After the Great Dao Died

Chen Lingxi flew at top speed. Laced with pale golden lightning, the Azure Cloud beneath his feet tore through layers of mist like a true thunderbolt, drawing ever closer to the high heavens.

The surrounding heavenly winds howled like blades, slashing against his dark robes and sending them snapping violently.

The higher he flew, the more piercing the winds became. It was as if countless invisible blades danced wildly in the air; an ordinary Qi Circulation cultivator would be shredded to the bone just by standing here.

Yet Chen Lingxi felt none of it.

Inside his body, his Plundering Dragon Dao Platform continued its slow rotation.

The spiritual qi exhausted from his fierce battle with Bai Lingze just moments ago was rapidly replenishing.

”I must reach the Storm Immortal Pivot as soon as possible.” Chen Lingxi’s expression was grave.

Suspended in the void, Emperor Daye’s hundred-zhang golden face had intercepted Bai Lingze for him.

The toll of such a spell was astronomical. With Emperor Daye splitting his attention to protect him amid such a fierce battle, there was no guarantee how long this divine ability would last before dissipating.

He had to hurry.

After he flew for about half a shichen, the heavenly winds gradually died down, and the sea of clouds thinned.

Chen Lingxi looked up. The distant horizon still stretched on endlessly; another few shichen of flight would bring him to his destination.

’Once I step into the Storm Immortal Pivot, I won’t need to be so cautious,’ Chen Lingxi thought. He was just about to continue forward when he suddenly froze.

Beyond the storm, an invisible force suddenly ripped through the churning clouds, revealing a stretch of clear blue sky.

Within that azure sky, a blazing great sun rose.

The sun was too brilliant, too imposing, radiating a torrential spiritual aura that made Chen Lingxi draw a deep breath.

’A Spiritual Artifact?’ he thought, his gaze heavy.

Right at that moment, an overwhelming aura swept out from within the great sun.

Chen Lingxi’s pupils shrank.

Zhao Duanxuan!

A figure of a different surname from the Que Star Xi Family.

Rank one on the Celestial Ranking, an avatar at the Dao Foundation Middle Stage.

The terrifying existence who could clash head-on with Emperor Daye Ying Xian without suffering defeat.

The great sun slowly rotated. At its core, a faint phantom could be seen sitting cross-legged.

The phantom’s figure was a blur, obscured by the sun’s blazing flames so that only a vague outline remained. Yet the pressure radiating from this indistinct figure alone was enough to stifle Chen Lingxi’s breath.

’It’s not his true body. It’s just a Spiritual Artifact avatar,’ Chen Lingxi thought.

But even as a divine ability avatar, the terrifying pressure it contained was far beyond anything an ordinary Early Dao Foundation cultivator could compare to.

Zhao Duanxuan must have noticed Emperor Daye splitting his focus to protect Chen Lingxi during their fierce battle, and had thus dispatched this Spiritual Artifact avatar to kill him.

Because Emperor Daye protected him, Zhao Duanxuan was all the more determined to kill him!

Chen Lingxi circulated his Dao Platform. His spiritual qi suddenly erupted, surging forth like a rolling river.

”The foundations of these so-called high cultivators are truly unimaginable.

”Great Divine Abilities, secret methods, Spiritual Artifacts, and exotic treasures—they appear one after another.”

Chen Lingxi felt a deep wariness.

At the same time, a beam of radiance shot out from the phantom of the great sun. Amidst that light, Zhao Duanxuan’s Spiritual Artifact sun turned into an afterimage. Dragging a halo of blazing brilliance, it plummeted toward Chen Lingxi’s head with world-destroying might!

Wherever the sun passed, the sea of clouds evaporated and the heavenly winds collapsed; the intense heat scorched visible ripples into the very void.

Before that searing pressure even reached him, Chen Lingxi felt as though his own spiritual qi had been ignited, churning madly. Even the rotation of his Plundering Dragon Dao Platform slowed significantly.

Chen Lingxi took a deep breath, the lightning in his eyes suddenly flaring to blinding intensity.

