I fabricated myths to guide the revival of spiritual energy.

Huaxia, Jinling City, Xinjiekou Commercial Center.

At 2 PM, this ancient capital of six dynasties, with a population of nearly ten million, was at its most bustling and vibrant time of day. Traffic thronged the crisscrossing asphalt roads, and the glass curtain walls of towering office buildings reflected the blinding sunlight. On a giant holographic naked-eye 3D screen, a loop of advertisements for the luxury perfume GG, endorsed by a popular female celebrity, was playing.

The air was filled with the mixed scents of coffee, car exhaust, and the gentle breeze of early autumn.

Everything was orderly, exuding the arrogance and comfort of modern human civilization.

Then, a very abrupt "sizzle" sound came from the sky.

The sound was like an invisible giant hand tearing open an extremely ugly black hole in the blue curtain called "reality" that shrouded the city.

"Was that... a mirage?"

At the intersection, a young white-collar worker waiting for the red light stopped, his iced Americano tilting, the brown liquid dripping onto his expensive leather shoes without him noticing. He stared blankly up at the dark crack, several meters long, hundreds of meters in the sky.

As he exclaimed, more and more people stopped in their tracks.

Cars collided one after another, the screech of brakes and the blaring of horns filling the air. But at that moment, no one paid attention to the traffic accidents; everyone was captivated by the scene unfolding in the sky.

A nauseating stench, like that of a sewer mixed with the stench of rotting flesh and seafood, surged out from the black crack and crashed down on the bustling commercial street like an invisible waterfall.

"vomit……"

Several girls who were nearby knelt on the ground and began to dry heave. The faint void radiation mixed in with the smell caused their mortal physiological instincts to frantically sound the alarm.

Immediately afterwards, a pitch-black segmented limb, covered in barbs and as thick as an adult's thigh, emerged from the edge of the crack and gripped the void tightly.

Then, a monster over four meters long, resembling a giant mantis but with a twisted wolf's head, squeezed out of the crevice. Its body was covered in a purplish-black carapace, and two enormous bone scythes gleamed with a chilling, eerie light in the sunlight.

Void Predator.

[Level: Qi Refining Stage 6]

"Monster! Aaaaaah! There's a monster!!!"

The screams instantly shattered the prosperity of Nanjing.

The crowd erupted like ants doused with boiling water, scattering wildly in all directions. Stampedes and shoving broke out; the tempered glass of luxury stores shattered under the panicked flow of people; and expensive bags and watches lay scattered on the ground, untouched by anyone.

In that instant, the dignity and order that modern people take pride in are as fragile as a piece of toilet paper in the face of this hunter from a higher dimension.

"roar--!"

The Void Predator let out a chilling screech. Its six compound eyes locked onto the densely packed "food" below, and its massive body leaped forward, plummeting from hundreds of meters in the air like a mountain crashing down.

Boom!

The monster slammed heavily onto a double-decker sightseeing bus. Its sturdy roof, crushed like paper by its terrifying kinetic energy and sharp limbs, was instantly flattened. Blood mixed with engine oil gushed from the gaps in the bus.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

At the street corner, two SWAT officers on patrol reacted quickly, drawing their sidearms and firing wildly at the monster.

The gleaming yellow cartridge cases bounced on the asphalt road with a crisp sound. The 9mm Parabellum pistol bullets, carrying tremendous kinetic energy, slammed into the monster's armor.

However, reality dealt a devastating blow to despair.

The bullet bounced off the purplish-black armor the moment it touched it, leaving not even a white mark. It did nothing but provoke the creature.

The predator suddenly turned its head, and a remarkably human-like, mocking smile appeared on its wolf face.

It swung its bony sickle-like forelimbs sharply.

A purple, crescent-shaped blade of energy shot out from the sky.

"Pfft!"

The two SWAT officers, who hadn't even had time to reload, along with the massive metal fire hydrant behind them, were instantly sliced ​​in half by the air blade. High-pressure water jets shot skyward, mixing with a deluge of blood, drenching the faces of the utterly devastated mortals around them.

despair.

True despair.

A little girl, about five or six years old, was knocked to the ground by the panicked crowd and cried loudly. Meanwhile, the predator walked gracefully and cruelly to her, raising its blood-dripping bone scythe high.

