I fabricated myths to guide the revival of spiritual energy.

Located on the western foothills of the Kunlun Mountains, at an altitude of 3800 meters.

This area is a "no man's land," neither a scenic spot accessible to tourists nor a core area of ​​interest to research teams. Only a single red-brick forest ranger station, built in the 1980s, stands forlornly in the windy spot.

Old Chen has been guarding this station for forty years.

His face was so wrinkled it could trap a fly, his skin was the typical high-altitude red, and his hands were as rough as withered tree bark. In these mountains, he believed he had seen all sorts of strange things—from the gunshots of poachers to the growls before an avalanche, to the legendary packs of man-eating wolves.

But what happened this afternoon shattered all the "common sense of mountain dwellers" he had built up over his life.

……

3 PM.

Old Chen was sitting by the stove roasting potatoes, his brow furrowed.

"Where's Kuroko?"

He called out. Usually at this time, his old black dog "Heizi," whom he had raised for fourteen years, would have been snoring by the fireplace.

Hei Zi is too old. For a dog, fourteen years old is equivalent to ninety years old in human years. Not only has it lost its teeth, but it also suffers from severe rheumatoid arthritis, and its hind legs are almost paralyzed. For the past two weeks, Hei Zi has even had difficulty standing up to eat, and Old Chen has even mentally prepared himself to bury it in the back hill in the spring.

"Kuroko!"

Old Chen pushed open the heavy wooden door, and a cold wind rushed in.

The courtyard was empty.

There was only a line of plum blossom-shaped footprints on the snow, crooked and twisted, yet extending with unusual determination towards the pine forest behind the mountain.

"This stupid dog, is it courting death?"

Old Chen's heart skipped a beat. He knew that some old dogs, before they died, would leave home alone and find a quiet place to die so as not to sadden their owners.

"No way, I'd rather die on a warm bed!"

Old Chen grabbed the double-barreled shotgun from the corner of the wall, put on his sheepskin coat, and followed the footprints, stumbling along the way.

……

This chase lasted for two kilometers.

Old Chen was panting heavily, his heart pounding. But the more he chased after him, the more uneasy he felt.

First and foremost, it's your own body.

He also suffers from chronic leg pain, and normally walking on snowy roads like this would cause his knees to ache like they're being pricked with needles. But today, after running two kilometers, apart from being a little out of breath, his knees felt warm and full of energy.

Secondly, there's the air.

Today's wind lacked that irritating earthy smell; instead, it carried an indescribable, delicate fragrance. Inhaling it felt like swallowing melted snow water—cool and refreshing, yet subtly sweet.

"Woof! Woof woof!"

Suddenly, the sound of dogs barking came from ahead.

His voice was strong and clear, like a bell.

Old Chen suddenly stopped in his tracks, wondering if he had misheard. Was that Hei Zi's bark? It hadn't even been able to hum last week!

He crouched down, pushed aside a clump of bushes in front of him, and looked toward the source of the sound.

Upon seeing this, Old Chen nearly dropped his hunting rifle.

Ahead was a sunny, open slope.

The old black dog, who should have been bedridden, was now standing in the middle of the snow. Its once dry and matted fur was now glistening with a sheen in the sunlight; its tail, which always dragged on the ground, was now held high and waving rapidly like a flagpole.

It's running.

It's jumping.

It looked like a strong, newly grown dog, frolicking around a huge blue stone.

On that blue stone, a figure that struck fear into the hearts of all the people of Kunlun Mountain, was lurking.

It has grayish-white fur, black rings, and a long tail that hangs down like an iron whip.

snow leopard.

"King of the Snow Mountains"!

Old Chen's scalp tingled instantly. This snow leopard was enormous, with a shoulder height of at least sixty centimeters, clearly a top predator in its prime.

That's it. The trolls are doomed.

Old Chen raised his hunting rifle with trembling hands, trying to aim. Although he knew that with his old, worn-out rifle, it would be difficult to inflict a fatal wound on an adult snow leopard at this distance, and it might even provoke it.

But he couldn't just stand by and watch his old friend get eaten.

However, the next second, an even stranger scene unfolded.

The snow leopard did not pounce on the black cat that was running around and barking.

It didn't even glance at the dog.

It was like a sculpture, sitting upright on the bluestone, its amber eyes fixed on the sky directly above.

Its demeanor was no longer that of a predatory beast, but rather...

Devotion.

That was the look Old Chen had only ever seen in the eyes of Tibetan pilgrims.

