After the Great Dao Died

Vigilance flickered in the King of the East’s eyes. He stood upon a distant mountain peak, looking up at Chen Lingxi.

News of Chen Lingxi massacring his way through the Battle of Cauldron Seizing had naturally reached his ears.

How could a figure of his stature be blinded by hatred?

The King of the East concealed his aura, his blood energy coiled and ready to erupt as his gaze fell upon Chen Lingxi.

Chen Lingxi simply stood atop the clouds, looking down at this Entering Profound King of the East.

The killing intent in the King of the East’s eyes gradually subsided.

He wasted no words. He took a step forward, and his blood energy erupted like a long-suppressed volcano. It soared into the sky, dyeing half the firmament a blinding, radiant white.

He threw a punch.

There was nothing flashy about the strike—only the purest strength.

The blood energy of the Tenth Profound Realm coalesced entirely into this single blow. As the fist aura tore through the air, it resembled a true sun falling from the nine heavens, carrying a terrifying, world-destroying might as it smashed straight toward Chen Lingxi.

Yet the moment he unleashed that fist aura, the renowned Entering Profound King of the East actually turned and leapt away to flee!

He had heard of Chen Lingxi’s fearsome reputation. Even though Chen Lingxi had murdered his son and daughter, he naturally would not risk a direct confrontation.

But at that exact moment, a faint smile appeared on Chen Lingxi’s face.

”Trying to escape?”

Chen Lingxi stood upon his Azure Cloud, his expression unchanging as he faced the world-destroying punch.

He raised his right hand.

And clenched his fist.

In the exact instant his fingers closed!

Within the crude Inner Divine Palace inside his body, the cross-legged phantom of Great Sage Yaotian snapped its eyes open.

An indescribably terrifying aura erupted from Chen Lingxi’s body.

A massive phantom faintly materialized behind him. It stood tall, reaching from heaven to earth, with stars vaguely swirling around its head. It exuded a suffocating, terrifying pressure.

It was none other than the blurred figure from Great Sage Yaotian’s Approaching the Dao Diagram.

The moment the Great Sage’s phantom appeared, an incomparably dense and vigorous vital energy gushed out of the Inner Divine Palace, surging relentlessly into Chen Lingxi’s right fist.

That vital energy was incredibly heavy, as if an entire mountain had been refined into his hand.

Chen Lingxi took a step forward and fiercely threw a punch of his own.

His fist clashed violently against the King of the East’s fist aura in the void.

Rumble!

A terrifying shockwave of sound exploded from the point of impact, sweeping frantically in all directions.

Wherever the shockwave passed, the sea of clouds shattered and the earth fractured inch by inch.

The King of the East’s blood-energy fist aura instantly disintegrated, while Chen Lingxi’s Great Sage punch carried its immense, heavy momentum straight toward the retreating King!

The pupils of the King of the East, who was already retreating, suddenly shrank.

He felt an utterly terrifying force rushing at him from behind.

That power was far too majestic, too tyrannical, and incredibly fast.

”This person... has actually reached a level of power that is practically unmatched!”

The King of the East’s brow twitched wildly. He had no choice but to turn back around and throw another punch, vainly attempting to block Chen Lingxi’s Great Sage strike!

However, empowered by the True Edict of Approaching the Dao and the Great Sage’s phantom, Chen Lingxi’s physical strength was simply far too tyrannical.

The King of the East’s fist aura held for less than half a breath before Chen Lingxi’s punch completely shattered it, scattering it into a sky full of radiant white light fragments.

Great Sage Yaotian’s vital energy wrapped around Chen Lingxi’s blood energy and spiritual qi, crashing down upon the King of the East’s right arm like a golden torrent.

Under the impact, the sleeve on the King of the East’s right arm was instantly reduced to ash.

He let out a muffled groan as the punch sent him flying backward, smashing toward the ground like a falling comet.

But Chen Lingxi’s momentum did not stop.

The mass of Azure Cloud beneath his feet abruptly accelerated. Like a human thunderbolt, he closed the distance to the King of the East and threw his right fist once more.

A second punch!

Chen Lingxi raised his right fist high, and the Great Sage Yaotian phantom behind him raised its right hand in unison.

The phantom’s hand and Chen Lingxi’s fist descended simultaneously. Like two overlapping meteors, they carried a terrifying, all-suppressing might as they smashed down upon the King of the East’s head.

The King of the East raised his head, staring at the golden fist aura descending from the heavens...

And then—

Boom!

An earth-shattering explosion rang out.

The King of the East’s body was torn apart like a smashed porcelain doll, blood and flesh flying everywhere!

It then detonated into a shocking mist of blood in the void!

