A six-inch calligraphy treasure was no simple thing, something one could produce just because one wanted to. This Su Mu truly had something exceptional about him.
"What did the Eldest Princess mean by that?"
Su Mu did not answer when he heard this. Instead, he focused on what the Eldest Princess had said.
"What else could she mean? Exactly what she said. Six inches of Righteous Qi creates no small fluctuation. Quite a few people probably already know by now. You're the only one living here in the imperial palace; outsiders will find out with a little asking around."
"When the time comes, there'll be no shortage of people wanting to befriend you, someone who's produced six-inch calligraphy treasures in succession within a month. Those Core Formation Cultivators, those scholars from the Academy of Righteousness... tsk, tsk. Only, those scholars don't much like Yin souls like you. If you meet them, they'll probably take a dislike to you."
Xiao Wu explained from the side, but hearing this gave Su Mu some other ideas.
"Do those Core Formation Cultivators have treasures? Could I trade calligraphy treasures for some of theirs?"
"As for those scholars, if they don't like me, I'll just keep farther away."
Su Mu did not particularly care whether those scholars liked him. He himself knew that people from the Academy of Righteousness disliked Yin souls to begin with. After all, their Righteous Qi naturally suppressed Yin souls like him.
Yet now, a Yin soul whom they suppressed like this had produced six-inch calligraphy treasures one after another. That was rather ironic for them, so it was only natural that they disliked him.
"Core Formation Cultivators naturally have some treasures, but they're working their abacuses too: befriend you, bare their hearts to you, and get calligraphy treasures straight from your hands. Otherwise, they could simply buy them. Why bother befriending you?"
Xiao Wu said this casually.
Her words gave Su Mu a reminder. He had been thinking that it would be just as well if they befriended him; perhaps he could trade for some treasures from them.
And along the way, see whether there was any way to make a body of his own.
But judging by what Xiao Wu meant, Core Formation Cultivators would not be that kindhearted. They merely wanted to use him.
Forget it. I'll take this slowly.
Su Mu thought it over and decided to set the matter aside. There was also another piece of good news: the Eldest Princess's attitude toward him just now had indeed improved considerably again.
With the Eldest Princess's cool, aloof temperament, it was practically impossible for her to offer him a word of caution.
But just now, she really had.
It seemed the ability he had just displayed had had some effect, at least. This let Su Mu breathe a little easier. It was a good thing!
"All right, keep writing, you two. Make more secondary copies so we can sell them for more money!"
Seeing the two stop, Su Mu hurriedly clapped his hands and spoke.
Only when his hands passed through each other did Su Mu remember that he had no physical body.
"You already have so many Spirit Stones. Why are you still thinking about earning gold?"
Xiao Lian felt rather helpless at his words. She had still been pondering the artistic conception of Su Mu's calligraphy treasure, only to be interrupted now.
"If there's money to be made, why wouldn't I make it?"
Su Mu thought nothing of it. Only by earning this money could he buy things here and send them to Earth once he opened a passage someday.
Otherwise, even with a passage, what would he have to send over?
Helpless, Xiao Lian could only help him write, becoming Su Mu's money-making tool.
Su Mu, however, was extremely pleased as he watched. If he had more people from paintings like Xiao Lian, it would be a proper production line.
But whenever he thought of how a secondary copy of the calligraphy treasure was worth only one tael of gold, it felt like too little again.
Previously, Su Mu would have considered that a lot, but after selling the original, he had begun to feel somewhat differently.
"Ah, they both have Righteous Qi. Although the secondary copies have a little less, surely they shouldn't be worth just one tael of gold?"
Su Mu could not help sighing.
Xiao Wu had already started writing. Hearing this, she did not even lift her head. "Secondary copies only have that tiny bit of Righteous Qi. How much do you want them to be worth? The people who buy these copies use them to deter minor demons and ghosts. And once used, they'll be completely depleted. They're more or less just little disposable Law Artifacts."
Only after hearing this did Su Mu understand what these secondary copies were for. "So these secondary copies are only used to deter minor demons and ghosts?"
"Yes. The various city lords also stockpile some as reserves. Great Liang's military stores have quite a reserve of them too."
"Great Liang's military stores need reserves of these things too?"
Su Mu could understand the former. There were probably plenty of minor demons and ghosts in villages outside the cities and such. That was normal.
But did Great Liang's military stores need these things?
"In western Great Liang, there's the very famous Ten-Thousand-Li Withered Bones Wasteland. Every few years or decades, huge numbers of malevolent ghosts emerge, and armies have to be sent to suppress them. Naturally, they need reserves."
Xiao Wu's answer sent a chill through Su Mu's heart. Ten thousand li?
How vast was that! Just imagining such a place filled entirely with withered bones chilled Su Mu's heart.
"For a place like that, don't they try to deliver all the wronged souls inside?"
"Of course they've tried. The eminent monks of the Golden Light Temple have delivered untold numbers of souls there. But even eminent monks can't stay there long. They can only deliver souls for a while before leaving, or they'll be corrupted."
"The scholars of the Academy of Righteousness also go together once a year to deliver the souls of the dead there. But even so, the results remain meager."
Su Mu listened numbly. It seemed this place was dangerous ground.
"You must never go there. For a departed soul like you, it won't make your strength soar. Instead, some powerful malevolent ghost will swallow you whole, or you'll be corrupted yourself and become a mindless malevolent ghost that knows only slaughter."
As though something had occurred to her, Xiao Wu offered this warning from the side.
Hearing this, Su Mu shook his head repeatedly. What a joke. Even though he had become like this, Su Mu still considered himself human. Why would he go somewhere like that?
The two wrote secondary copies while Su Mu sat to one side, playing with the Storage Bag in his hands.
He also fiddled with a Spirit Stone for a while. Looking it over from every angle, he did not seem to have ever found these Spirit Stones on Earth.
What a pity. If Earth had Spirit Stones, his future cultivation would be taken care of.
Just as Su Mu was playing with the Spirit Stone in his hands, an uninvited visitor arrived at the Eldest Princess's residence.
"Reporting to Your Highness, someone from Green Hollow requests an audience."
The maid announced this from outside the pavilion. Upon hearing it, the Eldest Princess inside seemed to ponder something. "Let it in."
Someone from Green Hollow? How interesting.
Although the people of Great Liang and Green Hollow kept their well water from the other's river water, neither could stand the other's existence. Now that someone from Green Hollow had come, it did make one curious about the purpose of the visit.