After the Great Dao Died

Killing intent surged in Chen Lingxi’s eyes.

He took a deep breath, resting the Host Star Stone in his palm.

Closing his eyes to focus, he stirred the pool of spiritual liquid within his qi sea.

As the liquid surged, an exceptionally fine and pure wisp of spiritual qi rose from the pool. It traveled up his meridians, emerged from his fingertips, and poured silently into the Host Star Stone.

The Host Star Stone trembled slightly.

An ancient aura emanated from the stone, filling the entire cave.

The aura was incredibly heavy. It carried an indescribable sense of destiny, as if the stone itself bore some unspeakable karmic weight.

Chen Lingxi hesitated no longer.

He raised his right hand, bringing his index and middle fingers together like a sword. Spiritual qi flickered unsteadily at his fingertips, its hazy cyan light glaring in the dim cave.

Using his fingers as a brush and spiritual qi as ink, he began to engrave upon the Host Star Stone, stroke by stroke.[Rong Chun].

The moment those two words were carved, the ancient aura from the Host Star Stone flared.

At first, it was merely a faint breeze, but in the blink of an eye, it transformed into an invisible tempest that swept wildly through the cave.

The stalactites on the cave walls hummed from the force of it. Chen Lingxi’s bound hair blew back, his robes snapping loudly in the wind.

He ignored it entirely, merely lowering his head to look at the Host Star Stone in his palm.

He had only learned Imperial Consort Chun’s true name from Xiao Changlv.

On that day, Xiao Changlv had leapt high from the crumbling mountain peak, crossing several li of sky to land by the banks of the Zhuzhao River.

His fierce, tiger-like roar still echoed in Chen Lingxi’s ears.

”Rong Chun! I, Xiao Changlv, have kept my promise and come to kill you!”

Chen Lingxi had kept it firmly in mind.

He then placed the cup onto the Host Star Stone.

The cup slowly melted, as if the Host Star Stone were devouring it.

Right at that moment, the two engraved words on the Host Star Stone lit up.

At first, the light was just a faint, fine speck. Then, like an ignited spark, it shot from the strokes of the characters, growing steadily brighter and more intense.

Following that, a wondrous spiritual light surged from within the Host Star Stone.

The light was like a sky full of stars, reflecting throughout the entire cave and turning it into a dazzling galaxy.

In that instant, Chen Lingxi felt his mind captured by the starlight.

”Cauldron Vessel illusion—”

Chen Lingxi seemed to realize something.

He felt as if he saw two stars in the sky suddenly flash with brilliance.

The two stars hung deep in the boundless night sky, one in the east and one in the west, facing each other from afar.

They lit up simultaneously, competing with each other in splendor.

The starlight was so intense that Chen Lingxi could barely open his eyes.

He felt the light of those two stars pierce through the cave’s ceiling, through the bedrock of Mount Qiaoji, and through every obstacle between heaven and earth. It shone directly upon him, illuminating the very depths of his mind.

Then, he seemed to fall into a dream.

Without any warning!

A moment prior, he had still been in the cave on Mount Qiaoji, sitting cross-legged on the bluestone with the Host Star Stone in his palm.

The next moment, he found himself in a completely unfamiliar place.

”A palace?”

The palace was brilliant and opulent, standing majestically at the edge of the void. With its soaring eaves and resplendent gold and jade, it resembled an immortal’s hall built entirely from pure gold and fine jade, radiating a blinding majesty.

Before the palace lay a thousand jade steps, each one paved with a solid block of white jade. The smooth, mirror-like surfaces reflected the flowing rosy light from the palace above.

The palace was incredibly tall and vast, far more magnificent than any hall Chen Lingxi had ever seen.

The main hall of the Baosu Marquis Residence would look like a humble thatched hut before it, and even the Crown Prince’s Beast-Fighting Palace on Mangyang Mountain would pale in comparison.

A plaque hung over the palace gateway.

”Mirror Palace? This is Imperial Consort Chun’s palace!”

Chen Lingxi instantly understood. ”I used the Host Star Stone to establish Rong Chun as my fated nemesis. The mighty power of the Host Star Stone has allowed me to see this palace.”

Drawn by an invisible force, Chen Lingxi’s perspective plunged into the depths of the palace.

Then, he witnessed an extremely bizarre scene.

Throughout this palace, countless flower arrangements were actually on display.

They filled every corner of the vast structure.

They were everywhere: flanking the jade steps of the main hall, resting at the corners of the winding corridors, sitting on the stone tables in the courtyard, and lining the windowsills of the heated pavilions.

Inside the halls, numerous palace maids and eunuchs tended to the flowers—some pouring water, some pruning branches, some moving ceramic vases.

They bustled about endlessly.

”To think there are so many flower arrangements in Rong Chun’s Mirror Palace.”

Chen Lingxi marveled.

His perspective drifted further inward, eventually arriving at the bedchamber deep within the palace.

The bedchamber was massive. It featured a high vaulted ceiling, walls draped with giant brocade tapestries, and a floor paved with solid suet-white jade tiles.

