Chapter 588: Chapter 529: Soul Ring and Heavenly Craftsmanship
Within the Taiqing Realm.
As everything accelerated, Zhang Yu was in four forms, continuously refining one magic treasure after another in the illusion.
Blessed Relic Level 20
Looking at the magic treasure that finally reached Level 20, Zhang Yu let out a slight sigh of relief and started learning and practicing the next magic treasure.
No matter how apocalyptic the conflicts of the Divinity Transformation Divine Monarchs were outside, Zhang Yu now spent every day hiding in his dormitory, soaking in the Taiqing Realm, silently honing his artifact refining skills.
The affairs of the Divinity Transformation were too distant from him; even if it truly brought about earth-shattering changes, it wasn’t something he could manage.
All Zhang Yu could do at this moment was silently accumulate his own strength, increasing his odds no matter what situation he might encounter in the future.
In the dormitory, Zhang Yu, who had just withdrawn from the Taiqing Realm, took off his spiritual interface mask and twisted his body, which hadn’t moved for over ten hours, to get his blood circulating.
At that moment, a bottle of pills was thrown over by Yu Xinghan: "The medicine has arrived; this is your share."
Yu Xinghan complained: "The drug prices have gone up again. These profiteers are really exploiting the situation; I heard even shit is getting pricier now, dammit... too bad I didn’t join the dark poo theft world."
Zhang Yu poured the entire bottle of pills into his mouth, feeling the surge of medicinal power within and thought to himself, "Sigh, seventy percent full."
Uncertain about the future, Zhang Yu intentionally saved spirit coins each day to prepare for possible unforeseen situations.
A moment later, Le Mulan returned to the dormitory with a large bag of medicine, saying, "The department is going to start controlling medicine, this is the last time I could get so much discounted medicine."
Zhang Yu, having taken the medicine, didn’t rush back to the Taiqing Realm to continue refining artifacts.
He digested the medicinal power while also checking the messages emerging from the spiritual mechanism in his eyes, collecting information on the current situation.
Although he spent his days in the Taiqing Realm, he made sure to spare some time daily to understand the situation, to avoid being clueless about the outside world.
"Are the Divinity Transformations still in conflict?"
"Besides Wanfa University, Sky Sword University, Hehuan University, White Bone University, the Divinity Transformations of Nether University and Vajra University have also stepped in one after another."
"It’s just... a complete mess."
Zhang Yu shook his head helplessly and noticed a lot of messages in the hometown group.
Looking at the dimming avatars in the hometown group, Zhang Yu sighed.
Usually, as long as the spiritual mechanism was in operation, users should be online 24/7.
In the past, even if many in the group stopped speaking, most of their avatars stayed lit.
But now, many Soul Cultivators, due to the unemployment wave, couldn’t find jobs, and after being unable to make ends meet, they temporarily froze themselves, maintaining basic mental sustenance at minimal cost, turning their avatars gray as offline.
Immortal Soldier University Song Halong: Selling second-hand high-end Extreme Tiger Magic Remains, ninety percent new, DM if interested
Sky Demon University Xiong Wenwu: Anyone need a mount? I have work experience, body modified for mount purposes, equipped with a spinal interaction saddle Magic Remains
Hu Yuntao: You lost your job?
Sky Demon University Xiong Wenwu: (╯▽╰) The boss’s assets shrank, reduced the mounts by half
Mountain and River University Lanling: Ugh, when will this crisis end?
Lanling: [photo]
Lanling: Just lost my job and found the school dormitory demolished when I returned
Lanling: If this continues, I’ll just commit suicide, won’t even let the True God take my soul, and won’t repay a penny of debt
Hehuan University Heavenly Love Princess: Don’t say such reckless things, do you want to get the group disbanded?
Zhang Yu saw the photo of Lanling living amidst the ruins.
Suddenly, he frowned, noticing that Heavenly Love Princess’s avatar looked strange; he clicked to see that the person in the avatar photo had gained weight significantly.
Zhang Yu: Are you okay?
Heavenly Love Princess: What’s wrong with me?
Heavenly Love Princess: Oh, are you talking about the pregnancy thing?
Heavenly Love Princess: I passed the selection and got into the school’s pregnancy experiment, now I get free medicine and a considerable amount of subsidy daily, so this crisis doesn’t affect me much (∩_∩)
Feeling the joy in Heavenly Love Princess’s tone, Zhang Yu thought to himself, "My hometown friends on the first level... truly becoming more like local people on the second level."
At the same time, Lanling, who was complaining in the group, received a message from Zhou Chechen from Tianhai University.
Zhou Chechen: Lanling, what do you think of dual cultivation?
Lanling, looking at the message from his high school student council president, chastised him: Are you freaking nuts? Daring to touch dual cultivation?
Zhou Chechen: A little won’t hurt.
Lanling: Old Zhou, hold on a bit longer, the top ten leagues are ending soon, and the Divinity Transformations will stop too.
Lanling: If you dabble in dual cultivation, your life is over.
...
Zhang Yu, after reading the messages in the group, checked the message from Director Gao.
Director Gao: Xiao Qingxuan doesn’t have a place to stay recently. Can you arrange for him to squeeze in your dorm for a while?
Zhang Yu naturally had no objections to this.
Originally, the luxurious 30 square meter dorm he currently lives in was arranged by Director Gao.
The other party did not revoke this dorm when he transferred to the Artifact Refining Department. Now that they’re temporarily arranging someone else to come over, Zhang Yu certainly won’t oppose it.
The next day, a dust-covered Xiao Qingxuan came into the dorm.
