Chief?! What does that mean?! Is that a title one could just throw around?! A chief is someone who holds the top position! The number one figure of a department or an entire unit! Yaoguang applied to the Purple Firmament Institute, yet he is being addressed as the chief?! He is the chief of the Purple Firmament Institute?! H-How is that possible?! Huang Yunqi could not believe it.

The Purple Firmament Institute was a branch-level artifact refinement institute, directly administered by the Artifact Refinement Hall. The prestige of the chief of such an institute was significant enough to rank among the elite in Longxiang City; he could stand on equal footing with the sect master of the Hundred-Refinement Sect.

Yaoguang has only just joined the Nine Cauldrons Sect. How can he possibly hold such a vital position? Huang Yunqi froze.

Unfortunately, while Huang Yunqi remained frozen in a daze, Yaoguang had already departed from the Hundred-Refinement Sect. She could not bring herself to chase after him to demand answers, leaving her no choice but to investigate the matter quietly later.

***

"Are Zong Yan and Ji Baichuan not at the sect?" Yaoguang asked from inside the car.

"No. Early this morning, they both headed to the capital to take their teaching certification exams. They are preparing to apply for instructor positions at higher academies and should not be back until the day after tomorrow," Kong Xuan replied.

Yaoguang nodded. "Send them a message. Tell them to come to the Purple Firmament Institute once they return."

Now that he had arrived at the Purple Firmament Institute, he needed to install trustworthy people in key departments. Kong Xuan was one such person, and Zong Yan could be considered another.

As for Ji Baichuan... If he was willing to accept the arrangement, he could serve as a deputy head in the Security Department. If not, Yaoguang would respect his choice to seek a teacher position at a higher academy.

"Take a trip to the Immortal-Proving Building," Yaoguang instructed.

The driver quickly changed lanes and pulled up outside the Immortal-Proving Building shortly after. Upon entering, Yaoguang headed straight for the high-level pill section. Now that he had several hundred spirit stones in his possession, he no longer needed to scrape funds together to buy medicine.

He purchased three bottles of Heavenly Being Pills. As for the more advanced Indestructible Golden Body Pills or Five-Qi Origin Pills, those would have to wait until his assets reached the tens of thousands. Given his current net worth, using those top-tier pills for cultivation wouldn't be cost-effective at all.

Industries in the Great Cangwu World, including those related to artifact refinement, alchemy, and array arts, have all developed rapidly. Three hundred years ago, spirit artifacts comparable to those used by Foundation Building cultivators were already commonplace. Any high-tier qi cultivator with a bit of wealth could own one, or even use high-grade spirit artifacts. Meanwhile, at the Foundation Building Realm, ordinary cultivators used top-tier spirit artifacts, while the wealthy directly utilized astras meant for Golden Core experts. The same logic applied to alchemy. Yaoguang couldn't help but think about his situation.

With enough spirit stones, he could actually reach the ninth realm of body refinement in less than one day. Even the massive threshold between the ninth realm and the star lord tier would only take him three to five days to cross, since his comprehension had already reached the required standard. Furthermore, with sufficient spirit stones, his Merchant experience could continuously elevate his Martial Dao realm.

With the two paths complementing each other, he could forge a god-fiend body within a month or two, causing his combat power to soar directly to the peak of the star lord tier.

***

The Purple Firmament Institute spanned over 800,000 square meters, so there was no shortage of space. The residence of the chief was naturally grand and luxurious. It consisted of one main building and two auxiliary structures, surrounded by a courtyard featuring gardens, rockeries, and fountains. There was even a small airpark.

The airpark was specifically designed for docking flying vessels. These were upgraded versions of hovering cars, but each vessel typically cost hundreds of spirit stones, with superior models reaching into the thousands. Not everyone could afford one.

Moreover, like flying swords, they were easy to buy but difficult to maintain. The operating costs of a flying vessel were significantly higher than those of a flying sword. In the entire Nine Heavens Domain, fewer than thirty people owned one.

In the cultivation room on the first floor, Yaoguang had just taken a Heavenly Being Pill. He felt the medicinal power spreading through his body.

If I don't worry about maximizing the efficiency of every pill, taking one Heavenly Being Pill a day would get me to the eighth realm of body refinement in just over two months. However, that process would consume about three hundred spirit stones, Yaoguang thought to himself.

He could just barely afford three hundred spirit stones now.

Time itself represents life. Even if cultivators in this world break through to the realm of a great cultivator, their lifespan is only about two to three hundred years. If they engage in frequent life-and-death combat and damage their vitality, it isn't unheard of for them to pass away in their hundreds. Zong Lian is the perfect example; he is currently over a hundred and twenty years old, a Foundation Building cultivator who grew up through constant slaughter. His remaining lifespan is sixty years at most. As he continued reflecting, Yaoguang started running some numbers.

If he spent three to five years slowly cultivating to become a star lord, he would have less than two hundred years of life remaining by the time he succeeded. How could he live the life he wanted then?

"I must seize the day. Once I ensure my own safety and a secure environment, I can retire early and enjoy life." Yaoguang glanced toward the brightly lit Purple Firmament Institute. As long as the institute received enough orders for the new Purple Firmament swords, he would not have to worry about spirit stones. To ensure that everyone at the institute followed his lead, however...

"My body refinement hasn't reached star lord tier, my psyche refinement hasn't reached the high tier, and I haven't become an artifact refinement master yet. This will affect both my prestige and the morale of the refiners at the institute." After a brief moment of reflection, Yaoguang made his decision. "I might as well break through a realm then. I'm almost at the eighth realm of body refinement anyway."

