Chapter Eighteen: The Foundation of the World Tree

In the beginning, when Pangu split heaven and earth, though the sky and the earth were separated by ninety thousand miles, people could still climb to the heavens step by step along the Celestial Ladder, while immortals could descend to the mortal world via the same path. The legendary Celestial Ladder was none other than Jianmu. In this way, mortals and gods traveled freely between realms. But later, an evil deity named Chiyou descended upon the world, inciting the Miao tribes to rebel and spreading chaos among humanity. To protect the good people from harm, the Yellow Emperor engaged Chiyou in a grand and lengthy battle, ultimately triumphing with the aid of the divine Nine Heavens Mysterious Lady.

Having learned from Chiyou’s turmoil, Zhuanxu realized that the lack of boundaries between gods and mortals brought more harm than good, as their constant intermingling threatened order. Thus, he commanded Zhong and Li to sever the passage between heaven and earth, barring mortals from ascending and preventing gods from descending at will.

Zhong and Li obeyed: one raised the sky, pushing it ever upward; the other pressed the earth firmly down. Thus, what was once a manageable distance became a vast gulf. After the severing of heaven and earth, gods could still descend to the mortal realm through great magical power, but mortals were forever barred from the heavens. The boundless Celestial Ladder, Jianmu, became an impassable chasm between the two worlds.

Although mortals could no longer ascend, the powerful beings of the heavens still visited the mortal world, their immense influence undiminished. To counter this, Yu the Great forged the Nine Provinces Cauldron to suppress the fate of the nine regions, strengthening the seal of the mortal realm. Thus, visiting immortals found their powers drastically diminished, reduced to a mere fraction, constrained by the limits of the earth’s veins, which stabilized and no longer suffered catastrophic disasters.

Until the era of the First Emperor, the Ancestral Dragon, who unified the realm. He gathered all the gold under heaven and arranged twelve Golden Men around the Nine Provinces Cauldron, sealing the passage between heaven, earth, and the mortal realm completely. Heaven, earth, and mortals were intimately connected; now, with the separation of the mortal realm, heaven and earth merged into the Spirit Realm. Ghosts, gods, and mystical beings from other realms could only reach the mortal world through the Spirit Realm, projecting themselves as shadows or spirit bodies, never in their true form—even those as powerful as the sages.

Thus, the mortal realm was no longer disrupted by otherworldly forces. Yet, this also caused the spiritual energy of the mortal realm to gradually dwindle, until no magic could be practiced, transforming it into a world of science without the cultivation of mystical arts.

As a result, ghosts and spirits had no desire nor ability to enter the mortal realm, for their mighty powers could not be wielded. But this peace was not to last. Jianmu, which drew its strength from the mortal realm to sustain all worlds, now faced a crisis: as the mortal realm’s spiritual energy faded, Jianmu had to find a new source. After much study across the realms, it was discovered that Jianmu had mutated and begun absorbing the power of souls. Deprived of spiritual energy, mortals grew weak, but their soul power became astonishingly strong.

The emergence of strange worlds in the Spirit Realm attracted the attention of major sects. Through repeated investigation, they found these worlds to be incomplete, bizarre, and hardly worlds at all. Yet within them were many small realms gradually taking shape, their origins curious and unfathomable.

It was only upon the discovery of the mortal world, and through research into Jianmu’s connection to it, that the truth was revealed: the small worlds of the Spirit Realm were formed from the dreams of ordinary mortals, from their collective consciousness and faith, from their beliefs and willpower. In short, the newborn worlds of the Spirit Realm were shaped by the soul power—mental strength—of the mortals. Thus, even the weakest mortal was the most powerful being.

Consequently, all realms began to pay attention to this world devoid of spiritual energy, devising countless schemes to breach its barriers and seize its power. Though the suppression of the Nine Provinces Cauldron and the Twelve Golden Men was formidable, some managed to slip through, causing irreparable harm to the mortal realm. This, in turn, affected other worlds, triggering greater upheavals, for the mortal realm was the foundation of Jianmu. Therefore, all realms sought agreement with the mortal rulers—Yu the Great and the Ancestral Dragon—to establish the Spirit Realm Agency, a joint organization to handle supernatural events and interworld trespassers, with the authority to eradicate those causing grave disruptions.

Thus was the Spirit Realm Agency born. Its agents are typically mortals who, through special means, enter the Spirit Realm to cultivate, then return to the mortal world to manage supernatural incidents within their cities.