He held no fear in his heart!

Inside his Vast Void Pouch, the Enemy-Slaughtering Spirit Wall shone with profound radiance, bestowing the terrifying might of a Cauldron Vessel upon him!

Zhao Duanxuan’s name and aura had long been engraved upon the Enemy-Slaughtering Spirit Wall inside his Vast Void Pouch.

With a mere shift of his thoughts, the primordial aura on the Spirit Wall erupted, fusing completely with his spiritual qi.

Bolstered by the mighty power of the Cauldron Vessel, Chen Lingxi felt his spiritual qi and physical flesh explosively surge once more.

”It’s just an avatar, yet you think you can kill me!”

Instead of retreating, Chen Lingxi advanced. With a flick of his fingers, his spiritual qi rolled forward, coalescing into a Spiritual Artifact sword!

An incomparably sharp sword intent soared into the sky, carving a rift straight through the blazing radiance shining down from the great sun.

He took a step forward, pushing the Thunder-Concealing Sword Scripture to its absolute limit.

Twelve Chimes of the Heavenly Drum!

Twelve earth-shattering claps of thunder suddenly exploded in the void. Overlapping as one, they merged into his sword qi, forming a lightning sword-gang tens of zhang long that slashed furiously at the descending sun phantom.

Boom!

The instant the sword-gang collided with the great sun, an eardrum-shredding shockwave of sound rippled madly in all directions!

The churning sea of clouds was forced back by the blast, and even the starlight in the high heavens seemed to sway.

After the clash, the sun phantom did not dissipate. It merely paused for a fraction of a second before continuing its descent to crush him.

The blurred figure sitting cross-legged within the great sun didn’t even open his eyes, as though shattering that sword light meant nothing to him.

Chen Lingxi snorted coldly. His body shot upward as he unleashed the Heaven-Inviting Momentum, his aura equally terrifying.

Countless bolts of lightning densely populated the surroundings, transforming into a storm.

The great sun phantom followed closely behind, crashing straight into the lightning surrounding Chen Lingxi.

The churning thunder and the blazing flames of the sun phantom slammed against each other, sparking countless fine motes of light.

Chen Lingxi stood in the very center of the storm, wreathed in lightning like an immortal born from a baptism of thunder.

He extended a finger. Inside his Inner Divine Palace, the phantom of Great Sage Yaotian abruptly opened its eyes. The Great Sage’s momentum, wrapped in billowing vitality, flooded into that single finger.

Palace-Knocking Finger!

Chen Lingxi’s proudest profound technique erupted, and the raging storm suddenly fell dead silent.

It was as if the churning lightning had been suppressed by some formless power!

An indescribably majestic vitality burst from Chen Lingxi’s fingertip, taking the shape of a golden finger-beam as thick as a pillar of heaven.

A faint golden radiance bloomed in the void wherever the beam passed.

The finger-beam slammed into the sun phantom.

The blurry figure, which had been sitting cross-legged and perfectly still the entire time, finally opened its eyes.

The instant those eyes opened, the radiance of the great sun multiplied several times over!

Yet this Palace-Knocking Finger, bolstered by the mighty power of a Cauldron Vessel, was similarly pushed to the pinnacle of piercing tyranny.

Flames and finger-beam clashed, deadlocked, and wore each other down.

After a stalemate of a few breaths, the sun phantom could no longer withstand the onslaught of that terrifying power. It detonated in the void, bursting into a sky full of blazing white fragments. Like falling meteors, the specks drifted down into the residual lightning of the storm, only to be swept up and vanish without a trace.

Chen Lingxi’s spiritual qi was almost entirely drained!

But before he could even catch his breath, he saw a figure stride out from the scattered shards of light.

The figure was tall and imposing, his sharp, sword-like eyebrows extending to his temples, his eyes shining like stars.

He stood amid the lingering motes of light, the deep and vast ripples of his Dao Origin fluctuating like an abyssal ocean.

It was none other than Zhao Duanxuan.

Not his true body.

