After the Great Dao Died

The two of them found a secluded spot.

It lay halfway up a nameless peak deep within the Ancestral Mountain, backed against a jagged cliff face overgrown with gnarled old pines. Their lush needles wove together like a dark green screen, completely shielding the small clearing from view.

Ahead, a winding mountain stream murmured over stones, its clear notes ringing crisply through the silent woods.

Lin Suri sat cross-legged on a jutting boulder along the cliff face, his eyes closed as he regulated his breathing.

His two-chi Jade Sword rested across his knees, the crane patterns along its blade glinting with light, while the Tiger General Token at his waist exuded a profound aura.

Spiritual qi flowed around him in a fierce, imposing current as he stood guard for Chen Lingxi.

Chen Lingxi sat some distance away amid a bamboo grove.

Drawing the second strand of Ancestral Mountain Maternal Qi from his Vast Void Pouch, he swallowed it!

The moment the Mother Qi passed his throat, a vast surge of spiritual energy exploded within him once again.

Having already refined one strand of Mother Qi, he had formed his Spiritual Aperture Aptitude. The spiritual pool in his sea of qi was vastly wider than before, and his meridians had grown far tougher.Refining the Mother Qi this second time brought none of the unbearable agony of his first attempt. Instead, everything flowed smoothly—when water flows, a channel forms naturally.

The Six Qi True Method circulated slowly through his body, gathering the incoming spiritual energy thread by thread, refining it, and drawing it into his spiritual pool. Within the Ancestral Mountain, he had slain Zheng Wuzheng, cut down Rong Chun, defeated Lu Baizhong, and captured Xi Yuan, seizing an immense amount of spiritual energy through the Method of Life Devouring.

All that spiritual energy had pushed him to the absolute peak of the Qi Circulation 7th Floor!

And today, a second strand of Mother Qi had entered his belly!

Barely half a day later, Chen Lingxi felt the spiritual pool in his sea of qi churn violently!

The spiritual liquid roiled like boiling water, and under the battering of that spiritual energy, the boundaries of the pool expanded outward again and again.

Right at that moment, the newly refined Mother Qi merged completely with the lingering Life Devouring spiritual energy inside him, turning into an irresistible and overwhelming torrent that crashed straight into the unseen barrier deep within his sea of qi.

The barrier shattered with a resounding boom.

A tremor ran through Chen Lingxi’s frame as an indescribable clarity rose from the depths of his sea of qi, rushing upward along his meridians and piercing straight into his Sea of Consciousness.

Inside his Sea of Consciousness, his once-scattered divine sense condensed and compressed wildly until it formed a small pool of its own, resonating from afar with the spiritual pool in his sea of qi.

Even more startling, something unprecedented was brewing simultaneously within both his divine sense and his spiritual qi.

[True Intent].

Formless and intangible, this True Intent was nonetheless unmistakably real. Chen Lingxi slowly raised his right hand, pressing his index and middle fingers together like a sword. At a flick of his thought, the cyan edge of the Cyan Edge Method darted in and out at his fingertips.

Yet this time, the cyan light was completely different from before.

It was far more condensed and razor-sharp, carrying an elusive, profound resonance within its glow.

This was True Intent... Empowered by it, a technique took on True Intent as its own, elevating its power to something extraordinary.

Lowering his fingers, he tried blending his True Intent into the Method of Qi Observation.

Now, he cast the Method of Qi Observation through both his divine sense and his spiritual qi at once!

The instant the technique spread outward, everything within dozens of zhang around the cliff face was reflected in his Sea of Consciousness in a wholly new light.

He could sense every subtle shift in the spiritual qi flowing around Lin Suri up on the cliff.

He could even sense the two strands of precious qi revolving slowly inside Lin Suri’s sea of qi.

’Truly profound. With the mystery of True Intent, the power of my spells and divine abilities has risen by an entire tier.’

’And beyond that, there is the mystery of Divine Might!’

At a stir of Chen Lingxi’s mind, profound energy swirled through his Sea of Consciousness and his divine sense radiated outward, condensing into an unseen yet tangible pressure! Like an invisible tide, it surged from his body and swept in all directions.

Wherever it passed, the air thickened like syrup; even the pine needles hanging from the cliff drooped under the weight, no longer swaying in the breeze.

[Divine Might].

This was the second profound mystery of the Qi Circulation 8th Floor.

It fused divine sense and spiritual qi into a single, invisible pressure of palpable weight.

