After the Great Dao Died

Lightning bloomed in the void, washing the world stark white.

After the lightning sword light that tore across the sky faded, the sea of clouds above the Ancestral Mountain lay cleft apart, revealing the spotless azure sky beyond.

Amidst that azure sky, Chen Lingxi stood proud and unyielding. Pale golden lightning coiled and surged around him, wrapping him from head to toe like a garment of thunder.

That lightning erupted from the Thunder Prison Profound Root planted within the Plundering Dragon Dao Platform inside his body!

Yu Jiangwei sat cross-legged atop her Spiritual Pearl, having already flown thousands of li away.

Now, she abruptly halted her flight and turned around, astonishment filling her abyss-like eyes.

Renowned throughout the Nine Quarters for her Dao Substitution Body Great Divine Ability, she considered her discernment second to no cultivator in her realm. Yet, as she stared at that figure wreathed in lightning, she found herself unable to see his true depths.

”Dao Foundation...” she murmured, her tone carrying a trace of disbelief.

She remembered it with absolute clarity.

Back in Nanche Prefecture City, this Chen Lingxi had been nothing more than a Qi Circulation cultivator with an unformed Dao Platform and immature spiritual qi.

When he crushed Daoist Huotuo with a single finger, it had been a stunning feat, but she had chalked it up to the element of surprise afforded by his bizarre physical body.

But now, the Dao Origin fluctuations surrounding him were deep and mighty, vast as the abyss and the sea. He had genuinely stepped into the Dao Foundation Realm!

How long had it been? A year? Two years?

Even among the Noble Sect Immortal Gates of the Great Xuanzhuo Realm, a genius with the aptitude for the Dao Foundation would require at least twenty or thirty years of bitter effort.

Yet this man had taken such a short amount of time in this spiritually depleted Weiji Grotto-Heaven?

’Just what secrets are hidden within this person?’ Yu Jiangwei wondered to herself, the astonishment in her eyes growing.

She was not the only one.

Daoist Shu Rong, Chi Jianshu, who had been spying on the area with her spiritual sense, also snapped her eyes open from her meditation.

The phantom image of the Big Dipper still rotated slowly around her, its starlight dim, making it clear that her earlier battle with Zhao Duanxuan had taken a massive toll.

But right now, as she observed the figure standing in the sky above the Ancestral Mountain with her residual spiritual sense, an indescribable light lit up her eyes.

”Chen Lingxi...” she murmured.

She had personally watched this native youth of the Weiji Grotto-Heaven walk step by step from Qi Circulation to where he was today.

She had run around the Xuanzang Court to secure a Great Divine Ability for him, and had fought shoulder to shoulder with him in Nanche Prefecture City.

Back then, she had merely felt that this boy possessed extraordinary talent and loyalty; with proper nurturing, he would surely achieve greatness in time.

But she had never imagined this day would arrive so quickly.

Dao Foundation!

He had actually stepped into the Dao Foundation Realm!

Liu Chengfeng of the Dragon-Revering Sect had been standing upon the clouds with his sword, regulating his breathing.

Now, he raised his head and gazed at the lightning-wreathed figure.

”This is that Chen Lingxi?”

Not long ago, when Bai Lingze asked him to trap this person, the boy had been nothing more than a Qi Circulation cultivator who had yet to form a Dao Platform or plant a Profound Root.

He had thought Bai Lingze was making a mountain out of a molehill. Why would dealing with a mere lower cultivator require his Dao Foundation avatar to personally take action?

Yet now, this person had stepped into the Dao Foundation Realm, and the deep, majestic Dao Origin fluctuations rolling off him were entirely on par with his own.

He suddenly recalled the words Bai Lingze had spoken back then.

”This person harbors a great secret. If he is not eliminated early on, he will become a massive threat in the future.”

He had originally assumed Bai Lingze was just looking for an excuse to justify his killing intent. Looking at it now, those words had been a prophecy.

Several other cultivators lurking in the clouds, watching through their spiritual senses, also paled in shock!

They perceived the figure standing in the sky above the Ancestral Mountain.

They all sensed the surging Dao Origin blossoming from Chen Lingxi!

With the Celestial Ranking hanging high in the Grotto-Heaven, these powerhouses from the Great Xuanzhuo Realm naturally knew of Chen Lingxi’s origins.

He was a native of the Weiji Grotto-Heaven with no master’s lineage and no foundation, yet he had managed to reach this point in this abandoned land of depleted spiritual qi.

For a native mortal to cultivate all the way to the Dao Foundation in the Qi-Depleted Grotto-Heaven was a feat worthy of being called breathtakingly brilliant, even among the Noble Sect Immortal Gates of the Great Xuanzhuo Realm.

