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Chapter 221 - Legacy Beneath the River

The thing was massive. The stone rhinoceros had to weigh at least eight or nine tons. Transporting it here alone would have been nearly impossible.

Staring at it, Song Miaozhu couldn't shake a sense of familiarity. The longer she looked, the stronger it felt. After rummaging through her memories, it finally clicked.

She had seen it before, at the Jiangcheng Museum.

Quickly, she searched for "Jiangcheng Museum stone rhinoceros" online and compared the photos. Sure enough, the resemblance was uncanny, almost as if they were carved from the same mold. Even the size was nearly identical.

According to the information online, that stone rhinoceros had been unearthed twenty years ago when Jiangcheng was building its Riverside Plaza. Although it looked like a rhinoceros, it was actually a hydrological marker from ancient times, used to measure water levels. It was also a water-sealing divine statue.

Jiangcheng was an old city with a long history. Local historians had found records about the stone statue in the Jiangcheng Local Gazetteer, stating that it was commissioned three hundred years ago by a county magistrate. Three of them were carved in total.

Based on current geography, one was in Jiangcheng, one in Lingcheng, and one in Yuncheng. The one in Jiangcheng had already been excavated and placed in a museum. The ones in Lingcheng and Yuncheng had never been found.

"Could this be the Lingcheng water-sealing stone rhinoceros?" Song Miaozhu's voice was low, her mind wavering between suspicion and awe.

A relic buried beneath the river for three centuries—how had it become infused with spiritual energy? This wasn't the old cultivation era anymore. Spiritual energy no longer favored wild-born plants or beasts. To this day, the floating motes of spiritual energy in the air could only be absorbed by people engaged in handicrafts.

If someone's craftsmanship was good enough, even before they formally drew Spiritual energy into their body, a small amount might seep into what they were making. But that was it. The infused energy might make the work look more refined, but it could never compare to spirit artifacts raised and cultivated by a proper practitioner.

And once someone had cultivated real spiritual power, they would never waste raw Spiritual energy on ordinary crafts. Without someone in the act of creating—without that bridge drawing Spiritual energy from its hidden layer into the present world—no craft could absorb those motes. In other words, an object without a maker could not draw in Spiritual energy on its own.

Spiritual power, which could only be channeled into one's own creations, was what gave handmade objects their potential for spirit. That was why the intricate relics housed in museums had never been touched by the recent resurgence of Spiritual energy.

This conclusion had been accepted by nearly everyone, based on repeated observation. There had never been a single exception.

Until now.

Song Miaozhu began to question the rule.

This stone rhinoceros dated back three centuries. The previous cultivation era had already ended by then, its spiritual energy severed. The artisan who carved this must have been mortal, and there was no way they could still be alive today. So, under current cultivation laws, it shouldn't be able to carry any Spiritual energy. And yet, a faint spiritual glow shimmered across its surface. Did this mean a crafted item could absorb ambient Spiritual energy even without its creator's intervention?

She swept her eyes around the riverbed but saw not a single mote of loose Spiritual energy.

That was normal.

If the riverbed hadn't been devoid of Spiritual energy, she might not have noticed the faint light coming off the stone beast at all. Spiritual energy always gravitated toward the act of crafting. It gathered where people gathered. Even the newly-emerging motes from the heavens and earth preferred human presence.

The more populated an area, the more likely Spiritual energy would appear. In remote places, a new mote might not show up for days. That was why cultivators flocked to the cities, rarely retreating into the wilderness. Urban housing prices had been steadily rising ever since.

This stretch of the Xiao Li River was surrounded by forests, with villages scattered sparsely. The only nearby population center was Yuanshan Old Town. Spiritual energy motes naturally tended to appear there instead.

Occasionally, a few would drift over the river, but they were either drawn back to shore or scooped up by someone boating past. Ever since the country embraced cultivation through traditional crafts, any appearance of Spiritual energy was absorbed within a day. Nothing lingered this long.

"Could it have absorbed Spiritual energy before The SEIU publicly announced the resurgence?" she wondered.

There was no way to verify what had happened in the past. She wasn't short on Spiritual energy, but all of hers came from spirit stones. Spiritual energy inside spirit stones behaved like the motes drawn out during handicraft work—easily absorbed on contact.

Unlike ambient Spiritual energy, it didn't retreat to the other layer when left untouched. Still, even if this stone beast could absorb the energy from spirit stones, it didn't prove that it could draw in ambient Spiritual energy on its own.

But it was worth testing.

After a moment of thought, Song Miaozhu pulled out a low-grade spirit stone. Without channeling her own spiritual power to extract the energy, she simply crushed it, letting the raw Spiritual energy dissipate into the air.

Then she watched.

They were far from the crowd. No other cultivator's crafting process would draw this energy away. She stood perfectly still. In this condition, neither she nor her paper-based spirit turtle or little paper servants emitted any extra pull. And yet, the motes began to drift slowly toward the stone rhinoceros.

It was sluggish, far less than the draw created by someone actively cultivating, but it was there. The stone was indeed drawing in the spirit. If it could pull in energy from the world around it, maybe it could also access the hidden layer where Spiritual energy usually lingered.

Once she confirmed that, Song Miaozhu immediately took out several sheets of colored paper. Sitting atop her Xuanwu, she crafted a paper robe on the spot, absorbing the remaining Spiritual energy back into her possession.

Even if the stone rhinoceros could absorb Spiritual energy, she had no intention of feeding it with her own resources. Spirit stones were hers. If she used her own spiritual power to draw out their energy, she could store it in her spiritual platform and use it as she wished.

But the raw Spiritual energy within the stones remained unclaimed. Spiritual power could imbue handmade creations with individuality and spirit. That much had been proven. Each person's power left a unique mark.

The difference between Spiritual energy and spiritual power was simple: one was unowned, the other bore identity. If this rhinoceros absorbed unowned Spiritual energy, could it really compare to a craft raised on her own spiritual power—could it resonate with her will or follow her command?

Rather than waste potential, she'd rather absorb that Spiritual energy herself, refine it into power, and feed her paper creations. As it stood, the rhinoceros wasn't even a proper spirit artifact. At most, it had been brushed by a bit of energy. It had no value for now.

As a final check, she tried injecting her spiritual power into the stone. The statue rejected it.

That sealed her judgment.

She memorized the location and left it for now, planning to revisit during the next wave of spiritual tides. By then, the heavens and earth would be brimming with energy again. It might absorb more. Its presence was a reminder. Perhaps other abandoned crafts, left behind by their makers, might also absorb unclaimed Spiritual energy and one day awaken.

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