At the sight of this...
The eerie Paper Figure Gu Zhe possessed remained silent for a long time.
"So it isn't just the human world in the Material World. The Netherworld Land is undergoing drastic changes too."
"It's as though more myths are revealing their presence, as though unimaginable beings are awakening from the Old Era! These changes aren't making the Netherworld more vibrant. Instead, heaven and earth are becoming ever more vast and cold, and the land ever more treacherous. Countless dangers and pockets of deathly stillness are constantly emerging."
"This is a forbidden zone for humanity, where the way of ghosts spreads and deathly despair expands..."
"And who knows what powerful beings and things lurk within that Void Astral Force? It gives me the terrifying sense that they might break free at any moment, revealing their supernatural power and danger. Perhaps that once terrifying, colossal Bone Dragon was merely one of them."
Gu Zhe had a premonition.
Perhaps those beings would sooner or later break free of the unfathomable layer of Nine Nether Astral Force and truly return from the unknown.
Gu Zhe couldn't help imagining what the world would look like then, with myths revived and gods and demons running wild...
And when that time came, would he still be able to control his own fate freely?
"And there's that 'mirage' spread across the sky.
"The countless scenes within it are clearer and more terrifying than those in the World of the Living. Is that because the places depicted are closer than the distance separating yin and yang?
"So...
"Besides, is this really a mirage?"
"Or some sort of omen..."
Some of those scenes inevitably reminded Gu Zhe of certain myths and legends.
Perhaps myths weren't entirely products of human imagination. Perhaps they came from ripples of information scattered through nothingness by those mysterious beings, then were sensed by chance by people with keen intuition and passed down.
Was that immense Heaven-Turning Wheel connected to the legendary cycle of reincarnation? A single glance inspired a sense of release. If the real thing appeared, countless ghosts might willingly rush into it...
What sort of dwelling was that Sky-Tilting Palace, seemingly rising tier upon tier? Was it Yama's seat, the location of the Ghost Capital?
And that endless Nether Sea, the River of Yanming, and the World-Crossing Bridge-were they the legendary Yellow Springs and Naihe...?
Then there were the Sacred Mountains, the Wondrous World, and the shadows of gods and demons. Were there other mysteries beyond the Netherworld, or did the Netherworld itself contain these strange regions?
As he thought about all this...
Gu Zhe couldn't help marveling.
"Beyond mystery lies more mystery, beyond heaven and earth lie other heavens and earths, and beyond worlds lie more worlds. Mere images can shock and awe, stirring longing and imagination. A mere wisp of their presence can shake heaven and earth and leave ghosts and gods dazed. There truly are always greater people-and greater gods."
"This world is so boundless and vast, so mysterious and unfathomable. Too many secrets await my discovery, and too many dangers and perils await me to overcome them one by one."
"Now yin energy is proliferating, and certain Netherworld rules are growing stronger. Danger and opportunity coexist not just for me, but for other ghosts and monsters too. Although things are more dangerous, there are more opportunities, and cultivation is easier. Everything is changing!"
The Underworld was far too vast.
Even with countless upheavals and tremendous changes taking place...
Distances here were on a much greater scale than on Earth in the human world. After observing for a while, Gu Zhe found that the impact on his Apartment and hotel wasn't particularly great for the moment.
The ghosts were simply uneasy, while the ghost beasts outside had grown somewhat stronger and more frenzied.
It seemed he needed to keep building his strength and speed up his paper cutting to protect his businesses and steady the ghosts' nerves.
More importantly, he needed to keep accumulating Spirit Points, upgrade his skills, and improve his strength. That was the foundation for coping with every change.
With a shift of his awareness...
A screen of light unfolded in his mind.
[Name: Gu Zhe] [Class: Mysterious Origami Craftsman] [Rank: Mortal] [Class talent: Ritual Transmutation] [Skills: Basic Paper Effigy Technique (proficient), Basic Paper Figure Technique (proficient), Basic Paper Artifact Technique (beginner), Basic Paper Control Technique (perfection)] [Spirit Points: 4.38] [Storage: Wooden Tumor Fruit ×9, nether spirit grass ×4, venomous demon vine ×1, octagonal mystic ice grass ×5, ghost tiger leg bone ×1, extreme cold stone ×2, inferior soul-nourishing black stone ×3, nether iron ore ×5, Low-Grade Talisman Coin ×1]
Most of the Apartment's rent had already been collected.
Business at the hotel had gradually settled down as well. In particular, some Vengeful Ghosts and evil ghosts had polluted souls, making it impossible to extract Spirit Nature from them.
As a result, he had accumulated only four Spirit Points over the past few days.
Gu Zhe's gaze swept over the first few skills. Four points weren't enough to bring any of them to perfection; he was at least one point short.
His awareness touched the perfected Basic Paper Control Technique again.
Gu Zhe shook his head.
Back then, advancing from mastery to perfection had required only three points. Now, upgrading it further required ten times that amount.
The road ahead was long and difficult. He still needed to accumulate more.
