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

Chapter 545 Hiring an Assistant
Late May.

Zhang Yu also rented Ye Xingli's laboratory.

The reason he chose to rent here was twofold: firstly, Ye Xingli would give him a discount, and secondly, Zhang Yu coveted the Dao Seed within Ye Xingli.

At this moment, Zhang Yu commanded streams of true fire to soar out and envelop the metal materials in front of him.

As a military-grade puppet among magical artifacts, the Heavenly Sun God's manufacturing process and structural composition are naturally far more complex than those of ordinary magical artifacts.

Like the skeleton, nervous system, control center, and magic core of a puppet... each part, taken out individually, is an extremely intricate and mysterious magical artifact.

In its simplest terms, the process of forging a prototype involves forging each individual module, followed by assembly and debugging.

At this moment, Zhang Yu is working on the skeleton of the prototype machine.

As a puppet containing the most powerful and yang energy, the Heavenly Sun God's skeleton needed to meet requirements such as high strength, high temperature resistance, strong magical power conduction, and the ability to transform into fire-style magic.

It can be said that every component of this prototype is more technologically advanced than many of the gadgets possessed by students in the university town.

However, for Zhang Yu, who had already mastered various weapon-refining techniques through the cultivation of the Taiqing Realm, the process of refining bones quickly progressed from unfamiliarity to proficiency, and then from proficiency to ease.

Watching Zhang Yu's actions, Ye Xingli couldn't help but say, "When did you become so good at crafting bionic bones?"

Zhang Yu said, "Wasn't there an economic crisis a while ago? I happened to have nothing to do every day, so I studied all the related technologies of the Heavenly Sun God, looked at the materials, watched online courses and so on."

"I didn't expect it to be so difficult to do in practice."

"Of course, this should also be related to the weapon-refining techniques I practiced before. Those techniques greatly improved my weapon-refining abilities."

This was the explanation Zhang Yu had prepared long ago. In any case, he would take things one step at a time and complete the prototype machine openly and honestly, which would irrefutably prove his ability.

As for why he learned so quickly? Ask him about his talent for weapon crafting.

Looking at Zhang Yu's actions, Ye Xingli immediately sensed his talent.

"You learned so quickly?"

"Zhang Yu... seems to have a special keenness and sense of smell when it comes to the art of weapon crafting; he learns everything exceptionally quickly."

Recalling the first time she witnessed Zhang Yu refining weapons, and the speed at which he improved in weapon refining afterward, Ye Xingli couldn't help but sigh in her heart: "Although he has the help of a Nascent Soul Yin Artifact, Zhang Yu's own talent in weapon refining should not be underestimated."

"I initially thought Zhang Yu didn't have much talent in this area, but now I realize that my master's judgment was more accurate."

Just as Ye Xingli was sighing inwardly, she heard Zhang Yu say, "Senior sister, I must thank you for lending me the laboratory during this time."

Ye Xingli waved her hand: "I will be spending most of my time attending school training to prepare for next year's Top Ten League. It's perfect to rent this lab to you."

Zhang Yu looked at Ye Xingli. Since returning from winning a place in the Top Ten Leagues, the ranking above Ye Xingli's head had changed to 3rd in the Weapon Forging category.

In addition, if you look at Ye Xingli's head for a while longer, you can see that her ranking as the 3rd in the weapon crafting department has flashed slightly and jumped to the 10th in the whole school.

Looking at the rankings, Zhang Yu thought with a touch of envy, "I heard that if you get into the top ten in the whole school, the school can approve a loan of over a thousand spirit coins. I wonder if my senior sister has applied for one yet."

He casually asked a question he had been wanting to know for a long time: "Senior sister, what is the procedure if I want to participate in next year's Top Ten Leagues?"

In Zhang Yu's view, this was something he needed to know earlier. Otherwise, if he worked hard for a long time and ended up missing the registration deadline, the competition process, or failing to meet the selection criteria, he would have no way to regret it.

Ye Xingli was slightly taken aback upon hearing this, thinking to herself, "Although Zhang Yu has great talent, he probably won't have a chance to participate in next year's competition."

After all, in Ye Xingli's view, next year's Top Ten League will be more intense than ever before, and the school will definitely pour all its resources into the senior students who have already achieved results, supporting them to compete for the immortal sect's cultivation techniques.

"Unless Zhang Yu can surpass us in the next year or so."

But after thinking about it, Ye Xingli knew that this was impossible.

"If Zhang Yu can successfully refine a prototype machine in his senior year, that would be a remarkable achievement."

"If it were a previous year, I might have been able to travel to one of the top ten leagues."

"But next year... he probably won't make the cut."

If it were up to Ye Xingli, she should have dispelled Zhang Yu's delusions at this moment and told him not to make such an unrealistic plan.

Don't say such nonsensical things in front of her in the future; it's just a waste of everyone's time.

But just then, lines of answers from the Poor Man Simulator appeared on her eye sockets.

Then Ye Xingli smiled slightly and said, "You want to participate in next year's Top Ten League? Senior sister supports you."

