After the Great Dao Died

[Divine Chamber]

[Divine Ability: Vision Wander (Ready)]

[One: Chen Lingxi]

[Two: Unbound]

[Divine Ability: Thorough Awakening (Unavailable)]

[Divine Ability: Unknown]

[Divine Ability: Unknown]

...

A dense swarm of tadpole-like characters hovered in the void before quietly fading away.

Chen Lingxi’s consciousness hung in the void of the Divine Chamber, though he did not understand what Vision Wander and Thorough Awakening meant.But... it seems I only need a single thought to use this ready ability, Vision Wander, he thought.

With a shift of his will, his focus landed on the line of tadpole characters reading: [Vision Wander - Chen Lingxi].

In an instant!

The glowing model of the Divine Chamber in his mind abruptly zoomed in. His perspective plunged into the North Courtyard, sweeping over the row of reverse-facing servant quarters before locking onto the very building he was in!

His viewpoint shifted. He was no longer looking down from above, and the thick fog that had filled the Divine Chamber vanished.

Even though his eyes were completely closed, he could see Zhao Changle in his mind. He saw their battered beds, and from the corner of his eye, he even spotted the falling snow outside the window and the scrawny locust tree!

The crucial point was...

He still had his eyes completely closed!

The Divine Chamber is vast, he thought. It resembles a scale model, but it isn’t completely revealed at a glance. I need a pair of eyes to explore it.

The ”me” inside the Divine Chamber acts as those eyes.

Except... I don’t seem to be able to control the [Chen Lingxi] within the chamber. If that is the case, what is the point of this Vision Wander ability?

Reaching this point in his thoughts, he suddenly had an epiphany.

His consciousness focused on the [Vision Wander] column!

There are two lines under Vision Wander. The first is my name.

The second line says it is unbound. Does that mean I can bind myself to someone else’s field of vision?

The moment his mind grasped the true meaning of Vision Wander, the Chen Lingxi within the Divine Chamber seemed to receive a heavenly mandate and abruptly spoke.

”He who roams by sight must first witness the roaming of others, thereby riding the true nature of heaven and earth, commanding the shifting of the six energies, to wander the infinite!”

The words rang out in his mind like the toll of a massive bronze bell.

Chen Lingxi pondered for a moment before instinctively asking, ”I beseech the Divine Chamber for clarity: how do I bind a second candidate for Vision Wander?”

This time, the Chen Lingxi within the chamber did not speak. Instead, the fog beyond the window surged, reforming into another cluster of tadpole characters.

”Take an object they have handled, recite their name, recite their bazi, and offer it to the Divine Chamber!”

An object they have handled?

Chen Lingxi looked around. The first thing he noticed was a bundle of unboiled medicinal herbs.

Wang Kong has handled these herbs, and so has Liu Changle.

Wang Kong is highly regarded by Chief Steward Zhao, but at the end of the day, he is just a lowly servant of a miscellaneous household. Seeing through his eyes would not do me much good, or at least, the benefits would be negligible.

Liu Changle is hiding secrets, but he shares this room with me and is a government slave just like I am. We even report to the government office together every ten days! What he sees and does is identical to my own routine.

His thoughts raced as he continued to scan the room.

Suddenly, his eyes landed on an Incense Burner sitting on the table in the center of the room.

The Incense Burner was rather peculiar. Its bronze exterior was as dark as the night, with a faint, raised ghost-face pattern wrapping around it.

A single stick of incense jutted from it at an angle, thin as a spider’s silk. The burning tip pulsed with a dim red glow, making it look from afar like an ancient eye gleaming in the dark.

The smoke twisted like a dancer’s waist, curling gracefully into the air.

This Incense Burner...

Chen Lingxi’s eyes lit up.

He had been reduced to a government slave for over two years now, and a year and a half ago, he was assigned to the Baosu Marquis Residence!

He arrived right around the Eldest Young Master’s twenty-first birthday banquet.

For the occasion, Eldest Young Master Lin Suri had invited every single person in the estate to feast, right down to the slaves and servants!

After three rounds of wine, the young master had brought in Daoist priests to perform rituals and personally handed out numerous Incense Burners, declaring that he wanted the estate to be steeped in an incense fragrance that would never fade.

Now, a year and a half later, the daily incense sticks were still handed out more punctually than their meals.

Lin Suri handed out this Incense Burner himself, which means it is an object he handled.

Chen Lingxi’s eyes brightened even further.

Here in the Baosu Marquis Residence, the marquis himself spent his days secluded in Daoist cultivation. In the past year and a half, neither Chen Lingxi nor Liu Changle had seen the master of the house more than a handful of times.

The one truly running the estate now was the Eldest Young Master, Lin Suri.

Even Chief Steward Zhao hailed from Young Master Lin’s South Courtyard.

Not only does Lin Suri manage the household, he is also an imperial command official. He is in charge of patrols, public order, and fire prevention across Yuanjiang Prefecture. If I can see what he sees, maybe... maybe I could learn martial arts!

A sharp gleam flashed in his eyes.

Struggling to sit up, he turned to Liu Changle. ”Changle, it’s freezing in here. Hand me that Incense Burner, would you? The ashes might hold a bit of warmth.”

”We’re in the dead of winter and the ashes have settled to the bottom. I doubt it’s going to warm you up,” Liu Changle said, though he still reached over and passed the Incense Burner to him.

The bronze was ice-cold. How could a tiny ember on a stick of incense provide any real heat?

But Chen Lingxi did not care. He gripped the Incense Burner with his freezing hands.

Closing his eyes, he appeared to fall into a deep sleep.

In reality, his consciousness had once again descended into the Divine Chamber!

[Vision Wander!]

