Chapter 2: The Art of Recycling (Xianxia Style)

Jiang Chen ignored the shivering, pale-faced Garth, who was still clutching his broken wrist in the corner. He casually tossed the two-hundred-pound iron crate onto a sturdy wooden workbench.

Inside the crate lay dozens of raw, unrefined magic crystals. They were jagged, unpolished shards extracted from the hearts of low-level monsters, crackling with unstable elemental energy. To the mages of the Holy Crown Guild, these raw shards were dangerous and useless until refined by advanced alchemy.

But to Jiang Chen? They looked like a feast.

‘The quality is atrocious, but the sheer quantity of ambient energy trapped inside is undeniable,’ Jiang Chen thought, running a finger over a pulsing red fire-crystal. ‘In my past life, I wouldn't even use such low-grade stones to power a defensive array for my stable. But now? This is exactly the fuel my withered meridians need.’

He sat down cross-legged on the cold stone floor, placing the heavy crate right in front of him.

Taking a deep, rhythmic breath, Jiang Chen closed his eyes and began to circulate the first verse of the Nine-Turn Primordial Scriptures. This was the supreme foundation-building technique of his past life, a cultivation method so aggressive it was rumored to be capable of refining the stars themselves.

As his mind focused, the tiny speck of violet light deep within his soul—the remnant of his Purple Mansion Primordial Source—flared to life.

Whoosh.

A subtle, invisible vortex generated around Jiang Chen's body. The air in the warehouse instantly grew colder. Suddenly, the raw fire-crystals inside the crate began to tremble. Bright, crimson streaks of elemental energy began to bleed out of the stones, defying gravity as they floated toward Jiang Chen’s chest.

If an Archmage were present, they would have screamed in horror. To absorb raw, unrefined magic energy directly into a human body was suicide. Without a magic circle or a wand to filter the elements, the chaotic mana would instantly tear a person's internal organs to shreds, causing them to explode from the inside out.

Yet, as the violent crimson energy entered Jiang Chen's body, it didn't explode.

The moment the wild magic touched his skin, the Nine-Turn Primordial Scriptures acted like a massive, divine crushing mill. The chaotic "magic" attributes were instantly stripped away. The elements were crushed, purified, and compressed until nothing was left but the purest, most concentrated primordial essence.

Crack. Crack.

One by one, the magic crystals in the crate lost their glow, turning into brittle, gray piles of worthless dust.

Inside Jiang Chen’s body, a miraculous transformation was taking place. The dry, narrow meridians of his trash body were being violently forced open by the incoming torrent of True Yuan. The pain was excruciating—like liquid fire being pumped through his veins—but Jiang Chen didn't even flinch. For a sword immortal who had survived the Nine-Turn Heavenly Tribulation, this level of pain was nothing more than a mild itch.

‘Lesser Qi Refining Stage One… Stage Two… Stage Three…’

His cultivation level was skyrocketing. Because his soul already possessed the perfect, max-level insights of a supreme immortal, he faced absolutely no bottlenecks. As long as there was enough energy to fill the vessel, he could break through at will.

By the time the moon reached its peak outside the warehouse windows, all three hundred pounds of raw magic crystals had been reduced to ash.

Jiang Chen opened his eyes. A flash of brilliant violet lightning briefly sparked within his pupils before fading back into the deep blackness of his ordinary-looking eyes.

He stood up, stretching his limbs. A series of loud, popping sounds echoed through his skeleton like a string of firecrackers. His skin, previously pale and sickly, now possessed a subtle, jade-like luster, and his muscles felt packed with explosive, supernatural density.

‘Qi Refining Stage Six,’ Jiang Chen evaluated, slightly dissatisfied. ‘I consumed the entire warehouse’s stock of fire-crystals just to reach the middle stages of Qi Refining. This world's energy density is far too low. At this rate, building a proper foundation will require a massive amount of resources.’

Suddenly, the heavy iron doors of the warehouse were kicked open with a loud bang.

"Garth! You lazy pig! Where are the refined crystals for the Vanguard Knights?!"

