After the Great Dao Died

Another dozen days passed, bringing it to late March.

Spring deepened. The peonies in the courtyard had shed all their petals, and the new bamboo in the corner had sprouted its joints. Overnight, it had shot up taller than a man. Tender green husks still clung to the tips, rustling whenever the wind blew.

Chen Lingxi sat cross-legged in his room, his eyes tightly closed.

Over the past dozen days, he had taken Dragon-Drawing Powder twice more. Each time, he used the Concealed Edge Method to protect his blood and qi, refining the violent spiritual energy thread by thread and drawing it into his dantian.

When the medicinal power hit his stomach, the torrent of spiritual energy was just as turbulent as before. However, after being scoured twice already, his meridians were much broader and tougher than when he had first started. He could endure it now without the sheer strain of that first attempt.

The streak of green qi in his dantian was now three fingers thick.

It circulated slowly. Its hazy green color had deepened, faintly giving off the warm, smooth luster of jade. It was like a deep pool of water—calm on the surface, but surging with undercurrents below.

The spiritual qi flowed through his meridians, growing stronger and stronger.

Today, he opened his eyes, walked out into the courtyard, and swallowed another pill.

He had gotten this pill from Wang Kong.Over the last dozen days, he had taken two of them. This was the third and final one.

The unnamed pill was quite extraordinary. As soon as Chen Lingxi swallowed it, his blood and qi blazed with heat.

He assumed the starting posture for the second of the Seven Forms of Halting War—the River Entering Form.

Blood and qi surged from his dantian like a bursting dam, instantly flooding his limbs and bones.

This time, the feeling was completely different from a dozen days ago.

His blood and qi were no longer a warm stream. Instead, they roared through his meridians like molten copper and iron.

As he swung his arms, crimson light erupted from his fists. It condensed instead of scattering, weaving a thin, glowing barrier around his body.

[Bronze Fire Qi Armor].

The hallmark of Bronze-Red Great Completion.

The armor was not just a thin, illusory layer. It was woven from countless fiery red specks of light, as fine as scales, overlapping and flowing endlessly across his skin.

Chen Lingxi ended his stance and stood straight, looking down at the crimson barrier enveloping him.

”I’ve reached the Bronze-Red Realm Great Completion.”

”So this is the Bronze Fire Qi Armor.”

He muttered to himself, a trace of joy in his eyes.

Over the past dozen days, two doses of Dragon-Drawing Powder and three pills had drastically increased his Qi Circulation cultivation. Consequently, his martial arts realm followed suit, naturally crossing the threshold into Bronze-Red Great Completion.

With a single thought, the Bronze Fire Qi Armor flared brilliantly. The crimson flames flickered and surged, scorching the surrounding air until it visibly distorted.

He activated the Concealed Edge Method, and the blazing armor receded like a fading tide. In the blink of an eye, it was completely concealed. Not a single trace of its aura leaked out.

To an outsider, he still looked like a fledgling who had just barely crossed the Bronze-Red threshold, his blood and qi thin and his aura far from profound.

Chen Lingxi nodded in satisfaction.

He returned to his room, sat cross-legged, and closed his eyes to look inward.

The streak of green qi slowly circulated within his dantian, visibly thicker than it had been ten days ago, its color much deeper.

The effects of Qi Circulation 2nd Floor in expanding the meridians and tempering the bone marrow had become increasingly obvious over the past ten days.

He guided his spiritual qi upward along his Governor Vessel, passing through the three gates and entering the Niwan Palace.

The process was much smoother this time. Wherever his spiritual qi passed, his meridians felt as wide as a river channel, utterly free of any blockage.

That tingling numbness returned deep within his bone marrow, feeling like thousands of ants gently gnawing at the inside of his bones, slowly picking away the old impurities and blockages.

He let out a long breath of stale air.

The breath condensed into a white arrow in the air, shooting straight out for over three chi before slowly dissipating.

”My spiritual qi has grown, and my meridians have expanded. With my bone marrow nourished by the qi, my aptitude is only getting better.”

Chen Lingxi settled into his cross-legged seated posture.

His consciousness reached out to the Divine Chamber.

—The Vision Wander Divine Ability activated.

His consciousness descended into the Divine Chamber and followed the wisp of smoke, flying straight toward the East Hall of the South Courtyard!

His perspective shifted abruptly.

Chen Lingxi’s heart lurched!

In the East Hall of the South Courtyard, Lin Suri was suspended in midair, hovering over three zhang above the ground!

Lin Suri stood with his hands behind his back, his robes flapping in the wind. There was nothing around him to support his weight. He rested completely steady in the air, like a leaf held aloft by the breeze.

There were no clouds beneath his feet, nor any glowing light. He simply floated there, as if the pull of the earth had lost all effect on him.

Chen Lingxi’s consciousness tensed. He found it completely inconceivable.

”According to the rumors, once a martial artist reaches the Jade Qi Realm, they can use their jade blood and qi to reduce their body weight enough to stand atop a flying goose or crane!

”But to hover in midair like this...”

”Isn’t this an immortal’s method?”

He had seen Lin Suri cultivating. He had seen the man condense golden blood and qi into an arrow and fire it into the clouds. He had seen him discuss the Ancestral Mountain Maternal Qi with the black-robed man, and use spiritual qi to activate the Time Candle in exchange for Spiritual Amber.

But none of that was as shocking as the sight before him now.

Floating in midair.

Relying on neither external tools nor blood and qi. Just quietly and steadily standing in the empty air, three zhang above the ground.

Like a living immortal.