Meanwhile, Yu Jiangwei shifted her gaze toward Emperor Daye, Ying Xian.

Ying Xian was currently trapped upon that rainbow light by Zhao Duanxuan’s Gold-Suppressing Cauldron.

He raised his head to look at the lightning-wreathed figure standing in the void, the two clusters of golden flames in his eyes leaping wildly.

Soon after, an extremely faint smile surfaced at the corner of his mouth.

Emperor Daye then slowly withdrew his gaze, lowering his head to look at Zhao Duanxuan and the Gold-Suppressing Cauldron pressing down on him.

”As of now, a variable has entered today’s situation.”

He only needed to hold Zhao Duanxuan off for a little while longer!

At the edge of the valley in the Ancestral Mountain, Xi Yu also slowly opened her eyes.

She raised her head and looked at the figure standing in the void, her gaze profoundly complex.

That extraordinarily handsome face was identical to the youth deep in her memories, yet completely different.

The innate calmness and composure between the youth’s brows, along with the terrifying lightning coiling around him, served to remind her that this man was no longer the ordinary person she remembered.

Right in the center of the shattered Mountains and Rivers Great Array, Bai Lingze came to a halt.

He slowly raised his head to look at the figure who had arrived upon crushing lightning.

The unhurried smile on his jade-like, handsome face gradually faded.

As he watched Chen Lingxi, deep astonishment still lingered in his eyes.

Bai Lingze naturally knew that Chen Lingxi’s talent was extraordinary. That was precisely why he was so dead set on killing him.

But he had never expected that Chen Lingxi would step into the Dao Foundation Realm this quickly!

At this moment!

Chen Lingxi stood upon the clouds, lightning wreathed around him, his robes fluttering in the wind.

The deep, majestic Dao Origin fluctuations surged around him.

Bai Lingze reined in the doubt and shock in his mind.

He stood with his hands clasped behind his back, narrowing his eyes slightly.

”I wasn’t wrong after all. You do have some talent.

”To reach this step today in the Qi-Depleted Grotto-Heaven...

”It proves that my previous strikes against you were justified.

”If I don’t kill you, given time, you truly might become a massive threat to me.”

He paused for a moment and raised his head, the two clusters of jade radiance in his eyes slowly circulating.

Then, he suddenly smiled, a natural, condescending superiority bleeding into his expression.

”Stepping into the Dao Foundation has given you plenty of confidence, but you ought to know that there is a vast difference between one Dao Foundation and another.

”You have only just planted your Profound Root. Your Dao Platform is newly formed, and your Dao Origin is still immature.

”Meanwhile, this avatar of mine has been polishing itself at the Early Dao Foundation for a long time, only a single step away from the Dao Foundation Middle Stage. In terms of foundation, accumulation, and comprehension of Great Divine Abilities, a heavenly chasm separates us!

”The fact that you dare come to kill me shows a bit of courage. But ultimately, you are just a frog at the bottom of a well, not knowing the immensity of heaven and earth.”

Having said that, Bai Lingze suddenly took a step forward.

With that step, a Dao Platform suddenly towered high behind him!

The Dao Platform was of translucent white jade, looking like a bright moon that had plummeted from the high heavens to hang in the void behind him.

Jade light wove and flowed across the platform. Countless fine runes bobbed and reformed within the light, exhaling a suffocating and terrifying pressure.

Chen Lingxi’s expression remained unchanged, but he was amazed in his heart!

This was because he was witnessing an incredibly shocking scene.

Atop Bai Lingze’s jade-colored Dao Platform, a Profound Root was slowly sprouting branches from deep within the platform, growing taller and lusher by the second.

In just a few short breaths, that Profound Root had grown into a towering tree.

Even more alarming was the fist-sized Wondrous Fruit hanging from the branches of that great tree.

Chen Lingxi’s heart chilled with awe.

For a Profound Root to comprehend the Dao and grow into a tree, and for it to bear a Wondrous Fruit—these were two incredibly important watersheds within the Early Dao Foundation.

A Dao Foundation cultivator who had formed a Wondrous Fruit would reach an entirely new realm in their comprehension of Great Divine Abilities.

At that point, the might of their divine abilities would skyrocket, and the circulation of their Dao Origin would become perfectly seamless and increasingly heavy!

”Chen Lingxi, you have only just planted your Profound Root. Your root has not become a tree, and it has not borne a Wondrous Fruit.

”And you think you can kill me on that alone?”

Bai Lingze spoke in a leisurely drawl!

Before his voice could fade, he suddenly raised his hand.

