After stepping out of the stone door, An Qianhua immediately spoke to Shucao.
“There was another person in the quiet room just now who created a brief dream realm for you.”
“A dream realm? So the scenes I saw were real?”
“Mm. People often say dreams come from your own memories, right? She probably used that method to check your memories.”
“I thought I suddenly remembered those things because we mentioned the Blood Fiend Sect.”
“That probably played a part too. By bringing up the Blood Fiend Sect, she stirred up your memories and then built a complete dream realm on top of them. Illusion-type skills become very easy to invade once a connection is made.”
An Qianhua proudly patted her chest inside the Heart Realm and added,
“But luckily you have the strongest magical girl here. I can’t interfere with the outside world, but protecting your mind inside the Heart Realm is effortless! I only let her see what she was supposed to see. Everything she wasn’t supposed to see—she didn’t catch a single glimpse.”
Hearing An Qianhua’s words, Shucao smiled.
“Thank you, Sister Qianhua. But that person’s strength is terrifying. I didn’t notice anyone else in the quiet room at all, and she still managed to see my memories like that.”
“Looks like she and that black-robed woman are the two Foundation Establishment cultivators Miss Simeng mentioned. But it’s fine. Once we magical girls grow stronger, we won’t lose to cultivators!”
Seeing Shucao emerge from the quiet room, Xiao Simeng quickly walked over with concern.
“How did it go? The senior didn’t make things difficult for you, right?”
“I’m fine. She asked me a few questions, then allowed me to join and even gave me a storage pouch as a gift.”
With that, she took out the jade token and storage pouch she had just received and showed them to Xiao Simeng.
“That’s wonderful! I got scared when the senior wanted to speak with you alone. Normally seniors don’t pay much attention to Qi Refining loose cultivators. As long as someone wants to join and their background checks out, they’re accepted. It might have something to do with the fact that no spiritual energy fluctuations can be sensed from you.”
Shucao suddenly realized the difference. As a magical girl, the energy she used came from the Heart Seed’s magic power, while cultivators drew spiritual energy from heaven and earth.
Lower-stage cultivators absorbed spiritual energy and converted it into spiritual power stored in their qi sea. When casting techniques, they consumed that stored spiritual power.
That was why cultivators could sense each other’s approximate realm by detecting the spiritual energy fluctuations.
High-level cultivators or those with special arts could hide those fluctuations, of course.
Shucao’s magic power was fundamentally different from spiritual power.
One was drawn and used directly; the other was first absorbed, stored, and then released.
That was why none of the cultivators she had met so far could sense any “spiritual energy fluctuations” from her.
Looks like I’ll need to discuss a solution with Sister Qianhua later.
While Shucao was thinking this, Xiao Simeng spoke again.
“By the way, I still have some matters to handle here. If you don’t have anything else to do, Shucao, you can go explore Ningzhou City first. There are quite a few interesting places worth visiting.”
“Got it. I wish you success with your business, Simeng. I’ll take my leave first.”
After bidding Xiao Simeng farewell, Shucao left the underground space and returned to the restaurant above.
Xiao Simeng waited a short while in the underground area until a man in a green robe arrived and found her.
She took out the Thousand Feather Bird egg from her storage pouch and handed it to him.
After confirming it, the man nodded in satisfaction, gave her a pouch of spirit stones, watched her count them, and then left.
Looking at the spirit stones in the pouch, Xiao Simeng happily put it away.
Just as she was about to leave, a voice called out from behind her.
“Simeng, come here for a moment.”
Xiao Simeng turned and saw Bai Yumo walking out of the quiet room.
“May I ask what Senior needs from Simeng?”
“Just a small matter. In your opinion, what is Shucao’s cultivation realm?”
Xiao Simeng thought for a moment before answering.
“I believe she’s at the same late-stage Qi Refining as me. Is there something wrong with Shucao’s cultivation?”
“I just wanted to double-check. How did you determine she’s late-stage Qi Refining?”
