After the Great Dao Died

Chen Lingxi stood up and straightened his robes. He pushed the Hidden Edge Method to its absolute limit, concealing his aura until he seemed as lifeless as a stone.

He left the cave dwelling and climbed the cliff face.

Thick fog rose from the depths of the valley, wrapping Cuojin Mountain so tightly that he could not see beyond a few steps.

It was exactly as it had been during his Absolute Perception.

Once again, Chen Lingxi saw Imperial Consort Chun riding her skiff.

Just as he had seen during his previous Absolute Perception, the small boat pierced through the distant sea of clouds. Standing at the bow was a woman with the face of a young girl but the bearing of a noblewoman.

Rosy light flowed across her robes, and dazzling spiritual light blazed around her. With a flick of her fingers, a longsword flew out, cleaving into the sea of clouds and shattering the spiritual light within.

He withdrew his gaze, turned, and headed along the cliff.

He was heading for the exact spot where he had faced the young man during his Absolute Perception.

It was a jutting outcrop of rock shaped like an eagle’s beak, protruding over a zhang from the cliff face above a hundred-zhang abyss.Chen Lingxi halted on this rock and closed his eyes to carefully recall the vision.

In his previous Absolute Perception, the young man had emerged from the fog.

He had been standing just behind a cluster of old pines a short distance below.

The ancient pines grew at the very edge of the cliff. Their thick trunks twisted like dragons, and their dense branches drifted in and out of sight amid the mist.

The young man’s position had been perfectly concealed by the pine branches—an incredibly hidden spot that was almost impossible to notice without a close look.

When Chen Lingxi had retreated several steps to dodge the ice spear, he had backed directly behind a few dwarf pines on the eastern side of the rock face.

He opened his eyes and took out a spiritual arrow.

He channeled a hair-thin strand of spiritual qi into the shaft. The arrow trembled faintly in his palm, like a hound kept leashed for too long, just waiting for its master’s command to pounce on its prey.

He scanned his surroundings, his gaze finally settling on one of the ancient pines.

Its needles were incredibly dense, crowded together in tight clusters that layered over one another like countless dark-green steel needles.

Hidden among the needles were deep crevices, invisible without close inspection.

”Right here!”

Chen Lingxi walked up to the old pine and quietly tucked the spiritual arrow into a gap in the needles, just a short distance from where the young man would appear. Concealed by the pine needles, it would be impossible to spot without sweeping the area with spiritual qi.

The arrow was hidden at a perfectly vicious angle. Its tip pointed outward, aiming directly at the rock face where the young man would stand after stepping out of the fog.

Once the arrow was set, he used his spiritual qi to wrap the shaft in a paper-thin, faint barrier of the Hidden Edge Method, completely masking its already weak spiritual signature. Only then did he take a few steps back to inspect his work.

The overlapping pine needles formed a canopy that thoroughly hid the dusty gray arrow. From the outside, it looked like nothing more than an ordinary dead twig tangled in the foliage. It was absolutely flawless.

Chen Lingxi’s eyes burned brightly. ’I already hold every advantage. I refuse to believe I can’t take down a severely wounded, exhausted cultivator at the Sixth Circulation Floor!’

Just as he had done in the Absolute Perception Divine Chamber, he returned to the cave on the cliff.

Inside, the medicinal soup in the bronze cauldron was still bubbling gently, filling the cavern with its herbal scent.

He pulled the Soul-Felling Pill from his robes and placed it in a small jade box. Without closing the lid, he let its strange, mind-bewitching fumes drift up and mix with the medicinal aroma.

He sat cross-legged behind the bronze cauldron, closed his eyes to focus his mind, and circulated the Six Truths Method.

He waited in peace.

The firelight from the cauldron cast his shadow against the cave wall, stretching and shrinking, flickering bright and dark.

He sat there with his back straight as a pine, his breathing long and steady.

Scarcely half a shichen later, a sudden change occurred.

Chen Lingxi opened his eyes and stood up.

He waited another few breaths before walking out of the cave.

Outside, the thick fog was still churning.

He furrowed his brows, pretending to search the area.

Right at that moment, the churning fog rippled, and the moisture in the air condensed.

Chen Lingxi’s mind stirred, and he sharply pulled back.

Just as in his previous Absolute Perception, an impossibly thin and delicate ice blade formed silently from the mist, slicing straight toward his throat.

Feigning panic, he leaned back violently, narrowly dodging the icy gleam.

The ice blade brushed past. Its biting chill grazed his neck, leaving a hair-thin, pale trail in the air.

A cold light flashed in Chen Lingxi’s eyes!

