After my grandmother called me home in my dream, my spiritual energy revived

Chapter 236 Cultivation Bottleneck
To make Xiaozhushan more secure and well-defended, we need to improve our cultivation and learn more paper-crafting techniques.

Song Miaozhu turned around and resumed her cultivation.

Xiaozhushan is now shrouded in white mist, so she is not afraid of being spied on, and she has resumed her plan to exercise.

The calm and surging periods of spiritual energy tides are unpredictable. Sometimes they come only once every two weeks and surge for a whole day, while other times they come every two or three days and surge for a few hours.

The Bureau of Spirits Investigation attempted to trace the surging cycle of spiritual energy tides, but all attempts failed, as the surging cycle of spiritual energy tides showed no discernible pattern.

Only the amount of gushing water is related to the number and cultivation level of the practitioners currently cultivating in the area.

This means that all cultivators must be prepared at all times to welcome the arrival of the spiritual energy tide.

The occasional surges of spiritual energy have completely alleviated the problem of spiritual energy shortage, but the market demand for the Spirit Gathering Lucky Dolls remains high.

Whether Song Miaozhu puts 200 or 100 items on the shelves, they all sell out instantly.

Cultivators all regard Song Miaozhu as a benchmark, believing that she can surpass everyone in cultivation on her own because she has enough Spirit Gathering Blessing Babies in reserve.

Although Xiaozhushan was shrouded in white mist, the concentration of spiritual energy flowing out of Xiaozhushan each time it surged was enough to make everyone envious.

Other practitioners strive to move to big cities, buy houses near the Bureau of Spirituality, and cluster together with other practitioners in hopes of attracting more spiritual energy when it surges.

Only Song Miaozhu dared to live alone in the deep mountains and cultivate her skills by herself.

In the words of netizens, she is the only one who has lived a life that truly resembles an immortal with a serene and otherworldly air.

Whether they are practitioners or ordinary people practicing in the mortal world, they cannot live without people.

Song Miaozhu was completely unaware of the netizens' teasing; she was now only focused on cultivating her skills, making money, and studying.

Blue spirit crystals were condensing, reaching seventh, eighth, and ninth levels...

Within the spiritual space, the blue spiritual crystals finally coalesced into a complete blue crystal staircase.

It is exactly the same as the blue and red steps below.

Within the spiritual space, her field of vision also rose significantly as the blue crystal steps completed.

It was as if she, too, had ascended to a higher position on the new steps, getting closer and closer to the seven-colored light gate in the sky above the spiritual platform space.

"What color will the next spirit crystal step be?"

Song Miaozhu was already very familiar with the process of advancing. She continued to make the Spirit Gathering Lucky Babies and, in one go, condensed the spirit crystals of the new level.

However, it turned out that the spirits that used to rush into her spiritual space when she made paper offerings, replenishing her spiritual energy when it was not yet restored, and condensing into new spiritual crystals when it was restored, which helped her increase her cultivation, had suddenly changed.

They still rushed to squeeze into her spiritual space, but once inside, they were like headless flies, wandering aimlessly instead of going to the places they should be to condense new spiritual crystals.

This left Song Miaozhu feeling somewhat puzzled.

Even if the new level of spirit crystals is harder to condense, the spiritual energy should still go towards the front of the blue spirit crystal steps and gather there!

What's the point of wandering around like this?
More and more spiritual energy was crowding into her spiritual space, and Song Miaozhu felt a swelling between her eyebrows.

If this continues, she's worried that her spiritual space will be overwhelmed!
The spiritual space is equivalent to the dantian of cultivators in the previous era of cultivation. It cannot tolerate any damage. After Song Miaozhu felt uncomfortable, she quickly stopped cultivating.

"Could this be the bottleneck mentioned in ancient cultivation books?"

Song Miaozhu had never felt this way before.

But bottlenecks are meant to be broken through. How do you break through them? Naturally, through cultivation.

But now, she feels uncomfortable even making paper offerings, so how can she cultivate? How can she break through to the next level?

Now is the time when spiritual energy is surging, and with so much spiritual energy, she dares not practice paper effigies for cultivation.

But we can't let so much spiritual energy go to waste!

Spiritual energy is spirit stones. Song Miaozhu still remembers the embarrassment of lacking spirit stones before!
She thought for a moment: "Since there's nowhere for spiritual energy to go during cultivation, I can at least recover my spiritual power!"

She began her second spiritual nourishment session of the day.

After pouring all his spiritual power into the little paper servant, the spiritual energy that had been wandering aimlessly in his spiritual space seemed to finally find an outlet, surging into the red, cyan, and blue spiritual crystals.

After the spiritual energy in the Lingtai space was fully digested, Song Miaozhu made the Spirit Gathering Lucky Baby again, and the spiritual energy returned to normal. Once inside the Lingtai space, it replenished her spiritual power.

But once the spiritual energy was replenished, the absorbed spiritual energy began to wander aimlessly in the spiritual space, seemingly without purpose.

