After the Great Dao Died

Under the sword light of the Twelve Chimes of the Heavenly Drum, twelve strikes bloomed into existence—each stronger and faster than the last.

Terrifying sword qi dyed the void crimson-white, while the thunder woven through it shifted to a pale gold.

Wherever the light reached, it illuminated everything with piercing clarity.

Yet even this tyrannical sword light appeared weak before Marquis Fengshan’s Blazing Sun Fist Aura and Qi Lian’s heaven-spanning long saber technique.

Its spiritual qi could not match General Qi Lian’s, and its sheer might fell far short of Marquis Fengshan’s.

Even so, the streaks of sword light pierced heaven and earth, shooting straight toward Xuanji Island.

At that exact moment—

Chen Lingxi keenly sensed the two names engraved on the Enemy-Slaughtering Spirit Wall within his Vast Void Pouch abruptly light up.

A moment later.

An indescribable, ancient aura drifted from the tablet. As if piercing space itself, it quietly settled into the sword light Chen Lingxi had just unleashed.The sword light slammed into the fist aura and the long saber technique.

In an instant!

The heavens and earth changed color!

The twelve streaks of thunderous sword light, originally only a few zhang long, abruptly swelled into massive golden bolts stretching dozens of zhang.

Sweeping across the sky, the twelve golden bolts crashed down like a heavenly tribulation born of the profound Dao, terrifying to the extreme.

The thunderous sword light slammed head-on into Marquis Fengshan’s Blazing Sun Fist Aura.

The sun-like blood energy violently trembled before the fist aura was cleaved clean in two by Chen Lingxi’s strike.

The momentum of the fist collapsed instantly, sending blood energy scattering in all directions!

The first streak of sword light vanished in the impact, but the rest followed right on its heels.

As he charged forward wrapped in blazing blood energy, Marquis Fengshan’s pupils abruptly shrank.

He could clearly sense the terrifying might of Chen Lingxi’s strike, but it was already too late to dodge.

The blood energy around his body violently ignited. He punched out with both fists, manifesting his power as two roaring true dragons that slammed into Chen Lingxi’s sword qi.

At the same time, several streaks of sword light surged up to meet General Qi Lian’s heaven-spanning long saber technique.

Saber and sword clashed, erupting in a deafening explosion.

The once-unstoppable phantom of the long saber ground to a halt against sword light that had been magnified tenfold.

Qi Lian’s expression drastically shifted. Though shock seized his heart, he did not panic.

Spiritual qi surged madly within him as his cultivation method completed a grand circulation cycle. The vast lake of spiritual qi in his sea of qi churned, pouring relentlessly into the long saber technique in a desperate bid to stabilize its momentum.

The Twelve Chimes of the Heavenly Drum contained exactly twelve streaks of sword light. Layer after layer, they flashed ceaselessly like a thunderstorm.

After three flashes of sword light, the saber aura spanning hundreds of zhang shattered. The thirty-zhang phantom of the long saber broke apart into a flurry of luminescent snow, dissolving into the void.

Qi Lian let out a muffled groan. He was thrown back dozens of zhang, and the Three Flowers hovering above his head visibly dimmed.

Marquis Fengshan fared no differently. After his twin blood-energy dragons shattered Chen Lingxi’s Thunder-Concealing Sword light, he turned into a streak of bloody radiance. Kicking off the clouds in the void, he launched himself forward to close the distance.

Yet Chen Lingxi remained unhurried. The Longevity Bridge instantly coalesced in front of him, hurtling forward to smash into Marquis Fengshan.

It was exactly as before.

When the Longevity Bridge technique coalesced, its might was not particularly oppressive.

But the moment the Longevity Bridge crashed into Marquis Fengshan’s explosive blood energy, the Marquis felt as if he had been rammed by a massive mountain. His blood energy violently shattered!

The sheer impact threw Marquis Fengshan’s blood energy into chaos, sending him plummeting from the void.

”What kind of method is this?”

Qi Lian’s eyes flickered with shock and uncertainty as a solemn expression overtook his face.

Chen Lingxi, however, gave them no time to breathe.

Taking a step forward, he instantly triggered his Cloud Soaring Technique. His body transformed into a streak of lightning as he closed in.

