I fabricated myths to guide the revival of spiritual energy.

[Jiangnan City, Special Operations Team 3 Temporary Base, Underground Isolation Zone]

The moment his consciousness returned, Chu Tian felt as if he had been thrown into a meat grinder and churned up all night.

Every bone aches, but this pain is mixed with an indescribable tingling and itching sensation—a signal that the bones are healing and the muscles are reorganizing.

He suddenly opened his eyes and instinctively tried to sit up.

Clang!

The sound of metal clashing was crisp and piercing. Chu Tian found himself with his limbs locked to the hospital bed by specially made alloy shackles, and his body covered with various monitoring tubes.

"woke up."

A cold voice rang out from the corner of the room.

Chu Tian turned his head and saw Zhao Feng sitting in the shadows. The special operations team leader had an unlit cigarette between his fingers, and his bloodshot eyes were scrutinizing him like an eagle's.

"Where is this?...Where is that monster?" Chu Tian's voice was hoarse, as if he had swallowed charcoal.

"The monster is dead." Zhao Feng stood up, walked to the bedside, and pressed the remote control.

The screen on the wall lit up and played an infrared video.

In the video, Chu Tian, ​​who was covered in crimson blood and looked like a mad dog, was riding on the back of the huge black monster and smashing its skull with his fists.

Looking at himself on the screen, Chu Tian felt a sense of unfamiliarity and fear.

"This is...me?"

"Isn't it unbelievable?" Zhao Feng pointed to a report next to him. "You have a comminuted fracture of your right ulna, three broken ribs, and massive internal bleeding. Logically speaking, you should be lying in the ICU waiting to die, or you're already dead."

"But only six hours later."

Zhao Feng leaned down, staring into Chu Tian's eyes, his tone chilling: "Your bones have healed. Your wounds have scabbed over. Your metabolism is ten times faster than a normal person's. Now, you could punch through this wall."

"Chu Tian, ​​or should I call you... a cultivator?"

Upon hearing the words "immortal cultivator," Chu Tian's heart skipped a beat.

He remembered the mysterious man he had met that night, the book "Taoist Health Cultivation Exercises," and the excruciating cultivation process.

"I...I didn't commit a crime," Chu Tian tried to explain, but his voice was weak. "That monster attacked me first."

"I know."

Zhao Feng suddenly pulled an evidence bag from his pocket and slammed it heavily on Chu Tian's chest.

Inside the bag was a tattered, thread-bound book—"Taoist Health Cultivation Exercises".

Upon seeing this book, Chu Tian's pupils contracted slightly.

"We found this in your dorm room." Zhao Feng's voice carried a hint of confusion and awe. "It's strange. We consulted the best experts in classical Chinese, and even the president of the Taoist Association, but no one could understand the characters on it. They said that looking at it for too long would make you dizzy, and even cause hallucinations."

"Only you have mastered it."

Zhao Feng's expression became complicated. "Tell me, where did this book come from? Who gave it to you?"

Chu Tian fell silent.

The image of that rainy night, the mysterious man in the black trench coat and baseball cap, coughing up blood, flashed through his mind.

"To meet is to be destined."

"Heaven and earth have flaws, and we mend them with our own bodies."

A strange intuition told Chu Tian that he absolutely could not reveal that the man was just a "casual passerby." There were secrets about that person that were far more unfathomable than any official account.

"I...don't know him." Chu Tian gritted his teeth and decided to make up a story, half true and half false. "I only know that he was like...like a sickly wanderer in the mortal world. He said I was destined to meet him, so he gave me the book."

"Sickly?" Zhao Feng keenly caught the word, his brows furrowing.

Would someone who can casually give away such a life-altering item be a sickly person?

Or perhaps... that was just a disguise by a master? A manifestation of some kind of "five signs of decay"?

Zhao Feng didn't press further. He remained silent for a moment, then suddenly unlocked one of Chu Tian's handcuffs.