Inside the chamber, the manifestation of Chen Lingxi was also holding an Incense Burner, and he silently chanted, ”I beseech the Divine Chamber, let me witness the roaming of Lin Suri, thereby riding the true nature of heaven and earth, commanding the shifting of the six energies, to wander the infinite!”

”Jiawu, Bingyin, Renshen, Gengzi!”

At once!

A wispy trail of smoke physically manifested from the Incense Burner in Chen Lingxi’s hands out in the real world!

The smoke drifted upward, sliding through a narrow crack in the window and shooting straight toward the South Courtyard.

The exact same thing occurred within the Divine Chamber.

Strangely, Chen Lingxi’s perspective in the chamber shifted again. He detached from his own body and rode that wisp of smoke into the sky, once again looking down at the chamber and the sprawling Baosu Marquis Residence.

The smoke soared high into the sky before swooping back down, darting right into the South Courtyard and slipping into the East Hall!

It was the You hour, just after sunset.

In any other noble household, a wealthy scion would likely be out indulging in wine and women by now.

But inside the inner room of the East Hall, the young marquis, Lin Suri, was lying motionless on a heated lounger in a bizarre posture.

What is he doing?

Before Chen Lingxi could think about it, the wisp of smoke quietly sank right into the crown of Lin Suri’s head!

The surrounding void warped, and Chen Lingxi’s perspective shifted yet again.

He was now seeing through Lin Suri’s eyes!

He saw a magnificently decorated room. He saw an arched rosewood canopy bed a short distance away, draped in silver-red cicada-wing gauze. He saw a polished red sandalwood desk...

None of this was strange...

What was strange was that Chen Lingxi actually saw incredibly faint streams of qi drifting over from all directions and sinking into his host’s body!

What is this?

Spiritual qi? Yuan qi? True qi?

Chen Lingxi instantly felt a pang of regret for not memorizing Lin Suri’s posture earlier.

As the thought arose, his viewpoint adjusted again, allowing him to see Lin Suri’s entire body at once.

It shifted to a third-person view?

He was stunned, but he quickly seized the chance to study Lin Suri’s stance carefully.

His spine was arched like a bow. Only two points rested on the chair—his tailbone and the back of his skull. His waist and abdomen hung suspended in the air, while his limbs drooped loosely like willow branches. His legs were folded into an arc: his left heel pressed against his perineum, and his right ankle hooked behind his left knee. His entire body looked like a taut bow that had just been slackened.

This posture is insanely difficult, he thought.

Chen Lingxi quietly scrutinized Lin Suri’s form...

While in the Vision Wander state, his powers of observation were drastically enhanced.

After a long time, he realized that Lin Suri’s breathing followed a distinct rhythm, his chest and abdomen expanding and contracting in a steady pattern.

One inhalation with three pauses; one exhalation with five stops.

Every time Lin Suri drew a breath, it was as long and drawn-out as pulling silk, broken into three distinct pauses. It first entered his nose and paused at his throat. Then it sank into his diaphragm and paused at his stomach. Finally, it gathered in his dantian, seemingly pausing three cun below his navel.

Wherever the breath passed, that area would subtly bulge.

The entire process took roughly three times as long as a normal person’s breath.

His exhalation was even more peculiar: a single breath was let out in five broken stages.

The first stage was like a thread, barely audible. The second was slightly quicker, hovering on the edge of existence. The third abruptly turned heavy and muddy, as if he were forcing all the foul qi from his organs. The fourth softened, light as a spring breeze rippling a pond. The fifth was utter silence, leaving a long, empty gap between breaths—a gap so prolonged he seemed to have stopped breathing altogether.

He cycled through this endlessly: inhale three, pause three, exhale five, pause five.

During those pauses, his chest and stomach barely moved. Only his Adam’s apple twitched, as if he were swallowing that strange qi mouthful by mouthful, forcing it into his limbs and bones.

Is this... the legendary breathing technique?

Chen Lingxi speculated silently.

Right at that moment, Lin Suri finally stopped his breathing exercises. His bow-like frame returned to normal as he stood up.

His face emerged from the shadows of the lounger.

He was exceptionally pale—not a powdered, effeminate white, but the cool, translucent pallor of fine mutton-fat jade soaked in clear water.

His brows were shaped like distant mountains, their peaks sharply tailored like knife cuts, slanting up into his temples.

The corners of his eyes tilted up slightly, and his pupils were so dark they looked like two bottomless ancient wells.

This Lin Suri is maturing day by day.

The last time Chen Lingxi had seen him was three months ago, and the Lin Suri of then had been vastly different from the man before him today.

Having lived two lives, Chen Lingxi could see that Lin Suri possessed a profound stillness that completely belied his age.

Just as he was marveling at this, footsteps approached.

Someone stepped into Lin Suri’s line of sight.

It was a woman with an oval face and peach-blossom eyes. Her every glance overflowed with allure. She had an exquisite, curving figure, and her walk was a graceful, swaying glide.

She was a stunning beauty.

Chen Lingxi naturally recognized her. In fact, there was not a single person in the entire estate who did not.

She was Wang Chu, the manager of the South Courtyard. Though she had also started as a government slave, the marquis’s estate favored her heavily. Thanks to her outstanding looks, she was the dream lover of countless servants.

”Did County Princess Yunhe come looking for Longyue again today?” Lin Suri asked.

Lin Suri’s expression did not change; he seemed completely unfazed by Wang Chu’s striking charm.

Wang Chu curtsied in greeting. ”Just like the past few days, she arrived right at the start of the Wei hour and didn’t leave until the end of the Shen hour. She and Miss Longyue were practicing flower arrangement in the West Courtyard garden the whole time. Aside from that, there was nothing unusual.”

Lin Suri gave a slight nod.

But seeing through Lin Suri’s eyes, Chen Lingxi accurately caught onto two specific words.

Flower arrangement?