After the Great Dao Died

Lin Suri rubbed a crimson bead between his fingers, lost in thought.

Wang Chu stood quietly to the side, not daring to interrupt.

A few breaths later, Lin Suri asked, ”Have the martial experts Longyue invited and the swordsman you found settled in?”

”They have. They are staying in the guest rooms of the residential quarters.”

”You met them. Could you tell their martial realms?”

Wang Chu thought for a moment. ”Jiang Yuan, the man the young lady found, wields the Mountain-Collapsing Force. His vitality is ferocious and his qi shines silver. He is at least an expert in the Silver Bone realm.”

”As for the swordsman, Zhang Qinglou... he is much stronger. Golden light flashes in his eyes when he looks around. He possesses not only silver bones, but the resilience of a golden bell. As he breathes, the energy he cycles is a golden mist... I suspect he is a legendary figure of the Golden Body realm!”

A light flashed in Lin Suri’s eyes, and he shot Wang Chu an approving look. ”To think you managed to recruit a Golden Body expert. Well done.”

Wang Chu curtsied gracefully, her eyes curving with charm. ”He came for the prestige of the Baosu Marquis Residence, and for your reputation, Young Master. I dare not claim the credit.”

Lin Suri nodded and waved his hand. ”And Wang Kong—since his talent is extraordinary, do your best to cultivate him. With the Ancestral Mountain manifesting around Yuanjiang Prefecture, the Prefecture Overseer, the Lu Family, Xuanhuo Temple, the Credit Peddler... even my own sister are all eyeing it like hungry tigers. This is exactly when we need capable people.”Wang Chu acknowledged the order and withdrew.

A faint smile finally surfaced on the eldest young master’s face, and he sat cross-legged to meditate.

Watching all this, Chen Lingxi seemed to see golden light flowing over Lin Suri’s body, his aura radiating scorching heat.

—He looked exactly like a divine idol cast from pure gold.

Chen Lingxi wanted to keep watching, but he realized the scene in his vision was beginning to warp before shattering entirely.

His consciousness returned to his own body.

As his mind settled back, a splitting headache assaulted him, leaving him mentally drained.

’It seems this divine ability, Vision Wander, is tied to my mental strength. I’m still severely injured and physically weak. I can’t maintain the state for very long.’

He narrowed his eyes, deep in thought.

Liu Changle was snoring like thunder, already fast asleep.

Chen Lingxi set down the Incense Burner in his hands, sorting through what he had gained from this session of Vision Wander.

’That strange posture Lin Suri used, and the rhythm of his breathing...’

He closed his eyes to recall it, his astonishment growing.

’I remember Lin Suri’s posture and breathing rhythm perfectly, down to the slightest detail.’

’It seems my memory is heightened while in the Vision Wander state—I almost have photographic recall!’

Outside the window, it was pitch black, though a fine, fragmented snow drifted from the sky.

The leaden clouds had not parted in the slightest; in fact, they hung even lower!

There would certainly be heavy snow tomorrow, though whether it would be auspicious remained to be seen.

But to Chen Lingxi, even as the bone-chilling cold bit at him and the wind swept snowflakes into the room to land on his face... he felt exceptionally good!

’Let’s try that strange posture.’

Taking a deep breath, Chen Lingxi endured the agonizing pain flaring from his internal organs. He arched his back like a drawn bow, suspending his waist and abdomen. He coiled his legs into an arc, pressing his left heel against his perineum and locking his right ankle behind his left knee...

The posture was incredibly difficult.

Fighting through the pain, he practiced for a long time. It was not until half a shichen later that he finally grasped a fraction of the technique.

With his body arched like a bow, he tried to breathe in the rhythm from his memory...

He took his first breath in...

The air entered his nasal cavity first, pausing at his throat...

In that fleeting instant, Chen Lingxi keenly sensed a mysterious, thin wisp of energy fly out from the Incense Burner beside him. Following his inhalation, it plunged straight into his body!

’It worked!’

The moment that wisp of energy entered his body, his chest felt as if it had blown wide open. The suffocating tightness instantly cleared into a profound smoothness.

Even the severe pain in his internal organs eased significantly.

He tried to sink that wisp of energy down into his diaphragm... but the strange posture was simply too exhausting. After only a few breaths of time, his strength gave out. His posture warped, and he could no longer maintain the breathing rhythm.

The wisp of energy in his body instantly dissipated, vanishing without a trace.

’It really is difficult.’

Chen Lingxi lay flat on the bed, but an uncontrollable smile crept onto the corners of his mouth.

’This is definitely a breathing cultivation method! And... that wisp of energy felt far too comfortable.’

’It even dulled a lot of the pain in my internal organs.’

Again!

Working tirelessly, he spent the entire night practicing the breathing technique.

At first, he could only endure for two or three breaths of time. He would swallow a wisp of energy, only for his body to give out before it even reached his diaphragm.

Four shichen later, he was able to hold on for six or seven breaths. The energy entered his nasal cavity, passed his throat and diaphragm, before pausing in his stomach!

By the time the night passed, Chen Lingxi felt completely refreshed, his physical suffering vastly reduced.

’Moreover...’

’When I breathe, my skin seems to emit a faint cyan glow. It burns intensely, as if my body has become refined iron thrust into a forge, being tempered by the flames...’

