This world truly has gods, and for Zhang Shidao, this is a fact, not just a belief.
His eyes had long been able to see the shadows lurking behind all things, glimpsing the extraordinary world adjacent to reality.
Divine Spirits, Divinities—beings of extraordinary power influenced by human thought and worship, seen by the ancients as transcendent entities embodying inexplicable natural phenomena.
Yet among "them," there was no structured organization akin to mainstream religions. "They" were omnipresent, yet illusory and elusive.
Zhang Shidao believed that narratives such as the Heavenly Court, the Underworld, Heaven, and Hell were so widespread globally because they reflected humanity's attempt to comprehend the supernatural from a human perspective, borrowing from real-world organizational structures. The creation of mythological narratives naturally shared roots with poetry and drama.
