After the Great Dao Died

It was his third day inside the Ancestral Mountain.

With no sun or moon in the sky—only two bright mirrors hanging high above—he was undeniably still inside the Absolute Perception Divine Chamber.

Chen Lingxi remained hidden atop the lush, sprawling tree, motionless as a lurking civet.

He kept his eyes closed. His breathing was long and steady, and beneath the cover of the Hidden Edge Method, the spiritual pool within his qi sea circulated slowly, elevating his five senses to their absolute limits.

Unlike the other cultivators scrambling to find the qi of the Ancestral Mountain, he simply continued his breathing exercises and Qi Circulation.

At that moment, a deafening boom echoed from afar.

The sound started distant and faint, like muffled thunder rolling across the horizon. In the blink of an eye, it swelled into an earth-shattering roar.

The entire Ancestral Mountain trembled under the sheer force of the noise. Starlight wavered, ridges groaned, and the great tree quivered violently, shaking dewdrops from its leaves to splatter against his shoulders.

Chen Lingxi opened his eyes and sprang to his feet.

’The source of the disturbance is over a hundred miles away. Vision Roaming can’t cover that distance; I need to get closer.’Such a massive commotion was bound to attract other truth-seeking cultivators. No longer hiding his spiritual qi, Chen Lingxi churned his qi vortex, bolstered it with Jade Qi, and pushed his speed to its absolute peak as he rushed straight toward the anomaly. He didn’t stop until he was only thirty miles away.

[Vision Roaming!]

Chen Lingxi activated Vision Roaming.

His perspective was instantly hoisted into the sky.

As if breaking free from the confines of his flesh, he became an invisible bird soaring upward. He crossed over the canopy, the mountain ridges, and the vast, starlit forest, flying straight toward the deafening roar.

The wind howled past his ears as starlight wove around him. The entirety of the minor grotto-heaven unfurled beneath his feet like a magnificent painting drenched in starlight.

His vision descended to Lin Suri.

In an instant, through the third-person perspective encompassing Lin Suri, Chen Lingxi saw the scene with absolute clarity.

Lin Suri stood atop a mountain ridge.

He maintained his usual calm, unhurried demeanor. His dark brocade robes whipped in the wind, his jade belt clasped neatly at his waist, his hair crown impeccably straight.

No emotion could be read on his pale face, but his eyes were breathtakingly bright.

The fierce tiger token at his waist emitted a faint, cold glow. The two-foot Jade Sword hung by his side, the faint phantom of a crane flowing across its blade. Standing with his hands behind his back, robes snapping in the wind, he radiated an imposing aura as towering as a mountain.

Yet at this moment, this master of the Qi Circulation 7th Floor had his spiritual qi circulating fiercely around him, clearly on maximum guard.

A short distance away lay a dead court eunuch dressed in python robes, his head severed from his body!

’That earth-shattering noise from earlier was Lin Suri fighting this eunuch!’

’Was this eunuch also a truth-seeker? Or just a vitality martial artist who used a spiritual treasure to enter the Ancestral Mountain?’

Chen Lingxi was full of doubts.

Just then!

Through Lin Suri’s perspective, Chen Lingxi noticed another anomaly unfolding in the heavens above.

The night sky, previously studded with high-hanging stars, suddenly began to churn.

A formless power blotted out the gentle starlight!

Thick, grayish-white fog roiled within, stacking layer upon layer like a boundless wall hanging upside down from the firmament, completely sealing off the sky.

Void clouds lingered in the fog, resembling an inverted sea of clouds surging above the highest heavens. Then, Chen Lingxi saw a hand.

His pupils shrank slightly. ’There is someone in the fog!’

Before his thoughts could even settle, a massive hand reached out from the void clouds. With its five fingers spread slightly and palm facing downward, it pressed directly toward Lin Suri. Like a mountain plummeting from the highest heavens, it carried an apocalyptic, terrifying might.

The hand was gargantuan, the size of a small hill!

Countless fine wisps of cloud qi circulated between the fingers, coiling around the knuckles like living creatures and exhaling radiant light.

Streaks of spiritual light as thick as horned dragons churned within its palm. The light was a deep azure, condensed almost to physical substance, and every single streak contained a suffocating, terrifying pressure!

Before the massive palm even fully descended, its majestic pressure enveloped Lin Suri like a formless tidal wave.

Loose stones on the ridge quivered violently under the pressure. Fine gravel peeled off the rock face, floating and trembling in midair.

The mountain rock beneath Lin Suri’s feet cracked inch by inch. Fissures spread wildly in all directions from the soles of his boots, covering over a hundred feet of ground like a massive spiderweb.

’Such power... I’m afraid this is someone at the Qi Circulation 9th Floor!’

Chen Lingxi felt a chilling dread rise from the bottom of his heart.

The power contained within this single palm was simply too vast, far surpassing Lu Baizhong’s sword qi or Xi Yuan’s Longevity Bridge! Lin Suri had already reached the Seventh Floor.

Moreover, he had just refined the precious qi. With that fierce tiger token and the two-foot Jade Sword in his hands, his foundation was extraordinary. He was absolutely not comparable to an ordinary Qi Circulation 7th Floor cultivator.

Lin Suri looked up at the giant palm descending from the sky, not a shred of fear in his eyes.