"Nannan!!!" In the distance, the young mother who had been pushed aside let out an extremely shrill scream, her vision went black, and she almost fainted.

Just as the bone sickle was less than ten centimeters from the little girl's head, and the stench of blood had already ruffled the little girl's bangs.

Clang—!!!

A high-pitched, clear, and soul-piercing sword cry suddenly resounded from the heavens!

The sound drowned out the screams in the street, the car alarms, and the gushing of high-pressure water jets, descending upon the world with an undeniable, majestic divine power.

"How dare this mere Qi Refining stage scum run rampant on Chinese soil?!"

A roar, like thunder, exploded in the sky above the commercial street.

Everyone felt a blur before their eyes.

A dazzling crimson streak of light, like a shooting star piercing the night, plummeted from the sky at a terrifying supersonic speed, slamming heavily onto the predator's back.

Boom!!!

The earthquake trembled.

The paved asphalt road instantly collapsed, creating a crater several meters in diameter. The massive shockwave overturned all the cars within a radius of several dozen meters.

Smoke and dust rose everywhere.

Everyone, including the mortals huddled in the corner of the mall, froze in their tracks, staring intently at the deep pit.

The smoke and dust slowly dissipated.

A tall and upright figure appeared in everyone's sight.

He was a young man who looked to be no more than twenty years old. He was wearing a tattered blue Taoist robe, which was covered with dried dark red blood clots and even had a strong smell of the sea.

His right arm was wrapped in bandages, and his face was pale, but his eyes were as cold as a hungry wolf that had just eaten a man.

In his hand, he held a crimson longsword.

The tip of the longsword was now firmly embedded in the head of the Void Predator, pinning this once arrogant monster to the bottom of the pit like a specimen!

Green pus and blood gushed out wildly, the monster's massive body convulsed violently at the bottom of the pit, and the bone scythe slashed wildly at the surrounding concrete ground, but it couldn't budge the young man at all.

"die."

Without a word, the young man unleashed his early Foundation Establishment stage spiritual power. A terrifying Samadhi True Fire ignited on his crimson flying sword, flowing directly into the monster's body through the wound.

"Hiss! Aaaaaah—"

With a piercing scream and the stench of burning meat, the void monster at the sixth level of Qi Refining was burned to a black charcoal from the inside out in less than three seconds.

A faintly glowing purple void crystal core rolled down to the young man's feet.

The young man bent down to pick up the crystal core, glanced at the [Battle Merit +150] notification flashing on his retina, a cold smile curled at the corner of his mouth, and casually tossed it into the storage bag at his waist.

He walked to the edge of the pit, not even glancing at the mortals around him who were looking at him as if he were a god, and took out the [Guardian Token] that emitted a purple light from his pocket.

boom!

The young man slammed the token into the ground in the middle of the street.

hum-

A semi-transparent purple light shield rapidly expanded outward from the token, enveloping a five-kilometer radius area and completely isolating the faintly fluctuating void energy in the sky.

"I am Lin Feng, captain of the third squadron of the Sword Cultivation Department at Kunlun University!"

The young man drew his still-dripping sword, his voice carrying spiritual energy that resounded throughout the heart of Jinling City:

"This defense zone is now under the control of Kunlun!"

"Mortals, retreat! Monsters, come and fight!"

Quiet.

A deathly silence.

Then, someone started it, and the mother of the rescued little girl suddenly knelt down on the asphalt road full of water and broken glass, and kowtowed heavily to the blood-covered figure.

"Immortal... I thank you so much for saving my life..."

"A deity has descended to earth! We are saved!"

Thump, thump.

Like a domino effect, countless ordinary people on the verge of collapse from extreme fear, on the streets, in shopping malls, and beside cars, collapsed to their knees after witnessing that godlike attack, and frantically kowtowed and prayed in Lin Feng's direction.

They didn't care where the blood on the young man came from, nor did they care what cruel past that tattered Taoist robe signified.

All they knew was that bullets were useless when the monsters were about to eat them.

But flying swords work!

……

Meanwhile, atop Kunlun Mountain, in the Lingxiao Palace.

This scene, resembling the arrival of a savior from the apocalypse, did not only occur in Jinling.

Shanghai, Beijing...

