After the Great Dao Died

Chen Lingxi stored the Enemy-Slaughtering Spirit Wall in his Vast Void Pouch and drew out another item.

It was a talisman, about three cun wide and two fingers long. Entirely golden-purple, its surface flowed with spiritual patterns that exuded an extremely faint rhyme of the dao.

This was the very killing power talisman that True Person Xiangshu had personally bestowed upon him when he ventured out to gather Great Encompassing Profound Qi and travel the Nine Quarters.

Sensing the talisman, Chen Lingxi felt an incredibly boundless killing power lying dormant within its golden-purple body.

’Activating this killing power talisman with my current cultivation should be enough to injure a Dao Foundation Late Stage figure,’ he thought.

’It is just a pity that I only have this one talisman. Once it is used, it is gone.’

He returned the talisman to the Vast Void Pouch, sat beneath the sheer cliff, and slowly closed his eyes.

’Besides... even with the Enemy-Slaughtering Spirit Wall and the golden-purple talisman, the gap between me and the Dao Foundation Late Stage is still massive.’

He thought of Lord Xiuyun.

That Dao Foundation Middle Stage cultivator of Sandalwood Cloud Peak had combined two Great Divine Abilities, Sea Within Qi and Heaven-Illuminating, while supported by three Fourth Grade Spiritual Artifacts. Had he not used the Heavenly Statute Edict to sever the heavenly light and forcibly cripple her Heaven-Illuminating ability, the outcome of that battle would have been hard to say.

The Dao Foundation Late Stage meant establishing three Profound Roots together on the Dao Platform. The sheer abundance of Dao Origin was incomparable to the Dao Foundation Middle Stage.

For him to cross a realm and kill Lord Xiuyun while only at the Early Dao Foundation, he had been forced to exhaust all five layers of his foundation—Thunder Prison Heaven, Jade Tiger Rebellious Sea Sword Light, Great Prison Furnace, Return to Void Sword Pagoda, and Heavenly Statute Edict—just to seize a sliver of an opportunity.

More importantly, Chen Lingxi had already mastered two divine abilities and formed his second Profound Root by then. He had been only a single step away from the Dao Foundation Middle Stage.

But now, Chen Lingxi had just entered the Dao Foundation Middle Stage. His second Profound Root had not even grown into a wondrous tree yet. The gap in the abundance of Dao Origin compared to a Dao Foundation Late Stage cultivator was simply too vast.

So now, to cross a realm as a Dao Foundation Middle Stage cultivator and kill someone at the Dao Foundation Late Stage—even with the Enemy-Slaughtering Spirit Wall and a killing power talisman—it was absolutely not enough to smooth out the disparity between them.

Thinking up to this point, Chen Lingxi slowly exhaled and tilted his head in thought.

Then he flipped his palm and took another item from the Vast Void Pouch.

The item was about the size of a fist and entirely dark gold. A layer of complex and profound patterns covered the fruit, faintly exuding an extremely ancient, primeval aura. A surging killing power slowly circulated within it, like a fierce beast imprisoned in a square inch that constantly tried to break free.

This was the very Dao-Absorbing Fruit he had obtained earlier from the Dao-Capturing Ancient Tree but had never used.

Chen Lingxi fixed his gaze on the Dao-Absorbing Fruit using the Method of Qi Observation.

’This Dao-Absorbing Fruit has stored the mighty power of a Killing Power Cauldron Vessel.’

’But for that killing power to be released, it requires the coordination of a killing power array.’

The mighty power of the Killing Power Cauldron Vessel within this Dao-Absorbing Fruit was quite unique. If there was no array to guide it, the killing power would be like a ferocious beast that had snapped its reins, not knowing where to go and with no way to focus its edge.

Only by using a killing power array as a guide to draw the formation out from the fruit, and then shaping it with the array, could the mighty power of that Killing Power Cauldron Vessel be truly unleashed.

And as for a killing power array, he had never cultivated one.

Chen Lingxi sat beneath the sheer cliff, lightly pressing his fingertip against the surface of the Dao-Absorbing Fruit.

’As it happens, my Absolute Perception Divine Ability has already reached perfection.’

He raised his eyes and looked toward the heavenly dome.

That layer of spiritual mist, impenetrable from outside the secret realm, shrouded the extreme heights. The heavenly light cascaded down through it, illuminating his face with a clear radiance.