The instant he dodged the ice blade, he did not stand still and wait for the young man’s next spell as he had before.

He willed it silently.

Imbued with a trace of his spiritual qi, the spiritual arrow hidden in the pine tree abruptly responded!

That pine tree was right there in the fog, exactly where the young man had just appeared.

True to the Absolute Perception, the young man slowly revealed himself—

In that split second!

The spiritual arrow shot forward, transforming into a streak of cold light!

The radiant chill arrived in the blink of an eye!

The strike was far too sudden and far too precise. It was as if the attacker already knew his exact position, and knew he would step exactly two paces through the fog.

The young man’s pupils shrank. Before he could even react, the spiritual arrow flew straight and true, piercing his body from behind!

In another split second!

The spiritual arrow tore out a spray of fresh blood!

It blasted right through his heart!

Hitting the mark without a fraction of an inch of error!

Chen Lingxi heard the young man let out a muffled groan.

This was the exact moment Chen Lingxi had been waiting for.

Erasing his feigned expression of confusion, Chen Lingxi lunged forward. His long saber burst from its sheath, roaring to life as lightning, the Cyan Edge Method, and purple qi surged forth in rapid succession.

The pale gold patterns on the saber’s blade flared to their absolute limits. Hair-thin lightning crackled and twisted along the edge. The sharp intent of the Cyan Edge Method attached to the steel, and Purple True Precious Qi erupted from his mouth. Woven with three distinct colors, the saber slashed down!

The saber light was too fast—so fast it was like a three-colored bolt of lightning ripping through the hazy fog.

The gale of the blade churned the mist, finally revealing the young man’s figure.

He was clutching his chest, blood pouring steadily between his fingers. His handsome face was deadly pale, and his lips were moving rapidly as he seemingly tried to cast a spell.

But Chen Lingxi was not going to give him the chance.

The saber slashed through, severing one of the young man’s arms.

Cut clean at the shoulder, the stump was as smooth as a mirror. Fresh blood fountained into the air.

The young man screamed in agony. The hand seal his right hand had been forming shattered before completion, and the cold light gathering at his fingertips silently dispersed.

The young man relentlessly poured his own spiritual qi into his heart, refusing to let it stop beating.

Yet in his eyes, fury blazed like wildfire.

He was completely powerless to reveal any trump cards or fight back against Chen Lingxi.

Ignoring the glaring hatred, Chen Lingxi remained cold and indifferent as he swung his right fist—

Jade-Shattering!

He pushed the force-channeling technique of the fifth stance, the Jade-Breaking Stance, to its peak.

Golden Fluid Vital Blood erupted from the depths of his bones, converging entirely into his right fist.

As the punch sailed forward, the sheer pressure squeezed the air into a visible white ring that rippled outward.

Bang!

The fist smashed into the young man’s head, sending blood leaking from all seven of his facial orifices.

Without missing a beat, another saber strike chopped off one of his legs.

The saber light swept sideways, severing the young man’s left leg right at the knee.

”Ah!”

The young man let out a miserable shriek.

The scene was intensely gruesome.

Blood geysered from his severed limbs, pooling on the rock to dye the stone a dark red before trickling down through the crevices.

The young man had lost all power to resist.

Chen Lingxi sheathed his saber.

The lightning and cyan light on the blade slowly faded away, leaving only the pale golden patterns still flickering faintly.

He stood in the pool of blood, his robes heavily splattered with the young man’s gore. In the dim light, the fanged ghost-mask patterns on his clothes gleamed with a frigid chill.

’Seizing the initiative and preparing in advance... capturing this man alive was easier than I imagined,’ he thought.

’I didn’t even have to use the Undying Willow Branch or the Soul-Felling Pill.’

He looked down at the young man, his gaze perfectly calm.

The young man lay in the puddle of blood, his severed arm and leg still continuously bleeding, dyeing his moon-white robes a shocking dark crimson.

His face was as pale as paper, his lips dry and cracked. His eyes were wide open, the pupils shifting slowly in their sockets until they finally fixed on Chen Lingxi.

Hovering on the agonizing brink of death, he saw Chen Lingxi’s face through a dizzying haze.

He truly couldn’t understand how this Qi Circulation 4th Floor cultivator in front of him seemed to know exactly when he would appear, and exactly how he would step two paces out of the fog—

Those ashen eyes were filled with disbelief, unwillingness, and doubt.

He opened his mouth to speak but could not make a sound.

Chen Lingxi stepped forward. He raised his right hand, bringing his index and middle fingers together like a sword.

A cyan glow flickered unsteadily at his fingertips. An incredibly fine, faint cyan edge hissed, slicing the surrounding air into countless dense white rifts.

