To strengthen the defenses of Xiaozhu Mountain and ensure her safety, Song Miaozhu had to improve her cultivation and master more of the Secret Art of Paper Crafting.
She turned her focus back to cultivation.
Now shrouded in white mist, Xiaozhu Mountain no longer feared prying eyes. With her home hidden, she also resumed her physical training.
There was no fixed rhythm to the spiritual tide's quiet and surging phases. Sometimes it came once every half-month and lasted an entire day. Other times, it arrived after two or three days, lasting only a few hours.
The SEIU had tried to determine a pattern in the tides but failed. There was no discernible cycle. The only measurable factor was that the surge volume was linked to the number and strength of cultivators in the area.
All cultivators could do was remain on constant alert, ready for the next wave.
The spiritual tide had solved the energy shortage, but demand for Spirit-Gathering Fortune remained high. Whether Song Miaozhu listed 200 or 100, they sold out instantly.
Other cultivators viewed Song Miaozhu as a benchmark. Her rapid cultivation progress was credited to her vast doll reserves.
Even though Xiaozhu Mountain was blanketed in fog, every spiritual tide brought forth a density of energy that left others envious.
While other cultivators crowded into major cities, buying homes near SEIU branches to increase their exposure during spiritual surges, Song Miaozhu dared to live alone deep in the mountains.
As some netizens put it, she was the only one truly living the life of a transcendent immortal. The rest were just worldly mortals, still tethered to the crowd.
Unaware of these jokes, Song Miaozhu continued to cultivate, earn money, and study.
One by one, blue spirit crystals condensed: Blue Spirit Stage 7, 8, 9...
Within her spiritual platform, the blue crystals finally formed a complete crystalline step, identical to the green and red steps below.
Her vision within the spiritual platform elevated with the completed step. It felt as though she had physically moved higher, drawing closer to the rainbow gate that hovered above.
"What color will the next crystal step be?"
She was familiar with the advancement process and pushed forward, crafting more Spirit-Gathering Fuwa to accumulate the next stage's crystal.
But something changed. Spiritual energy that once eagerly entered her spiritual platform to form new crystals now swarmed chaotically. They rushed in like headless flies, refusing to coalesce.
This puzzled Song Miaozhu. Even if the next stage required more effort, the energy should still gather at the next level above the blue crystal step. Why was it swirling randomly instead?
More and more spiritual energy pressed in, making her brow ache.
At this rate, her spiritual platform might rupture.
The spiritual platform was like the dantian of the previous cultivation era—any damage was dangerous. Noticing the discomfort, she stopped cultivating.
"Is this... the bottleneck described in ancient texts?"
She had never encountered this before. Bottlenecks were meant to be broken through by cultivating. But now, even crafting paper objects caused her discomfort. How was she supposed to progress?
This was peak spiritual tide. Letting all this energy go to waste was unthinkable.
Spiritual energy was as valuable as spirit stones. She still remembered the days when she had none.
"If cultivation is off the table, maybe I can just restore spiritual power."
She began her second spiritual infusion of the day, pouring all her energy into her little paper servants. At last, the chaotic energy found a path, pouring into her red, green, and blue crystals.
Afterward, she resumed crafting dolls. Spiritual energy flowed normally again, replenishing her power. But once full, the energy resumed its chaotic drifting.
She continued nourishing her spirit items until the surge ended, absorbing all the ambient energy from Xiaozhu Mountain. Still, she couldn't form a new crystal.
It seemed her power restoration remained unaffected, but actual cultivation had hit a wall. Most cultivators were still struggling with Red Spirit Stage. None had experienced what she was facing.
With no one to consult, she could only experiment.
She began by cycling through all the paper techniques she had learned, hoping that refining her skills might push her past the barrier.
Three months passed. No progress. None of the energy from crafting could form a new crystal. It only served to restore her spent energy.
If refining didn't work, what about innovation?
She turned to the Secret Art of Paper Crafting. Other territorial techniques were still out of reach, but she found one suitable project: the Four Seasons Paper Fan—at least, a quarter of it.
