Chapter Eighty-Nine: Foundation Establishment Pill and Dragon Strategy

Expert-level recycling consists of four sub-skills. The blue recycling space has expanded, now reaching a size of six by six cubic meters—vast enough to hold the equivalent of one or two entire rooms. It also comes with a new feature: mirror recycling. As the name suggests, this allows objects placed before a mirror to be transferred directly into the recycling space, though only recyclables are eligible, and the original owner must consent in spirit. Qin Jing specifically inquired with GDP and learned that mirror recycling can be used for cross-temporal transactions, with the service fee halved compared to before.

Another longstanding skill, Recycling Map, has been enhanced as well. Its effect radius has grown to thirty meters, and its single tracking point has been increased to three. Previously, Qin Jing used the Recycling Map to monitor his shop at all times; now, he can track three locations simultaneously. However, he hadn't yet thought of further applications for this, as the tracking points can be moved with the payment of a certain number of g-points each time. Compared to that, having more tracking points seems a negligible improvement.

There are two new skills as well—both blue-tier—called Recycling Pool and Recycling List.

Once activated, the Recycling Pool can hold various items to be recycled. By spending g-points, items can be restored or, by selecting the refining option, their essence can be extracted.

The Recycling List, once activated, creates a corresponding list alongside the “Client List,” gathering all high-value recyclable items in Qin Jing’s vicinity.

“What does it mean to gather high-value recyclables around me? Does that mean even if I haven’t seen the item before, as long as it’s appeared near me, the Recycling List will display it?” Qin Jing asked the mirror.

The mirror promptly responded, “The Recycling List can monitor high-value items within ten meters of Qin Jing, whether you’ve seen them or not.”

At that moment, Qin Jing’s interest was piqued. In the recycling business, opportunities are often missed in the blink of an eye. This function is nearly as useful as the sales skill “Targeted Sales Strategy.”

In the end, however, Qin Jing chose to spend 2,000 g-points to activate the blue recycling space. He had a series of transactions with the mythic world ahead, and being able to cut the transaction fee in half was no small matter. The immediate benefit was most important.

After spending 2,400 g-points, Qin Jing had 1,552 left. He glanced at the clock—it was already two in the morning—so he abandoned the idea of another transaction and went to bed.

Since he hadn’t cultivated that night, Qin Jing allowed himself a rare lie-in, waking only at ten the next morning.

For a fleeting moment, Qin Jing felt he had stolen a brief respite from the world, his whole being relaxed and languid. Looking around, he noticed Susan was already gone, but she’d left him a message on his phone, saying she hadn’t wanted to wake him and had gone to oversee the store’s renovations.

Qin Jing mentally gave Susan a thumbs-up and settled down to enjoy the nutritious breakfast provided by the Four Seasons Hotel.

No sooner had he finished breakfast than his phone screen flashed. In the mirror, Jenny Tio was placing one item after another in front of it.

There were the “Miraculous” series of snacks, each at ten g-points, a hundred catties of spirit rice, magical potions, a crystal sphere, a jade slip, and a jade vial containing a pill.

With a wave of his hand, Qin Jing made each item vanish from the mythic world, instantly transferring them into his recycling space. This time, the cross-temporal shipping fee was only forty g-points. Considering the volume, by Qin Jing’s estimate, the fee should have been at least a hundred g-points.

The “Miraculous” snacks he’d seen before and no longer held much use for him, so he set them aside. The same went for the spirit rice and magical potions. What caught Qin Jing’s attention were the crystal sphere, the cultivation manual, and the pill.

The crystal sphere resembled the “Supermodel Crystal” in form but lacked its intense glow and energy. It was a basic alchemist’s starter tool—by channeling his spiritual power into it, Qin Jing could continuously absorb foundational alchemical knowledge.

The pill was a Foundation Establishment Pill, which Qin Jing had asked Jenny to acquire. The previous day, after extracting a “damaged Foundation Establishment Pill” from “Young Master Qi,” he’d learned about the pill’s properties and had asked Jenny to help procure a genuine one.

It was worth noting that Jenny had purchased the Foundation Establishment Pill for a thousand magic stones, on credit from the seller, and this cost wasn’t included in their current transaction; Qin Jing would have to contact the seller himself.

Qin Jing readily agreed, for the Foundation Establishment Pill was far too precious.

Foundation Establishment Pill:
Ingredients: Confidential (can be decoded after achieving Junior Alchemist status)

Value: 1,000 magic stones
General Description: The finest foundational pill for Eastern cultivation, forming the bedrock of all further training. It dramatically enhances the body’s affinity with the world’s spiritual energy and establishes a solid base for future cultivation. Only those who have taken this pill before advancing to the Extraordinary stage can even glimpse the eternal path.

The “damaged Foundation Establishment Pill” Qin Jing had appraised previously carried a similar description. The language used by the GDP system was so absolute—“only those who”—that its value was self-evident.

Now, Qin Jing felt a certain wariness toward the Qi family of Jinling. Something so valuable, worth a thousand magic stones even in the mythic world, had been consumed directly by Young Master Qi. Such extravagance and power!

What mattered most to Qin Jing, though, was the cultivation manual.

This was, as Jenny had promised, the “Dragon Strategy Volume of the Six Stratagems.” According to Jenny, it was the only volume of the Six Stratagems she’d been able to find so far.

If the “Civil Stratagems Volume” was the general outline of the technique, then “Dragon Strategy” was a true extraordinary-phase cultivation method. Qin Jing picked up the jade slip, immersed his mind within, and began to read carefully.

After about forty minutes, he exhaled softly, opened his eyes, and marveled, “As expected of the finest Eastern spiritual art in the mythic world—it’s worlds apart from any inheritance on Earth.”

The previous night, Qin Jing had already absorbed the “cultivation knowledge of Young Master Qi” refined from the treasure chest. According to Young Master Qi’s perspective, the Qi family’s techniques allowed one to fight above their level: at the first extraordinary tier, their practitioners could muster double the strength and contend with ordinary second-tier extraordinaires.

But the Six Stratagems was fundamentally different. The “Dragon Strategy” volume explained that “stages” were a human-imposed division. A true path to transcendence had no stages, allowing one to absorb spiritual energy from the world without limit, transforming it into spiritual power. Progress depended only on the speed of absorption, the rate of assimilation, and the stability of one’s foundation.

Cultivation according to the “Dragon Strategy” emphasized mastering the elements, riding the winds and waves. What did that mean? It meant endlessly consuming all manner of spiritual resources, converting the world’s spiritual energy, and when one reached their limit, refining it with the “Dragon Strategy” before continuing. Ultimately, when a practitioner cultivated a “spiritual energy cloud” within their body, they could advance to the next volume and attempt to break through to the mythic realm.