What’s the point of cultivating immortality if you don’t have money?.

Chapter 401 Lowering the Cost of Weapon Forging
Looking at the Azure Sand Level 1 (0/10) on the Feather Book, Zhang Yu couldn't help but sigh at the long road ahead of him in weapon crafting.

However, the next moment, a chill from the ritual power surged in his heart, reminding him to continue his efforts and interrupting his inner sighs.

Zhang Yu immediately suppressed his distracting thoughts and began refining the azure sand for the second time.

"Buying the copyright and renting the lab and equipment cost me nearly 1 spirit coin. How could that be enough for just one refinement?"

Zhang Yu checked the time. The first time he refined the azure sand, it took about 20 minutes, and he had rented the laboratory and equipment for a total of 6 hours.

"Keep refining!"

Zhang Yu immediately gathered his inner energy and swept it towards the materials beside him.

This time, Zhang Yu's movements were much more skillful, with bursts of energy surging out as he manipulated the materials and tools.

Zhang Yu felt that the refining process of this azure sand was quite similar to his usual cultivation techniques.

He simply used the raw materials in front of him as his physical body, and used various immortal techniques to modify them, ultimately achieving the desired immortal effects.

The process of improvement is like the more proficient you are in a martial arts technique, the stronger your attack becomes. The higher the level of refinement of this azure sand, the better the finished product will be.

Ye Xingli watched as Zhang Yu began refining the Azure Sand for the second time. At first, she didn't think much of it, but suddenly she frowned slightly and said, "Isn't the amount of ore a little too little?"

Zhang Yu smiled and explained, "I want to save on material costs so I can refine it more times."

Ye Xingli advised, "The different amounts of ore will affect the subsequent steps, including the use of qi and magic, and the temperature of the furnace."

"Beginners should stick to the standard portions. Once you've improved your skills, you can then consider adjusting the quantities yourself."

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

Seeing that Zhang Yu wouldn't listen to advice, Ye Xingli shook her head and didn't try to persuade him any further. She just thought to herself, "This kid... his talent for refining weapons is just average, but he's quite stubborn."

But Ye Xingli wasn't surprised by this; beginners are often like this.

Newcomers who have already achieved remarkable results in other fields are often full of confidence, but they often have to stumble a few times in the field of weapon crafting before they can learn to be down-to-earth.

Ye Xingli watched as Zhang Yu continued refining the small batch of azure sand. In the end, only about half of the material was successfully refined, while the other half was ruined.

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

Zhang Yu, however, looked at the Azure Sand Level 1 (1/10) on the Feather Book and nodded secretly: "As expected, after the change in weight, it can also be counted as one time."

Zhang Yu decided to continue reducing the share, to see how much material he could reduce it to while still keeping Yu Shu effective.

"In this way, I can further reduce the cost of my weapon crafting and cultivation."

Thinking of this, Zhang Yu looked at Ye Xingli beside him and asked, "Senior, I'm only refining Azure Sand, so I don't really need the other things in this lab. Do you need to use them?"

Ye Xingli was also tempted upon hearing this.

It wasn't that she was trying to save money by cutting out lab rental fees; after all, those spirit coins were nothing to her.

Instead, she stood aside watching Zhang Yu. Since she was just idling around anyway, she figured she might as well make the most of her time and do something of her own.

A few spirit coins are not important to her, but a few extra hours of study and practice time are very important to her.

Ye Xingli nodded: "I've been adjusting my physical body recently, so I can definitely use the equipment here."

"I won't take advantage of you on the lab rent; we can split it evenly."

"If you have any questions about weapon crafting, feel free to ask me anytime."

Zhang Yu watched as Ye Xingli disassembled her right arm, manipulated the arm's remains with her internal energy, and then placed it on a nearby instrument. While observing the data, she injected streams of special magical power into it.

Zhang Yu thought to himself, "The things I'm currently refining are all too simple. It's too wasteful for one person to use a laboratory."

"If we can rent a lab with others and split the rent, we can save some spirit coins."

Since successfully refining his first Azure Sand, Zhang Yu has been pondering how to consume fewer spirit coins to advance his weapon-refining journey.

"If we can still sell the azure sand, we might be able to make some money?"

But Zhang Yu quickly dismissed the idea: "No, I'm afraid we won't make any money. At most, we can only recoup some of our losses."

Zhang Yu knew that many companies and factories had long since reached the point of mass production and assembly line production of such basic materials as azurite.

Not only are their costs lower than his, but their average quality is also higher.

If he wants to sell azurite, he'll probably have to sell it at a loss to recoup some of his losses.

"And mass production is simply impossible for me under my current conditions."

Zhang Yu knew that whether it was a magic weapon or a magical artifact, the process of personally refining each one was completely different from mass production on an assembly line.

"If you want to set up mass production lines, you either have to buy production lines or build them yourself."

"The former requires a lot of capital, while the latter requires much less capital but requires very advanced weapon-making technology."

Clearly, Zhang Yu is not satisfied with either of these aspects for the time being.

"Right now, I should focus on building a solid foundation and improving my weapon crafting skills."