Song Miaozhu had no choice but to continue nurturing the spirit creature until the end of this spiritual energy surge period. She absorbed all the spiritual energy dissipating from Xiaozhu Mountain, but she was still unable to cultivate and condense a new spirit crystal.

It seems that the recovery of spiritual energy is unaffected, but there is an obstacle to cultivating and condensing new spiritual crystals.

Currently, the most powerful cultivators are still stuck at the Azure Spirit Rank, while most others are still at the Crimson Spirit Rank.

No one else had encountered this situation before, and she had no one else to consult, so she could only try again and again on her own.

She first made all the paper crafts she knew, hoping to achieve a breakthrough by consolidating her paper crafting skills.

I tried for three months straight, but made no progress.

The spiritual energy absorbed while making paper offerings couldn't be condensed into new spiritual crystals, so it had to be used to restore spiritual power.

If consolidation is useless, then what about innovation and breakthroughs?
Song Miaozhu turned her attention to "The Secret Art of Paper Crafting".

Song Miaozhu's cultivation level in other land-enclosing techniques was not yet high enough. After searching for a long time, she found a paper-crafting technique from the "Paper Crafting Secrets" that she could try with her current cultivation level and the abundant spiritual energy stored in her spiritual platform—the Four Seasons Paper Fan.

Moreover, only a quarter of the abridged version can be produced.

Originally, the Four Seasons Paper Fan was a paper craft that combined auxiliary, healing, and offensive functions.

You need to make a fan out of paper and draw four different seasonal plants on the fan surface. Generally speaking, these are peach blossoms in spring, lotus flowers in summer, chrysanthemums in autumn, and plum blossoms in winter.

Then, by applying the method of "spirit-enhancing the four seasons," one can create paper fans representing the four seasons. By waving the paper fans, one can draw upon the power of the four seasons.

Stirring the peach blossom fan surface, a vigorous fan can create a pink, fragrant breeze, causing withered trees to sprout and plants to grow faster, while a gentle shake can accelerate wound healing.

The lotus fan can summon a torrential downpour by waving it vigorously, or a light drizzle by waving it gently. It can also condense "lotus dew," which can cure all poisons.

By activating the chrysanthemum fan, a strong swipe can unleash a golden wave of energy, accelerating the ripening of objects, while a gentle sway can slow down the movements of enemies.

Activating the winter plum blossom fan's surface, a vigorous fan can unleash a miniature blizzard, freezing small objects, while a gentle wave can send down fine snowflakes, soothing negative emotions. Each fan surface has a powerful effect.

The four fan surfaces can be combined into one, and can be switched at any time for a better effect.

This was something she couldn't have done with her current cultivation level, but now, in order to try and break through her bottleneck, she had to give it a shot.

If you can't make the complete four-season paper fan, you can try making a simplified version of the spring, summer, autumn, or winter fan.

Song Miaozhu first tried making the Spring Fan, which could be used on the locust trees and bamboo forests of Xiaozhushan to accelerate their growth.

Make paper fans, paint spring peach blossoms, and finally use the seasonal spirit-infusing method to infuse them with spirit.

During the spirit initiation, all spiritual power was concentrated on the peach blossom, but only a quarter of the original spiritual power was used.

It was eventually completed, but when examined in the Spirit-Mirror, it was merely a crude version of the Spring Fan:

"By waving the fan with spiritual power, the plants that are touched by the pink fragrance will grow at a slightly faster rate."

The "Paper Crafting Secrets" states that if a paper fan with sufficient spiritual power is used, the spring fan alone can make a sapling grow into a tree as tall as a house with a single flap.

The current Spring Fan can only slightly accelerate plant growth.

After leaving the spirit house, Song Miaozhu found a weed and tried fanning it for an hour before it grew a little taller.

That's bad enough, but it even lost its ability to accelerate healing.

No wonder there are only paper fans for the four seasons in "The Secret Art of Paper Crafting", and no fans for spring, summer, autumn and winter!
After completing the Spring Fan, I still couldn't condense new spirit crystals, but during cultivation, the spiritual energy that was originally hovering near the red, cyan, and blue spirit crystal steps showed a slight upward trend.

Feeling a glimmer of hope, Song Miaozhu continued making summer fans, autumn fans, and winter fans.

With each one you make, the spiritual energy rises a little.

When she finished making the Winter Fan, the spiritual energy finally arrived where it was meant to be.

They are gathering in front of the blue spirit crystal steps, and there is a tendency for them to coalesce.

In one go, Song Miaozhu made several more separate paper fans for the four seasons, as well as other paper crafts such as the Gathering Spirit Lucky Baby.

Finally, a yellow spirit crystal condensed on the upper right side of the blue spirit crystal steps.

Song Miaozhu finally breathed a sigh of relief: "So after the Blue Spirit Rank comes the Yellow Spirit Rank!"

At this point, she made other paper offerings, and the second yellow spirit crystal was successfully condensed.