Any enemy caught within this Divine Might would be hampered at every turn. Unless they could break free of it, they would feel as if they were wading through a thick mire, every movement requiring several times the usual effort.

Lin Suri sensed that Divine Might.

Opening his eyes, he looked toward the young man in the cave, around whom three-colored radiance was flowing.

He said nothing, though a complicated feeling welled up inside him.

The Qi Circulation 7th Floor and the Eighth Floor seemed only a single step apart, yet a vast chasm lay between them.

Lin Suri prided himself on his extraordinary talent and his Golden Portal aptitude, having reached the Seventh Floor in just over two years since entering this Qi-Depleted Grotto-Heaven. Even so, he had to admit... without some other stroke of fortune, crossing that chasm would take him at least another half year of bitter cultivation.

Yet the man before him had already stepped from the peak of the Seventh Floor into the Eighth Floor. Sensing Lin Suri’s gaze, Chen Lingxi slowly drew back his Divine Might.

The three-colored radiance around him receded like the tide, retreating completely into his sea of qi.

Looking up, he stepped out of the cave and offered Lin Suri a faint smile up on the cliff.

”Thank you for standing guard for me, Brother. In refining the Mother Qi this time, I was fortunate enough to step into the Eighth Floor.”

Lin Suri gave him a look and said, ”Your talent is extraordinary, Fellow Daoist.”

It was no mere pleasantry.

To reach the Qi Circulation 8th Floor inside this Qi-Depleted Grotto-Heaven would be considered outstanding even among the noble sects and immortal lineages of the Greater World.

Chen Lingxi let out a laugh and was about to say more when Lin Suri rose to his feet, returned the Jade Sword to his waist, and straightened his tattered black brocade robe.

”Now that you have succeeded, Fellow Daoist, I shall take my leave.”

Lin Suri cupped his hands slightly toward him, his voice as flat and uninflected as ever. ”Our Jade Law pact is set. Whatever comes next can wait until we meet again.”

”Perhaps when the opportunity for the Cauldron Vessel emerges, or perhaps... in the Great Xuanzhuo Realm.”

”Take care, Brother.” Chen Lingxi cupped his fists in return without further word. Lin Suri lingered no longer, turning and striding away.

With a faint surge of spiritual qi beneath his feet, his figure blurred into a streak of pale golden light, shooting several hundred zhang away before vanishing into the distant mountains in the blink of an eye.

Chen Lingxi watched the pale golden streak disappear deep into the peaks before drawing his gaze back.

Sweeping the surroundings with his divine sense to ensure no one else was nearby, he sat cross-legged once more and carefully consolidated his cultivation.

The spiritual qi of the Qi Circulation 8th Floor was far denser and heavier than at the Seventh Floor. The spiritual pool in his sea of qi had more than doubled in size, its liquid clear as emerald and fathomlessly deep.

The two profound mysteries of True Intent and Divine Might would still take time to hone, though he could already wield them smoothly enough for now.

Closing his eyes, he turned his gaze inward to inspect the three strands of precious qi in his sea of qi.

Profound Qi, Sword Edge Qi, and Thunder Precious Qi flowed side by side through his sea of qi without interfering with one another, like three rivers from different headwaters converging into the same vast ocean.

Combined with his Spiritual Aperture Aptitude, which had been reshaped twice by the Ancestral Mountain Maternal Qi, every breath he drew pulled in several times more spiritual energy than before.

With the depth of his current spiritual qi, the profundity of his precious qi, the sharpness of his spells, and the foundation granted by his Spiritual Aperture Aptitude...

”Even if I faced an Eighth Floor cultivator like Xi Yuan again, I could beat him without needing the Delayed Light Flying Dagger,” he murmured to himself.

Without further delay, he stirred his thoughts and drew a figure out from the Heavenly Boat—Xi Yuan, still unconscious. Xi Yuan lay on the ground with his eyes tightly shut, his sea of qi ruptured and the fluctuations of spiritual qi around him faint to the point of vanishing.

Chen Lingxi tapped lightly between the man’s brows and released a wisp of spiritual qi, undoing the Cyan Edge Method that had sealed his divine sense.

A few breaths later, Xi Yuan’s eyelids fluttered, and he slowly opened his eyes.

With effort, he turned his head to look at Chen Lingxi, his gaze remarkably calm.

In a struggle for fortune, falling into enemy hands meant certain death.

