After the Great Dao Died

Emperor Daye stood on the cloud ship, watching Chen Lingxi in silence.

He gazed at Chen Lingxi, flames dancing in his eyes. ”The great opportunity I bestowed upon you was not this Dao-Absorbing Tree.”

The meaning behind his words could not be clearer.

Emperor Daye would not give him this cauldron vessel.

’Emperor Daye already possesses a cauldron vessel capable of stripping, fabricating, and bestowing memories. What does he want with this Dao-Absorbing Tree?’

A cultivator of heaven and earth could refine only a single cauldron vessel.

Once they refined one, they would have no destiny with any others.

Chen Lingxi knew Emperor Daye was still scheming against him, yet at this moment, the emperor cared so deeply about the Dao-Absorbing Tree that he wouldn’t even offer a single lie to deceive him.

Chen Lingxi did not answer.

His gaze remained fixed on the Dao-Absorbing Fruit, an elusive light flickering deep within his eyes.

The depths of the seabed should have been pitch-black.

Yet the two bright mirrors of the Absolute Perception Divine Chamber hung high above, their light penetrating the sunless depths to fall upon this place.

At that moment...

Chen Lingxi suddenly reached out and plucked the fruit.

Emperor Daye abruptly frowned.

He seemed completely unprepared for Chen Lingxi to be so audacious.

As Chen Lingxi grasped the fruit at point-blank range, a sense of bloodline connection flooded into his mind.

It felt as though this Dao-Absorbing Fruit had already acknowledged him as its master.

Standing a short distance away, Emperor Daye watched Chen Lingxi pluck the cauldron vessel and let out a heavy sigh.

”It seems you were born rebellious. You actually dare to snatch my opportunity.”

”Your actions are far too erratic. Letting you grow might be worse than trapping you deep within the palace.”

As Emperor Daye spoke, an astonishing aura unfurled from his body.

He took a step forward!

In the next instant, a sudden transformation occurred.

Emperor Daye’s hunched body violently straightened.

His emaciated, skeletal frame seemed to draw weight from the air, growing thick and substantial.

Surging blood energy radiated from him.

His wrinkles smoothed out almost instantly, and his white hair turned pitch-black from the roots, growing thick and full.

In a single breath, the decrepit old man who looked ready to die at any moment transformed into a towering figure with a majestic bearing and an incomparably dignified face.

At this moment, Emperor Daye looked no older than thirty!

The golden flames burned even more fiercely in his eyes, and the aura radiating from his body was so brilliantly glorious it could not be looked at directly.

This heaven-defying figure who had cultivated to the Dao Foundation realm from a mortal body within the grotto-heaven, this terrifying man who had used an iron fist to establish the Mountains and Rivers Great Array and drag all the Seekers of Truth in the world into his palace...

...had finally revealed his true appearance!

Chen Lingxi felt an unimaginable pressure overwhelm him from all directions.

The pressure was simply too immense, bringing the spiritual qi within his Qi Sea to a complete halt and nearly freezing the blood energy in his body.

’To think... he’s this powerful...’

Chen Lingxi was shocked to discover that he couldn’t circulate a single trace of spiritual qi, nor lift a single finger.

He couldn’t even commit suicide if he wanted to!

’This is the mighty power of a Dao Foundation!’ Chen Lingxi muttered internally.

Then Emperor Daye raised his hand, and Chen Lingxi was sucked forward, his throat seized by the emperor’s grip.

”Rather than scheming so painstakingly, I would be better off using medicinal pills to forcibly elevate you to the Heaven-Facing Twelfth Floor.”

Emperor Daye gently shook his head, his majestic face stern as his surging qi blossomed within the deep sea.

He was as if two different people compared to the trembling old man from moments ago.

Now, he held Chen Lingxi suspended in midair, those eyes of dancing golden flames fixed upon him.

Chen Lingxi could faintly perceive the primordial aura circulating within those eyes.

Chen Lingxi marveled at the sheer power of the Dao Foundation Realm, and then a flash of inspiration struck him.

’The Jade Precept Book already established a clause that Emperor Daye absolutely cannot attack me. Why is he still able to make a move?’

’Moreover, why hasn’t the Jade Precept Book’s punishment arrived?’

At that moment, Emperor Daye murmured, ”Let me... take a look at your memories.”

As he spoke, the two clusters of golden flames in Emperor Daye’s eyes surged.

An extremely profound aura poured into Chen Lingxi’s eyes.

Chen Lingxi felt a sharp pain in his head, as if something had pierced through his Sea of Consciousness and was frantically rummaging around.

However, Emperor Daye’s expression suddenly changed.

”The memories of the past three years are completely blank?”

”This...”

He had seemingly never encountered such a situation. A thick fog shrouded Chen Lingxi’s Sea of Consciousness, concealing everything. No matter how the golden flames in Emperor Daye’s eyes danced, they could not penetrate this fog in the slightest!

”Just what kind of method is this?” Emperor Daye muttered to himself, a trace of disbelief coloring his tone.

