After the Great Dao Died

Hearing Venerable Cauldron’s thunderous voice, Chen Lingxi looked up at the Purple True Treasure Vase in the sky, and everything suddenly became clear.

The fragmented clues he had just pieced together were now united by a single phrase: ”Sacrifice thirty-five lives to nourish the Purple True Treasure Vase.”

Like an invisible thread, it strung those scattered beads together one by one!

The Crown Prince loves beast battles and often hosts beast-fighting banquets.

Chen Lingxi rapidly calculated in his mind. This banquet is set within the cauldron fragment. The noble scions drink and make merry in the outer hall, while the beast fighters are driven into this cauldron to fight to the death.

It is highly likely they cannot even see the battles happening inside this palace.

The more he pondered, the clearer it became.

In ordinary beast fights in the capital, what the nobles want to see is a life-and-death struggle.

But within this cauldron fragment, separated by the boundary between illusion and reality, they most likely cannot see the scenes inside the palace at all. At most, they only learn the outcome of the matches.

If so, what kind of beast-fighting banquet is this? The Crown Prince... his love for beast battles and hosting these banquets is a sham. Using them as an excuse to lure martial artists here as sacrifices for this Beast-Fighting Palace to nourish the Purple True Treasure Vase—that is his true motive.His gaze grew sharper as he continued his deduction.

As for Qiu Chihu...

Chen Lingxi’s gaze suddenly fell upon that Spiritual Qi Jade Bead.

This treasure bead likely contains the Crown Prince’s spiritual qi. His eyes burned with intensity. When Qiu Chihu won the beast fight, he sacrificed both this spiritual qi and his own blood to Venerable Cauldron in exchange for the cauldron’s opportunity.

This is a deliberate favor from the Crown Prince! County Princess Yunhe, Yang Zhuri, and Chu Linzi have most likely all received this opportunity from him, this grace from Venerable Cauldron!

In just a brief moment, Chen Lingxi felt he had figured out a great deal.

He looked once more toward the heroic human face suspended in midair, his eyes flickering.

Then, can the Crown Prince actually see everything happening inside this cauldron?

Chen Lingxi shook his head slightly, his gaze turning calm.

Since that’s the case, I’ll test it. Let’s see if the Crown Prince has truly taken full control of this cauldron, and whether he has seen all that has transpired here.

He raised his right hand. A wisp of spiritual qi still lingered between his index and middle fingers.

My similarity with the Crown Prince lies precisely in this spiritual qi...

The spiritual qi I cultivate might just be my lifeline.

His thoughts settling there, Chen Lingxi hesitated no longer. His consciousness abruptly connected with his Divine Chamber.

Thorough Awakening!

He silently chanted the phrase in his heart, and the Divine Chamber in his mind abruptly lit up.

Within the void of the Divine Chamber, two bright mirrors suddenly appeared. One was blazing gold like the great sun, while the other was silvery-white like the bright moon. They simultaneously cast down radiant pillars of light, illuminating his consciousness-condensed body and enveloping him in a brilliance of interwoven gold and white.

The void before his eyes seemed to shatter.

Chen Lingxi descended into the Divine Chamber, then slowly opened his eyes.

The world within this Divine Chamber was exactly the same as the Beast-Fighting Palace he was currently in.

The mountains and rivers shared the same shapes, the vegetation shared the same colors, and even the jade vase hung high in the sky, its purple light cascading down like a waterfall.

The only difference was the two bright mirrors suspended in the sky, positioned far higher than the treasure vase.

Chen Lingxi glanced at the two bright mirrors in the sky, then at the human face suspended in midair. Taking a deep breath, he bowed deeply, his posture respectful yet composed.

”Venerable Cauldron on high!”

The face’s gaze finally fell upon him.

The gaze was neither sharp nor piercing. It was merely a plain, indifferent stare, yet it made the spiritual qi in Chen Lingxi’s body stagnate slightly, as if he had been scanned from head to toe.

Under that single glance, absolutely nothing could be hidden—not even the streak of azure qi in his dantian or the silver-marrow vitality surging through his meridians.

”The victor of the beast fight obtains the cauldron’s opportunity! Upon what shall this opportunity fall?” Venerable Cauldron spoke once more.

Chen Lingxi pondered for a moment before ultimately taking out a small deerskin pouch from his belt.

Holding the deerskin pouch in both hands, he raised it above his head and declared loudly, ”Let the cauldron’s opportunity fall upon this.”

