After the Great Dao Died

Shi Hong stomped heavily against the cliff!

Unable to withstand the immense force, the cliff beneath his feet split straight down the middle, opening a bottomless fissure as crushed stone tumbled into the river!

Using the momentum of that stomp, he launched himself into the air. Like a rising comet, he chased in the direction of Chen Lingxi’s escape, his speed actually a notch faster than Chen Lingxi’s!

Count Digong frowned slightly. She glanced toward where Chen Lingxi and Shi Hong had vanished but did not give chase, looking instead toward the Killing Power Cauldron Vessel in the far distance.

For the moment, within a radius of twenty li around the Killing Power Cauldron Vessel, she was the only expert remaining.

Most likely wary of Shi Hong’s murderous disposition, she had chosen not to join him in hunting down Chen Lingxi!

Far off toward the horizon, Chen Lingxi had already flown twenty or thirty li!

He pushed the Cloud-Soaring Technique under his feet to its absolute limit. Pale-cyan cloud qi churned wildly beneath his soles, bearing his body as he pierced through layers of fog at breakneck speed.

It was even faster than when he piloted the Heavenly Boat.

But the scorching aura behind him was drawing closer and closer.”This Shi Hong is remarkably fast.”

Chen Lingxi’s eyes flickered. After a Tenth Floor body cultivator refined all their spiritual qi into their flesh, their physical toughness reached an unfathomable level.

Yet Tenth Floor spiritual qi still circulated constantly around his body.

Even after flying for a stretch, he would drop his feet back to the earth, crush the mountain rocks beneath him, and leap forward again, achieving a terrifying speed.

At times, he simply plowed straight through the mountains and forests, shattering rocks and snapping trees in his wake!

At this moment, Shi Hong’s brows were tightly knit, his fury clearly reaching its peak.

As a majestic Tenth Floor body cultivator, he had actually been bluffed in public by a Ninth Floor junior, and had even suffered injuries to his arms from that eerie purple qi.

”It makes sense. If you weren’t this troublesome, how could the Credit Peddler’s divination show that the Killing Power Cauldron Vessel would fall to either Xi Yu or this man?”

Murderous intent swirled in Shi Hong’s eyes.

”I’ll just hammer you to death first and sever half the possibilities of that divination.”

Killing intent erupted in his gaze. That terrifying aura of having forged all his spiritual qi into his flesh burned ever hotter. Like a dark-gold sun, he scorched the rocks and vegetation into charcoal wherever he passed!

Chen Lingxi flew rapidly ahead.

His face was calm, his eyes entirely devoid of fear. Instead, they held a sense of... eagerness to fight!

He flew onward for another several dozen li.

They had now completely left the vicinity of the Zhuzhao River. Rolling, barren mountains and wild ridges surrounded them—steep peaks covered in deep forests and dense grass, entirely devoid of human presence.

Chen Lingxi could sense that the auras of the other Cauldron Vessel snatchers who had been prowling nearby were now gone, left far behind in the extreme distance.

Shi Hong was ruthless, and his cultivation was tyrannical.

Seeing the two of them locked in this pursuit, how could the crowd of opportunists dare to follow? They had all stayed far away.

Because of this...

He and Shi Hong were the only ones here.

Still hunting Chen Lingxi down, the murderous intent in Shi Hong’s eyes grew even thicker.

He thought to himself, ’This brat has been fleeing for the better part of an hour, so his spiritual qi must be mostly depleted, while my spiritual qi is robust. By relying on my physical body to run from time to time, my consumption has been negligible...’

’Under these shifting tides, catching up and slaying him will be as easy as reaching into a bag!’

Harboring a determination to kill, he shattered another small hill beneath his feet and leaped high into the air! His right fist was already raised, spiritual qi gleaming over his knuckles as he prepared to end this chase with a single punch!

Right at that moment, he suddenly saw the streak of lightning that had been fleeing ahead come to a halt.

Chen Lingxi seemed to have stopped fleeing.

He brought his cloud to a rest atop a mountain peak.

At this moment, he simply stood there on the summit, turning around as his robes fluttered in the mountain wind.

The Thunder Radiance Longsword he had sheathed had not been drawn again, yet the pale-gold lightning patterns across its scabbard were already glowing brilliantly!

Stepping on the clouds, Shi Hong rapidly closed the distance, his gaze looking Chen Lingxi up and down.

