Chapter Twenty-One: The Sudden Surge of the G Point

“How tormenting!”
With a coy laugh, Jenny vanished before Qin Jing’s eyes, leaving him staring desolately at his own tent, on the verge of tears. He was all too aware of the old saying, “Desire is a blade hanging overhead.” Jenny had adopted an entirely yielding posture, as if inviting him to do as he pleased—but would Qin Jing dare make a move? That shimmering barrier enveloping Jenny constantly reminded him of her formidable strength. If he so much as tried to touch her, and happened to brush against that barrier, who knew what might happen?

In the end, the transaction left Qin Jing feeling rather beleaguered by Jenny’s teasing, and the matter of the puppet’s sentience was simply left unresolved.

There was nothing to be done about it. Qin Jing had revealed the truth only to issue a warning, and having accomplished that, the ensuing awkwardness hardly mattered. On reflection, Qin Jing even thought that cultivating the image of a “pure and innocent youth” was not a bad thing. At the very least, if they were to trade again, he would already have an “excuse.”

“So, if I act smitten with that enchantress, it makes sense for me to willingly pay a ‘huge price’ for her to acquire some of Earth’s rarest luxuries? Hmm, not a bad justification at all.”

Qin Jing pondered to himself. Whenever he conducted any transaction with the people of the mythic world, the first thing he considered was a plausible motive for the exchange. Otherwise, as with his first deal with Jessica, it would be all too easy to arouse suspicion about his abilities, or even whether this so-called “costly transmission” actually existed.

With these thoughts in mind, Qin Jing began to take inventory of his gains:

First, he appraised the items for any problems. Finding none, he then followed the method Jenny had taught him to unlock the spiritual inheritance.

It was a standard Eastern cultivation technique, titled “Six Stratagems – The Writ of Civil Merit,” though only a fragment. According to the jade slip, this was a legacy from the Oriental cultivator known as the Master of Guigu.

The history of the mythic world was identical to Earth’s up until a point, with the addition of several eras of spiritual revival. The Spring and Autumn period had been one such era—a time when spiritual energy flourished. The epoch began with Grand Duke Jiang leading the divine crusade against Shang, a figure shrouded in myth within the cultivation world. Legend held that the Grand Duke possessed the “Lost Scrolls of the Six Stratagems,” which could reveal the Eternal Way to those who obtained them.

The Master of Guigu was not the same as the historical Guiguzi of the Spring and Autumn period, but rather a later figure who had cultivated to the mythic realm. It was said he had acquired parts of the Grand Duke’s scrolls, and, adding his own understanding of spiritual power, forged a new “Six Stratagems” dedicated to the art of cultivation.

In other words, this classic offered only cultivation methods and no real combat techniques. To put it plainly, the Theo family had kept something in reserve; they likely possessed other volumes that they had not sold to Qin Jing.

Qin Jing made a note of this in his little notebook, but having obtained a cultivation method with such a grand reputation was already an unexpected windfall—on the whole, he was quite satisfied.

Next, there was the Lock of Mystery—a fist-sized alloy cube. Qin Jing inserted a magic stone, and the cube activated, projecting into his mind an image of everything within a mile’s radius. It was a defensive magic array, which could operate according to Qin Jing’s will and even included both offensive and defensive functions.

As for the remaining three puppets, Jenny had already taken their sentient cores before she left. What remained were even more mechanical—more like lifeless corpses than ever. Yet, beneath the realistic skin, a touch revealed nothing but cold machinery. They too required magic stones to function—a single standard stone could keep a puppet running for a day, not counting any combat expenditure.

After finishing his inventory, Qin Jing finally felt he had a measure of security for survival in an Earth where spiritual energy was awakening: he now had wealth, strength, and hidden cards at his disposal. Should he ever again face threats from the likes of Wang Keng, he now had means of retaliation.

“What’s this?”
Qin Jing, still cataloguing his gains, looked up and spotted his GDP balance in the corner of the magic mirror. He rubbed his eyes in disbelief—it couldn’t be.

1,000

His G-point balance had reached a thousand! This was an astronomical sum, far beyond anything Qin Jing had ever possessed.

“Before the transaction, I had checked my balance—only 50g left, all of which was used summoning Jenny. So, this trade with Jenny earned me 1,000g?”

He picked up one of the magic stones he had just acquired and placed it before the mirror.

Magic Stone (Spirit Stone): A special crystal of spiritual energy from the mythic world, a recyclable secondary currency, exchangeable at a 1:10 ratio for G-points.

It was settled just like RMB!

At that moment, inspiration struck Qin Jing: all secondary currencies from any world could be exchanged for G-points at a set rate!

His understanding of the magic mirror’s “GDP” function had been spot-on—all things related to money could generate G-points. In his trade with Jenny, she had used 100 magic stones to purchase a portion of his goods; the rest had been bartered, which produced no G-points. But direct currency transactions did!

It was simply marvelous!

Surging with excitement, Qin Jing felt dizzy with possibilities. With 1,000 G-points, his options were virtually limitless.

Almost at once, Qin Jing opened the Shadow Skill Tree and spent 300g to unlock the Recycling Mastery subskill: Recycling Space.

He had speculated that the recycling chest he once obtained would be housed in this space. Sure enough, as he activated the skill, he noticed a net-like grid to his left, and in the first column, a chest flickering with blue-green light.

A Bronze-tier Recycling Chest!

Qin Jing’s face lit up with joy. He focused his mind: Extract the chest.

In the next instant, he felt a weight in his palm—a small, elegantly cast chest of bronze, radiating a profound azure glow. Its appearance was ancient and dignified.

At the same time, the mirror displayed information about the chest:

Recyclable Bronze Chest:
Description: Occasional essence of recycling, generated when using the recycling skill.
General Function: Any item placed within the bronze chest will merge with the recycling essence, refining into a new, extraordinarily valuable transcendent item.

“Refining? Merging with recycling essence?”

Qin Jing mused thoughtfully. This seemed similar to synthesis mechanics in online games—by placing unidentified items within, perhaps he would receive a tremendous surprise.

He began to experiment, first placing a used cellphone inside the bronze chest. After some time, he opened it—nothing had changed.

He tried a leather bag, some jewelry, even clothes, one by one, but the chest remained motionless.

No, to say it didn’t change wasn’t quite accurate. As Qin Jing placed more items within, the chest gradually expanded, eventually becoming a massive box a meter long. Though it no longer glowed, it retained its ancient, mysterious exterior—quite a striking appearance.

“Well, at least it looks impressive.” Qin Jing couldn’t help but laugh at the sight.