After the Great Dao Died

Chen Lingxi circulated the Hidden Edge Method as he arrived before Ancestral Mountain.

From a distance, the mist shrouding Ancestral Mountain was incredibly thick, stretching across the landscape like a towering white wall.

It was nothing like ordinary mountain fog, which scattered in the wind and melted beneath the sun. This mist was so dense it was almost tangible, piling up layer upon layer to completely obscure the mountain’s true face.

As the mist churned, Chen Lingxi sensed a peculiar spirit mechanism flowing within it, extremely faint and subtle.

Had his five senses not sharpened to an astonishing degree after he reached the Qi Circulation 6th Floor, he would never have noticed it.

He did not step into the mist right away.

’There are many experts in Ancestral Mountain, so I need to be careful,’ he thought. ’Otherwise, I’ll end up like Lu Baizhong—running into a strong enemy the moment I enter, which will inevitably ruin my plans.’

As he pondered, he pushed the Hidden Edge Method to its absolute limit within his body.

An incredibly thin, tough, and formless barrier completely concealed the spiritual pool in his qi sea. Deep inside his bones, he suppressed his jade blood qi until it nearly stagnated.

From the outside, he looked like an ordinary person. There was not a single ripple of spiritual qi around him, nor any trace of flowing blood qi.Only after finishing this did he take a deep breath and step into the churning thick fog. The moment his foot landed, the surrounding mist seemed to come alive.

The wisps of fog, which had only been drifting lazily a moment ago, were suddenly churned by an invisible hand and surged madly toward him.

The instant the mist brushed his clothes, the spiritual qi he had firmly locked down with the Hidden Edge Method was autonomously stirred by the fog. Like a slumbering fish startled by an intruder, it gave a slight, involuntary tremble.

It seemed the mist had sensed his spiritual qi.

In the blink of an eye, the fog within three feet of him dissipated entirely, revealing a clear path.

He looked at the clear path the retreating mist had left behind, a sudden realization dawning on him.

’It seems that if one lacks spiritual qi—or a massive spiritual qi banner like those Silver Bone blood qi martial artists use—it is simply impossible to set foot in the true Ancestral Mountain.’

The mist itself seemed to possess a certain sentience, able to detect the spiritual qi of anyone who approached.

If a visitor had no spiritual qi at all, they would likely be repelled by this fog, unable to even pass the mountain gate.

Understanding this, Chen Lingxi did not linger any longer and strode into the mountain.

The moment he stepped deep into the wall of mist, the entire world changed colors.

The fog overhead, which had still let a bit of daylight through, abruptly vanished. Replacing it was a deep, ink-black curtain of night. Stars hung high in the sky, their light not cold but casting a warm, almost milky-white glow that illuminated the entire realm.

Beneath his feet were no longer the jagged rocks and winding paths of Ancestral Mountain, but a vast, boundless expanse of land. Lush vegetation carpeted the earth, and rolling peaks rose in the distance, resembling a magnificent painting unrolled beneath the starlight.

Chen Lingxi stood on a gentle slope. When he glanced back, the path he had taken was gone without a trace.

The churning thick fog and that invisible door had both been utterly swallowed by this strange new world.

’I need to find Lu Baizhong’s trail as soon as possible.’

Chen Lingxi circulated the Hidden Edge Method.

Now possessing the cultivation of the Qi Circulation 6th Floor, paired with the Subtle Realm of his Hidden Edge Method, his ability to conceal his aura had reached an entirely new level.

The Subtle Realm of the Hidden Edge Method wove a profoundly mystical barrier around him. Like an invisible veil draped over his body, it completely masked all fluctuations of spiritual qi, the flow of his blood qi, and even the faint traces of ambient spirit mechanisms he absorbed with every breath.

He moved silently through this unfamiliar land like a shadow melting into the starlight.

Following the direction he remembered Lu Baizhong fleeing toward, Chen Lingxi headed straight for the third massive mountain.

Back in the Absolute Perception Divine Chamber, he had used Lin Suri’s Art of Observation to see where Lu Baizhong had escaped.

Lu Baizhong’s pale gold sword light had flashed once near the waist of the third mountain before vanishing without a trace. ’He should be right at that mountainside.’

Chen Lingxi sprinted using only his physical strength.

Upon reaching the Qi Circulation 6th Floor, his spiritual qi had begun to continuously compress and condense. The Nine-Return Spirit Mechanism operated day and night, purging every last impurity from his spiritual liquid.

