Steady Cultivation: Starting With the Perk “Work Hard, Rest Hard”

“President, President, there’s an abnormal situation!”

Cai Lun rushed up to the top floor.

The Artificer Association President’s office was protected by a barrier, and Cai Lun couldn’t break through, so he could only shout loudly from outside the door.

Soon, the barrier opened.

Cai Lun walked in and saw an elder with a calm demeanor looking at him serenely.

“What is it? Why so agitated?”

“President, I just received seven Artificers, and they all want rank evaluations. Most of them are requesting skip-rank evaluations! This situation isn’t normal!” Cai Lun immediately said.

“Oh?”

The elder raised an eyebrow and promptly opened the evaluation applications that had just been submitted.

Sure enough, he saw nine rank evaluation requests in total.

The President of Skywind City’s Artificer Association was named Liu Zhihong, and he was also a high-level master-level artifact crafter, holding a semi-official, semi-civilian identity.

The number of association members directly affected the Artificer Association’s operations and revenue.

The previous Artificer Calamity had caused the association to lose a large number of Artificers, so he paid extremely close attention to any Artificers advancing in rank.

“Hmm?” Liu Zhihong frowned. He noticed that those who came for evaluation were all military personnel. Although these people could register with the association, they wouldn’t increase the association’s revenue.

“Strange. What’s the military up to?”

Liu Zhihong flipped through the Artificers’ records. Naturally, he couldn’t access military files, but he quickly found a particularly unusual example.

An Artifact Refining Master with the Dao name Youhe.

When this person had previously registered, he hadn’t joined the military and was classified as a civilian Artificer. Not long ago, his rank was still at the level of a 30th-tier Artifact Refining Master, but now he was being evaluated as a 33rd-tier high-level Artifact Refining Master. There was definitely something wrong here.

He pondered for a moment, then said to Cai Lun, “Go and invite this Daoist Youhe! I want to meet him.”

“Understood!”

Cai Lun immediately accepted the order, arriving outside Ding-character Workshop No. 1 and waiting for Youhe to come out.

To reduce waiting time, Cai Lun used his authority to increase the time flow rate in Workshop No. 1. This was usually a paid service, but Cai Lun activated it for free now, and at the highest level of time acceleration.

Soon.

The workshop door opened, and Youhe walked out with a joyful expression.

“Congratulations, Master Youhe, on successfully advancing to a 33rd-tier Artifact Refining Master!” Cai Lun said with a cheerful smile.

Youhe was taken aback. He hadn’t expected the Artificer Association’s service to be so thorough—he had only just stepped out of the workshop, and someone was already there to receive him.

“This is your new badge. Please accept it!”

Cai Lun flipped his hand and produced another badge.

“Thank you!” Master Youhe expressed his gratitude sincerely.

Just then, Cai Lun spoke again, “Your Artificer advancement performance has been truly outstanding. Our Association President Liu greatly admires your achievement and would like to meet with you. Would the Master be willing to oblige?”

Master Youhe was startled. The President of Skywind City’s Artificer Association was a high-level master-level artifact crafter. If such a figure wanted to see him, he naturally wouldn’t refuse.

“Lead the way!” Master Youhe immediately agreed.

“Please follow me, Master!”

Cai Lun led Youhe to the top floor and then invited him to enter alone.

Youhe took a deep breath and stepped into the room, where he saw the kind-faced Liu Zhihong.

“Please have a seat, Little Friend Youhe!”

Liu Zhihong smiled warmly.

Youhe sat down nervously. “Greetings, President Liu.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Little Friend Youhe. The speed of your improvement as an Artificer is among the fastest I’ve ever seen in my life. I have high hopes for you.”

Master Youhe said humbly, “Thank you for the praise, President Liu. In truth, it was only through fortunate circumstances that I managed to increase my Artificer rank by two levels.”

Liu Zhihong’s interest was piqued. “Could Little Friend Youhe elaborate on that?”

Master Youhe hesitated. He thought back to whether he needed to keep this confidential, but realized there was no point in secrecy. Millions of people had attended the lecture, and no confidentiality contracts had been imposed. This indicated there were no restrictions on sharing it.

Seeing his hesitation, Liu Zhihong said, “I have a forging manual here, containing my insights from when I once refined a 40th-tier Dominator Artifact. I’ll gift it to Little Friend Youhe!”

Master Youhe’s face lit up with joy. “Thank you, Master Liu!”

He then spoke seriously, “It’s actually quite simple. The Military Artifactory Headquarters issued a notice that the Director, Master Seven Stars, would be giving an internal public lecture. Upon seeing this, I chose to register and went to the Headquarters to attend. Master Seven Stars’ lecture was profoundly mysterious. I gained many insights, and as a result, I leaped two ranks in forging comprehension, jumping directly from the 31st-tier to the 33rd-tier. I even have a premonition that breaking through to a 40th-tier low-level master-level artifact crafter in the future will come naturally!”

Liu Zhihong showed a look of surprise. “Just that?”

“Yes!” Youhe confirmed. “My gains from the lecture were probably the smallest. I heard that quite a few intermediate master-level artifact crafters broke through to high-level master-level artifact crafter!”

Liu Zhihong was caught off guard.

In other words, all the people who came for evaluations were those who had attended the lecture?

If that were the case, just how profound was Master Seven Stars’ level? He was definitely not just at the level of a master-level artifact crafter!

Liu Zhihong immediately sent a telepathic message to Cai Lun, instructing him to check whether these evaluation candidates had returned from the Military Artifactory Headquarters in Qingfeng City.

In just a few moments, the situation was confirmed. They had indeed all come from Qingfeng City. This made Liu Zhihong completely unable to remain calm.

Among his association, there were also a large number of civilian Artificers stuck at bottlenecks. If they could receive guidance from Master Seven Stars, would they too be able to break through their bottlenecks one by one?

Most crucially, he himself was also stuck at the 63rd-tier bottleneck, unable to advance further. He, too, needed someone to guide him.

So he left an Avatar behind, while his main body set out for Qingfeng City.

Meanwhile, the millions of Artificers who had attended the lecture gradually returned to their respective cities, slowly causing a tremendous shockwave.

The Artificers in the military camps who hadn’t attended the lecture discovered that after their colleagues who had listened returned, their skill levels had soared and their abilities had improved dramatically. Each one of them regretted it so much they beat their chests and stomped their feet.

Many intermediate master-level artifact crafters in Di Que City regretted it so deeply their intestines turned green, and they secretly blamed the Branch Director for his arrogance and conceit.

Inside the office of the Di Que City Artifactory Branch Director, Zuo Qingtang learned the full details and frowned deeply. He could clearly feel that his prestige within the Artifactory Branch had plummeted by over seventy percent in an instant.

The prestige of that Headquarters Director Seven Stars had skyrocketed many times over, completely overshadowing him.

“A new official always lights three fires. This move is ruthless enough. He cultivated his own subordinates and drove a wedge between me and my people. Brilliant, absolutely brilliant!”

Zuo Qingtang was more concerned about his own power and authority, and he was extremely dissatisfied with Director Seven Stars’ approach.

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