After the Great Dao Died

A wisp of golden light gently wrapped around Chen Lingxi’s consciousness. It felt like sinking into deep water, or plunging into the clouds.

When his vision brightened once more, he found himself suspended within a vast hall.

The domed ceiling arched incredibly high, resplendent with gold and jade. Deep within the hall stood a raised platform forged entirely from a single block of lapis lazuli.

A man sat upright upon the platform.

He simply sat there quietly, yet his appearance perfectly embodied the phrase ”peerlessly handsome.”

He wore a snow-white brocade robe cinched at the waist with a jade belt.

Illuminated by the radiance within the hall, the robe cast an incredibly faint and soft halo, appearing exceptionally profound.

His eyebrows swept like distant mountains, his eyes seemed to hold stars, his nose was straight, and the lines of his lips were sharply defined. His skin was so pale it was almost transparent, yet it exuded an indescribable noble air. He looked like a jade statue carved to perfection by a master artisan, with only the faint, nearly imperceptible qi of his breath gently circulating.

This man was none other than the Sixth Prince of the Great Constellation Dragon Palace...

Chan Zhaofu!

However, what truly caught Chen Lingxi’s attention was not the man’s face.

Through Chan Zhaofu’s eyes, he saw a true dragon.

The dragon was not inside the hall.

It lay within a vast, boundless void. Its body stretched on for an unknown number of tens of thousands of miles, like an endless mountain range spanning some unnamed depth.

Its scales were the color of cyan-gold, each one the size of a mountain. Faint streaks of dark golden light drifted through the gaps between the scales, pulsing erratically like veins of earth fire suppressed beneath them.

The dragon’s head was even more astonishing!

Raised high, its twin horns jutted diagonally from its forehead. They looked like coral or withered branches, shimmering with a wondrous dao radiance.

Its eyes were half-closed, the heavy eyelids drooping as if it had been asleep for countless tens of thousands of years. Yet, the sliver of light leaking through that narrow slit was so intense that no one would dare look directly at it.

At this moment, Chan Zhaofu was sitting cross-legged on the high platform with his eyes closed, visualizing this true dragon.

His breathing was slow and drawn out. With every breath he took, his chest and abdomen barely rose or fell; only a wisp of qi in his throat lingered endlessly like a continuous thread of silk.

With every bit he visualized, the true dragon in the void seemed to grow a fraction more solid, and the dark golden light flowing across its scales brightened slightly.

’I have no idea how powerful this true dragon is... it is highly likely the master of the Great Constellation Dragon Palace.’

’A True Lord true dragon!’

Chen Lingxi felt a surge of excitement.

Through the eyes of Vision Roaming, he clearly saw the many details of this true dragon.

’The patterns on every scale along this dragon’s spine aren’t ordinary scale textures, but naturally formed talismans.’

Chen Lingxi grew even more astounded as he looked closer.

The talismans were incredibly small, nearly indistinguishable to the naked eye. Yet, when Chan Zhaofu’s visualization power landed on them, they quietly lit up. They flickered on and off, as if resonating across a vast distance with something incredibly ancient.

He also noticed five dragon claws hidden beneath its belly. The cold gleam at the tips of the claws was restrained, yet it felt as though if those sharp claws were to reach out, they could easily tear a mountain apart.

He saw the dragon’s spine, bulging section by section, as if an invisible mountain range coiled across its back. Every joint of the spine harbored a heavy, bottomless clump of power.

He could even vaguely sense the true dragon’s heartbeat.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

’Is this the physical body of a True Lord?’ Chen Lingxi’s breath caught slightly.

He had seen quite a few powerful cultivators since he began cultivating.

But this true dragon was different.

It could not be described by the mere word ”powerful.”

It lay there as though the entirety of heaven and earth were nothing but a nest for it to curl up in.

If it opened its eyes, the sun and moon would lose their brilliance; if it rolled over, the mountains and rivers would shatter.

This was a True Lord.

Chen Lingxi’s consciousness gently rippled in that moment, as if something had been touched.

His mind stirred, and his thoughts abruptly sank into the Inner Divine Palace within his body.

The palace remained crude, containing only a single room and a single hall with bluestone walls, completely devoid of any splendor.

Upon the high platform in the hall, a Great Sage sat cross-legged.

It was indeed [Great Sage Yaotian]!

This Great Sage was boundlessly powerful. Even though it was merely a phantom, and even though it just sat there quietly, it naturally radiated an awe-inspiring presence that made heaven and earth bow in submission.

Yet, his face was blurred, and his figure was reduced to a vague silhouette, impossible to see clearly, as if separated by layers of thick fog.