This refinement of spiritual qi, in turn, tempered his physique. From the inside out, every inch of his muscles, bones, skin, and internal organs grew stronger under the nourishment of the spiritual qi.

Coupled with the blood qi circulation method of the Qi-Merging Stance—the sixth form of the Seven Forms of Halting Weapons—he had already reached Jade Qi Great Completion. Every bone in his body had turned jade-like, and his jade blood qi surged like the tide through his marrow cavities. His every movement was faintly accompanied by the chiming of jade bells.

He was only a step away from achieving Jade Qi Peak Completion and forming the Jade-Suppressing Precious Body.

At Jade Qi Great Completion, his jade-like bones were outrageously tough.

Even without circulating his blood qi or spiritual qi, relying purely on flesh that had been repeatedly tempered by both, Chen Lingxi’s speed as he moved through the mountains was astonishing.

Right now, he resembled a wisp of green smoke flying close to the ground, darting through the mountain forest without rustling a single fallen leaf or disturbing a single roosting bird.

As he hurried along, he repeatedly recalled the vague location where Lu Baizhong had landed in the Absolute Perception Divine Chamber, using it as his guide.

But this mountain was simply too massive.

The three peaks of Ancestral Mountain had been magnified more than a hundred times within this minor Grotto-Heaven. Each towered majestically, like three silent giants crouching beneath the stars. Chen Lingxi traversed the mountain for a long time, searching from the foothills to the waist, and then from the waist to the ridges. He scaled several sheer cliffs and threaded through dense ancient forests, but he could not find a single trace of Lu Baizhong.

Starlight drifted lazily overhead. There was no sun or moon in this minor Grotto-Heaven, making it impossible to distinguish day from night.

He could only rely on his internal sense of time to roughly estimate how long had passed.

He searched continuously for seven or eight shichen.

’Could Lu Baizhong have fled far away? Is he not in this third mountain?’

Just as Chen Lingxi was wondering this, his gaze suddenly fell upon the base of a cliff.

The cliff was hidden at the intersection of two mountain ridges, an extremely concealed location.

Gnarled old pines grew all over the rock face. Their overlapping branches stretched out like a dark green canopy, completely obscuring the area below the cliff.

Above the cliff, a rock shaped like an eagle’s beak jutted out at a slant. Covered in grayish-white moss, it gleamed with a faint, cold light beneath the stars.

Chen Lingxi’s pupils contracted slightly.

Under the circulation of the Method of Qi Observation, he vaguely detected a few wisps of azure spiritual qi flowing sluggishly.

’He’s here?’ He concealed himself within a dense patch of vegetation above the cliff.

He didn’t know what kind of plants they were, but their broad, thick leaves crowded together in overlapping layers, forming a natural screen.

Pushing the Hidden Edge Method to its peak, he blended into the foliage like moss growing on the cliff face, slowing his breathing to the absolute limit.

Then, peering through the gaps between the leaves, he looked down at the base of the cliff.

’He really is here!’

Chen Lingxi was overjoyed.

He saw Lu Baizhong sitting with his eyes closed, regulating his breath.

Lu Baizhong was still wearing his moon-white robes, but they were now stained with blood and dirt. A long tear at his cuff revealed a pale wrist covered in fine, dense cuts.

All color had drained from his youthful face. His lips were dry, and a streak of dark red blood still lingered at the corner of his mouth.

He sat cross-legged with his eyes shut tight, but his breathing was incredibly long and drawn out. With every rise and fall of his chest, faint, barely visible sparks of pale gold lightning flowed in and out of his nose and mouth.

On the ground within three feet of him, dozens of fine, pale gold lines slowly circulated. These lines linked together, actually forming a small defensive array.

’It seems the cultivator wielding the Longevity Bridge technique has equally terrifying offensive power. Just one collision from the Longevity Bridge left even Lu Baizhong with such heavy injuries,’ he thought. ’The Xi Family... the Longevity Bridge divine ability...’

Thinking back to Lu Baizhong’s words during the battle, his brows furrowed slightly.

’Xi Mu once said that a total of three people from the Queshi Star Xi Family came through the Pool of Reincarnation to seek truth in the Grotto-Heaven: Xi Mu, Xi Yu... and Xi Yuan, who reincarnated into Great Li’s Fengshan Xi Clan!’

’That person must be Xi Yuan!’

