After the Great Dao Died

Two years flashed by.

During this time, Chen Lingxi traveled straight north from Slumbering Deer Peak, crossing endless mountain ranges and traversing dozens of desolate, uninhabited valleys.

In the first year, he limited his travels to the Dragon-Revering Territory. When the night grew deep, he would occasionally find an unclaimed, solitary peak to sit in meditation for a few days before continuing his journey.

In the second year, he stepped beyond the million-li borders of the Dragon-Revering Sect, venturing deep into the heart of the Nine Quarters.

Yet he never strayed too far.

He never set foot near the Moon River of the Southern Heaven Region, the muddy waves of Ehai, or the lightning of the Thunder Pool.

Those places were simply too perilous. His Early Dao Foundation cultivation was by no means weak, but countless powerhouses roamed the Great Xuanzhuo Realm, and Chen Lingxi dared not take unnecessary risks.

Thus, he confined his wanderings to a region about a hundred thousand li outside the Dragon-Revering Territory.

Over these two years, the Hidden Edge Method proved incredibly useful. It concealed his sharpness and restrained his presence along the way, completely masking every trace of qi and every ripple of Dao Origin around him.

This spared him a great deal of trouble.

Because of this, Chen Lingxi’s comprehension of the Hidden Edge Method deepened significantly.

He had already cultivated the technique to the Wondrous State, but now he seemed to have brushed the edges of the profound realm.

As he circulated the Hidden Edge Method now, he became indistinguishable from the surrounding grass, trees, and rocks.

Hardly a trace of qi leaked from his body.

Even a cultivator at the Dao Foundation Middle Stage would not see through his disguise easily.

More importantly, Chen Lingxi never stopped gathering Great Encompassing Profound Qi over these two years.

Most of the tasks he accepted from the Great Encompassing Heaven-Observing Mirror were relatively simple.

Manifesting within the Nine Quarters, the Great Encompassing Heaven-Observing Mirror revealed tens of thousands of opportunities. Among them were unscalable treasure mountains, uncrossable seas of suffering, and ancient battlefields harboring immense danger—all offering massive bounties of Great Encompassing Profound Qi.

Yet Chen Lingxi never accepted any of them.

He strictly chose tasks focused on gathering.

Whenever an item appeared, he only needed to go and collect it. He didn’t have to fight anyone, alert the local powerhouses, or trek thousands of miles.

These tasks yielded very little Great Encompassing Profound Qi—usually only dozens or perhaps a hundred strands—which paled in comparison to the massive bounties of those earth-shattering opportunities.

But they had one supreme advantage: speed.

To Chen Lingxi, that speed was the greatest benefit of all.

He once spent over a month traveling along a river known as the Lin River.

The Lin River originated in a mountain range blanketed in eternal snow, flowing eastward to merge into a much larger body of water.

Its width varied wildly. The narrow sections spanned only a few zhang, while the broader stretches expanded for dozens of li. The clear water perfectly reflected the mountains and trees lining its banks.

During the day, he slowly glided over the surface using the Cloud Soaring Technique. The Method of Qi Observation continuously circulated in his eyes, capturing every spiritual ripple and anomaly hidden deep beneath the water.

When night fell, he would find a spot along the river and lay down the Pure Wondrous Qi Pivot Array to gather the ambient spiritual qi, which he then used to secretly hook the spiritual entities in the water.

For nearly three days, he extracted strand after strand of river essence from the riverbed.

The river essence lacked form and substance, appearing only as faint blue glimmers. Without carefully scrutinizing it through the Method of Qi Observation, one might easily mistake it for aquatic plants reflecting the sky.

As these essences gathered in his palm, they swirled like captured moonlight flowing through water—clear and translucent.

He offered those dozens of strands of essence to the Great Encompassing Heaven-Observing Mirror, earning over two hundred strands of Great Encompassing Profound Qi.

Though the amount was small, he managed it without alerting a single soul.

He also visited extremely remote, desolate mountains.

These barren mountains were often shrouded in year-round mist and shaded by ancient trees. The spiritual energy there was muddled and impure, making ordinary cultivators unwilling to linger.

Yet it was exactly in these places that faint, ancient items buried by the passage of time often lay hidden.

Deep within the cliffs of these unnamed mountains, he discovered three Cauldron Vessel Fragments.

He even ventured into the Imperial Palace of a mortal dynasty.

The dynasty sat in a remote region with waning fortune. While its palaces were resplendent and magnificent, a deeper spiritual inspection revealed that the entire nation’s combined spiritual energy couldn’t rival even a third of one of the Dragon-Revering Sect’s lower peaks.

On a moonless night, he stealthily infiltrated the dynasty’s ancestral temple.

The temple was modest in size. Its main hall housed only a single statue dressed in a dragon robe.

The deity’s face was a blur of worn features above layers of carved robes. At first glance, it appeared to be nothing more than an ordinary sculpture of an emperor.

But when Chen Lingxi examined it closely with the Method of Qi Observation, he clearly saw a faint spiritual ripple flowing beneath the dragon robe.