’This Great Sage Yaotian is likely even stronger than a True Lord... what a pity... I can’t see the Great Sage’s true face. What I can visualize is nothing but the surface.’

Chen Lingxi felt a sense of regret.

The Great Sage’s face and the qi circulating around him seemed shrouded behind a veil that could never be lifted.

The deeper he visualized, the thicker the veil became.

He gently exhaled a breath of stale air and temporarily suppressed the thought.

The True Edict of Approaching the Dao was a visualization method.

It involved visualizing a deity, inviting it to reside in the Inner Divine Palace, and using the deity’s qi to reconstruct one’s physical body and bolster one’s own strength.

Having cultivated the True Edict of Approaching the Dao up to now, he was already deeply familiar with its essence.

And that Great Sage Yaotian was precisely the blurred projection recorded within the True Edict of Approaching the Dao technique!

This incomplete, almost unidentifiable shadow was carved deep within the technique.

If a cultivator practicing the True Edict of Approaching the Dao had no other option, they could only visualize this blurred phantom of the Great Sage.

However, as his cultivation deepened day by day, Chen Lingxi increasingly realized that the projection of Great Sage Yaotian was far too blurry.

A blurry visualization target meant blurry qi and blurry empowerment.

Because of this, his progress in the True Edict of Approaching the Dao had always been sluggish. After cultivating the various mystic mechanisms of the Palace Knocking Realm, it had been difficult to make even an inch of progress.

Great Sage Breathing, Heaven-Inviting Momentum, Palace-Knocking Finger, and Great Sage Precious Phase were undeniably powerful. Yet, compared to his Dao Foundation divine abilities, their manifold might had gradually leveled out over time.

’When I was at the 9th Layer of Qi Circulation, I could rely on the empowerment of the True Edict of Approaching the Dao to defeat cultivators at the 10th or even 11th Layer. But now, the might of the True Edict of Approaching the Dao is inferior to the Immortal Smiting Thunder Pool, let alone the Jade Tiger Rebellious Sea Sword Light.’

This profound technique, the True Edict of Approaching the Dao, was slowly losing its luster simply because he was constantly visualizing an indistinct target.

But now...

Chen Lingxi’s thoughts grew more concentrated.

’Through Chan Zhaofu’s eyes, I have truly seen the true body of this true dragon.’

’So clearly that I can even sense the flow of qi in every part of its body!’

He took a deep breath.

’Rather than visualizing Great Sage Yaotian, whom I will never be able to see clearly, it would be better to... visualize this true dragon into my Inner Divine Palace.’

As he thought, he used Chan Zhaofu’s perspective to gaze at the true dragon lying deep in the void.

He thoroughly memorized every single detail of this true dragon, firmly engraving them into his heart without daring to miss a single thing.

The curvature of the dragon’s head, the branching of its horns, the droop of its whiskers...

The size, texture, and arrangement of each dragon scale, and the dark golden light drifting between the gaps...

The undulation of the dragon’s spine, the hiding and revealing of its five claws, the posture of its tail coiled deep in the void...

Chen Lingxi even tried to feel the rhythm of the true dragon’s breathing...

’It’s actually so profound.’

Chen Lingxi’s eyes gradually cleared and brightened.

He watched like this for a long time.

Until the golden halo above suddenly trembled, and the scene within the void began to distort and shatter.

With that, Vision Roaming shattered.

Chen Lingxi’s consciousness returned to his own body. He felt a slight throbbing in his temples, but he could not afford to care.

He closed his eyes almost impatiently, unfolding every detail of the true dragon he had just memorized in his mind and visualizing it over and over again.

Sitting cross-legged deep within the Water Curtain Cave, his breathing gradually grew longer and deeper with his visualization.

As he breathed in and out, the wisp of qi in his throat carried a faint, indescribable low rumble, as if some gargantuan entity were slowly turning over beneath the earth.

Several days passed. Yuan Lingyu came by once.

Holding a porcelain bottle, she had intended to visit her senior brother, but she stopped far outside the cave dwelling.

She saw the cave dwelling wrapped in an extremely faint flow of Dao Origin, tightly sealing the inside from the outside, as if an invisible barrier stood behind the water curtain.

Knowing her senior brother was cultivating, she did not disturb him and turned away.

Time quietly slipped by in this manner.

More than ten days vanished in the blink of an eye.

For those ten-plus days, the phantom of the true dragon lingered constantly within his Sea of Consciousness, being visualized, traced, and branded into his mind over and over again.

