away.