"I want to reserve five. No, ten!" Grandpa Zhao had had enough of doing wood carvings in the car.
"Sui'er, how long does it take to cultivate one of these Bowl-Holding Paper Servants?"
"About ten days," Song Miaozhu answered conservatively.
In truth, once she got the hang of it, it only took three minutes to make one. After all, these paper servants didn't need prolonged spiritual nourishment. A little bit of spiritual power was enough to activate them.
It took two and a half minutes to craft the paper figure holding a bowl, and another thirty seconds to infuse it with spirit.
Saying it took ten days was just a way to hide her true speed.
Though results could vary depending on the spiritual item and its demand for spiritual power, generally, the greater the demand, the more powerful the item. For a Bowl-Holding Paper Servant with such practical utility, claiming too short a creation time would sound suspicious.
Even with her intentionally stretched estimate, both Zhao Mumu and Grandpa Zhao were visibly surprised. "Ten days? That fast?"
"Have you calculated how much spiritual power it takes per day to cultivate one?" Zhao Mumu asked.
"What do you mean by 'how much spiritual power'?" Song Miaozhu replied.
"You know how spiritual power in the spiritual platform is stored in square-shaped crimson crystals, right? One of those crimson crystals is counted as one unit of spiritual power. When we look inward at our spiritual platform, it's easy to tally the number of crystals. Everyone uses that count to measure their total spiritual power and daily consumption.
"Right now, the highest among the SEIU has about 89,000 units of spiritual power stored," Zhao Mumu explained.
Song Miaozhu looked inward at her own spiritual platform. She didn't even need to count. One layer of crimson crystal panels contained exactly 90,000 crystals. She already had more than eight full layers—meaning 809,569 units of spiritual power by SEIU's reckoning.
But how much spiritual power did ordinary cultivators use each day to nourish a spiritual item?
She wasn't sure. And she didn't want to give away too much, so she replied carefully, "I haven't paid attention. Most of my spiritual power goes into the Bowl-Holding Paper Servants and the Spirit Kites. I've stored up quite a bit though. Aside from personal use, I plan to release ten Bowl-Holding Paper Servants and five Spirit Kites for sale."
She kept a close eye on their reactions, watching for any sign of suspicion.
"That's still impressive. I've been cultivating the Dream-Messenger Wooden Bird for ages and still can't keep it active every day," Grandpa Zhao said. As he spoke, he pulled out a camera and quickly snapped pictures of both the Bowl-Holding Paper Servant and the Spirit Kite.
He printed the photos, opened up a computer, and began filling out the spiritual item registration form.
"Item name: Bowl-Holding Paper Servant / Spirit Kite.
Creator: Song Miaozhu, Yuanshan Old Town.
Function: Absorbing and storing spiritual energy / Transporting goods.
Preferred price… Sui'er, how much are you selling them for?"
"6,000 contribution points each for the Bowl-Holding Paper Servants, 5,000 for the Spirit Kites," she replied.
These paper crafts were far easier to make than fourth-grade Yin Paper Clothes, but their practical use made them irreplaceable for now. Pricing them similarly to mid-range Yin Paper Clothes seemed fair.
One contribution point could be exchanged for 100 yuan, so 6,000 points equaled 600,000 yuan, or 300,000 hell coins.
"6,000 and 5,000 contribution points... Done!" Grandpa Zhao finished the form. "Take a look and let me know if anything's wrong."
"No problems here," Song Miaozhu said after reviewing it.
"Great. Now let's test their functions before submitting the report to SEIU Headquarters."
Both items were easy to demonstrate.
She released a bit of the spiritual energy stored in the Bowl-Holding Paper Servant's bowl and had them try absorbing it through cultivation. After that, she had the servant reabsorb the leftover energy back into the bowl.
That covered the item's storage and release capabilities.
As for the Spirit Kite, she simply had it grab a cushion from a nearby chair and fly into the air.
In the blink of an eye, it vanished from view, only to reappear beside Zhao Mumu. Then it disappeared again, this time appearing next to Grandpa Zhao.
They had been so focused on the Bowl-Holding Paper Servant that they hadn't really paid attention to the kite until now. After all, delivering goods could be done by trucks or people—no need to waste precious spiritual power on it. Spiritual items required spiritual energy to operate, and that energy was too rare to squander.
But now, watching the kite blink from one location to another in an instant, both were stunned.
"It moves that fast?" Zhao Mumu exclaimed.
"It can phase through space. Just write down the destination, and even if it's a thousand miles away, it'll arrive in an instant," Song Miaozhu explained.
"With this, spiritual item trades won't take ten or fifteen days anymore!" Zhao Mumu immediately saw its value.
Song Miaozhu nodded. "That's exactly the market I'm aiming for—spirit merchants with frequent transaction needs."
"Perfect. I've submitted the registration. Once the headquarters approves it, you'll be able to list them on the SEIU app and start selling. But private sales are fair game, right? 6,000 contribution points each? I'll buy five!"
Grandpa Zhao pulled out his phone and transferred 30,000 contribution points to her account. He was nearly cleaned out, but it was worth it.
"I'll buy one too!" said Zhao Mumu.
She would've bought more if she could, but her expenses were high and her income slower than her master's. Still, a sale was a sale, and Song Miaozhu certainly wasn't going to refuse.
She summoned the Spirit Kite and sent it back to Xiaozhu Mountain, where she had already packed up ten Bowl-Holding Paper Servants.
Once it returned with the goods, she helped them channel their spiritual energy into the items, completing the final step in the crafting process—establishing ownership. By guiding their energy into the paper figures, she allowed them to activate and control the items themselves.
"All done," she said.
Grandpa Zhao and Zhao Mumu, now holding their own Bowl-Holding Paper Servants, immediately contacted the logistics drivers from the SEIU's support team.
"What? You want us to take these out?" one of the drivers asked, confused. Usually, they drove cultivators around in RVs for mobile training. What was the point of hauling around a paper figurine?
"Just do it. They collect spiritual energy," they replied.
They arranged six drivers, each assigned to take a Bowl-Holding Paper Servant along familiar cultivation routes. With everything settled, Song Miaozhu said her goodbyes and drove back to Yuan Mountain Old Town. She hadn't even made it home when she got a call from Zhao Mumu.
"Miaozhu, how many more Bowl-Holding Paper Servants do you have? The other masters in the team want to buy some too!"