[Miaow Zhu]:Sure. (￣ω￣)ゞ
[Zhang Yunxi]:I've sent the transfer. No takebacks! I'll mail you a batch of Spirit-Nurturing Jade Orbs!(ﾉ≧∀≦)ﾉ・‥…━━━★
Once Zhang Yunxi successfully bought thirteen Spirit-Gathering Fortune Dolls in one go, the other elite masters dropped their hesitation. After checking their account balances, they all rushed to place orders.
[He Zhen]:I want ten!(｀∀´)Ψ
[Yu Lichuan]:I want twenty-one!(☉д⊙)ﾉ
[Le Pengkun]:I'll take twelve. (⌐■_■)ﾉ
[Yin Chunan]:Fourteen for me. (￢‿￢ )
[Gong Anyan]:I'll take eighteen. (╯✧▽✧)╯
[Yuan Liben]:Nineteen. (•̀ᴗ•́)و
[Wu Qingfeng]:Me too, nineteen! (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻
[Yang Shuqin]:I'll start with five. If I save up more contribution points later, can I come back for more? (´• ω •`)?
[Miaow Zhu]:Of course. (◕‿◕✿)
[Miaow Zhu]:Right now I can produce two per day, and I still have a decent amount in stock.
[Le Pengkun]: Two per day???!!!(#ﾟДﾟ)ﾉ
[Yu Lichuan]:Even with how simple my Spirit-Nurturing Jade Orbs are to make, I can only craft one per day at full capacity. Your dolls are way more complex, Song Master. How are you doing this?
[Miaow Zhu]:Once you cultivate green spiritual energy, you'll be able to as well. Green spiritual energy speeds up spiritual item growth.
[Zhang Yunxi]:Green spiritual energy? (⊙_⊙)?
[Miaow Zhu]:Yes. Once you complete nine layers of crimson spirit crystals, you'll naturally form a azure spirit crystal, which will generate green spiritual energy.
[Wu Qingfeng]:Nine layers? One layer is ninety thousand units, so your spiritual power has already reached 810,000 units?
[Yu Lichuan]:So I'm not the real top dog… I've got 180,000 units, and she's sitting at over 810,000? Someone stop me, I'm spiraling. Oh right, she has bowl-hugging paper servants and Fortune Dolls… I'm jealous...
[Xie Wushuang]:You've at least got 180,000. What about those of us who haven't even hit 150,000? What are we supposed to do?
[Zhang Yunxi]:This doll is insane! [video.avi] (ﾟДﾟ≡ﾟДﾟ)ﾉ
[He Zhen]:You got it already? Thirteen seconds to condense a spiritual light point—this efficiency is unreal! (☉ロ☉)!
[Gong Anyan]:Waiting eagerly~ (人 •͈ᴗ•͈)
[Yuan Liben]:Same here~ (✧ω✧)
…
Aside from the elite masters, Song Miaozhu didn't forget the rest of her network either.
Most of them still hadn't heard about the Spirit-Gathering Fortune Dolls. She proactively sent out information on the doll's functions and price, and asked if they were interested in buying.
As long as they wanted one, she sold it to them, no matter how many they asked for. Of course, their contribution point balance was nothing compared to the elite masters'. Being able to afford three to five was already impressive.
As for her cultivation level, she didn't hide it, but she didn't flaunt it either. She revealed a little on her own terms—it was better than letting rumors spread and catching her contacts off guard. With the Fortune Dolls on hand, both elite masters and regular cultivators found it easier to accept her spiritual progress.
Once she completed the spiritual item handovers and finalized ownership transfers, the SEIU branches around the country got wind of it. The queue for the doll's purchase link in the SEIU's Key Item Treasury exploded overnight.
As promised, Song Miaozhu fulfilled the first hundred orders in one go and shipped them using her spirit paper kites. From there, she maintained a pace of two shipments per day. When she finally tallied up her sales for the day, she had sold 268 Spirit-Gathering Fortune Dolls.
Since she had signed an Elite Master Contract, all sales made through the SEIU app were hers to keep in full, with no cut taken by the bureau. In other words, she made a net profit of 8.04 million contribution points.
The SEIU also awarded her 60,000 contribution points for the information she provided on green spiritual energy and azure spirit crystals.
That brought her daily total to 8.1 million contribution points.
At a conversion rate of 1 contribution point to 100 yuan, that was a whopping 810 million yuan. Converted through Tiandi Bank's Treasure Bowl into hell coins, that came to 4.05 billion hell coins.
To put things into perspective, the entire revenue from her ghost shop combined with her previous spiritual item sales only totaled around 5 billion hell coins.