Ambergris burned within the chamber. Its smoke curled upwards and lingered without dispersing, enveloping the entire room in a faint, rich fragrance.

The flower arrangements were even more densely packed in here.

Every corner was filled with flowers, and the numerous arrangements were actually producing a strange mist.

”There really is something strange about Imperial Consort Chun’s flower arrangements.”

Chen Lingxi sneered inwardly.

Then, deep within the sea of mist in the bedchamber, Chen Lingxi saw a person.

She sat cross-legged on a low couch carved entirely from red sandalwood.

The low couch was covered with a thick brocade cushion. She wore an elegant moon-white dress woven from some unknown material, naturally shimmering with overlapping rosy hues as it soaked in the mist.

Her hair was swept up in a high bun. She was graceful, luxurious, and held a blinding majesty.

It was Imperial Consort Chun herself.

At this moment, there was not a trace of color on Imperial Consort Chun’s face.

Her brows were slightly furrowed, and a faint, thin scar marked the center of her forehead. The scar had already scabbed over, yet a faint trace of blood energy still lingered upon it.

Although the blood energy was extremely faint, its presence was terrifying, as if even the slightest leak of its mighty power could kill Imperial Consort Chun.

”This must be Xiao Changlv’s blood energy.”

Xiao Changlv had assassinated Imperial Consort Chun and even managed to wound her.

Months had passed, yet the blood energy left behind by Xiao Changlv had not completely dissipated. It was clear just how powerful he was.

At this moment—

What caught Chen Lingxi’s attention even more was the object placed in front of her.

It was a precious mirror.

The mirror was about the size of a palm, forged entirely from an unknown ancient bronze. Its back was engraved with countless intricate and eerie patterns; amidst the dense lines, a profoundly advanced formation seemed to be slowly revolving.

The mirror’s surface was as smooth as water, clear enough to reflect a person, but what it reflected was not the scene within the bedchamber.

Inside the mirror, mist was churning.

And the strange mist produced by the flower arrangements in the bedchamber was continuously flowing into the precious mirror.

Chen Lingxi formed a guess.

”She is using the flower arrangements to gather spiritual energy, and then refining it with the precious mirror.”

”But where does the spiritual energy of these flower arrangements come from?”

Right at that time, a ray of brilliant light shone down from above.

The light arrived without warning.

The bedchamber’s vaulted ceiling was completely sealed, the tapestries layered heavily, and the white jade tiles fit together seamlessly.

Yet, the brilliant light pierced through all tangible matter in the world, shining straight down. It passed through the ceiling, through the tapestries, and through the churning sea of mist, illuminating the section of the palace where Imperial Consort Chun resided.

The brilliant light was a blazing white, warm and bright, yet not blinding.

It fell upon Imperial Consort Chun, enveloping her entirely in a mesmerizing, holy halo.

Bathed in this light, the trace of blood energy at the center of her brow faintly showed signs of healing.

The residual mighty power of the blood energy was melted and neutralized by the light, thread by thread. Like solid ice meeting spring water, it dissipated bit by bit—extremely slowly, but tangibly nonetheless.

”Someone in the palace is helping her heal?”

Chen Lingxi speculated, ”Aside from the noble consort and the Crown Prince, there are other Greater World cultivators in the palace.”

The brilliant light circulated around her for about the time it takes an incense stick to burn before slowly fading away.

Imperial Consort Chun opened her eyes.

Her once-dim gaze had now brightened significantly.

Exhaling a long breath of turbid air, she stood up, walked over to the precious mirror, and lowered her head to study its surface for a moment.

Then, appearing utterly exhausted, she slowly walked back to the low red sandalwood couch, climbed onto the bed, pulled the brocade quilt up to her chest, and fell into a deep sleep.

Chen Lingxi’s perspective shifted abruptly at this moment.

Originally, he had been observing the scene in the bedchamber through the perspective of the Host Star Stone. But the instant Imperial Consort Chun closed her eyes and fell asleep, his perspective was pulled by an invisible force, sinking straight into her dream.

Right.

A dream.

Various fragments of information transmitted from the Host Star Stone told Chen Lingxi that this was Imperial Consort Chun’s dreamscape.

The dream was incredibly surreal, like a boundless wilderness shrouded in thick fog.

There was no sun or moon in the sky above, only countless stars flickering in and out against the dark expanse.

The stars were arranged in an exceedingly peculiar way, as if someone had used them as game pieces to lay out an impossibly massive, infinitely complex board across the heavens.

Imperial Consort Chun stood directly in the center of one such star.

She retained her maiden-like appearance, but her eyes revealed a world-weariness and exhaustion that starkly contrasted with her face.

She lifted her head, gazing up at the sky.

High above, she seemed to see another star looking back at her.

Atop that star sat a shadowy figure.

The shadow was extremely blurry, its gender indistinguishable. Only a vague outline could be seen, sitting rigidly upright on the star like a divine statue worshipped at the summit of the heavens.