A sharp, arrogant voice cut through the silence. Walking into the warehouse was a young man wearing the polished silver breastplate of a Squire Knight. He had a fine steel longsword strapped to his waist, and his chest was puffed out with immense self-importance. Behind him stood two burly guards.

This was Tyler, an arrogant aristocrat's son who had successfully awakened a mid-grade Light-attribute Dou Qi. He was one of the many sycophants who followed the guild's elite geniuses around, acting like a tyrant toward the lower-ranking staff.

Tyler glanced around the messy warehouse, his eyes immediately landing on the mountain of gray dust on Jiang Chen's workbench, and then on the groveling, terrified Garth in the corner.

"What is the meaning of this?" Tyler’s eyes narrowed as he looked at Jiang Chen, recognizing the "noble trash" who had been publicly humiliated in the plaza earlier that day. "Jiang Chen? Why are you standing near the crystal storage? Wait… where are the magic crystals? Why is there only dust?!"

Garth trembled, pointing a shaking, bandaged finger at Jiang Chen. "Sir Tyler! It’s him! He… he did something crazy! He touched the stones, and they all turned to ash! He’s a monster!"

Tyler didn't believe a single word. To him, Jiang Chen was a confirmed magicless cripple. A cripple destroying high-grade magic crystals? Impossible. He assumed Jiang Chen had stolen or hidden the goods to get revenge on the guild.

"Stealing guild property on your very first day? You really are a brainless piece of trash," Tyler sneered, slowly drawing his steel longsword. A bright, yellowish-white light began to coat the blade—the manifestation of his Light Dou Qi. The air pressure in the room shifted, heavy and suffocating to an ordinary mortal.

"Hand over the crystals right now, or I will use the authority of the Knight's Code to sever your limbs right here," Tyler threatened, stepping forward. "Let me show you the difference between a glorious awakened knight and a dirty rat like you!"

With a sharp whistle, Tyler lunged forward. His longsword swept through the air, trailing a blazing arc of Dou Qi meant to take off Jiang Chen’s right arm. The speed was incredible, easily fast enough to decapitate a wild wolf in the blink of an eye.

Garth closed his eyes, expecting to see a spray of blood.

Jiang Chen, however, didn't even bother to move his feet. He merely looked at the incoming blazing blade with an expression of profound boredom.

‘Too slow. Too weak. No technique, no intent. Just a child swinging a heavy stick.’

As the glowing blade came within an inch of his shoulder, Jiang Chen casually raised his left hand. He didn't use a shield, he didn't chant a spell, and he didn't use any flashy armor. He simply pinched his index finger and thumb together.

Clang!

A crisp, metallic screech echoed through the warehouse.

Tyler’s eyes nearly popped out of his skull. His full-power, Dou Qi-infused strike had been stopped dead in its tracks. Jiang Chen had caught the razor-sharp edge of the steel blade with just two bare fingers.

"What… what kind of devilry is this?!" Tyler gasped, frantically trying to pull his sword back. But the weapon felt as though it had been cast into an ancient, immovable mountain. No matter how hard he channeled his Dou Qi, the blade wouldn't budge a single millimeter.

"Is this what you call Dou Qi?" Jiang Chen asked softly, tilting his head. "How pathetic."

With a gentle flick of his fingers, Jiang Chen tapped the flat of the blade.

BOOM!

A concentrated burst of Stage Six Qi Refining True Yuan exploded forward. The steel longsword instantly shattered into a thousand jagged fragments. The violent counter-shockwave traveled up the hilt, completely obliterating Tyler's silver breastplate and sending him flying across the warehouse like a broken ragdoll.

Tyler slammed into the stone wall, coughing up a mouthful of blood, his eyes wide with a mixture of absolute terror and confusion. "No... it's impossible... the sacred stone said you have zero mana... zero..."

"I do have zero mana," Jiang Chen said, casually walking over and stepping directly onto Tyler's chest, crushing his ribs slightly until the knight whimpered. "But who told you that magic is the only power in this universe?"