Instead, two clusters of blinding golden flame ignited within his deep eyes. As the flames danced, the spiritual qi around him erupted explosively, as if it had been set ablaze.

The Six Qi True Method circulated madly within his body. The spiritual pool in his qi sea boiled over, and the newly refined precious qi burst forth at this very moment with an unimaginably sharp aura.

That sharp aura was formless and immaterial, yet so piercing it made one’s scalp tingle.

’What is Lin Suri trying to do?’ Chen Lingxi was slightly shaken.

Lin Suri did not try to meet the attack head-on.

Just as the giant palm was about to crash down on him, the fierce tiger token at his waist suddenly lit up.

At first, the light was extremely faint and soft. In an instant, it flared brilliantly, transforming into a soaring pillar of golden light that swallowed his figure entirely.

Within the golden light, Chen Lingxi witnessed a deeply shocking scene.

The phantom of a divine general faintly manifested behind Lin Suri. The figure stood tens of feet tall, clad in golden armor and a golden helm. Its face was a blur, but a pair of majestic eyes could be seen slowly opening amid the golden light.

The moment the phantom appeared, Lin Suri’s aura drastically changed. A surging, fiery presence erupted from him, making him look like a divine general descending upon the mortal realm.

He took a single step forward.

When that step landed, the earth beneath his feet exploded, sending a rain of shattered stone flying into the air.

He turned into a streak of pale gold light, crossing a vast distance the very second the giant palm struck down, barely dodging the world-destroying blow.

The giant palm crashed into the cliffside, smashing the entire ridge to pieces. Rubble tumbled into the abyss, echoing with the muffled rumble of thunder.

Dust and smoke billowed into the sky, dyeing half the firmament a grayish-yellow.

Lin Suri landed on an outcropping of the cliff, his robes snapping in the wind, the golden light around him lingering.

He raised his head and gazed at the churning clouds in the sky above. The two clusters of golden fire danced in his eyes for a moment before slowly fading away.

At that exact moment, the clouds in the sky parted.

Amid the rolling fog, a skyship revealed itself.

The ship was flawlessly white, forged from some unknown material. Its hull hovered ten feet above the cloud layer, suspended perfectly in midair. A figure stood at the bow.

Borrowing Lin Suri’s gaze, Chen Lingxi got a clear look at the person.

It was a woman with the face of a young girl, yet her bearing was incomparably graceful and luxurious.

She wore an elegant moon-white gown, as if the most brilliant streak of sunset had been cut from the horizon and draped across her shoulders.

It was Imperial Consort Chun!

With her hands clasped behind her back, Imperial Consort Chun stood on the skyship. Her phoenix eyes carried an icy indifference entirely at odds with her youthful face, gazing down as if looking at an insignificant ant.

However, her complexion was nowhere near as composed as usual.

Her face was pale, her lips almost entirely bloodless. The scar left on her brow by Xiao Changlv had faded, but it still bore a faint, lingering aura.

The spiritual light around her—which should have been blazing and too dazzling to look at—was now severely dimmed. It flickered like a candle swaying in the wind, threatening to extinguish at any moment.

Chen Lingxi’s heart stirred. ’It seems Rong Chun hasn’t fully healed from her injuries.’

’Only... if she’s still injured, why is her aura so overwhelmingly powerful? The lethality of that palm strike just now was absurd. It’s barely any weaker than the palm Xiao Changlv delivered that day!’

Chen Lingxi was immensely puzzled. A cultivator at the Qi Circulation 8th Floor could absolutely never possess such power.

Such combat strength could likely rival a Heaven-Facing cultivator!

Then, he suddenly remembered the strange radiance he had seen falling upon Imperial Consort Chun during the illusion of the Host Star Stone that day.

’Could it be because of that light?’

Chen Lingxi speculated inwardly.

At this moment, Imperial Consort Chun turned her head slightly. Her gaze landed on Lin Suri, and a terribly faint, terribly cold smile surfaced on her lips.

”You again, disciple of the Under-Dao Academy?” she spoke. Her voice was clear and ringing, like jade striking against stone, yet it carried an unquestionable pressure. ”Dodging a casual palm strike of mine proves you have some skill.”

Before her voice even faded, her right hand rose once more.

The hand was extremely pale, as white as suet jade submerged in clear water, with slender, perfectly proportioned fingers. Yet when this seemingly soft and beautiful hand was raised, it summoned a gale. With her five fingers slightly spread, she made a grasping motion toward Lin Suri.

With that grasp, the air within hundreds of feet around Lin Suri instantly solidified. It felt as if an invisible giant hand was reaching for him from all directions, seeking to crush him into powder.

Lin Suri’s pupils contracted slightly.

The fierce tiger token at his waist flared again, and the divine general phantom behind him brightened in response. Amid a violent surge of golden light, he slipped right through the gaps of the formless giant hand like a pale golden blur. The terrifying pressure threw his robes backward, making them flap wildly in the wind.

He had actually dodged another of Imperial Consort Chun’s attacks.

But Chen Lingxi could clearly see that Lin Suri’s face had grown several shades paler.

The golden light on the fierce tiger token had also dimmed slightly. It was obvious that invoking this treasure took a massive toll on his spiritual qi.

Imperial Consort Chun raised an eyebrow, a flicker of surprise crossing her eyes before reverting to her earlier indifference. ”You have some skill, but this is merely a dying struggle.”

