After the Great Dao Died

Chen Lingxi headed down the mountain.

Amid the thick fog on Ancestral Mountain, the pitch-black stone revealed itself once more, and the Credit Peddler stepped out from within.

As he watched Chen Lingxi’s back vanish into the dense mist, the sly smile that had constantly hung on his young face slowly faded away.

He stood in place among the jagged rocks and churning fog, the bleak surroundings only making his coarse gray clothes look even shabbier.

Yet as he stood there, it was as if the fog blanketing the mountain, the rocks strewn across the ground, and the bleakness permeating heaven and earth were nothing but his backdrop.

He suddenly sighed.

The sigh was incredibly soft. Masked by the wind, it was almost indistinguishable unless one listened closely.

Then he raised his head and looked toward the sky.

Those eyes, which had always carried a hint of cunning and mockery, now grew profoundly deep.

An extremely fine, faint light flowed deep within his pupils. It wasn’t blazing, yet it seemed capable of piercing through the layers of thick fog, the clear blue sky, and every obstacle between heaven and earth, gazing straight into the unknowable, unfathomable depths of the void.A bitter smile touched the corners of his mouth.

There was no self-mockery or helplessness in that smile, only a weariness that had settled after enduring untold years.

”I have forged karma with those of potential in the various grotto-heavens,” he murmured, his voice so light it sounded as if he were speaking only to himself, or perhaps to the world itself. ”From now on, I owe the Immortal Capital nothing more.”

As soon as the words left his lips, the surrounding thick fog began to churn.

This turbulence wasn’t caused by the mountain wind; it was as if the world itself had heard his words and responded.

The mist swirled around him like countless grayish-white dragons, slithering slowly, yet not daring to approach within three feet.

And in the patch of sky he was gazing at, a sudden thunderbolt flashed.

It was no ordinary thunderbolt.

There was no blinding lightning tearing through the sky, no roar of thunder shaking the wilderness.

Only an incredibly fine, faint golden light flashed across the sky and vanished.

Where the golden light had flickered, the clouds were suddenly torn open.

Behind the clouds, a ruined complex of buildings faintly revealed itself.

The complex was incredibly ancient, as if left behind from a much more distant era.

Majestic halls and overlapping pavilions stood there. The walls of every structure were covered in intricate, mysterious patterns that layered and linked together like a massive, sky-covering net wrapping around the entire complex.

Yet such a magnificent place was now in ruins.

The glazed tiles were shattered, exposing the rotted beams beneath; the vermilion paint had peeled away completely, leaving only the grayish-white wood bare in the sunlight.

The stone steps before the main hall were cracked everywhere, with withered yellow wormwood growing from the fissures.

The architectural complex hung there behind the clouds, half-hidden and half-visible. It was like a giant that had died countless years ago, leaving behind only an empty skeleton to speak of its past glory.

The Credit Peddler gazed at the ruined buildings, the deep light in his eyes growing more intense.

He watched for a long time—long enough for the clouds to close again, for the golden light of the thunderbolt to completely dissipate, and for the ruined complex to sink back into the depths of the sky until not a trace remained.

Then, he retracted his gaze and lowered his head.

That sly, frivolous smile reappeared on his young face.

It was as if nothing had just happened.

He turned around, and his figure melted like dissipating fog, sinking inch by inch into the mountain rocks behind him until he vanished without a trace in the blink of an eye.

Ancestral Mountain returned to silence.

Only the thick fog continued to churn, and the mountain wind continued to wail.

As if no one had ever been there, and nothing had ever happened.

Chen Lingxi made his way down the mountain with brisk steps.

In his robes, he carried the jade pendant recording the True Formulas of the Six Qi True Method, as well as the bamboo slip holding the intricate diagrams of the Pure Wondrous Qi Pivot Array. Either of these items was incredibly precious, yet now both rested securely in his hands.

The mountain wind poured down from above, whipping his robes, but he only felt thoroughly invigorated.

Descending Ancestral Mountain, he then ascended Cuojin Mountain.

He passed through the dwarf pine forest, bypassed the jutting Eagle Beak Rock, pushed aside the cluster of old vines on the cliff face, and squeezed sideways into the hidden cave.

He sat cross-legged on the flat bluestone in the center of the cave and took the jade pendant out of his robes.