Just from opening the floodgates on Spirit-Gathering Fortune Doll sales, she nearly matched all her previous earnings. Clearly, spiritual items were just as profitable as her Yin Paper Crafting. Sure, they had a higher production cost, but the returns were even greater.
Since developing green spiritual energy, she had been spending hell coins more freely to exchange for spirit stones. But now, thanks to these dolls, a torrent of hell coins was flowing right back into her pockets.
She wasn't just raking in profit—she also managed to keep a decent stockpile of Fortune Dolls on hand.
Meanwhile, the SEIU's central headquarters had convened a high-level meeting about the Spirit-Gathering Fortune Dolls—and Song Miaozhu herself. As the internal officer most closely connected to her, and the one who first discovered the dolls, Zhao Huoyan was attending remotely.
He demonstrated the doll's spirit-gathering ability using the ones he had purchased privately, showing the upper ranks how it worked.
Someone asked, "So all those reports about local spiritual energy mysteriously vanishing were caused by this item?"
Another officer scowled. "She's been using them for how long? A year? And she's only now registering them with us? That kind of delay is deliberate. She's hiding her capabilities, not out of caution, but because she has no allegiance to this bureau."
"I looked into her record," a woman from the Public Oversight Division added. "She's in her twenties. Never accepted formal cultivation training, never underwent loyalty screening, and has no documented history of service. It's no wonder she acts like the SEIU is a nuisance. This is what happens when patriotic education is neglected."
Someone at the far end of the table leaned back and said, "Let's be honest. With that many dolls already crafted, she's likely amassed an energy store far beyond safe personal limits. And she's not even under our jurisdiction. She's what, a contractor? If this were a state-run operation, every last doll would be registered, monitored, and rationed out under proper protocol."
"Other countries are already setting restrictions on cross-border cultivators," another official said, voice tight. "We're nearing an international scramble for spiritual resources. Do we really want something of this scale—something so strategic—in the hands of an unaffiliated free agent?"
"She's been working out of a private residence," someone else added. "Not even a secure facility. No firewalls, no regulated staff. If her dolls were stolen or reverse-engineered, we'd lose all strategic advantage overnight."
"And that's if she remains cooperative," muttered a veteran officer who rarely spoke during meetings. "We've had contractors before. Talented ones. But once they realize we need them more than they need us, it always ends the same way. Isolation. Resistance. Negotiation. Then exploitation—by foreign groups, black market interests, or worse. And Song Miaozhu is already halfway there."
"She may be alive," one cold voice said flatly, "but her methods are aligned with the dead. She's surrounded herself with paper offerings, weaponized curse techniques, and refuses even the lightest surveillance. What if she turns those techniques on the living next?"
"Don't romanticize her as a misunderstood genius," added a younger analyst, shaking their head. "She's not some folklore heroine. She's a civilian with unchecked access to dangerous artifacts. Talents like hers don't belong outside organizational control. If we want to preserve national security, we need to bring her in—formally. The longer we delay, the more she consolidates her power."
The conversation grew more pointed with each comment. The tone had shifted. They were no longer merely evaluating her capabilities. They were strategizing around her as a potential liability.
…
Zhao Huoyan listened, his expression growing grimmer by the second. He let them speak, waiting until the voices began to overlap in frustration.
Then he cut in.
"Let's not forget the reality on the ground," Zhao Huoyan said, his voice sharp but composed. "While we sit here debating paperwork, Master Song has already resolved multiple Class-A ghost infestations that no official team could approach safely. Ghost Mountain, Sanyuan River, Wutong Ridge—if she hadn't acted, those sites would still be bleeding spiritual contamination."
"She may not have joined the SEIU, but she has done more for national security than anyone in this room."
The room quieted for a moment, but only briefly.
"Captain Zhao, no one is denying her results," someone replied. "But results without regulation are dangerous. That's what makes her such a complicated case. She's not part of our command structure. She's not subject to discipline or oversight. Yet she holds more concentrated spiritual energy than our top researchers combined. That's not just a risk. It's a threat."
Another officer leaned forward.
"Captain Zhao, you're her closest contact. We're asking you to convince her to formally join the SEIU. Once she signs an official agreement, we can assign her a secure lab, full protection, and a proper research staff. She'll be safer. And so will we."
Zhao Huoyan's jaw tightened.
"She's not someone you can cage with promises or contracts," he said finally. "The only reason she even agreed to list the dolls was because she's prepared to defend herself. She doesn't trust the system—and given how she was treated in the past, I don't blame her."
"Then perhaps it's time we showed her the system has changed," someone said dryly. "Assign a few handlers. Apply light restrictions. She doesn't need to be locked down. Just… managed."