After the Great Dao Died

Immortal Capital, remnants, Great Encompassing Heaven Heaven-Illuminating Mirror, Mystic Monarch...

Naturally, Chen Lingxi could not hear those words.

He stood right before the cauldron vessel, beside the Dao-Capturing Ancient Tree.

Taking advantage of the continuous collision between the auras of the True Lord and the Great Sage, which slightly eased the oppressive pressure bearing down on him, he reached out to touch the cauldron vessel.

This complete cauldron vessel, the supreme treasure dreamed of by countless cultivators in the Great Xuanzhuo Realm, was now close at hand, easily within reach.

”Just a little closer...”

Chen Lingxi’s gaze pierced the deep sea, watching the two terrifying figures that had begun confronting each other from afar.

Up in the void, the blazing white flames spewing from the Realm-Refining Furnace and the pale blue waves surging from the Luoyuan Long River had already begun their first probing collision in complete silence.

The terrifying ripples tearing through the firmament threw the sea of clouds above the Heavenly Gate Sea into absolute chaos.

A clash of that magnitude far exceeded anything a Dao Foundation cultivator could comprehend.

Chen Lingxi gritted his teeth, staring at the void, and then couldn’t help but grin.

Under the illumination of the lightning, his smile appeared somewhat savage.

Ruthlessness and murderous intent radiated from his eyes.

”Come on, let me see exactly who will emerge victorious between a True Lord and a Great Sage, and who will refine this Weiji Grotto-Heaven!”

In the next instant...

Everything was reduced to white light.

Everything in the Weiji Grotto-Heaven was enveloped by the white radiance.

Chen Lingxi felt his sight, hearing, divine sense, and even the perception of his own Dao Platform and profound root entirely stripped away.

He felt as if he had plunged into a boundless sea of light, touching neither the sky above nor the earth below, surrounded only by a pure, heart-palpitating white.

Terrifying auras frantically collided in the void, seemingly sweeping across the entire firmament of the grotto-heaven to obliterate everything.

The sheer power of that collision far exceeded the bounds of language.

All surrounding sound completely vanished.

Absolutely everything fell into deathly stillness within this white light.

All light and all spiritual qi were instantly evaporated by the power erupting from the core of the collision, the very center of the True Lord and the Great Sage’s clash.

Even time seemed to be disrupted.

It felt like a single instant had passed, yet also like many days.

The order of time seemed utterly thrown into chaos beneath the clash of these two supreme experts.

Until Chen Lingxi suddenly opened his eyes!

The Plundering Dragon Dao Platform spun madly within his body, and the remaining Thunder Prison Profound Root barely operated, injecting wisps of Dao Origin into his limbs and bones, dispelling the sensation of nothingness that had almost devoured him.

He panted heavily, cold sweat pouring down his forehead.

”This...”

Chen Lingxi hurriedly looked toward the distant void.

Then, he saw a shocking scene.

The Heavenly Gate Sea was still the Heavenly Gate Sea.

The earth of the grotto-heaven still existed.

It was just that...

”The sky is gone?”

Chen Lingxi swallowed hard.

He saw that the firmament that had originally covered the Weiji Grotto-Heaven had completely vanished.

The sun, moon, stars, and surging sea of clouds had all disappeared.

Replacing them was a pitch-black, hollow vortex.

Within that vortex, countless streams of grayish chaotic void turbulence were slowly flowing.

”Did this True Lord and Great Sage obliterate the grotto-heaven’s sky?”

The firmament was empty, and the sun and moon were extinguished!

The True Lord and Great Sage had only clashed for an instant, yet the sheer intensity of their power had completely erased the sky and stars of this grotto-heaven.

An indescribable wave of emotion welled up within him.

’The power of True Lords and Great Sages has actually reached this level.’

He narrowed his eyes slightly, forcefully suppressing the shock in his mind and forcing himself to calm down.

’Where are the True Lord and the Great Sage now?’

Chen Lingxi asked himself, lightning flashing in his eyes as he spread out his divine sense to carefully probe this thoroughly battered and ruined world.

’Could it be that they both suffered heavy injuries and retreated? Did this Weiji Grotto-Heaven... actually survive the disaster?’

He looked around. The Dao-Capturing Ancient Tree still hovered in front of him, and everything was somewhat eerily quiet, as if that apocalyptic battle had been nothing but a dream.

’It seems... there really is a turning point?’

Chen Lingxi felt a surge of joy, yet he had not forgotten to pluck this complete cauldron vessel!

But right at that moment, an unexpected change occurred!

From the distant Ancestral Mountain, a terrifying power suddenly descended!

That aura was filled with an ancient, boundless presence, carrying a suffocating and terrifying pressure identical to that of Great Sage Luoyuan.

However, this pressure lacked the indifference and transcendence of the Great Sage’s true body, infused instead with a trace of... indescribable chaos and brutality.

The power was like an invisible, sky-blotting giant hand reaching out from the Ancestral Mountain, surging over to simultaneously devour Chen Lingxi and the Emperor of Daye, Ying Xian, in the Heavenly Gate Sea!

”A Great Sage’s incarnation!”

Chen Lingxi suddenly realized!

”Great Sage Luoyuan’s true body descended...”

It seemed the incarnation had not dissipated with the retreat of the true body. Instead, in the aftermath of the clash between the True Lord and the Great Sage, it had been stimulated by some chaotic and ferocious instinct.

It wanted to devour.

To devour every existence before it that contained pure power, in order to replenish the origin it had depleted from being forcibly awakened.

”This Great Sage incarnation wants to devour me.”

