After the Great Dao Died

Chen Lingxi was deeply astonished, his brows knitting tightly.

’Why would an image of Liu Changle appear here, deep within the Ancestral Mountain?’

’And in these two mirrored vortexes, there are two different Liu Changles!’

As Chen Lingxi gazed out at the long river, a flash of insight suddenly crossed his mind.

Long ago, when he and Liu Changle were enslaved in the reverse-facing room of the Baosu Marquis Residence, they had to test medicine every day and endure agonizing pain every night. It was a life worse than death.

Back then, Liu Changle would often say that he dreamed of a long river hanging right above his head!

He described that river as a white rainbow piercing the sun, its mist spanning the heavens. When it flowed, it was like silver mountains crumbling and snowy peaks collapsing.

It was as vast as a million celestial soldiers marching swiftly in silence, and as turbulent as the earth’s axis overturning and the world’s foundations shaking.

Thinking back on it now, Chen Lingxi realized how strikingly similar the long river Liu Changle had described was to the illusory one before his eyes!

’To think my friend harbors such a deep secret,’ Chen Lingxi thought, his eyes gleaming intensely as he took a deep breath.Suppressing the shock in his heart, he turned his gaze back to the two vortexes, his eyes sweeping back and forth between the two images.

’The Liu Changles reflected in these two vortexes seem to be the same person, yet upon closer inspection, they’re slightly different.’ He noticed that while the two shared the exact same face, their clothing, bearing, and expressions differed.

With a single glance, Chen Lingxi recognized the figure in the slightly smaller vortex on the right as the Liu Changle from Yuanjiang Prefecture.

That Liu Changle wore his familiar dusty gray Daoist robe, truly looking the part of a young Daoist.

Right now, he was lying inside a tiny side room of the temple. A thin mattress covered the bed, and a patched cotton quilt was pulled over him.

Moonlight filtered through the paper window onto his sharp, angular features. He was sleeping deeply, his breathing long and steady, with the faint trace of a smile lingering on his lips as though he were having a pleasant dream.

’That should be Xuanhuo Temple, right?’ Chen Lingxi pondered, shifting his gaze to the other vortex.

As Chen Lingxi looked closely, his pupils contracted slightly.

He saw a profoundly mystical immortal paradise!

Within the vision, three great suns hung in the sky—one gold, one silver, and one crimson. Each radiated its own brilliant hue, illuminating that entire world in crystal clarity.

In the distance, towering, precipitous mountain ranges rose tier upon tier, their peaks clustered together. Every single mountain was unimaginably grander than Cuojin Mountain or Mount Qiaoji.

Seas of clouds churned among the peaks, faintly revealing the upturned eaves of resplendent palaces within the mist. Cradled by the clouds, they looked like immortal cities floating across the sky.

The Liu Changle in this scene wore a tall crown and a long white robe. The fabric, woven from some unknown material, shimmered with cascading rays of light under the sun, making him look like a true immortal descending upon the mortal realm. Not far away, immortal cranes called out...

These cranes were pure white with beaks as red as cinnabar. Their wings spanned over a zhang as they glided across the clouds in a line, their clear, melodious cries echoing endlessly through the mountains.

Rosy radiance spilled through the gaps in the sea of clouds, shining upon the mountain streams, the nameless exotic flowers and rare herbs, and the antlers of immortal deer bounding through the woods, steeping the entire realm in the colors of a magnificent painting.

But what shocked Chen Lingxi the most was the sheer density of the spiritual energy!

The spiritual energy drifted continually through the air in billowy clusters like clouds and mist, so rich it nearly condensed into solid form.

It was hundreds of times richer than the spiritual energy in his own cave abode even with the Pure Wondrous Qi Pivot Array in place. Compared to the nearly imperceptible spiritual energy of the Qi-Depleted Grotto-Heaven, the difference was like heaven and earth.

’With spiritual energy this dense, where could this place be?’

Pursing his lips, Chen Lingxi fixed his gaze on the white-robed Liu Changle, a faint guess taking shape in his mind.

’This world is very likely the Great Xuanzhuo Realm.’

The moment the thought surfaced, it felt increasingly plausible.

