No matter what kind of elemental attribute spirit stone it was, none looked like the ones she had exchanged—these were multicolored.
Yet, these stones still followed the general rule:
"Spirit stones of different attributes appear in different colors, based on the spiritual energy they contain."
The current spiritual energy in the air had a faint, multicolored tint to it.
However, the spiritual power didn't quite match this logic—while the spiritual energy and spirit stones were colorful, the spiritual power inside her remained crimson.
Now that she had the spirit stones, Song Miaozhu could no longer stay in the underworld. She was itching to test them out for cultivation. She stored the spirit stones and two treasure basins into her ghost shop's warehouse, floated out of the Yuanbao House, and left the Tiandi Bank
Once she returned to Yinshui Alley, she immediately used her shop owner's token to teleport back into the ghost shop—and from there, exited the underworld. On the bed in the back room of the Anshou Paper Shop, Song Miaozhu—who had been "sleeping peacefully" just a moment ago—suddenly opened her eyes and threw off her blanket.
Three furry little heads peeked out from a bamboo basket near the bed.
Little Coal was the first to leap out and followed closely at her heels as she left the back room.
Little Goldie stretched slowly and sauntered off toward the cat bowl for a snack.
Little Snowball, meanwhile, snuggled back into the basket. Only when Song Miaozhu finished preparing her papercraft materials and sat at the front counter did Little Snowball emerge and curl up on her lap.
Song Miaozhu took out a low-grade spirit stone. After thinking for a moment, she placed it on a nearby stool. Noticing the three kittens all eyeing the stone with great interest, she warned, "That's not a toy. Don't touch it!"
Little Goldie and Little Snowball remained unmoved. Little Coal, however, crouched beside the stool, keeping a close watch on the other two troublemakers.
Song Miaozhu stroked Little Coal. "I'm counting on you!"
Her household strictly adhered to the 'cat-polices-cat' rule. With Little Coal guarding the stool, the other two didn't dare approach.
At ease, she picked up some gold paper and resumed folding golden lotus flowers. Halfway through the fold, she realized something was wrong. The spirit stone wasn't doing anything. No spiritual energy was leaking out, let alone being absorbed. After finishing the flower in her hand, she picked up the stone to inspect it. Its internal energy hadn't lessened in the slightest.
Clearly, this wasn't the correct method of use.
But if not this way, then how?
She recalled that ancient texts mentioned cultivators holding spirit stones in hand or laying them nearby, then actively drawing spiritual energy during meditation.
But her hands were busy with papercraft, so she had simply left the stone beside her—apparently to no effect. Unwilling to give up, she pulled out the storage box in the ghost shop that contained her ancient books and began flipping through them one by one.
After digging through a pile, she finally found a passage in a book—possibly a fictional story—describing a cultivator who, during a battle, crushed a spirit stone to instantly replenish his spiritual energy.
"Crush it?" She looked at the stone in her hand. "Doesn't seem like something I could crush by hand…"
Still, she tried applying pressure.
And then more pressure.
Predictably: "This book's probably full of nonsense. Spirit stones look hard as rock—who could crush one bare-handed?"
She got up, went to the back room, grabbed a large mallet, and brought it down on the stone.
It instantly shattered into eight pieces—and spiritual energy began pouring out!
But it wasn't the usual light-points of spiritual energy—it flowed out in silky, mist-like ribbons.
They hovered around her, dense and vibrant—far more concentrated than the free-floating light particles in the air.
Now that's what something called "spiritual qi" should look like!
Excited, she picked up the gold paper and started folding to attract the energy. At once, the spirit energy coiled more tightly around her, streaming into her forehead one ribbon after another.
Within her mind's eye, at the center of her forehead, the red crystal panel's edge began expanding again. After a few hours, the growth plateaued, and the surrounding spiritual energy had been fully absorbed.
She realized something—the energy from spirit stones was already present in this reality, unlike the ambient light particles in the air which drifted elusively, hard to grasp.
These could be absorbed more directly, more efficiently. By now, the once-radiant spirit stone was dull and gray. She reached out to touch it—only to find her fingers grasping at air.
The fragments disintegrated before her eyes, as if they'd been erased. Bit by bit, they crumbled into nothingness. She touched the stool's surface—clean, not a speck of dust left.
The sight was so magical, Song Miaozhu grew even more curious. "What exactly are these spirit stones made of?"
Unable to help herself, she took out another one and examined it closely. She hadn't turned on the lights; her Heavenly eye let her see in darkness.
In the shadows, the irregularly shaped spirit stone glowed with brilliant colors—prettier than any gem. As she gazed at it, inspiration struck: What would happen if spiritual power touched it?
She guided a wisp of her own crimson energy into the stone. No resistance—just a gentle tug, and a strand of spiritual energy came loose. She steadied her breathing and led the energy along her meridians into her forehead.
She had expected that without the papercraft, the energy might scatter. But unexpectedly, it was docile—obediently entering her brow's spiritual domain. Once inside, she tried guiding it into the red crystal. But only a little entered before the stone signaled it was full. No more energy would enter.
No matter how she coaxed it, it refused to convert into new crimson crystals on its own. Remembering past experiences, she gave up active control and resumed folding gold lotus flowers. Immediately, the idle spiritual energy became lively again—gathering near the crystal's edge and forming a new red crystal fragment.
Before she even finished folding the lotus, that thread of energy had been completely converted. This method of using spiritual power to draw out energy was much more convenient than smashing the stones.
She quickly repeated the process several times, drawing out and converting more energy—until the stone was empty and crumbled away into nothing. Feeling no discomfort, she took out another low-grade spirit stone, ready to test how much her spiritual domain could really hold.