After Magpole Zhenjun finished discussing the gift-giving with Zhang Yu, he asked Zhang Yu about his preparations for the design competition.

Magpole Zhenjun: What kind of work are you planning to design? Do you have a direction yet?

Zhang Yu: I am currently investigating junior college students with my senior sister…

So, Zhang Yu talked about collecting information on junior college students and planning to create a product suitable for the junior college market, and even for students in lower-tier schools.

Listening to Zhang Yu, Magpole Zhenjun frowned slightly and replied: It certainly has commercial potential.

Magpole Zhenjun: But you need to know that there are no junior college students among the judges.

Magpole Zhenjun: If your design is too niche for junior college students, the judges might not be impressed.

Zhang Yu: I understand.

Zhang Yu: From what I currently know, junior college students actually don’t like being stereotyped. I will make adjustments in that regard.

Magpole Zhenjun: As long as you have a plan.

Magpole Zhenjun: After you have the design drafts, you can send me a copy. I’ll help you review it.

Magpole Zhenjun: Although you can enter and win awards in the design competition by just submitting design drafts, it’s easier to stand out and impress the judges if you can include a physical product.

Magpole Zhenjun: Of course, you need to have that level of artifact refining skill. After you finish designing, if you don’t have time to refine a good one, don’t send the product.

With Magpole Zhenjun’s guidance, Zhang Yu gained a better understanding of the key points for participating in the design competition.

In the following days, Zhang Yu also received more and more daily videos sent by junior college students.

With a rapid acceleration within the Taiqing Realm, the daily lives of numerous junior college students appeared before Zhang Yu.

Shattered earth, collapsed teaching buildings, and destroyed campuses appeared in Zhang Yu’s eyes, making him think he had entered a war zone.

He even saw a flying sword descending from the sky, attacking their campus, from the perspective of a junior college student’s eye-socket camera.

According to the junior college students, similar flying sword sounds often echoed above the campus.

They had also grown accustomed to immediately hiding in underground fortifications whenever the sounds of thunder rang out.

“Are junior colleges so heavily affected by the war?”

Zhang Yu couldn’t help but recall the civil engineering he had done at junior colleges in the past: “It’s much more intense than before.”

Aside from the pervasive war clouds over various junior colleges, Zhang Yu also saw the financial scars left by various Divine Transformation battles, such as teaching buildings that were half-sold, campus land taken for factories, and dormitories forcibly demolished…

And under the shadow of war, the spread of various demonic cults in junior colleges seemed to become more frequent.

Although Zhang Yu didn’t see a single cultist, the constant anti-cult propaganda, anti-cult inspections, and anti-cult advertisements he saw from the junior college students’ perspectives made him feel the urgency of the situation even more.

Zhang Yu had seen more than once junior college students on the street being subjected to snap inspections, especially those on the street during work or class hours, who would be suspected of being cultists.

There were also occasional rumors of various factories being attacked and shut down. Some said it was done by rival schools, while others said it was done by cultists seeking a break. Conflicting information mixed together, making it difficult to discern the truth.

And the war, demonic cults, and the aftermath of the financial crisis… these factors further led to a surge in stress for junior college students.

“Medicine prices have gone up again.”

“Sigh, the principal said that the pharmaceutical factory must first meet the needs of the major enterprises above, and the medicine produced for the teachers and students of our school can only be reduced.”

Major enterprises… Zhang Yu had also heard some people mention them.

These were giant corporations headquartered on levels 7 to 10 of Kunxu, with a large portion of their business serving the Ten Great Sects.

Their status, in some aspects, was even higher than that of the Ten Great Universities, and compared to ordinary companies, they were on an entirely different dimension.

Although the primary task of these major enterprises was to serve the sects, in the process of doing so, they inevitably impacted levels 1 to 6 of Kunxu.

Although headquartered on levels 7 to 10, they had a large number of subsidiary companies on levels 1 to 6, either responsible for import and export trade between the levels or participating in local businesses.

If the first goal of these major enterprises was to serve the sects, then their second goal was to frantically make money, acquire resources, and produce products… because only then could they meet the first goal.

As the videos switched, Zhang Yu saw the last daily junior college video he had received today.

This junior college student was named Shui Haiyu, from a junior college affiliated with Wanfa University, called Shanhai Vocational University.

In the video, he was enthusiastically signing up for a club.

“Hello? Is this the Dual Cultivation Club?”

“Can it really improve my grades?”

“Okay, then I’ll sign up.”

Late March.

Zhang Yu sighed silently as he looked at his account.

“Sigh, over 100 spirit coins just disappeared like that.”

Not long ago, Magpole Zhenjun took him to the spirit realm’s reception room to meet several judges separately, giving them the prepared spirit coins.

Fortunately, Zhang Yu’s monthly income was substantial now, so this expenditure of 100 spirit coins did not delay his artifact refining plans.

The entire process of giving money was swift, quick, and simple. In Zhang Yu’s opinion, there was almost no superfluous talk; it was just meeting people, introductions, and then handing over the money.