Zhang Yu continued to adjust the amount of materials and experiment with refining the Azure Sand. He eventually discovered that as long as the amount of materials used was more than one-tenth, each successful refinement would increase the number of times the Yu Shu (a type of ancient Chinese writing tool) could be completed by one.

He thought to himself with delight, "Great! This way, we can reduce the cost of practice materials to 10%."

After trying to adjust the quantity, Zhang Yu decided to make adjustments to the movements and time to see if he could further shorten the time spent refining the Azure Sand each time.

After all, Zhang Yu understood that using the special abilities of the Feather Book for cultivation was logically different from other forms of daily cultivation.

Just like his previous cultivation techniques, as long as he completed a full cycle, he could increase the number of cycles by 1, eventually gradually raising the level of his cultivation technique.

As for the process of practicing the technique, his movements and quality can be modified and reduced to a certain extent, as long as they are kept within a certain range.

Zhang Yu has also been using this method to accelerate his cultivation of the technique.

Of course, this function of the Feather Book is not without its flaws.

For example, once any skill is switched to the Feather Script specialization, it needs to start from level 1 and continuously improve through practice.

Therefore... even if Zhang Yu has already practiced a large number of similar martial arts, such as various body-refining techniques and body-protecting methods, if he were to practice another similar technique, he would not have any effect of mastering everything at once. He would still need to start from level 0 and accumulate the number of times to level up.

He viewed the art of weapon crafting as the same.

"It also requires repeated practice to advance in level."

"But the quality and time spent on practice should be compressible."

"My cultivation logic is completely different from that of ordinary people who cultivate techniques or practice weapon crafting skills."

As Zhang Yu adjusted the refining process of the Azure Sand time and time again, Ye Xingli would observe from time to time, and the more she watched, the more speechless she became.

"Zhang Yu... what a mess he's made of."

"Not only are they saving materials, but they're also arbitrarily adjusting the movements and timing themselves."

Ye Xingli knew that since the ten major sects summarized and integrated the cultivation of immortality, everything had been standardized and digitized. Now, all aspects of immortality technology had already been systematically designed.

The same applies to weapon crafting.

Unlike in the past, when each sect and school was like a workshop, and even the magic weapons they produced only had a rough classification of major realms, without detailed differences in level.

The current evaluation system and refining process for magical artifacts are already incredibly sophisticated.

If cultivators want to improve their weapon-refining skills and create higher-level magic weapons, they need to continuously learn and then engage in high-quality practice.

"Zhang Yu, you can't keep practicing like this."

Ye Xingli couldn't help but remind her, "If you want to save on practice costs, there are more formal and standardized methods. You don't need to do it this way."

"For example, you can sell the azure sand you refine to recoup some of your costs."

"After all, azure sand is a basic material needed in the process of refining many magical treasures, and many teachers and students in the weapon refining department will accept it."

"You can also practice through a simulation laboratory in the spirit world, which is much cheaper than practicing with physical objects."

Zhang Yu was of course aware of the money-saving methods Ye Xingli had mentioned.

However, judging from the current cost-cutting results, he feels that he can reduce costs even less than in the simulation laboratory and still obtain some finished products of azurite sand.

Ye Xingli was naturally unaware of Zhang Yu's thoughts; she simply introduced other methods to reduce costs.

“It’s not just simple products like azurite that can be used for practice at a lower cost.”

"The same applies to more advanced magical artifacts. In addition to the simulation laboratory, they can also be replaced with cheaper materials, and practice can be done by producing inferior versions."

"And for more advanced magical artifacts, after the first forging, the level of the forging technique can be improved through repeated maintenance, adjustment, and strengthening, which will also reduce the cost significantly."

“Like my master’s Nine Heavens Primordial Yang Pagoda, it was refined, repaired and strengthened time and time again, and the magic weapon level was refined from level 31 all the way to level 40.”

"During this process, Master's weapon-refining skills also improved significantly, and the manufacturing technology of the Nine Heavens Yuan Yang Tower reached level 40."

Zhang Yu knew that the so-called manufacturing technology of the Nine Heavens Yuanyang Tower reaching level 40 meant that, under the condition that the materials and production environment were complete, Magnetism True Monarch could directly manufacture the Nine Heavens Yuanyang Tower with a magic weapon level of 40.

“But this thing sounds expensive just from its name, and it must take a lot of effort to make.” Zhang Yu thought to himself, “Unless someone offers a high price, Magnetism True Monarch probably won’t easily produce a second one.”

Ye Xingli actually had another important way to save money that she didn't mention, which was to participate in the school's weapon-refining project and use the project funds to purchase materials, rent venues, and buy equipment to improve her weapon-refining skills.

After all, the weapon crafting industry is extremely expensive. Even though Ye Xingli is already very wealthy, she always feels that she doesn't have enough money, and her weapon crafting budget is always being exceeded.

Therefore, almost every top student in the weapon crafting department like her participated in various weapon crafting projects.

In her view, demanding funding is an essential skill for weapon forging experts, something they must learn.

However, Zhang Yu, as a civil engineering student, was still at a beginner level and far from these things, so she simply didn't say anything.

Just as Ye Xingli was advising Zhang Yu, Zhang Yu finally completed another round of refining Azure Sand.

Celestial Sand Grade 2 (0/20)

　Thank you for the generous reward of 'repayment'!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)