She was about to strike again, but Lin Suri had already turned on his heel to flee.

Spiritual qi erupted beneath his feet as he shot off into the distance like a streak of pale gold light.

His speed was staggering; in the blink of an eye, he had crossed thousands of feet.

”And where exactly do you think you can run?”

Standing on the skyship, Imperial Consort Chun watched the pale golden light flee and prepared to give chase.

Right at that moment, a roaring rumble erupted in the distance!

The roar started distant and faint, but immediately swelled into a heaven-shaking boom. A spiritual bridge crashed out of the void, measuring hundreds of feet in length. It was the Longevity Bridge divine ability of Xi Yuan from the Xi Family.

Xi Yuan sat cross-legged atop the towering spiritual bridge, his Daoist robes flapping in the wind. His features were plain, but his eyes were unfathomably deep, with faint and gentle spiritual light circulating deep within his pupils.

The Longevity Bridge beneath him was like a tamed giant dragon, exhaling a deep, heavy spiritual light.

The Longevity Bridge tore across the sky. Like an invisible greatsword chopping down, it slammed straight toward Imperial Consort Chun.

Wherever the bridge passed, the air was compressed into visible white rings that rippled outward layer by layer, emitting deafening sonic booms.

At the same time, an icy, thunderous sword qi soared into the sky in the distance.

The sword qi was pale gold, and its sword intent was so ferocious it would sting the eyes of ordinary cultivators.

The sword qi cascaded wildly. Like a waterfall of lightning plunging from the highest heavens, it cleaved toward Imperial Consort Chun with a terrifying, apocalyptic might.

Lu Baizhong.

His injuries appeared to have healed significantly.

His moon-white long shirt snapped in the wind. The silver-white longsword at his waist was drawn, and pale golden lightning boiled fiercely across its blade.

He looked like a humanoid lightning bolt. Robes whipping, lightning blazing, his majesty was unparalleled. And at that exact moment, seven or eight different auras of spiritual qi erupted into being.

The fluctuations varied in strength. The strongest had reached the Qi Circulation 6th Floor or even 7th Floor, while the weakest still possessed the cultivation of the Qi Circulation 5th Floor.

They charged out from all corners of the Ancestral Mountain. Some flew through the air, some skimmed over the ground, and some transformed into streaks of spiritual light tearing through the sky. They were all heading in the same direction: toward Imperial Consort Chun.

Chen Lingxi’s heart jolted. ’At this exact moment inside the Ancestral Mountain, everyone is continuing their siege to kill Imperial Consort Chun!’

He had seen a similar scenario in Absolute Perception before, but witnessing it with his own eyes still made his blood boil.

Standing on her skyship, Imperial Consort Chun watched the cultivators swarming toward her from all directions, yet not a trace of fear showed on her face.

She merely tilted her chin up slightly, a terribly faint, terribly cold smile tugging at the corner of her lips.

It was a smile fit for looking at a swarm of ants who didn’t know the immensity of heaven and earth...

”Do you think bunching together is enough to shake a towering tree?”

She raised her right hand and lightly pressed her five fingers into the void.

The gesture seemed effortless, but the moment her hand fell, the cloud qi within a thousand feet instantly froze.

In the blink of an eye, the cloud qi transformed into countless cloud ropes as thick as a child’s arm, lashing out to entangle the charging cultivators from all sides. Immediately after, spiritual light flared in Imperial Consort Chun’s hand. Fog roiled within the light, and a blazing white pillar erupted from it, smashing straight into Xi Yuan’s Longevity Bridge.

The air blistered and distorted wherever the light pillar passed, letting out a piercing shriek.

”The Longevity Bridge is indeed a powerful spell, but this is not the Queshi Stars!”

Imperial Consort Chun’s voice was leisurely.

Xi Yuan furrowed his brows. The Longevity Bridge abruptly accelerated its rotation. The complex patterns along its surface lit up in unison, forming thick barriers of spiritual light that slammed directly into the blazing white pillar.

With a thunderous boom, spiritual light sprayed out like rain. The Longevity Bridge shook violently from the impact as its spiritual light barriers shattered inch by inch, but the blazing white pillar was similarly ground away to nothing by the bridge’s erupting spiritual light.

At the same time, Lu Baizhong’s thunderous sword qi had already reached Imperial Consort Chun.

Imperial Consort Chun merely tilted her head and raised her left hand. Her five fingers spread, and a barrier of spiritual light materialized out of thin air three feet in front of her.

The barrier was pale gold. Countless fine runes faintly circulated across its surface, rendering it indestructible.

The thunderous sword qi struck the barrier, detonating into a blinding burst of pale golden light, but the barrier didn’t even budge.

Right then, muffled, thunderous footsteps rang out from a distance.

The footsteps moved in perfect unison, like a thousand people stepping on the ground at the exact same moment. They caused the earth itself to tremble. Borrowing Lin Suri’s perspective, Chen Lingxi looked toward the sound and saw a massive banner unfurling in the distance.

The banner was towering and immense. Its fabric was dark red, carved with complex patterns that faintly gleamed with circulating spiritual light.

The banner hovered in midair. Standing beneath it was that very boy general.

The boy general had a burly physique and a cold, austere expression. He also carried a large banner on his back.

His banner was several times larger than those of the common soldiers, and the patterns on its surface were far more intricate and profound.

