"Hello? Is this the SEIU? Hey, it's me, Zhou Daqian, the guard at Xiaozhu Mountain! Master Song came back, and the car she was driving was amazing! Just like that, whoosh, it shrunk and slipped into her pocket…"
Song Miaozhu, who was still on the phone with the cleaning service, went speechless.
The old security guard's voice was ridiculously loud. There was no way she could pretend not to hear him. The SEIU really found themselves quite the character for a guard.
Sure enough, not even five minutes later, Zhao Huoyan messaged her on GreenBubble, asking if it was a good time to call.
Normally, Song Miaozhu had one of her little paper servants log into her social account from the paper shop to respond to messages on her behalf using this spare phone. All calls were declined—after all, little paper servants could type, but they couldn't talk.
But since she was holding the phone herself now, there was no reason to avoid it. She simply called Zhao Huoyan directly.
"Master Song, I heard from the guard that you're back at Xiaozhu Mountain. The core members of the Eternal Life Society have already paid with their lives for what they did to you. You don't need to worry about your safety anymore. We'll be liquidating the remaining assets of the organization soon to compensate all affected parties, and that includes you."
"If you have any needs regarding housing, whether it's rebuilding your home on the original site or finding a new place, we'll take care of everything."
Zhao Huoyan didn't ask whether she was involved with the Eternal Life Society incident. He just did his best to offer reassurance.
Song Miaozhu accepted the gesture and made her own request. "I want to buy the entire Little Bamboo Mountain. From the road at the foot of the mountain to the edge of the Yunwu Mountain Nature Reserve behind it. I want permanent ownership, if that's possible."
On paper, only the bamboo grove and the land where her courtyard used to be were technically hers. Even then, it had just been leased under an old contract, not permanent.
In fact, there was no such thing as permanent land ownership in China. All land belonged to either the state or collective farmers. But this time, she wanted to claim the entire mountain for herself.
Once her cultivation advanced and her paper crafting reached a higher level, she would be able to create a spiritual house using the Secret Art of Paper Crafting. She planned to turn the entire mountain into a place no outsider could enter or see through.
That was the kind of residence she needed. Not like before, when her courtyard stood out like a target for anyone to trespass.
"Permanent ownership?" Zhao Huoyan hesitated. "I'll need to get authorization. There's no precedent for this. I don't have the authority to approve it myself."
"If your side agrees," Song Miaozhu added, "I can spend more effort on the Spirit-Gathering Fortune Doll."
Zhao Huoyan understood her instantly. She was saying she could increase production.
"I understand. I'll do my best to make it happen. Please give me a moment." He was still in the capital, and had only stepped out of a meeting when he heard from the Lingcheng SEIU unit that she had reappeared.
"Permanent ownership? Land in our country belongs to the state or collective. Individuals don't have ownership rights! This sets a dangerous precedent!"
"But doesn't this also mean she has no intention of going abroad? She's currently the highest-ranking cultivator in the world. That's not something we can take lightly. She has no close ties or family. If offering her a mountain keeps her in the country, it's worth it."
"Exactly. If we don't give it, plenty of other countries would."
"Plus, if she's willing to ramp up production of the Spirit-Gathering Fortune Doll, that benefits the entire cultivation world in China. Every bit of extra qi we draw in from overseas helps. Right now, our average spiritual qi per cultivator is way behind other countries. That's not sustainable."
…
In the end, Director Zhao gave the final word: "Grant it. But it can't be transferred or inherited. It belongs only to her. Once she's gone, it reverts to state ownership."
When Zhao Huoyan relayed this to her, Song Miaozhu wasn't surprised at all. She had already figured out how the SEIU worked. When something didn't cost them directly, they were very easy to negotiate with.
Xiaozhu Mountain didn't hold any particular value to them. If trading it for more Spirit-Gathering Fortune Doll helped them, of course they'd go for it.
Song Miaozhu was happy with the outcome. More Fortune Doll to sell, more money in her pocket.
These days, creating Spirit-Gathering Fortune Doll was practically effortless for her. Her little paper servants could assemble the bodies, and all she had to do was breathe a bit of spirit into them and infuse a little green spiritual energy.
Now that the mountain was officially hers, she could build however she liked. She used the compensation from the Eternal Life Society case to buy Xiaozhu Mountain.
Once she had the certificate for permanent ownership in hand, she hired a construction team to install a wire fence around the base of the mountain. She also hung large security cameras on the fence, mostly to scare people off. Though they looked like standard plug-in surveillance cameras, they weren't connected to any wiring. Anyone who knew electronics would immediately spot that they were non-functional.
What no one would expect, however, was that she had emptied out all the internal parts and tucked a little paper servant inside each one. The camera casings were waterproof, tightly sealed, with great visibility and rotation. They made perfect safehouses for monitoring through her paper servants. That way, no one would think to cut the power just to sneak past them.
After the fencing was done, she had the fruit trees in the lower fields dug up, the ruins of the old house cleared, and even the paved road leading up the mountain torn out. The only things left on Xiaozhu Mountain were the bamboo grove in the back and the scorched stump of the old locust tree from her courtyard.
While both the people of Yuanshan Town and the SEIU watched closely, waiting to see what grand construction she might be planning, Xiaozhu Mountain fell silent once more. All the workers had left. The ground was torn up and abandoned. There wasn't even a gate in the fence.
As for the mountain's owner, just like always, she hopped over the fence, walked down to the road, took out her size-shifting spiritual sports car, and drove toward Yunwu Mountain.
Everyone now knew she was staying somewhere in Yunwu Mountain.
But no one knew exactly where.
The nature reserve was massive, stretching across several cities. Finding one person in there was like looking for a needle in the ocean. Even the SEIU's satellite surveillance had failed. Once she entered the mountains, she vanished without a trace.
And so, Xiaozhu Mountain remained empty and forgotten.
The SEIU couldn't figure out why she bought the whole mountain if she didn't plan to build anything there. At least her Spirit-Gathering Fortune Doll were still being delivered like clockwork. But unless she contacted them first, they had no way to reach her.
It wasn't that Song Miaozhu didn't want to build. She just wasn't ready. Her cultivation and craftsmanship still had a long way to go. This time, she was determined: either she would turn Xiaozhu Mountain into a sealed fortress, or she would live in her mountain cave for the rest of her life.