Lost Mythic Age

"Stonepress Station has arrived. Please exit from the left carriage doors."

Zhou Yao followed the crowd off the subway, the chilling aura that had shrouded his body dissipating for the most part the moment he stepped out of the carriage.

He looked back at the behemoth, and a string of text appeared clearly before his eyes.

Yin Mountain Metro

Category: Underworld Creation

Rank: Unknown

Description: Unknown

The subway train sped into the depths of the tunnel, the darkness swallowing it like an invisible giant maw.

Zhou Yao shivered and quickly walked out of the station. Only when the sunlight shone upon him once more did he whisper in a voice only he could hear, "Another station added."

People came and went around the subway station, all accustomed to everything before them, yet the millions of residents living in Yin Mountain City seemed not to realize one thing.

Yin Mountain City was merely a fourth-tier, backwater city under the jurisdiction of the Human Federation; it had neither the funds nor the capability to open a subway system.

Only Zhou Yao knew clearly that this subway station had appeared out of thin air two months ago.

At the very beginning, the Yin Mountain Metro had only two stops, but as time passed, the number of stations had been steadily increasing. In just two short months, it had already grown to eleven.

It had completely integrated into the lives of the residents of Yin Mountain City, becoming an indispensable part of their daily travel, and no one doubted the existence of the subway.

Except for Zhou Yao.

Walking on the way home, Zhou Yao's thoughts surged.

He was able to discover the anomaly because he was not a person of this world.

Two months ago, he was still an ordinary corporate slave on Earth. After being struck by an object thrown from a high-rise while heading home from overtime, he woke up to find he had transmigrated into this high school senior who shared his name.

Over these two months, Zhou Yao had gradually clarified the environment he was in.

This was a world where the extraordinary manifested. The lost myths of civilization's history had transformed into the Celestial Circuit Realm, shrouding the mortal world. Even an unremarkable fourth-tier city like Yin Mountain City had its corresponding realm.

Those who walked within the Celestial Circuit Realm to unearth lost mythology were known as Mythic Walkers.

This was no secret; it was content written into textbooks.

If Zhou Yao were to be admitted to university, he would even have the opportunity to step into the Celestial Circuit Realm through official Human Federation channels and become a Mythic Walker who mastered mythic power.

However, the appearance of the Yin Mountain Metro cast a shadow over Zhou Yao's heart.

There had always been talk of mythic invasions on the internet. The root cause lay in the fact that the lost mythology within the Celestial Circuit Realm had begun to merge with the present world, thereby triggering the disaster of mythic invasions.

Without a doubt, the Yin Mountain Metro was a mythic invasion.

Although Yin Mountain City was a fourth-tier small city, it still had a certain number of Mythic Walkers. Yet, these people who mastered extraordinary powers had never taken any measures against the Yin Mountain Metro, allowing hundreds of thousands of people to flow in and out of it every day.

There were only two possibilities for this result: first, although the Yin Mountain Metro was related to a mythic invasion, the danger was controllable and not worth the official cost to intervene.

Second, everyone in Yin Mountain City, including the Federation's Mythic Walkers, had their cognition altered and simply did not realize where the problem lay.

Zhou Yao walked on the way home, his footsteps heavy.

The streets were thick with traffic. A middle-aged man passed by him, and a voice came from his phone: "Yes, yes, I'm taking the subway. It's only twenty minutes from Stonepress Station to Copper Pillar Station."

If it were the second scenario, it meant that the memories of the city's million-strong population had been tampered with and their common sense reconstructed.

Zhou Yao could perceive the anomaly only because he was a transmigrator, possessing memories of another world as a reference, but this did not mean his own cognition had not been affected at all.

Over the past two months, he had tried to hint at the truth to others, but it had not brought about the slightest change.

This made Zhou Yao realize that if he wanted to truly break all of this, he could only publicize the truth on a large scale or report it to the Federation authorities.

The Yin Mountain Metro could tamper with cognition, but it might not be able to interfere with real-world records. Building a subway was such a massive undertaking that there must be numerous archival records. As long as official forces compared the archives, there was a high probability they would find clues.

But doing so would undoubtedly expose Zhou Yao's own secrets and place himself in danger.

How could an ordinary high school senior discover a mythic invasion that could even alter the cognition of Mythic Walkers?

One had to know that the Human Federation was a massive polity that integrated major civilizations and possessed a noble class written into its laws.

Even if he exposed his own secrets and solved the trouble of the mythic invasion, in the end, facing the covetous eyes of various parties, his fate might not be any better than facing the mythic invasion head-on.

