After evacuating from his checkpoint, Ji Yunsheng stopped going to work and instead stayed home to stream League of Legends. Several months later, he kept coming across videos about metaphysics on his feed, which he found rather strange. After June 2023, Ji Yunsheng frequently encountered videos detailing various supernatural occurrences and metaphysical phenomena from all over. This continued for several months, during which time his interest in metaphysics grew significantly, and he gradually began meditating for a short while almost every day. After practicing meditation for a few months, Ji Yunsheng became increasingly convinced that metaphysics was real, because during meditation he actually experienced sensations similar to what he had read about online. For instance, during his first month of meditation, Ji Yunsheng genuinely felt the flow of *qi*, and in subsequent sessions, he saw purplish light orbs, along with other physical reactions associated with meditation.
After practicing meditation consistently for half a year, Ji Yunsheng noticed something: his occasional headaches had gradually decreased since he started meditating, and for the most part, he no longer needed medication or suffered from minor ailments. His mindset had also subtly shifted without him realizing it. One year into his meditation practice, Ji Yunsheng felt that his desires had diminished slightly. Throughout that year, Ji Yunsheng’s mother was aware that her son was meditating and would sometimes tease him, saying, "Don't spend all day thinking about this stuff, it's not even real," or remarking, "I think you've lost your mind!" Ji Yunsheng would explain to his mother, "Meditation is real. I used to get headaches and need medicine, but now I hardly ever get headaches at all."
During this year, Ji Yunsheng went from simply understanding metaphysics to actually engaging with it, concluding that metaphysics likely existed rather than being purely fictional as people often claimed. Because he had experienced it firsthand, he came to understand that certain things cannot be explained by science. Time rolled on to late June 2024, when Ji Yunsheng came across a video on Kuaishou. The edited video went like this: a master says, "Superstition? Personally, I am not superstitious; I advocate believing in science." Right after that, while practicing punches, he generates a sonic boom. Then a Daoist priest tells us to believe in science before calmly jumping off a twenty-meter cliff. After stumbling upon this video, Ji Yunsheng became even more convinced that metaphysics truly existed. In the days that followed, he consecutively came across numerous metaphysical videos—some introducing meditation and cultivation, others about alchemy, and many featuring sword flight, among countless others.
Ever since the pandemic began, for reasons unknown, metaphysical videos started surging in popularity, and online discussions about metaphysics flourished. Some people commented: "With so many Daoist videos appearing and going viral, we aren't afraid of having too many videos; we're just worried one of them might actually be real." Others remarked: "Could Earth really be experiencing a spiritual energy revival? Who knows, maybe one day we'll transition from the scientific era into the era of cultivation." Over the years, Ji Yunsheng had also read quite a bit of online material regarding metaphysics. As for cultivation, the idea that it might actually exist was supported by two main factors: first, state secrecy, and second, the fact that the concept of cultivation can be traced all the way back to the Warring States period. During this era, *fangshi* (alchemists and occultists) began pursuing immortality, attempting to break away from their original social ties, achieve Transcendence beyond the mortal world, and live in carefree liberation. The culture of cultivation gradually matured during this period, forming different methods of attaining immortality, such as achieving immortality through great deeds, extending one's life by encountering immortals, and shedding the mortal husk to become an immortal. Another reason is that, several thousand years ago, classical texts and manuals documenting cultivation mysteriously vanished, leaving the term "cultivation" relegated exclusively to novels in modern times.
During this period, yet another video emerged that convinced Ji Yunsheng cultivation might genuinely exist. The video featured an organization—specifically, what people perceive as a supernatural research unit: the 749 Bureau. After stumbling upon this video, he searched for it online and discovered that such an organization actually existed. The 749 Bureau was initially established in 1974 by the Commission for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense, with the primary objective of researching and developing advanced weapons and equipment, particularly in the fields of weaponry and missile technology. In its early stage, this institution focused on technologies related to spacecraft and extraterrestrial beings, applying these innovations to national defense and military sectors.
However, the 749 Bureau has also been described as a scientific research institution dedicated to studying supernatural phenomena, operating as a psychological research department that achieved certain breakthroughs in this field. Rumor has it that the 749 Bureau successfully solved multiple major cybercrime cases and made groundbreaking contributions to advancing the nation's scientific and technological innovation. Furthermore, it was founded by Qian Xuesen; the predecessor of the 749 Bureau was the 507 Institute, established with Qian Xuesen's support and primarily tasked with researching supernatural phenomena and highly confidential projects.