I Ruled the Cultivation World by Scavenging Trash

After winning the National Science and Technology Progress Award thanks to her "Trash Upcycling System", Nan Sining is transmigrated into a cultivation world—only to open her eyes and find her senior-sister dragging her through a frantic escape.

Good news: although the original body was a mentally-impaired fool with the worst five-element spiritual roots, she is still the destined heroine of a trash-to-triumph cultivation novel. This very secret-realm crisis is the turning-point where she is supposed to rise, power-up, face-slap, ascend and finally become a Sword Immortal.

Bad news: a book-travelling supporting girl knows every future plot point and is determined to steal every single opportunity and treasure meant for her.

Next in line: the eldest senior-sister will die protecting her; the second senior-brother will have his dantian destroyed and become a cripple; the third senior-brother will lose his life avenging them; the fourth senior-brother will fall for said girl, betray the sect, help frame the heroine and drive the doting seventh senior-sister into qi-deviation and the demonic path—until even their revered master dissipates, unable ever to re-gather his soul.

Worse still, right now the book-traveller knows the exact locations of every treasure.

Nan Sining: "Oh really? I have yet to meet anyone who can steal from me. Treasure? Mine. Opportunity? Mine. And trash? That’s my greatest resource!"

When the gravely-wounded eldest senior-sister coughs blood and begins her last words, Nan pulls out a half-broken pill furnace, gathers a few weeds by the roadside, refines them on the spot—and births a transcendent-grade spirit pill that draconic shadows dance around. Senior-sister: "I… just broke through?!"

Second senior-brother, lying half-dead, hands over his storage bag for funeral expenses; Nan grabs his last Revival Pills, drips in some jade-marrow liquid and feeds him. He: "I’m forming my Golden Core?!"

Before the sect tournament the seventh senior-sister despairs because her beloved sword is splitting apart; Nan collects disciples’ discarded blades, clangs all night and delivers the reborn weapon at dawn—its new edge pierces the dark sky. Senior-sister: "Top ten of the Divine Sword ranking, here I come!"

Eventually the entire sect shouts: "Our junior-sister is the best in the world!" The whole sect: "Junior Nan is a genius, the glory of our gates!" The entire cultivation world: "Granny, please be our honorary elder!"

The book-travelling girl: "How are the treasures STILL hers?!" Fourth senior-brother: "Why am I always the one she dislikes?"

Gradually the whole sect turns into garbage-cleaners, following any fight just to sweep the battlefield and fill junior-sister’s cart. Nan, happily scavenging: "Waste recycling is indeed a promising industry!"

One day she picks up a tiny beast with a dragon tail. Senior-brothers & sisters shriek in unison: "Don’t touch that! It can destroy the world!" Nan: "I know, but he helps me find the BEST trash."

So she keeps forging miracles out of scrap, proving that the path you walk is forged by your own hands—and that one woman’s trash is the entire cultivation world’s treasure.