I fabricated myths to guide the revival of spiritual energy.

[Western Hunan, G56 Expressway, a devastated battlefield]

The smoke of gunpowder had not yet dissipated, and the asphalt road was full of potholes and scorch marks.

The terrifying "Hive Man" had disintegrated into a pile of lifeless insect corpses. But on the edge of the battlefield, a few surviving Golden Silkworm Gu still fluttered their wings in the dark corners, emitting a chilling "buzzing" sound.

Zhao Feng knelt on one knee, leaning on the broken sword that had lost its red glow and become rusty again.

He is too tired.

That "Demon Slayer" attack just now not only drained his physical strength, but also seemed to have overdrawn his soul. He felt as if countless steel needles were piercing his brain, and his lungs burned with every breath.

"Captain! Medkit! Quickly!"

Several surviving team members surrounded him and tried to bandage his bleeding nose and ears.

"Don't... don't worry about me..." Zhao Feng pushed the medic away and looked around warily. "It's not over yet... those bugs... there are still some alive."

"Sizzle..."

As if to confirm his words, a small cloud of golden insects suddenly flew out from under the wreckage of an overturned car not far away. Having lost the control of their mother, they became even more frenzied and chaotic, indiscriminately rushing towards the nearest wounded.

"Fire!!" Li Sen roared.

But the bullets were largely ineffective against these tiny targets. Several wounded soldiers, already incapacitated, were about to be devoured by the swarm of insects.

Just then.

"jingle--"

A clear and melodious bell suddenly pierced through the noise of the battlefield and clearly entered everyone's ears.

The ringtone had a strange rhythm that seemed to soothe the restlessness in people's hearts.

Immediately afterwards, an old, hoarse voice, yet tinged with a hint of nonchalance, drifted from the depths of the mist:

"Heaven and earth are natural, and foul air dissipates."

"The cave is mysterious and vast, the light shines brightly..."

As the obscure incantation rang out, the swarm of golden insects rushing towards the wounded seemed to have hit an invisible wall, abruptly halting in mid-air.

"Who?!" Li Sen turned his head sharply, pointing his gun at Misty.

As dawn broke and the morning mist rose over the mountains, a figure slowly walked towards them.

That wasn't a soldier, nor was it some kind of monster.

That was a Taoist priest.

But he didn't look like the kind of glamorous Taoist priest who charges admission to famous mountains and rivers at all.

He wore a faded, even patched, dark blue old Taoist robe, and on his feet were a pair of muddy cloth shoes with thick soles. His hair was casually tied up with a wooden hairpin, a mess of gray and unkempt hair.

He had a blackened purplish-gold gourd hanging from his waist, and in his hand he held a bamboo banner with tattered strips of cloth hanging from it, on which the four characters "Iron Mouth Predictions" were faintly written.

What was most striking was his complexion.

Pale, withered, and occasionally he would cover his mouth and cough violently, as if a gust of wind could blow him over.

However, there was an aura around this sickly body that kept even the bloodthirsty Golden Silkworm Gu away.

"Where did this Taoist priest come from? Stop! This is a military restricted area!" a young SWAT officer shouted nervously.

The Taoist priest (Gu Qing) stopped and slightly raised his eyelids, revealing a pair of murky yet unfathomable eyes.

"restricted area?"

Gu Qing chuckled lightly, then coughed twice. "All I know is that this place is filled with malevolent energy and teeming with demons. If I hadn't come, all of you would probably be stuck here feeding on insects."

"Playing tricks!" The SWAT officer was about to step forward.

"Watch out!" Zhao Feng suddenly shouted.

Suddenly, the swarm of insects that had been immobilized burst forth, abandoning the wounded and rushing straight at the seemingly unsuspecting old Taoist priest.

"Watch out for bugs!"

Facing the overwhelming golden cloud of death, Gu Qing didn't even blink. He simply and slowly extended two thin, bony fingers from his wide sleeves.

A yellow talisman was held between his fingertips.

The talisman looked very ordinary, like a five-cent printed item sold at a street stall.

But the moment Gu Qing's fingers pinched it, the talisman spontaneously combusted without fire.

"go."

Gu Qing casually tossed it aside.

The burning talisman transformed into a streak of light, precisely striking the center of the insect swarm.

"boom!"

There was no loud explosion, only a muffled burst of heat.

The golden silkworm worm, which had baffled modern armies and could not be killed even by flamethrowers, emitted a mournful "squeak" the moment it came into contact with the faint flame.

Immediately afterwards, as if they had encountered a natural enemy, their golden carapaces quickly turned black and carbonized, turning into a cloud of black ash in the blink of an eye, which fell down in a flurry.

one move.

Sold out instantly.

The entire room fell silent.

The soldiers who had just been pointing their guns at the Taoist priests were now all gaping open, as if they had seen aliens.

This is... the legendary Taoist magic?

Gu Qing dusted off his hands, didn't even glance at the dead insects, and walked straight toward Zhao Feng.

The surrounding soldiers instinctively tried to stop him, but Zhao Feng raised his hand to stop them.

Zhao Feng struggled to stand up, but the intense pain in his body made him stagger.

"Young man, don't move around."

Gu Qing walked up to Zhao Feng, looking down at him with a scrutinizing gaze, a hint of disdain, and a... barely perceptible sense of satisfaction.

"Using a mortal body to forcibly wield a sword of malevolent energy."

"Although you killed that insignificant insect puppet, your own meridians were also shattered by the evil energy."

Gu Qing shook his head and sighed:

"Killing a thousand enemies while losing eight hundred of your own. Is this the level of your officialdom now?"

