After the Great Dao Died

Qiu Chihu’s corpse began to dissolve.

It broke down into fine motes of light, scattering through the air like dandelions on the wind until it finally faded into nothingness.

The thirty-four halos of light that had hovered above his head, along with the thirty-fifth born from his dissolving corpse, slowly rose and drifted toward Chen Lingxi.

The milky-white rays, tinged with faint gold, settled above his head one after another like a crown woven from starlight.

Chen Lingxi stood in place and looked down.

Without the support of flesh and bone, Qiu Chihu’s luxurious robes lay in a limp heap on the ground.

His belt had come loose, and two small pouches rolled out from the folds.

He bent down, picked up both pouches, and opened them one by one.

”Pills?”

The first pouch indeed held five pills. Silvery-white and perfectly round as pearls, they were clearly no ordinary items.From the second pouch, however, only a single jade bead rolled out.

No larger than a longan, it glowed a pure, translucent white. The jade felt smooth and warm to the touch, and faint, wispy threads of vapor seemed to flow inside it.

”What is this?”

Chen Lingxi held it in his palm for a closer look, his pupils suddenly shrinking.

”The vapor inside this jade bead is...”

”Spiritual qi.” He murmured the words, his brows knitting tighter.

”Whose spiritual qi is this?” he wondered, puzzled as to why Qiu Chihu would carry such a thing.

But there was no time to dwell on it now.

”The most pressing matter is figuring out my next step.”

Ignoring the pills and the jade bead, Chen Lingxi let out a long breath.

He had originally thought today’s affair would be nothing more than a beast fight—much like the cockfights and dogfights hosted by the capital’s noble heirs—just a contest to decide a winner and win some face for Lin Longyue.

He never imagined that a highborn nobleman like Qiu Chihu would actually enter this Beast-Fighting Palace...

”By dying, you’ve forced me into a desperate corner.”

Chen Lingxi sighed.

If he hadn’t killed Qiu Chihu, the man would have certainly killed him once they were out. Given the Qiu family’s power in the capital and Qiu Chihu’s vindictive nature, an official bondservant like him could die a hundred times over and it still wouldn’t be enough.

But now that he had killed him, leaving this place also meant facing the wrath of the Crown Prince and those so-called nobles.

”It’s a dead end either way!”

Chen Lingxi closed his eyes.

His thoughts churned.

A few breaths later, his eyes snapped open, his gaze flashing.

He recalled that day on Cuojin Mountain, when the youth in the purple-gold crown had stepped out of the canopied carriage. He had held a Treasure Bottle in his hand, its mouth tipped downward, and Purple True Precious Qi had poured from it like a waterfall.

He tilted his head back and looked at the sky.

There was no sun in the firmament, only a lustrous white jade bottle suspended on high. Purple light poured from its mouth, cascading between heaven and earth and bathing the entire Beast-Fighting Palace in brilliant light.

The shape of that jade bottle and the vibrant color of the purple qi were identical to the one in his memory.

”That Treasure Bottle is inside this cauldron fragment,” Chen Lingxi muttered to himself, his gaze sharpening. ”In that case, the person who was assassinated on Cuojin Mountain that day—the one who tried to crush the assassin with the Treasure Bottle—was undoubtedly the current Crown Prince.”

His mind raced.

”This Treasure Bottle belongs to the Crown Prince, and this Beast-Fighting Palace is his private playground for banquets and entertainment. So, just how much control does he actually have over this cauldron fragment?”

He thought of Lin Suri, and of the man in black whom Lin Suri had addressed as Daoist Brother Chao.

The two of them had obtained the Time Candle fragment, but they were far from having complete control over it. They were merely trading their lifespans with the Venerable Cauldron.

Rapidly sorting through all this information, Chen Lingxi held up one finger, silently calculating to himself.

”First, the Crown Prince’s love for beast fighting is known to every noble heir in the prefecture. It isn’t strange that he established this Beast-Fighting Palace and invited the various noble houses to bring their martial artists to fight.

But Qiu Chihu’s cultivation was clearly far higher than the other beast fighters. Between his Silver Bone Great Completion, his saber techniques, and his prized saber, his strength was top-tier among the younger generation in Yuanjiang Prefecture. Furthermore, his status was incredibly noble!