But rather, that Spiritual Artifact avatar!

Even though the great sun had shattered, this phantom had not dissipated with it. Instead, it stepped out from the broken flames, growing more solid and distinct by the second.

’To think this avatar is so solid,’ Chen Lingxi thought in shock.

The Spiritual Artifact avatar of Zhao Duanxuan stood within the glittering fragments.

He had likely never expected that Chen Lingxi would actually possess the skill to shatter his great sun phantom.

Surprised, a trace of genuine fury now surfaced in him.

He raised his right hand and, devoid of all expression, threw a palm strike at Chen Lingxi.

There were no divine abilities, no spells, no complex runes.

Only a single palm strike—one that was pure to the extreme, tyrannical to the extreme.

As the palm descended, the churning sea of clouds beyond the storm was practically sucked dry.

Chen Lingxi felt a pressure far more terrifying than the sun phantom wash over him, carrying with it a world-ending might.

It felt as though dozens of vast mountains had been piled onto his body, forcing his spiritual qi to circulate slower and slower.

Looking up with a cold snort, Chen Lingxi simultaneously activated the Longevity Bridge Divine Ability and the Twelve Chimes of the Heavenly Drum, crashing toward the attack with explosive force!

Boom!

A soul-shaking boom ripped through the air.

Zhao Duanxuan’s avatar finally shattered completely.

But at the same time, a terrifying force swept over Chen Lingxi’s body.

That power was too majestic, too tyrannical!

Agony shot through his limbs and bones.

Looking down, he saw a bizarre thread of Dao Origin seeping into his flesh strand by strand.

Wherever it passed, flesh and blood rotted, and spiritual qi scattered.

”Dao Origin erosion,” Chen Lingxi ground out.

He could feel the Dao Origin spreading along his meridians toward his Qi Sea.

If he didn’t expel this bizarre Dao Origin in time, even his Plundering Dragon Dao Platform might be corroded by this power.

Chen Lingxi looked up at Zhao Duanxuan’s avatar.

Only to see that Zhao Duanxuan’s body was already fading. It fractured inch by inch, taking that world-disdaining apathy with it as it vanished into the void.

”I still fell for the trick of a figure like him!” Chen Lingxi gritted his teeth, not daring to stop for even a moment.

He could not afford a single moment’s pause.

Activating the Hidden Edge Method to conceal his aura, he pushed his remaining spiritual qi to drag his nearly shattered body in a different direction.

”I can’t go to the Storm Immortal Pivot for now. I’ll head to the Lake Immortal Pivot to heal first!”

Hurricanes howled in his ears; thunderclaps detonated around him.

Chen Lingxi flew for a very long time. He broke out of the churning storm and crossed tens of thousands of li of endless clouds, only daring to crash-land into a stretch of ocean once he could no longer sense any pursuing auras behind him.

Following his memory, he found the small island—the Lake Immortal Pivot.

The lake was as tranquil as ever, its mirror-clear surface reflecting the brilliant starlight and roiling clouds of the high heavens.

Compared to his Absolute Perception Deduction, nothing here had changed in the slightest.

The azure waters still emitted a warm, gentle glow, and the majestic life force deep in the center of the lake continued to slowly circulate.

It was as peaceful as a fairyland completely isolated from the rest of the world.

Unable to hold on any longer, Chen Lingxi fell backward into the clear water.

Warm and soothing as jade, the water tenderly enveloped his entire body.

He could feel the spiritual essence within the lake naturally flooding into his body, seeping into his wounds, his meridians, and his riddled Qi Sea—which had been corroded by Dao Origin—like wisps of gentle azure silk.

The moment this azure spiritual essence touched the Dao Origin Zhao Duanxuan had left inside him, it began to gently strip away, dissolve, and smooth out those strands of energy, bit by bit.

Like spring waters melting the stubborn ice of winter, when water flows, a channel forms naturally, without the slightest hindrance.

Chen Lingxi let out a long breath of impure air.

”This Lake Immortal Pivot is simply divine!”