Such dense spiritual energy, such a mystical immortal landscape, those three hanging suns, the palaces floating in the clouds, the cranes and the deer...

Where else could it be but the Greater World? Yet, in this vision, the white-robed immortal Liu Changle wore a sorrowful expression, looking up at the distant horizon.

His face—identical to that of the Liu Changle in Yuanjiang Prefecture—was clouded with unshakable worry. With his brows tightly furrowed and his eyes dim, he looked just like a banished immortal, full of unwillingness yet utterly helpless.

Just then, in the vision, another immortal descended from the depths of the clouds.

This figure wore robes woven from an unknown material, as black as solidified night and exuding a piercing, bone-chilling aura.

The black-robed immortal was incredibly tall, easily half a head taller than an ordinary man. With shoulders and a back as broad as a wall, he stood there like a demon god walking out of the abyss.

His oppressive might was overwhelming.

He hovered in the void without riding on clouds or flashes of light, simply standing on thin air. The hem of his robes fluttered gently in the wind. He was like a black sun hanging in the clouds, blazing so fiercely one didn’t dare look directly at him!

Arriving before Liu Changle, he lowered his head to stare at him...

His gaze fell calmly upon him, yet it carried an unquestionable pressure, like a true immortal scrutinizing an ant—cold, distant, and utterly condescending.

Liu Changle spoke with the man in black.

The two seemed to be discussing something deeply secretive.

However, the roaring river—its surging waters and thunderous waves shaking the heavens—drowned out their words completely. Chen Lingxi couldn’t make out what they were saying; he could only watch the worry on Liu Changle’s face deepen, while the black-robed man remained utterly expressionless until he finally swept his sleeve to depart.

The man’s sudden sweep of his sleeves whipped up a gale, churning the surrounding mist into a frenzy.

Then he turned and strode into the depths of the cloud sea. Each step covered dozens of zhang. In the blink of an eye, he vanished over the horizon, nowhere to be seen.

Liu Changle stood in place, watching the black figure disappear into the sky, and remained silent for a long time.

The distress on his face only grew, and he gave a slight shake of his head, looking completely helpless.

And so, riding a wisp of cloud, Liu Changle flew into the void.

The pale blue cloud beneath his feet lifted him slowly into the air, reaching a height of a thousand zhang in no time.

He flew toward a distant peak.

The mountain towered into the clouds, its steep slopes giving way to a shrouded summit where a cluster of buildings could faintly be seen.

There were many structures on the peak. None of them could be called lavish, yet the spiritual energy around them was extraordinarily dense.

Built with blue bricks and dark tiles with upturned eaves, they looked as shabby as thatched huts compared to the magnificent palaces floating in the clouds.

Yet the thick spiritual energy swirling around the buildings wrapped them like an invisible veil, making the entire peak look like a blessed grotto-heaven. Flecks of spiritual qi drifted through the air, as though many cultivators were practicing within those halls.

Liu Changle stepped into one of the buildings.

He sat cross-legged inside, closed his eyes, and began to cultivate, settling his mind.

An extremely faint spiritual light circulated around him, ebbing and flowing over his skin.

His breathing gradually grew long and even. With each breath, his chest rose and fell like the tide, and his entire being seemed to sink into a state of deep meditative stillness.

It was as if he had fallen asleep.

His expression was almost identical to that of the Liu Changle back in Yuanjiang Prefecture, who was sleeping soundly in the side room of Xuanhuo Temple.

Right at that moment...

Chen Lingxi’s gaze snapped to the other vortex, the one reflecting the Liu Changle in Yuanjiang Prefecture.

Inside the vortex, the Liu Changle who had been sleeping so soundly in the Xuanhuo Temple side room suddenly woke up.

He slowly opened his eyes and stretched lazily, as though well rested.

Chen Lingxi’s expression shifted slightly. Standing beside the long river, he looked back and forth between the two vortexes.

In the left vortex, the Liu Changle in the Great Xuanzhuo Realm sat cross-legged with his eyes closed, sinking into a meditative trance.

In the right vortex, the Liu Changle in Yuanjiang Prefecture had just opened his eyes, waking from his slumber.

Between the two of them, as one fell asleep, the other woke...

