Chapter 549: Refining Equipment Should Be As Fast As Possible

"How could Zhang Yu forge it so quickly?"

Looking at the intelligence sent by Su Yunni, Jin Jun's first reaction was disbelief.

"To have accomplished this much in just over a month is unbelievable." At this moment, Jin Jun highly doubted the legitimacy of Zhang Yu's accomplishment.

He had seen this kind of thing too often in many laboratories within the Artifact Forging Department. Some individuals were only barely competent themselves, but they hired powerful assistants to do most of the work, pushing quality and speed to an extreme, and then put their own name on it.

"Zhang Yu's skill level should still be decent, at least enough to forge a Level 1 prototype machine, but there's no way he could have achieved this with just two people in a month!""He must have paid a fortune to hire a large team for assistance!" Jin Jun made a judgment in his mind: "Only then could he have reached this stage in just over a month!"

"Releasing such news... is this meant to destabilize my morale?"But Jin Jun had to admit that his emotions were indeed stirred by Zhang Yu!

He took a deep breath, then slowly exhaled. The spiritual energy within him circulated, and a stable Dao Heart gradually calmed the thoughts in his mind, one by one!

Jin Jun understood that the main reason his nerves were so easily rattled was the immense investment he had made this time!

"Nearly half of my net worth has been invested in this project. If the project fails, not only will it be difficult to recover funds, but it will also be a huge blow to my reputation as an artifact forger!"

The thought of potentially having notes like "defeated by a transferred civil engineering student" added to his contacts if he failed made Jin Jun visualize his loans, funding, and investments becoming increasingly difficult to secure, leaving him struggling every step of the way on the path of immortality!

He absolutely could not admit defeat!

No matter who was helping Zhang Yu, Jin Jun had no intention of conceding. Especially since he understood that after a Level 1 prototype machine was forged, the next step would be to repeatedly refine it and gradually raise its level!

"At this stage, it all depends on Zhang Yu's own skill!" If his artifact forging technique didn't reach Level 11, no matter how hard he worked or how much money he spent, it would be impossible to raise the prototype machine's level further. If he were to seek a ghost forger at this point, it would absolutely not pass the review!

"As for me, I have accumulated technical expertise in this area for so long. Based on the current debugging parameters, once this prototype machine is assembled, it will instantly reach Level 5!" Subsequent improvements will definitely be faster than his!

At this thought, Jin Jun gradually composed himself!

Of course, while he had calmed down, Jin Jun had no intention of doing nothing!

"Even a lion uses its full strength to catch a rabbit. This project has cost me so many spirit coins and so much time; I absolutely will not accept failure!"

So, on that very day, Jin Jun mortgaged spiritual bones and organs, further maximizing his loans. He then used the received spirit coins to rent more advanced artifact forging equipment and even hired a Core Formation level master for one-on-one guidance, who would provide pointers and identify shortcomings during his forging process!

Besides accelerating his own progress, Jin Jun also planned to cause some trouble for Zhang Yu to slow down his opponent's speed! He then sent a message:

Jin Jun: Senior Brother, I have something I need your help with.

Inside Ye Xingli's laboratory!

Zhang Yu was surrounded by surging Earth Fiend gravity, which had fixed the prototype machine in mid-air! At the same time, streams of spiritual energy shot out from his hands, mixing with the material powders prepared by Zi Yunzhen nearby. They were injected into the artifact forging equipment, then transformed into layers of enchantments that were imbued into the prototype machine! As the number of enchantments accumulated, the prototype machine's high-temperature resistance was gradually enhanced!

Zhang Yu knew that to upgrade the prototype machine's level, in addition to repeatedly stacking enchantments on the spiritual energy circuits inside and outside the machine to improve various performances, he also needed to optimize runes, temper materials, and raise the upper limit of the spiritual energy core! Furthermore, besides enhancing basic attributes, it also needed to be equipped with additional functions! For example, for the current Level 1 prototype machine to be upgraded to Level 2, new cultivation technique modules had to be installed, granting the prototype machine fire manipulation abilities. Zhang Yu thought to himself: "The Level 1 prototype machine already has various function interfaces. All I need to do is improve and add modules!""And to achieve this, my blueprint level needs to reach a certain point!"

He glanced at the "Heavenly Sun Radiant God Prototype Machine Level 1 (6/10)" displayed on his feather scroll! Zhang Yu thought to himself: "Now, every time I completely forge the prototype machine, not only does it enhance its basic attributes, but it also advances the progress on the feather scroll by 2 points under the blessing of the 'Artifact Forging Prodigy'!""Once I push the blueprint level to Level 2, I'll have enough technical capability to add the fire manipulation function, which is only available at Level 2?"

Thinking of this, Zhang Yu's actions in forging the prototype machine became even more rapid. The spiritual energy within him and the materials beside him seemed to be spent without regard for cost, wildly pouring into the prototype machine before him!

Zi Yunzhen's eyelids twitched as she watched this scene, and she couldn't help but say, "Boss, isn't this too fast?"