After those ten-plus days, the changes finally began to manifest!

The essence and qi of his physical body were already incredibly abundant, but now, as if drawn by something, they began to gather, compress, and condense deep within the Inner Divine Palace.

Under the washing of this essence and qi, his flesh, fascia, and bones underwent subtle yet firm changes, inch by inch.

As he breathed, a very faint cyan-gold luster began to shimmer across his entire body, like dragon scales reflecting the light of the sky.

His spine gradually straightened, and the lines at his shoulder blades bulged slightly, resembling the protruding joints on that dragon’s spine.

Until this day, when he suddenly opened his eyes!

’I’ve already cultivated the Palace Knocking Realm, the first level of the True Edict of Approaching the Dao, to its absolute limit. Now, with the empowerment of this true dragon’s precious phase, I can break through!’

He sensed the Inner Divine Palace inside his body!

The originally crude single room and hall were actually undergoing a transformation!

Intricate patterns slowly surfaced on the walls of the palace, resembling scales and talismans. They climbed up layer upon layer, as if an invisible palace were growing out from within.

That palace was currently undergoing [Palace Building].

Chen Lingxi felt an unprecedentedly majestic power erupt from the depths of that palace, flooding through his limbs and bones!

His essence and qi became overwhelmingly abundant as surging essence energy erupted from his entire body.

His physical strength and the toughness of his body skyrocketed at a speed he could clearly perceive!

This was the [Palace Building] Realm.

And what he had visualized into his palace was not the blurred Great Sage Yaotian, but this cyan-gold true dragon!

’The second level of the True Edict of Approaching the Dao, the [Palace Building] Realm, is complete!’

Chen Lingxi’s eyes filled with pleasant surprise as he carefully sensed the [True Dragon Mystic Mechanism]!

This mystic mechanism was named...

[Dragon Transformation]!

Chen Lingxi slowly stood up, feeling as though his body was no longer the same one from ten-plus days ago!

He clenched his fists, feeling the unprecedented power within his grasp, and a smile tugged at the corners of his lips.

’The mystic mechanism of this Great Constellation true dragon... is extraordinary indeed.’

’With this mystic mechanism, my killing power has vastly increased!’

Amidst his pleasant surprise, Chen Lingxi began to sort out his current foundation!

By now, the many divine abilities and techniques he cultivated had already stacked up to the point where even he sometimes needed to take a careful inventory.

The absolute core among them was naturally the Thunder Prison Heaven Great Divine Ability.

’I have already cultivated an offensive Great Divine Ability like Thunder Prison Heaven to its absolute limit.’

Chen Lingxi pondered carefully.

He had successfully cultivated this divine ability, achieving the [Immortal Smiting Thunder Pool] mystic mechanism.

The Immortal Smiting Thunder Pool could overcome all laws. Once spread out, it was like a thunder prison suspended in the sky, crushing everything within a radius of several miles into fine powder. It also contained numerous bolts of lightning that could empower sword light and divine abilities, making it incredibly profound.

Later on, his Profound Root transformed into a tree, yielding the [Thunder Prison Immortal Eye] mystic mechanism.

The immortal eye hovered between his eyebrows. Wherever its pupil light reached, all things stagnated, as if the most tyrannical beam of lightning between heaven and earth were contained within that single glance.

And later still, his Profound Root bore a Wondrous Fruit, fully perfecting the Early Dao Foundation realm.

Within that Wondrous Fruit, a highly extraordinary offensive mystic mechanism for the Thunder Prison Heaven Great Divine Ability was naturally born!

[Great Prison Furnace].

This mystic mechanism condensed the entire thunder prison into a single furnace. Ten thousand bolts of lightning would refine together within it, melting down absolutely anything that entered.

Its might was so massive that even he had not yet fully comprehended it.

’It’s just that, even now, I have yet to encounter an opponent who can force me to unleash this mystic mechanism, so I’ve never used it.’

At this thought, Chen Lingxi’s consciousness once again dipped into his Chaos Pouch.

Deep within the Chaos Pouch, a spiritual artifact was shining brilliantly.

This was a six-layered glazed Treasure Pagoda—the Return to Void Sword Pagoda.

Ever since he arrived in the Great Xuanzhuo Realm, he had continuously nourished the Return to Void Sword Pagoda with his own sword qi.

He threw numerous Jade Tiger Rebellious Sea Sword Lights and the thunder-sound sword lights of the Twelve Chimes of the Heavenly Drum into the pagoda. He allowed the pagoda’s Sword Tomb to devour them and the Sword Furnace to refine them, day after day, without a single interruption.