As one fell into a meditative trance, the other roused from his dreams.

’These two Liu Changles... when one is awake, the other is either cultivating or sleeping.’

He rapidly weighed this thought in his mind, his frown deepening.

’Could it be...’ A bold conjecture surfaced from the depths of his mind. ’Could the Liu Changle in the Greater World and the Liu Changle in Yuanjiang Prefecture actually be the same person?’

The more Chen Lingxi considered it, the more plausible it seemed.

’This friend who suffered alongside me in the reverse-facing room is also a reincarnator?’

Thoughts raced through his mind, yet he didn’t feel overly surprised.

Long ago, Liu Changle had already shown himself to be different from him, Zhou Hu, and Zhu Luanwen. Whenever Zhao Yong forced him to test medicine, Liu Changle pretended to be in excruciating pain, yet he never took the restorative tonics Wang Kong delivered.

He always insisted on giving them to Chen Lingxi instead.

Later, he quietly vanished right from under Zhao Yong’s nose and went to Xuanhuo Temple.

Even back then, Chen Lingxi had suspected that Liu Changle was very likely a reincarnator.

’No, he isn’t an ordinary reincarnator.’

As Chen Lingxi gazed intently at the churning waves of the illusory river and the two slowly spinning vortex mirrors reflecting the two Liu Changles, thoughts surged through his mind like the rushing waters.

He had seen many reincarnators.

’Other reincarnators are either reborn or seize a body. Judging from the faint trails of spider silk and horse tracks in the rumors I’ve gathered, once these truth-seekers fall into the Pool of Reincarnation and enter this Qi-Depleted Grotto-Heaven, it is much the same as dying once.’

Passing through the Pool of Reincarnation damaged both their lifeforce and foundation. Unless they found a Cauldron Vessel or some other great fortune, they would never be able to establish a Dao Foundation, losing their freedom forever.

To these cultivators from the Greater World, this was no different from a high-stakes gamble. Winning meant a smooth and unobstructed path of cultivation; losing meant being doomed beyond redemption even after ten thousand kalpas.

’Apart from figures like Lu Baizhong, who seem to possess methods to live again in the Greater World even if they die in this Qi-Depleted Grotto-Heaven...’

’For all other reincarnators, death is final, with no chance of surviving in the Greater World.’ ’That proves that once they reincarnate here, their physical bodies in the Greater World likely no longer exist.’

’But this Liu Changle is just far too strange.’

Chen Lingxi’s gaze shifted back and forth between the two vortexes.

In the left vortex, the white-robed immortal Liu Changle in the Great Xuanzhuo Realm sat cross-legged with his eyes closed, deep in a meditative trance. Spiritual light swirled around him as he drew long, steady breaths.

In the right vortex, the young Daoist Liu Changle inside Yuanjiang Prefecture’s Xuanhuo Temple was currently sneaking bites of a chicken leg.

Between these two, one was in the Greater World where spiritual energy was as abundant as mist, and the other was in the spiritually barren Qi-Depleted Grotto-Heaven.

One wore white robes and a tall crown, possessing the elegant bearing of a banished immortal descending to the mortal realm.

The other wore a dusty gray Daoist robe, looking like an ordinary young Daoist.

Even more bizarre was that the exact moment the Liu Changle in the Greater World slipped into his trance, the Liu Changle in Yuanjiang Prefecture woke up.

It was like day and night, sun and moon—as one waxed, the other waned; as one fell, the other rose.

’Liu Changle... it seems he is simultaneously present in both this Qi-Depleted Grotto-Heaven and the Great Xuanzhuo Realm!’

The thought filled Chen Lingxi with awe. To exist in two worlds at once with a single soul split in two—cultivating separately, living separately, without interfering with each other at all.

Such a feat went far beyond what the word ”mystical” could describe. It was utterly inconceivable, completely unheard of.

’It’s just...’ Chen Lingxi suddenly frowned, a flash of doubt crossing his eyes.

’The Liu Changle here with me in the Qi-Depleted Grotto-Heaven doesn’t seem to know about the existence of the Liu Changle in the Great Xuanzhuo Realm. Do they not share their senses?’