With that thought, he began to mobilize the blood and qi within his body to nourish his psychic mind. He meticulously refined the energy, ensuring that not a single shred of power was wasted during the conversion of qi into psyche.

In less than half an hour, his psychic thought surged to a new level.

"Alright, I've broken through to the seventh realm of psyche refinement." Yaoguang’s gaze remained calm, showing not even a ripple of excitement.

When the required standards of a realm were met, psyche refinement was far easier to break through than body refinement.

After all, psyche refinement leaned toward idealism. In many cases, once a concept was fully grasped, the feedback was instantaneous.

Body refinement, however, was far too materialistic. Understanding the theory was not enough; every detail had to be validated through gradual practice.

"Now that I have reached the seventh realm of psyche refinement..." Yaoguang thought back to the anomalies that occurred when his Psyche Dao realm broke through to the psychic-will realm.

In the next moment, the psychic thoughts within his mental world began to coalesce, gradually forming a transparent phantom. During this process, the phantom rippled slightly, appearing as if it might dissipate. However, under Yaoguang’s precise control, the phantom ultimately stabilized and completed its transformation.

The phantom’s features were blurred and indistinct, making it difficult to see clearly, but it bore a vague resemblance to him. It was completely linked to and maintained by his essence, qi, and psyche. Of course, the primary drain came from his psychic thoughts.

This level of consumption was not insignificant for him. Given his newly attained realm, he could only maintain it for a few minutes.

Nevertheless, there was a world of difference between merely cultivating psychic thoughts and maintaining a primordial psyche. Using investigative perception as an example, observing a target with psychic thought was like watching it through a television; there was always a screen in between. Now that he had a primordial psyche, it was as if he had personally arrived at the location he wished to perceive. The clarity and sensory inputs beyond mere vision were within arm's reach.

Compared to scattered psychic thoughts, the primordial psyche is organized into a cohesive whole. Both its resilience and its resistance to damage have improved significantly. It is like the difference between a disorganized mob and a troop of elite soldiers; the impact they can have is on entirely different levels. Yaoguang quietly experienced this profound state.

However, this insight came at a price. The consumption of psychic thoughts increased drastically. A few minutes later, Yaoguang’s condensed primordial psyche dissipated, turning back into psychic thoughts that returned to his mental world to be nourished by the circulation of his blood and qi.

"It really is energy-intensive," Yaoguang remarked.

This was a problem faced by every cultivation system in the modern world. Body cultivators and psyche cultivators were relatively well-off; it was the sword cultivators and spell cultivators who were the true energy gluttons.

This was especially true for spell cultivators. As modern spells continued to be refined, a Foundation Building Realm spell cultivator could unleash spells that were equivalent to those used by Golden Core experts centuries ago, some of which were even enhanced versions. A single spell might completely drain their true origin, forcing them to pause and recover.

The same applied to sword cultivators. Although they cruised through the sky at supersonic speeds, the moment they engaged in combat, their spiritual energy consumption would increase by ten, twenty, or even multiple dozens of times. A single round trip to the East Sea could easily burn through a dozen spirit stones.

Why was the Nine Cauldrons Sect primarily a sect for body cultivators? One reason was the low entry threshold for body refinement. The other was the poor efficiency of the Energy Department: without a sufficient production of spirit stones, the sect simply could not afford to maintain that many sword cultivators.

***

Early the next morning, Yaoguang arrived at his personal workshop and started operating the workstation. Soon, the various systems of the Purple Firmament flying sword were separated by the workstation's holographic projector, enlarged, and cast into the air. Yaoguang inspected them one by one. After analyzing all the documentation, he concluded the situation was even worse than what he had expected.

"This is terrible," he muttered.

The Purple Firmament sword was acceptable for daily use, but as a life-bound flying sword, its performance metrics were abysmal.

"How could a sword like this get over eighty orders a year?" He was puzzled.

Using his authority as the chief, he looked up the order information and quickly understood the situation. "The buyers are all wealthy middle-tier cultivators. There are almost no high-tier cultivators among them."

Although psyche cultivators were the rarest talents in the Nine Cauldrons Sect, they usually stayed behind the scenes to provide support. That could never compare to the exhilarating front-line combat of a sword cultivator. Just as many people preferred to play as high-damage dealers in video games, the path of the sword cultivator was the first choice for most. Furthermore, many believed nothing to be cooler than a sword cultivator riding a blade through the clouds and soaring across the heavens.

Under these circumstances, many middle-tier cultivators wanted to refine a life-bound flying sword early on just to enjoy the thrill of flight. Since their cultivation was insufficient to support a spirit artifact, a high-grade refined artifact became their best option. The Purple Firmament sword performed poorly, but it looked cool. Its appearance and special effects were among the most beautiful of all life-bound flying swords. This flashy sword perfectly catered to those second-generation rich kids at the middle-tier qi refinement level, who loved to show off.

With that considered, it was not surprising that the Purple Firmament sword received over eighty orders a year.

"I have learned something new." Yaoguang mused.

After some thought, he decided he did not intend to dismantle the aesthetic sword production department. However, regarding the quality...

"Who would actually train a high-grade refined artifact as a life-bound flying sword? Only those flashy second-generation rich kids. Anyone who cared even slightly about utility would choose a spirit artifact directly." Yaoguang looked at the sword for a long time before making a decision. "We are entering the spirit artifact market."

The Nine Cauldrons Sect had begun to place more importance on training sword cultivators, and the number of high-tier sword cultivators was quite large. If he could refine a cost-effective spirit artifact flying sword, he would certainly be able to seize this opportunity and rise rapidly.