He stood at the head of the three hundred Silver Bone soldiers, radiating an aura that stole one’s breath.

”Your Highness, Zheng Wuzheng awaits your command!”

Behind the boy general, the three hundred Silver Bone soldiers also bore large banners. Three hundred dark red banners fluttered in the wind.

The three hundred men marched in total unison, as if they were a single person. Their vitality rolled like wolf smoke, rising into the sky and dyeing the entire mountainside crimson.

Chen Lingxi could clearly see spiritual light flowing between all three hundred banners, like three hundred tiny streams merging into a single lake.

The vitality of the three hundred Silver Bone soldiers gathered along the banners and surged right into the boy general’s body.

The boy general’s vitality was augmented to the absolute limit. It boiled around him, erupting like a volcano that had been suppressed for ages and was finally blowing its top.

He leapt into the air and threw a punch.

There was nothing flashy about the punch. It was just the purest, rawest strength.

Ripples of force shattered the air as the fist broke the sound barrier. Wherever the ripples passed, rocks shattered and vegetation turned to ash. It was as though a fierce beast imprisoned for eternity had finally broken its shackles and roared outward!

This punch slammed directly toward Xi Yuan’s Longevity Bridge.

The fist aura collided with the spiritual bridge, detonating into a blinding ball of light. A terrifying shockwave swept madly in all directions, vibrating all the clouds and fog within thousands of feet into absolute nothingness.

”Kill!”

Lu Baizhong’s voice rang out.

He flipped his longsword, and the pale golden lightning on the blade flared brilliantly.

The sword light soundlessly cleaved the air open, leaving a tremendously thin, tremendously faint vacuum fissure in its wake as it slashed straight for Imperial Consort Chun.

For a time, spells ran rampant and vitality surged. Sabers and swords clashed and crossed, kicking up streaks of spiritual light and bloody radiance that blotted out the sky.

The light was far too intense. It was as though dozens of suns had exploded simultaneously within the mountains, washing the entire peak in a distorted sea of light. The various factions wildly besieged Imperial Consort Chun.

Some had their spells broken and were sent flying backward, spitting blood.

Some had their large banners shattered; swept up by the residual spiritual light, they groaned and plummeted to the ground.

Others used the cover of spells to launch sneak attacks at Imperial Consort Chun from the flank.

But Imperial Consort Chun stood on her skyship. Although her spiritual light was dimmed by thirty percent, she remained completely unhurried.

She flicked her ten fingers repeatedly. Spell after spell poured out in all directions like a torrential downpour, forcing her besiegers back again and again.

For a time, the mountain descended into total chaos.

Through Lin Suri’s perspective, Chen Lingxi took it all in.

His heart churned restlessly. It was as if the spiritual pool in his qi sea had been drawn in by the terrifying fluctuations of spiritual qi on the battlefield, causing it to roil uncontrollably.

’This Imperial Consort Chun is unfathomably strong. With such tyranny, who could possibly compete with her for the Mother Qi?’ he thought.

But right at that moment, the world suddenly shifted once more.

From the Heavenly Pool upon the mountain, water vapor abruptly began to rise. Suspended in midair, the Heavenly Pool was as clear as jade. Starlight spilled across its surface, kicking up sparkling ripples.

Yet the very moment the water vapor rose, it merged with the starlight from above.

At the point of intersection, an indescribable radiance flared to life.

The light was too bright. It exploded over the Heavenly Pool like a true sun. The radiance pierced through clouds, cut through solid rock, and bypassed every obstacle in heaven and earth, expanding madly in all directions.

Immediately afterward, a surge of spiritual mechanism suddenly erupted.

Like an invisible tide, the spiritual mechanism swept outward from the center of the Heavenly Pool in all directions.

Wherever the tide passed, the world fell utterly silent!

Every sound vanished.

The deafening booms of the battlefield, the furious shouts of the cultivators, the explosive cracks of colliding spells—all of it was swallowed up completely in an instant.

Every light grew dim.

The dazzling spiritual lights of the spells, the soaring pillars of wolf-smoke vitality, the violently boiling spiritual qi fluctuations... beneath the impact of this spiritual mechanism tide, they were snuffed out one by one, just like candles blown out by the wind.

Only a thick, impenetrable nothingness remained between heaven and earth. It was as if someone had draped an invisible curtain over everything in the world. Nothing could be seen. Nothing could be heard.

Even a Qi Circulation 7th Floor cultivator who had cultivated divine sense like Lin Suri felt as though he had fallen into absolute void. He had no perception whatsoever.

He sent out his divine sense, but it was like a clay ox plunging into the sea—he received not a single shred of feedback.

As far as his eyes could see, there was only a boundless expanse of white light. It felt like standing in a sea of fog so dense you couldn’t even see your own hand in front of your face.

’What is this spiritual mechanism tide?’

Chen Lingxi was astonished.

This spiritual mechanism tide was far too bizarre. It was so uncanny that it felt as if an invisible giant hand had temporarily wiped out every law in the world.

Through Lin Suri’s perspective, he saw only nothingness, heard only dead silence, and perceived only chaos.

Yet amidst this nothingness, the people on the battlefield had not stopped fighting.

Relying solely on their previous impressions, they frantically circulated their spiritual qi to block and dodge the spells and divine abilities Imperial Consort Chun had launched before the spiritual mechanism tide hit.

