After the Great Dao Died

Chen Lingxi concealed his tracks, watching the group.

Xi Lan had pushed her dao’s power to the absolute limit. The pale blue, river-like Dao Origin swirling around her rumbled like thunder.

She took a step forward.

As her foot landed, the sea of clouds beneath her exploded outward from that single point. The layered mist tore open, revealing a rift over a hundred zhang deep!

Simultaneously, she drew a jade-green seal from her sleeve and hurled it at the fire-wreathed spearman leading the charge.

The seal was initially only the size of a palm, but the moment it left her hand, it swelled in the wind. It transformed into a massive, glowing jade-green seal large enough to cover a ten-zhang radius, crashing down from the sky!

Before the glowing seal even touched him, the cloud patterns flowing across its surface birthed a profound mystery, freezing the fiery spear radiance wrapped around the cultivator in midair. He could not move a single inch.

The spear-wielding cultivator’s pupils shrank. Spiritual qi erupted from his body, forming a blazing fire divine ability!

But the moment the glowing seal pressed down, his blazing spiritual qi was swept up along with the descending cloud energy!

The fire borrowed the momentum of the clouds, and the clouds fueled the fire’s might. Instead of being suppressed, his surging flames were forcefully seized by the glowing seal and swept right back at him!

Boom!

The spearman let out a muffled groan. Riding the force of the backlash, he flipped backward in retreat, barely avoiding the brunt of the seal as it crashed toward his chest. However, the seal’s aura grazed the hem of his robe, instantly turning it charred black.

His expression turned incredibly ugly.

Xi Lan, however, had already seized the momentum.

She spun around and took another step.

With this step, the tip of her foot lightly tapped the clouds.

The force behind that tap seemed extremely light, but the moment it landed, an invisible mountain seemed to crush down from the heavens!

The sea of clouds within a radius of dozens of zhang violently collapsed inward, dragging a jade flying sword, blood-mist figures, and massive dark iron hands right into the collapse.

Caught in the surging tide, the jade flying sword instantly lost its aim, thrashing wildly and sending out a continuous ringing of clashing metal!

The blood-mist figures were squeezed out of shape by the collapsing clouds, their human silhouettes blurring as they threatened to dissipate.

As for the giant, iron-blue hands, they were smashed to pieces amidst the overturning cloud tide, shattering into a sky full of iron dust.

Xi Lan’s attacks grew even more ruthless.

A cloud-attribute divine ability manifested.

[Cloud Pivot]!

This divine ability borrowed the momentum of the clouds—condensing into a seal, scattering into a tide, turning into a mountain with a flip of the hand, and becoming an ocean with a press of the palm. It appeared to rely on the physical clouds, but its true foundation lay in the True Intent of the word ”Pivot” contained within her Dao Origin, allowing her to release and retract power at will.

However, cultivating this divine ability was extremely difficult. Even if an ordinary Qi Circulation cultivator obtained the manual, they would struggle to achieve anything with it.

Xi Lan had spent two full years pouring her effort into mastering it, searching for opportunities everywhere and comprehending it bit by bit.

Fighting the five of them up to this point, she remained entirely alone, yet her imposing aura had not weakened in the slightest.

The cultivators exchanged glances, a trace of solemnity flashing in their eyes.

The talisman cultivator, who had stayed on the periphery using his divine sense to harass her, stopped relying solely on mental attacks. He drew a dark red wooden tablet from his sleeve and flicked it.

The rune carved into the tablet, shaped like a winding little snake, abruptly lit up!

Buzz!

An almost inaudible hum rang out from the wooden tablet.

Xi Lan had just neutralized all their attacks with her Cloud Pivot and was about to press the advantage when she suddenly felt a sharp sting deep in her Sea of Consciousness.

Her heart lurched.

In that exact moment, the daoist cultivator with the most extraordinary cultivation base among the five violently stepped forward.

His dark iron spiritual qi suddenly surged. Bringing his hands together in the air, he interlocked his fingers and formed an incredibly complex hand seal.

The instant the seal took shape, all the spiritual qi around him converged between his palms!

The spiritual qi gathered at a terrifying speed, as if an invisible, gaping maw were inhaling the very heavens and earth.