Seeing him awake, Chen Lingxi said, ”You are going to die.”

His tone was flat. ”However, if you cooperate with me, I can promise not to refine you into a puppet.”

Hearing this, Xi Yuan merely gave a cold snort.

He tugged the corner of his mouth upward with effort, a faint trace of mockery surfacing on his plain face.

Once a person died, the soul dispersed, leaving the body nothing more than an empty husk. What did it matter if it were refined into a puppet, and what was there to fear?

Chen Lingxi took in his reaction without a hint of anger, merely grinning.

At a flick of his mind, a rustling sound came from the dense woods nearby. A figure walked slowly out from among the trees—handsome in face, yet with hollow, lifeless eyes. Though a faint spiritual light flickered deep within his pupils, it was not the gaze of a living man.

It was Xi Mu.

Xi Yuan’s pupils contracted sharply.

His gaze locked onto Xi Mu.

He watched Xi Mu walk up to Chen Lingxi’s side and stand there like an obedient servant, his handsome face devoid of all expression, holding only a hollow, dead stillness.

Seeing the deep hatred hidden in Xi Yuan’s eyes, Chen Lingxi’s smile deepened.

He spoke again. ”There is something you may not know, Brother... Being refined into a puppet does not mean the soul is dead.”

”Inside the puppet, one main soul and two lesser spirits remain bound to sustain the vessel.”

”Day after day, that bound soul suffers in agony and wails without end...”

Leaning slightly forward, he looked straight into Xi Yuan’s eyes and said, word by measured word, ”Brother, would you care to try it for yourself?”

Xi Yuan’s breathing grew ragged all at once.

Was that true or false? He did not fear having his corpse turned into a puppet after death, but if his soul were trapped inside the shell—tormented and wailing day after day, unable to live and unable to die—that was another matter entirely.

Seeing the alarm and doubt in Xi Yuan’s eyes, Chen Lingxi did not press him, simply waiting in silence.

Xi Mu stood motionless beside him like a stone statue.

Those hollow, lifeless eyes stared straight ahead, yet every so often a look of agony flickered across them.

After a long silence, Xi Yuan finally closed his eyes.

He remembered when Xi Mu had sent him a message through a jade talisman.

He had been in Qinghua Province at the time. Upon receiving the message, he had traveled all that vast distance to Yuanjiang Prefecture and even searched Cuojin Mountain, only to come up empty-handed.

He had assumed Xi Mu had met with a fatal mishap, never expecting to see him here today.

’Yet Xi Mu... has been reduced to a state like this?’

’Am I going to end up like this too?’

’Am I going to suffer the agony of having my soul tormented day after day too?’

”Enough... enough...” Xi Yuan murmured in a low voice, his eyelids drooping. After thinking it over, he named his condition. ”After I die, release Xi Mu from his torment as a puppet as well, and give the two of us a proper burial.”

”To you now, Fellow Daoist, the combat strength of a mere Qi Circulation 6th Floor cultivator means nothing anyway.”

Chen Lingxi nodded with almost no hesitation and said, ”I want your Longevity Bridge divine ability.”

Chen Lingxi’s cultivation was now quite deep, yet his offensive methods remained somewhat thin.

All too often, he still had to wade into close quarters with blade and fist, hardly befitting a cultivator of the Qi Circulation 8th Floor.

Moreover, many of his techniques had begun to fall behind his current realm.

Take the Purple True Precious Qi, for instance.

Although the Purple True Precious Qi had been strengthened once before, his cultivation had advanced so rapidly that the single strand now did very little for him.

Or the Cyan Edge Method...

He had traded fifty years of lifespan to the Time Candle in exchange for the Cyan Edge Method.

Back when he had made that trade, however, he had been nothing more than a mortal, and fifty years of a mortal’s lifespan could hardly be called precious.

The only reason the Cyan Edge Method had carried him this far was thanks to the strand of Profound Qi that elevated the level of his spells, along with his Spiritual Aperture Aptitude. Having reaped a rich harvest on this trip to the Ancestral Mountain, it was time to phase out some of his older techniques for future battles.

As for the Longevity Bridge divine ability, its power was extraordinary, and Chen Lingxi had coveted it for a long time.

Hearing Chen Lingxi’s demand, Xi Yuan took a deep breath.

Then he began to impart the Longevity Bridge divine ability to Chen Lingxi.

