After the Great Dao Died

Chen Lingxi waited in silence for the tide of spiritual energy from the Ancestral Mountain Heavenly Pool to sweep over.

Time slipped quietly away.

Then...

His unfurled spiritual sense detected it first: a piece of driftwood floating toward him in the near distance.

Chen Lingxi’s expression tightened.

In his Absolute Perception Deduction, he had used this driftwood striking a rock as a marker to note the exact moment the Ancestral Mountain Mother Qi would trigger the spiritual energy tide.

’It’s coming!’

He looked up into the empty air.

High above, Lu Baizhong slashed his sword at Imperial Consort Chun.

The strike was so fast that even his keen eyes could only catch a faint golden afterimage.Right at that moment! Thud!

With a soft sound, the driftwood bumped against the rock.

In the distance, the mist of the Heavenly Pool merged with the starlight.

The tide of spiritual energy surged forth!

It was as if everything in the world vanished. The roar of spells, the shriek of sword light tearing through the air, the churning of the clouds—all these sounds abruptly faded into nothingness.

The world turned stark white.

A sheet of white light swallowed the vast expanse of the Ancestral Mountain.

The glow enveloped the spiritual senses of every cultivator present, leaving them completely unable to perceive their surroundings.

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

Lu Baizhong’s shocking sword strike against Imperial Consort Chun still replayed in his mind.

As the spiritual energy tide swept in, Imperial Consort Chun frowned. She subconsciously gathered her spiritual qi, preparing for any sudden changes it might bring.

The moment the white light flared, she retreated to dodge Lu Baizhong’s terrifying attack. And in that same instant—Chen Lingxi moved.

Taking advantage of the tide blinding her spiritual sense and her attention being focused entirely on dodging the thunderous sword light, Chen Lingxi seized his opening.

His qi sea churned, pouring a massively heavy surge of spiritual qi into the Profound-Pointing Sword Furnace on his hand.

In the same instant the spiritual energy tide erupted, his calculations were already complete. He had predicted her escape route, the angle of Lu Baizhong’s blade, and the exact fraction of a second she would step back to evade it.

The time was now!

Chen Lingxi exploded upward from the river.

A Qi Sea Whirlpool detonated beneath his feet, launching him like a sharp blade drawn from the mud. Shrouded in long-suppressed killing intent and completely ignoring the spiritual energy tide, he lunged straight for Imperial Consort Chun.

At the same time, the majestic spiritual qi from his qi sea flooded into the Profound-Pointing Sword Furnace.

Shing!

In the next instant, sword light tore through the air!

A streak of sword qi blasted from the ring’s face, bearing astonishing sword light.

At the same moment, the Sword Edge Qi within his qi sea ignited. A silvery-white radiance rose from the depths of his spirit pool, roaring as it surged into the sword qi and fused with it completely.

The inch-long sliver of silver sword qi violently expanded, transforming into an entirely silver-white, almost transparent four-chi sword astral.

Its terrifying sharpness pierced the sky, slicing the surrounding clouds and mist within dozens of zhang into countless fine white ribbons that hissed as they parted.

But that was not all.

Empowered by the Profound Qi, the Cyan Edge Method circulated through his body at its absolute limit. Originally at the Subtle stage, his mastery over the Cyan Edge Method had vastly increased after refining the Mother Qi, and now it faintly brushed the edge of the Wondrous State!

The sword qi crashed into her barrier with another sharp crack!

The barrier split down the middle. Though the sword qi lost another third of its power, threads of fragmented sword light pierced through the barrier like dozens of incredibly fine, razor-sharp silver needles, sinking straight into Imperial Consort Chun’s brow!

”Ah!” A miserable scream tore from Imperial Consort Chun’s lips.

That voice was laced with utter disbelief and furious shock!

She staggered back two steps, and the pure white boat beneath her feet pitched. Hovering just a zhang above the clouds, the hull suddenly plummeted several chi.

She clamped a hand over her brow, but fresh blood seeped through her fingers. It streamed down her flawless, jade-white face and dripped onto her moon-white robes, staining the cloud-patterned brocade across her chest a shocking dark crimson.

When she raised her head, every trace of composure had vanished from her phoenix eyes, replaced by a cold, violently suppressed killing intent. ”Who?” she barked.

But the fluctuation of her spiritual qi was already far weaker than before.

At that moment, the spiritual energy tide began to recede.

The spiritual senses of the surrounding cultivators spread out once more, and then...

They witnessed a shocking scene.

They saw the bleeding sword wound on Imperial Consort Chun’s brow, and they saw a young man exploding upward!

His dark robes snapped fiercely in the mountain winds, and the spiritual qi around him roiled like boiling water.

A Qi Sea Whirlpool spun frantically beneath his feet!

But the most terrifying thing about him was his imposing presence.

That presence felt like a legendary sword drawn fresh from its scabbard—piercingly sharp and blazing with cold light!

The unreserved power of the Qi Circulation 7th Floor erupted from his body!

”Who is that?” Xi Yuan sat upright upon the Longevity Bridge, his Daoist robes billowing. His unfathomable eyes swept over Chen Lingxi, and he furrowed his brow.

He had never seen this person before, yet this stranger had somehow wounded Imperial Consort Chun during the spiritual energy tide...

And the heavy, imposing presence of this person’s spiritual qi far surpassed ordinary figures at the Qi Circulation 7th Floor!

Nearby, Lin Suri saw Chen Lingxi’s face, and his pupils contracted.

The other truth-seeking cultivators also saw this scene!

They all saw that unfamiliar young man!

They saw his blazing presence, the violently spinning Qi Sea Whirlpool beneath his feet, and the mortal treasure saber he was drawing from its sheath!