The ripple was incredibly faint, yet it carried an ancient demonic aura so thick it felt almost tangible.

Using a secret art, he peeled the dragon robe off the statue and silently tucked it into his Chaos Pouch. The next day, he left the Imperial Palace as if nothing had ever happened.

Through tasks like these, two years quietly slipped away.

Chen Lingxi had walked through countless places during this time.

After two years, the Great Encompassing Profound Qi in his Great Encompassing Heaven-Observing Mirror had accumulated to a staggering [29,400 strands].

Nearly thirty thousand!

To amass such a figure in just two short years with an Early Dao Foundation cultivation left Chen Lingxi feeling thoroughly satisfied.

Even so, he didn’t feel the slightest bit arrogant.

He only felt that the mysteries of the Great Encompassing Heaven-Observing Mirror were growing increasingly unfathomable.

On this particular day, Chen Lingxi was traveling on the clouds.

The brilliance of two massive suns poured down from above the sea of clouds, sending ripples of light across his black brocade robe woven with gold threads.

He was heading toward a place called Chezhi Mountain.

Chezhi Mountain sat in a wide, open valley. The peak wasn’t tall, and everything above its midpoint was wreathed in a faint crimson-purple spiritual mist, draping around the slopes like a sheer veil.

Down in the valley lay a foreign stone.

The rock was only about three chi tall and completely ash-blue. It looked entirely unremarkable. Had Chen Lingxi not scrutinized it with the Method of Qi Observation, he could have walked past it ten times without ever noticing it.

To him, this trip was just another minor errand to fetch a rock.

Once he found it and offered it to the Heaven-Observing Mirror, he would earn over eighty strands of Great Encompassing Profound Qi. Even factoring in the round trip, the entire task would take no more than two days. It was incredibly fast.

’It’s just that these kinds of tasks are getting harder and harder to find,’ Chen Lingxi thought with a sigh as he collected the stone. ’I’ve basically exhausted all the simple tasks like this within a radius of a hundred thousand li.’

He was still pondering when a sudden change occurred!

A moment ago, three massive suns were drifting slowly across the sky, the sea of clouds was churning as usual, and the rolling mountains remained perfectly still.

The next moment, a phantom sun hanging high above the Nine Quarters abruptly exploded with an indescribable, blinding white radiance!

The brilliance was far too dazzling and vast. It surged from the phantom sun and blanketed the world, washing the dimming yellow sky in the brilliant, snow-white light of dawn.

The light crashed down like a torrential tide, rushing fiercely from the east of the Nine Quarters to the west. It illuminated every layer of the sea of clouds along its path and thoroughly bathed every corner of the mountains and earth below.

Countless cultivators raised their heads in unison.

Whether they were meditating in seclusion or living in hermitage, whether they were disciples of profound sects and immortal clans or Loose Cultivators—everyone felt it. It was a mighty Dao rhythm from a Cauldron Vessel that cascaded from the heavens, yet distinctly surged into the sky!

The Dao rhythm was as unbridled as a boundless ocean, carrying an unspeakably grand and vast presence. It was as if the entire Land of Nine Palaces had been swept beneath an impossibly massive roof!

Chen Lingxi stood upon the clouds, looking up.

He narrowed his eyes against the blinding white light flooding the sky, gazing in the direction of the phantom sun.

That phantom sun had hung high above the clouds as a faint, disc-like shadow. But now, it had transformed into a genuine, brilliant mirror!

The mirror was unimaginably massive, taking up almost half the sky!

Its smooth, flawless surface reflected the world, casting a searing white glow in all directions and lighting up the Land of Nine Palaces below as bright as day.

Chen Lingxi stared at the colossal mirror hanging in the sky, his heart stirring slightly.

”The Great Encompassing Heaven-Observing Mirror!”

For the past two years, he had relied on the Court Audience Heavenly Talisman he had secretly memorized during Vision Roaming. Unbeknownst to anyone, he had used it to seek audience with the Great Encompassing Heaven-Observing Mirror, trading various offerings for Great Encompassing Profound Qi.

But now, this Cauldron Vessel was no longer hiding. It hung openly above the entire Nine Quarters, completely exposed for all to see!

”From today onward, countless cultivators in the Land of Nine Palaces will be able to use that Court Audience Heavenly Talisman to seek audience with the Great Encompassing Heaven-Observing Mirror and claim its opportunities. From now on, the entire Nine Quarters will fall entirely under the protection of this Cauldron Vessel!”

Chen Lingxi stood amidst the sea of clouds in long silence, gazing at the giant mirror that painted the world white.

A long while later, he sank his consciousness into the Divine Chamber.

The moment his consciousness entered the Divine Chamber, the churning, cloud-filled void unfurled before his eyes.

Clouds surged like waves, dotted with starlight, and a line of glowing golden tadpole characters hung on the walls of the five-directional realm.

[Absolute Perception Origin Supplementation Progress: ninety-six percent.]

Ninety-six percent.

Chen Lingxi stared at that line of text and slowly let out a breath.

