Zhang Chong, owner of a hardware factory on the verge of bankruptcy, unexpectedly activates a cultivation-and-artifact-refining module in his punch press.
By day, debt collectors’ calls ring nonstop. By night, he studies the “spiritual energy furnace temperature curve” in The True Principles of Artifact Refining.
The local cultivation clans look down on him as an unorthodox outsider: “You have no spiritual roots. What makes you think you can refine artifacts?”
Zhang Chong glances at the three batches of materials they’ve ruined in their furnaces, then silently hands them an inspection report:
“The cooling rate of your formation is off, causing thermal stress cracks. I recommend adjusting it to these parameters.”
