After the Great Dao Died

”To think this Dragon-Transforming Powder can actually increase the supplement progress of my Perceiving Clear Divine Ability?”

He exited the Divine Chamber, his gaze completely different as he looked at the packet of Dragon-Drawing Powder in his hand.

”No wonder Wang Kong said this packet of Dragon-Drawing Powder was exceptionally precious, completely different from the ones before.”

”It’s just a pity this Dragon-Drawing Powder isn’t a tonic.”

Chen Lingxi’s mind stirred as a sudden, wild idea struck him.

He placed the Dragon-Drawing Powder on the table and sat cross-legged. Calming his breath and settling his mind, he willed the stream of spiritual qi in his dantian to slowly flow out, push along the meridians of his right arm, and inject into the powder.

The instant it touched the powder, a booming tremor shook Chen Lingxi’s mind.

Through the perception of his spiritual qi, this dark-brown powder actually contained an incredibly dense amount of spiritual energy.

”To think there’s this much spiritual energy hidden inside the Dragon-Drawing Powder. If I can use it properly, it might be enough to push my cultivation to Spiritual Qi 3rd Floor.”

Chen Lingxi fell silent for a moment before leaning close to the powder and taking a deep breath.He sniffed very carefully this time. As the pungent medicinal scent entered his nose, the qi-blood within his body actually grew slightly hot, as if something was slowly dissolving inside his veins.

His Bronze-Slurry Blood-Qi, cultivated through the Seven Forms of Halting War, actually showed faint signs of ”melting” when it met this medicinal scent.

The sensation was so minute that he would have missed it if he had not been fully concentrated, but Chen Lingxi knew it was absolutely no illusion.

”This Dragon-Drawing Powder really is poison.”

Chen Lingxi sighed.

It dissolved and scattered qi-blood, and on top of that, one had to endure its inherent toxicity.

Those who could withstand the poison of this medicinal powder became qualified ”medicine primers”—like him and Liu Changle.

Those who could not—like Zhou Hu and Zhu Luanwen—simply died on the broken beds in the reverse-facing room. Their corpses were hauled away, and who knew whether they were tossed out or used for something else.

At the thought of this, Chen Lingxi’s gaze darkened.

He set the Dragon-Drawing Powder down, a sudden thought flashing through his mind.

”The Concealed Edge Method can construct an invisible membrane throughout the body, isolating the auras of spiritual qi and qi-blood.

”If I use the Concealed Edge Method inside my meridians, turning my spiritual qi into a membrane to envelop my qi-blood, could it shield against the Dragon-Drawing Powder’s toxicity?”

Once this thought emerged, he could no longer hold it back.

He sat cross-legged and slowly circulated the Concealed Edge Method.

The stream of azure qi in his dantian flowed through his meridians, forming an almost imperceptible barrier between his dantian and the meridians throughout his body.

The Concealed Edge Method thus wrapped around his circulating qi-blood, isolating it from the inner walls of his meridians.

He carefully extended that membrane deep into his nasal cavity, making it cover every minute juncture where his respiratory tract and qi-blood intersected...

Then, he picked up the Dragon-Drawing Powder, brought it close to his nose, and took a deep breath.

The pungent medicinal scent entered his nose and seeped into his body along his airways. The moment it touched the spiritual qi barrier constructed by the Concealed Edge Method, it paused—firmly blocked on the outside.

His qi-blood continued circulating as usual, without the slightest sign of melting.

Chen Lingxi opened his eyes, joy welling up in his heart.

”The Concealed Edge Method really can isolate the toxic effects the Dragon-Drawing Powder has on qi-blood, without blocking the spiritual energy itself.”

He pondered for another moment before pouring the powder onto the table. Using his fingertips, he carefully separated a tiny pinch—roughly a twentieth of the entire packet.

”Even if the Concealed Edge Method’s barrier cannot hold up against this amount, the toxicity won’t melt my qi-blood instantly. I’ll still have a chance to catch my breath.”

He tossed that tiny pinch of powder into his mouth and washed it down with warm water.

The instant the powder entered his stomach, an overwhelming torrent of spiritual energy exploded within his abdomen.

The sheer volume of spiritual energy was so massive that, for a split second, Chen Lingxi almost regretted his decision.

It felt as though he hadn’t swallowed a pinch of medicine, but rather a raging, roaring river.

The frenzied spiritual energy rampaged blindly through his meridians. Wherever it passed, his meridians bulged with a dull ache, feeling as though they were going to be torn apart.

At the same time, that dark, murky toxicity also erupted. Entwining with the spiritual energy, it lunged straight toward his body’s qi-blood.