"Usually, the school team's instructors will take the initiative to find people. If they don't, you can also take the initiative to sign up with them before June next year."

"As for the selection criteria, in previous years, it required mastery of at least two military-grade weapons. If you obtained the Heavenly Sun God's military certificate, you can try applying to them." "However, next year's competition will be particularly fierce, and the selection requirements may be even higher. Don't be discouraged if you don't get selected..."

Zhang Yu nodded slightly as he listened, taking all the information Ye Xingli had given him to heart, and felt an even greater sense of urgency.

"If we want to participate in next year's top ten leagues, we can't afford to waste a single second."

After discussing the competition, Ye Xingli watched Zhang Yu's actions and reminded him, "Refining bones is a troublesome matter. Not only are there many procedures, but the number of bones required for the entire prototype machine is also very large, which is very time-consuming and labor-intensive."

"But actually, the first few steps of the refining process, including material selection and impurity refining, are relatively simple. You can consider hiring an assistant to help you."

Zhang Yu had naturally already considered the issues that Ye Xingli had raised.

As an incredibly complex and precise magical artifact, the prototype of the Heavenly Sun God was not without its challenges; it contained many repetitive and low-tech steps.

Once Zhang Yu had personally refined the entire process a few times to prove that his technique and direction were correct, he could then delegate the simple, repetitive preparatory work to his assistant and focus on the crucial parts himself, which would greatly increase his efficiency.

"The initial overall refining process takes the most time."

"If I were to refine it by myself, it would probably take me three months to complete the refinement of a Level 1 prototype. Then, through repeated refinement and improvement, I would be able to upgrade the prototype's level."

"But if we hire someone to help, we should be able to improve the efficiency to within 2 months or even 1 month."

Thinking of Jin Jun, who had started work several months earlier than him, Zhang Yu realized that if he wanted to catch up with and surpass Jin Jun, hiring an assistant would obviously be a safer option.

Thinking of this, Zhang Yu asked Ye Xingli, who was standing beside him, "Senior sister, do you have any recommendations?"

Ye Xingli said, "How is Zi Yunzhen? After my project ended, she shouldn't have joined any other labs yet."

Zhang Yu recalled the busy figure in this laboratory a while ago and nodded slightly: "What's her price?"

He thought to himself, "I wonder if Ziyun is really capable of handling this job? I'll have to interview her and test her abilities..."

Just as Zhang Yu was pondering this, he heard Ye Xingli say, "The price I paid her was 2 spirit coins a month, and she could work 14 hours a day. She also gave me 12 hours of free overtime every week, which I could allocate to any part of the week."

"Only 2 spirit coins?" Zhang Yu was shocked upon hearing this: "What kind of peerless beast is this? Is this really a student from the weapon crafting department?"

Ye Xingli said, "Zi Yun is really talented as an assistant."

Zhang Yu thought to himself, "This is more than just talent. This price even includes free overtime. It sounds like he's incredibly talented. How many students in the weapon crafting department would be willing to work for such a low salary?"

Zhang Yu immediately said, "It's her!"

Although Zhang Yu seems to have a lot of money now, in Kunxu, no one dares to say they are not short of money, so hiring an assistant must also take into account the cost-effectiveness.

Zi Yun's exceptional cost-effectiveness made Zhang Yu feel that even if the other party's weapon-refining skills were poor, it was still worth using.

Ye Xingli said, "Although she is cheap, she also has requirements for the projects, requiring that one can learn something from the projects."

……

Zi Yunzhen looked at the message sent in the small group and a hint of envy appeared in her eyes.

That was Su Yunni, who was first in the class, sharing her project experiences from this period.

Since joining Jin Jun's lab, he has been sending me these things frequently.

Su Yunni: Senior Jin Jun's weapon-refining skills are so profound; just a few words from him have taught us a great deal.

Su Yunni: The project has really ample funding; they give us opportunities to get started every day.
Su Yunni: The manufacturing of the magic core is almost complete. Before long, I will have become familiar with all the components of the prototype of the Heavenly Sun God.

Zi Yunzhen also hoped to participate in such a military-grade magic weapon project, just like Su Yunni.

In particular, Jin Jun is very generous with his salary, and the amount of spirit coins he gives is enough to satisfy many senior assistants.

Unfortunately, all of Zi Yunzhen's resumes sent to Jin Jun disappeared without a trace, receiving no response whatsoever.

Just then, a message from Zhang Yu appeared in her eyes.

Zhang Yu: Zi Yunzhen, are you interested in participating in my project?
Upon hearing this, Zi Yunzhen remembered that Zhang Yu also claimed he would complete the refining of the prototype machine this academic year.

Zi Yunzhen, of course, did not believe it at all.

Although she received few spirit coins, it was to increase her learning opportunities. Whether she submitted her resume to Ye Xingli or Jin Jun, she hoped to learn something from such academic geniuses.

"Zhang Yu hasn't even learned a single military-grade technique in weapon crafting, nor has he won any awards, yet he's about to start crafting the Heavenly Sun God... This project is probably doomed to fail."

(End of this chapter)