The Chen family was a scholarly household. Chen Lingxi knew very little about the so-called Martial Dao, only that there were indeed people in this world who could effortlessly fight a hundred men at once... or even a thousand!

’I have heard of experts in the martial world whose mortal flesh is tempered a hundred times until it turns to iron! This is the Iron Body realm! With a single punch, they can kill an ox or a horse...’

He could not hide the excitement in his heart.

’Now that I have this wondrous method, as long as I diligently cultivate every day, breaking out of this cage might not be impossible!’

But a moment later, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted the several packets of herbal medicine sitting on the table.

His heart instantly turned cold.

’That Chief Steward Zhao has been using us official bondservants to test his medicine. Right now, Liu Changle and I are the only ones who haven’t died yet!’

Worry gnawed at him. ’Given my previous condition, if I take another dose of that medicine, I will definitely die.

’If I don’t die, it will inevitably draw Chief Steward Zhao’s attention.’

He recalled Chief Steward Zhao’s sinister, hawk-like gaze.

’That old fox is paranoid. When he comes back and finds I’ve suddenly recovered, he might just torture me for answers.’

’I need... to break out of this situation. At the very least, I can’t be a test subject anymore.’

Chen Lingxi took a deep breath. In his mind, the words spoken yesterday by the southern courtyard’s steward, Wang Chu, during his Vision Wander echoed once more.

”County Princess Yunhe frequently visits the Baosu Marquis Residence to practice flower arrangement with the young lady...”

’Flower arrangement...’

A sharp light flashed in his eyes. ’It seems I am not fated to die yet!’

Flower arrangement!

In Chen Lingxi’s awakened memories of his past life, he had spent six years diligently studying this exact art. He had visited countless famous masters for guidance, and ultimately used this very skill to win over a noble who dictated the accomplishments of his entire life!

’The two worlds are different, but they share similarities.’

His gaze turned out the window.

The snow and wind were steadily blowing in, but the old locust tree stood utterly still amid the storm. Not even its finest, outermost branches twitched.

A short distance away in the corner of the wall, several sprigs of wintersweet bloomed, their branches buried under a blanket of snow.

’The old locust tree, the wintersweet... it is not enough...’

Chen Lingxi got out of bed, pushed the door open, and walked out into the snow in front of the reverse-facing courtyard rooms.

About a dozen breaths later, Chen Lingxi suddenly crouched down.

Reaching out with his head bowed, he brushed away a layer of fallen snow, only to uncover a single white calyx.

It had been completely buried, save for the very tip of its final bud, which still poked a pale cyan-white point above the snow’s surface.

When the snowy winds swept over it, it swayed and trembled—yet it still bloomed with sheer stubbornness. Stubbornly... refusing to die!

”The snowy wind is fierce, but the white calyx does not die, and the wintersweet does not die. I, too... will not die!”

Chen Lingxi muttered to himself.

—

The snow fell for two nights.

The marquis estate’s garden looked like a wet ink wash painting.

The residence’s ponds had frozen over, and the snow had layered over the ice, creating a vast, flat expanse of blinding white where the paths could no longer be distinguished from the water.

Yet even in winter, the residence’s garden was far from monotonous or desolate.

The old plum trees by the lake, the wintersweet in the shadows of the rockery, the sacred bamboo beside the stone scriptures and by the pavilion, the Chinese holly at the base of the walls, and the winter holly hedges throughout the garden... dozens of winter plants bloomed in competition, creating a breathtaking display.

Inside the garden’s hexagonal pavilion, with its swept-up eaves, the residence’s young lady Lin Longyue wore a bright red felt cloak. Snow heavily coated her hood, making her face appear all the more pale and flawless.

County Princess Yunhe sat directly across from her, wearing a silver marten-fur jacket and clutching a hand warmer.

Instead of looking at the snow, she gazed at the sprigs of plum blossoms a short distance away. ”These plums bloom beautifully. They have much more spirit than the potted ones in my heated pavilion.”

Lin Longyue chuckled softly. ”How could plums from a heated pavilion ever withstand the wind and snow? The ones in this courtyard are different. The colder it is, the harder they bloom.”

As she spoke, she stood and walked to the edge of the patch, snapping off a branch of the most vibrantly blooming wintersweet. Plucking a few red berries from the sacred bamboo, she used a fine silk thread to tie them onto the plum branch, then turned and handed it to the county princess.

”If you want to arrange flowers in a vase, this wintersweet and these red berries are excellent choices.”

County Princess Yunhe accepted the plum branch and lowered her head to sniff it. A faint, cold fragrance sank deep into her chest, refreshing her spirit.

She stared calmly at the blossoms. ”The most favored nobles in the palace adore flower arrangement, yet the two of us cannot seem to learn anything noteworthy.

”Word has it that the young general from General Chiri’s estate does not just shoot a masterful trick arrow; his vase-arranging skills are also superb. The flowers he arranges are simply a feast for the eyes... Tell me, is it not strange that someone bred for war is so skilled at such an elegant art?”

Lin Longyue shook her head.

”Imperial Consort Chun loves flower arrangement, and so the entire Great Li empire has taken it up. Even the old pedants in the imperial court have to memorize a few lines of poetry to critique arrangements... What is so strange about that?”

”After all, there is no one in the court who does not... admire Imperial Consort Chun’s Mirror-Listening Technique.”

Admire?

’It should be fear,’ County Princess Yunhe thought.