After the Great Dao Died

Before the Venerable Cauldron’s voice faded, the phantom of the spirit tree suddenly shrank. Like time flowing backward, the towering giant tree rolled up its branches and leaves, retracting its roots. That mass of azure spiritual energy was wrapped, entangled, and squeezed by countless branches, finally condensing into a crystal the size of a dove’s egg.

The crystal was amber, sealing a flowing azure halo within. Its surface was as smooth as a mirror, reflecting the red light of the Time Candle.

The Spiritual Amber dropped, falling into Lin Suri’s open palm.

The moment it touched his skin, a sudden anomaly occurred.

Lin Suri’s body shuddered violently.

Chen Lingxi clearly saw an invisible ripple spread from where the Spiritual Amber landed, instantly sweeping across Lin Suri’s entire body.

Beneath his brocade robe, his flesh undulated like wind-blown wheat. Dense golden patterns surfaced on his skin, violently assailed by some surging force.

The patterns flickered erratically—sometimes brilliant as melting gold beneath a blazing sun, sometimes dim as a guttering candle in the wind.

Even more terrifying was Lin Suri’s face.

Bathed in the red light, his jade-white complexion lost its luster at a visible rate.Fine lines at the corners of his eyes deepened as though carved by a knife, strands of silver sprouted at his temples, and even his straight back hunched slightly for a moment.

In just a few breaths, he seemed to have weathered ten years, aging from a high-spirited young man into someone noticeably older.

But Lin Suri’s eyes were astonishingly bright.

”Spiritual Amber!” Lin Suri lowered his head, staring fixedly at the treasure he had traded his lifespan to obtain.

”The transaction is complete.” The Venerable Cauldron’s voice gradually grew ethereal, and its vertical pupils began to contract as the red light receded like a tide. ”The Spiritual Amber has been granted to you, and twenty years of time... I have collected.”

The last speck of light vanished into the depths of the candle.

The Time Candle fragment reverted to its pitch-black, deathly still appearance. It fell to the ground with a thud, looking like nothing more than a piece of ordinary rotting wood.

Chen Lingxi was somewhat at a loss, unable to comprehend what had just unfolded.

Meanwhile, Lin Suri’s heavy breathing echoed in the secret chamber.

He lowered his head and gazed at the amber crystal in his palm for a long time before tucking it away close to his body.

He then picked up the Time Candle, turned around, and left the secret chamber—even leaving the East Hall of the Southern Courtyard.

Where is Lin Suri going?

At some point, it had started snowing outside again.

The northern wind, carrying a spray of snow, howled as it swept in.

His brocade robe fluttered wildly in the wind. Snow fell upon his shoulders, but he remained entirely oblivious, walking straight through the covered corridor, treading across the snow-covered garden, and making his way to the side gate of the Marquis estate’s northern courtyard.

When the guards at the gate saw him approaching, they hurriedly bowed in greeting. Without so much as a glance at them, he pushed open the side gate and stepped out onto the long street outside the estate.

It was approaching midnight. The long streets of Yuanjiang Prefecture were empty and desolate, the bluestone-paved roads blanketed in snow. The shops on both sides had long since closed their doors, leaving only a few storm lanterns swaying beneath the eaves.

Where is Lin Suri going? If he goes any further, I won’t be able to see him anymore.

Just as Chen Lingxi was feeling bewildered, Lin Suri arrived at the banks of Yuanjiang and came to a halt.

In winter, Yuanjiang’s waters ran low and the riverbed narrowed, exposing a large stretch of pale-gray riverbank.

The water flowed sluggishly beneath the leftover ice, its color a murky, heavy hue. The distant mountains on the opposite bank looked like dark strokes of ink, their snow-capped peaks meeting the evening clouds beneath a vast, boundless sky.

Lin Suri stood at the edge of the riverbank, looking down at the Time Candle in his palm. The Time Candle was silent and pitch-black, appearing devoid of any divine mystery.

He stared at it for a long while before suddenly raising his hand and lightly tossing it.

Tracing an arc through the air, the Time Candle fell into the freezing water with a soft splash, sinking deep into the river sand.

Chen Lingxi almost cried out in shock.

But Lin Suri’s movements didn’t stop.