Meanwhile, far above the Heavenly Pool, the line of Ancestral Mountain Mother Qi emerged. To claim it, one had to traverse the suspended tadpole runes of the Array of Ten Thousand Wondrous Mechanisms.

A spiritual qi portal hung high over the waters of the Heavenly Pool.

The crowd of cultivators instantly snapped out of their daze. Tearing their eyes away from Chen Lingxi and Imperial Consort Chun, they swarmed straight toward the Heavenly Pool to fight for the Mother Qi!

Chen Lingxi gripped the mortal treasure saber he had claimed from the Crown Prince’s Jade Qi subordinate!

This saber was forged of mortal iron and quenched in mortal fire, but in his hands, driven by the Six Qi True Method, his Sword Edge Qi enveloped the blade, granting it an unparalleled sharpness!

He had not practiced any cloud-riding arts, but the Qi Sea Whirlpool detonated beneath his feet, launching him high into the air!

With his robes snapping in the wind, he stepped through the air like a bolt of black lightning, charging straight at Imperial Consort Chun!

Spiritual qi surged through his meridians like a tidal wave. The golden light of his Profound Qi intertwined with the silvery-white brilliance of his Sword Edge Qi, radiating from every pore in his body. Bathed in the dual-colored glow, his figure looked like a god of slaughter!

Imperial Consort Chun struggled to defend herself.

She snatched at the empty air with her right hand. The surrounding clouds roiled, and a blinding pillar of white light blasted out from her palm.

If she had been at her peak, that single strike could have shattered even Xi Yuan’s Longevity Bridge.

But right now, her brow was wounded by sword qi, her Sacred Character Treasure Talisman was shattered, her Sea of Consciousness was damaged, and her spiritual qi was bleeding out!

Though the blazing pillar of light looked terrifying, its actual power... fell short!

Chen Lingxi’s figure blurred as he slashed his saber.

The Cyan Edge Method coiled together with his precious qi, cleaving the pillar of light into pieces!

”Just who are you?” Imperial Consort Chun shrieked in shock and fury. The pure white boat beneath her suddenly accelerated, shooting toward the sky.

She did not want to stay and fight.

This man was far too strong, vastly exceeding any ordinary Qi Circulation 7th Floor cultivator. Grievously wounded and robbed of her Sacred Character Treasure Talisman, she knew she stood no chance against him!

If she lingered to tangle with this murderous star who had appeared out of nowhere, her death would surely be imminent!

”Where are you escaping to?”

Chen Lingxi pursued her relentlessly.

The violently spinning Qi Sea Whirlpool hurled him through the air, launching him after Imperial Consort Chun like a cannonball from a barrel.

Lacking any cloud-riding arts, he flew using only his spiritual qi and spiritual sense.

Yet, because his spiritual qi was so much denser than others at his realm, every detonation of the Qi Sea Whirlpool hurled him dozens of zhang forward, proving not a fraction slower than her small boat!

Imperial Consort Chun gritted her teeth and swallowed a medicinal pill. The spiritual glow enveloping her body instantly flared brighter.

A massive wall of spiritual qi manifested out of thin air behind her. Like an inverted fortress wall of pure light, it stood imposingly in the void.

Chen Lingxi swung his saber directly into the spiritual qi wall. A blinding sphere of light exploded at the point of impact.

Unable to withstand such force, the mortal iron saber began to shatter inch by inch.

But this strike also carved a deep fissure into the spiritual qi wall.

Discarding the broken saber, Chen Lingxi reached his right hand into his Vast Void Pouch. With a thought, another mortal treasure saber slapped into his palm, and he swung it again.

The treasure saber and the wall shattered simultaneously!

But Imperial Consort Chun had seized the brief delay to accelerate her boat hundreds of zhang away.

The heavenly boat tore through the sky, its hull emitting a faint hiss as it cut through the clouds like a pure white shooting star.

She was fleeing.

If she did not escape faster, she would die!

Without pausing for a single breath, Chen Lingxi continued his pursuit in the direction she fled.

The Qi Sea Whirlpool detonated beneath his feet, turning his entire person into a dark rainbow tearing across the sky.

He did not even glance back at the Heavenly Pool! Up ahead, Imperial Consort Chun fled, her long black hair broken loose from its bindings and whipping wildly in the wind, stripped of every shred of her former royal grace!

Battered and humiliated, she gritted her teeth in a mix of shock and rage.

’A mere Qi Circulation 7th Floor cultivator... has actually forced me into this state!’

She was a mighty cultivator at the Qi Circulation 8th Floor! Supported by her rare treasure, she wouldn’t have feared even if noble cultivators like Xi Yuan and Lu Baizhong had joined forces against her.

But now, she was being hunted by a complete nobody, chased until she had no path to the heavens and no door into the earth.

She whipped her head around, glaring at the dark figure closing the distance behind her, and finally shrieked, ”Just who are you? The Mother Qi of the Ancestral Mountain has appeared! Why aren’t you fighting for it? Why are you hunting me down?!”

Chen Lingxi’s expression remained entirely unchanged.

Spiritual qi detonated beneath his feet, hurling him forward another hundred zhang.

His eyes remained locked firmly on Imperial Consort Chun. There was no hesitation, no wavering—only a bottomless killing intent.

So what if the Mother Qi had appeared? He had already secured a strand of it during his Absolute Perception Deduction. The Mother Qi had never been his true target on this trip.

Imperial Consort Chun saw the killing intent in his eyes.

Her heart went cold. That killing intent was far too pure, carrying a bone-deep hatred that felt like it had been suppressed for an unknown number of years.

’This man hates me so much... is this not for the sake of the Dao?’

Her mind raced, and a sudden memory flashed through her thoughts—the disaster of the ants she had witnessed in her precious mirror...

’Is this the man from my dream?’