“When the Thousand Feather Bird was chasing me, she suddenly flew out of the forest and smashed the bird straight to the ground. Her speed was so fast the bird couldn’t even react, and she didn’t seem to be using any flying artifact. At first I thought it was Golden Core stage escape light. But if she were Golden Core, the bird probably would have died on impact. Since it only fell and wasn’t heavily injured, I guessed she’s late-stage Qi Refining with some special artifact or technique.”
“I see. So late-stage Qi Refining it is.”
“Even Senior couldn’t see her realm? Her technique and artifact must be truly special.”
“Mm. I couldn’t sense even the slightest spiritual energy fluctuation. I’ve never seen a Qi Refining cultivator like that before. You mentioned she has a special artifact—what was it?”
“Back at the inn, she said her clothes were too eye-catching, so I made her a more ordinary set. When she took off her outfit, the lower garments and the dress she had already removed both vanished instantly. I think the set is some kind of bound, body-stored artifact.”
“So that’s how it is. Looks like she really does have some secrets.”
“Does Shucao have a problematic background?”
“No. If she had a powerful background, she wouldn’t need to come to us for that kind of information. She probably obtained the inheritance of some ancient cultivator, which is why she has those special techniques and treasures. Still, letting her join benefits us more than it harms us, so I won’t do anything to her. Don’t worry.”
“Understood. Then, Senior, Simeng will take her leave first.”
“Mm.”
After ending the conversation with Bai Yumo, Xiao Simeng left, and Bai Yumo returned to the quiet room.
In Ningzhou City.
Shucao canceled her transformation in a quiet alley and stepped out as Mo Yao.
“Why did you cancel the transformation?”
An Qianhua asked, puzzled.
“I need to find a job or something for Mo Yao’s identity. Otherwise, if Uncle Huang asks, it’ll be hard to explain.”
“That makes sense.”
Mo Yao then found a job selling newspapers. Every morning he would sell the city lord’s mansion’s official newspaper for two hours and earn ten copper coins.
“The good thing about this job is that it’s flexible. The real money will come from taking requests at the gathering.”
“After all, we need spirit stones to gather information!”
After fixing the holes in Mo Yao’s identity, he transformed back into Shucao and returned to his room at the Welcoming Crane Pavilion.
“Sister Qianhua, do you have any way for us to simulate spiritual energy fluctuations? Not having any fluctuations at all is too suspicious.”
“Hmm… I don’t have anything right now. I’ve never even seen spiritual energy—the energy cultivators use. Maybe if I drink Miss Simeng’s expensive tea a few more times, or find another way to let me directly sense spiritual energy, I might come up with something.”
Shucao felt troubled.
She definitely could not ask Xiao Simeng for more of that clearly expensive tea, but she also had no idea how to let An Qianhua inside the Heart Realm sense spiritual energy directly.
She picked up the storage pouch Bai Yumo had given her and sighed.
“Looks like I can’t even use this storage pouch. What a hassle.”
“Wait, didn’t Miss Simeng give you a pouch of spirit stones? Try those.”
Spirit stones were the common currency of cultivators.
They were mined from spirit stone veins and usually divided into low-grade, mid-grade, and high-grade.
When cultivators spoke of “spirit stones,” they normally meant low-grade ones; the higher grades had their own names.
Even low-grade spirit stones contained quite a lot of spiritual energy.
Looking at the faintly glowing spirit stone in her hand, Shucao pondered how to use it.
Suddenly she remembered how, during her fight with Lin Han, she had used leaking magic power to disrupt his technique.
That proved magic power and spiritual energy could interfere with each other.
She extended her magic power into the spirit stone and really did sense the energy inside.
But when she tried to pull the spiritual energy out with her magic power, it slipped away like a slippery fish the moment she touched it.
“Looks like I need extremely precise magic power control to draw the spiritual energy out. Come on, Shucao.”
Watching her keep trying, An Qianhua cheered her on and slowly guided her through better magic power manipulation techniques.
About half an hour later, Shucao wove a tiny net of magic power and finally extracted a strand of spiritual energy from the spirit stone, mixing it into her own magic power.
