I fabricated myths to guide the revival of spiritual energy.

[Deep in the Taklamakan Desert, coordinates E83°, N39°]

Three o'clock in the morning.

This should have been the darkest and quietest time of day. But in this once desolate sea of ​​sand, it was now illuminated by an eerie, ghostly light.

"Company commander, the instrument panel is completely malfunctioning."

The driver's voice trembled slightly as he pounded on the control panel of the armored reconnaissance vehicle.

On the screen, the compass was spinning wildly, the GPS signal was zero, and even the vehicle communication frequency was filled with piercing electrical noise, as if countless people were screaming shrilly.

Lei Dagang, the company commander of a reconnaissance company in the Northwest Theater Command, was frowning and staring intently ahead through the bulletproof glass.

Just two hours ago, satellites detected a high-energy heat source in this area. They were ordered to proceed overnight to investigate and uncover the truth.

But what he saw before him was beyond his comprehension during his twenty years of military service.

The once flat sand dunes have disappeared.

Instead, there was a landscape of pitch-black rock, as if the earth had been suddenly torn apart, revealing rotting flesh buried deep underground. The air was filled with the smell of rust and... a nauseating stench of blood.

"Stop the car," Lei Dagang ordered in a deep voice.

The convoy stopped about 500 meters from the black rock area.

The car couldn't go any further on the road ahead. The gravitational field there seemed to be distorted, even the high beams were slightly bent.

"First and second platoons, disembark and stand guard. Third platoon, set up heavy firing positions."

"Don't make any rash moves, something's not right here."

Lei Da jumped out of the vehicle, his tactical boots touching the sand, but it felt like stepping on the skin of some living thing.

He raised his infrared night vision goggles and looked toward the center of that black rock area.

The next second, he gasped, his scalp tingling instantly.

In the center of that black rock stands a "mountain" that is a hundred meters high.

That's neither an earthen hill nor a rocky hill.

Those were corpses made up of countless broken, rusty ancient swords!

At the very top of Sword Mountain, against the backdrop of a crimson waning moon, sat a blurry black figure.

The dark figure was clad in tattered armor, his long hair danced wildly, and a two-meter-long giant sword was held horizontally across his knee.

"What the hell is this?!" The instructor beside him asked, his throat dry.

"Whatever it is, let's shout it out first." Lei Dagang suppressed his fear and turned on the loudspeaker.

"Listen up, you men! This is a military restricted area! You have illegally trespassed on our territory! Lay down your weapons immediately! Put your hands up! Otherwise, we will take coercive measures!"

The sound echoed across the vast Gobi Desert.

Once, twice.

No response.

The dark figure on the sword mountain remained motionless, as if it were an ancient fossil.

But in Lei Dagang's intuition, a sense of crisis—being targeted by a prehistoric beast—was frantically alarming.

"Company commander! Look at those swords!" a soldier exclaimed in terror, pointing ahead.

The broken swords at the edge of the Black Rock District were trembling slightly.

hum-

hum-

At first, there was only a slight vibration, but a few seconds later, thousands of broken swords resonated simultaneously. The sound was deep and sharp, like the roar of metal, making everyone's eardrums ache and their hearts pound.

"He's warning us," Lei Dagang gritted his teeth. "Prepare for battle! Fire a warning shot!"

Da da da!

A burst of machine gun bullets shot into the sky, and tracer rounds pierced the darkness.

But this did not have a deterrent effect.

On the contrary, the gunshot seemed to have disrupted some kind of taboo balance.

At the summit of Sword Mountain, the dark figure that had been like a dead man slowly raised its head.

What eyes they were!

It was a deep blue, hollow, without pupils, and burning with suffocating will-o'-the-wisps.

Lei Dagang felt a buzzing sound in his brain, as if he had been hit by a heavy hammer.

Immediately afterwards, that aged, hoarse, yet supremely majestic voice exploded in everyone's minds—not through hearing, but directly through the vibration of their souls.

"Noise."

Just two words.

But it struck like a thunderbolt.

"call--"

A visible shockwave swept outwards from the Sword Mountain in all directions.

The sand and gravel on the ground were swirled up, turning into countless tiny wind blades.

"Defense!!" Lei Dagang roared.

But then, something even more terrifying happened.

An overly nervous machine gunner pulled the trigger in a fit of extreme fear.

"Aaaaaah! Die!!"

The heavy machine gun spat fire, and large-caliber bullets rained down on the dark figure like a storm.

"Don't shoot!!" Lei Dagang tried to stop him, but it was too late.

It’s over.

This is what everyone is thinking.

However, the expected carnage did not occur.

Those bullets flying at twice the speed of sound seemed to crash into an invisible, viscous slurry the moment they entered the Black Rock Zone.

Their speed decreased sharply.

The bullet began to spin, rub against each other, and glow red, then it was thirty meters away from the dark figure...

Completely hovered.

The scene seemed to freeze.

Hundreds of bright yellow bullets floated in mid-air, defying the laws of physics, forming a metal wall.

"This...this is impossible..." The soldier who fired the shot collapsed to the ground, his eyes glazed over.

Newton must be turning in his grave.

The laws of physics fail here.

A withered hand slowly extended from the dark figure on Sword Mountain, gently tapping the bullets from a distance.

"Ordinary iron".

The voice was full of disdain.

"Too weak."

"Not even worthy of being used as a sword offering..."

Jingle Bell……

As soon as those words were spoken, the hundreds of bullets suspended in the air instantly lost all kinetic energy, like soulless objects, and fell onto the rocks in unison, making a crisp and pleasant impact sound.

Immediately afterwards, the shadowy figure slightly hooked its finger.

boom!

An invisible force suddenly appeared and crashed heavily into Lei Dagang and his convoy.

The armored vehicle, weighing over ten tons, was overturned like a toy, rolling more than a dozen times on the sand before coming to a stop.

The soldiers were thrown around, feeling dizzy and disoriented. Although they were not in mortal danger, the sense of powerlessness that welled up from the depths of their souls completely shattered their will to fight.

This is not a battle.

This is a dimensional reduction attack.

This is the crushing power of mythology over technology.

"roll."

The last word was uttered.

The black mist churned and instantly engulfed the entire sword mountain, once again concealing the terrifying figure.

……

[On the edge of Black Rock District, in a secluded spot]

[Faith Points Calculated: +800 points.]

[Source: The extreme fear and collapse of worldview of frontline soldiers.]

Gu Qing, wrapped in a trench coat, held a wad of cash he had just taken from the poachers, a pale smile curving his lips.

He did not actually kill anyone.

That "Sword Tomb Guardian" was nothing more than a high-end holographic projection with localized force field control that he had spent a fortune to acquire.

That feat of catching a bullet with his bare hands had almost depleted all the confidence he had just accumulated.

"Although it's a little heartbreaking, this GG... was worth it."

Gu Qing looked at Lei Dagang and the others, who were scrambling out of the armored vehicle in a disheveled state, with a deep gaze.

Only by making the most elite soldiers feel despair can the highest-level decision-makers feel desire.

"Go back and report the news."

Gu Qing turned around and disappeared into the vast night, leaving only a whisper that was blown away by the wind.

"Tell those sitting in offices that times... have changed."