After the Great Dao Died

Chen Lingxi gazed at the many lines of text within the Great Encompassing Heaven-Observing Mirror.

The Daoist script within the mirror flowed like an inverted river of stars. The message [Kill the Under-Dao Academy disciple Lin Suri] still hung in its original place.

He pondered for a long time before finally shaking his head. He then focused his consciousness on that task, using his Dao Origin as a guide, and gently tapped it!

Instantly, that line of Daoist script transformed into a streak of flowing light and fell into the Great Encompassing Heaven beneath his feet.

However, to Chen Lingxi’s disappointment, he received no useful information after accepting the task.

”It doesn’t even include Lin Suri’s location.”

Chen Lingxi frowned slightly. He lowered his head in thought for a moment before looking back up.

”I didn’t have many friends during my time in the Weiji Grotto-Heaven. Lin Suri and the Xiang Lower Academy did indeed help me. Now that Daoist Brother Lin is in trouble, my cultivation is still weak. Even if I go to help him, it might not be of much use.

”However... since I know about this, I ought to go take a look. I can also use Absolute Perception Deduction to maneuver and buy him some time. If there is truly nothing I can do, I can just come back.”

”Furthermore, the Under-Dao Academy is considered a major profound sect in this Land of Nine Palaces. They shouldn’t just sit back and watch their disciple die.”

Chen Lingxi made up his mind and speculated inwardly, ’I’ll head to the Under-Dao Academy’s location first and search around.

’I have the Vision Roaming Divine Ability. I just need to enter the general vicinity of where Daoist Brother Lin is to find him.’

Thus, Chen Lingxi sank his spiritual sense back into the Great Encompassing Heaven-Observing Mirror. Among the Daoist script in the mirror, he found a piece of information regarding the [Under-Dao Academy’s Location].

”100 Great Encompassing Profound Qi... To think even this kind of information has a set price.”

Chen Lingxi shook his head but didn’t hesitate, transferring the one hundred profound qi and tossing it into the mirror’s surface.

The mirror rippled slightly as a ring of ripples slowly spread outward from the center.

Wherever the ripples passed, a minimalist topographic map of mountains and rivers slowly surfaced from deep within the mirror.

On the map, black ink and cyan intersected, laying out the western expanse of the Nine Quarters Realm.

The locations marked on the map featured complex names, with mountains and rivers crisscrossing. The Under-Dao Academy was situated directly in the western part of the map.

Chen Lingxi studied the map in detail, committing it to his Sea of Consciousness, and then slowly withdrew from the Great Encompassing Heaven-Observing Mirror.

He opened his eyes. Cloud qi naturally generated beneath his feet, and he flew toward the west.

The Nine Quarters Realm of the Great Xuanzhuo Realm was simply too massive.

Setting out from the Dragon-Revering Sect Territory, Chen Lingxi traveled straight west. He first passed over the thirty-odd vassal cities west of the Dragon-Revering Territory, followed by the mountains and rivers governed by four or five mid-tier aristocratic families. Beyond that lay ungoverned wilderness.

Over the wilderness, endless mountain ranges stretched out, and rivers flowed haphazardly across the land.

The mountains weren’t exceptionally tall, but their terrain was incredibly steep. They often jutted up abruptly from the flat ground, piercing straight into the sea of clouds.

Amid the churning sea of clouds, avian beasts occasionally swept past beneath his feet. Their wings were as large as doors, and their bodies as massive as boulders.

Chen Lingxi pushed his Wondrous State Cloud Soaring Technique to its limits. The cloud qi beneath his feet turned into a faint streak of lightning, speeding across this stretch of wilderness.

With his Dao Foundation Middle Stage cultivation and the Wondrous State Cloud Soaring Technique, his speed was already pushed to the extreme.

He continued west like this, occasionally sinking his consciousness into the Divine Chamber to use Vision Roaming on Lin Suri.

Yet for three months, Chen Lingxi’s Vision Roaming failed to capture Lin Suri’s aura.

In the past, Chen Lingxi’s Vision Roaming range was only a hundred thousand li across.

Given that range, he naturally would have assumed that Lin Suri was still far outside his Vision Roaming radius.

However, ever since he stepped into the Dao Foundation Middle Stage, his Vision Roaming range had skyrocketed to five hundred thousand li across.

Five hundred thousand li—what kind of vast expanse was that?

But even so, he still couldn’t reach Lin Suri with Vision Roaming.

For the first time, Chen Lingxi realized that the vastness of the Great Xuanzhuo Realm’s Nine Quarters Realm far exceeded his previous expectations.

Previously, inside the Weiji Grotto-Heaven, he had thought that world was already extremely vast.

But thinking back on it now, that grotto-heaven was probably nothing more than a drop in the ocean compared to this Nine Quarters Realm.

Traveling ever westward, Chen Lingxi gradually witnessed more sights.

He saw a city built on the peak of a mountain. Cultivators bustled about like weaving shuttles within, their auras intertwining into clouds. Inside that city, a Golden Portal true body even hung high, illuminating all directions and aweing the heavens and earth!

He saw a mighty river flowing through a plain, its surface stretching for thousands of li. Several islands even floated in the river, teeming with spiritual plants far more precious than the spiritual fields in the Dragon-Revering Sect, yet no one dared to snatch them.

He also saw a giant sword stabbing down diagonally from above the sea of clouds. The blade was over ten thousand zhang long, densely carved with countless names, beneath which were extremely fine, small words.

