Sun Calendar 5748, June 30th, morning.
The sun and moon appeared together, stars shone brightly, and the sea of clouds churned.
The earth shook, beasts roared, and spiritual energy surged.
Humans breathed, planets breathed, and the universe breathed. With every inhale and exhale of humanity, oxygen entered and exited; with every inhale and exhale of a planet, spiritual energy ebbed and flowed.
With every inhale and exhale of the universe, gods arose and gods perished.
In essence, when the universe inhales, its core is abundant, life flourishes, and even primordial deities can be conceived. The entire cosmos trends towards prosperity and development.
If a planet also inhales at this time.
Then that planet will undoubtedly be in the golden age of the gods.
Corresponding to inhalation is exhalation. When the universe exhales, its energy rapidly depletes, life force wanes, and even gods lose their foundations, perishing in twilight.
The entire cosmos enters a low-energy state.
While it cannot be said that divine abilities cease to manifest, few can achieve longevity. Cultivation becomes difficult, and most life-bearing planets begin to transition into an era of spiritual decline.
If a planet also happens to be exhaling at this time, it will not merely transition into an era of spiritual decline, but directly enter it, making cultivation impossible.
Over two hundred years after Ding Yun's departure, although this universe was still in its exhaling phase, planets began to inhale. Even with the sparse energy within the cosmos, planetary inhalation would still convert vast amounts of spiritual energy.
This spiritual energy was insufficient to give birth to immortals or gods.
However, it was enough to reignite the path of cultivation.
Thus, with the onset of spiritual energy resurgence, the entire world underwent earth-shattering changes. For instance, the air became fresher, all things teemed with life, and vegetation grew wildly.
Furthermore, wild beasts mutated, and demons emerged.
And humans gained the ability to cultivate or activate their bloodlines.
After an initial period of chaos, many people and nations were astonished to discover that most mutated beasts were familiar, and most activated human bloodlines were also familiar, bearing an uncanny resemblance to the novels written by Ding Yun.
While saying it was identical might be an exaggeration.
It was at least eighty to ninety percent similar.
A crow that grew a third leg was akin to a Three-legged Golden Crow. A pheasant that molted into colorful phoenix feathers and could breathe fire was close to a Fire Phoenix. A snake with four claws and horns on its head was none other than a Flood Dragon. Could all of this not match the mythological universe described by Ding Yun?
It wasn't just animals mutating in those directions.
The human variants were the same.
Those who could enlarge their bodies were called Awakened of the Giant Spirit God bloodline. Those who grew snake tails were called Awakened of the Nuwa bloodline. Those who grew ox horns either claimed the Bull Demon King's bloodline, the Jiejiao Kui Niu bloodline, or the Renjiao Qing Niu bloodline.
Those who grew fox tails styled themselves as members of the Nine-tailed Fox clan.
Those with no discernible changes could only claim their pure human bloodline and diligently pored over all of Ding Yun's novels, seeking methods of cultivation.
Because of these changes, Ding Yun's novels exploded in popularity again after two hundred years. Countless people, as if perusing academic texts, meticulously read every word of her novels, hoping to glean more information about the preferences and weaknesses of various monsters to increase human survival rates.
Beyond this, another significant change occurred.
No one any longer believed Ding Yun's novels were mere fictional mythological universes. Everyone now considered her either a prophet, a survivor of a previous civilization, or a fortunate individual who had obtained data from a past civilization, enabling her to write about this mythological universe.
And the stories within this mythological universe.
Might just have actually happened.
Otherwise, how could their transformations be explained?
Eventually, even national governments were compelled to acknowledge this fact and included Ding Yun's novels as mandatory reading.
Simultaneously, a team of over a thousand experts was assembled.
Dedicated to analyzing and interpreting Ding Yun's novels.
And then, they did achieve some results. As mentioned before, Ding Yun's earliest martial arts novels were indeed derived from a martial arts world. Although they lacked complete cultivation methods.
The fragmented and incomplete techniques were genuine.
The martial arts principles involved were also real.
The mythological stories written later also contained numerous scattered principles and cultivation methods.
During the previous era of spiritual decline, when there was no spiritual energy, few cared about the cultivation techniques mentioned in those novels. Even if someone did, they could not achieve any results.
However, with the resurgence of spiritual energy, the physical changes in many people, the emergence of special abilities, or the activation of special bloodlines, coupled with their in-depth study of Ding Yun's novels, they eventually managed to grasp some clues. Even using the incomplete cultivation methods mentioned in Ding Yun's novels.
After numerous costly and fatal experiments.
They finally managed to painstakingly develop several standard foundational cultivation methods and promoted them globally.
Thus, humanity once again regained the initiative amidst this spiritual energy resurgence and the great mutations of all life.
And by virtue of those cultivation methods, they gradually reclaimed all lost territories in the following decades, suppressed mutated species, and once again stood at the apex of the food chain.
Later historians identified the year the foundational cultivation methods were compiled as the turning point for humanity's destiny.
That year was known as the First Year of Mythology. The first volume, first page, first major heading of the historical records from that year was titled—When Mythology Shone into Reality.
As historical records were compiled, Ding Yun's identity underwent a seismic shift. From being widely recognized as an author, she transformed into the most central, vital, indispensable, and undeniably unmissable special existence of the entire mythological era. Some called her an apocalyptic prophet, others the Mother of Mythology.
But regardless of the title.
Her importance was unquestionable.
This was something Ding Yun had not anticipated.
As for why such coincidences occurred, why Ding Yun's mythological novels, transported from other universes, materialized into reality in this world.
It was primarily due to the imprint she had left.
When Ding Yun inscribed her imprint onto the world's origin essence, this world was successfully taken over by the origin universe. Consequently, the mythological system of the origin universe naturally influenced this realm.
Furthermore, Ding Yun's novels had a vast readership.
In this world, they left an indelible mark, making the majority of its inhabitants unconsciously more receptive to the mythological system originating from the origin universe.
With these two factors combined.
When this world experienced a resurgence of spiritual energy, its overall changes naturally leaned towards the mythological system of the origin universe, exhibiting similar mythological mutations.
It could only be attributed to luck and destiny.