Under this pincer attack from both inside and out, the spiritual qi barrier constructed by the Concealed Edge Method shuddered violently, emitting a faint hum.

Chen Lingxi gritted his teeth and pushed the Concealed Edge Method to its absolute limit. The azure qi in his dantian surged out at all costs, constantly reinforcing the crumbling barrier.

Fine cracks continuously appeared on the barrier, only to be constantly filled by new spiritual qi. After a back-and-forth tug-of-war that lasted an unknown amount of time, the barrier—though stretched almost completely transparent—ultimately held firm without shattering.

The poison was stubbornly blocked outside the barrier. After roaming through his meridians for a cycle and failing to find any qi-blood to corrode, it gradually lost its edge. Forced out of his body by his spiritual qi, it turned into a layer of light-brown sweat that seeped from his pores, clinging stickily to his skin.

As for that overwhelming spiritual energy, Chen Lingxi used his breathing technique to gather and refine it thread by thread, drawing it into his dantian.

Two shichen quietly slipped away, and he had already refined the vast majority of the spiritual energy.

When Chen Lingxi finally opened his eyes again, the sun outside his window had already slanted to the west.

He exhaled a long breath of turbid air, a look of joy soon surfacing on his face.

The stream of azure qi in his dantian had thickened by a full circle. What was once the thickness of a small snake was now as thick as two fingers pressed together.

The minute damage inflicted upon his meridians from being stretched had been entirely repaired under the nourishment of the spiritual qi, leaving them a few fractions wider than before.

He stood up and stretched his limbs, listening as the bones throughout his body popped and cracked.

Beneath his skin, that warm, jade-like luster grew even more apparent. His Bronze-Slurry Blood-Qi surged through his meridians, scorching hot and highly condensed. It felt as though only a paper-thin barrier separated him from Bronze-Red Great Completion.

”This Dragon-Drawing Powder really does pose a massive danger, but it’s a massive opportunity too,” he muttered to himself, looking down at the packet on the table.

Relying solely on breathing techniques to cultivate, his Qi Circulation progress was simply too slow.

By his rough estimates, with the ambient spiritual energy of the world currently so thin, it would take him at least three to five years to cultivate to Qi Circulation 3rd Floor.

But with this Dragon-Drawing Powder, as long as he took a minuscule amount each time and used the Concealed Edge Method to protect his qi-blood, he could minimize the danger of the poison while maximizing the gains from the spiritual energy.

Three years of effort could perhaps be achieved in mere months.

He carefully rewrapped the Dragon-Drawing Powder and tucked it away inside his robes alongside those three crimson pills.

After drawing a bucket of water to wash up, he saw that the sky outside was still quite bright.

He was just about to head into the courtyard to practice a set of the Mountain-Pulling Stance to see exactly how far his qi-blood had progressed.

Right at that moment, someone knocked on the courtyard gates.

The knocking was neither hurried nor slow, pausing after every three raps in a highly proper manner.

Chen Lingxi wiped away any traces on the table before walking to the courtyard gates and pulling back the latch.

A young servant in green robes stood outside. He looked to be about fifteen or sixteen, with a fair complexion and a submissive, lowered gaze.

The servant glanced up at him. ”Chen Lingxi, Chief Steward Zhao has summoned you for questioning.”

His voice was not loud, and his tone was entirely flat, but those three words, ’Chief Steward Zhao,’ were enough to make an ordinary servant’s legs shake.

Chen Lingxi frowned, the movement almost imperceptible.

Zhao Yong?

He had just returned from reporting in at the Duguan Office, yet a mere few shichen later, Zhao Yong was sending someone to summon him. This was absolutely no coincidence.

Just as he was about to answer, a flurry of light footsteps drifted over from outside the gates.

Another maid hurried over. He recognized her; she was Lin Longyue’s senior maidservant, named Liu Zhu.

In the past, whenever he delivered flower arrangements to the West Courtyard East Hall, it was usually Liu Zhu who took the vases from him.

Liu Zhu strode up to the courtyard gates, threw a glance at the young servant in green, and then turned to Chen Lingxi. ”Chen Lingxi, the Young Lady is summoning you.”

Her voice was not loud, but it was perfectly steady, carrying the habitual certainty of a senior maid from the West Courtyard.

Two summons, one right after the other, had clashed together in the exact same moment.

The young servant in green blanked for a moment. He looked at Liu Zhu, then looked at Chen Lingxi, a trace of awkwardness flashing across his face. ”This... Chief Steward Zhao’s side...”