Because Imperial Consort Chun’s spells had been unleashed before the tide erupted, their light and sound were now concealed by the tide, but the spells themselves were still flying through the void, still slashing toward their intended targets.

’Retreat!’ Lin Suri’s spiritual qi surged. The fierce tiger token at his waist flared again, and the divine general phantom behind him brightened in response.

He flickered to the side, sliding tens of feet away and barely dodging several streaks of spiritual light that shot out of the nothingness.

Lu Baizhong flipped his longsword. Though the tide had suppressed the pale golden lightning on the blade by thirty percent, it still wove an airtight net of swords around him, shattering the incoming spells one by one.

Xi Yuan sat squarely upon the Longevity Bridge. The tide had smothered the bridge’s spiritual light until it was almost entirely gone, but the bridge itself remained indestructible, forcefully enduring the impact of multiple spells.

The boy general was even more ferocious.

His vitality boiled over. Augmented by the three hundred large banners, his terrifying vitality erupted without reservation, condensing into a blood-red astral shield several inches thick over his body.

The incoming spells slammed into the astral shield like raindrops striking a bronze bell, kicking up faint ripples but failing to pierce even the outermost layer of blood-red color.

They were all seasoned cultivators with exceptionally fast reflexes. After the aftershocks faded, they scattered. Very few were injured.

’This spiritual mechanism tide might actually be an opportunity!’

Chen Lingxi’s eyes burned fiercely as he suddenly began to recall the details.

’Imperial Consort Chun must be trapped in the nothingness as well.’

Since Chen Lingxi was in the Vision Roaming state, he was not affected by the spiritual mechanism tide. His perception remained sharp, and his sight was perfectly clear.

’I have to remember exactly when this spiritual mechanism tide occurred.’

In his mind, he frantically reviewed the shifts in heaven and earth that had just happened from Lin Suri’s perspective.

Through the third-person view, every subtle change in the surroundings was meticulously reconstructed in his memory.

Water vapor had risen from the distant Heavenly Pool. At first, it was just an extremely faint, extremely thin layer. In the blink of an eye, it swelled immensely, transforming into a soaring white water pillar that shot straight into the clouds.

Where the water pillar and the starlight intersected, the glow was like the very first ray of light at the dawn of creation—so bright it forced one’s eyes shut.

And at the exact moment the water vapor rose and met the starlight, a piece of driftwood had floated down the stream below.

The driftwood was about three feet long and as thick as a bowl. It had likely been washed down from some mountain forest by a flash flood. Its bark had long since been softened by the water, and its surface was covered in dark green moss.

It drifted with the waves and followed the current through the stream, bobbing along like a homeless wandering soul.

Then, it struck a rock in the water.

The moment the driftwood hit the rock, it produced an extremely light, extremely faint thud, like someone gently tapping a finger against a tabletop.

The sound was too soft. It was so faint that it went completely unnoticed on the deafening battlefield. But in the Vision Roaming state, Chen Lingxi’s five senses were elevated to an unimaginable degree, and that incredibly light, incredibly faint thud exploded in his mind like a clap of thunder.

’I can use this as an anchor to record the exact timing of this mysterious spiritual mechanism tide!’ Chen Lingxi’s thoughts burned hot.

He fiercely locked onto the image of the driftwood hitting the rock, the incredibly faint thud, the water vapor rising from the Heavenly Pool at that exact moment, the starlight spilling from the sky, and every minute change between heaven and earth when the spiritual mechanism tide swept across the world!

’This tide is extraordinary. It blinded almost everyone’s divine sense and perception.’

’Since that’s the case, I only need to memorize the precise timing of the spiritual mechanism tide, and then I can...’ As his thoughts reached this point, a sharp glint flashed through his eyes.

His mind raced, boiling with murderous intent. ’If there’s a chance, I’ll use this spiritual mechanism tide to kill Imperial Consort Chun!’

The thought was like a lit flame that violently flared up in his heart.

He had never forgotten the sight of his parents being beheaded on the execution grounds.

Washed away by the rain, their blood had carved a long red ditch that flowed all the way to his feet.

He had never forgotten the serene smile on Imperial Consort Chun’s face in the Mirror Palace when she looked down at the ants being crushed underfoot.

Now, he finally had a sliver of an opportunity.

’The disaster of the ants... Even if I can’t kill her, I can render her powerless to steal the Mother Qi from the Ancestral Mountain!’ Just as Chen Lingxi’s thoughts churned, the spiritual mechanism tide abruptly began to recede.

The nothingness that had swept across the world slowly dissipated like an outgoing tide.

Light began to shine through the nothingness once more, sound echoed out from the void again, and perception flooded back.

Everything between heaven and earth returned to its original state at a visible rate.

Through Lin Suri’s perspective, Chen Lingxi saw that the battlefield was now entirely different.

The once-chaotic battlefield was completely empty.

The cultivators who had just been besieging Imperial Consort Chun had scattered clean away.

Some had been injured during the tide and quietly retreated under its cover.

Some had exhausted their spiritual qi during the tide and didn’t dare stick around for a second longer.

And some likely shared Lin Suri’s mindset: unwilling to clash head-on with Imperial Consort Chun at this moment, they used the tide’s cover to retreat into the forest.

Even Lin Suri had flown hundreds of feet away in that brief span of time.