Zhang Yu even suspected that these Nascent Soul True Monarchs, who served as judges, had arranged for artifact spirits to receive them, as their movements in accepting money were so standardized.

“I wonder how many contestants in this design competition gave them money.”

“If there are more than 10, wouldn’t each of them get several hundred spirit coins?”

Thinking about how easily the judges made money, Zhang Yu felt a pang of envy.

However, he quickly dismissed the distracting thoughts and focused on the experimental bench.

Today was the day Zhang Yu officially began refining the Taihao Sacred Law Sword Array.

This military-grade magic artifact was composed of a sword array of 12 flying swords, containing a large number of flying sword techniques and the profound mysteries of array formations.

If Zhang Yu hadn’t had the blessing of the Yu Scripture and the acceleration of the Taiqing Realm and his talent as an artifact refining prodigy, he probably wouldn’t have been able to start refining for another year.

Unlike at this moment, as he practiced the blueprints of various prerequisite magic artifacts to level 20, various related techniques for the Taihao Sacred Law Sword Array had deeply ingrained themselves in his mind.

“First, the first flying sword.”

Zhang Yu planned to first refine the first Taihao Sacred Law Flying Sword and then gradually refine it to level 20.

Once he mastered the level 20 technique in this way, refining the remaining 11 level 20 flying swords would be much simpler.

He circulated his mana, and a true fire began to boil under his control. At the same time, the sword embryo material, which he had purchased and placed on the experimental bench, was firmly locked under the electric light emitted by the artifact refining equipment.

On the other side, the Level 3 spiritual energy, cleaned and purified by his assistants, was also drawn by Zhang Yu.

Spiritual energy also had levels; purified and refined spiritual energy had various uses during casting and artifact refining.

However, Zhang Yu naturally didn’t have time to do these tasks; they were all completed by Zi Yunzhen, Su Yunni, and others.

Watching the sword embryo gradually unfold, Zhang Yu began to infuse it with spiritual realm restrictions.

“The communication technology of the Taihao Sacred Law Flying Sword is crucial. It is key for the sword array to transmit sword intent and cut through the spiritual realm in the future…”

In the following days, besides watching daily junior college videos and collecting relevant information, Zhang Yu dedicated most of his energy to refining the Taihao Sacred Law Flying Sword.

But one event on this particular day pulled him away from his sword refining.

Dark Spirit Realm.

Fuji and the projection of Zhang Yu sat in chairs, looking at Xishen, who had a thousand feet and a thousand hands, and said: “Oh? You want my help?”

“Hmph, I’ve helped you more than once, haven’t I?”

“Yet the information you gave as compensation was vague and showed no sincerity. Why should I help you again?”

During this time, Fuji also occasionally communicated with the evil gods, both to gather information about them, understanding their current situation, status, and trends, and to build further trust with them.

The existence of the Dark Spirit Realm, due to its safe zone characteristics, allowed the evil gods a basic space for communication, preventing immediate hostility.

Previous collaborations and communications had established basic trust between Fuji and Xishen.

Fuji was very interested in the evil gods’ plans and whereabouts.

Xishen was equally interested in Fuji’s arrangements and power at Wanfa University, and had hinted multiple times that he wanted Fuji to join their plan.

But whenever Fuji asked what their plan actually was, Xishen always smiled and changed the subject.

However, through repeated probing and communication… Xishen increasingly felt Fuji’s seniority. The stories of evil god kings that constantly came from her mouth made him feel the unfathomable depth of this Goddess Fu, who seemed to know all the secrets of various evil god kings like the back of her hand.

It wasn’t until today, when it seemed the time was right, that Xishen said: “Goddess Fu, haven’t you always wanted to know what we plan to do?”

Fuji and Zhang Yu’s hearts stirred, and they simultaneously pricked up their ears, listening to what he would say next.

Xishen said: “To show our sincerity, before asking for your help this time, I can reveal a bit more information to you.”

“Our goal is to target those powerful reincarnations within the sects.”

Fuji’s heart skipped a beat: “Qiongyang Shenjun?”

The thousand eyes on Xishen’s thousand hands and feet seemed to narrow, revealing a hint of a smile: “Precisely. Qiongyang Shenjun has secretly transferred cultivation for an unknown number of powerful reincarnations. The Heavenly Human Five Taxes they evaded amount to an astronomical figure.”

“The sect disciples involved are enough to shake the Ten Great Sects and even make immortals frown.”

“But our purpose, of course, is not to help the immortals fight corruption.”

“Our purpose is to use Qiongyang Shenjun to find the list of powerful reincarnations and the ledgers of their secretly transferred cultivation and tax evasion.”

Fuji’s heart trembled: “You want to use this method to threaten these powerful reincarnations? To infiltrate the sects?”

“You have enormous nerve.”

“But you can’t do this alone.”

“You have higher-ranking evil gods above you, don’t you?”

“And someone needs to assist you within the sects. Who is it?”