The full fan was a combined offensive, defensive, and healing artifact. It required a crafted fan bearing seasonal flora: peach blossoms for spring, lotus for summer, chrysanthemum for autumn, plum for winter.
Once infused with seasonal energy, it could wield the power of the seasons.
Peach blossoms accelerated plant growth and healing. Lotuses summoned rain and detoxifying dew. Chrysanthemums hastened ripening and slowed foes. Plums brought snow to soothe emotions or freeze small objects.
Each panel alone was powerful. Together, even more so.
It was beyond her current level, but she had to try.
She started with Spring.
She crafted the fan, painted the peach blossoms, and imbued it with seasonal energy. Only a quarter of the required spiritual power was used.
It worked. But when examined with the spirit mirror, it revealed itself as a simple Spring Fan:
"When activated with spiritual power, plants brushed by its fragrance grow slightly faster."
According to the manual, a proper Spring Fan could grow a sapling into a tree as tall as a house with a single wave. This one barely coaxed a weed to grow an inch after an hour of fanning. No healing effects either.
"No wonder there was no standalone Spring Fan in the manual."
Still, though it didn't form a new crystal, she noticed the ambient energy around her red, green, and blue steps started to drift upward.
Encouraged, she forged the Summer Fan, then Autumn and Winter.
With each, the energy rose a bit higher.
By the time she completed the Winter Fan, the energy finally settled in the correct position—above the blue crystal step. There, it began to condense.
She pushed forward, crafting more seasonal fans and a few dolls. At last, in the upper right of her blue crystal step, a yellow spirit crystal began to form.
She exhaled in relief.
"So the next stage is Yellow Spirit."
A second yellow crystal formed with ease.
Now she understood: breakthroughs required not just spiritual accumulation, but mastery of technique. Only new and advanced creations could lead to true progress.
Half a year had passed, and at last, she had overcome her bottleneck.
She had thought bottlenecks only appeared at Yellow Spirit Stage, but three years later, while browsing the Elite Master Forum, she found a SEIU report on the subject.
It recounted the first global youth cultivation competition, held in the US. All new-era cultivators trained in craftsmanship were invited.
China's trio—Lan, Shen Ruoying, and Meng Zishu—swept the podium, bringing fame to their country. Each was already near the top of Red Spirit Stage.
With the tide and SEIU backing, they quickly reached the peak.
But none could advance to Green Spirit. They faced the same issue Miaozhu had.
With expert help, they explored every possibility. Only by learning new techniques and creating novel spiritual crafts did they succeed.
The SEIU concluded that older cultivators hadn't encountered this because they had years of traditional craftsmanship experience before spiritual tides returned. Their foundation carried them through.
Lan and her peers, though talented and well-resourced, lacked such depth.
The report urged cultivators to pursue innovation. Spiritual power alone was not enough. Without matching craftsmanship, progress would stall.
Song Miaozhu finally understood. Every major breakthrough might come with a bottleneck. She had avoided them before because her skill had always kept pace.
Other cultivators often lagged in spiritual energy, and tides only just met their training needs. Without her dolls or a qi-rich sanctuary, they couldn't waste energy on crafting.
She sent her little paper servants to investigate. Even Lan and the others only had enough energy to train, not craft.
Only top-tier talents like Master Yu Lichuan had enough to make spiritual items. Even then, they had to plan carefully. No one could afford to be as extravagant as Miaozhu. It dawned on her that even the SEIU's elite didn't have energy to spare.
"No wonder their cultivation lagged."
Yu Lichuan, second-highest in the world, had only just reached Blue Spirit Stage 9.
"This era's spiritual tide is stingy," Miaozhu muttered after reading the report.
Ancient texts claimed cultivators could draw qi freely, anywhere. But today, even during surges, most had to ration their energy use. It wasn't due to population. More people meant more qi, and average availability had increased.
But still, it wasn't abundant.
This realization steeled her resolve.
If there wasn't enough qi, she'd make up the difference with spirit stones.
The tide might fade, but wealth could always grow.
She crafted more paper servants to boost dolls production, determined to forge ahead.