Hundreds of major cities around the world are simultaneously experiencing strikingly similar scenarios.

The sky was torn apart, monsters descended, armies were helpless, and mortals were plunged into an abyss of despair.

Then, accompanied by the piercing sounds of swords cutting through the air, more than a thousand Kunlun "remnants" who had crawled out of the mountains of corpses and seas of blood crashed into the battlefield like divine soldiers descending from the heavens. They carried with them deep-seated hatred and an extreme thirst for battle merits and power, and used the bloodiest and most violent methods to crush those low-level Void Hunters into mincemeat.

In the center of the hall, Gu Qing sat quietly on a throne carved from ten-thousand-year-old ice jade.

His eyes were slightly closed, but in his mind's eye, the semi-transparent panel belonging to the [Myth Deception System] was now flashing with an unprecedentedly dazzling light.

The data on that page is completely insane.

[Ding! Extreme emotional fluctuations detected from Jinling City.]

[Emotional type: Extreme fear (towards the Void Monsters) + Extreme awe (towards the Kunlun disciples).]

[Faith Value +85,000!]

[Ding! Extreme emotional fluctuations detected from Yanjing City.]

[Emotional type: Extreme fear + Extreme awe.]

[Faith Value +120,000!]

[Ding! Detected from Shanghai...]

The total credit value on the system panel was like a broken stopwatch, jumping and soaring wildly at a rate of tens or even hundreds of thousands per second.

The long suffix of the numbers is about to break through the mark of tens of millions, or even hundreds of millions.

Gu Qing slowly opened her eyes, her deep, universe-like pupils reflecting the constantly scrolling, cold data.

"System, explain the current composition of the faith force," Gu Qing asked calmly in his mind.

[Reply to Host: The current surge in the Trust Pool stems from the 'Dual Emotion Harvesting' mechanism.]

On one hand, the arrival of Void beings shattered mortals' understanding of the physical world, generating immense "fear-based belief." Because in the mythological system woven by the host, the "Void" is defined as Earth's mortal enemy. Therefore, the more mortals fear the Void, the more convinced they become of the "mythological system's" authenticity; this fear will be judged by the system as valid belief.

On the other hand, the Kunlun disciples' descent to earth to rescue their loved ones in dire straits perfectly aligns with humanity's psychological expectations of 'saviors' and 'deities.' The 'reverence' and 'gratitude' generated by mortals are continuously flowing towards the host.

"In other words..."

Gu Qing stood up, walked to the edge of the main hall, and looked down at the entire earth below, which had been ignited by war and sword light.

"I am reaping both the fear brought by the devil and the hope brought by the gods."

To become the one true God, you don't need to please believers.

What you need to do is first release a pack of wolves to tear the sheep apart, and then when the sheep are crying out in despair, appear as a shepherd with a hunting rifle.

The sheep don't wonder where the wolves came from; they just frantically kiss the shepherd's boots and offer up all their loyalty and faith.

At this moment, the start of the global hunting era perfectly embodies the role of that pack of "wolves".

Gu Qing and his Kunlun disciples, who were frantically killing each other for war merits and survival, were the only "shepherds".

[Warning: The host's level of human dehumanization continues to rise.]

[Warning: The host's emotional module is being overwritten by absolutely rational divine logic.]

Despite the piercing red alert in her mind, Gu Qing remained completely unmoved.

Or rather, he has begun to gradually lose the ability to "feel fluctuations".

He raised his long, slender, fair right hand, looking at the golden light representing the laws of heaven that entwined his fingertips.

"If you're going to play chess, how can a player empathize with the pieces?"

Om-! ! !

Just then, the system panel burst forth with an unprecedentedly dazzling golden light, illuminating the entire dome of the Lingxiao Palace.

[Ding! Congratulations, host!]

The total capacity of the information pool has exceeded the critical value for the first stage.

The Myth Deception System has met the upgrade requirements and is undergoing underlying code refactoring...

[10%...50%...100%!]

System upgrade complete!

[Congratulations, host! You have unlocked the core hidden privilege—[Creator Privilege] (Basic Version)!]

Seeing the large, gold-embossed characters appear on his retina, Gu Qing's pupils finally contracted sharply. His heart, which had long been as still as a deep well, pounded heavily at that moment…