Seeing the debt numbers on the other party, Zhang Yu was startled in his heart and asked, "15000? How did your debt increase so much?"
Xiao Qingxuan said indifferently, "It’s an economic crisis now, a minor tribulation sweeping through floors 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 of Kunxu. Many companies in the Civil Engineering Department have problems, so they arranged for me to bear the debt."
With that, Xiao Qingxuan sat cross-legged, lightly exhaled and inhaled, feeling the mana within him recovering, his heart feeling relieved.
Listening to these words, Zhang Yu was intensely curious. He was curious about how this debt-bearing was done, and also curious about what benefits Xiao Qingxuan received from being such a debt-bearer?
Or rather, what kind of benefits would make Xiao Qingxuan willingly become such a debt-bearer?
At least from Zhang Yu’s perspective, he didn’t see Xiao Qingxuan with any remarkable benefits, not to mention the direct impact of the economic crisis leaving him without a place to live.
Over the next few days, Zhang Yu also noticed that Xiao Qingxuan was constantly job hunting.
Xiao Qingxuan: "After all, I’ve graduated. If I can’t find a job after graduation, it becomes a huge stain on my resume."
Xiao Qingxuan frowned: "Then chances are I’ll never be able to find a permanent job in the future."
Looking at the debt numbers on the other party again, Zhang Yu thought it was already difficult for the other party to find work under normal circumstances, and now it was even harder with the wave of unemployment.
Zhang Yu casually said, "Why don’t you temporarily hang on at my company? But I can only offer you a token salary of 0.0001 spirit coins."
Xiao Qingxuan happily replied, "That works, as long as the resume doesn’t remain empty."
Then, thinking it over, Xiao Qingxuan seriously said to Zhang Yu, "I can’t offer much help. If your company needs someone to bear debts in the future, you can seek me out. I’m just a worthless soul, owing more doesn’t matter."
Not long after Xiao Qingxuan moved in, Zhang Yu received a message from Tu Lishan.
Tu Lishan: Zhang Yu, can you support Shi Huaiyu for a while?
Tu Lishan: She lost terribly in currency trading and faced a rent hike, already wandering outside for nearly a week.
Tu Lishan has taken care of himself quite a bit too, and Shi Huaiyu was once his competition teammate, so Zhang Yu certainly wouldn’t refuse.
Following Tu Lishan’s direction, he arrived underground and walked to the Huilong Garden entrance.
From afar, he saw the cemetery’s exterior crowded with people who resembled refugees, squeezing together, hoping to catch some of the spiritual mechanism dispersed from the cemetery.
"Zhang Yu?" Shi Huaiyu looked up at Zhang Yu: "You don’t have a place either?"
She pushed aside those beside her forcefully: "Come, come, I’ve got an empty spot here."
Looking at Shi Huaiyu’s dusty appearance, Zhang Yu felt as if he was seeing a stray cat that had been wandering outside for a long time, he said: "Teacher Tu Lishan asked me to pick you up. If you don’t mind, squeeze into my dorm."
Shi Huaiyu immediately jumped up, happily followed behind Zhang Yu.
All she said was, "Zhang Yu, don’t worry, when the currency I bought rises back, I’ll break even, and then I’ll give you the rent."
Zhang Yu casually replied, "It’s fine, no need for rent. Times are tough, if we can help each other out, we should, it’s a shared ordeal."
Shi Huaiyu looked at Zhang Yu with some shock, as if surprised that there are people in this world who don’t ask for rent?
Fu Ji grumpily said, "It’s one thing that Xiao Qingxuan is so broke he can’t even crap, but why wouldn’t you take Shi Huaiyu’s rent when she’s willing to give it?"
Looking at Shi Huaiyu’s severely worn, flaking-painted magic remains on her arms, Zhang Yu thought towards Fu Ji: "Forget it, rent isn’t worth much."
Fu Ji: "That’s because you didn’t raise the price! If you charged rent now, it should be at the current prices, even if you don’t collect, you could at least write a debt note."
Zhang Yu didn’t respond further to Fu Ji, leaving Fu Ji frustrated and exasperated.
After returning to the dorm with Shi Huaiyu, she immediately sat cross-legged to exhale and inhale, feeling the mana within her gradually recovering, and only then did a slight look of reassurance emerge on her face.
Meanwhile, Zhang Yu had already donned the spiritual interface mask, continuing his cultivation.
In the illusion, Zhang Yu’s four figures flashed back and forth, crafting a magic treasure called Transformative Self Soul Ring.
This magic treasure comes from the Sky Demon University and is commonly used in the body rental market.
Once this Transformative Self Soul Ring is embedded into the body, it can remotely control others’ physical forms via the Spirit Realm, accurately sensing the physical form’s transmitted sight, sound, speech, taste, and other sensory experiences.
It’s said that many Soul Cultivators utilize this treasure to temporarily use bodies, and numerous cultivation technique laboratories conduct technique operations on experimental subjects this way.
This Transformative Self Soul Ring is of no practical use to Zhang Yu but contains key Spirit Realm communication technology integral to the Heavenly Sun Divine.
With these technological enhancements, the Heavenly Sun Divine can be remotely controlled through the Spirit Realm Network, performing operations akin to external avatars.
While Zhang Yu diligently cultivated, he suddenly sensed a disturbance within Yu Shu’s Dao Seed Compendium.
Zhang Yu’s eyes focused, checking the Dao Seed Compendium promptly, discovering he had just copied Magnetic Pole True Monarch’s Dao Seed, ’Creation Divine Work.’
Zhang Yu felt an immediate surge of joy: "It’s done!"
"Is it that the artifact we crafted together with my master has finally been enhanced to Level 31?"