”It was the same for that Mirror Listening Cauldron Vessel Fragment. It could only divine scenes up to three years ago. Whatever great opportunity Chen Lingxi has obtained in these past three years, and exactly how he stepped onto the path of cultivation, cannot be seen at all.”

He was incredibly astonished.

Right then, Chen Lingxi seized the opportunity.

While Emperor Daye was distracted and the aura around him loosened slightly, the suppressed spiritual qi within Chen Lingxi’s body erupted with all its might.

A sliver of spiritual qi suddenly triggered the Purple True Precious Qi in his Qi Sea.

The Purple True Precious Qi surged from his Qi Sea, abruptly transforming into a streak of radiance that shot toward his own heart.

It was so stealthy...

...yet Emperor Daye still noticed. A stream of Dao Origin circulated and quietly descended into Chen Lingxi’s body, silently causing the Purple True Precious Qi to be completely annihilated.

The Purple True Precious Qi that had accompanied Chen Lingxi for so long simply vanished.

He frowned. ”Do you have a death wish?”

Exactly at this moment, Chen Lingxi began bleeding from his seven orifices, his aura becoming unbearably sluggish.

Emperor Daye immediately realized what had happened.

”Divine Sense Materialization, shattering your own Sea of Consciousness?”

The Chen Lingxi in his grasp lowered his head, his breath completely cut off.

Everything before Chen Lingxi’s eyes shattered.

Emperor Daye’s heroic face twisted, blurred, and dissipated from his vision.

The two mirrors hanging high above erupted with blinding light simultaneously, golden and silver radiance reflecting off each other in a piercing glare.

”Stealing the spiritual perception of heaven and earth, taking the spiritual opportunity of past and present.” A familiar verse echoed in his mind.

Chen Lingxi’s consciousness hung suspended in the void of the Divine Chamber, and soon after, many things floated into his view.

Qi Lian’s and Marquis Fengshan’s Vast Void Pouches, the spiritual herbs casually gathered from the seabed, and that Dao-Absorbing Fruit.

Chen Lingxi did not hesitate in the slightest, dropping his consciousness onto the Dao-Absorbing Fruit.

Within the void of the Divine Chamber, the two bright mirrors suddenly shattered.

The void distorted, and heaven and earth flipped upside down.

When Chen Lingxi opened his eyes again, he found he had returned to Yuanjiang Prefecture.

The two bright mirrors were no longer in the sky; this was present reality.

He raised his head and looked into the distance, right at the moment the Battle of Cauldron Seizing concluded.

Far away, that elegant young master had already transformed into a tornado alongside Xi Yu and fled.

Thousands of Silver Bone Martial Artists were assembling in the distance.

Within his own Vast Void Pouch, the Black Banner was still devouring and expelling the blood energy of the battlefield, radiating a profound aura.

Chen Lingxi took a deep breath.

He still felt lingering fear over Emperor Daye’s terrifying might.

’To think the Dao Foundation Realm is this tyrannical,’ he murmured in his heart, the light in his eyes flickering unsteadily.

’Moreover... in order to earn my trust, Emperor Daye signed a clause on that Jade Precept Book stating that we could not attack each other before leaving the grotto-heaven.’

’Yet he clearly made a move against me in front of that cauldron vessel, and the Jade Precept Book didn’t punish him for it.’

Recalling the profoundly indescribable qi when the Jade Precept Book was signed, Chen Lingxi knew the Jade Precept Book could never be fake.

’I don’t understand it...’

He pondered for a moment before a flash of insight crossed his mind.

’The first time I signed a Jade Precept Book with Wu Mohe, he mentioned the words [Jade Precept Book of Qi Circulation] to me.’

’Thinking about it carefully now, I’m afraid these Jade Precept Books are also divided into grades. The Jade Precept Book of Qi Circulation is incapable of binding figures at the Dao Foundation Realm.’

Having figured this out, Chen Lingxi sensed the Dao-Absorbing Fruit suspended in the void of the Divine Chamber, and his state of mind suddenly calmed.

He looked up into the distance.

The surviving troops of blood energy martial artists were regrouping and withdrawing.

Chen Lingxi retracted his gaze and sank his divine sense into the Vast Void Pouch.

The Black Banner still lay quietly in a corner of the pouch, the dark red patterns on its surface flowing.

The moment his divine sense touched the banner, he felt a familiar pulling force surge out, dragging his consciousness into that eerie space constructed of blood light.

That mysterious middle-aged man with his immortal breeze and Daoist bones still sat cross-legged there. His Daoist robes were spotless, his features refined, and his presence incomparably mysterious.

Looking at the mysterious middle-aged man, a faint smile appeared on Chen Lingxi’s face.

This time, he hadn’t killed all those blood energy martial artists for the [True Edict of Approaching the Dao] promised by the mysterious man.

It was solely because the many cultivation methods of the True Edict of Approaching the Dao were already deeply engraved in his mind, and even the Great Sage Yaotian’s Approaching the Dao Diagram had been firmly memorized.

He looked at the mysterious middle-aged man and suddenly smiled. ”Senior, I wonder if it’s possible for me to pass on the divine ability of Spiritual Qi Ninth Floor Defeating the Eleventh Floor... and ask for something else instead?”