After the Great Dao Died

Two bright mirrors hung high in the sky.

One was blazing gold like a great sun, its flames flowing as it radiated boundless light and heat, illuminating the sky until it was entirely bright.

The other was silvery-white like a bright moon, its clear radiance gleaming, secluded and tranquil. It cast a layer of silver light down upon the mountain peak and upon Chen Lingxi.

The golden and silver lights complemented each other, shrouding this realm in a strange halo like an immortal painting draped in a thin veil.

Within the boundaries of Yang Awakening Peak, atop a towering summit!

This peak was steep and precipitous, its walls rising thousands of ren. From the mountainside upward, it was shrouded in thick clouds and mist, making the peak appear all the more majestic. It resembled a sharp sword thrust hilt-first into the earth, piercing the sea of clouds to point straight into the azure sky.

Atop the summit, jagged rocks were strewn about, and not a single blade of grass grew.

Chen Lingxi was on this summit.

Beneath him was a profound and wondrous great formation.

The formation patterns were as complex as a vast sea. Spiritual light flowed slowly within them, linking together to faintly form a massive cage that covered the entire peak.

Trapped right in the center of this great formation, he felt a formless, invisible pressure constantly pressing down on him. It was as if it sought to firmly pin his Dao Origin, pure qi, and even his spiritual sense to this tiny patch of ground, rendering him unable to move a single step.

He sat cross-legged in the formation, his face slightly pale, his breathing faintly disordered.

Yet his eyes remained calm and undisturbed.

Not far away, an old man sat cross-legged in the void.

The old man appeared to be around sixty or seventy years old. His face was withered and thin, and he wore an old, faded gray Daoist robe that looked quite shabby, resembling an ordinary temple keeper from a rural village.

But as he sat there, the aura around him was as heavy and solid as a mountain. He was like an ancient statue seated in the void, completely motionless. No matter how the heavenly winds howled, they could not shake him in the slightest.

He kept his eyes closed, his breathing long and steady, as if he had been sitting here for a very long time—so long that he had merged into one with this peak and this world.

This person was Elder Moge.

Chen Lingxi’s attention fell on the old man; he could only feel that his aura was unfathomably deep.

He naturally knew that Elder Moge was here to keep watch over him.

Taking a deep breath, he shifted his gaze away from Elder Moge and looked back up at the two bright mirrors hanging high above.

The two bright mirrors hanging in the sky proved that this place was still the Absolute Perception Divine Chamber.

Chen Lingxi closed his eyes and began to sort through everything that had happened during this Absolute Perception.

He had been in Absolute Perception for three days now.

Everything he had experienced over these past few days replayed in his mind over and over again like a spinning zoetrope.

’The Cauldron Vessel... made me fall into an illusion, exposing my foundation,’ he thought.

’That Cauldron Vessel is the key,’ Chen Lingxi told himself. ’After Absolute Perception ends, I still need to be wary of the Sun Cauldron Vessel in the sky.’

Chen Lingxi was deep in thought.

Just then.

The clouds and mist in the void parted.

It was as if an invisible, giant hand had reached down from the sky, parting the thick, overlapping sea of clouds down the middle to reveal a straight thoroughfare.

At the end of this thoroughfare, a rainbow light suddenly appeared.

The rainbow light came from the horizon, stretching across the vast sky and dyeing the sea of clouds a magnificent seven-colored hue.

The light was incredibly soft, as warm and smooth as fine jade, as if someone had crushed a sky full of glowing clouds and scattered them across the void.

Upon the rainbow light, a figure floated down gracefully.

It was another woman.

She wore a silken dress woven from an unknown material. Under the sunlight, it rippled with layers of rosy radiance, as though the most brilliant evening clouds had been tailored from the horizon and draped over her shoulders.

Her hair was pinned high, adorned with a tasseled hairpin. The head of the pin was a bright pearl the size of a thumb, while the tassels were woven from extremely fine gold threads, hanging down by her temples and swaying gently with her every step.

She was stunningly beautiful.