His spiritual qi flowed around him as he landed silently in a dense forest like a pale golden blur. Now, he wasn’t even trying to locate the truth-seekers who had been attacking Imperial Consort Chun. Instead, he turned his head to look at the suspended Heavenly Pool in the distance.

Borrowing Lin Suri’s eyes, Chen Lingxi also looked toward the Heavenly Pool.

In the aftermath of the spiritual mechanism tide.

Above the Heavenly Pool, where the starlight and fog intersected, several lines of text were surprisingly being traced out.

The text wasn’t ordinary ink. It was woven from the starlight and fog themselves, as if someone had wielded the starlight as a brush and the fog as ink to paint across the sky above the pool.

Every character glowed with a warm, bright starlight, circulating slowly in the night sky. The handwriting was lean and powerful, its strokes as sharp as blades.

Chen Lingxi read them word for word.

[The profundity of the Mother Qi: imbibe it, and your marrow sea will churn with silver while a tide surges through your hundred apertures. Your entire skeleton will be completely remolded, as if exchanging an old cauldron for a new vessel—such is the Spiritual Aperture Aptitude!]

[The Mother Qi possesses a spirit. To attain the spiritual aperture, one must traverse the Myriad Pivot Wondrous Array!]

The Myriad Pivot Wondrous Array?

Chen Lingxi furrowed his brows, having no idea what the Myriad Pivot Wondrous Array was.

Just then, spiritual light flared in the Heavenly Pool, forming what looked like a gateway waiting for the crowd. Chen Lingxi felt a flash of realization. ’The Ancestral Mountain Mother Qi is behind that gateway!’

At that moment, over a dozen streaks of spiritual light—from both the ground and the sky—charged toward the Heavenly Pool’s gateway!

The streaks of light varied in strength. The fastest were like shooting stars chasing the moon, while the slowest resembled birds returning to the forest.

They had reacted the very second the tide receded. Without even waiting for the text to fully vanish, they swarmed toward the Heavenly Pool.

Chen Lingxi remained perfectly still.

Still borrowing Lin Suri’s perspective, he sat securely in the dense forest, watching the streaks of light rush toward the pool.

Lin Suri was no different.

Spiritual qi surged around him once more as he leapt into the air like a streak of pale golden light, flying straight toward the Heavenly Pool.

Lin Suri transformed into a ray of golden light. He tore across the sky, his robes snapping in the wind, and arrived above the suspended Heavenly Pool in the blink of an eye.

With a flicker of his body, he submerged himself entirely into the pool’s water.

Chen Lingxi’s perspective sank into the Heavenly Pool alongside him.

The moment Lin Suri fell into the pool, Chen Lingxi instantly felt the surrounding scenery change drastically again. The water, originally as clear as jade, vanished from around him, replaced by a bottomless void.

This nothingness was even more profound and bizarre than the void of the spiritual mechanism tide.

Within the void, countless threads of spiritual mechanism flowed.

The threads were as thin as hairs and pale gold in color. They blanketed the entire void densely, like a boundless spiderweb.

Countless wondrous array formations drifted up and down along the threads. The arrays varied in size and complexity, each exuding a different spiritual light.

Some arrays resembled a great sun, their flames circulating to radiate infinite light and heat. Others were like a cold moon, bright and untainted, exuding a quiet tranquility. Still others looked like twisting snakes, coiling vines, intersecting lightning bolts, or overlapping mountain ranges—their shapes varied and their profundity was impossible to fathom.

The spiritual mechanism threads and wondrous array formations intertwined layer upon layer, packing together to form an unimaginably colossal array.

There was no telling how many layers the array had, but every single layer contained indescribable truths of cultivation, and a single layer was profound enough to keep an ordinary cultivator studying for decades without even finding the entrance.

Chen Lingxi felt his mind completely captivated by this array.

He had once studied the first layer of the Pure Wondrous Qi Pivot Array. That array was intricate and profound, boasting seven hundred and thirty array seals and nine separate array cores.

Yet only now did he realize that compared to the Myriad Pivot Wondrous Array before him, the first layer of the Pure Wondrous Qi Pivot Array was incredibly shallow.

He carefully perceived the threads and formations, trying to find some sort of clue within them. But the deeper he looked, the more shocked he became. ’It’s called an array, but it looks more like a testing ground. It doesn’t test the Dao of Arrays, but rather one’s Dao Path.’

’Just who laid out this kind of array? What level of cultivation must someone have to lay down such a complex formation?’

Amid his awe, his perspective remained tightly locked onto Lin Suri.

He watched as Lin Suri stood in the void with his hands behind his back, the hem of his robes gently brushing against nothingness.

The spiritual qi around him circulated slowly, but the two clusters of golden fire in his eyes were breathtakingly bright.

His gaze swept over the dense spiritual mechanism threads and the drifting wondrous arrays. His brows furrowed slightly as if he were contemplating something.

A moment later, golden light suddenly flowed through his eyes.

At first, the golden light was just an extremely faint speck. In an instant, it blazed brightly, erupting from deep within his pupils to set his entire eyes alight with a blinding, brilliant gold.

As the golden light circulated, his divine sense spread out like an invisible net, probing the surrounding spiritual mechanism threads and wondrous array formations.

Then, he suddenly stepped forward.

When that step was taken, Chen Lingxi almost thought Lin Suri was walking aimlessly.