She channeled the magic power now carrying spiritual energy into the storage pouch, and it opened successfully.
“Looks like every time I want to use this storage pouch I’ll have to extract spiritual energy from a spirit stone first. That’s way too inconvenient.”
She thought enviously of how cultivators could simply pat their storage pouches or move their minds, and items would fly out.
“Seems the storage pouch works by detecting any energy carrying spiritual energy. But having to extract it from spirit stones every time is still too troublesome.”
An Qianhua pondered the pouch’s operating principle and fell into thought.
“The spiritual energy extracted from the spirit stone can’t be absorbed directly. If I could absorb it, I could analyze its structure.”
“Cultivators sense spiritual energy with their spiritual roots, then use techniques to draw it into their bodies. Using spirit stones also requires techniques to absorb from outside. But without spiritual roots you can’t cultivate techniques, and without techniques you can’t absorb spiritual energy from outside. Wait—outside?”
Shucao suddenly had an idea and asked An Qianhua,
“Sister Qianhua, my current body is made of magic power, right?”
“Mm, that’s right. The difference between a magic-power body and a normal human body is that it’s strengthened by magic power and has no normal physiological needs.”
“Then what happens to food eaten in magical girl form?”
“Part of it converts into energy for the main body, and the rest turns completely into magic power. Wait… you’re not thinking of…”
“Mm. Since I can’t absorb it from outside, if I eat this spirit stone and watch it get converted by magic power, I should be able to sense the spiritual energy inside, right?”
She opened her small, rosy mouth and was about to pop the spirit stone in.
“Wait, wait, wait! That idea actually makes sense and is worth trying. But eating a stone directly is too weird. Even if magic power strengthens your teeth, it still looks strange. At least grind it into powder and mix it with water.”
Shucao repeatedly pounded the spirit stone into fine powder, then swallowed it with water.
“It feels like drinking medicine… Aren’t some medicinal herbs just ground-up stones?”
Just as she thought this, the spirit stone and its spiritual energy fully entered her body.
The moment the spiritual energy began to leak from the powder, Shucao wrapped it with magic power and sent it straight into the Heart Realm where An Qianhua was.
Looking at the ball of spiritual energy wrapped in magic power, An Qianhua smiled wryly.
“It actually works. I’m a little scared you’ll start stuffing anything you don’t understand into your body from now on.”
An Qianhua reached out and used the Heart Seed’s magic power to continuously analyze the spiritual energy’s structure.
As the former strongest magical girl, she had plenty of experience with analysis. Before long, she had results.
“Hahahaha! As expected of the strongest magical girl—even unknown energy can’t stump me! Now we can directly sense and capture the spiritual energy existing between heaven and earth.”
Shucao opened her eyes and saw countless tiny glowing particles floating in the air, scattered throughout the world, everywhere at once.
“So this is spiritual energy.”
She controlled her magic power, casually drew in a bit of spiritual energy, mixed it in, and sent it into the storage pouch.
The pouch opened.
With a thought, she stored the silver pouch beside her, and the storage pouch closed.
To take something out, she only needed to send in magic power carrying spiritual energy, reach in with her mind, find the silver pouch, and retrieve it.
“This is so much more convenient. Thank you, Sister Qianhua.”
“If you hadn’t come up with that method, I really wouldn’t have known what to do with the spiritual energy. Your strange ideas are even better than mine.”
Shucao smiled and said,
“Still, we haven’t solved the spiritual energy fluctuation problem yet. Looks like we’ll have to keep experimenting.”
“No rush. Now it’s much easier. We just need to figure out the nature of spiritual power and simulate it with magic power.”
Knowing there was a way forward, Shucao breathed a sigh of relief and flopped onto the bed.
“Let’s go eat something.”
An Qianhua suddenly suggested.
“Why?”
“I’m worried you’ll start eating weird things with your magical girl body, so I want you to remember that mouths are for eating normal food.”
“I don’t think I’d go that far…”