Chapter 403: Students of the Artifact Refinement Department

Gongshu Jin followed behind Zhang Yu and Ye Xingli as the three of them stepped into the banquet hall.

The moment they entered, the rich aroma of food wafted into Gongshu Jin’s nose. He caught sight of the large tubs of rice set out on the tables ahead and couldn’t help but marvel inwardly at Mo Shangjin’s extravagant generosity.

Zhang Yu also glanced at the dining table, and immediately felt a gnawing hunger rise in his belly.

After all, between studying, overtime shifts, and cultivation lately, it had been a long while since he’d had a proper meal.

Just then, a young woman walked up to them.

She wore nothing more than a crop top and shorts, leaving much of her skin exposed.

However, at her joints and limbs, clear seams were visible.

Even without activating his Three-Eyed Divine Sight, Zhang Yu could see the deliberately projected structural lines and a variety of branded, model-stamped Law Husks all over her body.

Everything about her appearance seemed designed to emphasize her Law Husks—to continuously announce to the world that her arms, legs, and much of her body were not flesh, but refined artifact components.

Zhang Yu took a glance at the ranking number hovering over her head and thought, “Fifteenth in the Artifact Refinement Department?”

What caught his eye even more was that every Law Husk on her body came from the same brand.

“A die-hard fan of the Myriad Artisans Sect?” he silently speculated.

The girl walked up to Ye Xingli and greeted her with a sweet smile. “Senior!”

Ye Xingli introduced her, “This is Feng Tingting, my junior.”

“Tingting, this is Zhang Yu from the Civil Engineering Department.”

Feng Tingting turned to Zhang Yu, and when her gaze landed on the “Rank 95, Civil Engineering Department” floating above his head, she momentarily froze.

Ninety-fiveth... Civil Engineering?

Such a distant and unfamiliar number. Feng Tingting couldn’t even recall the last time she’d spoken to someone from that level. It must’ve been years ago.

If he hadn’t been introduced by Ye Xingli, she would’ve been tempted to boot him out on the spot.

A quick scan with her ocular Law Husk gave her a precise readout of Zhang Yu’s components.

“Time-Wrecking Demon Pupil, three years old, depreciated… current market value: 25.5 spirit coins. But he only has one…”

She mentally stamped a “12.75” over Zhang Yu’s head—that was his Law Husk net worth.

Feng Tingting was an extreme Law Husk supremacist.

Scanning someone’s Law Husks and calculating their total value—this was one of her core metrics for judging a person’s worth. It was also a common practice in the Artifact Refinement Department.

To her, it made perfect sense: how else could one quickly tell the difference between the elite, the ordinary, and the worthless?

She firmly believed, “The future belongs to Law Husks.”

“Law Husks are a cultivator’s true body.”

“The path of cultivation is a constant process of earning money, gaining knowledge, raising mana, and gradually replacing backward flesh with superior Law Husks.”

“The more Law Husks on a cultivator’s body, the more evolved they are on the path of immortality.”

“In this era, anyone without even a single Law Husk is essentially disabled.”

Having marked Zhang Yu’s ‘evolution score’ as 12.75, Feng Tingting turned to look at Gongshu Jin behind him.

“No department-wide ranking?”

She turned to Ye Xingli and asked, “Senior, is this your new Soul Cultivator? Why is he still alive?”

Ye Xingli shook her head. “Who buys Soul Cultivators alive nowadays?”

“This is Gongshu Jin, also from the Civil Engineering Department. Don’t mind the lack of a full-department rank—he’s only a sophomore. His composite score is still low.”

Gongshu Jin bowed his head, embarrassed.

Since entering this banquet hall, he’d been surrounded by students flaunting their department-wide rankings above their heads. He felt like a cockroach from the sewers, utterly out of place in this dazzling setting.

Especially standing next to Ye Xingli and Feng Tingting, both adorned in high-end Law Husks, Gongshu Jin felt painfully inferior.

Feng Tingting gave a small nod and marked “151” over Gongshu Jin’s head.

“Not bad. No full-department ranking, but a decent evolution score.”

“But… not a single component from the Myriad Artisans Sect?”

She shook her head inwardly. In her view, choosing any brand besides the Myriad Artisans Sect was practically a step in the wrong evolutionary direction.

After all, the Myriad Artisans Sect was a top-tier conglomerate, the long-standing industry partner of the Artifact Refinement Department at Wanfa University. In her mind, it was the gold standard for Law Husk evolution—the most advanced, most orthodox, most

Dao

-aligned enterprise.

“Myriad Artisans Sect is the only company with core Law Husk technology. Tian Gong and Vajra Forge? Just marketing fluff.”

After glancing at Zhang Yu and Gongshu Jin, she turned back to Ye Xingli—and the “1???” over her head.

