After the Great Dao Died

Chen Lingxi stood high in the void, his robes snapping in the wind.

The aura radiating from him was immeasurably stronger than when he had first departed!

Crisscrossing arcs of lightning wove together behind him, forming a magnificent curtain of light that crackled with leaping electricity.

Its intensity was staggering—even more intimidating than Lin Suri at the height of his empowerment from the Martial Aunt in Red.

Farther away, the Marquis in Purple stood with a slight frown.

”His aura... it is vastly different from before.”

Before he could consider it further, Chen Lingxi moved!

Heavenly King Wielding Thunder Sword.

The instant the Thunder Radiance Longsword cleared its sheath, a blinding light illuminated heaven and earth!

The lightning was incredibly violent, blazing with searing heat!Like an inverted waterfall of thunder, the lightning on the blade crashed down toward the Marquis in Purple.

The Marquis in Purple snorted coldly, advancing instead of retreating! He snapped his two-zhang spear forward, and the dark-gold vitality coating its shaft erupted as if set ablaze.

The spear thrust out with its tip angled slightly upward, as though paying homage to the firmament!

Every ounce of his vitality converged upon that single point.

The resulting glare was overwhelmingly bright!

It blazed like a miniature, dark-gold sun hoisted atop the spear!

Sword light and spear collided in the void.

In an instant, the entire ravine shuddered!

Blinding light detonated where lightning met vitality, surging wildly in all directions. Wherever it swept, boulders shattered and vegetation was reduced to ash!

An earth-shattering boom echoed endlessly through the valley, sounding as if thousands of thunderbolts had struck the exact same spot.

”This man...” The Marquis in Purple’s heart sank slightly.

Meanwhile, Lin Suri finally steadied himself.

He looked up at the void to see Chen Lingxi standing firmly in the air, sword in hand. He had actually returned to protect him.

’Brother Chen...’ Lin Suri thought, a flash of genuine gratitude in his eyes.

He had no idea why Chen Lingxi would return at a life-and-death juncture like this, nor did he know the source of the explosive power suddenly radiating from him...

But Lin Suri would never forget this life-saving grace.

’It seems Brother Chen has his own trump cards,’ he thought.

Just then, a divine sense transmission rang in his ears.

”Brother, please leave.”

It was Chen Lingxi’s voice—calm and unhurried.

Lin Suri blanked for a moment before understanding his intent.

The power the Martial Aunt in Red had bestowed upon him was not endless.

His prolonged struggle against the Marquis in Purple had already drained most of the incarnation’s strength.

Staying here would not help Chen Lingxi. It would only divide his attention, forcing him to protect Lin Suri and binding his hands in the fight. ”Fellow Daoist, I will absolutely repay this great favor.”

He immediately turned around.

Activating his movement technique, a streak of light carried him swiftly into the distance!

He shot straight toward the clouds, hoping to break through the blockade from above and escape the military’s cage.

At that very moment!

A terrifying pressure suddenly descended from the firmament!

Lin Suri looked up to see a hand slamming down from the churning sea of clouds!

It was no spell or divine art.

The hand itself appeared entirely ordinary. Compared to massive divine constructs like the Heaven-Seizing Seal, it was laughably small.

Yet even before this unremarkable human hand could fully descend, its majestic pressure crashed over Lin Suri like an invisible tidal wave!

’What realm of martial cultivation is this?’

Lin Suri’s pupils shrank! With the Martial Aunt in Red’s power nearly depleted, a direct hit from this palm strike would leave him grievously wounded, if not dead!

In this perilous instant!

A blinding cyan edge slashed across the sky from the side!

The edge arrived with blistering speed, striking in the very instant the hand materialized!

Lin Suri blanked before a flash of wild joy filled his eyes.

A sweep of his divine sense confirmed it—Chen Lingxi had somehow shaken off the Marquis in Purple!

At this moment!

The Longevity Bridge stretched across the sky beneath his feet. Every ancient rune etched into its stone blazed to life, pulsating with a deep, heavy spiritual light!

His left hand was held in a sword seal, a brilliant cyan light continuously circling his fingertips.