Chen Lingxi felt that terrifying devouring force surging toward him!

The residual lightning clouds beneath his feet spectacularly collapsed under the crushing weight of this power.

’This Great Sage incarnation is actually going mad!’ Warning bells blared in Chen Lingxi’s mind as the Plundering Dragon Dao Platform spun frantically. The remaining Dao Origin within the Dao Platform poured out without reservation, injecting into the Thunder Prison Profound Root.

That profound root, which had already grown into a large tree, violently trembled. The Weiji Thunder Radiance lit up once more, barely propping up a thunder prison spanning only a single zhang around him.

But in the face of that vast, ocean-like devouring force, the thunder prison was like a tiny flame in a fierce gale—tottering and on the verge of extinguishing at any moment.

”I can’t just sit here and wait for death!”

Chen Lingxi’s gaze abruptly fell upon the Dao-Capturing Ancient Tree beside him.

”I’ll use the cauldron vessel to complete the Absolute Perception progress, give myself a chance, and see if I can find a sliver of hope.”

A trace of absolute resolve flashed through Chen Lingxi’s eyes.

In the instant before that devouring force could completely submerge him, he violently reached out and plucked the Dao-Capturing Ancient Tree!

An unimaginably ancient aura surged forth, falling into the Divine Chamber, and in the blink of an eye, it completed the Absolute Perception Origin Supplementation progress.

Chen Lingxi was just about to activate Absolute Perception.

Right at that moment, he heard someone calling his name from within the terrifying power of the Great Sage’s incarnation.

”Lingxi.”

That voice was like a wisp of spring breeze, piercing through the terrifying, heaven-ravaging pressure to reach his ears.

Chen Lingxi stared blankly for a moment.

He abruptly raised his head, looking straight in the direction from which the power of the Great Sage’s incarnation surged.

Then, amidst the sky-filling, surging, terrifying water vapor belonging to the incarnation of Great Sage Luoyuan, deep within the river waters that seemed to reflect an eternal galaxy of stars, he clearly saw the reflection of a person.

It was a young man.

He wore a half-worn Daoist robe, his facial features sharply defined, and the corners of his mouth carried a smile that Chen Lingxi was intimately familiar with—one laced with a bit of slyness and laziness.

He simply stood there within the reflected river waters, amidst the terrifying power of the Great Sage’s incarnation, wearing a smile as he gently waved at Chen Lingxi.

Chen Lingxi muttered, ”Changle?”

It was Liu Changle.

He simply stood there within the reflected river waters, amidst the terrifying power of the Great Sage’s incarnation, wearing a smile as he gently waved at Chen Lingxi.

His lips moved slightly, and that familiar voice once again pierced through all obstacles, transmitting clearly into Chen Lingxi’s ears.

”Don’t forget!” he said, the smile on his face remaining.

”Don’t forget!”

He said it again.

Chen Lingxi was stunned.

Then...

In the next instant, the terrifying power of the Great Sage’s incarnation that had been more than enough to thoroughly annihilate Chen Lingxi dissipated all of its killing intent in a flash.

The overwhelming devouring torrent also transformed into a clear breeze at this exact moment.

That clear breeze swept toward Chen Lingxi, gently wrapping around his entire person.

Chen Lingxi only felt a dizzying spell before his eyes!

He sensed that clear breeze carrying him along, piercing through the shattered firmament, piercing through the bottomless black vortex, and plunging straight into the Pool of Reincarnation suspended high in the sky!

A profound and mystical aura flowed from within, enveloping his entire being in a gentle, warm, and bright pale blue halo.

Chen Lingxi only felt the world spin into darkness, his consciousness growing somewhat blurry.

The only things he could perceive were the chaotic void currents whistling past him, and the successive waves of warmth transmitted when the Dao profundities from the Pool of Reincarnation shrouded his body.

And...

His own physical body seemed to be crossing through time and traversing the void, speeding toward an unknowable destination at an unimaginable velocity.

He felt as if he had landed somewhere, touching down in a place of nothingness enveloped by endless darkness.

Then he flew rapidly through that place of nothingness, advancing forward along the profound passage constructed by the Pool of Reincarnation, leaving everything behind.

Liu Changle’s gentle, smiling voice, along with the mighty yet tender power of the clear breeze transformed from the Great Sage’s incarnation, continuously coiled around Chen Lingxi’s body. It acted as an invisible talisman, warding off the erosion of the chaotic void turbulence that occasionally leaked into the passage.

Only at this moment did Chen Lingxi finally snap to his senses from that dizzying daze.

An indescribable, complicated emotion welled up within him.

’This doesn’t seem like what Liu Changle told me before, about the Dao Foundation cultivators of the Great Xuanzhuo Realm using the Pool of Reincarnation to extradite grotto-heaven cultivators...’

’Rather, Liu Changle is borrowing the power of that Great Sage incarnation!’

’He is using his own will to forcibly command a portion of Great Sage Luoyuan’s power slumbering in the Ancestral Mountain. He isn’t sending me back as a Seeker of Truth, but directly sending me across the Pool of Reincarnation, straight to the Great Xuanzhuo Realm!’

Within that clear breeze, it seemed as if Liu Changle’s final phrase, ”Don’t forget,” still lingered.

Chen Lingxi clenched his teeth tightly; he knew what Liu Changle was talking about.

”I won’t forget.”

”I won’t forget.”

Ahead, at the end of the long, dark passage, a speck of faint light finally lit up.

That light grew brighter and brighter, more and more intense, just like a rising morning sun gushing forth from the edge of the horizon.

The Great Xuanzhuo Realm was already close at hand.