How many unknown mysteries truly exist in our world?

Alleys that can’t be exited once entered, white-clad specters wandering through abandoned buildings, eerie footsteps in deserted schools late at night, strange glowing lights illuminating sewers—the Naraku Pit in Indonesia, which can be fatal just by passing it, the Valley of Death in the Russian Far East, and the various oddities appearing in the seas.

Whether it's mysterious ghost ships, underwater caves leading to unknown depths, or the doldrums in the ocean, existing technology cannot explain any of this. It's like an illusion, but some people insist that it all really exists.

Gods, immortals, magic, cultivation, souls, the underworld, or heaven—ancient people described these things that we now consider "non-existent" in detail. The *Classic of Mountains and Seas* records various strange beasts, not only with specific forms but also with detailed descriptions of what happens when you eat them. The secret methods recorded in alchemical books are closely related to modern medicine, botany, and even materials science.

The great floods and the creation myths of gods creating humans, which appear in almost all mythologies, seem to vaguely confirm something, as if there really are invisible connections linking different parts of the world that we now consider unrelated.

If that's the case, are martial arts, magic, cultivation, and alchemy all fabricated by ancient people? Are those yearnings and reverence for transcendence, ascension, enlightenment, and attainment lies?

If they are lies, why have these false things been passed down for thousands of years, and why do some people, even many people, including those in high positions and those who have received good educations, believe they are facts?

So, perhaps these mysterious and strange things have just changed their names and appearances and are lurking among us?

In today's society, science is the method and tool for exploring the truth behind everything in the universe, a bridge to the 'Tao' and 'Truth.'

When researchers throughout history have discerned the laws of how things work, when Newton discovered the interaction of forces, when Faraday perceived the connection between electricity and magnetism, when Franklin brought down lightning from the sky—when these events have passed for thousands of years, won't they become modern myths?

And science may represent the names of truth and Tao, enlightenment and God.

Whether it's magic or Taoist arts, you need to prepare materials, chant incantations, meditate on gods or runes, and perform rituals carefully. Chemical experiments also require preparing materials, memorizing experimental rules, recalling experimental steps, and then starting the experiment.

Humans imagine that magic can create carriages and flying carpets that move without horses, and humans can now create cars and airplanes... what is this? This is the miracle of science, and this miracle does not require luck or anyone's pity, only learning knowledge and then joining the huge machine called human civilization, so that it can be born from your and my hands... isn't this magic, Taoist arts, alchemy?

In fact, there are too many such examples, such as the Philosopher's Stone, the undying Yang God, the immortal body, the eternally happy celestial realm, cultivating immortality and ascending... these ancient concepts actually exist now.

It's just that they have changed their names and forms in new environments: for example, cybernetic mechanical bodies that can carry human will, 'servers' for uploading consciousness and souls, immortal bodies obtained through genetic research, electronic worlds like the Matrix but infinitely happier, and superhuman bodies that can freely enter and exit the 'Qingming' and 'Cosmos' through various means of transformation and training.

These ancient things existed in the past and still exist now. They were difficult to obtain in the past, and they are still difficult to obtain now, but no one can deny these possibilities, no one can deny their 'existence.'

It has always been here, right beside us, quietly watching and accompanying us. It's just that humans are no longer the humans they once were, and magic is no longer the magic it once was, so they hide, slumber, and no longer appear.

Until one day, those who have passed away return, those who have been dormant awaken, and those who were once far away once again approach our world.

Su Zhou, a seventeen-year-old high school student, an 'ordinary' person who loves strange news and tales, is currently holding his mobile phone, replying attentively to messages sent by friends on the forum under the seven-month holiday sunshine.

The tour bus passes through a forest road, and the vibrant and lush scenery of the Southeast Asian jungle cannot attract his attention. What he cares about is never these 'ordinary' things. Amid the guide's rather exaggerated introductions and the loud snores of an old man in the front seat, he clicks the 'Send' button and then lets out a long sigh, placing his phone on his lap.

[Do paranormal events really exist in this world? Magic or cultivating immortality, do they really exist?]

He never imagined that his words would be prophetic, and what would happen next would tear apart all peaceful reality and gentle fantasy.

All the ordinary things, the boring but warm daily life, everything he took for granted would resolutely leave him, never to return.

On his lap, the unclosed phone screen still displays the beginning of a short reply.

[Of course.]

[They definitely exist.]