The Longevity Bridge was a secret transmission of the Xi Family, no ordinary spell. It required a specific spiritual qi circulation method to condense a Bridge Seed deep within the sea of qi, then use that Bridge Seed as a foundation to draw upon the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, manifesting a spiritual bridge that spanned the sky.

When facing an enemy, this spiritual bridge could serve as an indestructible barrier in defense, or crash down with ten thousand jun of crushing force on the attack.

Chen Lingxi closed his eyes and focused his mind, committing every word of the method Xi Yuan recited to his Sea of Consciousness.

The Longevity Bridge divine ability was exceedingly complex and profound, involving several hundred spiritual qi nodes.

Even with his Spiritual Aperture Aptitude greatly heightening his comprehension, Chen Lingxi found it quite thorny.

”This Longevity Bridge method really is profound and intricate.”

Xi Yuan raised his head and said, ”Naturally. When I first cultivated this art, it took me a very long time.”

Chen Lingxi nodded. ”I’m afraid it will take me ten days to half a month of practice before I can master it.” Xi Yuan’s breath hitched; he lowered his head and continued imparting the profound method.

Chen Lingxi committed the entire method firmly to memory, saving it to ponder at length later on.

After roughly half a shichen, Xi Yuan finally finished passing down the complete method of the divine ability. Looking as though the last shred of strength had been drained from his body, he turned deathly pale, his breath weak to the extreme.

With his sea of qi already ruptured, he had been on the verge of death from his grave injuries; after expending so much mental energy to teach the technique for so long, he was now barely clinging to life.

Chen Lingxi ran through the Longevity Bridge method once in his mind to make sure nothing had been left out, then looked up and asked, ”I have a few more questions I would like to ask you, Brother.”

Xi Yuan kept his eyes closed and said nothing.

Chen Lingxi went on asking regardless. ”Once I cultivate to the Heaven-Facing Three Floors, how should I contact the Pool of Reincarnation and leave this Qi-Depleted Grotto-Heaven?”

Xi Yuan opened his eyes and looked at Chen Lingxi.

Seeming not to have expected Chen Lingxi to ask such a question, he froze for a moment before asking in turn, ”Before your reincarnation, did your sect not leave behind a strand of lifebound essence qi for you?”

Chen Lingxi raised an eyebrow slightly and asked without betraying a flicker of emotion, ”What is lifebound essence qi?”

Though puzzled, Xi Yuan answered all the same. ”When cultivators like us enter reincarnation through the Pool of Reincarnation, our elders use the pool to leave behind a wisp of our lifebound essence qi.”

”That wisp of essence qi is tied to your own soul. While you grow and cultivate inside this Qi-Depleted Grotto-Heaven, it slumbers in the Greater World. When the time comes to return, so long as you are still alive and your vital source remains unharmed... you can sense the Pool of Reincarnation through that lifebound essence qi, leave this Qi-Depleted Grotto-Heaven, and return to the Great Xuanzhuo Realm.”

The more Chen Lingxi listened, the graver his expression grew.

After several breaths of silence, he finally drew a deep breath and said slowly, ”I have no sect keeping a strand of lifebound essence qi for me. How, then, am I to sense the Pool of Reincarnation?”

Xi Yuan was stunned.

He stared at Chen Lingxi in bewilderment.

Every truth-seeking cultivator who came through the Pool of Reincarnation had a sect preserving their lifebound essence qi; that went without saying.

Without lifebound essence qi, even if one cultivated all the way to the Heaven-Facing Three Floors, there would be no way to sense the Pool of Reincarnation at all—so how could one ever return to the Greater World?

Could a person only waste away in this world until death?

Meeting Xi Yuan’s bewildered gaze, Chen Lingxi said bluntly, ”I am not a reincarnator. I am a native cultivator.”

At those words, a violent tremor ran through Xi Yuan.

His pupils dilated sharply, and genuine horror surfaced across his otherwise lifeless face.

A native cultivator? How could that be possible? This Qi-Depleted Grotto-Heaven was a land where spiritual energy had died out, so thin it could barely be sensed at all.

An ordinary mortal could practice breathing exercises for a hundred years and still might not gather a single wisp of spiritual qi within their body.

Once reincarnated truth-seekers awakened their memories, they were always pressed for time. To raise their cultivation, seize opportunities, and hunt for Cauldron Vessels, they exhausted their minds rushing about day and night, wishing they could split every year and every month in two. Why would any of them waste time teaching a native mortal how to cultivate?

