After the rise in spiritual energy density, the artifacts inside the spirit residence began transforming into ownerless spiritual items at an even faster pace.
Each day, the little paper servants picked out a few items on the verge of transformation and stored them in the spirit-deprived warehouse of the ghost shop. Then, they would bring out new artifacts to continue absorbing spiritual energy.
Song Miaozhu had to set aside time daily to gather spirit souls. But the speed at which she accumulated them far outpaced her ability to refine and absorb them.
More and more spirit souls were being stored within her spiritual platform.
While the platform's space was insufficient for holding spiritual energy from spirit stones, it seemed to have no upper limit when it came to storing spirit souls.
The number of spirit souls inside had already exceeded one hundred, yet Song Miaozhu still felt no strain at all.
Even so, when all five colored spirit crystal steps—red, green, blue, yellow, and white—were stacked together, they still couldn't reach the height of the rainbow-hued gateway.
Clearly, there was still a long way to go.
After reaching the White Spirit Step, Song Miaozhu noticed that relying on past efforts was no longer enough. Making the same paper crafts she had already mastered barely produced any white spirit crystals or converted them into spiritual power.
Only by improving her craft and creating new paper artworks could she generate spirit crystals at a rate that rivaled her past progress.
Just like with previous major cultivation stages, she hit a bottleneck. Further advancement required a breakthrough in skill.
After the White Spirit Step, every single spirit crystal became a hurdle. It was no longer as simple as having enough spiritual energy and crafting paper works nonstop to improve.
Of all the techniques recorded in the Secret Art of Paper Crafting, she had mastered everything except the Spirit-Sensing Paper Doll and the Mirage Paper Realm.
Compared to the Ninefold Paper Spirit Cage, she had no confidence in these last two.
So she shifted her focus from the Secret Art of Paper Crafting to studying spirit souls.
She began collecting souls with similar attributes, learning from the imprinted experience of long-gone artisans while trying to understand the spiritual nature within. She used this to design new paper diagrams and corresponding spirit-awakening techniques, steadily advancing her cultivation.
Although this approach was slower and more cumbersome than directly studying diagrams from the Secret Art, her cultivation continued to grow at a stable pace. When she hit a difficult patch, she paused for a while, then overcame it and continued moving forward.
Following her creation of the Evil-Repelling Awakening Technique and the Evil-Repelling Gold Paper Bell, Song Miaozhu developed the Peaceful Awakening Technique, based on spirit souls known for offering protection and safety. She also crafted matching "Peace Gourds."
She made four gourds—one for herself and one each for her three cats.
By now, the spiritual energy on Xiaozhu Mountain had become so dense that it began condensing into dew on bamboo leaves and paper-crafted plants and flowers.
The old locust tree near the spirit residence had the highest concentration of dew. Droplets fell continuously into the soil.
At the peak where the Ninefold Paper Spirit Cage concentrated and sprayed spiritual energy, mist began to gather into clouds. A small-scale spiritual rain had begun.
However, the soil and flora of Xiaozhu Mountain remained unchanged. They had yet to evolve into spirit soil or spirit plants like those described in ancient cultivation manuals.
Though it was unclear where the spiritual dew eventually flowed, Song Miaozhu knew that as long as the Ninefold Paper Spirit Cage was there, it wouldn't leave the bounds of Xiaozhu Mountain.
As long as it stayed within her territory, it still belonged to her. Whenever she needed it, she could always retrieve it.
So she didn't bother tracking where the dew went.
After all, even with the spiritual energy gushing out nonstop, she alone couldn't possibly use it all up.
The air was thick with spiritual energy. Dew was forming across the entire mountain. Inside and outside Xiaozhu Mountain were now two completely different worlds.
While Song Miaozhu was busy refining spirit souls and researching new paper crafts and awakening methods, spiritual energy in other regions had already stopped erupting over a month ago.
The ambient energy drifting between heaven and earth was quickly vanishing as cultivators absorbed it through their training.
In contrast, Xiaozhu Mountain stood out even more under the thick white mist, glowing with multicolored spiritual light.
"Look over there! It's Xiaozhu Mountain!"
"Is that glow… spiritual energy?"
"Why is the energy there so dense?"
"Well, the top-ranked cultivator in the world lives there. What did you expect?"
"No, I mean… why is it only concentrated on the mountain? Why isn't it spreading out to the surrounding low-energy areas?"
"Yeah! Why is it just staying on Xiaozhu Mountain?"
…
Cultivators stared in the direction of Xiaozhu Mountain, their eyes full of longing.
They had enjoyed days of abundant spiritual energy. Now that it was suddenly running dry, how could they possibly go back?
But no matter how badly they wanted it, no one dared to cross the rusty barbed wire fence that even a child could climb over.
It hadn't even been two years since the Global Cultivator Tournament, and people still remembered those sky-high ransom notices.
Back then, even the top cultivators from various countries found themselves immobilized in mudflats or quicksand just a few meters in. The rest didn't stand a chance. And unlike those elites, they had no government backing to pay for their release if caught.
After experiencing how hard it was to gather spiritual energy and ascend in rank, no one believed Song Miaozhu—the world's undisputed number one cultivator—had reached this point by luck alone.
Videos of Xiaozhu Mountain went viral. Rumors swirled nonstop online, but Song Miaozhu remained completely unaware.
There were simply too many spiritual items requiring attention. Even the little paper servant she'd assigned to monitor her phone had been called back to help with other tasks.
One of her newer paper servants had taken over the job.
However, the new servant lacked the keen spiritual intelligence of the old one. It couldn't keep up with trending news and network buzz.
She had instructed it not to disturb her unless there was an emergency, so it obediently sat at its post, doing nothing.
It wasn't until a few of her trusted master-level friends reached out with spiritual paper kites to gossip that Song Miaozhu finally spared some attention for the phone at the Anshou Hall Paper Shop.
The paper servant currently watching over the device was diligently scrolling through posts on the SEIU app.
It was even charging the phone while doing so. Right away, a post titled "The Modern Spirit Mountain—Xiaozhu Mountain of Yuanshan Old Town" caught her eye.
Song Miaozhu blinked, puzzled. "Modern Spirit Mountain? Xiaozhu Mountain?"
The featured image in the main post was indeed her mountain.
Only after seeing the photo did she realize the multicolored glow of spiritual energy reflecting off the misty curtain of paper had been visible from outside the mountain.
Comment Section Highlights
1st post: "This is Xiaozhu Mountain? Looks like a mythical dwelling for immortals!"
2nd post: "Master Song must have ascended already!"
3rd post: "That's impossible. I live in Yuanshan Old Town and never saw lightning strike the mountain!"
4th post: "Lightning strike? A heavenly tribulation? Are you confusing novels with reality?"
5th post: "The spiritual tide lasted a long time, but this lull is really dragging out now."
6th post: "Honestly, a longer lull might be good. You all know how many disasters hit the country lately. The floods in Jiangcheng were terrifying. If we weren't all cultivators now, running fast, a lot more people might've died. Without spiritual energy, at least the buried stuff doesn't crawl out and scare people!"
7th post: "Didn't you read the SEIU bulletin? All those are ownerless spiritual items. Defeat them and you can harvest rare spirit souls. They're excellent for improving your skills or crafting new spiritual tools. Whoever takes them down gets the souls!"
8th post: "No time to chat. I'm off to hunt down some ownerless spiritual items!"