As his words fell, the heroic face remained expressionless, but its lips moved slightly, as if silently chanting something.

Immediately after, the ancient aura surging between heaven and earth suddenly intensified. Like floodwaters bursting a dam, it rushed toward Chen Lingxi, engulfing him completely.

The ancient aura poured into the deerskin pouch in his hands.

The pouch had originally been just an ordinary piece of deerskin, softened and sewn together without even a decent decorative pattern.

But now, as it hovered in Chen Lingxi’s palm, it glowed with a faint azure light.

The azure light was incredibly soft and pale, resembling the fuzzy hue on the tenderest willow sprouts in spring, continuously swirling across the surface of the pouch.

Chen Lingxi waited a moment for the azure light to completely sink into the pouch before gripping it in his hand once more.

What changed?

Puzzled, Chen Lingxi channeled his spiritual qi, guiding it through his meridians into his palm and injecting it into the small deerskin pouch.

The moment his spiritual qi entered the pouch, his entire body jolted.

Under the probe of his spiritual qi, he discovered that there was actually a spatial realm inside the pouch.

The space was perfectly square—six chi long, six chi wide, and six chi high. It was large enough to hold who knew how many things!

Chen Lingxi tried to store his few medicinal pills inside it.

His spiritual qi linked with the Silver-White Pills. Three breaths later, the pills were tucked away inside the pouch.

Both shocked and delighted, Chen Lingxi recalled a specific term he had seen in the novels of his past life.

”It actually turned into a Cosmos Bag?”

He muttered under his breath.

Right at that moment.

Before Chen Lingxi could properly examine the wonders of his new Cosmos Bag, another unforeseen event occurred.

The thirty-five streaks of light hovering above his head, which had been lazily swirling in place, suddenly seemed drawn by something. They stopped their rotation and shot straight up, flying toward the lustrous white jade vase high in the sky.

The streaks of light formed a meandering river of radiance, plunging into the purple waterfall cascading from the mouth of the jade vase.

Within the purple waterfall, a few tiny fragments fell down and merged with the river of light. The fragments then transformed into rich purple qi, blending seamlessly with the waterfall.

Seeing those purple fragments, Chen Lingxi immediately recognized that they were exactly the same as the Purple True Precious Qi Fragment he had refined himself.

Realization suddenly dawned on him.

Most of the Purple True Precious Qi Fragments on Cuojin Mountain must have been recalled into this treasure vase by the Crown Prince.

When Lin Suri went to Cuojin Mountain a few days ago, the Crown Prince was probably still unconscious. The amount of residual purple qi left in the mountain was incalculable. What Lin Suri obtained was merely a single segment of it—just enough for him to handle on his own.

And that peanut-sized fragment I found was likely just one that slipped through the cracks. It probably fell into a stone crevice by accident, escaping the Crown Prince’s search.

Thinking of this, a sense of relief and fortune washed over him.

I suppose it counts as my own stroke of luck.

Amidst his swirling thoughts, the thirty-five streaks of light fully merged into the Purple True Precious Qi.

The jade vase in the sky trembled slightly for a moment. The lustrous white sheen on its surface seemed a fraction more vibrant, and the cascading purple waterfall grew noticeably thicker than before.

Right then, the Beast-Fighting Palace underwent a sudden change.

Not far away in the void, a doorway silently materialized.

Chen Lingxi took a deep breath. He glanced up at the two bright mirrors hanging in the sky, then strode toward the doorway.

Arriving before it, he pushed hard. The door swung open without a sound.

Beyond the door lay a deep, dark passageway, identical to the one he had used to enter.

At the end of the passageway was the very first door—the grand vermilion gate.

Taking another deep breath, Chen Lingxi stepped into the corridor.

At the far end of the corridor, the vermilion gate slowly opened wide.

Outside the gate, the towering Main Hall remained as magnificent as ever. The brocade draperies shimmered faintly in the candlelight, and the lapis lazuli floor tiles were polished enough to reflect a person’s image.

The old eunuch walked in from outside the door to receive him.

He was still as silent as a wooden puppet. Not a trace of emotion could be seen on his fifty-something-year-old face. His python robe cast a deep, gloomy luster in the candlelight.

Except... when he saw Chen Lingxi, the old eunuch’s pupils finally shrank a fraction before returning to their usual placidity.

”How bizarre.”

The old eunuch muttered under his breath.