Why would the Crown Prince allow a nobleman, someone whose cultivation far surpassed ordinary ’beast fighters,’ to enter the arena?”

He held up a second finger.

”Second, has the Crown Prince truly mastered this cauldron fragment? Can he actually see everything happening inside it? This point is crucial.”

He paused, then held up a third finger.

”Third, I killed Qiu Chihu. If I walk out of here like this, I will undoubtedly die... so how do I survive?”

His mind grew remarkably clear, spinning rapidly as he disassembled and integrated these seemingly unsolvable problems, searching for the narrowest sliver of an opening.

Suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck his mind, and two words surfaced once again...

Cauldron artifact!

”I’m inside the cauldron artifact... If that’s the case...” he murmured, his gaze turning piercing. ”Why not see exactly what wondrous uses this cauldron fragment has?”

With this thought in mind, Chen Lingxi hesitated no longer.

He sat cross-legged and slowly rested his left hand against the earth. Urging the wisp of spiritual qi in his dantian, he channeled it out, passing it from his palm into the muddy ground.

At the same time, he circulated his qi and blood, forcing several drops of fresh blood from the tip of his index finger.

The blood, shimmering with a faint silvery luster, dripped onto the yellow earth and quietly merged with the wisp of spiritual qi he was channeling into the ground!

In an instant, the void violently shifted!

The mist coiling around the distant mountain ranges surged. The spiritual mechanism between heaven and earth suddenly intensified, and an aura of immense antiquity rushed over him!

That aura was overwhelmingly ancient, as if it had existed since the very dawn of creation.

It wasn’t fierce or oppressive, simply so profoundly heavy that it made it almost impossible to breathe.

Chen Lingxi froze for a moment.

He could clearly sense that deep within his mind, inside the Divine Chamber, a line of tadpole-like script was violently flashing—

[Divine Ability: Thorough Awakening (Restoration: 100%)]

The progress, which had been stuck at 99%, suddenly shifted under the wash of this ancient aura. It filled in that final percent and finally reached completion!

”The Perceiving Clear Divine Ability has transformed again!”

Chen Lingxi raised an eyebrow.

The instant the restoration hit completion, a massive, incredibly complex torrent of information flooded his mind like a bursting dam, yet every word remained distinct and orderly.

Focusing his mind, Chen Lingxi read through the information, the light in his eyes growing brighter by the second.

”Steal the spiritual awareness of heaven and earth, seize the spiritual mechanism of past and present!”

”From the endless river of time, steal a wisp of true spiritual awareness and spiritual mechanism—after the Perceiving Clear Divine Ability transformed, it actually gained a new skill. It can bring back a physical item from the Thorough Awakening simulations!”

”Bring back an item,” Chen Lingxi murmured, his heartbeat suddenly speeding up.

This meant that the Perceiving Clear Divine Ability was no longer purely a preview of the future, no longer a phantom illusion. It could truly turn the ethereal into reality!

Turning the ethereal into reality... just how incredibly profound was that?

”Just what are the origins of this Divine Chamber?”

Chen Lingxi was struck with awe.

Right at that moment, the churning spiritual mechanism and ancient aura in the void suddenly coalesced into a human face!

The face hung in midair, suspended more than three zhang above the ground. Woven from countless fine motes of light and mist, its brow, eyes, nose, and mouth were perfectly distinct. It looked exactly like a real human face, magnified several times over, hanging in the sky and peering down at him.

The face was heroic, exuding an innate nobility and majesty. It carried a domineering aura that looked down upon the entire world, as if these mountains and rivers—and every living thing under heaven—were nothing but playthings in its palm.

”Such a distinct face?”

Chen Lingxi thought to himself.

The gaze of this cauldron artifact face didn’t fall on him. Instead, it looked past him, staring at the thirty-five hovering halos of light above his head.

After a long time, it finally spoke. Its voice exploded across the firmament like thunder.

”Thirty-five lives offered in sacrifice, to nurture the Purple True Treasure Vase!”

”The victor of the beast fight shall receive a cauldron artifact providence! Upon what shall this providence fall?”

This question boomed in Chen Lingxi’s ears like the tolling of a massive bronze bell.

”Sacrifice lives, cauldron artifact providence...”

Chen Lingxi’s eyes lit up slightly, as if he had grasped something crucial.