Chen Lingxi stood there with a heavy, steady aura. His composure made him seem as if two different people compared to his ragged state while fleeing.

There was not a shred of fear or retreat in his eyes; instead, they burned with a blinding, almost fanatical battle intent!

The corners of Shi Hong’s mouth slowly curled up, revealing a deeply amused smile. ”You want to face the Tenth Floor as a Ninth Floor?”

His voice boomed like thunder, echoing endlessly through the silent mountain forest: ”Where do you get the nerve?”

While Shi Hong seemed to be taking Chen Lingxi lightly with his words, he had already pushed his terrifying physical strength to its absolute limit without the slightest reservation! He had trained this body to the pinnacle!

His muscles, fascia, bones, and even his internal organs had been repeatedly tempered by spiritual qi an unknown number of times.

He was no longer an ordinary mortal of flesh and blood, but a humanoid magical treasure forged from spiritual qi!

Shi Hong took a deep breath, his chest swelling high, before slowly exhaling.

That single breath actually scorched away all the air within several zhang of him!

The spiritual qi within his body surged frantically through his meridians like a scorching torrent.

Wherever that torrent passed, his muscles bulged and his veins knotted like dragons. In just a few breaths, his entire frame swelled significantly, tearing his luxurious robes to shreds to reveal the knotted, bronze-and-iron-like muscles beneath!

Standing there, he looked like a savage beast walking out of the primordial wilderness, radiating a terrifying, suffocating pressure.

”Die!”

Shi Hong’s killing intent surged to the heavens!

”Let me see what a Qi Circulation Tenth Floor figure is really made of!”

Chen Lingxi didn’t retreat, but advanced! He took a step forward, his entire body radiating sharpness as sword qi pierced the sky!

Rolling spiritual qi flooded out from his sea of qi. Like a breached dam, his peak Ninth Floor spiritual qi poured into the Thunder Radiance Longsword in his hand, and into the Longevity Bridge stretching across the sky beneath his feet!

The moment Chen Lingxi struck, he held nothing back.

A strand of divine sense reached out from his mind!

[Divine Sense Materialization]

Fiercely driven in this instant, that divine sense transformed into an invisible mountain and heavily suppressed Shi Hong!

Divine sense was formless and immaterial, yet it was as heavy as a mountain.

Shi Hong felt a sudden boom in his skull, as if a real mountain had crushed down on his Sea of Consciousness, making his own divine sense stagnate.

Though a Tenth Floor body cultivator had refined all their spiritual qi into their physical body to make it unparalleled in toughness, their divine sense was not entirely without flaws.

Suppressed by the profound mechanics of Chen Lingxi’s Qi Circulation 9th Floor Refined Thought, it could not truly injure Shi Hong’s Sea of Consciousness, but it was enough to make his divine sense slow and sluggish for a short time.

At the same time, the Longevity Bridge beneath Chen Lingxi’s feet crashed forward.

The towering spiritual bridge spanned the sky, carrying world-destroying might as it smashed toward Shi Hong! Every ancient rune along the bridge lit up in that instant, pulsing with deep, heavy spiritual light that bathed the entire mountain peak in brilliant gold.

Simultaneously, the longsword in Chen Lingxi’s hand erupted with radiance.

The Subtle Realm mastery of the Thunder-Concealing Sword Scripture erupted!

[Twelve Chimes of the Heavenly Drum.]

Sword in hand, Chen Lingxi unleashed twelve consecutive slashes. Every strike rang with the crack of thunder, the sonic booms stacking upon his sword momentum, making each strike stronger than the last.

Those twelve arcs of sword light were like twelve waterfalls of lightning plummeting from the highest heavens, cleaving toward Shi Hong one after another.

The shriek of split air mingled with the thunder, sounding like a lightning-wielding immortal beating a heavenly drum, shaking the entire mountain peak until it trembled.

At the same time, the Purple True Treasure Vase hung high in the air once more.

A sky-blotting tide of purple qi spewed out yet again.

The Purple True Precious Qi was peerlessly sharp. Like a purple torrent, it surged toward Shi Hong alongside the twelve lightning sword strikes.

From his very first move, Chen Lingxi laid bare his entire foundation.

But Shi Hong was not the least bit afraid. ’Although this man is only in the Ninth Floor realm, his cultivation foundation is truly astonishing.’

