After the Great Dao Died

“The Emperor is a tyrant, taxing without restraint, sparing not a single chicken or pig, scraping every last copper. He forces the common folk to sell their children and pawn their wives, leaving starved corpses to litter the wilds. He empties the homes of the poor until they ring hollow, and the roads echo with the wails of the suffering. He drives the people like cattle and sheep, enslaving the masses like dogs and horses. Decrees fall upon the provinces, ordering the excavation of canals. Iron shackles clank, locking the flesh and blood of the innocent. Leather whips howl, driving the commoners to the yellow springs of the underworld.”

“Within two years, forty-nine canals! Cleaving mountains and filling valleys, shattering the tombs of ten thousand families. Breaching dams and cutting off rivers, destroying the fields and homes of a thousand villages. Able-bodied men perish under the pickaxe; the old and weak die in the frost. Thirty million wronged souls wail in the long night; ninety thousand li of white bones lie exposed in the wilderness. The river waters run completely red, all from the blood and tears of the people. The soil and stones reek of blood, soaked in the marrow of the masses.”

...

A low voice recited the chant, the words drifting continuously into Chen Lingxi’s ears.

Chen Lingxi endured the severe pain in his internal organs and opened his eyes.

“I’m not dead yet.” Chen Lingxi took a deep breath, the movement pulling painfully at the blood scabs on his lips.

An earthen wall greeted his eyes.

Enduring the sharp pain, Chen Lingxi turned his head slightly and saw a few crude wooden beds. A few coarse pottery bowls and plates were piled in the corner.

The room was dark and damp, seemingly untouched by sunlight all day. Combined with the bitter winter, it was freezing cold.

But he didn’t have time to despise this reverse-facing room. He quickly scolded in a hoarse voice, “Liu Changle, do you have a death wish?!”Liu Changle, huddled on another bed, had a pale face and an emaciated figure.

He turned his head and licked his own scab-covered lips, his gaze incredibly deep.

“Lingxi! We both came from official families, scholarly households. We studied the sages for over a decade. You even held official rank, once spirited and unmatched in glory.”

“But all because of that woman’s mirror divination, which the Emperor foolishly believed, both our families were destroyed. Now we are forced into this reverse-facing room as slaves...”

Liu Changle panted heavily, seemingly trying to suppress his own pain. “The world has changed. The Emperor is incompetent, and even this century-old Baosu Marquis Residence is plagued by schemers!

“The Master cultivates the Dao all day, ignoring the estate’s affairs!

“The Eldest Young Master is naturally cruel—no skin is left intact under his beating rod, and the slaves kneeling before his steps are beaten mute!

“The Second Miss is cold, without a shred of sympathy or pity.”

“The Emperor is a tyrant, so naturally his rule is tyrannical. This call to arms for Xiao Changlv’s rebellion—I say it is exceptionally well-written!”

“If he fights his way into Jingji Circuit, we won’t have to suffer as drug slaves anymore!”

Liu Changle said all this in one breath, his gaze remaining profound.

Chen Lingxi stayed silent. He barely managed to sit up and looked around.

Four beds, yet now there were only the two of them.

“It seems Zhou Hu and Zhu Luanwen couldn’t survive the medicinal effects this time. They’re already dead.”

Chen Lingxi took a deep breath.

“But how many more days can Liu Changle and I survive?”

Chen Lingxi closed his eyes, sharp pain flaring up from all over his body.

“I lived in a daze for over a decade. By the time my past-life memories of Earth awakened, I was already trapped in this miserable situation. How hateful!”

Creak!

With a harsh squeak, the door was suddenly pushed open.

A man around twenty-three or twenty-four walked into the room.

He wore a small black velvet cap with a flawless, milky-white piece of Hetian jade inlaid in the center. Dressed in a dark blue silk robe, his face was fair and clean, but his narrow, elongated eyes resembled those of a venomous snake.

“You two actually aren’t dead yet. What a stubborn lot!”

The man chuckled and tossed over a few packets of medicinal herbs. “These are tonic medicines bestowed by Chief Steward Zhao. Nourish your bodies. You two don’t need to work for the next couple of days. Just focus on resting.”

“This room of yours truly reeks.”

He backed out of the room as he spoke, walking straight away while still cursing, “Three doses of medicine and two of you drop dead. You scholars really are fragile. It’s a pity you don’t have the fate of nobles!”

Liu Changle sat up straight and snorted coldly. “That Wang Kong is just a dog flaunting his master’s power!”

Despite his words, he forced himself up to brew the two packets of medicine. Then, he helped Chen Lingxi sit up and fed him the brew.

“Lingxi! I’ve been dreaming constantly lately. I dream that a great river is suspended above my head. That river is like a white rainbow piercing the sun, its mist spanning the heavens. When it flows, it feels like silver mountains shattering and snowy peaks collapsing.