Reaching into the void with his left hand, he ruthlessly activated the Heaven-Seizing Seal!

The spiritual essence within several hundred zhang was plundered bare, coalescing into a massive ten-zhang hand that slapped down viciously at the plummeting Marquis Fengshan.

Marquis Fengshan’s expression warped. Circulating his blood energy, he crossed his arms to block!

His blood energy was incomparably dense.

But enhanced by the Enemy-Slaughtering Spirit Wall’s mysterious ancient aura, Chen Lingxi’s Heaven-Seizing Seal possessed unimaginable strength.

.

That dense blood energy was effortlessly shattered by his palm strike.

Marquis Fengshan groaned as he was smashed into the ocean, kicking up massive waves.

It was truly—breaking dead branches and rotten wood!

Light flickered in Chen Lingxi’s eyes as he drew in a deep breath.

”This Enemy-Slaughtering Spirit Wall is truly profound beyond imagination.”

”To think that two such experts would be left entirely powerless against me.”

His thoughts shifted as he spotted Qi Lian forming hand seals in the distance.

But Chen Lingxi refused to give the general a single second to recover.

He charged forward. The Thunder-Wielding Heavenly King Sword furiously erupted, sending an overwhelming deluge of sword light slashing straight toward Qi Lian.

The speed of the strike was not particularly fast, yet it was incomparably profound.

Qi Lian felt an inescapable certainty—no matter where he dodged, the sword light would find him.

A cold glint flashed in his eyes as the Three Flowers above his head spun rapidly. In an instant, the extraction of his essence, energy, and spirit was pushed to its absolute limit.

Three distinctly different forces fused within the Three Flowers, transforming into a streak of profound light that surged up to meet the Heavenly King Wielding Thunder Sword in the void.

They clashed!

It was truly earth-shattering!

An intense aura swept through the void, scattering the surrounding clouds before slamming into the ocean and whipping up violent waves.

A blinding flash of lightning tore through the area, throwing the entire expanse of sea and sky into flickering contrast.

Marquis Fengshan rose from the surface of the sea, the blood energy surrounding him visibly weakened.

Qi Lian was in a similar state. His Three Flowers had dimmed, and the spiritual qi within his sea of qi was nowhere near as robust as before!

”How has he become so tyrannical in a single night? I fear... the two of us cannot defeat him.”

Qi Lian transmitted his voice through spiritual sense. Marquis Fengshan’s brow furrowed.

Qi Lian was about to send another transmission, but Chen Lingxi had already stepped through the clouds to reach them.

Various divine powers roared. Even the ordinary Cyan Edge Method manifested as a cyan spiritual light stretching dozens of zhang, piercing straight toward Marquis Fengshan’s glabella!

The Thunder-Concealing Sword Scripture and the Longevity Bridge were even more devastating.

Initially, Marquis Fengshan and Qi Lian managed to resist, but now they could only flee in a panic.

Chen Lingxi pursued them relentlessly, sword in hand.

To go from fleeing in a wretched state the day before, to chasing down both men with his sword today—Chen Lingxi had finally vented his frustrations.

He walked with the grace of one Strolling Leisurely in a Quiet Courtyard, gliding effortlessly through the void.

Powered by the Cloud Soaring Technique, his pursuit grew only faster.

His cloud-riding method had already reached the Wondrous State, possessing peerless speed. Now, enhanced by the Enemy-Slaughtering Spirit Wall, it was beyond extraordinary.

Neither Marquis Fengshan nor Qi Lian had any hope of outrunning him.

Chen Lingxi wore a faint smile as he casually rode the clouds. Every so often, he unleashed a terrifying divine power, leaving utter devastation in his wake!

Marquis Fengshan dove deep into the ocean to dodge the deadly barrage.

Gritting his teeth, Qi Lian channeled his spiritual qi into a swirling vortex. The three streaks of profound light cast by the Three Flowers above his head abruptly reversed their flow.

The gold, silver, and lead Three Flowers flared to life, calling forth three fresh streaks of profound light.

The three streaks merged into one, brimming with an unimaginable aura, before transforming into a tri-colored pillar of light that shot straight toward Chen Lingxi.