The shadow appeared to hold something long and thin in its hand. It vaguely resembled a weapon, though its exact nature was unclear.

Yet the shadow’s aura was astonishing.

With fierce killing intent and a heavy presence, it resembled a peerless beast dormant upon the star, coldly looking down at her!

That killing intent pierced through the fog of the dream, pierced through the cold light of the deep purple star in the sky, and fell directly upon Imperial Consort Chun.

It wanted to kill her.

Then, she woke up.

Imperial Consort Chun’s eyes snapped open as she sat up on the bed, a fine layer of cold sweat already seeping from her forehead.

”Who wants to kill me?”

”An omen of murder through a dream! It must be a wondrous technique, perhaps even a Cauldron Vessel.”

She panted for a moment until her breathing steadied, then swung her legs off the bed.

Stepping barefoot on the suet-white jade tiles, she walked over to the precious mirror.

She raised her right hand, bringing her index and middle fingers together like a sword. A very faint, fine point of bluish-green spiritual light flickered at her fingertips before she lightly tapped the mirror’s surface.

The churning mist on the mirror abruptly halted.

Ripples then spread across the mirror’s surface.

The mist in the mirror dissipated completely, replaced by an incredibly clear image.

[Mirror Listening!]

The image caused Chen Lingxi’s pupils to shrink!

Because he saw many ants.

Then, a beam of light descended from the sky.

The light was a blazing white, like a miniature sun falling from the heavens, growing brighter and closer. Only when the light drew near did Chen Lingxi see clearly that it was actually a foot.

A foot wearing an embroidered shoe stepped down upon the swarm of ants.

The ants all died.

Then, the foot lifted, rising back into the sky and vanishing past the edge of the mirror.

It left behind only the scattered corpses of ants.

Imperial Consort Chun stared at this scene in the mirror, falling silent for a moment.

Then, a smile crept onto the corners of her mouth.

It seemed to carry a condescending, almost apathetic contempt.

It was as if she were watching a play that had nothing to do with her.

”The killing intent landed on these crushed ants?” she murmured softly, shaking her head again before pulling her glowing finger away from the mirror.

The ripples on the mirror slowly faded, and the image of the crushed ants gradually blurred, ultimately swallowed back up by the churning mist to restore its original dark and unfathomable appearance.

She seemed completely unconcerned about the killing intent from her dream.

Imperial Consort Chun turned around, slowly walked back to the red sandalwood low couch, and sat on the edge.

”Why should I fear a figure who comes to kill me out of fury over mere ants?”

Her tone was as plain as water, as if speaking of something utterly irrelevant to her.

It was as if, in her eyes, the shadowy figure sitting cross-legged on the star who wished to kill her was nothing more than a mediocre fool angered by the death of ants.

Why fear a fool making trouble for themselves?

Silence returned to the bedchamber.

At this moment, the illusion of the Fated Star slowly dissipated.

Chen Lingxi suddenly opened his eyes.

He was still sitting cross-legged in that cave on Mount Qiaoji, holding the Host Star Stone in his palm.

The name [Rong Chun] had already been engraved upon the Host Star Stone.

Chen Lingxi narrowed his eyes.

”Ants—” he repeated the word in a low voice, furrowing his brow.

Then, he reminisced about many things concerning his parents.

Those memories hadn’t surfaced for a long time, yet now they washed over his mind like a tidal wave.

He remembered how, when his father returned from his shift at the Judicial Office Yamen, he would always buy two freshly baked flatbreads at the alley entrance—one for him, and one for the youngest daughter of the neighboring Xi Family.

He remembered his mother sitting by the window embroidering, sunlight filtering through the window paper to land on her dark bun, making her silver hairpin sparkle.

He remembered so many things.

Those were the very first things he possessed in this world.

Even after awakening his memories of a past life, he had never forgotten them.

But later, those people all died.

His father had knelt on the yellow dirt of the execution ground. The executioner’s broadsword fell, and his head rolled far away.

His mother followed closely after, falling upon that same stretch of yellow dirt.

He could only watch.

He watched as their blood was washed away by the rain, carving out a long red channel that trickled all the way to his feet.

And Imperial Consort Chun, the one who caused all of this, had just been in her bedchamber, looking at the mangled ants crushed to pieces in the precious mirror—yet she had only smiled lightly and shaken her head, completely unbothered.

Chen Lingxi closed his eyes, and his parents’ faces surfaced once again.

His father’s lean face, his mother’s gentle eyes, the small courtyard in Liujie Alley, the water well.

These scenes, which he buried in the deepest parts of his heart and never easily revisited, now spun ceaselessly before his eyes like a revolving lantern.

His expression gradually grew serious.

He pursed his lips and swallowed back the breath of stagnant air welling up in his chest.

Then, gripping the Host Star Stone, Chen Lingxi murmured softly.

”A disaster of ants can also bring about a fatal catastrophe.”

Golden light flickered on the Host Star Stone, and the two words [Rong Chun] became increasingly distinct.