I fabricated myths to guide the revival of spiritual energy.

"I knew it! This isn't some dead seed... This is... This is a living ancient divine tree!!"

Qian Lao's hoarse and fanatical roar echoed within the top-secret containment facility No. 09, located 500 meters underground and said to be able to withstand a nuclear strike with a yield of ten million tons.

But his voice lasted for less than half a second before being mercilessly shattered by a chilling metallic tearing sound.

"Crack crack crack—Bang!!!"

That tender green shoot, which was originally only two centimeters tall and seemed fragile, was like an ancient beast that had been starving for millions of years, instantly having its feeding switch turned on after coming into contact with a trace amount of "Red Snow Toxin" that had seeped into the air.

In the brief pause of a breath, the tender shoot suddenly expanded! A visible cyan wave of energy exploded outwards, instantly crushing dozens of sophisticated spectrum analyzers around it into scrap metal.

Then, it transformed into a gnarled tree trunk that required three people to encircle!

Its roots, resembling cyan dragons, completely ignored the force field of the heavy magnetic levitation isolation chamber, which was powerful enough to distort bullets. With a screeching sound, the roots easily pierced the base, which was made of half a meter thick high-strength titanium alloy, as if cutting hot tofu.

Boom—!

The entire base, 500 meters underground, trembled violently. This was no ordinary earthquake; rather, it was as if some extremely terrifying high-dimensional life form deep within the Earth's crust was stretching out its body, powerful enough to shatter a planet.

"Warning! The base rock structure has been 40% destroyed... no, 80%! It's devouring all the surrounding ley line energy!"

"The energy reading has exceeded the instrument's display limit! The force field in the explosion-proof chamber has completely collapsed! The output power of the backup nuclear reactor has been forcibly drained!"

The researchers' terrified screams mingled with the piercing, highest-level red alarm, and the entire control room flashed red lights, as if the end of the world had arrived.

In General Chen's utterly shocked and even somewhat unfocused eyes, the azure tree trunk was growing wildly, as if defying modern physics. Intricate and ancient patterns appeared on the surface of the trunk, opening and closing like dragon scales, and with each breath it spewed out a suffocating storm of spiritual energy.

"Click..."

A spiderweb-like crack suddenly appeared on the special explosion-proof glass, which was thick enough to withstand a tactical nuclear explosion and was one meter thick.

"Retreat! Everyone retreat immediately! Abandon all data and activate the highest-level emergency escape pods!" General Chen, as expected of a battle-hardened commander, maintained a sliver of rationality even in extreme fear. He quickly turned on the radio and roared into the communicator.

"I won't leave! This is the ultimate miracle of life science! I want to see it, even if it kills me..." Old Qian's eyes were bloodshot as he clung tightly to the control panel, like a mad believer who had seen the truth.

"Look, even the ashes are gone! It's going to break right through the earth's crust!"

Without hesitation, General Chen delivered a sharp chop to the back of Qian's neck, knocking him unconscious and hoisting him onto his shoulder. Two special forces soldiers, one on each side, lifted Qian and scrambled into the gravity escape pod at the end of the corridor.

Just as the escape pod doors closed and it launched itself wildly toward the ground like a cannonball—

"Shatter!!!"

The special explosion-proof glass couldn't even withstand a millisecond, instantly turning into dust! A vast, boundless blue light completely engulfed the entire Top Secret Containment Facility No. 09. Millions of thick, dragon-like roots, carrying unparalleled force, plunged deep into the rock strata of the Qinling Mountains, greedily sucking up the immense earth energy that had slumbered for hundreds of millions of years along the entire dragon vein of China.

The man-made steel fortress, 500 meters underground, was easily wiped out like a paper toy in the face of the power of myth.

……

At the same time, on the surface, on the main peak of the Qinling Mountains.

A dark purple haze hung low in the sky, while the dark red poisonous snow, mixed with trace amounts of void radiation and the resentment of three billion dead souls, continued to rage in the cold wind. The majestic Qinling Mountains were stained a deathly rusty color, devoid of any life.

The soldiers stationed at the outpost halfway up the mountain, wrapped in heavy NBC protective suits, still felt no warmth whatsoever. The faint stinging sensation of the red snow falling on their skin was gradually robbing them of their strength and hope.

Suddenly, the heavy snow stopped.

It wasn't that the wind stopped, but rather that the gravitational field and airflow of the entire Qinling Mountains were forcibly altered and taken over by some higher-dimensional law at this moment!

The snowflakes that were originally falling downwards have started to flow back up into the sky in a strange way!

"Squad leader... the mountain... the mountain is moving..." A young sentry pointed to the main peak of the Qinling Mountains in the distance, his voice trembling with extreme fear.

"Boom—Rumble!!!"

With a terrifying roar that seemed to be the beginning of creation and could shatter the eardrums of mortals, the main ridge of the Qinling Mountains, which is more than 3,000 meters high, was brutally and violently torn apart from the center by an indescribable and mighty force!

Hundreds of thousands of tons of boulders, soil, and millennia-old ice and snow were propelled thousands of meters into the air by terrifying kinetic energy, transforming into a spectacular mudslide that flowed upstream.