”Let the Cauldron Calamity sink; after two months of time, come seek me again!”

He seemed to be chanting an incantation. Pressing his fingers together like a sword, he rapidly drew three Talismanic Seals in the air above where the Time Candle had sunk—one gold, one silver, and one black.

The three Talismanic Seals connected end to end, forming a miniature triangular array that quietly plunged into the river sand and vanished from sight.

The river water murmured, as if nothing had ever happened.

After doing all this, Lin Suri stood quietly for a moment.

Then, he turned and headed back the way he had come.

His pace was neither fast nor slow, his footsteps crunching in the snow as he vanished step by step into the deepening night of the long street.

The scenery of the Divine Chamber shattered with a crash, like a broken pane of colored glass.

”Ugh!”

Inside the West Courtyard Servant Quarters, Chen Lingxi suddenly snapped his eyes open.

A violent headache, like an iron spike gouging into his skull, made him curl up involuntarily as he pressed his hands desperately against his temples.

Golden stars danced wildly before his eyes, his ears rang like thunder, and his internal organs churned like an overturning sea.

This hurts far more than my previous Vision Wanders.

It must be because of the sheer pressure emitted by the Time Candle’s Venerable Cauldron.

He lay prone on the hard wooden bed, gasping heavily for air. Cold sweat soaked his clothes as that wisp of qi within his body quietly rose, flowing up into his head.

A moment later.

Chen Lingxi’s headache finally eased slightly, and he propped himself up with great difficulty.

He didn’t light a lamp, simply panting heavily just as Lin Suri had done.

Ancestral Mountain Maternal Qi, the aptitude of a spiritual aperture!

A cauldron vessel!

Qi Circulation 5th Floor!

What exactly are these things?

And what was the identity of that man in black?

A myriad of mysteries left Chen Lingxi feeling somewhat lost.

But immediately after, he suddenly remembered that breathing method.

Qi Circulation... This seems distinctly different from the seven tiers of martial arts.

Whether it was that man in black dissipating into mist, or Lin Suri standing by Yuanjiang and forming strange Talismanic Seals with his sword fingers... This is completely unlike martial arts. It’s an entirely different system.

A unique radiance burst forth in Chen Lingxi’s eyes.

The breathing method, qi!

The Venerable Cauldron just said that the Qi Circulation 5th Floor requires cultivating the qi sea, closing the pores, and remaining untainted by worldly dust.

And the Qi Circulation 6th Floor involves Nine Revolutions of the spiritual liquid, expelling impurities, and reforging the foundation!

Could this system be... cultivating immortality?

Chen Lingxi was so agitated that his body even trembled slightly.

Cultivating immortality! Eternal life!

Sensing that faint, elusive wisp of qi in his dantian, the excitement in Chen Lingxi’s heart was almost overwhelming.

In his previous life, while he couldn’t be called wildly successful, he had still made some achievements in his field and could be considered a rising young star.

It was just a pity that his life had been short, ending at only twenty-nine years of age.

In this life, he had spent his first seventeen years living in a muddied daze. It had been two years since his memories awakened, and even trapped within a cage of shackles, he had finally found a path to survival.

Originally, he had only wanted to survive, to escape his status as an official bondservant, and at best, to avenge his parents of this lifetime.

But now, he was suddenly enormously emboldened, all because of those two simple words—eternal life!

Eternal life!

To break through his own shackles, participate in the transformation and nurturing of heaven and earth, and praise the profound unity of the universe!

How could this not thrill Chen Lingxi, who had suffered a short life in his previous incarnation?

The breathing method!

Chen Lingxi suppressed his palpitations and immediately began to practice the breathing method.

With each breath, several streams of clear qi were inhaled into his body, sinking down into his dantian.

A very faint azure glow surfaced on his skin, and as his pores opened and closed, an imperceptible spiritual mist was drawn in and exhaled.

Swallowing spiritual qi to reconstruct the physical body... perhaps this is the Qi Circulation 1st Floor.

And there’s that cauldron vessel fragment, the Time Candle! It’s an incredible treasure too, and it’s right there in Yuanjiang...

I just don’t know why Lin Suri would sink the Time Candle fragment into Yuanjiang.