”Soon,” he murmured.

He withdrew his consciousness from the Divine Chamber and returned to the pale sky illuminated by the Great Encompassing Heaven-Observing Mirror.

Standing on the clouds, he lowered his head in thought.

A faint, almost imperceptible smile suddenly played across his lips.

”It seems it’s time to return to the Dragon-Revering Sect,” he said.

Without hesitation, Chen Lingxi rode the clouds and began his journey back.

He moved at incredible speed, weaving through the sunlight and clouds like a streak of light.

After several days of flight, Chen Lingxi arrived above another sea of clouds.

This area was still outside the Dragon-Revering Territory; it remained an unclaimed land.

The sea of clouds here was boundless, stretching for over a thousand li from east to west. The mist was thick, surging like ocean waves, layering over the void.

It was an entirely ordinary place—a barren stretch between two upper peaks in the Nine Quarters Realm where cultivators rarely lingered.

But as Chen Lingxi soared past on his cloud, his expression shifted slightly.

In the distant sky, there were several incredibly dense clusters of spiritual qi!

Raising an eyebrow, Chen Lingxi instantly reined in his aura and quietly lowered his cloud, slipping into the thick layers of mist to hide.

He observed carefully with the Method of Qi Observation!

’Someone is fighting?’ Chen Lingxi thought, feeling somewhat surprised as he looked at those dense clusters of spiritual qi.

He was surprised because one of those clusters was quite extraordinary.

That particular Dao Origin was entirely pale blue, with countless tiny starlights swirling faintly within it. It looked like a subtle yet lethal river of azure stars cutting across the sea of clouds.

With that Dao Origin at its core, a thick, condensed pillar of azure light blasted into the sky, acting like an open, giant umbrella that pushed the sea of clouds apart.

Looking closer through the Method of Qi Observation, Chen Lingxi spotted a figure standing upon the clouds right at the core of that azure Dao Origin. Spiritual qi surged around them, whipping their robes through the air.

It was a female cultivator.

She appeared very young and beautiful. Despite her slender frame, she stood perfectly straight, remaining unmoving in the face of the overwhelming spiritual qi crashing around her.

The spiritual light illuminated her features clearly. A faint trace of lingering youthfulness remained around her eyes, yet an indescribable aura of calm composure highlighted that very youthfulness in sharp contrast.

Chen Lingxi’s gaze landed on her figure, and his pupils suddenly contracted.

”Hmm? It’s her?” he murmured.

At this moment, the female cultivator was locked in a brutal fight.

One against five!

Five distinct surges of spiritual qi were rushing at her from all directions, converging on her azure Dao Origin.

Among the five attackers, one blazed with fiery light. He wielded a crimson spear that spat out streaks of spear light, unleashing waves of searing heat that boiled the surrounding clouds into a blur.

Another was wreathed in surging green qi that transformed into emerald flying swords darting around his body.

A third held a small black iron seal in his left hand while forming hand seals with his right, conjuring massive, iron-blue hands out of thin air to furiously swat at the woman.

A fourth was engulfed in an incredibly thick blood mist that constantly churned, faintly forming into humanoid shapes.

The fifth person hung back on the perimeter, clearly unsuited for close combat. Instead, he continuously used his divine sense to send wave after wave of profound golden runes to invade the depths of the female cultivator’s Sea of Consciousness.

The five of them worked together. Though their coordination wasn’t perfect, it was certainly airtight.

The fiery-spear-wielding leader possessed the most profound aura. He had already forged his Dao and was merely The Final Kick away from sinking his Profound Root into it. The remaining attackers were also quite capable; though weaker than the woman, they were far beyond ordinary Qi Circulation cultivators.

As for this female cultivator...

Chen Lingxi probed her carefully with the Method of Qi Observation. He noticed that while the clear, azure Dao Origin swirling around her was undeniably sharp, it couldn’t hide an extremely subtle shallowness.

She was also a Qi Circulation Peak Completion cultivator who had achieved her Dao, but hadn’t yet managed to anchor her Profound Root into it!

Fighting one against five, she wasn’t losing ground, but she certainly wasn’t fighting with ease, either.

’Facing five opponents alone with her Dao body, including an opponent at the peak of the Dao, and she’s held out until now without defeat,’ Chen Lingxi marveled inwardly. ’Such an extraordinary person... if I could take her in as a disciple...’

The thought suddenly surged in his mind.

But a split second later, Chen Lingxi snapped back to his senses.

’This urge to take her as a disciple first appeared the last few times I ran into her in Weiji Grotto-Heaven... It’s like an inner demon... like a maggot in the bone, impossible to shake off.’

Chen Lingxi’s eyes flickered as he watched the young female cultivator.

The woman was none other than Chen Lingxi’s old acquaintance from Weiji Grotto-Heaven!

”Xi Lan,” he murmured. ”Xi Yu’s younger sister from Weiji Grotto-Heaven.”

A glint of light flashed through his eyes.

”To think she also came to the Great Xuanzhuo Realm... and happened to cross paths with me by such a coincidence.”