I fabricated myths to guide the revival of spiritual energy.

Gu Qing stood quietly before the enormous panoramic porthole. As he inscribed the weighty characters of "Netherworld" and "Six Paths of Reincarnation" onto the invisible canvas of creation in his mind, the entire system space seemed to be awakened by some ancient and grand power, emitting a deep rumble.

On his retina, countless cultivation runes shimmering with dark golden light intertwined and coiled, gradually outlining an extremely vast underground world model.

It was a dark space devoid of sun, moon, and stars. There were pitch-black city walls rising from the ground, the legendary Gates of Hell; there was a bottomless underground river flowing endlessly, the River of Oblivion that separated life and death; and there was a vast city, appearing and disappearing, exuding endless solemnity and terror—Fengdu Ghost City.

[System notification: The underlying logic of "Netherworld" has been successfully constructed.]

[The laws of Yin and Yang are being integrated... The rudimentary form of the Six Paths of Reincarnation has been generated.]

[Calculating the information resources required for scene visualization...]

As Gu Qing gazed at the gradually taking shape blueprint for the underworld, a profound look flashed in his usually calm eyes.

Once this "final resting place for the dead" is established, all the souls on Earth that cannot dissipate due to the revival of spiritual energy will be absorbed into the underworld. Evildoers will go to hell to extract resentment, while gooddoers will cross the Bridge of Helplessness to have their memories washed away and be reincarnated.

Life goes on endlessly, forming a perfect closed loop. And he, Gu Qing, will become the sole ruler who holds the power of life and death.

However, the next second, a glaring red warning popped up on the system panel.

[WARNING: The system strongly discourages immediately performing scene rendering!]

[Estimated Consumption: Forcibly constructing and maintaining the operation of the Underworld requires a massive amount of Faith Power daily, and it is estimated that the host's current Faith Power reserves will be completely depleted within one year!]

Gu Qing frowned slightly.

"System, I've just cleansed the global rebels, and the Faith Pool has surpassed its historical peak. Faith is the omnipotent source of creation, so why does constructing a Netherworld consume such a massive amount of energy?"

[Answer to the host: Faith is indeed omnipotent, and our current reserves are more than sufficient to forcibly materialize the Underworld. However, this 'violent rendering' approach is extremely uneconomical.]

Reason: Creation must conform to the 'laws' and 'common sense' of this world.

If you were to forcibly create a 'real and vast afterlife' out of thin air, you would be constantly going against the deeply ingrained beliefs of all humanity. To suppress this collective unconscious rejection, the system must frantically burn its power every second to fill this gap.

Gu Qing understood. Faith can forcibly rewrite everything, but it's like rowing against the current—it consumes a great deal of energy.

"Since brute-force rendering is not feasible, please explain your optimization plan."

[Optimization Plan: The host needs to implant a cognitive anchor of "spirits after death" into the collective subconscious of mortals.]

When all of humanity genuinely believes in the existence of ghosts and personally experiences the fear of being gazed upon by the dead, building an underworld will no longer be going against nature, but rather conforming to humanity's collective desire for the dead to be properly cared for. At that time, naturally, the energy consumed by faith will be reduced to one-thousandth of its original level!

To create gods, miracles must first be performed. To build the underworld, people must see ghosts with their own eyes.

Gu Qing looked down at the blue planet outside the porthole. In a dimension unseen by ordinary people, an increasingly thick "gray haze" was floating inside Earth's atmosphere. It was the remnant souls of thousands upon thousands of homeless beings, lingering in the mortal realm nourished by spiritual energy.

"Since the human world is already overflowing with the souls of the dead, and establishing the underworld requires a shared understanding across all of humanity..."

A cold, rational smile curved Gu Qing's lips. He was standing at the absolute height of an "architect," looking down upon all living beings. He would not feel any pity for the impending panic; in his eyes, this was merely a necessary testing phase for pushing the world to a higher dimension.

"System, release the hidden suppression of the wandering souls remaining in the mortal realm."

Gu Qing raised his hand and gently pointed at the Earth below, across the vacuum of tens of thousands of kilometers.

"Allow spirits filled with resentment and obsession to manifest themselves at night and in dark environments. Since the underworld is not yet built, let this world experience what it truly means to see ghosts."

[The command has been accepted. The yang energy blockade has been partially lifted.]