Simultaneously, a dark iron wheel of light, a full zhang wide, condensed out of thin air between his hands.

The wheel slowly spun, its iron-blue patterns radiating light. It looked like an eternal grinding stone that would never cease.

[Heaven-Connecting Wheel.]

With a raise of his hand, the cultivator tossed it! The wheel of light burst forth from his grasp.

It spun as it flew straight toward Xi Lan.

Wherever it passed, all the surrounding clouds and dissipating Dao Origin in the air were devoured, crushed, and swept into the wheel.

The wheel of light was only a zhang wide, yet as it flew, it carved a bottomless trench straight through the vast, boundless sea of clouds!

The surging cloud energy upon it grew heavier, the gathered spiritual qi became even more majestic, and its spinning speed reached terrifying levels. It was like a grinding stone forcefully expanded and accelerated, ready to grind anyone caught within to dust.

The wheel of light crashed down toward Xi Lan’s head.

Xi Lan felt an indescribable, overwhelming pressure bearing down from the wheel, crushing the remaining jade-green Dao Origin around her until it trembled violently!

The True Intent of the word ”Pivot”—the very core of the Cloud Pivot divine ability—began to collapse under the wheel’s crushing weight.

Taking a deep breath, she pushed the last dregs of spiritual qi in her body to their limit.

She brought her hands together in front of her, and a pale blue light shield emerged from between her palms.

But before the shield could fully solidify, it was battered by the cloud energy swept up by the Heaven-Connecting Wheel. It shattered inch by inch, scattering into a sky full of blue light.

At that exact moment, the wheel of light had already pressed to within three chi of her face.

Xi Lan’s pale blue Dao Origin was nearly exhausted, but she was still fighting back with everything she had!

Right then!

A gray figure suddenly shot out from the depths of the sea of clouds!

It was a middle-aged cultivator with sharp features, dressed in an old gray daoist robe with a small dark iron seal hovering over his shoulder.

Xi Lan was dealing with the heaven-connecting cloud energy with all her strength. Her entire aura was locked down by the wheel of light, leaving her powerless to defend against anything else.

The middle-aged cultivator raised his hand and grabbed. A giant iron-blue hand condensed out of the void, snatching the exhausted, barely conscious Xi Lan into its grasp.

The giant hand squeezed shut.

Rumble!

Under that grip, the last wisp of pale blue Dao Origin protecting Xi Lan’s body shattered completely, turning into a shower of light fragments.

The daoist cultivator landed atop the sea of clouds.

He walked up to the giant hand holding Xi Lan, lowered his head, and looked down condescendingly at her beautiful, stubborn face.

”Daoist friend Xi.”

A hideous smile crept onto his face.

”If you had just willingly walked into my trap early on and served as my cauldron furnace, why would you have to suffer such hardship?”

Xi Lan’s eyes remained defiant. She bit her lower lip so hard that a trace of blood seeped from her teeth, yet she still didn’t utter a single word.

Hearing this, the middle-aged cultivator merely chuckled.

Chen Lingxi stood at the edge of the sea of clouds.

He had originally planned to leave quietly.

In this Land of Nine Palaces, sects were numerous and immortal clans were everywhere. Fighting among them was the most normal thing in the world.

As long as it had nothing to do with him, he never paid it any mind.

But at this moment, seeing that beautiful face gripped in the giant hand, bearing a faint trace of familiarity around the brows and eyes...

Chen Lingxi’s heart suddenly stirred.

’This Xi Lan is from Weiji Grotto-Heaven after all... and besides...’

He suddenly remembered how Xi Lan had once crossed mountains and rivers to find him, her shoes worn through from walking so many mountain paths...

And now, this woman was trapped in a dead end...

Thinking of this, a thought quietly floated up in his mind.

He let out a sigh.

”Never mind...”

Without a sound, Chen Lingxi flicked his finger, and a streak of sword qi instantly manifested!

Thunder-Wielding Heavenly King Sword Qi!

As the sword qi burst from his palm, the entire sea of clouds seemed to suddenly still.

The sword qi was only three cun long. It was pale gold throughout, with lightning patterns flowing across its surface, looking incredibly profound!