Her eyebrows were like distant mountains, her eyes like autumn waters. With a high nose bridge and distinctly defined lips, she looked like a beauty meticulously carved from the finest mutton-fat jade. Her face was so pale it was almost transparent, resembling a solid piece of warm jade soaked in moonlight.

It was clear she had lived for an untold number of years, yet her face remained unreasonably youthful. It was as if time had stopped for her, never leaving the slightest trace.

But what shocked Chen Lingxi the most was the aura surrounding her.

She simply stood there, not deliberately releasing any pressure, yet the surrounding void was actually warping slightly.

Like ripples spreading across the surface of water, it was silent yet omnipresent, as if even the very breath of this world was carefully supporting her.

Every inch of the void she passed through seemed to change because of her existence.

Chen Lingxi’s pupils contracted slightly.

Sensing that faint yet unfathomably deep coercion, stormy waves of shock surged in his mind.

With his current cultivation, even a cultivator at Dao Foundation Perfection could never give him such a feeling.

Yet this woman merely stood there, and like a bright moon hanging high in the sky, she made him feel a sense of insignificance and inadequacy.

’A True Person!’ he thought.

Only those in the Golden Palace Realm could be called a True Person.

Chen Lingxi looked up, and the woman was also looking at him.

Her gaze shifted, though it was impossible to tell what she was thinking.

Riding the rainbow light, the woman slowly descended, landing atop the mountain peak.

Her gaze lingered on Chen Lingxi for a moment before shifting to Elder Moge, who was sitting cross-legged in the void.

Elder Moge had already stood up. He bowed deeply to the woman from afar, his posture extremely respectful.

At this moment, on the distant Yang Awakening Main Peak, the Yang Awakening Peak Master and two elders were already standing there, bowing toward this woman from far away.

”Greetings, True Person Yujun!” they called out in unison. Their voices were respectful to the extreme, echoing endlessly through the empty valley.

Their posture was humble. They didn’t even dare to raise their heads to look at the woman, simply remaining bowed, not daring to straighten up.

The Yang Awakening Peak Master was at Dao Foundation Perfection.

Yet at this moment, his posture was also respectful to the utmost extreme.

The blade-carrying female cultivator, Chu Yichan, stood not far away and bowed as well.

”Yichan greets Master!”

True Person Yujun nodded slightly without saying a word.

With a wave of her sleeve, the great formation on the mountain loudly dissolved and collapsed.

The great formation’s complex patterns and flowing spiritual light had covered the entire peak, but with a wave of True Person Yujun’s sleeve, it shattered and collapsed inch by inch like a sand wall meeting a flood, vanishing without a trace.

Chen Lingxi felt his body instantly lighten; the power of the formation pressing down on him dissipated completely.

Then, a mysterious light lit up around True Person Yujun, enveloping him completely within it.

With True Person Yujun in the front and Chen Lingxi and Chu Yichan trailing behind, they floated into the air and flew straight into the distance.

The speed of that mysterious light was pushed to the absolute limit.

Chen Lingxi only felt the surrounding scenery rapidly retreating. Mountains, rivers, cities, and seas of clouds all blurred into streaks of light that flashed past him.

The heavenly wind howled past his ears, but it was blocked out by the mysterious light. Not even his robes fluttered in the slightest.

He was clearly flying at extreme speeds, yet he couldn’t feel the slightest wind resistance. It was as if he wasn’t flying at all, but rather the world itself was actively making way for him.

’The flight speed of this mysterious light is who knows how many times faster than my Cloud Soaring Technique,’ Chen Lingxi marveled inwardly.

’An ordinary cultivator probably couldn’t catch up to even a ten-thousandth of this mysterious light’s speed even if they exhausted their lifelong cultivation.’

Looking at the figure walking on air ahead of him, staring at that back shrouded in the mysterious light with fluttering robes, an indescribable sense of emotion welled up within him.

No wonder those of the Golden Palace Realm were called True Persons.

True Person, True Person.

The difference of a single major realm was already a gap as vast as heaven and earth.

