Chief!?
What does that an!?
Is this title sothing that can be used so casually!?
Chief, the foremost ranking position.
It often represents the leader of a departnt or a unit.
Alkaid applied for a position in Purple Cloud Courtyard, and moreover, is called the Chief!?
He is the Chief of Purple Cloud Courtyard!?
This...
How is that possible!?
Purple Cloud Courtyard, that is a Sub-sect Level Artifact Refining Court.
Directly administered by the Artifact Refining Hall.
The weigh of such a Chief of an artifact refining court could rank among the top across Longxiang City, sitting on par with their sect leader of Hundred Refinents Sect.
Alkaid had just joined Nine Cauldrons Sect, how could he possibly take up such an important role!?
Unfortunately, while she was dumbfounded, Alkaid had already left the Hundred Refinents Sect, and Huang Yunqi couldn't bring herself to chase after him and ask.
She could only covertly inquire about it afterward.
...
"Zong Yan and Ji Baichuan are not in Hundred Refinents Sect?"
In the car, Alkaid asked.
"They both went to the capital early this morning to take an instructor certification exam, preparing for positions in higher education institutions, and should be back the day after tomorrow," Kong Xuan said.
Alkaid nodded, "Send them a ssage, to visit Purple Cloud Courtyard upon their return."
Since his arrival at Purple Cloud Courtyard, so key departnts also needed to be staffed with people he could trust.
Kong Xuan was one.
Zong Yan could be considered another.
As for Ji Baichuan...
If he was willing to accept his arrangents, he could take a position as Deputy Head of the Security Departnt, but if he preferred applying to higher education institutions, Alkaid would respect his decision.
"Make a trip to Ascendant Tower."
Alkaid instructed.
The driver quickly changed lanes, and soon they stopped outside the Ascendant Tower.
Upon entering Ascendant Tower, Alkaid headed straight for the high-grade elixir area.
Carrying several hundred spirit stones, buying elixirs this ti didn't require him to scrape together resources.
Of course, he only bought three bottles of Celestial Pills.
As for more advanced Immortal Golden Body Pills and Qi-condensing Pills...
Unless one day his assets reached ten thousand.
Otherwise, with his current wealth, using such top-tier elixirs for cultivation was extrely cost-ineffective.
"Cangwu Great World's artifact refining, alchemy, formations, and other industries are developing extrely fast. Three hundred years ago, spirit artifacts that were benchmarked against Foundation Establishnt Great Cultivators had beco commonplace.
Any Qi Refinent High-Rank Cultivator with a bit of assets could possess one, and even high-rank cultivators used superior-grade spirit artifacts, while in the realm of Foundation Establishnt Great Cultivators... the ordinary ones used top-notch spirit artifacts, and the wealthy directly used magical treasures benchmarked against Golden Core True Persons.
This applies to artifact refining and alchemy alike," Alkaid pondered.
Given enough spirit stones, he could cultivate to Body Refinent Ninth Layer in a single day.
Even though moving from Body Refinent Ninth Layer to the great threshold of Star Master, with his current realm already achieved, he could cross it in three to five days.
And with sufficient spirit stones, his [Businessman] experience would also continually elevate his [Martial Path] realm...
Under their mutual enhancent, within a month or two, he would forge a Demonic God Body, and his combat strength would soar to the peak of Star Master.
...
Purple Cloud Courtyard spans over eight hundred thousand square ters, so space is not an issue.
The residence of the Chief is naturally spacious and luxurious.
It is divided into a main building and two auxiliary structures, and the outer courtyard consists of gardens, artificial hills, fountains—everything one could need.
There is even a small skyport.
The small skyport is specifically designated for docking flying boats.
This is an upgraded version of the hovering sedan, but each flying boat often retails for several hundred spirit stones. The better ones even cost several thousand spirit stones; it's not sothing everyone can afford.
Moreover, like flying swords, they are easy to buy but difficult to maintain.
The operating cost of a flying boat is much higher than that of a flying sword.
In the entire Nine Heavens Domain, there are no more than thirty people who own a flying boat.
...
The first-floor cultivation room.
Alkaid had just refined a Celestial Pill and was feeling the drug's effects...
"If not for maximizing the drug's effectiveness, taking one Celestial Pill a day... it would take a little over two months to reach Body Refinent Eighth Layer, but this process would roughly consu about three hundred spirit stones."
Three hundred spirit stones.
He could just barely afford that.
"Ti itself represents life. In this world, even cultivators who have broken through to the Great Cultivator stage only live two to three hundred years. If they frequently engage in life and death battles, damaging their essence, there are Great Cultivators who die around a hundred years old.
Zong Lian is a pri example; he is now over one hundred twenty years old, having grown from battles among Foundation Establishnt Cultivators. His lifespan... is at most another sixty years..."
Alkaid did the calculations.
If he slowly spent three to five years advancing to Star Master, by the ti he reaches Star Master, he would have less than two hundred years of life left. How could he then live the life he desired?
"A millennium is too long; only seize the mont. Securing personal safety and environntal safety sooner allows for an earlier retirent to enjoy life."
Alkaid glanced at the brightly lit Purple Cloud Courtyard.
As long as the new production of "Purple Cloud" swords from Purple Cloud Courtyard had enough orders, there would be no worry about lacking spirit stones.
And to ensure everyone in Purple Cloud Courtyard was with him...
"Body Refinent not reaching Star Master, Divine Refinent not reaching high rank, not becoming a grand master in artifact refining... a bit lacking in weight, it would affect the prestige and the morale of the artifact refiners in Purple Cloud Courtyard...."
After a brief consideration, Alkaid had made up his mind.
"Then let's break through a realm; after all, advancing to Eighth Layer is close."
