Were these Japanese ghosts simply too weak, or had the SEIU's research been wrong all along?
According to the Elite Masters Forum, the SEIU's published Statistical Report on Spirit-Nurtured Artifacts had stated that truly destructive spiritual tools were extremely rare. Out of tens of thousands of artifacts, only one might become dangerous, and even then, it was still weaker than the techniques recorded in ancient texts from the previous cultivation era.
But this? How was this weaker?
Everyone now was barely at the beginning stages of cultivation, yet such spiritual tools were already emerging.
Compared to cultivation techniques from the old Qi Refining period, these dangerous spiritual tools clearly had much higher destructive potential.
She glanced at her paper soldier bodyguards. Each one could easily fend off ten vengeful ghosts, forming an impenetrable defensive ring. Not a single ghost had managed to breach the formation.
And that was with Song Miaozhu having explicitly told them not to kill. Looking at it this way, the difference in power didn't seem all that great anymore. With the battlefield under full control of the paper soldiers, only one spiritual tool remained untested.
Song Miaozhu strode briskly through the ghost horde, Spirit-Breaking Tang Saber in hand.
Her recent months of training had paid off. She moved with greater agility, had picked up some martial techniques, and could dodge ghost attacks with ease. Occasionally, she landed a clean slash with the saber.
However, she was cautious not to infuse too much spiritual energy into the blade, nor did she strike with full force.
The saber didn't just cut through spiritual energy. It could sever yin energy, disperse resentment, and even tear through ghostly bodies, leaving wounds that caused a continuous loss of ghost power, yin aura, and grudge essence.
The larger the wound, the slower the recovery.
She had no idea how the saber could cause wounds on ghosts, who had no true physical form.
Under the protection of her paper soldiers, Song Miaozhu used the ghost horde as live training dummies to practice her half-baked techniques. Once she had her fill, she began gathering ghost power and resentment on the spot, channeling them into the cursed paper figures she had prepared in advance.
For ghosts, their power and resentment were like blood and bones to humans. Nothing connected a cursed paper figure to its target better than materials collected directly from that target.
Song Miaozhu had entered the mountains that afternoon and continued working until midnight, finally completing this batch of cursed paper figures.
The Eastern ghosts, unable to fight back and incapable of escaping, were tormented into an even deeper state of resentment.
Song Miaozhu was pleased with what she saw.
The heavier the resentment, the more times she could curse them. What could be better?
As soon as the paper soldiers ceased attacking, the ghosts drifted back toward their bone-burying ground. It was the only place where they felt a shred of safety.
Carrying her freshly crafted cursed paper figures, Song Miaozhu began descending the ghost mountain. Before she left, the paper soldiers returned to their original folded-paper form and were packed neatly into the yin-wood box in the ghost shop's warehouse.
To Director Zhao and Zhao Huoyan, watching through the surveillance feed, it appeared as though Song Miaozhu had entered the ghost mountain with dangerous spiritual tools. Inside, the resentment surged unnaturally during daylight hours, followed by hours of violent fluctuations in yin energy and ghostly turbulence, lasting nearly eight hours before things finally settled.
Then, Song Miaozhu calmly emerged from the mountain, entirely unharmed.
Not even once that night did the mountain's yin aura expand beyond its usual range.
The next morning, Zhao Huoyan received a message from her.
[Miaow Zhu]:Group Leader Zhao, just reporting in. Yesterday I used the Fire Dragon Head, Tiger-Bear Embroidered Fan, Lanting Sword Scroll, and Spirit-Breaking Tang Saber to handle the Japanese ghosts in Mingcheng's Qilidun ghost site. I plan to visit ghost sites across the country next, and these dangerous spiritual tools might see frequent use.
[Zhao Huoyan]:Got it! Use them as needed, just stay safe!
Zhao Huoyan replied calmly, but the moment the message came in, he excitedly rushed to report to Director Zhao:
"Director! Master Song is finally ready to take on the vengeful ghosts across all the ghost sites! A complete resolution to the ghost plague might be within reach!"
Director Zhao responded, "As expected! She managed to cleanse three ghost sites without the help of dangerous artifacts, though it took her more time. Now that she has them, she'll be unstoppable! Keep a close eye on the ghost sites, stay in regular contact with her. If she asks for assistance, mobilize every available resource to support her."
"Understood!" Zhao Huoyan replied.
Song Miaozhu had only intended to follow proper protocol by reporting her use of dangerous tools. It was just a precaution to cover her next actions. She had no idea her message would result in Zhao Huoyan watching ghost site surveillance non-stop.
Her test run in Qilidun made one thing very clear—the effects of the dangerous spiritual tools were far more intense than expected. She felt an urgent need to act.
The SEIU hadn't launched a full-scale extermination of Japanese ghosts using dangerous artifacts only because their personnel lacked the cultivation strength to sustain it. Within a ghost site, spiritual energy was needed not only to resist the yin aura but also to control the artifacts. They simply didn't have the stamina for it.
But as time passed and cultivators became stronger, that might soon change. Which was exactly why Song Miaozhu decided to take action now, making a full circuit through all the country's ghost sites.
She would gather all the cursing materials from the Japanese ghosts first, then complete the cursed paper figures. Once the figures were in hand, she could curse them anytime and wouldn't need to worry about someone else getting ahead of her.
She planned to wipe out one batch of ghosts at a time using curses. Because sooner or later, the SEIU would deploy a force of cultivators with dangerous spiritual tools to carry out their own purges. And when that happened, who knew how many chances she'd lose?
Better to act now, before anyone else became capable of entering ghost mountains and exterminating ghosts. She would craft as many cursed figures as she could in advance and layer curses as often as possible.
If the SEIU observed a widespread decline in resentment and yin energy across ghost sites, they likely wouldn't rush to send anyone else in. To make time for this, she had even paused her usual business of selling spiritual paper kites and bowl-hugging paper figures to earn contribution points.
As she left the ghost mountain, she had already mapped out her route in her mind. By now, she was riding a train to the next site. Of course, she didn't forget to hop into the "Elite Masters Exchange Group" to share her experience using dangerous spiritual tools.
It was a good way to build connections with the other elite masters, show off her strength, and subtly credit her ghost-clearing ability to the artifacts.
Several elite masters had already nurtured dangerous artifacts of their own, so it wouldn't seem strange that she had done the same.
[Miaow Zhu]:I tested out some dangerous spiritual tools yesterday in a ghost site. The Fire Dragon Head's flame burned off a layer of resentment from vengeful ghosts. The beast spirits from the Tiger-Bear Embroidered Fan tore through ghost formations like a whirlwind. The Lanting Sword Scroll pierced through ghost defenses in a single stroke. The Spirit-Breaking Tang Saber even cut through their protective yin aura and resentment… It's a shame the thick yin fog made filming impossible, or I would've shared footage. Every tool worked far better than what the descriptions in the archives had claimed!
For a full minute, the group chat was silent.
Then the messages poured in like a flood.