’I just don’t know if 30,000 Great Encompassing Profound Qi is enough to exchange for a killing power array,’ he thought, stowing the Dao-Absorbing Fruit back into his pouch. He leaped up from beneath the cliff and landed in a deeper part of the forest.

Then he sat cross-legged and immediately connected with the Divine Chamber!

[Absolute Perception]!

In an instant, Chen Lingxi entered the state of Absolute Perception. Everything around him was illuminated by the light of two bright mirrors in the sky, rendering it all perfectly transparent.

Chen Lingxi stood up.

With his eyes slightly closed, he used his finger as a brush and outlined the Court Audience Heavenly Talisman!

He painted until the final stroke fell.

The talisman, condensed from Dao Origin, hung in the void before him. Although it was thin and simple, and its aura was mixed and impure, it was flawless without the slightest error.

In the next moment, the talisman slowly unfurled.

An extremely fine, dark light bloomed from the center of the talisman, completely swallowing the area three chi around him.

All sounds fell silent.

When he opened his eyes again, Chen Lingxi was already somewhere else.

At the same time, an unimaginable ancient aura rushed against his face.

Within that void, Chen Lingxi’s consciousness slightly bowed his head, slowly performing a salute toward the starlight falling from an extremely distant place.

Just as the salute was finished, a speck of radiance bloomed from the depths of that void.

The radiance grew from that single point, thread by thread, slowly piecing together into several lines that hung before Chen Lingxi’s eyes.

Chen Lingxi focused his gaze.

Line after line of dao text slowly settled from the starry sky. One of those lines reflected his name; beneath it was another line, reflecting his current amount of Great Encompassing Profound Qi—[Over 29,300].

Chen Lingxi bowed toward the starry sky once more.

”I respectfully beseech the Great Encompassing Heaven-Observing Mirror.”

”This lesser cultivator requests to cultivate an array that does not require array-setting spiritual materials!”

A few breaths of time passed.

The starlight in the void suddenly surged. Countless stars drifted over from the extreme distance one by one and settled down one by one, each occupying a tier, sequentially transforming into dao text.

[A total of 613 arrays have been recorded.]

Chen Lingxi’s heart stirred. He read down the lines of dao text carefully, and then selected two of them.

The first was a killing power array named the ”Seventy-Two Qi Origin-Holding Array.”

The second was a profound qi suppression array...

Both arrays had their own strengths.

Looking at the two lines of dao text, Chen Lingxi hesitated for a long time before slowly exhaling a breath of impure qi.

His consciousness then landed on the first line of dao text. Using Dao Origin as a guide, he lightly tapped it.

Within the void, the starlight suddenly sank.

A new line of dao text surfaced from the depths of the mirror and landed before his eyes.

[Exchanging for the Seventy-Two Qi Origin-Holding Array requires 19,800 Great Encompassing Profound Qi.]

Looking at that line of text, Chen Lingxi felt slightly relieved.

Without the slightest hesitation, he sent down the thought.

In an instant, a strand of Great Encompassing Profound Qi flowed out within the starry sky. Like an extremely fine silver thread, it flew out from in front of him and plunged into the massive bright mirror suspended deep in the void.

The moment the silver thread submerged into the mirror’s surface, a ripple spread out.

The ripple slowly unfurled from the center, and the dao text engraved upon it flowed layer by layer.

Then, from the very center of that ripple, a speck of radiance slowly surfaced, flew out from the depths of the mirror, and landed in Chen Lingxi’s Sea of Consciousness.

It was an array diagram.

Within the array diagram, an array formation unfolded layer by layer, from its opening stance to its closing. The array eyes and array patterns all surfaced with absolute clarity deep within his Sea of Consciousness.

Chen Lingxi carefully read through that array diagram and silently recited its name in his heart.

’Seventy-Two Qi Origin-Holding Array!’

Chen Lingxi slowly opened his eyes.

Within the secret realm, the layer of heavenly light falling from the high heavens remained crystal clear, and the forest was perfectly quiet.

Two bright mirrors hung high above!

With a raise of his hand, the Dao-Absorbing Fruit fell back into his palm. The killing power surged on the fruit’s surface, faintly producing a thread of resonance with that array diagram in his Sea of Consciousness.

Chen Lingxi looked down at the Dao-Absorbing Fruit in his palm, a light slowly brightening in his eyes.

’I am currently in the midst of an Absolute Perception Deduction. Let me practice this killing power array superficially first, go meet Daoist Brother Lin, and then test out that Dao Foundation Late Stage figure!’