Before the blood mist even dissipated, Chen Lingxi had already pulled his fist back and stood upright.

The Great Sage phantom behind him slowly vanished, withdrawing back into the Inner Divine Palace to return to the cross-legged form of Great Sage Yaotian.

He stood atop the billowing clouds, his robes fluttering wildly in the wind as his aura gradually retracted.

He did not spare a single glance for the King of the East’s scattered remains. Simply withdrawing his gaze, the mass of clouds beneath his feet flashed with lightning once more as he shot off into the distance.

From the moment he arrived to kill to the moment the King of the East perished and he rode the clouds away...

The entire process had taken no more than a dozen breaths of time.

And Chen Lingxi had not even opened his mouth to say a single word.

The battlefield was completely silent.

”An... an immortal...”

Vast swathes of soldiers from both armies suddenly fell to their knees.

Blood still hung from the corner of Xiao Zhushan’s mouth as he stared blankly at the fading trail of pale cyan light.

He had just been beaten to the brink of death by two of the King of the East’s palm strikes, yet right now, he felt no pain. He merely stood there in a daze, his mind completely blank.

He had seen Chen Lingxi fight before; when they ambushed Crown Prince Ying Chi outside Yuanjiang Prefecture, Chen Lingxi had displayed incredible combat strength.

But as strong as Chen Lingxi had been back then, it was nowhere near as... unbelievable as today.

The King of the East, a Tenth Profound Realm Entering Profound expert, the man hailed as the ”Entering Profound King of the East, Unmatched Beneath the Heavens,” a pinnacle figure of the martial dao...

Had actually been battered to death, punch by punch, just like that.

Xiao Taozhuo was similarly frozen in place.

”This...” Xiao Taozhuo murmured. She seemed to want to say something, but did not know where to begin.

She could only watch from afar as Chen Lingxi departed.

—

Having killed the King of the East and settled a grudge, Chen Lingxi gained a deeper understanding of the terrifying power of the True Edict of Approaching the Dao.

”Such a body-refining divine ability is truly astonishing... Furthermore, with the Great Sage breathing within the Inner Divine Palace, I am continuing to grow stronger with every passing moment.”

Still marveling at this, Chen Lingxi headed straight for the Yuanjiang Prefecture Xuanhuo Temple.

The Daoist temple was located deep within a secluded alley in the western part of Yuanjiang Prefecture’s capital city.

Built with cyan bricks and dark tiles, it featured flying eaves with upturned corners. A stone plaque hung above the lintel, engraved with the three characters ”Xuanhuo Temple.” The calligraphy was lean yet vigorous, faintly exuding an aura of immortal breeze and Daoist bones.

Chen Lingxi arrived on his cloud and landed in front of the temple gates.

It was currently dusk. The old locust trees flanking the alley cast overlapping shadows in the fading twilight, making the Daoist temple appear all the more secluded and tranquil.

The temple doors were ajar. A faint, dim yellow halo of light leaked through the crack, suggesting a lamp had been lit inside.

He pushed open the doors and stepped inside.

It was completely quiet within the temple.

The front courtyard was entirely deserted; only a few old pine trees stood silently in the twilight.

The doors to the main hall were wide open, and a clay idol was enshrined inside.

Chen Lingxi passed through the main hall and followed a bluestone path toward the backyard.

Having used Vision Roaming on Liu Changle before, he knew that Liu Changle lived in the backyard’s wing rooms.

After taking a few steps...

Chen Lingxi’s footsteps suddenly came to a halt.

He furrowed his brow, staring at the seemingly ordinary backyard in front of him.

”Something seems strange...”

”Moreover... where did that reincarnator go—the one who taught Liu Changle cultivation and acted as his master?”

As these thoughts crossed his mind, the Method of Qi Observation silently activated in his eyes. Spiritual qi flowed out from his Qi Sea, traveling all the way up his Meridians to pour into his eyes.

And then...

His pupils contracted as he suddenly witnessed an astonishing sight!

Under his Method of Qi Observation, the courtyard, the main hall, the trees in the yard, and even the various buildings within this Daoist temple...

...were actually covered in a thick layer of spiritual energy!

This spiritual energy projected all sorts of scenes, filled with overlapping illusions.

Chen Lingxi looked closer and drew a deep breath.

Now that he could see through this spiritual energy, Xuanhuo Temple was revealed to be a dilapidated, ruined Daoist shrine. Overgrown with weeds and with rotting roof beams, it was practically a wasteland.

”The entire Xuanhuo Temple is actually built entirely out of illusions.”

Chen Lingxi looked around, unable to comprehend it.

”Just who could have laid down such a profound formation?”