After kicking Zhao Huoyan out, Song Miaozhu finally breathed a long sigh of relief. She had done her part. She had warned him. If he listened, great. If not, she wasn't going to get involved any further.
Lately, she'd even started second-guessing whether she should keep selling her paper crafts to the SEIU. What if they were using her paper offerings to curry favor with underworld ghosts, trying to extract information from the Underworld?
An official shop on their app? Absolutely not.
What if the underworld held her accountable?
Better to cut ties entirely.
The truth was, she didn't need them. In the Underworld, paper crafts of recognized quality could be sold to billions of ghosts. She never lacked customers there. As for unregistered paper crafts, she could just sell them casually in the world of the living. If they sold, great. If not, she had already earned more than enough from her underworld business.
But this confrontation lit a fire under her. She had to master the Secret Art of Paper Crafting faster.
Because she couldn't quite believe the SEIU's claim that their expansion into underworld forces was merely about probing the secrets of immortality from the Lord of the Underworld. That felt like a smokescreen.
There was no way the SEIU's top researchers and the nation's most politically astute leaders hadn't considered what she had. They had uncovered her connection to Anshou Hall, traced the fourth-grade Yin Paper Clothes back to her. How could they not know the Underworld's stance on mortal interference in the cycle of reincarnation? Or that the Underworld had total oversight over the souls that entered it?
The SEIU hadn't even figured out how to properly use spiritual power or develop real techniques, yet they were already probing into the secret of ascension? Out of all those experts, no one thought they might be overreaching?
There had to be another agenda.
Compared to the last era of cultivation, when spiritual roots determined a person's potential, this era's craft-based approach to attracting spiritual energy was more accessible. Spiritual roots were a one-in-a-million gift, but mastering a craft only required hard work, diligence, and a bit of talent.
Still, for the elderly, starting from zero and trying to reach the point where one could attract spiritual energy was no easy feat.
Death remained a terrifying prospect.
The director and deputy director of the Bureau were cultivators, but the organization itself still employed plenty of non-cultivators and was overseen by many others who weren't practitioners at all. So what were they really after? Only the decision-makers knew.
That was also why Song Miaozhu hadn't let Zhao Huoyan report back in front of her. She didn't want to debate the matter anymore. The outcome was already clear. No more discussion was needed.
Better to spend that time deepening her mastery of paper crafting.
If the SEIU really insisted on expanding their underworld presence, there was no way they'd let her fourth-grade Yin Paper Clothes go untouched. She needed to develop enough power in the living world to protect herself.
Back in the basement, she crafted another Japanese ghost paper doll, and her proficiency in paper figure spellwork rose rapidly. But it still wasn't enough. The Paper Servant Spell was hard to counter, but too limited.
Especially in unexpected danger, it left her too passive.
While insidious, the technique had limits—especially against ambushes.
Paper Spirit Armor could shield her, but what if she was captured?
Her soul could flee to the underworld, but her body? Trapped.
Song Miaozhu had to find a new backup plan.
She flipped through the Secret Art of Paper Crafting and finally found a survival technique that, with a bit of effort, was just within her reach—the art of the Doppelgänger Paper Servants.
The art branched into three tiers:
—Displacement Servants (lowest): Swap places with a pre-placed paper figure within 1.5 km.
—Damage Redirectors (mid): Offload injuries until the paper is destroyed.
—Life-Substitutes (highest): Even fatal blows transfer to the paper.
Unfortunately, her current spiritual power and crafting skill weren't nearly enough to create a functional Life Substitute.
But the manual described an alternative—a slower, more time-consuming method that required less spiritual energy and focused more on crafting skill. It was called the Spirit-Nourishing Method.
She could learn it by carefully studying how to build a lifelike, three-dimensional paper figure in her own image. It wouldn't be ready immediately. It was more of a long-term investment, something to prepare just in case.
As for the Displacement and Damage Redirectors, they weren't too far out of reach. Both required just a bit more spiritual power and crafting skill, and she'd be able to make one. That said, even then, she'd only be able to make the most basic versions.
Yet even the basic versions had limits:
Displacement: 1.5 km range only.
Damage Redirectors: Only superficial wounds.
Given Paper Spirit Armor already handled minor injuries, Displacement won by default. In ancient times, 1.5 km was trivial—any adept's spiritual sense covered that instantly. But now? It meant phasing through walls. Escaping encirclements. A game-changer. Unlike higher-tier variants, she could stockpile Displacement Servants (though only activate one at a time).
Her plan: Stash backups in the ghost shop warehouse, then have little paper servants distribute them as escape beacons.
Hopscotching 1.5 km at a time? In this era, an unstoppable exit strategy.
With it, she wouldn't have to constantly live in fear of being hunted down.
Plenty of people probably wanted her paper crafts, her techniques, or even her spiritual stones. But as far as she knew, no one had actively tried to kill her. As long as she stayed alive, the Displacement would keep her from being cornered.
And once she escaped? She'd figure things out as she went.
For now, the Displacement was the best defense she could devise.
But even creating the most basic version of it would take serious work.
She had to train more, refine her spiritual power, and most importantly, learn how to make three-dimensional paper figures.
Unlike crafting Paper Spirit Armor or using the Paper Servant Spell, this wasn't something she could slap together with a few cuts of paper.
Making the figure three-dimensional was just step one.
The doppelgänger had to resemble her.
How could a substitute work if it didn't mimic its master?
She could cut out little paper people with heads, hands, and feet just fine, but building a full, lifelike paper craft? That was another matter entirely.
===
📢 Life Update + Novel Schedule Changes (╥﹏╥)
Hey beloved readers!
Real Life™ has decided to be extra demanding lately (why must adulting exist?), so there'll be some delays for these novels:
"Hellcoin Billionaire: My Ghost Shop Fuels My Cultivation"
"Reborn as the Fallen Idol, I Leaned Into the Chaos!"
"True Heir of Chaos: From Villainess to Empress"
BUT! Don't worry—these stories are still on track as usual since I've got drafts ready to roll:
"I Became a Fairy And Lived Forever In The Fairy World"
"Crimson Lotus, Divine Path"
"Games Invade Reality"
I'm so sorry for the delay (っ- ‸ – ς)… but I promise I'll jump back into writing as soon as things calm down! (⋟﹏⋞). Thank you all for your patience and support—it means the world. 💖