His jade-white palm pressed lightly against the void.

Under this press, the Wondrous Fruit suspended above the Dao Platform behind him abruptly flared with a dazzling, blinding light.

Within that light, his Great Divine Ability, [Immortal Elucidation Dao], had been pushed to its absolute limit!

It was as though a true immortal was sitting cross-legged within that Wondrous Fruit, spitting out the true words of the Great Dao to educate all living beings!

The sound of that preaching transformed into profound, ultimate truths, and then into a physical pressure that washed toward Chen Lingxi like a tidal wave.

Empowered by the Immortal Elucidation Dao, the deep, majestic Dao Origin fluctuations already swirling around Bai Lingze surged once more.

He was like a living immortal who commanded the profound mysteries of the Great Dao, carrying extraordinary might in his every movement.

Standing atop the clouds, Chen Lingxi felt an invisible barrier bearing down on him.

That barrier contained the incredibly pure Dao rhythm of the Immortal Elucidation Dao. It felt as if thousands of immortals were suppressing him all at once.

Had it been any ordinary Early Dao Foundation cultivator under such terrifying Great Dao pressure, even mobilizing their Dao Origin would likely become unbearably sluggish.

But Chen Lingxi cultivated the True Edict of Approaching the Dao and possessed the spirit of a Great Sage.

Even if a true immortal descended, he would dare to meet them head-on.

He took a deep breath, and the Plundering Dragon Dao Platform within his body abruptly lit up.

Atop the Dao Platform, the Thunder Prison Profound Root trembled madly. Countless streaks of lightning erupted from the root like floodwaters bursting a dam, surging into his limbs and bones.

The deep, majestic Dao Origin fluctuations around him surged once again in that instant.

Dazzling streaks of lightning wrapped his entire body from head to toe, forming a garment of thunder.

Chen Lingxi’s face showed not a shred of fear!

The surprise in Bai Lingze’s eyes grew even thicker, but within that surprise, a measure of composure remained.

”Just this?” Bai Lingze suddenly sneered.

As his words fell, the void beneath his feet suddenly trembled.

Rings of light rose from beneath him, condensing in the blink of an eye into the massive phantom of an immortal right beneath his feet.

The phantom sat cross-legged, towering a hundred zhang high. Its eyes were half-closed, its face indistinct, yet it naturally possessed an awe-inspiring majesty capable of suppressing eternity.

Endless profound light of preaching wreathed the phantom. The profound light circulated slowly around it as if physical, exhaling a suffocating and terrifying pressure.

Bai Lingze stood right atop the phantom immortal’s head, his robes snapping in the wind, resembling a True Lord descending to the mortal realm.

He lowered his head, staring down at Chen Lingxi from his lofty height.

Then... the phantom immortal opened its mouth slightly, and incredibly profound soundwaves came rolling out from its massive maw.

The soundwaves transformed into physical profound light and swept toward Chen Lingxi.

Wherever the profound light passed, the sea of clouds evaporated, and the heavenly winds scattered!

Que Star divine ability! [Sound-Elucidating Profound Light]!

The might of this divine ability was simply too immense, terrifying beyond compare.

At the same time, Bai Lingze pointed one finger to the sky.

The tip of his long, pale index finger suddenly lit up with a brilliant speck of jade radiance.

”Fall!”

From within the churning sea of clouds, a supremely profound rune formed out of thin air.

Growing in the wind, the rune turned into a globe of light measuring a full hundred zhang across.

Within the light, faint phantoms of countless fine chains tumbled and flowed. Like a net from the sky and a snare from the earth, they enveloped Chen Lingxi from above, completely sealing off all routes of escape in every direction.

Que Star divine ability! [Profound Caging Method]!

Bai Lingze’s offensive was far from over.

In the exact same instant he unleashed the Sound-Elucidating Profound Light and the Profound Caging Method, the phantom immortal suspended above the Dao Platform behind him abruptly jolted.

A speck of azure-green light drifted out soundlessly from behind the phantom.

The speck of azure-green light expanded in the wind, transforming into a completely azure-green bamboo arrow.

The bamboo arrow didn’t seem to be a physical object, but rather the projection of a spiritual treasure. Even so, the might it contained far exceeded that of ordinary magical artifacts.

The moment the bamboo arrow materialized, the spiritual treasure projection gave a violent shake!

The bamboo arrow split from one into ten, and from ten into a hundred. In the snap of a finger, it had multiplied into hundreds of identical azure-green bamboo arrows.

Like an azure torrential rain, those hundreds of bamboo arrows blotted out the sky as they shot rapidly toward Chen Lingxi.