[World Laws Fine-tuning complete: Conditions for the manifestation of the vengeful spirit have been met.]

……

The new Chang'an City under the cover of night.

Only three days have passed since that shocking "Great Purge." A tense, unease still lingers in the air.

In Xicheng District, an abandoned underground parking garage has been cordoned off with yellow warning tape by the authorities.

This place used to be a secret supply depot for the "Pure Humanity" organization. A few days ago, the core rebels were instantly vaporized here by the causal white light unleashed by Gu Qing, leaving not even ashes, only a few charred human-shaped marks on the floor tiles.

At 2:30 a.m., Xu Feng, the captain of the 3rd Special Operations Team of Bureau 749, was leading two young team members who had just completed the Qi Induction process to carry out the final cleanup and spiritual energy sampling work.

"Captain Xu, we've already scanned the scene three times with the detector. Apart from these few human-shaped marks on the ground, there's no abnormal spiritual energy residue." The young team member, Xiao Liu, yawned and casually tucked the detector back into his waistband.

"Don't let your guard down." Xu Feng was a veteran who had retired from the special forces of the old era, his stubble-covered face revealing his alertness. He tightened his grip on the assault rifle engraved with armor-piercing runes. "These rebels are all lunatics. Quickly seal off the scene, let's get out of here."

"Yes."

Xiao Liu took out a specially made sealed bag and was about to squat down to collect the charred powder from the floor tiles.

Suddenly, there was a "sizzle" sound.

The bright incandescent lights in the underground parking garage flickered without warning, followed by an extremely piercing sound of electrical overload.

"What's going on? Is the voltage unstable?" Another team member frowned and looked up.

Xu Feng remained silent, his expression instantly turning extremely grim. His keen intuition, typical of a Qi Refining cultivator, told him that the surrounding temperature had plummeted within mere seconds!

His breath condensed into visible white frost in mid-air!

"Something's wrong! Scatter! Activate your spiritual energy shield!" Xu Feng roared angrily.

The three quickly formed a battle formation back to back. As their subtle spiritual energy circulated within them, a faint layer of light covered the surface of their combat uniforms.

The lights flickered faster and faster, and the piercing electrical sound had turned into a teeth-grinding "buzzing" sound.

Then, the psionic detector hanging on Xu Feng's chest suddenly went berserk and issued the highest level red alert! But strangely, the psionic power value on the dial was still extremely low, but in another area representing "unknown magnetic fields and mental fluctuations", the pointer had completely exceeded the limit!

"Captain! Look over there!" Xiao Liu's voice was trembling and his tone was hard to hide.

Xu Feng suddenly turned his head and looked in the direction of Xiao Liu's tactical flashlight beam.

At the far end of the garage, in front of a load-bearing wall, where there was originally nothing, a blurry shadow has appeared.

It was a semi-transparent "human figure" composed of countless gray-black flocculent substances. It hovered half a foot above the ground, without any obvious facial features, but what was most chilling was that the outline of the clothes worn by this human figure was exactly the same as the file photo left by the ashes on the floor tile before his death!

"Li... Vice President Li?!" Xiao Liu recognized the figure, feeling a chill run down his spine from his tailbone to the top of his head. "Wasn't he vaporized by 'Divine Punishment'?! How come he's still standing here?!"

"No matter what kind of evil it is, fire!"

Xu Feng pulled the trigger without hesitation.

"Bang bang bang bang bang!"

The bullets spat fire, leaving several blinding trajectories in mid-air, and accurately struck the gray shadow.

However, the specially made bullet, which was powerful enough to tear apart bulletproof steel plates, passed through the shadow without hindrance the moment it made contact with it, as if it were passing through a reflection on a layer of water. It struck the load-bearing wall behind it heavily, sending up a shower of rubble.

"Pure physical attacks are ineffective?!" Xu Feng gasped.

As an elite member of Bureau 749, his combat experience was severely tested at this moment. The bullets couldn't even hit it!

The translucent shadow seemed to be "disturbed" by the gunshot. These nascent ghosts did not possess extremely violent attack power; they could not tear apart a cultivator's body directly like demonic beasts. However, the obsession and extreme yin energy they carried could have a huge impact on the spirit of the living.

Accompanied by a low, indistinct sigh of despair, the gray shadow instantly transformed into a chilling gust of wind, rushing head-on towards Xiao Liu at the front.