"Destiny, after all, must be held in one's own hands!"

Zhou Yao whispered softly.

Turning past the final street, Zhou Yao walked into an old residential complex.

In the security booth, an old man lowered his head to flip through a yellowed newspaper. Several bright red floral quilts were hanging on iron racks downstairs, and the pungent smell of laundry detergent drifted with the wind. From the tea house on the first floor came the clattering of a mahjong machine, mixed with a few rude laughs and curses, blending into the street noise.

Returning to his home on the fifth floor, the room was empty, but Zhou Yao had long since become accustomed to this.

As early as when he was twelve, the original owner's parents had passed away in an earthquake.

The original owner's aunt had wanted to take him to Ganyang City, but due to the Human Federation's strict Household Registry Law and the original owner's own resistance, she had to give up, switching to providing a generous monthly living allowance instead.

Relying on his aunt's allowance and the inheritance left by his parents, the original owner was able to study until his senior year of high school.

As for Zhou Yao transmigrating here, that was another matter entirely.

Pushing open the bedroom door, a huge floor-length mirror stood beside the wardrobe, reflecting Zhou Yao's appearance.

The mirror reflected a handsome face with sharp, angular features; his slightly long black hair nearly brushed his brows, and his skin appeared somewhat pale from a long-term lack of exercise.

The most striking feature was his eyes—the pitch-black irises were like brilliant stars in the night sky, and if one gazed deep into the pupils, it seemed as though unknown shadows were surging within.

Zhou Yao's gaze flickered, and the virtual interface appeared once again.

Name: Zhou Yao

Rank: Mortal

Talent: None

Mythology Factor: 100

Avatar: None (You may select mythological materials and consume 100 Mythology Factor points to create an avatar.)

As a transmigrator, Zhou Yao naturally possessed some peculiar traits.

From the very first day he arrived, Zhou Yao discovered that his eyes could see through creations related to mythology, though the detailed information regarding the items was limited by his own cognition.

It was largely thanks to this ability that Zhou Yao was able to discover the Yin Mountain Metro.

As for his other ability, creating an avatar, it required mythological materials and 100 Mythology Factor points; just by the names alone, he knew these two things were related to the Celestial Circuit Realm of the Lost Mythology.

Zhou Yao was merely an ordinary person and had no channels to enter the Celestial Circuit Realm to obtain myth-related creations, so he had not cared about it at first.

That was until the Yin Mountain Metro gradually revealed its nature as a mythological invasion, placing immense pressure on Zhou Yao.

Faced with the mythological invasion, Zhou Yao's first thought was to leave Yin Mountain City.

However, the Human Federation had a strict Household Registry Law; ordinary people found it difficult to leave their registered location and spent their entire lives living in a single city, which was even more true for Zhou Yao, a high school senior.

The most legitimate path was to attend university in another city through the college entrance examination; only in this way could one break free from the restrictions of the household registry. But the growth rate of the Yin Mountain Metro far exceeded Zhou Yao's expectations, and he might not be able to wait until he was admitted to university.

In this way, creating an avatar to master extraordinary power in advance became Zhou Yao's only hope for self-preservation.

Thus, Zhou Yao began to actively collect information regarding mythological materials and, relying on his special ability to see through mythological creations, searched continuously throughout the area of Yin Mountain City.

By searching proactively, Zhou Yao actually found quite a few targets.

Some large shopping malls, specialty shops, and antique streets within Yin Mountain City all sold low-level mythological materials.

But what disappointed Zhou Yao was that when it came to mythological materials, even the lowest-level wandering soul fragments cost hundreds of thousands.

The houses in the old residential districts of Yin Mountain City were not worth much, and even if he sold his house, he could not scrape together the funds to purchase mythological materials.

Helpless, Zhou Yao could only try to scavenge for bargains.

After lingering in various shops and antique streets for over a month, Zhou Yao finally found an inconspicuous piece of mythological material two weeks ago.

Thinking of this, Zhou Yao opened his drawer and took out a thumb-sized glass bottle.

Through the light from the window, a tiny hair inside the glass bottle reflected a golden glow.

[Hair of Unknown Rat Demon

Type: Demon Remains

Quality: False God Ember

Mythological Trait: Unknown

Description: A hair from an unknown rat demon originating from the Shattered Realm. Divine wind lingers upon it, concealing its form; it is invisible to those not fated with the rat demon clan. If one listens closely, it seems as though bewitching demonic whispers remain.

"Where there is a sage, there is a thief!"]