He wrapped that wisp of cyan light with the Hidden Edge Method and channeled his spiritual qi directly into the young man’s severed limbs, sealing the wounds and staunching the fountain of blood.

The young man’s life was temporarily preserved.

Chen Lingxi crouched down. He plucked the thumb-sized glowing pearl from the young man’s waist, then stripped him of all his pouches, jade pendants, and talismans. He even grabbed the ice crystal runestone still clutched in the severed arm, sweeping it all cleanly into his Cosmos Bag.

He looked down at the young man, his eyes as still as standing water.

”You tried to kill me, and now I’ve taken you alive,” he said. ”Consider it your just deserts.”

The young man’s lips twitched, but no words came out.

Chen Lingxi said nothing more. He grabbed the back of the young man’s collar and launched himself up, his toes tapping lightly against the cliff face as he glided silently toward the cave like a night bird.

Inside, he tossed the young man onto the bluestone floor. He picked up the jade box containing the Soul-Felling Pill, snapped the lid shut to suppress its mind-bewitching scent, and tucked it back into his robes.

Within the cave.

Chen Lingxi sent his spiritual qi into the young man’s body and activated the Cyan Edge Method.

The Cyan Edge Method invaded the young man’s spiritual sea. Its peerlessly sharp sword qi slashed apart the barriers of the spiritual sea inch by inch, forcing the spiritual qi to scatter and leak out.

The young man’s spiritual sea instantly ruptured, spilling spiritual qi everywhere.

What had once been a vast lake of a spiritual sea was now fractured everywhere. Liquid spiritual energy bubbled from the cracks, seeping into the meridians before Chen Lingxi dragged it out with his own spiritual qi, forcing it out of the body to dissipate into the air.

Chen Lingxi then shielded the man’s heart with his spiritual qi, barely maintaining its heartbeat.

The young man’s face looked withered and dead.

Not a trace of his former elegance or ruthless calm remained on that handsome face.

All that was left was an incredibly deep, almost despairing pallor.

Chen Lingxi finally spoke. ”What is your name, and where do you come from?”

The young man stayed silent.

He lay on the bluestone floor, staring blankly at the jagged stalactites on the cavern ceiling. His pupils were severely dilated, making him look like a corpse.

Without the slightest hesitation, Chen Lingxi withdrew a fraction of the spiritual qi protecting the man’s heart.

A piercing, agonizing pain bloomed from the young man’s chest. He spasmed violently, cold sweat pouring down his forehead.

Terror finally leaked into the young man’s eyes. ”My name is Xi Mu,” he rasped. ”I am a disciple of the Xi Family from the Queshi Stars.”

His voice hitched with every syllable. With every word he spoke, a fine mist of blood puffed from the hole the spiritual arrow had punched through his chest.

A disciple of the Xi Family.

Chen Lingxi’s mind stirred.

Queshi Stars. The Xi Family.

This was exactly the Xi Family that Lin Suri had mentioned to him during the Absolute Perception Deduction.

The patriarch of the Xi Family was a True Lord who ruled over the Queshi Stars and wielded the Cauldron Vessel known as the Realm-Refining Furnace. He intended to refine this very Grotto-Heaven to forge a Great or Profound Golden Palace for the clan genius, Xi Hengsu.

And this Xi Mu lying right in front of him was actually a disciple of that very Xi Family.

Having spoken thus far, Xi Mu added, ”If you kill me, once the Grotto-Heaven is refined, the seniors of my Xi Family will definitely track you down and avenge me.”

He said this with an almost instinctive arrogance. Even reduced to this miserable state, even completely unable to channel a single strand of spiritual qi, he still habitually brought up the clan backing him.

”Like a spoiled brat who only knows how to cry for an adult to back him up,” Chen Lingxi sneered. ”Seeking truth and inquiring about the cauldrons is inherently a deadly game where disciples of every sect rely entirely on their own luck.

”What? Is your Xi Family so tyrannical that only you are allowed to kill, but others cannot kill you?”

Xi Mu fell silent.

”How did you know I was here?” Chen Lingxi asked.

”I... was wounded,” Xi Mu said. ”I originally wanted to come to Cuojin Mountain to find a hidden place to heal.

”But unexpectedly... my Whale Devouring Art detected lingering spiritual qi here.

”Following the lingering spiritual qi, I discovered your location.”

Chen Lingxi frowned slightly.

”So you saw that my cultivation was weak and decided to kill me?” Chen Lingxi asked.

Xi Mu remained silent.

That silence was a tacit admission.

Chen Lingxi did not press the matter further.

He stood up, his eyes growing even colder, and said, ”I’ll ask, and you answer.”