I was selling peach wood swords on a live stream, how did I become a Taoist ancestor?

New Year's Eve, 11 p.m.

The atmosphere in the Night's Watch headquarters' underground command center was so heavy it could melt water.

All the senior executives were present, and even several senior figures who rarely appear in public were invited out.

The crowd gathered around the large screen, staring at the real-time updated national spiritual energy monitoring map, dumbfounded and speechless for a long time.

On the screen, the color blocks representing the concentration of spiritual energy were undergoing unprecedented and drastic changes.

Centered on Lu County, an unimaginably large funnel-shaped vortex of spiritual energy is slowly taking shape!

The top of the vortex has a diameter of over 300 kilometers, covering almost the entire province where Luxian County is located, and is still expanding outwards at a visible rate.

"Report!"

A young technician's voice trembled: "The vortex's maximum diameter has exceeded four hundred kilometers! And its rotation speed is still accelerating!"

"Scope of impact..."

He swallowed hard and added, "According to the latest data model from the AI, this vortex has not only affected the flow of spiritual energy throughout the Great Xia Dynasty, but has even significantly disrupted the global distribution of spiritual energy!"

"The whole...world?!" a senior executive exclaimed in disbelief.

"Yes." The technician nodded with difficulty.

A collective gasp immediately filled the command center.

At this moment, President Qin stood at the forefront, his eyes fixed on the vortex on the screen that was like a black hole, frantically devouring spiritual energy, his heart pounding wildly.

"This...this was done by Master Li again?"

Someone asked instinctively.

No one answered.

But everyone knew the truth.

Besides the unfathomable Master Li, who else could cause such a commotion?

"President Qin."

An aide stepped forward and whispered, "Should we send someone from the South City branch to inquire about the situation?"

Upon hearing this, President Qin shook his head without hesitation.

"inappropriate."

He said in a deep voice, "Master Li has his own reasons for doing things; why does he need to explain them to us?"

"Moreover, such a commotion must mean that the Taoist priest is cultivating some kind of earth-shattering supernatural power. If we disturb him rashly, the consequences will be unimaginable."

Everyone was taken aback for a moment upon hearing this, and then they all nodded.

Yes.

With Master Li's ability to summon nine bolts of heavenly lightning with a single talisman and kill more than seventy foreign superhumans with a Spring Festival couplet... what do you do that you have to report to the Night Watchman?

"Technician," President Qin turned and asked, "What impact will this scale of spiritual energy fluctuation have on our country?"

The technician pulled up a newly generated analysis report, and his expression became somewhat strange:

"President Qin, the result... is somewhat unexpected."

"According to the AI's real-time monitoring and analysis, although this spiritual energy vortex is frantically devouring spiritual energy like a black hole, its influence is too great, and it involves too much external spiritual energy..."

The technician paused, then pointed to several key curves on the large screen and continued:

"Although the spiritual energy within our country is currently converging towards Qingfeng Temple, due to the continuous influx and replenishment of spiritual energy from the outside world, the average concentration of spiritual energy across the country has not only not decreased, but has actually..."

"On the contrary, it increased by at least two percentage points! And it's still growing slowly!"

After hearing this, everyone in the command center was stunned.

"An increase? Two percentage points?" A senior executive instinctively asked, "Are you sure? Is it possible that the projection data is incorrect?"

"The accuracy of the data is not a problem, and..."

The technician switched the large screen display and brought up a simulation map of the global distribution of spiritual energy.

"While the spiritual energy concentration in our Great Xia is increasing, according to data deduced by the AI ​​and indirectly monitored, the spiritual energy concentration in other regions of the world has decreased to varying degrees!"

"Especially the east..."

His finger pointed to the area where the Sakura Country was located.

"The loss of spiritual energy is most obvious here! Although the absolute amount is not large, considering their cultivation system that relies on strange creatures... it may trigger a chain reaction!"

After the words were spoken, the command center fell silent.

Immediately afterwards, someone in the corner muttered quietly, "This... seems like a good thing?"

good thing?

Everyone was stunned at first, but then they all realized what was happening.

Yup!

In the era of spiritual energy revival, the concentration of spiritual energy is directly related to all aspects of cultivation, such as the speed of cultivation and the growth of spiritual plants.

The increased concentration of spiritual energy in the Great Xia Dynasty means that the cultivation speed of the entire population will be faster in the future, and the overall national strength will be enhanced.

The draining of spiritual energy from other countries effectively weakens their extraordinary powers, especially from some less friendly neighbors.

With this increase and decrease, the gap widens!

In an instant, the tense atmosphere in the command center was greatly eased, and some people even showed smiles.

"Master Li tonight..." a high-ranking official exclaimed, "is practically giving the entire nation a New Year's gift!"

President Qin also breathed a long sigh of relief, and a smile appeared on his face.

Although it's unclear exactly what Master Li was doing, the result was beneficial to the Great Xia, and that was enough.

He pondered for a moment and made a decision: "Since it poses no harm to Great Xia, we don't need to be overly nervous."

"Pass the notice down: the hardworking staff on duty should continue their posts and record the data."

"Everyone else should go back and rest. It's the Lunar New Year, don't all stay here."

"As for Master Li..." He paused, "Let's observe the situation and not disturb him."

The order was relayed.

"As for Master Li..." He paused, "Let's observe the situation and not disturb him."

The order was relayed.

But just then, a senior executive suddenly spoke up: "President Qin, there's a problem."

"explain."

"Such a commotion tonight certainly won't escape the notice of supernatural organizations from various countries. They will definitely come to inquire. How should we respond?"

Upon hearing this, President Qin frowned.

This is indeed a nuisance.

Such an unusual phenomenon tonight will definitely attract great attention from all countries.

How do you explain that?

They're saying someone here is practicing cultivation?

Doesn't that mean telling the whole world that there is a terrifying being in Great Xia who can stir up the spiritual energy of the entire world?

Just as President Qin was pondering, an intelligence officer strode in.

"President Qin, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs just sent a letter inquiring about the reason for the abnormal fluctuations in spiritual energy tonight."

President Qin took the document, glanced at it, and showed an impatient expression.

He slammed the documents on the table and said coldly, "Tell them to get out!"

"President Qin, this..."

The intelligence officer was stunned.

A high-ranking member of the Night Watch chuckled and patted the intelligence officer on the shoulder: "Go ahead. Follow President Qin's general instructions, but use slightly... more polite language."

The intelligence officer breathed a sigh of relief and quickly withdrew.

President Qin watched his retreating figure, shook his head, and without saying anything more, turned and left the command center.

Some old scores will have to be settled sooner or later.

……

One o'clock in the morning.

Sakura Country, Kyoto, Seimei Shrine.

The shrine, which should have been quiet at night, was bustling with noise.

Abe Shōkichi sat in the main seat with a livid face. Several key figures of Shintoism and high-ranking officials of the Onmyōryō knelt before him, all of whom looked exhausted and terrified.

"Lord Changji, the news coming from all over... is terrible."

A middle-aged priest's voice trembled.

"Tonight, there have been over two hundred incidents of shikigami going out of control nationwide! More than one hundred priests and shrine maidens have been injured or killed! The number of civilian casualties is still unknown!"

"At the same time, due to a severe shortage of manpower in various places, the army has begun to be urgently mobilized to assist in the suppression and evacuation of the people... But panic has begun to spread, and the matter of the spiritual energy revival can probably no longer be concealed."