"Waaah—"

The snow leopard let out a low growl.

Immediately afterward, under Old Chen's astonished gaze, this proud king of the snow mountain slowly lowered its head, bent its forelimbs, and lay its entire body on the bluestone.

It is kneeling in worship.

Facing that empty void.

"Woof..."

The black cat, which had been frolicking, seemed to sense some kind of pressure. It stopped calling out and, imitating the snow leopard, faced the same direction, bent its hind legs, sat on the snow with its rump drooping, and drooped its ears, as if listening to some kind of instruction.

A leopard and a dog.

Natural enemies and prey.

At this moment, however, they were as harmonious as a pair of believers offering incense together.

The wind stopped at that moment.

Old Chen felt his vision blurring. He vaguely saw that in the air where the snow leopard was kneeling in worship, there seemed to be some fine, crystalline dust particles dancing in the sunlight.

The dust particles did not fall to the ground, but floated against gravity, outlining a blurry human figure before disappearing without a trace.

"This...this is the mountain god manifesting himself?"

Old Chen is a long-time member of the Communist Party and usually doesn't believe in these feudal superstitions.

But at this moment, looking at the intelligent snow leopard and the black dog that seemed to have regained its youth, his firm materialistic worldview began to waver.

He slowly lowered his gun.

In such a solemn, almost sacred atmosphere, firing a gun would be a desecration.

A long time passed.

The snow leopard stood up again. It took a deep look in that direction, then turned its head and gave Old Chen, who was hiding behind the bushes, a dismissive glance.

There was no murderous intent in his eyes, only a calmness that seemed to say, "You saw it too?"

Then, it flashed and transformed into a gray-white lightning bolt, disappearing into the vast snow forest.

"Kuroko!"

Old Chen called out.

Hei Zi shook off the snow and ran over happily, bumping into Old Chen's arms and sticking out his tongue to lick Old Chen's face.

Hot.

Full of vitality.

Old Chen touched Hei Zi's back; it felt solid and strong, the original skin and bones were gone.

"Amazing... absolutely amazing."

Old Chen, holding his dog, plopped down on the snow, gazing in the direction where the snow leopard had just knelt in worship.

That was the edge area where Gu Qing had previously released the "trace amount of spiritual dust".

Old Chen didn't know what spiritual energy was, nor did he know what a system was.

All he knew was that the world had changed on this mountain.

……

That night, the lights at the forest ranger station stayed on all night.

Old Chen sat at the table and opened the yellowed notebook used to record his patrol logs.

The usual log entries were all the same: "On such and such a day, sunny, nothing unusual, patrolling the No. 2 forest area."

But today, Old Chen's hand, holding the pen, hovered in mid-air for a long time before finally falling heavily to the ground.

He wrote down a passage on the paper, extremely hasty, yet powerful:

"October 24th, 3:15 PM."

"I saw the mountain god appear on the west slope."

"My dog ​​Heizi, fourteen years old, was a cripple this morning, but by the afternoon he could run, jump, and chase rabbits."

"I also saw a large snow leopard. It didn't hurt anyone; it was bowing its head in that direction."

"The air in these mountains has changed. My leg pain, which I've had for thirty years, doesn't hurt tonight."

"I dare not tell outsiders about this, for fear of being seen as crazy. But I'm writing it down as a record."

"The world is probably about to change."

Closing his laptop, Old Chen looked out the window at the dark mountains.

Little did he know that his unremarkable diary would soon be listed as one of China's top-secret files, codenamed: [Kunlun Zero Eyewitness Record].

Not far from him, at the source of what he regarded as a "miracle," Gu Qing was planning something even bigger.

……

[System Interface]

[The seeds of "folklore" have been detected.]

[Faithfulness score slightly increased: +2 points (from Lao Chen's unwavering belief).]

Current credit balance: 54 points.

Gu Qing did not pay attention to these insignificant two points of credibility.

His gaze was fixed on the tablet in his hand—a high-resolution satellite map he had obtained from the black market.

"The show on the ground is over."

"Next, it's time to blind the eyes of the heavens too."

Gu Qing pointed her finger at the main peak of Kunlun Mountain.

"System, how much credibility do I need to make this main peak completely disappear from satellite maps?"

[Answer to host: It takes 100 million points of faith power to physically make a mountain disappear.]

But what if it's just about deceiving optical imaging and radar waves...?

[Only 50 points required.]

Gu Qing's lips curled up.

"Then let satellites all over the world witness this 'disappearance'."