I fabricated myths to guide the revival of spiritual energy.

[Northwest China, Gansu Province, near a transit station]

Train K169 made a temporary two-hour stop at a small station called "Gulang" due to heavy sandstorms ahead.

The stuffy air in the carriage, a mixture of instant noodle smells and foot odor, made Gu Qing's already fragile lungs feel like they were being sanded by sandpaper. He had no choice but to get off the train, wrap his trench coat tighter, and walk to an open-air tea stall outside the station to get some fresh air.

This is already the edge of the Northwest.

The wind carried sand and grit, stinging my face. The sky was a bleak, grayish-yellow, as if it might collapse at any moment.

"Ahem... Boss, a pot of hot tea, please."

Gu Qing found a sheltered corner to sit down, casually took out a bottle of painkillers from her pocket, poured out three pills, and swallowed them with the piping hot buckwheat tea that had just been served.

The stomach cramps subsided a little.

But he knew this was just an illusion created by the drugs numbing his body. His internal organs were rapidly failing, just like the increasingly desolate landscape.

"System, how far are we from the 'preset node'?"

[Reply to host: The straight-line distance is 400 kilometers. We suggest you reach the uninhabited area as soon as possible; your physical condition is not suitable for long-distance travel.]

"What's the rush?" Gu Qing looked at the tea leaves floating in the teacup. "Before I die, I should at least see this last bit of human warmth."

The tea stall was very simple, with a few broken wooden tables and stools.

Besides Gu Qing, there was another person sitting in the corner.

He was blind.

He was wearing a faded dark blue Zhongshan suit, sunglasses with a missing leg, and in front of him was a red paper with the words "Guide to the Way" written on it, along with a few copper coins.

These kinds of swindlers are everywhere near train stations.

Gu Qing didn't pay any attention, drinking his tea and resting with his eyes closed, while he was conceiving the details of the upcoming "Sword Tomb" script in his mind.

Suddenly, the trembling sound of a white cane stopped in front of his table.

"Sir."

The blind man's voice was hoarse, like a broken bellows, "This table... is nobody here?"

Gu Qing opened his eyes, a hint of displeasure at being disturbed flashing in his deep eyes, but he still said calmly, "No one's here, sit down."

The blind man groped his way to sit down, not asking for tea, but simply turning his face towards Gu Qing. Although there were sunglasses in between, Gu Qing could feel that those unseen eyes were "staring" at him.

"Sir, you're not a local, are you?" the blind man suddenly asked.

"Just passing by."

"Judging from your accent, you're from Jiangnan." The blind man grinned, revealing a set of yellow teeth. "Jiangnan is good, the water and soil nourish people. Unlike this Northwest, the wind is harsh, and so is life."

Gu Qing didn't reply, but simply picked up her teacup.

"Sir, I think... no, I smell something wrong with the smell on you." The blind man sniffed, his brows furrowing into a deep frown.

Gu Qing paused, looking at him with a half-smile: "Oh? What do I smell like? Is it medicine, or the smell of a dead person?"

He didn't mind being told he had a terminal illness. Such intimidation was ineffective against a dying man.

The blind man shook his head, his expression becoming somewhat strange, even showing a hint of... terror.

"It doesn't smell like medicine."

The blind man put his hand into his sleeve, his fingers frantically calculating something, so fast that they left afterimages.

"It doesn't smell like a dead person either."

"The smell of the dead is sour, it sinks down. But the smell on you..." The blind man swallowed, his voice extremely low, "is rising. Like a fiery sunset, or like... the earthy smell before a thunderstorm."

Gu Qing's expression finally turned serious.

He put down his teacup, his enhanced right eye narrowed slightly, and the gray mist deep within its pupil began to swirl.

[The Deceitful Eye - Activated]

In his view, the world had lost its color.

The blind man before them showed no signs of spiritual energy or any system markings. He was an utterly ordinary mortal, so much so that his life force was nearly extinguished due to malnutrition.

but.

At the center of the blind man's forehead, there was an extremely faint, yet exceptionally pure, white light.

That was... a spiritual intuition.

This is what is commonly known as the "sixth sense".

In the old days before the revival of spiritual energy, there were always some exceptionally gifted individuals who, though they did not understand cultivation, were naturally sensitive to "energy fields." They might be fortune tellers, traditional Chinese medicine practitioners, or even some eccentric beggars.

"Interesting." Gu Qing withdrew his gaze.

This blind fortune teller, relying on his mortal intuition, actually sensed the karmic force belonging to the "Creator" on him.

"Old sir, since you're so good at calculations..."

Gu Qing pulled a hundred-yuan bill from his pocket and placed it under his teacup. "Then you calculate, what am I going to do in the Northwest?"