It shot out from the edge of the sea of clouds, moving so fast it was pushed to the absolute extreme, barely leaving a trace in the mist.

Swish!

The first sword.

It pierced straight between the eyebrows of the middle-aged cultivator currently holding Xi Lan with his left hand.

The trace of a smile he had shown for concluding this siege still lingered on his face.

Before the smile could even fade, a finger-thick hole appeared between his eyebrows.

His entire body stiffened in place.

The next instant, the right hand of his divine ability holding Xi Lan suddenly went slack, and he plummeted toward the sea of clouds below, along with Xi Lan in his palm!

Xi Lan only felt the pressure around her lighten.

Before she could even figure out what had happened, she was already caught by the churning clouds.

She struggled to raise her head.

Above the sea of clouds, another streak of pale gold sword light shot into the sky!

This sword light was no longer condensed to three cun. The moment it burst forth, it expanded wildly, transforming into a dazzling sword rainbow spanning a hundred zhang!

Lightning flickered across the rainbow as sword qi ran rampant, carrying an apocalyptic, utterly pure killing intent as it slashed down on another cultivator sitting cross-legged in the clouds!

The cultivator’s pupils shrank. Operating on pure instinct, he activated his jade flying sword, forming a dense, layered curtain of green swords in front of him.

But the Thunder-Wielding Heavenly King Sword Light cleaved right through it! It then drove straight in without losing momentum.

The jade-sword cultivator didn’t even have time to finish his final thought before he was reduced to nothingness under the Thunderous Sword Light!

Chen Lingxi stood deep within the sea of clouds, his fingertips tapping repeatedly.

Explosive streaks of sword qi continuously condensed following the tapping of his fingers. Sword after sword cut through the mist and tore across the sky, leaving breathtakingly radiant and icy trails above the chaotic sea of clouds!

Three more cultivators died in an instant!

Leaving only the daoist cultivator!

Chen Lingxi tapped his finger once more!

The daoist cultivator, who had just been chuckling moments ago, saw the four sword lights arriving one after another from afar. Watching his daoist friends die tragic deaths on the clouds one by one, his courage completely shattered. He no longer cared about the severely injured Xi Lan and turned to flee!

But no matter how fast he ran, he couldn’t outrun the sword light falling from the heavens.

The sword light pierced through the clouds...

And the daoist cultivator perished right there!

Five cultivators.

Five streaks of sword light.

In no more than three breaths.

Above the sea of clouds, the scene that had just been boiling with rampant spiritual qi was now dead silent.

Xi Lan stood atop the clouds, still in a daze.

Her clothes were in tatters, her face was pale, and the green rune between her eyebrows had completely dimmed!

But she didn’t even bother to regulate her breathing, simply staring into the depths of the churning clouds.

”Those sword lights flew out from the very depths of the sea of clouds.”

And at this moment, from the deepest part of the clouds, a ray of light was slowly retreating into the distance.

The light moved incredibly fast, vanishing into the horizon in the blink of an eye.

Xi Lan abruptly stepped forward, circulating her Dao Origin.

”Which senior intervened to save me? Could you reveal yourself so we might meet!”

”I, Xi Lan, am endlessly grateful! I will definitely repay this debt in the future!”

Carried by her Dao Origin, her voice rang out across the sea of clouds, crossing the churning mist and the light of the sky to chase after the retreating ray of light.

It landed in Chen Lingxi’s ears.

Chen Lingxi stood deep within the sea of clouds.

The Hidden Edge Method had already been fully retracted, hiding every trace of his aura in absolute invisibility.

Naturally, he wasn’t going to reply.

’Speaking of which, this Xi Lan’s aptitude is truly terrifying. In a mere two or three years, she actually cultivated to Qi Circulation Peak Completion and formed her Dao... If I took someone like her as a disciple...’

As the thought of taking a disciple rose again, Chen Lingxi shuddered.

He shook his head, scattering the thoughts from his mind, before activating the Cloud Soaring Technique to set off once more.

High in the sky above, the Great Encompassing Heaven-Observing Mirror continued to scatter its blazing white light.

Above the sea of clouds, Xi Lan remained where she was. She waited for a long time, but never received a response from the senior who had saved her.