Without waiting for him to finish, Liu Zhu said evenly, ”The Young Lady’s matters take precedence. If Chief Steward Zhao has any business, tell him to come ask at the West Courtyard East Hall.”

She didn’t even spare the young servant a glance as she spoke. She simply turned on her heel and walked off, pausing after two steps to look back at Chen Lingxi, gesturing for him to follow.

Keeping his expression completely neutral, Chen Lingxi cupped his hands in a polite salute toward the young servant before stepping out to follow Liu Zhu.

Behind him, the young servant stood rooted to the spot, his expression fluctuating, but in the end, he didn’t dare try to stop them.

Chen Lingxi followed behind Liu Zhu, his footsteps unhurried as they cut through the winding corridors.

The spring breeze blew in from outside the corridor, carrying the faint fragrance of the early blooms in the garden.

He kept his eyes locked straight ahead, yet his mind was churning endlessly.

Zhao Yong summoning him, Wang Kong’s disappearance, and barely half a day having passed since he returned from the Duguan Office—these events were absolutely connected.

Wang Kong was Zhao Yong’s adopted son. Zhao Yong was a man of incredibly deep schemes; he never acted without a clear purpose.

Sending someone to summon him today likely meant the steward was already suspicious.

Although he now had the cultivation of the Bronze-Red small success stage and the Cyan Edge Method to rely on, if Zhao Yong truly wanted to seize him within the Marquis’s estate, he would be a bird in a cage, unable to escape even if he grew wings.

The only person he could rely on right now was Lin Longyue.

Chen Lingxi lifted his eyes to look at Liu Zhu’s retreating back, his thoughts growing clearer by the second.

While Lin Longyue was a person whose detached unfeelingness bordered on utter apathy, she placed an immense amount of importance on face and prestige.

She allowed him to arrange flowers, allowed him to practice martial arts, and even allocated a monthly allowance of ten liang of silver. This wasn’t some sudden onset of benevolence; it was because she felt he was useful.

Zhao Yong was the steward of the Marquis’s estate, wielding no small amount of authority, but no matter how great his power, it couldn’t surpass that of the Young Lady of the estate.

”I need to make her feel that I am even more useful.”

Chen Lingxi lowered his eyes, his footsteps entirely steady.

He wasn’t afraid of Lin Longyue using him; he was only afraid of not having enough time.

Given time, relying on the Divine Chamber and the Six Qi True Art, he would have the chance to alter his fate.

—

West Courtyard East Hall.

Before Chen Lingxi even stepped inside, he could already hear the sound of laughter and conversation drifting out from the hall.

The laughter was clear and bright. It was County Princess Yunhe’s voice, carrying a trace of lazy satisfaction: ”...The female official from the Shangyi Bureau by Her Highness the Noble Consort’s side personally came to pass on the message. She said that the locust-branch vase arrangement was placed on the red sandalwood curio shelf in the East Warm Pavilion of the Mirror Palace. Her Highness admires it every day, and the more she looks at it, the more she likes it.

”Her Highness even specifically asked which renowned master created this arrangement, as she had never heard of them.”

Lin Longyue’s voice was much softer than usual, carrying a joy she couldn’t completely hide. ”Sparing that slave was just a casual whim of mine. I never expected his work to actually catch Her Highness’s eye.”

”A casual whim?” County Princess Yunhe let out a laugh. ”That casual pardon of yours turned out better than those renowned masters they spent massive fortunes to invite from the capital. The people from the Bureau of Palace Gardens said that the true charm of that locust-branch arrangement lies in the word ’wild.’ It is uncarved and unpolished, possessing a natural appeal, which perfectly aligns with the style Her Highness the Noble Consort has favored lately.”

”I heard Her Highness rewarded you with a Wind-Riding Pill?”

Lin Longyue nodded and shot a glance at the maidservant standing beside her.

The maid stepped forward carrying a red-lacquered tray. Resting on the tray was a small white jade bottle sealed with red silk. The jade was as warm and smooth as fat, and an amber halo of light could faintly be seen flowing within.

”This is the Wind-Riding Pill Her Highness rewarded me with.” Lin Longyue pointed at the white jade bottle, her tone turning solemn. ”This pill is incomparably precious, specifically meant for martial artists to temper their bodies and break through their bottlenecks.

By swallowing this pill, one can borrow its medicinal power to wash through their meridians and temper their bones, aiding in shattering their shackles.

”This pill alone is enough to guarantee my breakthrough to Silver Bone Great Completion.”

”With this pill, I have hope of catching up to Chu Linzi.”