I fabricated myths to guide the revival of spiritual energy.

Jiangnan City, Old District.

The air in the dimly lit rented room was so stuffy it was suffocating.

Gu Qing curled up in a corner of the sofa, his body contorted in a strange position due to the intense pain. The "overdraft" of 120 points of spiritual power he had just received felt like forcibly draining the last hematopoietic stem cells from his bone marrow.

[Warning: The host's mental load has reached a critical level.]

[Warning: Cancer cell spread is accelerating; multiple organ failure is expected to occur within 72 hours.]

The system's red pop-up window flashed frantically on his retina, as if counting down the days to his life.

"Cough...cough cough!"

Gu Qing covered her mouth, and blood seeped out from between her fingers, dripping onto the floor.

This is the price to pay.

As a mortal, if one wants to forcibly overturn the rules of reality and direct a mythological drama, the first thing one must do is burn one's own life.

"Too weak..."

Gu Qing was panting, and in her bloodshot eyes, there was not fear, but rather an almost obsessive calmness.

"If I were just a behind-the-scenes screenwriter, this body could probably survive for a few more days. But I want to be the 'creator'... I want to face cause and effect directly, I want to control the whole situation."

"With my current brain capacity, just processing the information flow generated by the collision between that 'monster' (Tu Lou) and the 'cultivator' (Chu Tian) would cause my brain to die."

With trembling hands, he swiped open the system panel.

Although the previous deployment had exhausted him, the feedback Chu Tian was providing was astonishing.

[Faith Value Updated: +2, +3, +5...]

[Source: Chu Tian (Unwavering Self-Reconstruction).]

That silly boy was experiencing the excruciating pain of genetic recombination, and this pain was precisely the irrefutable proof of his unwavering belief in "cultivating immortality." In just a few minutes, Gu Qing's balance miraculously rebounded to 60 points.

"Not enough to buy idols of gods, nor enough to buy magical artifacts."

Gu Qing stared at the number, then looked down and locked onto the "Self-Enhancement" section of the system shop.

There was a gray icon there, constantly tempting him.

[Special Enhancement: Deceitful Eyes (Stage 1)]

Price: 50 points of Faith.

Description: Grants the host the vision to perceive "Qi" and "Luck." You will be able to see the information fields emanating from all things and look directly at chaotic data streams without collapsing. Mortals must not look directly into your eyes, or they will suffer mental intimidation.

Side effects: The emotional center will be partially suppressed to free up brain capacity to process higher-dimensional information. (Commonly known as: dehumanization).

"Emotional suppression, huh...?"

Gu Qing glanced at the cancer diagnosis report on the table, then at the world outside the window that was about to be destroyed for him.

For a dying man, superfluous emotions are merely a burden. Fear, hesitation, pity—these emotions only hinder the precision with which he crafts his script.

"exchange."

Gu Qing's voice did not tremble at all.

boom!

The instant his faith was depleted, Gu Qing felt as if a red-hot steel spike had been plunged into the back of his head.

"Ugh—!!!"

He opened his mouth wide, but no sound came out because his vocal cords spasmed and locked up in an instant due to excruciating pain.

This isn't the kind of warm and cozy upgrade.

This is a violent transformation.

He felt as if an invisible hand was forcibly prying open his eye sockets, tearing apart his fragile optic nerves one by one, and then connecting them to some kind of cold, slippery, and electrically charged "fiber optic cable".

The cerebral cortex is burning, and countless neurons that were originally dormant are forcibly activated to share the massive visual data stream.

This pain lasted for a full five minutes.

Every second felt like an eternity.

Finally, the pain subsided like the receding tide.

Gu Qing slumped onto the sofa, his body already drenched in cold sweat. But strangely, the excruciating pain from late-stage stomach cancer that had been agonizing just minutes before now seemed "distant."

It's not that the illness is cured.

Rather, his brain learned to "block" it.

Just as humans don't care about the feeling of fingernail growth, Gu Qing's brain now automatically categorizes "physical pain" as a low-priority interference signal and filters it out directly.

He slowly sat up from the sofa, his movements stiff yet precise, like a robot that had just been activated.

He walked to the mirror in the bathroom.

The person in the mirror was still emaciated, with a face as pale as paper.

But those eyes have changed.

His once clear black and white eyes now seemed unfathomable. A faint gray mist seemed to have spread around the edges of his pupils, and if you stared at them for too long, it would give you a dizzying feeling as if your soul was being sucked in.

Gu Qing tried blinking.

brush.

The world was reconstructed in his vision.

It's no longer just about light and color.

He saw the "line".

Countless chaotic lines floated in the air.

The dripping sound of the faucet turned into blue ripples;

The electric current from the streetlights outside the window transformed into restless white specks of light;

He could even see his own abdomen, with a thick, black, asphalt-like mass representing the cancerous lesions.

"Is this...the reality?"

Gu Qing raised his hand, looking at his pale fingertips. Even without the light on, he could clearly see every speck of dust hidden in his fingerprints.

This extreme "clarity" leads to extreme "rationality".

He turned his head and looked out the window at Jiangnan University, a few kilometers away.

Previously, he could only judge the situation based on guesswork and system data.

But now, he sees it clearly.

In the area known as Jiangnan University, the night sky was torn apart by two completely different "qi" (energy).

One flame was crimson, violent, chaotic, like a wildfire that had just been ignited but was about to go out of control—that was Chu Tian, ​​who was struggling on the verge of going mad.

The other group was iron gray, austere, cold, and imbued with a strong sense of order and a murderous aura—that was the official special operations team rapidly approaching.

Below both of them, in that unseen underground world, a nauseating dark green mass was writhing rapidly—it was the monster he had released himself, the Earthworm.

"Red is the variable, gray is the order, and green is the disaster."

Gu Qing's lips curled up slightly.

But the smile no longer contained the self-deprecation or bitterness of before; it was now filled with a superior indifference, like a chess player looking at a chessboard.

"The actors are in position."

He casually picked up the glass of water on the table.

Click.

A crisp sound.

The thick glass crumbled into powder in his hand. Tiny shards of glass pierced his palm, drawing blood, but he didn't even flinch.

"The precision of power control has decreased..." Gu Qing looked at the blood on his palm and calmly analyzed, "It seems that although the brain has been upgraded, this broken body has not yet adapted to the commands."

He casually flicked the glass shards off his hands, too lazy to even bandage them.

"It doesn't matter."

Gu Qing put her baseball cap back on, pushed open the door, and walked into the dark stairwell.

He no longer needs to hide in his room watching his tablet.

He's going to the scene.

As the director, he had to witness the climax of the first scene firsthand, and be at the closest possible distance to ensure that the spark called "Chu Tian" would not be extinguished by the official ice water, nor would it be crushed by the monster's sharp teeth.

"Chu Tian, ​​I've given you the key to unlock a new world."

Gu Qing's figure disappeared into the night, and gray mist swirled in his eerie right eye.

"Now, prove to me that you deserve it."