And even if someone had idly placed a few casual pieces on a whim, how could that possibly produce a figure capable of slaying Rong Chun, defeating Lu Baizhong, and capturing Xi Yuan himself?

Xi Yuan stared blankly at Chen Lingxi for a long while. Only when he saw the dead seriousness in Chen Lingxi’s eyes did he suddenly burst out laughing.

His laughter was frail and halting, yet the glee burning within it was fierce beyond measure—like a dying man who had finally laid eyes on a wretch even more pitiful than himself.

Chen Lingxi gave a cold snort.

His Eighth Floor Divine Might erupted all at once, crashing down from above like an unseen mountain and pinning Xi Yuan flat against the ground. Even with his face pressed against the cold rock, his laughter did not stop.

”What are you laughing at?” Chen Lingxi asked.

Pinned motionless to the ground by the Eighth Floor Divine Might, Xi Yuan still showed no lessening of the glee in his eyes.

Straining to lift his head, he looked at Chen Lingxi and laughed. ”There really is a way for a native mortal to leave the Qi-Depleted Grotto-Heaven.”

”All it takes is for a Dao Foundation figure from a sect on the outside to willingly take the risk of extending their own Dao Platform into the Qi-Depleted Grotto-Heaven to draw you out. Then you can leave this Qi-Depleted Grotto-Heaven.” Chen Lingxi fixed him in the eye and said slowly, ”Xi Mu once told me that I only needed to step into the Heaven-Facing Three Floors to sense the Pool of Reincarnation and leave the grotto-heaven.”

Shaking his head, Xi Yuan laughed even harder, his mirth sharper than before. ”Fellow Daoist! I may as well tell you straight... For a native mortal like you to cultivate to the Qi Circulation 8th Floor in this Qi-Depleted Grotto-Heaven, slay Imperial Consort Chun, and capture me alive—such an achievement would be enough to take pride in even among the genius cultivators of the Great Xuanzhuo Realm.”

”However... sensing the Pool of Reincarnation at the Heaven-Facing Three Floors... that was a lie meant to deceive you!”

”You truly have no way out of this Qi-Depleted Grotto-Heaven.”

Chen Lingxi’s gaze darkened at once.

”Even if by some fluke you managed to contact the outside world and find a Dao Foundation figure... and that Dao Foundation figure just happened to be gravely injured and addled in the head, willing to risk the collapse of their own Dao Platform to guide you out! Even then, you could never leave this grotto-heaven!”

Xi Yuan’s voice came in broken gasps, bloody foam bubbling from the corners of his mouth with every line, yet he spoke with frantic speed.

”Why?” Chen Lingxi demanded sharply.

Xi Yuan coughed as he laughed. ”Because this grotto-heaven... already belongs to my Que Star Xi Family.”

Lying sprawled on the ground, he panted for a moment before continuing, ”True Monarch Xi of our clan intends to use the Cauldron Vessel known as the Realm-Refining Furnace to refine this entire grotto-heaven, turning the whole world into realm essence to forge a Great Golden Palace or Profound Golden Palace for our Xi Family’s prodigy, Xi Hengsu.”

Chen Lingxi’s brow furrowed even deeper.

Xi Yuan went on, ”Realm essence is a truly wondrous substance! Everything within a native grotto-heaven—every blade of grass and flower, every pebble and piece of wood, down to every drop of water in the streams, every speck of dust in the air, and every living creature—must be refined into it. Not a single one can be missing.” He caught his breath. ”If you were to leave, this native grotto-heaven would be flawed. Realm essence could still be refined from it, but it would no longer be as pure.”

”Perhaps realm essence that should have forged a Profound Golden Palace would only suffice to forge a Great Golden Palace. Now that I have put it this way, Fellow Daoist, do you understand?”

Chen Lingxi closed his eyes.

He suddenly recalled asking Xi Mu how to leave this Qi-Depleted Grotto-Heaven.

Back then, Xi Mu had told him that reaching the Heaven-Facing Three Floors would allow him to contact the Pool of Reincarnation and depart—and he had said it with calm composure, a composure that had been a little too smooth.

And at the very instant of his death, a faint, fleeting glint of malicious glee really had flashed through those ashen eyes.

’So that’s how it is,’ Chen Lingxi thought to himself.

’A True Lord can even refine an entire grotto-heaven! Once such a being sets his hand to something, he will demand absolute perfection. How could he allow a mere native ant to ruin his prized treasure?’