After the Great Dao Died

Chen Lingxi’s suspicions deepened.

He stared at the treasure chest before him, which still radiated an ancient aura, and suppressed the greed stirring in his heart.

”This is entirely too strange,” he murmured. ”If not for the Divine Chamber, I probably would have probed this chest with my spiritual qi already. Who knows what the consequences would be.”

This lingering doubt made him even more cautious.

After a moment’s thought, he swept his sleeve.

A stream of spiritual qi instantly transformed into a vortex, lowering the suspended treasure chest back to its original place.

”Where there is even the slightest risk, it is best to keep a respectful distance,” he decided.

On the path of cultivation, a practitioner had to tread as if on thin ice. A single misstep could leave one beyond redemption even after ten thousand kalpas.

Chen Lingxi decisively abandoned this fortuitous encounter that was practically already in his grasp. He activated the Cloud Soaring Technique and headed back the way he had come.

Here in the Great Zhou Frontier, the rolling mountains stretched out endlessly.

He traveled through the landscape using the Cloud Soaring Technique, but the doubts in his mind never dissipated.

’I was struck by so many strange impulses out of nowhere, leading me all the way here...’ he thought.

He pondered this as he traversed the void with the Cloud Soaring Technique.

Along the way, he had changed directions four or five times in a row. Sometimes, without even overthinking it, he had randomly shifted his course.

’If this is some profound mechanism designed to plant deliberate thoughts in my mind, much like what happened with Xi Lan, I need to be thoroughly on my guard.’

As he turned this over in his head, he flew out over a dozen li.

Suddenly, Chen Lingxi frowned, as if sensing something.

He stopped atop a low hill and gazed back into the distance.

The Method of Qi Observation circulated in his eyes as he peered toward the area where the strange Cauldron Vessel was located.

The mountain lay hidden in the mist. It was too far away; the peak was nothing but a blurry silhouette.

However, with Chen Lingxi’s current eyesight and the Method of Qi Observation, he could easily make out the scene upon that mountain.

His expression shifted slightly.

Faintly, he saw a streak of escaping light land halfway up the mountainside.

”Someone is there?” he muttered.

Chen Lingxi raised an eyebrow.

He could see that the figure within the light was a woman. Judging by the spiritual qi flowing around her, her cultivation was roughly at the Qi Circulation 7th Floor.

She wore a pale cyan Daoist robe and carried a longsword on her back.

Evidently, she had also spotted the treasure chest. She first stopped to observe it from a distance, then probed it with her divine sense, a look of pleasant surprise crossing her face.

Standing on the low hill over a dozen li away, Chen Lingxi took in everything clearly.

He knitted his brows and watched from afar.

The smiling woman walked up to the chest and examined it carefully. She brought out a defensive artifact to protect herself, and only then did she reach out, slowly injecting a stream of spiritual qi into the chest.

The instant the spiritual qi entered the chest, the world changed colors!

All the inscriptions on the chest’s surface lit up at once. The light was like blood, a piercing, glaring crimson.

A burst of demonic energy, so dense it was almost corporeal, erupted from the chest. It transformed into billowing black smoke that blotted out the sky and covered the sun.

The woman’s expression changed drastically. She tried to pull back and retreat, but it was already too late.

A head violently leaped out from the black smoke!

It was a human head, yet it was as large as a millstone. Its skin was livid and black, its eyes squeezed shut, and its mouth was split all the way to the base of its ears, revealing a maw of ghastly white fangs.

It sprang from the chest, bringing with it a foul wind of blood, and lunged in front of the woman with the speed of a thunderclap.

Immediately after, the head’s eyelids snapped open, exposing blood-red eyes with slitted pupils. It looked indescribably bizarre.

”Hahahaha...”

”I have finally seen the light of day once more!”

The demon head opened its mouth and laughed maniacally. Its sharp, ear-piercing shrieks echoed endlessly among the mountains.

At the exact same time, several streaks of spiritual light shot out from the treasure chest. They were blindingly fast, landing all around the woman.

She was instantly immobilized by the precious light, utterly unable to put up the slightest resistance.

Chen Lingxi’s expression drastically changed!

Even separated by such a great distance, he could clearly sense the overwhelming power of the spiritual light shining from the chest. It had to be a profound mechanism inherent to the chest itself.