Having cultivated up to now, he considered himself to have some foundation. But in front of such an existence, he was like fireflies compared to the bright moon—so insignificant that he could almost be ignored.

’When... will I be able to cultivate to this realm?’ Chen Lingxi asked himself.

The mysterious light headed straight north, flying for an unknown number of miles, crossing countless mountains and rivers.

Until a sprawling, endless mountain range appeared ahead.

Dragon-Revering Sect.

The main branch of the Dragon-Revering Sect dominated a territory of thousands of miles. There were seven great peaks in total, and aside from those, there was a bizarre mountain that shot ten thousand zhang straight up into the void like a heavenly pillar.

That mountain was extremely peculiar.

Unlike ordinary mountains that rose from the ground with overlapping ridges and peaks, it was as straight as a pillar, piercing directly into the clouds.

From the mountainside upward, the mountain face grew increasingly steep, ultimately transforming into a heavenly pillar that shot ten thousand zhang into the void, as if trying to pierce the sky.

Its surface was as smooth as a mirror, glowing with an extremely faint jade-like luster. It looked less like mountain rock and more like a heavenly artifact polished by time over countless years.

Every few hundred zhang, streams of cloud qi drifted out.

Those clouds did not dissipate; instead, they condensed in the void, resembling platforms.

Upon these cloud platforms were many cave dwellings and buildings, looking incredibly extraordinary. On some platforms, magnificent palaces were built with soaring eaves and up-turned corners, resplendent in gold and jade.

On other platforms, there were only a few thatched cottages with black tiles and cyan bricks, tranquil and elegant.

Spirit cranes soared among them, lingering in circles and occasionally letting out clear, melodious cries.

From afar, that ten-thousand-zhang heavenly pillar looked like a massive tree stretching to the heavens, and those cloud platforms were like fruits growing heavily on its branches.

Clouds and mist swirled and flowed between the platforms, making those palaces and cave dwellings appear all the more rich with immortal qi, just like a fairyland on earth.

’So this is the Dragon-Revering Sect,’ Chen Lingxi murmured internally, a glimmer of extraordinary light flashing in his eyes.

True Person Yujun brought Chen Lingxi down to the highest point of that ten-thousand-zhang heavenly pillar, landing inside a vast hall.

The hall was incredibly magnificent.

The vaulted ceiling hung high above in resplendent glory, and the floor was paved with whole slabs of lapis lazuli bricks, so polished they could reflect a person’s image.

Huge brocade curtains hung from the four walls, embroidered with dragon and cloud patterns that gave off a dim luster in the candlelight.

The entire hall was terrifyingly quiet, like a temple without worshippers. Only the candlelight flickered silently, casting shadows on the walls that shifted between light and dark.

Yet, seated properly within the hall were seven figures.

The faces and silhouettes of all seven figures were extremely blurry.

It was like looking at them through a thick layer of dense fog. One could only faintly make out their seated outlines, unable to see their actual appearances clearly.

Only that faint, elusive aura indicated that they were absolutely no ordinary figures.

Just by them sitting there, the air in the entire hall seemed to stagnate.

True Person Yujun walked up to the high platform in the center of the hall. With a wave of her sleeve, Chen Lingxi was swept up by the mysterious light and similarly deposited onto the platform.

At this moment, one of the seven figures suddenly frowned and stood up.

”The Profound Wondrous Dao Mechanism really landed on this person?” the figure spoke. ”This person doesn’t look like much.”

True Person Yujun nodded slightly and spoke softly, ”This person indeed possesses the Immortal Slough serendipity, as discovered by Yang Awakening Peak’s [Zhu Hengqu] through the Jade-Credit Suspended Mirror.” ”Immortal Slough serendipity...”

The rest of the crowd all seemed greatly surprised. They looked at Chen Lingxi, then at a figure sitting at the head of the seven.

From beginning to end, that figure had sat properly there, completely motionless.

Like a clay idol or wooden statue enshrined in a niche, it was as if everything in this hall had absolutely nothing to do with him.

But after everyone’s gazes fell upon him, the figure finally moved.

He slowly stood up.