’To think Xi Yuan is this formidable. Even if his cultivation isn’t at the Qi Circulation 8th Floor, he’s probably already at Qi Circulation 7th Floor peak completion. On top of that, he wields a terrifying technique like the Longevity Bridge. He cannot be underestimated.’

As Chen Lingxi pondered, he firmly committed Lu Baizhong’s current position to memory, along with the flow of the defensive array’s lines around him, the old pines and vines obscuring the cave entrance, and the surrounding terrain both above and below the cliff.

He repeatedly confirmed every single detail until he knew them inside and out.

Having memorized the location, Chen Lingxi was just about to silently withdraw.

He retreated extremely slowly and lightly.

The Hidden Edge Method enveloped all the qi mechanisms around his body, and his Jade Qi Great Completion physique allowed him to control the exertion of every inch of muscle down to the millimeter.

But the Qi Circulation 7th Floor... the flow of divine sense at that level was not something to be trifled with!

Right as he was about to exit the perimeter of the cliff, Lu Baizhong suddenly opened his eyes. In the instant they opened, those entirely emotionless eyes locked onto the patch of vegetation where Chen Lingxi was hiding.

There was no doubt or hesitation in his gaze, only pure, freezing killing intent.

He did not even stand up. Remaining seated cross-legged, he brought his right index and middle fingers together like a sword and pointed them lightly in Chen Lingxi’s direction.

A bolt of lightning lunged straight for the kill.

The lightning was far too fast.

It was so fast that Chen Lingxi only felt a blinding pale gold light abruptly flash before his eyes. Like an enraged golden lightning serpent, the light tore through the air and shot straight at his face.

Wherever the lightning passed, moisture in the air was instantly evaporated into nothingness, letting out an extremely faint but piercing sizzle.

”Who is spying on me?”

Lu Baizhong spoke, his voice still as clear as striking jade chimes. Yet the spiritual qi fluctuations hidden within his tone were shockingly heavy. It was like an invisible drum had been fiercely beaten in the void, shaking the surrounding rocks until they faintly trembled.

’A sonic killing technique, just like the Dragon Roar Technique!’

’It’s just a pity you’re injured, with less than a tenth of your spiritual qi remaining!’

Chen Lingxi sneered as the spiritual pool in his qi sea abruptly surged. The Qi Sea Whirlpool erupted with a boom, and a powerful suction force poured out of his body, condensing into an invisible vortex about a foot in front of him.

The pale gold lightning crashed into the vortex. Like a pebble thrown into a raging whirlpool, it was thrown off its original trajectory by the spinning currents. It brushed past Chen Lingxi’s right shoulder and shot into the dense vegetation behind him.

The lightning exploded, scorching the broad, thick leaves into charred husks and throwing up a cloud of acrid green smoke.

Seizing this momentary opening, Chen Lingxi’s figure shot back dozens of zhang.

The Qi Sea Whirlpool beneath his feet and his Jade Qi blood qi erupted simultaneously. Like a wisp of green smoke flying close to the ground, he tapped against the cliff face several times. Every step landed on the most prominent outcroppings of rock, and every leap launched him several zhang higher.

His robes snapped in the wind, and in the blink of an eye, he was already over a hundred zhang away.

Having dodged the lightning, he departed immediately, fleeing far into the distance.

’I’m in the Absolute Perception Divine Chamber right now. Tracking the subsequent movements of the Mother Qi is what’s important,’ he thought. ’I’ll just remember Lu Baizhong’s position and kill him when I return to the real world.’

Chen Lingxi sprinted the entire way, crossing several mountain ridges and leaping over two winding streams before finally stopping at the waist of the second massive mountain.

He glanced around and found a massive tree with an incredibly lush canopy.

He didn’t know what kind of tree it was, but its main trunk was so thick it would take three or four people to encircle it. The canopy blotted out the sky, its overlapping branches and leaves so dense that barely any light passed through.

Walking up to it, he lightly tapped his toe against the trunk and vaulted several zhang into the air, silently slipping deep into the canopy. He found a thick branch that jutted out horizontally like a giant, open palm, large enough to seat several people at once.

Chen Lingxi sat cross-legged on the branch, leaning his back against the trunk, and his entire body melted into the thick shadows of the tree.

He closed his eyes and began to regulate his breathing.

After about the time it takes an incense stick to burn, he opened his eyes, his breathing completely steady once more.

’Resume Vision Roaming!’