If he had opened the chest completely off guard a moment ago and been caught by that light, he feared he wouldn’t have been able to break free either.

And then...

Chen Lingxi watched as the demon head roared with laughter and took a massive bite.

Before the woman at the Qi Circulation 7th Floor could even let out a scream, she was swallowed whole by the giant head!

The power behind that single bite was terrifying.

The woman’s protective light barrier shattered under the jaws.

Her natal flying sword clanged uselessly against its fangs.

Her divine sense was obliterated in a fraction of a second.

The incredibly sharp fangs gleamed with a bloody luster. The woman’s flesh and bones were ground to pulp in an instant as fresh blood poured from the maw.

Chen Lingxi took a deep breath.

It was exactly as he had suspected!

Not only was there something bizarre about the chest, it held a lethal trap!

’Who is plotting against me?’ Chen Lingxi wondered.

He constantly circulated the Hidden Edge Method around his body, concealing his tracks and the fluctuations of his spiritual qi.

However...

A sudden change occurred.

After swallowing the woman, the giant head licked its lips, smacking them as if unsatisfied, and slowly turned around.

Those two blood-red eyes pierced through over a dozen li of empty space, landing dead center on Chen Lingxi.

It was as if his exact location had already been marked by the fiend.

”I touched the chest earlier. I must be locked on by its mechanism!”

Chen Lingxi inhaled sharply. The spiritual qi inside his body surged into motion, and the Cloud Soaring Technique swirled beneath his feet!

But the demon head had already transformed into a black rainbow, hurtling straight toward him.

It was as fast as lightning!

Simultaneously, the treasure chest behind the demon head projected another burst of spiritual light, empowering the creature.

The head’s flight speed increased abruptly. It tore across the ten-plus li of sky, crashing directly toward him.

Cloaked in a sky full of demonic energy, it plummeted like a falling meteor, bringing with it an apocalyptic momentum as it violently smashed down!

Chen Lingxi’s qi sea vortex erupted, and his body shot a hundred zhang to the left.

The low hill where he had just been standing took the demon head’s impact head-on. Shattered rocks rocketed into the sky, and dust choked the air.

”Hahahaha...”

The head flew out from the cloud of dust, hovering in midair as it opened its bloody maw in a fit of hysterical laughter.

”Good! Good! Excellent! Another one! Your divine sense is thick and heavy, junior, and your spiritual qi is abundant. You’ll be a hundred times more delicious than that little girl!”

”I will devour you today and have a proper nourishing meal!”

Chen Lingxi’s expression remained unchanged. There was not a shred of fear in his eyes.

”Since I can’t dodge, let’s see just what this demon head is made of,” he said.

Suddenly, spiritual light flared at Chen Lingxi’s waist, and sword light swept out horizontally and vertically.

Thunder detonated in the void. It was as though sounds resonant as a grand bell were echoing down from the heavens, converging from all directions.

It was as if a divine being were beating a heavenly drum in the sky.

The entire world resonated and trembled.

The Twelve Chimes of the Heavenly Drum Sword Light blasted forward!

The first chime: the void quaked.

The second chime: the demonic energy scattered.

The third chime: the demon head’s laughter abruptly ceased, and for the first time, a look of shock appeared in its blood-red eyes.

”This is... the Thunder-Concealing Heavenly Drum Sword Light?” the head cried out in disbelief. ”You are from the Thunder Pool?”

Chen Lingxi did not answer. He merely flipped his wrist.

The heavenly drum sword light detonated in rapid succession. The soundwaves hit like a tide, each wave stronger than the last.

The demonic energy surrounding the head was peeled away layer by layer by the sonic blasts, exposing its livid, black true form. The veins bulging out on its skin made it look hideously terrifying.

A multitude of heavenly drum sword lights arrived in an instant.

Golden lightning blanketed the sky, completely enveloping the head.

But right at that moment, the head suddenly cracked a grin, and the red light in its eyes surged.

”Junior, you think this little trick is enough to trap me?”

Instantly!

The long hair atop its head suddenly grew wildly. The black strands writhed like a nest of snakes, hardening into countless sharp spikes that stabbed densely toward Chen Lingxi’s golden lightning sword light.