In that moment, what swelled in Chen Lingxi’s chest was neither fear nor envy, but a feeling of absolute, instinctive yearning.

”When will I be able to do that?”

He let the thought linger, watching in a daze until his consciousness finally withdrew from the Divine Chamber.

”Seeking immortals! Seeking immortals! Aside from people like Lin Suri and Lu Baizhong, are there really no other clues?”

Chen Lingxi opened his eyes, his gaze burning bright, and brought out a Library Pavilion Token.

With this token, he could enter and leave the estate’s Library Pavilion as he pleased.

Over the next few days, he read through every tome he could find in the pavilion, hoping to find even the slightest scrap of information about ”immortals.”

Even a single sentence would be enough.

But there was nothing.

The books contained Confucian scriptures, historical records, military strategies, and medical prescriptions. There were even manuals on agricultural planting and artisan construction.

The only thing missing was any mention of immortals.

To be precise, it wasn’t entirely absent.

One text, the Records of the Forgotten Past, documented how the last emperor of the previous dynasty had sent alchemists out to sea in search of immortals.

The alchemists had demanded five hundred virgin boys and girls, claiming they were to be offered to the immortals in the sea. In the end, the immortals never appeared, and the emperor was mocked by his subjects for centuries.

Then there was the Yuanjiang Prefecture Gazetteer. In its chapter on mountains and rivers, it mentioned the Ancestral Mountain west of the city, noting that ”the mountain is shrouded in mist all year round, and it is rumored that immortals reside there.”

But that was ultimately just a rumor. The very next sentence read, ”However, in recent times, no one has laid eyes upon them,” firmly snuffing out that fleeting thread of hope.

Chen Lingxi closed the book and shut his eyes in thought.

No.

He had seen Lin Suri floating in the air with his own two eyes.

He had also seen Lu Baizhong casually flick a bolt of pale golden lightning to instantly kill him inside the Divine Chamber.

And he had witnessed the black-robed man’s bizarre ability to dissolve into mist and vanish.

None of that was a hallucination, nor was it some fabricated fairy tale.

These were real, living methods of the immortals.

So why was there not a single word about them in all these books?

”I suppose someone doesn’t want ordinary people to know.”

”Or perhaps the estate’s Library Pavilion simply doesn’t hold texts of that caliber.”

Chen Lingxi shook his head.

Outside, the sun was already dipping toward the west. Golden sunlight spilled through the window lattice, casting checkered shadows across the floor tiles.

He stood up, returned the book to its proper place, and walked out of the Library Pavilion.

He pushed those thoughts aside for now.

”I have my Vision Wander Divine Ability. If I watch Lin Suri every day, I’m bound to uncover his secrets!”

—

A few days passed. Every day, Chen Lingxi sank his consciousness into the Divine Chamber and activated his Vision Wander Divine Ability.

Lin Suri, too, cultivated every single day.

On the sixth day, Chen Lingxi cast his Vision Wander over again!

This time, Lin Suri wasn’t sitting in meditation. Instead, he was standing in the open space outside the East Hall.

It was dusk. The clouds on the horizon burned like fire, bathing the entire Marquis Estate in dark gold.

Lin Suri stood with his hands behind his back, staring up at the horizon.

Chen Lingxi followed his gaze. At the very edge of the sky, a faint speck of golden light flickered amid the clouds. It pulsed in and out of sight, like a dying star fighting to stay alight.

”What is this Lin Suri looking at?”

Chen Lingxi wondered.

Just then, Lin Suri’s expression shifted. He raised his right hand, formed his fingers into a sword shape, and slowly swiped them across his own eyes.

His fingers didn’t touch his eyes. They merely traced an arc through the empty air.

Chen Lingxi saw it clearly—a faint speck of golden light was glowing on Lin Suri’s fingertips.

The golden light spilled from his fingers, condensing into a thread as fine as a strand of hair, and pierced straight into his left eye.

Then, something inconceivable happened.

A wooden eyeball slowly surfaced from within Lin Suri’s left pupil.

The wooden eye was tiny, no larger than a grain of rice. It was entirely dark brown, its wood grain clearly visible, resting right in the center of his pupil like a meticulously carved bead.

Chen Lingxi held his breath.

Forming his left hand into a sword gesture, Lin Suri lightly swiped it across the wooden eye.

The wooden eye suddenly burst into flames.

There were no flames and no smoke. The dark brown eyeball was ignited by an invisible hand, slowly turning to ash from the center out.

The ash didn’t scatter. Instead, it turned into an incredibly thin wisp of green smoke that curled straight into the depths of Lin Suri’s eye.

Lin Suri’s entire body trembled.

Chen Lingxi saw everything with perfect clarity.

Lin Suri’s gaze changed completely.

His vision pierced through the courtyard walls of the East Hall, pierced through the rooftops of the Marquis Estate, and pierced through the city walls of Yuanjiang Prefecture, falling directly upon the distant mountain range.

And what Chen Lingxi saw was what Lin Suri saw!

The perspective zoomed and elevated, sweeping past the city, across the fields, and over the rolling peaks before finally locking onto a single mountain.

Chen Lingxi recognized it.

[Cuojin Mountain].

It sat about thirty li west of Yuanjiang Prefecture. The mountain was dangerously steep, its main peak jutting into the clouds like an upside-down sword.

Everything above its midpoint was covered in snow year-round, but the foot of the mountain was wrapped in a dense jungle where tigers and leopards roamed.

He recognized it because he had just seen an illustration of it in the Yuanjiang Prefecture Gazetteer!

”What is hidden in that mountain?” Chen Lingxi asked himself, astounded by Lin Suri’s treasures and mystical arts.