The pendant felt warm and lustrous to the touch. It was as white as jade, and countless dense azure patterns could faintly be seen flowing slowly inside it like a spirit snake sealed in amber.

”The True Formulas of the Six Qi True Method!”

He took a deep breath and slowly channeled his spiritual qi into the jade pendant.

The moment his qi entered the pendant, a massive, complex flood of information surged into his sea of consciousness like a flash flood.

The sheer volume of information was so enormous that his head felt as if it were going to split open.

Countless words, diagrams, and profound incantations spun endlessly in his mind, as if someone had unrolled an unimaginably long scroll inside his skull, its surface thickly covered in cultivation methods.

”So intricate and profound,” he murmured. ”Even inside the Divine Chamber, with my exceptional memory where I never forget what I see, it will likely still take a long time to memorize.”

Enduring the throbbing pain in his head, Chen Lingxi combed through, integrated, and memorized the information bit by bit.

The Six Qi True Art—the secret legacy of Daoxia Academy’s Chipuo Courtyard—was a wondrous cultivation method that led straight to the Dao Foundation.

The True Formulas thoroughly explained the many bottlenecks of ascending the floors of Qi Circulation.

From the initial refinement of essence into qi, to condensing liquid in the qi sea, to compressing the spiritual liquid, purging impurities, and rebuilding the foundation, all the way to stepping into the legendary Three Floors Facing Heaven and even the Dao Foundation—every step had detailed methods and secrets.

The more Chen Lingxi read, the more shocked and overjoyed he became.

Previously, relying merely on the breathing and qi-circulation methods he had stolen from Lin Suri, he had forcefully cultivated from a mortal body to the Qi Circulation 4th Floor.

That breathing technique was nothing but the most superficial introductory skill of the Six Qi True Art, yet it had already allowed him to shed his mortal body and vastly improve his vitality.

Now, with these True Formulas, it was as if a traveler who had groped in the dark for a long time had suddenly been handed a bright lantern.

Those bottlenecks that he had previously racked his brains over but failed to understand were elucidated thoroughly in the True Formulas.

Those bottlenecks he previously had to grind through by forcefully absorbing spiritual qi with his breathing technique now had ingenious methods to break through in the True Formulas.

To his even greater delight, the True Formulas of the Six Qi True Method also recorded several incredibly profound arts.

”The first art is Observation.”

Chen Lingxi was pleasantly surprised.

By using this Observation art and infusing spiritual qi into his eyes, he could see the invisible qi between heaven and earth.

The sun has its qi, the moon has its qi, mountains have their qi, water has its qi, vegetation has its qi, and living beings have their qi.

There is nothing among the myriad things of heaven and earth that lacks qi.

A cultivator practicing the Six Qi True Art could draw the six types of qi that best suited them from these myriad things, pulling them into their qi sea to aid their cultivation.

For the first stage of the Six Qi True Art, one needed to gather a wondrous qi from heaven and earth and draw it into the qi sea, fusing it with the spiritual liquid within.

From then on, the spiritual qi in the qi sea would no longer be pure, but would take on the traits of that specific wondrous qi.

It might be as sharp as metal, as enduring as water, as blazing as fire, or as heavy as earth.

This was the true essence of the Six Qi True Art.

”The Six Qi True Art...” he muttered these words softly, his eyes filled with irrepressible delight.

Chen Lingxi read through the True Formulas within the jade pendant from beginning to end several times, forcefully committing them to memory.

Only when he had them completely memorized did he finally open his eyes and exhale a long breath of stale air.

”It truly is a cultivation method of a grand world.”

The brilliance of these True Formulas far exceeded his expectations.

With them, he would no longer be a rogue cultivator who possessed spiritual qi but had no idea how to practice.

From now on, every step of ascending the floors of Qi Circulation would have rules to follow and methods to rely on.

He stored the jade pendant in his Cosmos Bag. After pondering for a moment, he suddenly circulated his qi and executed the Observation art.

His spiritual qi rose from his qi sea, traveling up his meridians and pouring into his eyes.

In an instant, the world before him abruptly changed.

The originally dark cave was now filled everywhere with bizarre qi.

The qi was formless and colorless, yet under his Observation art, it was revealed in meticulous detail.

The stalactites on the cave walls emitted a faint qi of earth and stone, thick and heavy.