The hair spikes clashed against the sword light, releasing a grating noise like the striking of metal and sending sparks flying everywhere.

The spikes pierced through the lightning. The black hair shifted forms once more, unfurling to form a sun-blotting dark cloud that crashed down toward Chen Lingxi’s head!

That dark cloud harbored an extremely bizarre power. When Chen Lingxi probed it with his divine sense, he felt a wave of dizziness, as if countless fine needles were stabbing into his soul.

”An attack method aimed at the Sea of Consciousness,” he muttered.

He was immediately on high alert. Not daring to be careless, he used Divine Sense Materialization, transforming his mental energy into a massive shield to cover his Sea of Consciousness.

At the same time, Chen Lingxi leaped up, and his newly acquired Blood-Burning Divine Ability explosively activated.

His heart pumped vigorously, rapidly producing massive amounts of blood.

Within his qi sea, a mysterious furnace roared to life. It burned his blood, generating layers upon layers of vital essence to reinforce his physical body.

Simultaneously, within the crude Inner Divine Palace of the True Edict of Approaching the Dao, the Great Sage Yaotian—whose face was blurred, appearing only as a silhouette—seemed to open his eyes.

Even more robust vital essence rolled and flowed, surging into Chen Lingxi’s limbs and bones.

For a moment, Chen Lingxi’s physical strength reached an absolute pinnacle!

He flipped his palm in the void!

Heaven-Seizing Seal!

As the grand seal fell, the spiritual qi in the world for several hundred zhang around was instantly drained. It formed into a massive palm print that slammed through the sky toward the demon head.

At the same time, the phantom image of a long bridge spanning heaven and earth appeared beneath Chen Lingxi’s feet.

The Longevity Bridge.

Chen Lingxi stepped onto the Longevity Bridge, his figure abruptly vanishing. In the next breath, he appeared right behind the giant head.

He raised his hand and threw a punch!

This punch seemed unadorned and simple, but the roiling vital essence behind it flowed like a mighty river rippling through the void, brimming with unimaginable power.

The demon head snorted coldly.

”Junior, you want to break me with pure physical strength?”

Its whipping hair flashed with spiritual light, morphing into a spiritual wall to block Chen Lingxi.

But Chen Lingxi’s punch was simply too ferocious. Holding nothing back, it violently slammed into the wall of hair.

Boom!

The surging spiritual light on the hair was instantly shattered by Chen Lingxi.

The terrifying physical force, wrapped in equally terrifying vital essence, transmitted right through the barrier and directly impacted the demon head!

Crash!

The flesh and blood on the head’s face were pulverized by the terrifying vital essence, exposing ghastly white bone beneath as livid, black demon blood sprayed outward.

It was blasted far away.

The heavy injury only served to ignite the fiend’s feral nature.

Its hair grew wildly, twisting into pitch-black chains that shot toward Chen Lingxi from all directions to bind him.

Ghastly green flames burned on the chains, searing Chen Lingxi’s divine sense.

But Chen Lingxi was completely fearless.

The True Edict of Approaching the Dao, the Great Sage Yaotian, and his own physical cultivation gave him more than enough confidence.

His figure flashed repeatedly, weaving and leaping nimbly between the chains.

The Longevity Bridge extended endlessly beneath his feet. Every step he took covered a hundred zhang, blurring his form in a way that made observers dizzy.

Yet the chains seemed infinite, chasing him faster and faster, tangling tighter and tighter.

The dark cloud of hair above his head also gathered once more, sealing off all avenues of retreat.

Worse, that massive maw was constantly drawing near. The bloody wind from its mouth assaulted his face, and deep within its throat, a black vortex was spinning, radiating a heart-palpitating aura!

”Stop struggling, junior!” the head laughed savagely. ”For you to fight me to this extent is already impressive.”

”But you will still die in the end! Your flesh, your soul, your spiritual qi—I want it all!”

An even more terrifying aura seeped from the demon head.

Right then, the treasure chest flew over, hovering directly above the demon head and bathing it in spiritual light once again.

Instantly, the demon head’s momentum soared to new heights.

Murderous intent flickered continuously in its eyes.

Chen Lingxi frowned.