Yet Lin Suri’s step was unimaginably precise. The spot where his foot landed was the exact intersection of two spiritual mechanism threads. The threads crossed right beneath his foot, but didn’t even brush against the corner of his robes.

His body flickered, and he took several consecutive steps with extremely profound footwork. Every single step landed on the most crucial, most secure node of the array.

The footwork seemed casual, but in truth, it contained indescribable principles of cultivation.

The array formations spawned tens of thousands of variations in the void.

The formations, which had been as calm as water just a moment ago, instantly began to churn the second Lin Suri stepped in. The drifting arrays spun, shifted, and reorganized frantically, like a disturbed swarm of bees.

But Lin Suri possessed heaven-defying comprehension. No matter how the formations shifted, he unerringly stepped onto the correct nodes.

With every change in the array, he would take the perfect step at the very last possible fraction of a second—left or right, forward or backward—without even the slightest hint of deviation.

The more Chen Lingxi watched, the more astounded he became. He couldn’t help but marvel inwardly, ’Lin Suri is a true heaven-chosen genius. Out of all these truth-seekers, perhaps no one can compare to him in terms of talent and comprehension.’

’No wonder the elders of his sect said he has the aptitude for the Golden Portal!’

’Even though he reincarnated into this world and no longer inhabits his original body, his comprehension remains.’

After marveling, Chen Lingxi couldn’t help but feel a pang of sorrow.

’Compared to Lin Suri... I am far inferior!’ He was a native cultivator. Though he had reached the Qi Circulation 6th Floor, he had never received a true sect inheritance, nor had he ever been formally taught Daoist methods.

Facing the Myriad Pivot Wondrous Array now, he found that he couldn’t understand it at all.

The flow of the spiritual mechanism threads, the shifting of the wondrous formations, the selection of the array nodes—in his eyes, it was all as obscure and incomprehensible as a heavenly scripture.

Even though he was borrowing Lin Suri’s perspective and could see every detail of this grand array with perfect clarity, he couldn’t comprehend even a sliver of the underlying principles.

His mood grew a little downcast.

He watched as Lin Suri broke through the array in this manner.

Until he reached the very end.

At the end of the void, a light suddenly flared.

At first, the light was just an extremely faint speck. In a flash, it blazed brightly, transforming into a beam of pure light that shot toward the heavens.

Within the pure light, the array finally shattered.

The spiritual mechanism threads snapped inch by inch. The wondrous array formations turned into a sky full of luminous dust, drifting gently downward.

Between heaven and earth, a wondrous sound seemed to ring out. The sound was clear and melodious, like someone plucking a zither above the nine heavens, or an immortal chanting scriptures amid the clouds.

The sound pierced through the void, through the fragments of the array, and straight through Chen Lingxi’s mind, echoing endlessly in his head.

A streak of pure qi flew out from the Heavenly Pool.

The pure qi was about the size of a palm. It looked like a wisp of crushed moonlight, or a clump of starlight imprisoned in a hand.

It circulated slowly in the void, exuding an indescribably wondrous aura.

That aura contained exceptionally dense spiritual mechanisms; every single wisp was enough to greatly advance an ordinary cultivator’s cultivation base.

That streak of pure qi landed in Lin Suri’s hand.

Lin Suri raised his right hand, slightly spread his fingers, and caught the pure qi in his palm.

The pure qi trembled slightly in his grasp. Like a tamed spirit beast, it curled up obediently between his fingers.

Chen Lingxi held his breath. He stared fixedly at the pure qi in Lin Suri’s palm, a stormy sea of shock churning in his heart.

’This is the Ancestral Mountain Mother Qi!’ he thought, a powerful surge of desire swelling within him.

He could barely suppress the impulse in his heart. He wanted nothing more than to immediately break out of the Vision Roaming state and rush to the Heavenly Pool to snatch the Mother Qi. A moment later, he caught sight of the two bright mirrors in the sky, remembered that this was the Absolute Perception Divine Chamber, and finally managed to calm himself down.

Right at that moment, the water vapor above the Heavenly Pool suddenly dissipated.

The heavy fog obscuring the Heavenly Pool receded slowly, like a gauze curtain being drawn back, revealing numerous figures.

Some figures hovered above the Heavenly Pool, while others stood directly on the water. They were scattered at different distances and heights, each exuding powerful fluctuations of spiritual qi.

Xi Yuan sat on his towering Longevity Bridge, his Daoist robes flapping. The bridge’s spiritual light circulated, making him look like an immortal god perched at the head of a bridge.

His gaze landed on the pure qi in Lin Suri’s hand, his eyes as calm as an ancient well.

Lu Baizhong stood not far away, his moon-white long shirt whipping in the wind. The silver-white longsword at his waist had been sheathed, but extremely faint, tiny arcs of electricity still danced across its scabbard.

His youthful face with red lips and white teeth rarely lacked a smile, but now it held nothing but an unfathomably deep chill.

There was also the boy general. His vitality boiled furiously around him, and the three hundred dark red banners snapped in the wind.

He hovered in the air, both fists clenched tight. Blood-red light flickered unsteadily over his knuckles, making him look like an enraged tiger coldly sizing Lin Suri up.

Then there were the two truth-seekers of Great Zhou—the two Qi Circulation 7th Floor cultivators who had previously teamed up against Lu Baizhong.

Both of them were pale, their spiritual qi fluctuations chaotic and weak. It was obvious they had sustained heavy injuries during the prior bloodbath. And there was Chao Feiye.