“It is as vast as a million heavenly soldiers marching silently with gags in their mouths, and as turbulent as the earth’s axis tilting and the very fabric of the world shaking.”

“You’ve read books on dream interpretation. Once your injuries heal, you have to interpret this dream for me!”

Trapped together in this prison-like marquis estate, the two of them could be considered life-and-death friends.

Liu Changle didn’t even drink any of the medicine.

“My condition is much better than yours. It seems I don’t need the medicine. I’ll leave these tonics all for you.”

Chen Lingxi shook his head. “You need to drink a dose as soon as possible too. This tonic is quite effective. After every medicine test, taking this helps us recover a bit faster.

“Chief Steward Zhao went to the capital to buy supplies. He’ll be back in five days at the most!

“If we don’t nurse our bodies back to health, we’ll have to test the medicines again when he returns. We’ll be in grave danger!”

Liu Changle’s gaze was profound. He shook his head and said, “I don’t need it. That medicine... won’t poison me to death.”

Chen Lingxi thought for a moment and didn’t urge him further.

“This Liu Changle is definitely hiding a lot of secrets.”

“Perhaps that venomous woman’s Mirror-Listening Technique really was mystical. She divined the fates of a hundred noble families in the Great Li Dynasty, claiming that many among them would bring chaos to the empire... My mother’s family was one of them, and even my Chen family was implicated!”

Sorrow washed over Chen Lingxi as he thought of his parents in this world.

It had only been two years since his memories awakened.

The memories of two lives intertwined. He was a modern man who had crossed over to this world, but he was also a son of the Chen family who had lived in the Great Li Dynasty for nineteen years.

The Chen family’s estate was confiscated and the clan was exterminated. The father and mother who had raised him both died because of it.

He had been reduced to a government slave and assigned by the Ministry of Justice’s Bureau of Penal Labor to the Baosu Marquis Residence in Yuanjiang Prefecture, Jingji Province, becoming a mere household servant...

Over the past two years, he had suffered immensely!

Chen Lingxi was weighed down by heavy thoughts, yet his gaze remained unwavering.

“There’s still a chance to escape.”

He closed his eyes, sinking his consciousness into his mind.

There seemed to be a point of light in his mind.

As Chen Lingxi focused his attention, that point of light suddenly flickered and then unfolded.

Sensing the scene within the light, Chen Lingxi was suddenly stunned!

“This Divine Chamber has actually undergone such a massive change!”

“Was it because of that dose of medicine?”

He wasn’t sure, but he didn’t have time to overthink it.

At this moment, his attention was completely captivated by the Divine Chamber!

—It looked like a miniature regional model, much like the neighborhood dioramas in the real estate sales offices of his past life.

But what shocked Chen Lingxi was... inside this Divine Chamber, buildings were layered one after another, resembling a giant dragon raising its head!

At the southernmost end was the towering gate of the marquis estate, its door nails arranged like golden pearls; moving north were Yin’an Courtyard, the rear courtyard, and the residential quarters, all the way to the reverse-facing building at the northernmost end.

Symmetrical side courtyards and wing rooms unfolded to the east, west, south, and north, forming a series of enclosed courtyards.

Past the residential quarters was the back garden. A pool of green water in the garden was shaped like a crescent moon, and an artificial mountain made of stacked Taihu stones looked exquisitely carved!

“This is the Baosu Marquis Residence!”

Chen Lingxi suddenly realized: “It’s not just the Baosu Marquis Residence! There are also the streets outside, the woods, and the Yuanjiang!”

Looking closely, he saw that the very center of this Divine Chamber was the northern courtyard’s reverse-facing building where he currently lay!

“The Divine Chamber is centered on my location. Scaled down, it covers an area about three hundred zhang wide and three hundred zhang long! It encompasses the Baosu Marquis Residence, as well as parts of the surrounding streets and the Yuanjiang!”

Chen Lingxi’s eyes brightened slightly.

And the speck of light hovering above this Divine Chamber seemed to have connected with his mind.

It was waiting for him to issue a command!

But an intense wave of pain caused the Divine Chamber in his consciousness to suddenly shatter.

The agony made it nearly impossible for him to focus his thoughts.

Twilight had not yet fallen, but the snow had already begun.

There was no fire in the reverse-facing room, and the wooden bed was as hard as frozen earth.

He lay on his back as his internal organs flared up in pain again. The warm throb of agony spread out, silently contrasting against the thin layer of frost on his cotton quilt, breaking his concentration.

Outside the window, the locust tree was so gaunt it seemed reduced to mere bones and sinews. The snow pellets striking its branches made a soft rustling sound.

The snow fell heavier and heavier.

Finally, as the last hint of dark blue in the sky was swallowed up, his mind suddenly settled a little.

Because he had finally subdued the pain, regaining his focus to enter the Divine Chamber once more!

In the void of the Divine Chamber, golden tadpole-like characters flickered in and out of existence.

“There is hope.”