But Gu Zhe wasn't surprised or disappointed. In truth, even thinking that way was already something of a humblebrag.
He only needed to accumulate Spirit Points to level up without lifting a finger. If those supernatural practitioners out there, struggling to find their own way forward, learned about this, they would probably gnash their teeth with envy and resentment, crying that heaven was unfair.
They had to cultivate slowly, painstakingly searching for the next insight, the next secret method, and the next resource.
But he... only needed to accumulate Spirit Points and upgrade.
The requirements seemed somewhat higher than before, but it was merely a question of how long it would take.
Besides...
Gu Zhe actually felt a certain anticipation.
Did the higher requirement mean that going beyond perfection would bring a qualitative transformation? If so, what miraculous changes would it bring him?
That was even more worth looking forward to!
And there was something else...
Gu Zhe considered how both Yin-Yang Realms were changing now.
In that case, did Spirit Points-or rather, items containing Spirit Nature-exist in the real world?
If they did, could he buy or trade for them?
The things in his system storage were specialties of the Netherworld. Could he exchange them? And he hadn't directly extracted Spirit Points from that Talisman Money, either. Did it have purchasing power?
Or, if he earned money in the hidden world and the ordinary world, could he trade it for things containing Spirit Nature?
After all, wherever there were people, there should be a need to exchange goods and networks for trading them.
Spirit Nature was Spirit Nature, not yin energy or cold energy. It wasn't exclusive to the Netherworld, nor did it come only from pure ghosts. It was something found in objects imbued with Numinous Force everywhere.
The world was becoming stranger and more complicated by the day.
That wasn't entirely bad for him. It might also give him more room to maneuver.
His next steps were, first, to continue developing his Netherworld businesses and accumulating Spirit Points.
Second, to find opportunities to make contact with the mysteries of the real world and see whether he could obtain items containing Spirit Nature.
As for the real world, he should first enlist the government's help. Its reach was surely greater, and it knew more.
It even had two departments dedicated to handling mysterious affairs. If such things really existed, the government would certainly have more comprehensive information.
"The Jinyiwei and the Third Bureau?"
A sharp glint flickered in Gu Zhe's eyes.
"If I want to make contact with those things, I need to demonstrate my value. Right now, they're only sending Ming Xuan to communicate a little and learn about me because I haven't shown them any supernatural abilities in the real world. A few ambiguous rumors about the Netherworld can only carry so much weight."
"Now that firearms have become ineffective, my ability to protect myself has improved further. I can set aside some of my concerns."
"I can find an opportunity to demonstrate extraordinary abilities in the real world. Only power can earn genuine respect and make those coveting what I have think twice."
Gu Zhe naturally knew that, as time passed, more people would confirm the existence of the Gu Family's Netherworld businesses.
Methods like these surpassed the imagination of ordinary people and practitioners of the mysterious alike.
They would inevitably attract covetous eyes. That was certain.
He needed power in the real world too. Otherwise, every sinister schemer and petty clown would come looking for trouble. Just thinking about it was irritating.
"Ah, what? Uncle, don't worry. I'll ask what happened right away."
"Hello, Mr. Zhu. May I ask about Yucheng No. 9 Middle School... Mm, all right. Thank you, I understand..."
Hearing the voices beside him, Gu Zhe returned his attention to his physical body and looked at Ming Xuan.
"What happened?"
Ming Xuan looked deeply worried.
"We've lost contact with Xiao Fei's school."
"I heard the area where her school is located has been shrouded in mist. People can get in but can't get out, and no electronic signals are coming through."
Shrouded in mist?
People could enter but couldn't leave?
All contact lost?
Ming Xiao Fei really was unlucky. Why was she always the one running into trouble?
Could she be one of those legendary protagonists blessed with fortune, encountering mysterious events wherever she went?
Gu Zhe had a rough idea of what had happened.
The various realms were drawing closer, colliding and rubbing against one another. When tiny portions overlapped and merged, spatial changes would occur.
Within the world, the Spirit Tide's influence was shifting the world's rules toward the primacy of mind. With Gaia in upheaval as well, bubbles would appear in the void. These could be called grotto heavens and secret realms.
When worlds intersected, barriers still separated them on the whole. But relative to such enormous worlds, there would always be tiny peripheral extensions that merged, overlapped, and intersected.
That would give rise to Yin-Yang Lands, weird realms, spirit realms, nether realms, Lands of Mist, and so on.
Unlike secret realms and grotto heavens, which existed in the void and appeared through anchor points...
These places were more often embedded in reality. Thus, in the areas where reality merged with them, people would disappear and lose contact with the outside world. They had been drawn into those places, or the place they occupied had become a zone between two realms.
Gu Zhe had deduced this from the information he had obtained in the Netherworld and the Du Xiao Secret Realm.
He believed there were certainly others in the real world who knew about this. It was common knowledge in the mysterious world, not some closely guarded secret.
Or perhaps, during the years in which the world had slowly been changing...
The government had already encountered such incidents.
That was why it had established the Third Kind Contact Administration to handle them.