Chapter 18: Wrong Message

Dawn had arrived.

A leaf, blown from somewhere unknown, drifted down and landed on the windowsill.

Su Xiaoyu felt as if only a short time had passed. She hadn’t expected to open her eyes and see daylight.

She could feel how full her mental state was. Even if she had slept for the same number of hours, she wouldn’t feel this refreshed. Cultivation could truly replace sleep.

‘No wonder everyone in the Qixi Festival Sect seems so energetic every day…’

Su Xiaoyu mused, glancing once more into the Diorama Box.

Then, she withdrew her gaze. She took out her Mobile Phone, ordered a breakfast delivery, and returned to pondering her own matters.

According to the cultivation world, no matter how sparse the Spiritual Power converted within one’s body was, successfully transforming Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy into Spiritual Power signified stepping onto the path of cultivation. One could then be considered a cultivator at the Qi Refining 1st Layer.

After successfully cultivating for an entire night, Su Xiaoyu could indeed be considered to have reached the Qi Refining 1st Layer.

However, during this cultivation process, she had discovered a problem.

The issue of spiritual energy concentration.

In the cultivation world, the concentration of spiritual energy varied by location. Places with high concentrations were, unsurprisingly, occupied by large sects, while areas with extremely low concentrations were left abandoned.

The location of the Qixi Festival Sect already had much better spiritual energy concentration compared to the rest of Magpie Mountain.

But the spiritual energy in the real world was exceptionally thin.

After cultivating all night, Su Xiaoyu felt her results were quite meager. One had to remember, she possessed the heaven-defying talent of Full Spiritual Root 100% Affinity. Such a qualification in the cultivation world would be considered shocking and unheard of.

Yet even with her level of talent, the influence of the real world’s thin spiritual energy made it difficult to walk the path of cultivation smoothly.

This was a problem that needed solving.

Spiritual energy concentration varied from place to place. Maybe there were locations in this world with better concentrations? But whether the energy was good or bad, she could only judge by going there personally—a difficult problem for Su Xiaoyu.

She looked at her immobile legs and sighed.

Besides finding naturally energy-rich locations, there were other methods.

Formations, for example. She could set up arrays like Spirit Gathering Formations, Spirit Drawing Formations, or Spirit Conversion Formations to absorb and gather spiritual energy, making a barren location rich and dense.

There were also Elixir Pills. Many pills could boost one’s cultivation simply by being swallowed.

Some special Magical Artifacts worn on the body could also assist cultivation.

There were many methods, but no matter how she thought about it, Su Xiaoyu couldn’t think of one that would work for her.

She was outside the box. The various conveniences within the Diorama Box were difficult for her to access.

“I still need Faith Value,” Su Xiaoyu realized the core of the issue.

Only with sufficient Faith Value could she obtain usable resources from the cultivation world inside the Diorama Box… Come to think of it, would those resources inside even work on her?

Questions like this could only be answered by testing them.

Su Xiaoyu stopped overthinking. After all, no matter what, she was now a cultivator. Even though she was only at the Qi Refining 1st Layer, it was still a massive step forward.

She propped herself up and climbed into her Wheelchair, went to the bathroom to wash up, then changed from her pajamas into a white dress.

Soon after she finished changing, her breakfast delivery arrived.

Once she had the delivery, she ate her breakfast while observing the daily cultivation routines of the Qixi Festival Sect members beside the Diorama Box.

She glanced at her Faith Value.

112.

Great, it had broken through the 100-point mark again. It seemed that on this night, some people had developed feelings of reverence for her in their hearts. Most likely, these were the people who had just arrived at the Qixi Festival Sect.

And the reason they developed reverence was probably because the original sect members had shared some information about her, the Heavenly Maiden.

“Beep beep beep.”

Just then, Su Xiaoyu felt a vibration in her pocket and immediately took out her Mobile Phone.

Upon opening her phone and seeing the incoming message, Su Xiaoyu paused.

The message was from Wen Wanru.

“I just wanted some visual scenes that look convincingly like something from a xianxia story. Why do all the produced clips look so fake? And these special effects, are these what people online call ‘five-cent effects’? We can’t accept this level of quality.”

Seeing this message, Su Xiaoyu knew Wen Wanru had sent it to the wrong person.

But it also made Su Xiaoyu wonder: what exactly did Wen Wanru do for a living?

Come to think of it, her understanding of Wen Wanru seemed rather lacking. She only knew her as her landlord. But surely, just collecting rent wasn’t all she did?

Su Xiaoyu was somewhat curious about it, but she had no intention of prying deeply.

Her attention shifted to the content of the mis-sent message.

“Xianxia visuals, huh?” Su Xiaoyu murmured thoughtfully.

It seemed that people in this world were very keen on film and television genres like xianxia, but the final product was often lacking. Props, plots, settings—all had issues. And the biggest problem was the special effects.

Her original self, being disabled and unable to go out, could naturally only play on her phone in her spare time. Early on, she had enjoyed watching all kinds of films and dramas, including a fondness for xianxia content. But after watching too much, she had completely abandoned films and turned to reading novels.

What films couldn’t express, novels could!

In terms of imagination, novels could push it to the extreme. Films and television were ultimately limited by technology.

“Beep beep beep.”

Another message came in.

“Wen” has withdrawn a message.

“Wen” was Wen Wanru’s online nickname.

Wen: “So sorry, Xiaoyu. I sent that last message to the wrong place. Just pretend you didn’t see it.”

Pillow Rain: “It’s fine.”

Su Xiaoyu typed a reply.

Pillow Rain was the nickname her original self had used. Su Xiaoyu didn’t intend to change it. The meaning contained within that simple nickname allowed her to feel more deeply the isolated and helpless situation of her original self.

Pillow Rain… it was just tears on a pillow.

Wen: “Xiaoyu, have you eaten breakfast yet?”

Pillow Rain: “Yes, I have.”

Wen: “You ate so early today? Did you not sleep well last night?”

Pillow Rain: “I slept very well, Sister Wen. You don’t need to worry about me.”

Wen: “That’s good. Well, I’ll get back to work then.”

Pillow Rain: “Wait, I wanted to ask, what did you mean by xianxia visuals and those things earlier? I’m a little curious.”

Su Xiaoyu pressed her lips together, looking at the phone in her hands.