It was exactly that incredibly ordinary technique!

[Cyan Edge Method!]

The cyan edge surged forward like a roaring dragon, slamming directly into the descending hand. Lin Suri could clearly sense the profound mysteries packed within that strike—an unimaginable aura erupted from the attack.

Wherever the edge passed, all other techniques seemed to be pierced right through.

Chen Lingxi’s technique was simply far too profound.

Marveling inwardly, Lin Suri continued his desperate retreat.

Not far away, Xi Yu—currently locked in a fierce battle with a military battalion—stopped her casting. She looked up at the cyan sword light tearing across the firmament.

Even further away, Wu Mohe turned his head, heedless of the several Silver Bone martial artists besieging him. Beneath his visor, a flash of astonishment sparked in his deep eyes!

All three of their gazes snapped to Chen Lingxi at exactly the same time.

”A technique in the Wondrous State...” Xi Yu whispered.

Her temperament was always cool, her eyes forever as calm as still water.

But at this moment, the genius of the Que Star Xi Family finally showed visible shock in her eyes!

The four realms of divine techniques were separated by gulfs as vast as the heavens, almost impossible to cross.

And the Third Realm was the Wondrous State! A technique reaching the Wondrous State...

How unimaginably rare...

An ordinary cultivator might exhaust their entire lifetime only to stall at the Subtle grade. In fact, merely cultivating a technique to the great completion of Initial Sensation was already considered extraordinarily gifted!

Only true, peerless geniuses—those blessed with immense karma and staggering comprehension—had a chance of pushing a technique into the Sublime grade!

Even the most mundane technique, if cultivated to the Wondrous State, would be transformed from something rotten into something miraculous, from the ordinary into the divine!

Just like this Cyan Edge Method!

When Chen Lingxi had cast it in the past, it had been sharp, but it was nowhere near as condensed and overbearing as it was now.

The cyan edge behaved like a true immortal’s flying sword. It cleaved through the billowing vitality surrounding the giant hand—silently and without a shred of resistance!

The sword light pierced cleanly through the palm of the hand reaching out from the clouds and out through the back, drawing a spray of blood!

Unstoppable, the sword light carried its remaining momentum straight into the depths of the sea of clouds!

Slash!

The terrifyingly sharp energy punctured the cloud layer. Hidden within the mists, the owner of the hand—Yuan Yuan—let out a muffled grunt. His black robes fluttered as he violently retreated.

He had no choice but to temporarily evade the blinding edge of the Wondrous State Cyan Edge Method!

Standing atop the Longevity Bridge, Chen Lingxi clearly felt his own staggering power.

The brilliant cyan light of the Cyan Edge Method continued to dance at his fingertips.

He could sense it—under the empowerment of the mysterious middle-aged man’s spiritual light, his comprehension of techniques had skyrocketed to an unimaginable level.

Even with his spiritual aperture’s aptitude, his understanding of the various techniques and divine arts had never been this crystal clear.

It was just like suddenly opening up to wide light!

’Wondrous State...’ Chen Lingxi thought, rolling the words over in his mind. The lightning in his eyes flared even brighter.

He raised his head, his gaze sweeping across the devastated battlefield as he basked in the overwhelming, almost overflowing power surging through his veins.

’Right now... I likely possess the mighty power of the Heaven-Facing Twelfth Floor,’ he thought. ’Perhaps I still cannot match a Heaven-Facing Great Completion expert who has already cultivated Dao Foundation divine arts—one who only lacks the transformation of mystic roots and the forging of a Dao platform—but...’

His gaze fell on the distant Marquis in Purple, who had just steadied himself. It swept over Yuan Yuan, half-hidden in the void, and then over the military battalions closing in on him from all sides...

’Among the many experts here, the Marquis in Purple and Yuan Yuan belong to the Imperial Court; Emperor Daye seeks to scheme against me! Xi Yu wants to kill me to avenge the two disciples of the Xi Family!’

’Wu Mohe wants to contest me for the Cauldron Vessel...’

Chen Lingxi’s eyes gleamed coldly, his mind utterly clear. ’If that is the case, I might as well use this fleeting, supreme power to kill them all.’