The very first piece of leather Song Miaozhu made with her own hands already met the requirements for crafting shadow puppets.
Before this, she had never studied how to select or process leather. At most, she had years of experience in the Secret Art of Paper Crafting, which gave her nimble hands and excellent dexterity, honed and nourished by spiritual power over time.
But the memory contained within the spirit soul felt like more than knowledge. It was as if she had stepped into the craftsman's body and worked alongside him, experiencing the entire process of leathercraft firsthand.
Still, understanding something mentally did not mean her hands could immediately replicate it. Her craftsmanship couldn't yet match the masterful quality of the puppet maker from the spirit soul.
She practiced for two more days, and the difference steadily narrowed. In fact, the leather she made even began to absorb a bit of spiritual energy during the process.
It hadn't yet become a spiritual item, but it could already be considered spirit-infused leather, suitable for use in spiritual paper craft.
The spirit-infused paper she had started with only glowed faintly with spiritual light—about the same level.
If not for her current bottleneck in cultivation, where any excess spiritual energy was left with nowhere to go once her spiritual power was full, she could probably increase her spiritual energy just by making leather.
But precisely because she was at a bottleneck, even when spiritual energy surged around her, she couldn't absorb much. Her spiritual platform often felt bloated and full.
Previously, to avoid wasting energy, she would restore her own power while simultaneously channeling spiritual energy into nearby spiritual items. But now, she funneled all the excess into the shadow puppet storage box, helping accelerate their transformation into masterless spiritual items.
Later, she discovered that the more she channeled spiritual power into the spirit soul and viewed the memory of the leatherworking craftsman, the better she absorbed his knowledge. Her skill improved significantly, so she repeatedly infused the Grand Tutor's Chair puppet's spirit soul in her spiritual platform with energy, watching the craftsman's memory again and again.
Eventually, she could no longer push even a trace of energy into it. No matter how she touched the soul with spiritual power, the puppet-making memory no longer appeared. That was when she realized something—her leather was now of the exact same quality as the craftsman's.
She could even recall the subsequent steps for crafting the Grand Tutor's Chair puppet as if they were etched into her mind. Taking one of the leather sheets she had prepared earlier, she skillfully produced a brand-new puppet.
It was only a small piece of yellow cowhide and a relatively simple puppet design, but to be able to master leathercraft this quickly, produce high-grade leather, and then use it to create a refined puppet—this was no small feat.
Most of the credit clearly belonged to the craftsman's memory within the spirit soul.
Song Miaozhu estimated that if she raised all the puppets in the storage box into masterless spiritual items, extracted their spirit souls, infused them with spiritual power, and watched each craftsman's memory to the limit, she could eventually become a genuine puppet craftsman herself.
As for the best-quality spirit-infused leather she had produced so far, she intended to use it for a paper craft project.
The leather wasn't large, so it could only be used for something small.
While looking through the shadow puppet box, she came across a tiny rattle-drum. The subject felt appropriate.
Though the drum puppet hadn't yet become a spiritual item and she couldn't access a craftsman's memory through it, she could combine her current skills in paper crafting with her experience from making the Grand Tutor's Chair puppet. With bamboo strips for support, leather-coloring techniques, and thoughtful design, she was confident she could produce a painted paper rattle-drum.
And indeed, she succeeded. The floral patterns were intricate, the colors vivid. It hardly looked like a traditional paper craft at all.
There was no ready-made spiritual activation method she could use to instantly transform the drum into a spiritual item, but since she had designed and made it herself, all it needed was continuous spiritual energy infusion. With time, it would become a spiritual item.
This was the first paper craft she had made completely outside the Secret Art of Paper Crafting, so she was especially invested in it. As soon as it was finished, she eagerly began channeling spiritual energy into it.
But something strange happened.
As soon as she did, she noticed the Grand Tutor's Chair puppet's spirit soul stirring restlessly within her spiritual platform, as if it were trying to rush out.
She quickly stopped it, but then paused to reconsider. The last time a spirit soul had broken free and entered her spiritual platform, she had gained access to a stonemason's memory. Perhaps this puppet soul had its own purpose again.
With that in mind, Song Miaozhu allowed a small opening in her spiritual power.
The puppet soul slipped out immediately and flowed through her hand into the painted paper rattle-drum she was holding.
The drum, which had only a faint spiritual glow before, suddenly shone brilliantly.
Her heart skipped a beat. She quickly took out the Spirit-Testing Copper Mirror. The result flashed across the surface: the painted paper rattle-drum had become a spiritual item. Its ability was exorcism, capable of driving away yin energy and ghosts.
When had a newly crafted item ever become a spiritual item without formal activation?
And this spiritual power was identical to that of the Grand Tutor's Chair puppet. She couldn't help but wonder.
"Could spirit souls allow crafted objects to become spiritual items directly and even inherit their original powers?" she murmured.
It wasn't hard to test. She still had the spirit soul of the Water-Suppressing Stone Rhino, whose ability was water manipulation.
She summoned a little paper servant and tried to infuse the stone rhino's soul into it.
But the spirit soul resisted. It did not merge.
Song Miaozhu guessed this might be because the paper servant was already a spiritual item.
Perhaps a soul-created spiritual item and one raised through energy infusion were incompatible, unlike activated items which could be supported by both methods.
So she took a sheet of white paper and quickly cut it into the shape of a little paper figure.
She tried to infuse the spirit soul again—still no success.
Then she recalled how the painted drum had been a completely new work.
"Maybe it has to be a freshly crafted item?" she guessed.
Luckily, she had plenty of inspiration at the moment.
Combining her puppet-making knowledge with her paper crafting, she built another Grand Tutor's Chair. But when she tried to infuse it with the soul, it still failed.
Finally, she remembered that during the infusion of the painted drum, only the puppet's spirit soul had reacted. The stone rhino's soul had remained motionless.
"Maybe the issue is with the spirit soul itself?"
After some thought, she realized that she had infused the puppet's soul with energy countless times and watched the memory until it could no longer be seen. In contrast, she had only viewed the stonemason's memory a few times.
So she repeated the process—infusing the Water-Suppressing Stone Rhino's soul and reviewing its craftsman's memory again and again, until she had fully mastered how the stone rhino was made. Only when the memory ceased to appear, no matter how much spiritual energy she used, did she stop.
At that point, she picked up the little paper figure and the Grand Tutor's Chair replica once more, preparing to infuse them.
This time, the spirit soul of the Water-Suppressing Stone Rhino responded.
It seemed that only after fully digesting the spirit soul's memory could it be used to animate other works.
And the object didn't need to be a completely original design. As long as it hadn't been previously raised as a spiritual item, it qualified.