Every single bamboo arrow contained incredibly pure jade-colored Dao Origin and was peerlessly sharp. Even the protective Dao Origin of a Dao Foundation cultivator would likely be pierced through effortlessly before these bamboo arrows.

The moment Bai Lingze struck, he used all his strength, holding none of his foundation back!

The Sound-Elucidating Profound Light spearheaded the slaughter, the Profound Caging Method sealed the retreat, and the spiritual treasure bamboo arrows blotted out the sky. The three-pronged offensive was perfectly interlocked!

As the saying went, even a lion uses its full strength to hunt a rabbit. Bai Lingze might be arrogant, but he was absolutely no fool.

He had seen with his own eyes that Chen Lingxi had stepped into the Dao Foundation Realm, and he had witnessed the man’s deep, majestic Dao Origin fluctuations.

Even though the Profound Root on his Dao Platform had already borne the Immortal Elucidation Wondrous Fruit, granting him extraordinary might and endless wondrous uses...

When facing this lower cultivator who had just stepped into the Dao Foundation Realm yet repeatedly escaped with his life from his grasp, he harbored absolutely not a shred of underestimation.

He even mobilized this Spiritual Artifact projection!

The onlookers could sense Bai Lingze’s killing intent.

That killing intent spread out, blotting out the sky like a physical current of freezing air.

A trace of pity flashed through the Golden Crown Demon Lord’s eyes.

’This Chen Lingxi can be considered a cultivation genius. To reach the Dao Foundation in a Qi-depleted land, he would be worthy of being called a legend even in the Great Xuanzhuo Realm.’

’But he is a native of the Grotto-Heaven. His horizons are limited, and he doesn’t know the true foundations of the Noble Sect Immortal Gates in the Great Xuanzhuo Realm... He shouldn’t have appeared so rashly in front of Bai Lingze.’

’Bai Lingze possesses a profound foundation. The Yutai Bai Family has stood tall in the Nine Quarters Great Domain for many years without falling. The Great Divine Abilities, Spiritual Artifacts, and secret methods passed down within their clan are all absolutely top-tier peak arts.’

’Killing a lower cultivator who has just stepped into the Dao Foundation and whose Dao Origin remains immature will simply be too easy.’

’It’s a pity... If this person weren’t a native of this soon-to-be-refined Grotto-Heaven, he might have been able to achieve something great.’

’But now...’

As he pondered this, the other powerhouses were thinking the exact same thing.

Yu Jiangwei shook her head slightly.

With the overwhelming Sound-Elucidating Profound Light and the hundreds of bamboo arrows reflecting in her deep, abyss-like eyes, she also sighed inwardly.

This man’s talent truly was extraordinary, even slightly surpassing many disciples of the Noble Sect Immortal Gates.

But today, his opponent was Bai Lingze. Once Bai Lingze unleashed his Immortal Elucidation Dao Great Divine Ability, he was just like a true immortal preaching in the mortal world.

With the Sound-Elucidating Profound Light, the spiritual treasure bamboo arrows, and the Profound Caging Method, how could a newcomer who had just stepped into the Dao Foundation Realm withstand a three-pronged offensive?

She shook her head and was just about to withdraw her gaze.

Right at that moment, her pupils suddenly contracted slightly.

Because she saw Chen Lingxi’s eyes.

Standing atop the clouds, facing the overwhelming Sound-Elucidating Profound Light, the Profound Caging Method blanketing him from above, and the hundreds of spiritual treasure bamboo arrows shooting toward him... Chen Lingxi’s gaze remained utterly calm from start to finish.

Those deep eyes reflected the sky-filling brilliance of the divine abilities, reflecting the phantom of the cross-legged immortal seated behind Bai Lingze.

Lightning flowed and killing intent burned within his eyes, but there was uniquely not a single speck of fear.

Like a bottomless, freezing abyss—no matter your violent storms or terrifying waves, I remain unshakable.

’If I had nothing to rely on, having just stepped into the Dao Foundation Realm, I would absolutely be no match for Bai Lingze,’ Chen Lingxi thought.

’Bai Lingze’s Dao Origin is deep, his divine abilities are exquisite, and he is empowered by the Immortal Elucidation Wondrous Fruit...’

’But... it’s not like I have nothing to rely on.’

Before his thoughts could settle, an incredibly deep, incredibly ancient, and boundless aura explosively erupted from the Vast Void Pouch!

It was exactly the Enemy-Slaughtering Spirit Wall!

At this moment, Bai Lingze’s name was emitting a cold, eerie glow upon the Spirit Wall. The unfathomable, wondrous Dao power brewing within it came rolling out, surging straight into Chen Lingxi’s body.