Once the Paper Vine Blossoms were fully cultivated, it only took one or two little paper servants to bury spirit stones and harvest flowers each day. The daily yield? One thousand blossoms.
Each flower had seven petals. At sixty thousand contribution points per petal, and with one contribution point worth 100 RMB, the daily net income from the blossoms alone reached 42 billion yuan.
That equaled 21 billion hell coins, which could be exchanged for 210 top-grade spirit stones.
Previously, even when she could barely use up all the spirit stones bought with her hell coin earnings, the most she had ever saved was 29.2 billion hell coins. Now, with the Paper Vine Blossoms blooming, she could easily earn 21 billion per day.
It solved Song Miaozhu's shortage of spirit stones almost overnight. However, the SEIU's internal demand for the blossoms only lasted a month. After that, the Paper Vine Blossom listing had no more queues.
One thousand blossoms a day, and she could no longer sell them all.
Song Miaozhu had already spoken with Zhao Huoyan. When sales started to slow, she listed the Paper Vine Blossoms on her personal spiritual storefront through the SEIU app.
Even though it was a core-grade spiritual item, typically restricted to the official Core Item Store, the SEIU had done plenty of internal promotion to boost morale. News of the Paper Vine Blossom had long since spread.
Everyone also knew Song Miaozhu's identity as an elite artisan. Those who had contribution points used them, while others converted their cash to buy in. Most non-SEIU members didn't have many contribution points, but that didn't mean they lacked money.
As soon as the listing went live, it sparked a wave of purchases. Unfortunately, the rush didn't last. After about two weeks, sales started dropping. By the end of the month, she was only selling one or two flowers a day.
Song Miaozhu figured that most buyers in China who had both the need and the funds had already purchased what they wanted.
The golden age of earning 21 billion a day lasted just fifty days. Two months of sales brought in a total of 1.2 trillion hell coins, all of which she exchanged for top-grade spirit stones.
Twelve thousand spirit stones. Piled together, they formed a small mountain.
Song Miaozhu had never seen so many top-grade spirit stones in her life.
For those two months, she barely had to do anything aside from crafting new Paper Vine Blossom seeds in the beginning. After that, the process ran on its own.
It was such an incredible profit stream that she couldn't help but look beyond China. The domestic market was saturated, but the international market was still untouched.
Every old artisan had some kind of occupational disease, didn't they?
Healing spiritual items were consumables. They were hard to preserve, couldn't be stockpiled long-term, and couldn't be used as weapons against their creator. Song Miaozhu considered all this and decided to approach the SEIU for another round of collaboration.
[Miaow Zhu]: Group Leader Zhao, the Paper Vine Blossoms are producing steadily now. Do you think I could use the SEIU's network to sell them abroad?
[Zhao Huoyan]: How many per day?
[Miaow Zhu]:One thousand blossoms.
[Zhao Huoyan]: !!!
[Zhao Huoyan]:Hold on.
In the SEIU's executive meeting room:
"With the global research into spiritual energy becoming more advanced, we need to talk about how to maintain China's leadership in the international cultivation world. Any thoughts?"
"Status comes from strength. We should show some real power and let the foreigners see what China cultivators are capable of. I think the proposal by the U.S. at the last International Cultivators' Congress to host a global cultivation tournament is worth pursuing."
"I agree!"
"As for the International Spiritual Goods Trade Fair proposed alongside the tournament, let's forget it. We barely have enough spiritual energy for our own cultivation. Who has the excess to raise spiritual items for export?"
"Still, they won't just respond to threats. We need to offer some incentive."
"Ordinary spiritual items won't impress them. Core-grade items are still in short supply domestically. Would you give them up?"
…
Just as the room was mired in disagreement, a staffer walked in with a phone. "Director, Group Leader Zhao from the Lingcheng Branch has an urgent report."
Director Zhao stepped out with the phone, then quickly returned to the room. "Let's hear what he has to say."
Zhao Huoyan's video feed was projected on the big screen.
"Master Song just contacted me. She wants to use our channels to export Paper Vine Blossoms. She can produce a thousand per day. Since the SEIU is working on matters related to the International Cultivators' Congress, I thought this might be useful?"
"This is more than useful—it's a godsend!"
"Paper Vine Blossoms are perfect. Core-grade healing items with no competition abroad. And honestly, the domestic market can't absorb much more of them at this price. Exporting is the right call."
"But a thousand a day? Isn't that a bit much? Wouldn't it impact her production of Gathering Spirit Dolls?"
Zhao Huoyan shook his head. "Master Song says no. She can still produce a hundred dolls daily. She planted a large number of Paper Vine Blossoms early to meet demand from SEIU cultivators. The flowers we're selling are just blooms from one specific paper-crafting variant, and they don't require much spiritual energy."
"Then why are they so expensive if they use so little energy? Sounds like profiteering."
"If she weren't charging so much, she wouldn't be facing oversupply now."
"For most people, it's more cost-effective to suppress their symptoms with spiritual energy. Only the wealthy want a one-and-done cure."
"So, what should we charge for exports?"
"At least double. One hundred thousand contribution points per petal, or ten million RMB. A real cure is worth more than that anyway."
"She's charging us sixty thousand. Doubling that is 120,000, right?"
"At 120,000, people would still line up to buy."
"Then it's settled. Group Leader Zhao, tell Master Song we agree. We won't take a cut, but she's not allowed to sell directly to foreigners."
That was the final word from Director Zhao.
When Song Miaozhu received the message, she responded simply, "Agreed."
Paper flowers were hard to preserve. They had to be stored in special Yin-wood boxes or on Yin-wood shelves to retain their effects.
Even with an agreement in place, international distribution wouldn't begin immediately.
So, for now, Song Miaozhu halted the supply of spirit stones to the Paper Vine Blossoms and paused their blooming.
She was still selling an average of two blossoms per day: one through the Core Item Vault, one through her spiritual storefront. That was still 42 million hell coins daily.
Add that to the income from one hundred Gathering Spirit Dolls per day and the underworld's profits, and she was earning a stable 207 million hell coins every day. She left that money untouched for now. The twelve thousand top-grade spirit stones she had exchanged earlier were more than enough to fund her cultivation for a long time.
Stockpiling spirit stones was satisfying. But what truly thrilled her was the rapid growth of her cultivation and spiritual items. Only when the energy in those stones was used—either absorbed during cultivation or used to nourish spiritual items—did it truly become her own.
For now, Song Miaozhu's spiritual energy shortage was resolved.
Her cultivation and spiritual items began advancing rapidly once again.