Song Miaozhu now understands that breakthroughs in cultivation are not only about accumulating spiritual energy, but also about accumulating skills. Only new skills and works can bring about new breakthroughs.

Six months later, she finally overcame the bottleneck period.

She originally thought this was a bottleneck that only those at the Yellow Spirit Rank would encounter. However, about three years later, when Song Miaozhu reached the Yellow Spirit Rank 3, she suddenly saw a report from the Spirit Adjustment Bureau about the bottleneck period in cultivation on the Elite Master Forum.

More than two years ago, the Global New Generation Practitioner Competition was held in the United States, and all new generation practitioners who began learning handicrafts after the Reiki revival were eligible to participate.

Lan, Shen Ruoying, and Meng Zishu, three emerging practitioners from China, won the championship, runner-up, and third place respectively, making them famous in the Chinese cultivation community.

Under the intensive training of the Chinese National Spiritual Investigation Bureau, they had already reached the sixth or seventh level of the Crimson Spirit Realm at that time.

With the surge of spiritual energy and the resource allocation from the Spirit Adjustment Bureau, they all reached the Crimson Spirit Rank Perfection within a year after the competition.

However, he was unable to condense a blue spirit crystal no matter what he tried.

They encountered the same problem as Song Miaozhu, and with the advice of experts from the Bureau of Spiritual Investigation, they made an even more detailed and comprehensive attempt than Song Miaozhu had made initially.

Ultimately, it was through seeking breakthroughs in skills, learning to create new works of art, and accumulating experience to a certain level that he successfully achieved a breakthrough.

Experts from the Spirituality Bureau speculated that the reason why practitioners did not encounter this problem in the past may be because those who broke through in the past were all veteran craftsmen who had worked diligently in the field of handicrafts for a long time before the spiritual energy revival.

Having a solid foundation, I easily broke through to the Crimson Spirit Rank.

The advisors, Lan and her group, were among the first generation of new-generation cultivators in the world to break through to the Crimson Spirit Rank. They had good cultivation resources and their own skills and talents, but their foundation and accumulation were ultimately insufficient, so they encountered a bottleneck.

The report also reminds practitioners to be more innovative and not just focus on cultivation. Craftsmanship is fundamental. If one's skill level cannot keep up with their cultivation, they will encounter a difficult bottleneck period.

Song Miaozhu really didn't expect that there might be a bottleneck period when breaking through each major stage, but because her paper crafting skills were good enough, she never encountered a bottleneck period.

That's true. Other cultivators can't keep up with their cultivation progress in terms of spiritual energy. Only when the spiritual energy tide comes can the spiritual energy catch up with the cultivation needs. If ordinary cultivators don't have enough spiritual energy gathering resources to support them, and don't have a cultivation place with abundant spiritual energy, even when the spiritual energy is surging, the spiritual energy will still lag behind the cultivation needs.

Song Miaozhu sent a servant left at headquarters to observe the cultivation progress of the other cultivators.

They discovered that even the consultants, Lan and the others, only had enough spiritual energy to meet the needs of cultivation, and not much spiritual energy to nurture spirit creatures.

Only elite cultivators like Master Yu Lichuan, who are painstakingly trained by the Spirit Regulation Bureau, have a lot of surplus spiritual energy to use for creating and raising spiritual objects. However, they also need to plan carefully, as they cannot cultivate and raise spiritual objects like her and consume spiritual energy in such a large way.

At this moment, Song Miaozhu realized that even the most valued elite cultivators of the Spirit Regulation Bureau did not have an inexhaustible supply of spiritual energy after the arrival of the spiritual energy tide.

No wonder their cultivation level is so low!

Yu Lichuan, the second most powerful cultivator in the world, has only just broken through to the ninth level of the Azure Spirit Realm. He is still some distance away from breaking through to the Blue Spirit Realm.

"I always feel that the spiritual energy of our era is exceptionally scarce!" Song Miaozhu muttered to herself after reading the report.

She remembered that in ancient cultivation books, cultivators active during the spiritual energy tide period could absorb spiritual energy in large quantities anywhere.

Unlike them now, during the spiritual energy ebb and flow period, apart from her, who has the best resources in the world and is a cheat code, everyone else has to conserve their spiritual energy.

Song Miaozhu did not believe that the large number of cultivators was the reason for the large number of cultivators today.

Now, almost everyone in the world is learning handicrafts; the average person is a practitioner.

However, as the number of cultivators increases, the amount of spiritual energy gushing out also increases.

The per capita spiritual energy availability is also slowly increasing, but it is not abundant enough to reach the level described in ancient cultivation books, where spiritual lands are everywhere and cultivation can be done anywhere, and as long as one's comprehension is sufficient, one's cultivation level can rise rapidly.

Upon discovering this, Song Miaozhu became even more determined to accumulate spirit stones.

If there's not enough spiritual energy, spirit stones will do the trick.

The spiritual energy tide may end at any time, but you can keep earning spirit stones.

To this end, she made another batch of paper servants to increase the production speed of her Spirit Gathering Lucky Babies.