I fabricated myths to guide the revival of spiritual energy.

The cold rain in the new Chang'an City fell on the gray trench coat, but left not a single water stain.

Gu Qing walked on the bustling street, his steps seemingly no different from those of an ordinary person. However, if a powerful being at the Nascent Soul stage were present at this moment, they would be horrified to discover that the spatial coordinates within three feet of Gu Qing were completely disordered.

He was walking among the crowd, yet he existed in an absolutely folded, independent, higher-dimensional plane. He was untouched by any dharma, unblemished by cause and effect.

He stopped, raised his right hand, and gently pressed it against his left chest.

Through the skin and flesh, under his inner vision, the heart that should have been bright red and beating was now gleaming with a flawless, pale golden luster.

This erosion is subtle and gradual, extremely gentle and sophisticated. It merely erases a tiny, insignificant trace of "mortal emotions" from Gu Qing every time he mobilizes his true energy or uses the system.

For example, erasing his perception of fear, erasing his sense of taste for food, and even just now, trying to erase his compassion for the rogue monk who sold his daughter.

It is gradually replacing the personality of "Gu Qing" with the purest "reason". When he completely loses all emotions and desires and becomes an absolutely just and ruthless idol, this perfect body, capable of suppressing the starry sea, will welcome its true "master".

In this world, there is no such thing as good fortune falling from the sky.

"A clever plan."

Gu Qing stood in the folded space, looked up at the gray sky, and a very faint smile appeared on her lips.

He didn't angrily cut the golden threads, because he knew that in a real game, flipping the table was the act of a weakling.

In a "system" that has already extended its tentacles across the entire globe, any intense emotional resistance will instantly expose one's awareness.

Gu Qing slowly closed her eyes.

In the midst of the wind and rain at this crossroads, his soul secretly contracted. He compressed and sealed all his ambition, murderous intent, and human emotions into a singularity at the deepest part of his consciousness.

……

Seven hundred meters underground in Kyoto, in the joint control room.

"Bang!"

Wang Mingyuan slammed a frontline reconnaissance report onto the table, irritably unbuttoning his collar. On the large screen, the radar map representing the void fluctuations outside the Earth-Moon Defense Line presented a chilling, deathly silence.

"Thirty-eight thousand kilometers away, not even a ripple of a high-dimensional spiritual entity could be detected! They've all retreated?" Wang Mingyuan's bloodshot eyes were fixed on the holographic sand table, like a trapped beast that had lost its target.

"Professor, the Great Sun Spirit-Attracting Array and the Taiyin Spirit-Locking Array at the Guanghan Base are still operating at full capacity, and the stellar source energy is continuously flowing back to Earth."

The communications officer swallowed hard, looking at the rapidly rising resource reserve bar on another screen. "Our spiritual energy reserves haven't decreased; in fact, they've temporarily maintained a balance due to the lack of combat consumption. But... this sudden ceasefire has already caused a stir among the hundreds of thousands of new recruits in the various military units."

I'm not afraid of fighting, I'm afraid of the sword hanging over my head suddenly going silent.

A massive war machine that has been running for a hundred years, accustomed to fighting to the death and expanding wildly, could very well trigger extremely terrifying internal strife and backlash if it suddenly loses external pressure at its peak. The internally expanding population of cultivators and the unvented military power would likely cause such a loss.

Just as the operators in the lobby were holding their breath, the physical space of the entire control room suddenly experienced an extremely strange distortion.

All the electronic screens stopped flashing at the same time. The red alarm lights froze in the dim light, and even an A4 sheet of paper falling from the sky was suspended in mid-air.

Time and space were forcibly paused by an incomprehensible force.

Wang Mingyuan was horrified to discover that although he could still think, he couldn't even blink.

Immediately afterwards, a vast voice, devoid of any emotional fluctuation and seemingly descending from the heavens, resounded deep within his sea of ​​consciousness, completely ignoring the barriers of physical dimensions.

"Wang Mingyuan."

"Dao... Dao Lord?!" Wang Mingyuan frantically responded in his mind, cold sweat instantly soaking his back. This kind of telepathic transmission that directly blocked reality meant that the Dao Lord's cultivation had reached a terrifying level that they couldn't even fathom.