Then, he suddenly tapped lightly toward Chen Lingxi.

Chen Lingxi only felt a formless power land on him, as if he had been gently touched by an invisible hand.

Before he even had time to react, a wave of dizziness hit him.

The dizziness came extremely fast—so fast that he couldn’t even resist.

He only felt his consciousness sinking rapidly, as if plummeting into an endless expanse of darkness.

Unable to control his own body, everything went pitch-black, and he fainted just like that.

...

When Chen Lingxi woke up again, he felt that same wave of dizziness in his mind.

He was still in a daze.

The dizziness hadn’t entirely dissipated. It was as if someone had struck a massive bell inside his skull, and the ringing had yet to stop.

He frowned slightly and reached up to press his temples, only to find that his arms felt light and floaty, seemingly devoid of strength.

Sunlight spilled in through the lattice window, warm and comforting as it landed on him. It was completely different from that dark, imposing hall from earlier.

’Where am I...?’

He forced his eyelids open.

Before his eyes was a quiet, elegant cottage. The window lattices were perfectly intact, and sunlight leaked in from outside, falling onto the bluestone floor and casting patches of warm light.

Outside the window, several stalks of emerald bamboo could faintly be seen rustling in the wind.

A desk stood in the corner. An open divine ability tome rested on it, its pages flipped by the breeze.

Not far away, however, was a girl with her hair tied in twin tails and wearing a Daoist robe. She had a cute, beautiful face and was looking at him with a beaming smile, her hands clasped behind her back.

She appeared to be only sixteen or seventeen years old. Her features were delicately sculpted like pink jade, and her eyes curved into crescents. Brimming with smiles, she was as bright and moving as peach blossoms blooming in spring.

Wearing that Daoist robe, she should have exuded an air of immortal transcendence, but the way she stood with her hands behind her back, her head tilted, and a bright smile on her face gave the robe a touch of playfulness unique to a young girl.

”Senior Brother, you’re awake?” the girl asked, her voice crisp and melodious, carrying a charming sweetness unique to a young girl.

Chen Lingxi blanked for a moment.

The intense pain in his mind left him still feeling somewhat dazed.

Looking at the unfamiliar yet somehow familiar face before him, his mind blurred.

But soon after, he seemed to remember something, and a faint smile appeared on his face.

”Junior Martial Sister Lingyu.” The name slipped from his mouth with a natural familiarity, as if he had called it countless times before.

Hearing this, Junior Martial Sister Lingyu’s crescent-moon eyes brightened a few degrees, and her smile grew even wider.

”Senior Brother is finally awake! You slept for two whole days straight!”

Chen Lingxi nodded slightly without speaking.

His gaze moved past Junior Martial Sister Lingyu and fell outside the window.

The two bright mirrors were still hanging high in the sky.

One blazing gold like a great sun, one silvery-white like a bright moon, they cast brilliant pillars of light down upon this heaven and earth.

Chen Lingxi’s pupils contracted slightly before quickly returning to normal.

He slowly stood up, the memories in his mind gradually recovering.

Memories surged forward like a tidal wave, filling in the blank spaces piece by piece.

Those originally blurry fragments gradually became clear, as if someone had unrolled a painting in his mind, redrawing his past stroke by stroke.

Here...

Here was the Dragon-Revering Sect’s [Slumbering Deer Peak].

He was a disciple of the peak.

He had fallen into a coma from thunder backlash while cultivating the Thunder Prison Heaven Great Divine Ability, and had just woken up.

Chen Lingxi narrowed his eyes.

He glanced at Junior Martial Sister Lingyu, then looked out the window at the two mirrors hanging high above, his eyes as calm as still water.

Those two bright mirrors were still suspended in the highest heavens—one blazing gold, one silvery-white.

’The Absolute Perception Divine Chamber...’ he thought. ’It still hasn’t ended.’

’Yet I have so many more memories in my mind.’

A gleam of light flashed through Chen Lingxi’s eyes.

’What kind of wondrous Cauldron Vessel is this, or what kind of wondrous Great Divine Ability?’