Despite the pain, Zhao Feng gritted his teeth and asked, "Senior... who are you?"

"A name is just a label; you wouldn't remember it anyway." Gu Qing untied the purple-gold gourd from his waist, uncorked it, and a rich medicinal fragrance instantly filled the air. "You can call me... a wandering Taoist priest passing by."

"Or, a wretched old man who clings to old rules and refuses to die."

Gu Qing held the gourd to Zhao Feng's lips: "Take a sip. You won't die."

Zhao Feng looked at the filthy gourd opening and, without any hesitation, tilted his head back and took a swig.

It wasn't as bitter as I had imagined.

The liquid was spicy when it entered his mouth, but it transformed into a warm current after he swallowed, instantly flowing through his limbs and bones. The icy, malevolent energy that was rampaging through his body was instantly calmed down by this warm current, just like a mouse seeing a cat.

"Cough cough cough..." Zhao Feng coughed a few times because he was choked, but his face turned rosy at a visible speed.

"What...what kind of medicine is this?" Zhao Feng stared at the gourd in shock.

"It's not medicine." Gu Qing put the gourd back in and sealed the lid. "It's wine. Just some cheap grass roots and tree bark soaked in it."

(Actually, it was a low-grade spirit liquid redeemed by the system. Gu Qing himself was reluctant to drink much of it, but he went to great lengths to show off this time.)

"Thank you so much for saving my life, senior!" Zhao Feng wanted to perform a grand salute, but Gu Qing gently stopped him with the pole of the bamboo banner.

"Alright, stop with the formalities."

Gu Qing turned around and looked at the mess on the ground and the tunnel that was still smoking in the distance.

"I came down from the mountain this time because I foresaw that a 'great misfortune' would be born in this Xiangxi region, and I wanted to accumulate some good karma."

"Unexpectedly, it was still too late."

Gu Qing's gaze turned somewhat solemn as he looked up at the sky, as if he were looking at the unseen "Heavenly Dao".

"Master, what exactly are these insects?" Li Sen couldn't help but ask as he walked over. "Are they biological weapons?"

Gu Qing glanced at him, giving him the look of someone looking at an idiot.

"A biological weapon?" Gu Qing scoffed. "You call it a weapon?" Gu Qing shook his head. "Perhaps in a way, that's not wrong."

"That was a 'resentment' between heaven and earth. Now the world has changed, and spirits... cough cough, certain things have revived."

Gu Qing deliberately swallowed the word "spiritual energy" and used a vague term instead.

"They used to be buried underground and couldn't get out. Now, the lid is loose."

Gu Qing pointed to the ground beneath his feet:

"There are many things buried underground in western Hunan. This insect that came out today is just a scout."

"There are even bigger and more powerful ones waiting in line."

These words chilled everyone present to the bone.

"Then...what should we do?" Zhao Feng asked anxiously. "Our guns and cannons are useless against them. Are we just supposed to wait to die?"

Gu Qing stopped, turned around, and gave Zhao Feng a deep look.

"Guns and cannons are useless because you can't hit the 'point'."

Gu Qing stretched out his hand and pointed to the broken sword behind Zhao Feng.

"Wasn't your sword strike just now very useful?"

"The so-called 'Tao' is not in mountains and rivers, but in the human heart. If there is thunder in the heart, then there is lightning in the hand."

At this point, Gu Qing suddenly coughed violently, so hard that her back bent over, and a trace of blood even trickled down the corner of her mouth.

"Senior!" Zhao Feng exclaimed in surprise.

"It's alright..." Gu Qing waved his hand, wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, and gave a bitter smile. "Leaking secrets always comes with its own retribution."

"This humble Taoist priest should be leaving now."

Gu Qing picked up the bamboo banner again and walked somewhat unsteadily into the depths of the mist.

"Senior! Please wait!" Zhao Feng shouted, "The country needs you! We have many questions and would like to ask you..."

"nation?"

Gu Qing didn't turn around, but her voice came from afar:

"A nation has its own destiny, and a Taoist sect has its own rules."

"You are still too weak. You can't even sense the most basic 'qi'. Even if I gave you the Heavenly Book, you would only use it as toilet paper."

"Then where should we look for you?"

In the mist, Gu Qing's figure gradually became blurred.

"No need to look."

"When that flag is raised... those destined to meet will naturally meet."

"A flag? What flag?" Zhao Feng pressed.

But there was no further response from the fog.

Only the clear sound of the bell faded into the distance.

"Ring... Ring..."

……

After turning the bend in the mountain pass and making sure he was out of sight and surveillance, Gu Qing collapsed instantly, leaning against a tree and gasping for breath.

"Cough cough cough... This damn body, under the pressure of the system, is too tiring to pretend to be a master."

He took out painkillers from his pocket, chewed them, and swallowed them.

"System, what was the acting score just now?"

[Acting Rating: S]

Current Faith Value: +20,000 points.

[Effect Assessment: Zhao Feng and his team are now firmly convinced of the existence of "immortal cultivators." The image of that "wandering Taoist priest" will become the first "S-rank friendly unit" encountered in the official files.]

"Friendly?" Gu Qing sneered. "That's so it'll be easier to fool them later."

He glanced at the preview of the next chapter on the system panel.

"We just laid the groundwork with the 'flag'..."

"Now, it's time to give them a real visual feast."

"Zhao Feng, didn't you guys think those bugs were terrifying?"

"Then I'll show you what... the pressure of ancient gods and demons really means."

Gu Qing straightened up, his eyes becoming fervent.

"Next scene: Invoking the gods."

"This time, I'm inviting the God of War—Chi You."