The blind man heard the money ring, but did not reach out to touch it as usual.

His hands were still calculating inside his sleeves, and fine beads of cold sweat were seeping from his forehead.

"Sir, you...you shouldn't scare this blind old man."

The blind man's body began to tremble, and his eyelids behind his sunglasses twitched violently. "I was trying to predict your future, but... but I saw a sea of ​​blood."

"A sea of ​​blood?"

"No, it's not just a sea of ​​blood." The blind man suddenly stood up, knocking over the stool he was sitting on. "Those are...those are swords! Swords everywhere! Piercing the graves!"

"And...and..."

The blind man suddenly covered his eyes and let out a scream: "Ah!!"

Two lines of bloody tears actually flowed down the frame of his sunglasses.

"Don't look! You can't look! That's...that's the sky falling down!" the blind man shouted incoherently, staggering backward as if possessed. "You...you're carrying the sky on your back! You'll crush everyone! You'll crush everyone!"

The surrounding tea drinkers were startled and cast strange glances at them. The tea stall owner ran over with a rag: "Hey, hey, hey! Old Liu! What's wrong with you now? Don't scare the customers!"

Gu Qing remained seated, motionless.

But he was no less shocked than the blind man.

This mortal... actually "saw" it?

He saw the script for the [Sword Tomb] that Gu Qing was about to build, and even saw the "sky" that Gu Qing was trying to support the Earth's defense network with his own strength.

What does this tell us?

This indicates that the rules of the world are loosening.

As Gu Qing invests more and more faith, the line between reality and mythology is blurring. Those mortals who were originally just people with some inspiration are being forced to "awaken".

"Boss, don't kick him out."

Gu Qing stood up and pressed down on the tea stall owner's hand.

He walked up to the shivering blind man, reached out his pale hand, and gently patted the man's shoulder.

[Minor Information Output: 1 point.]

[Effect: Calming, suggestive.]

"Sir, you're not mistaken."

Gu Qing leaned close to the blind man's ear and whispered so softly that only the two of them could hear it.

"The sky is indeed about to fall."

"But I went to the Northwest to... push back this sky."

As Gu Qing finished speaking, the blind man's trembling body suddenly calmed down. The faint spiritual energy injected into his body acted like a powerful stimulant, soothing the turmoil in his mind.

The blind man stopped shouting.

He took off his sunglasses, revealing a pair of grayish-white eyes without pupils, staring intently in Gu Qing's direction.

Even if he can't see it, he is still "watching".

Suddenly, the blind man knelt down on the gravel ground with a thud and kowtowed heavily to Gu Qing.

"A benefactor...that's a benefactor..."

The blind man muttered to himself, "I've been telling fortunes my whole life, and today... even if I completely ruin my eyesight, it's all worth it."

"Waaah—"

A train in the distance sounded its whistle, urging passengers to board.

Gu Qing straightened up and adjusted his collar. The wind blew up the hem of his trench coat, making him look exceptionally thin.

"I've paid for the tea."

Gu Qing didn't look at the blind man kneeling on the ground again, and turned to walk towards the station.

"Boss, use the rest of the money to buy this old gentleman a new pair of sunglasses."

……

[K169 train, hard seat carriage]

Gu Qing returned to her seat, and the scenery outside the car window began to rush past.

The incident just now gave him a deeper understanding of the changes in the world.

"System." Gu Qing looked out the window at the increasingly desolate Gobi Desert. "It seems we need to speed things up."

"Even a blind man on the street can sense the changing times; those national institutions with top-tier resources will only react even faster."

[Host, what do you mean?]

"Originally, I just planned to build a 'ruin' and let the authorities explore it slowly."

A ruthless glint flashed in Gu Qing's eyes.

"In retrospect, it was too lukewarm."

"Since the winds in the northwest are so strong, I'll give them a real...storm."

He opened the system panel and, in the draft box of [Scene Construction], upgraded [Damaged Sword Tomb], which was originally set as "C-level Relic", to "B-level High-Risk Restricted Area" without hesitation.

[Warning: Upgrading will consume 90% of your current Faith reserves and will permanently distort the laws of physics.]

"confirm."

Gu Qing closed her eyes, and as the train swayed, she seemed to fall asleep.

But deep in his mind, that uninhabited area in the heart of the Taklamakan Desert was undergoing earth-shattering changes.

Beneath the wind and sand, the spirits of the dead from the ancient battlefield a thousand years ago are being awakened.

Tens of thousands of rusted iron swords are emitting a blood-craving cry from underground.

"Next stop, the no man's land."

"Captain Zhao, and Professor Wang who is dissecting the earthworm... I hope you can keep up with my pace."