That four-digit Law Husk net worth shimmered in Feng Tingting’s eyes like a beacon of divine brilliance.

“A body worth over a thousand spirit coins—how could it not be radiant?”

The three question marks following the ‘1’ were due to Ye Xingli’s self-modified Law Husks. Even Feng Tingting couldn’t estimate their precise value.

To her, that made Ye Xingli’s beauty all the more sublime, wrapped in an aura of mystery that made her refined body overwhelmingly alluring.

…

More students from the Artifact Refinement Department started filtering in.

Each sported their own departmental rankings, and they flocked toward Ye Xingli like moths to a flame.

Their first instinct upon seeing her? Take photos.

Their ocular Law Husks worked like precision instruments, analyzing every change in Ye Xingli’s physique, studying her like a piece of living artwork, meticulously documenting the differences since their last encounter.

Every subtle shift in parameters was treated as valuable data.

As the number eight ranked student in the Artifact Refinement Department, Ye Xingli outclassed nearly all undergraduates—only the postgraduate “Year Ten” students scored higher.

She was a living, breathing exemplar of top-tier refinement skill.

To them, her body was the ideal case study.

Streams of messages flowed between the Artifact Refinement students and Ye Xingli:

Student A: [0.1 spirit coin transfer] Senior, did my project recommendation go through okay?

Student B: [0.1 spirit coin transfer] Senior Ye, I’m trying to get into Professor Wang’s research group. Could you help?

Student C: [0.1 spirit coin transfer] Xingli-jie, any word on the teams for next year’s refinement competition?

Someone even messaged Feng Tingting:

Student D: [0.05 spirit coin transfer] Tingting-jie, has Senior Xingli’s secondhand Law Husk inventory restocked yet?

Feng Tingting: Not yet. I’ll let you know when it does.

Ye Xingli’s used Law Husks—having been customized, polished, and worn by her—were highly sought after by fellow students.

As for Zhang Yu and Gongshu Jin, the crowd barely acknowledged their existence.

Zhang Yu watched as people locked eyes in silence, yet exchanged endless lines of information. Yep, the Artifact Refinement students were definitely private-messaging each other.

Seeing no reason to stay, Zhang Yu rubbed his belly and made his move.

“Senior Ye, I’m going to grab some food.”

After a quick goodbye, he turned and walked toward the buffet.

Gongshu Jin followed immediately. Around these top-ranked prodigies, he always felt out of place.

Just then, a ruckus broke out by the dining table.

“Table rules say: first plate, one-bite gulp. It’s about respect!”

“Exactly! This is ancestral table culture—we can’t be the generation that breaks the chain!”

Zhang Yu and Gongshu Jin looked over to see a group of Civil Engineering students challenging each other to a food contest.

Watching upperclassmen down entire plates of rice dumplings in one go, Gongshu Jin felt a chill in his bones. Their appetites were monstrous.

“In our field, appetite reflects digestive capacity. Digestive capacity reveals both wealth and physical prowess—it’s a marker of one’s cultivation potential.”

He understood perfectly: competitive eating was just another way to display one’s potential on the Immortal Path.

“Please tell me I won’t be forced into this…”

He glanced toward a quieter corner, where some seniors were getting massages and taking pills. That crowd looked more his speed.

Then his eyes landed on a familiar figure.

“Is that… Yu Xinghan?”

He saw Yu Xinghan chatting with some seniors and introducing massage therapists.

“So he joined his mentor’s massage platform… and became a manager?”

Meanwhile, Zhang Yu approached the dining table with a smile.

One senior recognized him immediately and clapped him on the shoulder. “You’re Zhang Yu, right? Made it into the department’s top seven in the last competition—nice!”

“C’mon, take a plate!”

Zhang Yu scarfed down three plates of dumplings without so much as breaking a sweat, earning a round of admiration from the Civil Engineering upperclassmen.

From afar, Su Yanyang raised his head to glance at Zhang Yu. He said nothing, but clinked his rice bowl against Ma Xuan’s, and the two downed their meals.

But Su Yanyang’s real focus wasn’t on Zhang Yu. It was on Xiao Yunji—and another top senior named Ping Han.

“Only one student gets certified each round for the Military Civil Engineering License.”

“For the exam next October, Xiao Yunji and Ping Han are my biggest threats.”

As for Zhang Yu… he might’ve beaten Su Yanyang in the last competition, but in Su Yanyang’s estimation, Zhang Yu’s individual strength still fell short. He wouldn’t be a factor in next year’s exam.

“He’s probably aiming for the test three years from now.”

“And three years from now… is too late for me.”

“Next year,” Su Yanyang thought, “is my best chance.”

“But only if I defeat Xiao Yunji and Ping Han can I claim that license.”