"The century-long bloody war has come to an abrupt halt, and while external threats have been temporarily alleviated, internal troubles are bound to arise. Hundreds of millions of people have been on edge for a hundred years, and once the external pressure is removed, they are highly susceptible to developing inner demons and their Daoist hearts becoming chaotic."

Gu Qing spoke at a measured pace, each word striking Wang Mingyuan's soul like a heavy hammer: "Issue my decree. Within three days, gather the strength of the entire world to erect my divine statues in major cities, all underground shelter nodes, and along the near-Earth orbit star ring defense line."

Wang Mingyuan was stunned.

At this critical juncture when all major heavy industrial bases are operating at full capacity, preparing to respond to the next unknown attack from the void, the Dao Lord actually ordered a large-scale totem project that has no practical combat significance.

"Dao Lord..." Wang Mingyuan gritted his teeth, enduring the terrifying pressure as he spoke in his mind, "The morale of the various military corps is currently high. If a large amount of manpower and resources are suddenly allocated to building statues, I'm afraid..."

"No need for war preparation resources."

Gu Qing's voice interrupted him, "Shattered void monster skeletons, depleted abandoned moonstone, mortal cement, even yellow mud. I don't care about the materials, I care about the quantity."

"I want the billions of lives on this planet to be able to see this simply by looking up during this period of desolate peace. Understand?"

Wang Mingyuan's heart jolted, and a sudden realization flashed through his mind like lightning.

That's right! How could someone at the Dao Lord's level care about so-called vanity?

During this "ceasefire" period, which is most likely to cause panic and a vacuum of faith, these statues of gods and Buddhas everywhere are the strongest psychological booster! This is a faith defense line set up in advance to anchor the Dao heart of all mankind with totems, and even to defend against the "spiritual pollution" that may be launched from the void!

"I am foolish! I will do it immediately!" Wang Mingyuan excitedly made a pledge in his mind, "Within three days, even if I have to make it out of mud, I guarantee that your statue will become the most densely packed spiritual fortress on this planet!"

"Go."

"Buzz—"

The sense of spatial distortion vanished instantly.

The electronic screen in the control room resumed its activity, and the A4 paper that had been suspended in mid-air floated down to the ground. The operators were unaware that time had stopped for a moment.

Wang Mingyuan, panting heavily, abruptly turned to the communications team and ordered, "Switch to highest clearance across the entire frequency band! Mobilize all non-combat engineers worldwide! Execute the number one order!"

……

Deep within the Kunlun Mountains, ten thousand meters below.

Gu Qing sat cross-legged, hovering at the core where scorching earth fire and liquefied spiritual energy intertwined.

After severing the spiritual connection with Wang Mingyuan, his icy face remained devoid of any emotion. The "strategic intent" that Wang Mingyuan had instinctively fulfilled was precisely the result he needed most, and also the most flawless and open scheme.

Deep within his consciousness, a pale golden stream of data flickered faintly.

[Command Explanation: Establish a physical totem to anchor the Daoist heart in the mortal realm and prevent the collapse of the belief system.]

[Judgment: Consistent with the logic of Heaven's way of maintaining stability.]

[Execution Assistance: Currently releasing low-level permissions and mobilizing global ley line spiritual pressure to assist in the creation of the divine statue...]

Hearing the monotonous mechanical prompts, Gu Qing didn't resist at all; instead, she readily relinquished control of the Earth Core Array.

However, at the very moment that immense computing power representing the "Will of Heaven" swept through the earth's veins, his hands, which were hanging at his knees, silently transformed into an extremely ancient hand seal in the darkness.

There were no earth-shattering phenomena, nor any violent fluctuations in true energy.

Only a wisp of his original divine consciousness, forcibly severed from the depths of his soul, transformed into countless invisible, dark threads. With the help of the system's proactively granted low-level permissions, these threads smoothly blended into the vast torrent of earth veins and surged toward the surface.

This is a "reverse parasitism" that takes place "right under the nose of the system".

Those countless clay and stone sculptures that are about to rise from the ground will become his "filters" covering the entire surface of the earth. When believers kneel in worship, the vast power of faith surges into the system deep in their consciousness like rivers flowing into the sea... it will inevitably flow through that inconspicuous clay shell first.

He had complete faith, and secretly cut off eight of his assets.

Gu Qing slowly closed her eyes, letting the scalding spiritual energy wash over her chin, and her whole being sank into the deathly, bottomless darkness.