"what!"

Xiao Liu had no time to dodge and was pierced straight through the chest by the shadow.

In the instant the bullet pierced his chest, Xiao Liu didn't suffer any fatal physical injuries, but he felt as if he had fallen into an ancient ice cave. Pure fear and chilling cold instantly invaded his mind, the scene before him began to distort, and countless charred faces screamed in his mind.

"Cold...so cold...there's fire..."

Xiao Liu clutched his neck in agony, his eyes rolled back, and he collapsed to the ground, trembling. Although he wasn't dead, the yin energy entering his body and the extreme shock had plunged him into a terrifying hallucination, rendering him completely incapable of fighting.

"Little Liu!"

Xu Feng's eyes were bloodshot. In that critical moment, he suddenly remembered a Taoist saying that his instructor had casually mentioned during training in Kunlun: "Evil cannot prevail over good, pure yang can destroy evil."

Since physical attacks are ineffective, let's use the essence of cultivators!

Xu Feng drew his standard-issue psionic battle sword from his back. Instead of blindly swinging, he frantically compressed all the spiritual energy in his body and poured it into the blade. Then, he bit his tongue sharply and spat a mouthful of blood, rich with the vigorous masculine energy of a martial artist and cultivator, onto the blade.

"Buzz—!"

The battle blade instantly erupted with a dazzling crimson light, its high-intensity spiritual power perfectly fused with the pure yang blood.

"Get out of here!"

Xu Feng roared and slashed fiercely at the dark figure that was trying to approach again.

"hiss--!"

This time, the sword failed to pierce through. The high concentration of spiritual energy and pure yang blood burned like a branding iron, instantly shattering the eerie black shadow. As the sword's edge pierced through, the shadow let out a sharp scream, black smoke billowing from the wound. A ghost is ultimately just a lingering obsession; when faced with restraint, it is utterly fragile. Its wary glance was not even completed before it completely disintegrated in mid-air, vanishing without a trace.

The lights in the garage returned to normal, and the biting cold receded like a tide.

Xu Feng collapsed to the ground, panting heavily. He looked at Xiao Liu, who lay unconscious on the ground, his hand holding the knife trembling slightly.

Ghosts... they really do exist.

They are immune to all purely physical attacks. Although their combat power is not high, they are adept at using yin energy and fear to strip mortals of their reason. High-intensity spiritual power and pure yang substances can indeed easily repel or even destroy them, but for those billions of ordinary people who have no cultivation, this is undoubtedly a terrifying shock of being reduced to a lower dimension.

"Director..." Xu Feng's hand trembled as he pressed the intercom, his voice terribly dry, "The targets of the Great Purge... they're back. There are ghosts in this world..."

……

That night, terrified screams didn't just occur in the underground parking garage of New Chang'an.

In the mansion of an old European tycoon, the night security guard was so frightened by the sudden appearance of a ghastly white figure in the empty conference room that he fainted; on a desolate highway, a driver returning home late watched as a semi-transparent woman passed through his windshield, and although he was not injured, he was so frightened that he swerved and crashed into the guardrail; in hospital morgues across the country, the corridors, which should have been silent, were filled with chilling whispers.

These nascent ghosts do not have the power to destroy the city; most of them can only make people feel cold or implant terrifying illusions in people's minds.

But that's enough.

The sheer fear of the unknown, of existing in another bizarre form after death, spread like wildfire across the globe via the internet, like a plague. Thousands of years of scientific understanding have been shattered; humanity has finally realized that death may not be liberation, but rather an inescapable nightmare.

over nine days.

Gu Qing looked at the data that was jumping wildly on his retina, a satisfied coldness appearing in his eyes.

[System notification: A global paranormal panic has been detected! The cognitive anchor of "spirits after death" has been successfully established in the collective subconscious of all humanity!]

[The operating principles of the Faith Pool have undergone a fundamental adjustment, responding to the demands of the people, and the loss of Faith in the construction of the Underworld has been reduced by 99%!]

[The rendering speed of the "Netherworld" scene has increased dramatically... The estimated completion time for Fengdu Ghost City has been shortened to 15 days.]

"Fear to your heart's content."

Gu Qing slowly turned around, her back to the blue planet that was engulfed in a supernatural frenzy.

"Only when you are plunged into true fear in the long night will you understand what a merciful gift the establishment of the underworld is."