Clad in black robes, his face was covered by an armored mask, exposing only a pair of pale, pupil-less eyes. His figure flickered in and out of the fog, like a wisp of black smoke on the verge of dispersing.

There were many unfamiliar faces as well.

These strangers were old and young, men and women, dressed in various garments and bearing extraordinary dispositions.

Some had spiritual qi boiling around them, while others restrained their auras to the point of seeming like a bottomless abyss.

They stood above the Heavenly Pool, near and far, high and low.

Even far off in the distance, Imperial Consort Chun was walking through the air toward them.

The skyship beneath her feet was nowhere to be seen. She was simply walking on thin air, her pace so unhurried it was as if she were taking a stroll through her own back garden.

Although the spiritual light around her had dimmed by thirty percent, that terrifying pressure hadn’t diminished in the slightest.

Her youthful face wore a terribly faint, terribly cold smile, as if she were watching a troupe of clowns dancing in the palm of her hand.

They were all looking at Lin Suri.

Some of those gazes were full of covetousness, some hid killing intent, some were as calm as water, and some burned with fury. But no matter what kind of gaze it was, they all locked onto the exact same target: the dark-robed young man standing in the void, cradling the Mother Qi in his palm.

Lin Suri’s expression did not change.

He pulled the pure qi into his palm and closed his fingers slightly. The pure qi vanished into his sleeve, leaving not the slightest trace behind.

He looked up and swept his gaze over the cultivators closing in on him from all directions, without a single shred of fear in his eyes.

Then, he turned into a ray of golden light and shot into the distance.

The golden light was astoundingly fast.

The fierce tiger token at his waist flared again, and the divine general phantom behind him lit up alongside it, pushing his speed to an unimaginable degree.

At that very moment, the crowd moved as well.

Spells and divine abilities erupted wildly. Like dozens of torrents bursting forth simultaneously, they chased after the golden light.

Xi Yuan’s Longevity Bridge tore across the sky. Like a stone rainbow descending from the heavens, it slammed down toward Lin Suri’s head.

Lu Baizhong’s thunderous sword qi ripped through the air. Transforming into a pale golden bolt, it slashed straight for Lin Suri’s back.

The boy general leapt into the air and threw a punch. The fist aura shattered the sound barrier like a roaring blood-red dragon. Chao Feiye’s black fog boiled furiously, transforming into thousands of fine black threads that lashed at Lin Suri from all sides.

The two Great Zhou cultivators, the numerous unfamiliar faces, and Imperial Consort Chun—who was walking slowly in the far distance but crossing tens of feet with every step—all attacked at the exact same moment.

Killing blows closed in from all sides; there was nowhere to hide.

But Lin Suri simply pushed the fierce tiger token at his waist to its absolute limit.

The divine general phantom behind him suddenly grew several degrees more solid. Golden light flowed across its golden armor. The phantom raised both its hands and pressed lightly against the void.

With that press, a thick barrier of golden light materialized out of thin air behind him, completely blocking the onslaught of incoming spells and divine abilities.

BOOM RUMBLE RUMBLE!

The deafening roar of colliding spells shook the entire Heavenly Pool. Spiritual light sprayed out like rain, and shockwaves swept madly in all directions.

The golden light barrier trembled violently under the impact of dozens of spells, yet it never shattered.

Seizing this momentary opening, Lin Suri dashed thousands of feet away. In the blink of an eye, he plunged into the distant mountains, leaving no trace behind.

...

Vision Roaming shattered. Chen Lingxi’s Vision Roaming ended just like that.

When he awoke from Vision Roaming, he was still sitting cross-legged on the branch of the sprawling tree.

He looked at the suspended Heavenly Pool in the distance, and at the auras still pacing restlessly in the air above it, his eyes flashing.

Lin Suri was the very first person to break through the array and snatch the Mother Qi.

But that didn’t mean everything was settled.

’Lin Suri has temporarily acquired the Mother Qi, but he hasn’t refined it yet! In that case, I still have a chance! I’ll just wait and see how things develop!’

Vision Roaming had shattered, but golden light still flickered in his eyes.

’I am a native cultivator with a shallow Dao path, ignorant of heavenly mechanisms...’ he muttered inwardly, sitting cross-legged on the thick branch and gazing at the distant mountains faintly visible under the starlight.

’But so what?’

’Lin Suri got the Mother Qi, but that doesn’t mean he can keep it!’

He stood up, smoothed out his robes, and cast his gaze toward the suspended Heavenly Pool.

Most of the auras that had just been chasing Lin Suri above the Heavenly Pool had now dispersed. Some had chased the pale golden light into the distant mountains, likely hoping to snatch the Mother Qi before Lin Suri could refine it. Others, likely unwilling to fight those powerhouses head-on, quietly fell back to the area around the Heavenly Pool, hiding in the shadows to wait for an opportunity.

Above the Heavenly Pool, the starlight and fog were still circulating slowly, and the text woven from them had not completely faded.

Chen Lingxi leapt down from the sprawling tree, pushing the Hidden Edge Method to its absolute limit once more.

From the outside, he looked like a young mountain boy who had never cultivated a day in his life. Blending into the starlit forest, he was completely unnoticeable.

He was going to be the silent oriole waiting behind the mantis. When the time was ripe, he would strike with all his might.