Hellcoin Billionaire: My Ghost Shop Fuels My Cultivation

The Ministry of Public Security's official website popped up quickly. With just a few clicks, Song Miaozhu was able to access the Class-A Wanted List.

She started reading from the most recent entries.

Everyone on that list had committed serious crimes. Just glancing through the details made her want to grab some paper and immediately begin crafting little paper servants to curse them.

Without hesitation, she created a dedicated document. For each wanted criminal, she saved screenshots, copied names, birthdates, hometowns, ID numbers—every bit of information made publicly available by the police.

In the past, targeting someone with the Secret Art of Paper Crafting required their birth date and name unless you had a piece of their physical body. But times had changed. These days, an ID number worked even better.

As the train neared Lingcheng's station, Song Miaozhu sent the document home to her desktop. Then she messaged the little paper servants who usually sat at the basement computer placing online orders for imported goods. She told them to print everything and store it neatly in the ghost shop warehouse.

Once she got off the train with her suitcase, she went straight to the hotel, checked in, locked her door, and got back to researching fugitives and organizing her files.

She wasn't going to overlook a single old or major case.

Each name was added carefully to her list.

She even categorized them. Those with one murder on their record went in one folder. Multiple murders, another. Financial crimes, fraud, cultural relic theft—each had its own section.

She worked through the night and still didn't finish. Even as she boarded the train the next morning, she kept at it.

Midway through the journey, the guy sitting next to her woke up with a full bladder. He was just about to ask her to let him through when he glanced at her screen. A giant mugshot of a wanted criminal stared back at him. He slowly sat back down, pretending nothing happened.

Three hours later, the high-speed train reached its final stop. While other passengers grabbed their luggage and disembarked, that man sprinted to the restroom without even taking his suitcase.

Inside, after three hours of painful restraint, he posted online: "The person next to me on the train spent three hours looking at wanted criminals' photos. I suspect she's a bounty hunter!"

Unfortunately, he received no sympathy—only mockery.

[Hahaha! OP must've just returned from abroad! There's no such thing as bounty hunters in our country!]

[If you'd said this happened in a taxi, I might've believed you. But on a train? What kind of criminal would dare ride a train?]

[Post a photo—let me verify for you!]

...

Meanwhile, the "bounty hunter" herself was at the station exit, enduring the scrutinizing gaze of her best friend.

"No way! No way! Is that really you, Miaozhu? If you told me you were a celebrity, I'd believe it! Your skin is flawless! Did you even grow a little taller? Are the mountains and waters in your hometown this magical?"

Chen Yuanyuan stared wide-eyed, scanning her from head to toe like she had just seen a goddess descend. "Now I believe you really had a good time back home."

Song Miaozhu felt a little embarrassed under her gaze. She lowered her voice and said meaningfully, "It's all because of paper crafting."

"Paper crafting? No way! Wait, you mean the…" Chen Yuanyuan glanced at the bustling crowd around them and swallowed the rest of her words: "That thing?"

Miaozhu nodded and gave her shoulder a friendly pat. "Keep practicing your illustration. You can get there too."

The ambient spiritual energy here in the city didn't seem much stronger than in the countryside. Judging by the fact that Chen Yuanyuan hadn't absorbed any yet, it was probably because her artistic skills weren't refined enough to attract it.

Chen Yuanyuan nodded firmly. "So you really are… Wait, let's talk about this when we get back!"

With that, she pulled Song Miaozhu toward the parking lot, stopping in front of a small, toy-like pastel pink convertible. "Ta-da~ My car! Cute, right?"

"Adorable!" Song Miaozhu smiled. "Just like you!"

"Hehe~ Hop in! Today, I'm taking you for a ride!"

Chen Yuanyuan deliberately took the riverside boulevard.

As the river wind blew past, Song Miaozhu suddenly reconsidered her earlier stance. She had gotten her driver's license before but never had the money to buy a car. Later, when she did have the funds, she figured she wouldn't use a car much and decided to wait, thinking she could rely on the Secret Art of Paper Crafting instead.

That art included several travel methods that could replace a "car"—substitute paper figures aside, there were paper horses, paper birds, paper palanquins, and more, each faster, safer, and more discreet than driving.

Having lived frugally for so long, even with over 150 million hell coins stored in her ghost shop warehouse, she didn't want to waste money.

But now, she realized that while paper birds, horses, or palanquins—or even a potential paper car or paper plane—might be dozens or hundreds of times faster than driving, they couldn't replicate the thrill of openly cruising in a real car.

Since she wasn't ready to reveal her mastery of multiple paper crafting techniques yet, she still needed a proper vehicle for appearances.

Lost in thought, her gaze settled on a spot along the river. "Yuanyuan, slow down a little."

"What's up?" Chen Yuanyuan followed her line of sight. "Oh, that? Those are garbage collection boats. They've been patrolling the river a lot these past few months."

"I don't think they're garbage boats," Song Miaozhu murmured.

To her, the spiritual energy floating along the river was being drawn directly toward those boats.

No wonder the river, despite flowing through multiple cities and having hardly any people on it, didn't seem to have higher spiritual energy than the riverbanks. The local SEIU team must be using these so-called garbage boats to ferry people out for spiritual cultivation in secret.

Before, she'd only heard that Chen Shuanghe and Zhao Mumu occasionally accompanied their teams to various spots in Lingcheng for training.

Places rarely visited by humans, like the depths of Yunwu Mountain, had surprisingly little spiritual energy.

Densely populated towns had more, but it was quickly consumed, with many unknowingly absorbing it.

Places like the middle of a lake, the center of a river, or the hidden corners of a public park. Of course, those areas weren't totally hidden, so proper precautions were always necessary.

This was her first time seeing it for herself.

The cycle of spiritual energy—revival, tide, decline, and the Dharma Ending Era—repeated throughout history. But even the shortest phase, the revival stage, couldn't be completed in just a few months.

Spiritual energy was still increasing, but it remained slow and steady.

The SEIU was already attempting to popularize skill-based training. Public disclosure of the spiritual energy revival might not be far off.

If the spiritual tide hadn't even arrived yet and cultivation became widespread, it would truly be a case of too many monks and too little gruel—everyone would have to rely on their own skills to compete for the scarce energy.

Fortunately, she had a way to exchange for spirit stones, so she wasn't worried about running out of energy for cultivation.

Song Miaozhu watched as the boats faded into the distance before turning back. "Yuanyuan, let's go."

Only then did Chen Yuanyuan speed up and drive on.