The daylight filtering through the crack in the cave roof actually carried a trace of extremely fine, faint qi of light, clear and bright.

Even inside his own body, the spiritual qi flowing through his meridians was clearly visible, winding through him like a misty azure stream.

He stood up and walked to the cave entrance.

Beyond the cliff face lay the vast, lush forests of Cuojin Mountain.

At this moment, in his eyes, the mountain was entirely different.

The churning sea of clouds held the qi of clouds.

The newly risen morning sun dyed the horizon golden-red, and within that light lay an incredibly dense qi of the morning glow.

Deep within the mountains beneath his feet, a heavy, mountain-like qi of heavy peaks faintly seeped out, solid and unmoving.

Between heaven and earth, qi was truly everywhere—each with its own wondrous qualities, each profound and mystical.

Chen Lingxi stood at the entrance, his robes snapping in the mountain wind.

His gaze moved from the sea of clouds to the mountains, and from the mountains to the morning sun. The sky full of wondrous qi reflected in his eyes, and an indescribable wave of emotion welled up in his heart.

After a long time, he murmured to himself, ”At the Qi Circulation 4th Floor, I can gather the first qi of the Six Qi True Art. What qi should I gather to cultivate?”

This was an extremely important question.

The choice of this first qi was absolutely crucial.

Standing at the entrance, he gazed at the wondrous qi filling the mountains and pondered for a long time.

Gathering qi for cultivation was no easy task. Even with his current cultivation, collecting a single strand of wondrous qi—no matter what method he used—would take several days.

He looked up at the sky.

Those two bright mirrors still hung high in the sky.

This was still the Thorough Awakening Spiritual Chamber.

He took another look and shook his head.

Rather than acting in haste, it would be better to carefully consider his choice after returning to the real world.

He turned and walked back into the depths of the cave, then took out the bamboo slip and injected his spiritual qi into it.

As his qi flowed in, the verdant bamboo slip instantly bloomed with specks of light.

The radiance was incredibly soft and faint, resembling the fuzz on the most tender willow shoots in spring. It flowed endlessly across the surface of the bamboo slip, casting a deep emerald hue over the entire cave.

Chen Lingxi again felt an ocean of information cascade into his mind, profoundly mystical.

This information was even more vast and complex, containing numerous diagrams.

Among it was the detailed layout method for the Pure Wondrous Qi Pivot Array.

It covered the array cores, the arrangement of the Five Elements, and seven hundred and thirty formation hand seals.

There were nine array cores in total. Each one had to be triggered by a specific hand seal, and the nine cores echoed one another like nine pieces placed upon a chessboard.

The Five Elements arrangement emphasized mutual generation: the metal position in the west, wood in the east, water in the north, fire in the south, and earth in the center. They were connected by specific spiritual energy patterns.

As for those seven hundred and thirty formation hand seals, they were incredibly complex. They had to be executed without a single hair’s breadth of error, making them extremely difficult to master.

Fortunately, the records on the bamboo slip were exceptionally detailed. It was not just an array method, but more like an introductory scripture on arrays.

From the most basic qi-drawing seals to the profound array-combining seals, every single hand seal had a detailed diagram and explanation.

How to transition between seals, how to control the volume of spiritual qi, and how to balance the flow of the Five Elements—all were meticulously expounded.

”With the Six Qi True Art, I at least have a foundation in breathing techniques and am already accustomed to running the minor heavenly cycle, so cultivating it feels natural.”

”On the other hand, this Pure Wondrous Qi Pivot Array... is truly too obscure, yet incredibly profound. I fear I’ll need to study it for a very long time.

”Luckily, I can take this bamboo slip out of the Divine Chamber and carefully study these massive diagrams.”

Chen Lingxi murmured to himself as he carefully tucked the bamboo slip into his robes, then stood up.

”The wonders of Thorough Awakening must be put to practical use.”

He pondered in his mind, ’Lin Zhongming cultivated in seclusion for decades, but he wasn’t actually cultivating the Dao. He was using a Demonic Banner to extend his life.

’Since that Demonic Banner could extend his life by decades, it is absolutely no ordinary item. It must have some extraordinary qualities.

’I should go and see if that Demonic Banner is actually a fragment of a cauldron artifact.’