Before the soldiers at the outpost, who were almost stunned and whose minds had completely shut down, a cyan pillar of light with a diameter of over a thousand meters... no, it was a huge tree trunk covered with ancient dragon scale patterns, like Mount Buzhou supporting the heavens and the earth, which was suddenly pulled out of the abyss from the ground with a loud and ancient chant that resounded through the sky like a great bell!

"Thump..." The young sentry's legs went weak and he collapsed onto the snow, not even noticing that the rifle in his hand had slipped from his grasp.

The tree trunk, with an attitude that crushes all common sense, launches a savage charge towards the sky.

Three thousand meters! Eight thousand meters! Twenty thousand meters!

In less than ten minutes, the "World Tree - Jianmu", which had absorbed the essence of the Chinese dragon vein and the immense power of faith given by Gu Qing, finally showed its domineering and unreasonable absolute attitude to this world that was full of ravages and ravaged by the void.

When it pierces straight through the troposphere and penetrates the stratosphere, stretching its enormous, sky-covering canopy tens of thousands of meters above the ground, most of the sky over China is dyed a mesmerizing, vibrant emerald green.

[System notification: The World Tree (Seedling stage) has been successfully anchored to geophysical coordinates.]

[Conceptual-level purification matrix activated.]

hum-

A layer of cyan law-like ripples, visible to the naked eye and forming perfect concentric circles, emanates from the canopy of the Jianmu tree and surges toward the global skyline like a tsunami.

Those dark red poisonous clouds that shrouded the sky, leaving humanity's leaders helpless and filled with despair, now seemed to have encountered a super-sized range hood spanning the continent.

Wherever the azure light passed, the red snow instantly melted away. The void radiation and carbon-based resentment that were deadly to mortals had no chance to struggle before the domineering laws of the Jianmu tree. They were all forcibly decomposed and devoured, turning into pure nutrients for the divine tree to continue growing.

The red death knell has stopped.

Instead, a shower of blue light dappled down from the crystal-clear, jade-like leaves of the Jianmu tree.

New Chang'an Base City, suburbs.

A little girl, covered in red spots from inhaling an excessive amount of Red Snow Toxin, lay in her mother's desperate arms, breathing weakly.

Suddenly, a drop of blue light pierced through the dilapidated roof and landed on her forehead.

There was no coldness, only an indescribable vitality, as if it could cleanse the soul, flowing through her withered veins to her entire body.

The little girl opened her eyes in surprise and found that the terrible dark red patches on her skin were fading away rapidly at a speed visible to the naked eye. Her lungs, which had felt as if they had been cut by a knife, were now filled with incredibly sweet and fresh air.

"Mom...I don't hurt anymore...I can breathe..."

The little girl broke free from her mother's embrace and stumbled into the street. She looked up at the horizon, a horizon that should have been empty. Yet, an "image," immeasurable by distance, was projected into her eyes without warning—

It was a luminous divine tree that stood between heaven and earth, so large that even the human brain could not process its vast amount of information.

It doesn't actually exist within our field of vision, but rather, in a way that transcends light and space, it briefly enters everyone's perception. No matter where you are, you can "see" it as long as you look in that direction.

It wasn't just her.

At this moment, the satellite monitoring hall of the highest command of China was deathly silent. All the generals and leaders stared at the life wonder on the screen that covered the entire Qinling Mountains and pierced the universe, speechless for a long time.

At this moment, countless ordinary people emerging from underground air-raid shelters and city ruins gazed upon the ancient divine tree that had forcefully dispelled the gloom of the apocalypse and pierced the sky. They felt an unprecedented lightness and health within their bodies, their knees buckled, and they uncontrollably knelt on the ground, bowing in worship towards the Qinling Mountains.

"A miracle...this is a true miracle!"

"Heaven has eyes! The divine tree is protecting us!"

The prayers, though chaotic and disorderly, converged into a massive spiritual torrent.

……

Inside the Creation Pavilion on the main peak of Kunlun.

Gu Qing leaned back on the throne made of purple cloud wood, resting his chin on one hand, watching the numbers on his retina surge wildly like a burst dam. A satisfied smile finally appeared on his lips.

The holographic projection illuminated his perfectly stern face, which seemed devoid of human emotion. The image depicted a magnificent scene of countless mortals kowtowing and weeping before the Jianmu tree.

"You see, this is the power of mythology. Fear and redemption are always the perfect double-edged sword for reaping faith."

Gu Qing looked at the towering tree, a hint of mockery flashing in his deep eyes.

That cheap, discarded prop used to fool the authorities has now become a spiritual totem worshipped by all of humanity after a massive investment of faith and resources.

Gu Qing slowly stood up and walked to the edge of the Creation Pavilion. The chilly night wind at such a height fluttered his long robes as he looked down at the vast human world shrouded in azure light rain, his gaze as if looking down at fungi that were constantly multiplying in a petri dish.

"Breathing is free, but survival is not," he murmured softly, his voice broken by the wind in the sea of ​​clouds. "The air is purified. Now, it's time for you to taste the food grown in the new soil."