In Zi Yunzhen's view, faster isn't necessarily better when it comes to artifact forging. Especially when learning and forging simultaneously, every step should be carefully considered and flaws addressed to make progress. Zhang Yu's method of frantically pushing speed, as if with his eyes closed, seemed to Zi Yunzhen to be extremely wasteful of materials, costly, and not necessarily conducive to significant improvement!

Zi Yunzhen secretly thought: "Artifact forging isn't about getting better by forging more times..."Zhang Yu thought to himself: "Artifact forging relies on repetition. The more times I forge, the higher my artifact forging skill level will become, right?"

Seeing Zhang Yu ignoring her, Zi Yunzhen couldn't help but speak again: "Boss, what's the value in going so fast? You can't just purely pursue speed! Your current performance seems too weak compared to Jin Jun's team!""The review committee will be looking at your thought process, not just the number of times you've forged!""I hope in your future work, you can consolidate your thoughts into daily reports, create differentiation, and form your own core competitiveness!""Keep pushing, Boss! If you can grow, I'm willing to take a pay cut so you have more funds to advance the project!"

Watching Zi Yunzhen start to promise a pay cut for herself, Zhang Yu couldn't help but inwardly think: "Damn it... when I was an employee, my boss promised me pie-in-the-sky. Now that I'm the boss, my employee is promising me pie-in-the-sky.""This broken place, Kunxu."

Seeing Zi Yunzhen about to say more, Zhang Yu waved his hand to stop her: "Yunzhen, I have certain expectations for your current performance. When I invited you to my project team, I hoped you would deeply cultivate the field of the Heavenly Sun Radiant God and become the most professional assistant in this area!""I won't explain why we need to speed up. I hope to give you an opportunity to grow, to push yourself to think, to explore, and to find answers!""I know that expecting you to grow while accelerating like this puts a lot of pressure on you! But growth always comes with pressure. The times of greatest pressure are often also when you grow the fastest!""In the future, you will be incredibly grateful for this period of intense pressure; it will be a crucial stage in your life's transformation!"

After comforting her, Zhang Yu continued to speed up, quickly making it harder and harder for Zi Yunzhen to keep up. She could only frantically push herself to go faster, faster, and even faster. Gradually, she had no time left for thought!

She felt as if she was desperately chasing Zhang Yu on a track, exerting all her strength, running until she was exhausted, yet still only watching Zhang Yu's back grow further and further away!

Just as Zi Yunzhen completely failed to keep up, Zhang Yu suddenly stopped!"I'm going to the Spirit Realm, Yunzhen. You continue preparing!"Zi Yunzhen, watching this scene, felt as if Zhang Yu had stopped on the track, allowing her to seize the moment and gradually catch up!

Realizing this, Zi Yunzhen's face was filled with shame: "I've dragged down the efficiency of the entire project team..."

Meanwhile, Zhang Yu had already entered the Grand Purity Realm, activating artifact forging simulation and continuing his cultivation there! Unlike artifact forging cultivation methods, which could only be practiced in reality, various artifact forging production techniques—that is, the mastery levels of various magic treasures and spiritual bone blueprints—Zhang Yu could always improve in this Illusory Void Realm through repeated practice using the simulation function! The forging process in the laboratory was essentially leaving a record of his work while simultaneously forging the prototype machine! Taking advantage of the break, a slight improvement in the Grand Purity Realm could actually raise his blueprint level faster!

Zhang Yu estimated in his mind: "With both sides progressing simultaneously like this, I estimate I can raise the prototype machine to the Foundation Establishment level of Level 11 in another one to two months!"

As Zhang Yu was immersed in hard work in the laboratory every day, a message suddenly appeared before him!

In the Spirit Realm!

Zhang Yu looked at the daoist figure before him, who resembled a mechanical construct, and asked, "Teacher Gui Yuanzi, is there something you need?"The daoist glanced at Zhang Yu and said indifferently, "Why haven't you attended the recent Artifact Forging Technology History classes?"Zhang Yu was slightly startled and replied, "I requested leave!"Gui Yuanzi coldly stated, "I don't recall approving your leave!""Never mind. I'll give you a chance now. You must make up all the classes you've missed, or you won't pass this course this semester!"With that, Gui Yuanzi left behind a low-level intelligent artifact spirit, which began to give Zhang Yu an online class at 1.0x speed, while he himself disappeared!

Zhang Yu was momentarily stunned, then sent another leave request to the other party, only to be met with a severe reprimand!Gui Yuanzi: What leave? Who allowed you to take leave so casually?Gui Yuanzi: Don't think that just because you're working on a project, you can neglect studying history.Gui Yuanzi: If you haven't even mastered past technological history and don't understand its origins, how can you research technology?

This guy...Zhang Yu looked at the artifact spirit giving the class before him and thought to himself, "Someone is deliberately messing with me again."

Just then, Zi Yunzhen sent a message: Boss, the materials are ready. When are you coming back?Zhang Yu replied: You keep preparing the materials. I'll be back to continue working once I've resolved what I'm dealing with.

Zhang Yu thought for a moment and sent messages to Feng Tingting, Ye Xingli, and Zhang Pianpian. He wanted to find out what exactly Gui Yuanzi was up to! After some inquiries, Zhang Yu roughly understood what was going on. He scrolled through his contact list and finally looked at Feng Yuhan!