These sights thoroughly broadened Chen Lingxi’s horizons, but he had no time to linger. He continued straight west toward the Under-Dao Academy.

Three months later.

On this day, Chen Lingxi slowly lowered his cloud over a sea of clouds, landing on an uninhabited solitary peak.

Atop the solitary peak, Chen Lingxi sat cross-legged and attempted to sink his spiritual sense into the Divine Chamber.

He activated the Vision Roaming Divine Ability once more.

Within his Sea of Consciousness, the sea of clouds churned, and tadpole-like text hung in the void.

Chen Lingxi locked his consciousness onto Lin Suri’s name!

The next moment, his perspective shot upward into the clouds, passing over countless mountains and rivers, skimming past over a hundred cities as it hurtled straight to the west.

He didn’t know how long he flew before the view before Chen Lingxi’s eyes suddenly cleared.

The mountain ranges receded beneath him, replaced by an incredibly expansive plain.

Across the plain lay lakes, hills, and villages, as well as several pillars of spiritual qi cascading from the sky, converging on one spot from all directions.

That place was the Under-Dao Academy.

Through the perspective of Vision Roaming, Chen Lingxi gazed from afar.

The Under-Dao Academy was situated right in the middle of a plain surrounded by mountains, boasting an extremely magnificent layout. The main peak was over ten thousand zhang tall, its upper half completely blanketed by a sea of clouds. Only a few palace halls partially revealed their eaves from within the mists.

To the left and right of the main peak were several side peaks connected by rainbow bridges. Occasionally, streaks of escaping light flashed across those bridges—these were the Academy disciples traveling about.

And to the west of the Under-Dao Academy, there was also a secret realm.

That secret realm was not considered large, spanning only a few hundred li in circumference.

A dense layer of spiritual fog swirled outside the secret realm, isolating that area from the rest of the Under-Dao Academy.

Chen Lingxi’s sight pierced through the spiritual fog, landing directly inside the secret realm.

Then, he saw Lin Suri.

Lin Suri sat cross-legged on a bluestone deep within the secret realm. He wore a black Daoist robe embroidered with the cloud patterns belonging to the Pool Soul Courtyard lineage of the Under-Dao Academy.

Compared to his time in the Weiji Grotto-Heaven, Lin Suri’s aura was drastically different, faintly exuding a wondrous spiritual light from within.

That spiritual light shrouded Lin Suri, locking all his Dao Origin, aura, and vital essence deeply inside.

And right now!

High above Lin Suri’s head hung a tiny sun.

That sun was about a chi in diameter and entirely pale gold. A layer of extremely gentle and pure radiance flowed across its surface.

The radiance slowly cascaded down from the sun, pouring into Lin Suri’s crown and flowing throughout his body via his Meridians.

Chen Lingxi saw this with absolute clarity through the perspective of Vision Roaming.

That sun was transforming Lin Suri’s body.

From his flesh to his fascia, from his fascia to his bones, and from his bones to his internal organs—everything inside Lin Suri was undergoing some profoundly wondrous metamorphosis under the wash of that radiance.

Chen Lingxi’s heart stirred.

’It seems Daoist Brother Lin has stumbled upon some incredible opportunity.’

He quietly maintained his Vision Roaming. The next day, he waited until Lin Suri woke up and gazed far outside the secret realm.

Outside the secret realm, a dense layer of spiritual fog swirled.

Yet right now, within the distant mountain ranges beyond that layer of spiritual fog, more than twenty auras were scattered about.

Those auras were both hidden and exposed. Some concealed themselves in the clouds, some lay in ambush within the forests, and others sat upright like small mountains on various peaks, their auras as deep and heavy as the abyss.

Chen Lingxi looked at them one by one.

Among those auras, seven or eight were only at the Early Dao Foundation realm. Though their figures were distinct, they didn’t give him too strong a sense of pressure.

But four or five were already at the Dao Foundation Middle Stage. Their auras were vigorous and thick, and a faint spiritual light circulated around their bodies.

”These Dao Foundation figures... they are all waiting in this secret realm.”

Chen Lingxi raised his eyebrows slightly and continued looking through Lin Suri’s perspective, only to be startled!

Because Lin Suri saw a certain aura.

That aura was hidden behind an extremely tall and distant solitary peak to the southwest of the secret realm. When Chen Lingxi’s Vision Roaming swept over that aura, a profound sense of pressure welled up in his Sea of Consciousness.

”A Dao Foundation Late Stage figure is also coveting Daoist Brother Lin?”

Chen Lingxi took a deep breath.

These cultivators were scattered far apart. They did not converse with each other, nor did they approach one another.

They each guarded their own positions, yet all their eyes were cast toward the spiritual fog.

Chen Lingxi slowly withdrew his Vision Roaming perspective.

Atop that uninhabited solitary peak, he opened his eyes and slowly exhaled a breath of stale air.

”So that’s how it is.”

”Daoist Brother Lin must have stumbled upon a massive opportunity within the secret realm.

”The sun above his head is the source of that opportunity, and it’s currently transforming his body. If he can completely refine it, his future path of the Dao will likely become much broader.”

”And in the secret realm, there are over ten cultivators glaring like hungry tigers eyeing their prey. Among them are even experts at the Dao Foundation Late Stage. What they are plotting for is undoubtedly this very opportunity.”