This power was overwhelmingly tyrannical, far surpassing his initial long saber technique.

”Burning the Three Flowers—”

Chen Lingxi remained completely unfazed. Leaning into the pressure of the terrifying attack, he allowed his body to plummet straight into the depths of the sea.

Deep beneath the water’s surface, a Longevity Bridge materialized in an instant.

Stepping onto it, Chen Lingxi shot forward into the distance!

Without a word, he rapidly caught up to Marquis Fengshan, who was fleeing through the water.

With a mere flick of his finger, Chen Lingxi unleashed the Cyan Edge Method, shattering an attack Qi Lian launched from the sky above.

Clenching his right hand, he manifested the Heaven-Seizing Seal once more. It formed into a massive hand that viciously grasped at Marquis Fengshan.

Marquis Fengshan was no ordinary figure. He could sense that the aura rippling from the hand wasn’t particularly strong, yet he was still profoundly wary of the fact that Chen Lingxi’s techniques vastly exceeded the limits of his actual cultivation.

Pushing his Entering Profound aura to the limit, he compressed it layer by layer into his palm. At that moment, his fist glowed like a miniature morning sun.

The sun collided with the Heaven-Seizing Seal!

Marquis Fengshan’s expression warped once more as the impact sent him flying backward. But a second Heaven-Seizing Seal had silently emerged from the void, clamping down on him in a ruthless grip!

The massive hand crushed Marquis Fengshan in its grasp.

More terrifying still, countless threads of razor-sharp qi flowed across the surface of the giant hand.

It was the Cyan Edge Method, perfectly interwoven with the essence of sword and thunder.

A blinding flash of cyan light erupted from within the seal.

Floating in the sky above, Qi Lian turned pale with horror. He could vividly sense the terrifying power contained within that cyan light—and the cold, indifferent killing intent radiating from Chen Lingxi.

”Stop!”

Qi Lian sent a frantic mental transmission. ”The Sage has already stepped into the Dao Foundation Realm. If you kill Marquis Fengshan, the Sage will personally descend—”

But his words were cut short.

The massive hand seal in the ocean abruptly clenched shut!

Bang!

A muffled detonation echoed through the water.

Marquis Fengshan’s robust body instantly exploded into a cloud of blood, dispersing into the surrounding sea.

An Entering Profound Realm cultivator with an unimaginably tyrannical physique—slaughtered without the slightest ability to fight back!

Deep beneath the waves, Chen Lingxi stood atop his Longevity Bridge and tilted his head up to look at Qi Lian.

A chill ran down Qi Lian’s spine.

The world was vast, but aside from the Sage in the imperial palace and the rebel Xiao Changlv, Qi Lian had never seen anyone so overwhelmingly tyrannical.

’If I hesitate, I’ll end up just like Marquis Fengshan—dead in this sea.’

Qi Lian’s mind raced. Channeling the spiritual qi in his sea of qi, the Three Flowers above his head flared with a blinding golden brilliance.

From a distance, the three blossoms symbolizing his essence, energy, and spirit appeared to be catching fire.

Qi Lian’s aura plummeted into a state of extreme weakness, but his speed skyrocketed.

Riding the clouds, he left a long contrail in his wake. In the blink of an eye, he crossed several li, moving at a blistering pace.

But Chen Lingxi had already breached the surface of the sea.

With a single step forward, he shattered the Longevity Bridge. His Cloud Soaring Technique became entirely shrouded in lightning, granting him a terrifying burst of speed.

When pursuing a target named on the Enemy-Slaughtering Spirit Wall, the power of all his techniques was magnified tenfold!

Powered by the Wondrous State, his Cloud Soaring Technique tore through the air like a thunderbolt. In a matter of breaths, he caught up to Qi Lian.

Chen Lingxi’s expression remained as placid as ever, yet the Thunder Radiance Longsword at his waist erupted with brilliant light.

Terrifying thunder danced across the blade, brimming with profound mysteries. Wrapped in the ancient aura of the tablet, the might of the impending strike was pushed to its absolute apex!

An ocean of lightning completely engulfed Qi Lian!

In the span of a few brief moments, two of the top ten strongest experts in the entire world had been summarily slain!