Alkaid pondered.
With that thought, he began to mobilize the qi and blood within his body, nourishing his mind and spirit, and ticulously transforming every bit of qi and blood force into Qi Refinent into Divine.
In less than half an hour...
His power of Divine Sense climbed to a new level.
"It's done, breakthrough achieved, Divine Refinent Seventh Layer," Alkaid said calmly without stirring any ripple.
In a situation where realms were already up to standard, Divine Refinent was much easier to achieve than Body Refinent.
After all, Divine Refinent leaned towards idealism. Once you understood, you truly understood, and the feedback was imdiate.
As for Body Refinent...
Too materialistic.
Even if you understood, it wasn't enough; you still had to verify it bit by bit through practice.
"If it's the Seventh Layer of Divine Refinent..."
Alkaid recalled the anomaly when he broke through to the Primordial Spirit Realm in his "Divine Path"...
The next mont, the power of Divine Sense in his spiritual world began to condense, gradually forming a translucent phantom.
During this process, the phantom barely rippled, seemingly about to dissipate.
However, with Alkaid's precise control, the phantom ultimately completed its transformation and stabilized.
The features of the phantom were blurred, not clearly discernible, but it was sowhat similar to him, completely synchronized with his essence, and maintained by his very spirit.
Of course, the main consumption was still from the Divine Sense.
And this kind of consumption wasn't small for him.
With his newly achieved realm...
He could only maintain it for a few minutes.
But cultivating Divine Sense and sustaining a Primordial Spirit were two entirely different sensations.
Take sensing and perceiving as an example.
The forr was akin to watching through a television...
There was still a screen in between.
But now...
It was almost like being personally at the site you wanted to sense and observe.
The clarity, the touch of senses other than vision, was within an arm's reach.
"Moreover, compared to scattered Divine Sense, the Primordial Spirit is completely coordinated into a whole, greatly improving its ability to resist risks and impacts, like the difference between a mob of disorganized people and a group of well-trained elite soldiers," Alkaid reflected quietly on this profound subtlety.
However, this kind of comprehension ca at a cost.
The consumption of Divine Sense increased sharply.
A few minutes later, the Primordial Spirit that Alkaid had condensed dissipated back into Divine Sense, returning to the spiritual world, where it was nourished by the circulation of his qi and blood.
"Energy consumption," Alkaid remarked.
This was a problem faced by any cultivation system in today's world.
Body Cultivation and Divine Cultivation were sowhat manageable, but Sword Cultivation and Technique Cultivation were the real energy guzzlers.
Especially Technique Cultivation, with the constant improvent of techniques in today's world, a Foundation Establishnt Technique Cultivator could release spells that were hundreds of years old at the Golden Core level, and so were even improved versions.
A single technique might deplete all the True Yuan inside them, necessitating rapid replenishnt.
The sa was true for Sword Cultivation.
Despite them patrolling the skies at supersonic speeds, as soon as they made a move, the consumption of spirit increased by several tis, ten tis, or even dozens of tis.
A trip to the Eastern Sea could cost a dozen Spirit Stones.
Why was the Nine Cauldrons Sect known only as a major sect for Body Cultivation?
The low entry threshold for Body Cultivation was one reason, another was that the Energy Departnt's efficiency was poor, and the production of Spirit Stones was not high, unable to support so many Sword Cultivators.
...
The next morning.
Alkaid arrived at his workstation, operating the working bench.
Before long, major systems of the "Purple Cloud" Flying Sword were separated by the projection equipnt on the desk and magnified into the void.
Alkaid inspected them one by one.
He finally ca to a sowhat exasperated conclusion.
"Too poor."
The Purple Cloud Sword...
As a daily use flying sword, it was fine, but as a Lifebound Flying Sword, its performance was too poor.
"How could there possibly be more than eighty orders a year for such a flying sword?"
He was sowhat puzzled.
A brief check using his Chief's privileges over the order information, he quickly understood.
"The buyers are all wealthy middle-stage cultivators, hardly any high-stage cultivators."
Although the scarcest talent within the Nine Cauldrons was Divine Cultivation, Divine Cultivators acted behind the scenes, which could never compare to the thrill of Sword Cultivators on the front lines.
Just like many people prefer playing offensive roles in gas, Sword Cultivation was everyone's first choice.
Moreover, Green Abyss Sword Control, soaring through the Nine Heavens, was extrely stylish.
In this context, many middle-stage cultivators wanted to train their Lifebound Flying Swords early on, to enjoy the thrill of sword flight.
Their cultivation couldn't support Spirit Artifact-level flying swords, so Superior Grade magic artifacts were their best choice.
Although poorly performing, the Purple Cloud was stylish.
Its appearance and special effects were definitely among the most attractive of all Lifebound Flying Swords, which was evident from the high sales of the aesthetically focused Purple Cloud Swords.
Stylish flying swords exactly catered to the likes of show-off rich second-generation Qi Refiners...
In the end, it was not surprising that the Purple Cloud, despite its poor performance, received more than eighty orders a year.
"Quite an insight," Alkaid exclaid in realization.
After pondering for a while...
He had no intention of shutting down the production of aesthetically pleasing flying swords.
But in terms of quality...
"Who would use a Superior Grade magic artifact as their Lifebound Flying Sword? Only these showy second-generations. Anyone slightly emphasizing practicality would directly choose a Spirit Artifact."
Alkaid looked at the flying sword for a long while, then made a decision.
"Venture into the Spirit Artifact market."
The Nine Cauldrons Sect was starting to emphasize Sword Cultivator training, with a substantial number of high-level Sword Cultivators. If he could forge cost-effective Spirit Artifact flying swords, he could seize this opportunity and rise swiftly.
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