"Captain Zhao?" Chu Tian was stunned.

"Don't misunderstand, I don't intend to let you go," Zhao Feng said coldly. "You're a danger source right now, an unstable nuclear reactor. Letting you go back to school would be irresponsible to the other students."

He pulled a red-headed document from his pocket and threw it on the bed.

[Temporary Approval Regarding the Enlistment of Individuals with Special Abilities]

You have two choices.

Zhao Feng held up two fingers.

"First, as a 'dangerous individual illegally possessing lethal force,' he was imprisoned on the eighteenth underground floor and subjected to daily biopsy studies until he died of old age."

Chu Tian shivered.

"Second," Zhao Feng pointed to the document, "Sign it. Your student status will be preserved, and your file will be encrypted. You will become a 'Special Advisor' for Special Operations Team Three."

"We need you." Zhao Feng's voice suddenly turned heavy. "The autopsy results for that monster... that thing called 'Earthworm' are in. It's not a product of natural evolution; it's a perfect biological weapon."

"If there's one, there will be a second."

"Our guns and cannons are not very effective against them. We need a knife... a sharp knife that is equally unscientific."

Zhao Feng stared at Chu Tian: "You killed it. This is not only your achievement, but also your pledge of loyalty."

Chu Tian looked at the document, then at his own hands, which had become unfamiliar yet powerful.

Can not go back.

From the moment he opened that book, Chu Tian, ​​the ordinary college student who was worried about scholarships, was already dead.

He took a deep breath, picked up the pen, and signed his name with trembling but firm hand.

"I'll sign."

A very faint smile appeared on Zhao Feng's lips.

"Welcome to the team, newbie."

"Also, be mentally prepared. Since you've practiced this book, you need to understand... the person who gave you the book can make you, and they can also destroy you. We're currently conducting a city-wide manhunt for that 'mysterious person'."

Chu Tian paused for a moment after signing the document.

He looked at the windowless wall and thought to himself:

Senior, who exactly are you? Do you want to save this world, or... to toy with it?

……

Gangnam City, Train Station

Amid the bustling crowd, a pale-faced man wearing a baseball cap was walking towards the ticket gate with the flow of people.

Gu Qing carried a simple travel bag. Inside, besides a few changes of clothes and a large amount of painkillers, there was nothing else.

[Ding! Key plot point: "The First Cultivator's Submission" has been achieved.]

The official forces have established the initial framework for "extraordinary confrontation."

[Gained Faith Points: 150.]

Gu Qing listened to the prompt in her mind without pausing her steps.

"A very smart choice, Captain Zhao."

He silently thought to himself, "Bringing unstable variables into the system is the state apparatus's forte. This is good; with official backing, I don't have to worry about Chu Tian starving to death."

"Cough cough..."

Gu Qing coughed twice, covering his mouth. The noisy air at the train station made his fragile lungs feel very uncomfortable.

He looked up and glanced at the large screen above him.

The screen was playing news from Jiangnan City. Although news about the monster was being suppressed, a tense atmosphere still permeated every corner of the city. There were more patrol cars on the streets, and a hint of unease appeared in people's eyes.

"The seed has been planted; now we just have to wait for it to sprout."

Gu Qing took out the train ticket.

Train K169. Jiangnan → Urumqi.

This is a train that crosses most of China, its final destination being the desolate Northwest.

Goodbye, Jiangnan.

Gu Qing handed the ticket to the ticket inspector, and the gray mist in his deep eyes slowly disappeared.

"Next, I'm going to draw an even bigger pie for the world."

"A grand blueprint about ancient battlefields, about sword immortals, about... the guardians of the Great Wall."

With a long whistle, the green train slowly started moving, carrying this terminally ill "deity" towards the unknown wilderness.

Behind him, in the sky above Jiangnan City, the "script fog" that only he could see was quietly spreading, covering every street and every light.