’If I had only just entered the Tenth Floor realm, I’m afraid I wouldn’t be his match.’

A flash of surprise crossed his mind, but his aura abruptly deepened. He pushed both palms forward as if shoving aside a great mountain!

[Star Embracing Fist!]

Rumble!

The terrifying aura blasted out, tearing straight toward Chen Lingxi!

But right at this moment...

A cold light flashed in Chen Lingxi’s eyes!

An amber-colored flying dagger, devoid of any spiritual qi fluctuations, was hurled out by the sheer physical force of his vital blood!

It shot silently toward Shi Hong!

The flying dagger had no edge, nor any sharpness!

Yet it seemed that all of Chen Lingxi’s numerous methods—Divine Sense Materialization, Longevity Bridge, Twelve Chimes of the Heavenly Drum, and the Purple True Treasure Vase—were merely paving the way for this Delayed Light Flying Dagger! Slipping straight through the gaps in Shi Hong’s terrifying spiritual qi, the Delayed Light Flying Dagger glided silently across the void until it arrived right in front of him.

In the instant the hourglass within the dagger accelerated its flow, the beam of light sealed inside the blade abruptly flared, turning into a formless, profound force that silently struck Shi Hong!

The flying dagger fell.

But that Delayed Light profundity landed squarely upon Shi Hong.

Shi Hong’s expression immediately changed!

’What is going on?’

In that split second, Shi Hong felt everything before his eyes slow down.

He could clearly see the twelve sword arcs slashing toward him, breaking right through his Star Embracing Fist aura!

Yet when he tried to throw a punch to counter, he discovered that his own body had become just as sluggish.

The speed of the spiritual qi surging through his meridians had slowed by several times, and the rate at which his fist aura gathered around his knuckles was equally delayed.

’What kind of magical treasure is this?’

Shi Hong paled in horror! Yet all of this had occurred in just a few fleeting moments.

In a clash between experts... a momentary imbalance was the gap between life and death.

In the exact instant Shi Hong’s movements lagged, the majestic purple qi arrived like a flood, drowning him completely in an ocean of violet!

The peerlessly sharp Purple True Precious Qi pierced through the gaps of his protective spiritual aura in a heartbeat, leaving dense, overlapping bloody gashes across his indestructible, spiritual-qi-forged skin.

The Twelve Chimes of the Heavenly Drum followed right on its heels!

The twelve lightning sword arcs were like twelve hammers of the thunder gods descending from the heavens, hacking into Shi Hong’s body one after another.

The luxurious robes covering his body had long been reduced to ash.

Beneath them, he wore a highly extraordinary defensive magical treasure tightly against his skin.

This protective treasure was a set of inner armor that seemed to harbor flames, blocking Chen Lingxi’s astonishing killing blow!

But whether it was the Twelve Chimes of the Heavenly Drum or the Purple True Precious Qi, they were simply far too sharp.

As extraordinary as the inner armor was, it still cracked wide open beneath that terrifying sword momentum and the purple qi!

”Die!” Chen Lingxi had already driven the Longevity Bridge over to crash into him!

The Longevity Bridge smashed right in.

With the force of a thunderbolt, the towering spiritual bridge violently struck Shi Hong’s chest, sending his mountain-like frame flying backward.

With a muffled groan, his limbs and bones shuddered violently as he was knocked a hundred zhang away.

At this very moment, Chen Lingxi closed the distance!

A streak of sword qi flicked out from his Profound-Pointing Sword Furnace.

That sword qi blended lightning precious qi and Sword Edge Qi, while also carrying the peerlessly tyrannical sword intent of the Thunder-Concealing Sword Scripture.

The three fused together, condensing into a nearly transparent tricolor thread of a sword that silently stabbed into the wound on Shi Hong’s chest!

It then pierced right through his indestructible breastbone, went straight through his wildly beating heart, and burst out his back, bringing a mist of scalding blood with it!

”You...”

Shi Hong’s entire body seized in a violent tremor before he plummeted to the ground, smashing countless rocks!

He just lay there on the ground. He looked down at the remarkably inconspicuous, tiny sword mark on his chest, then raised his head to glance at Chen Lingxi... And just like that, the Great Zhou’s King Fuguang, this Tenth Floor body cultivator, this terrifying existence who had refined all his spiritual qi into his flesh, perished!