”With that treasure chest empowering it, the demon head has grown even stronger,” he noted.

”I must go all out with my foundations, or else I’ll inevitably die by its hands.”

Chen Lingxi barely hesitated.

He took a deep breath, keeping the spiritual qi circulating within his body.

The Heaven-Seizing Seal materialized once more, but this time, the grand seal didn’t drop. Instead, it hovered above his head, slowly rotating.

The Longevity Bridge stretched out beneath his feet. Ancient inscriptions surfaced on the bridge, each radiating an aura of profound antiquity.

Lightning sword light flickered across his body.

His physical vital essence churned violently.

Four methods operating in unison!

Between heaven and earth, four distinct powers erupted simultaneously.

The Heaven-Seizing Seal suppressed the surroundings, pinning the head in place, rendering it completely immobile.

The Longevity Bridge pierced the void, completely sealing off the head’s routes of escape.

Myriad sword lights from the Thunder-Concealing Sword Scripture slashed down from the heavens with explosive force.

Amidst this sky filled with divine abilities, Chen Lingxi himself leaped up fiercely, crashing toward the demon head like a blazing comet.

Yet the demon head showed absolutely no fear. Wearing a savage grin, it opened its mouth wide, preparing to spew out a terrifying divine ability of its own.

Right at that exact moment, an incredibly inconspicuous streak of brilliance flashed past.

It was the Delayed Light Flying Dagger!

The tiny hourglass on the Delayed Light’s hilt suddenly flipped, shining spiritual light over the demon head.

The divine ability the demon head was spewing out was delayed for a bare fraction of a second.

And that single fraction of a second was all it took!

Boom!

An earth-shattering detonation rang out.

In an instant, the Longevity Bridge, the Heaven-Seizing Seal, and the Twelve Chimes of the Heavenly Drum from the Thunder-Concealing Sword Scripture entirely suppressed the flashing spiritual light around the demon head, as well as its terrifying demonic hair.

Dropping down right through the narrow gaps between the array of divine abilities, Chen Lingxi unleashed a vicious kick.

This kick carried enough momentum to seemingly shatter a mountain.

Faintly, behind him, the blurred phantom of the Great Sage flashed and disappeared.

Crash!

The kick landed squarely on the head’s forehead.

”No!”

The demon head’s forehead caved in.

It was on the absolute verge of exploding to its death.

But simultaneously, the glowing treasure chest abruptly shattered. It transformed into surging life force that poured into the demon head, preserving the fiend’s life.

Even so... the power behind Chen Lingxi’s kick was simply too overwhelming.

The head let out an unwilling roar. Livid, black demon blood poured down like a waterfall, dyeing the earth below pitch-black!

Its aura plummeted rapidly. Its long hair withered and snapped, the dark cloud dissipated, and the chains crumbled into pieces. Even the black energy spewing from its massive mouth grew thinner and thinner.

Ultimately, unable to hold on any longer, it plummeted from the sky. It crashed into a pile of jagged rocks, rolled a few times, and finally lay motionless.

Chen Lingxi slowly drifted down from the sky, his expression perfectly calm.

He stood before the head, looking down at it.

Most of the skin on the head’s face was shredded, exposing the white bone underneath. The crimson glow in its eyes had dimmed significantly, yet it still harbored a thick, venomous resentment.

It wasn’t completely dead yet.

Chen Lingxi pondered for a brief moment, then circulated the Hidden Edge Method to completely conceal his aura.

He scooped up the head with his spiritual qi, placed a seal over it, and then summoned the clouds and mist to fly north without looking back.

This flight lasted three hundred li.

He crossed tall mountains, wide rivers, and dense forests before finally landing in a deep valley.

A river ran right through the valley. Its rolling waters crashed against the banks on either side, issuing a deafening roar.

The river was flanked by steep cliffs heavily coated with moss. It was damp, bitterly cold, and untouched by the sun.

Chen Lingxi sank into the river water and sat cross-legged, staring down at the demon head.

The head had weakened to the absolute limit. It glared back at Chen Lingxi.

”Detestable! How detestable!”

The demon head’s divine sense rumbled, radiating a resentment that pierced the heavens.

”A mere junior at the Qi Circulation stage... to think you would subject me to such profound humiliation!”