Chapter 199: Like a Great Sage Awakening

Chen Lingxi watched closely.

Right then, a hint of a smile touched Emperor Daye's lips.

He suddenly flicked his finger.

A streak of golden Dao Origin flew from his fingertip.

The mist churning within the deep palace parted, revealing the woman from Lotus Pool Manor bound in chains.

Locked within chains etched with runes, her aura was weak and her face pale.

When Emperor Daye's Dao Origin sank into her brow, she slowly opened her eyes.

"Look," Emperor Daye's ancient, calm voice echoed through the empty hall. "Look at the origins of these people."

The woman raised her head. Her gaze pierced the void, falling upon those Mirror Listening visions, and she watched them for a long time.

A moment later, she spoke in a low voice.

"Ten Thousand Saints Gate, Flood Demon Palace, and that fishergirl seems to be from Zhuran Star..."

One illustrious name after another tumbled from her lips.

At that exact moment, Vision Roaming shattered.

Chen Lingxi opened his eyes.

His gaze burned bright. After a moment of silence, he suddenly turned his palm upward.

In the center of his palm, a wisp of precious qi suddenly appeared—black as ink, yet radiating a profound and mysterious aura.

It was none other than the [Myriad Breeding Dao-Seeding Marvelous Lotus Qi].

For this precious qi to fully mature and birth the three souls and seven physical spirits, it required an incredibly vast amount of spiritual essence.

"The maturation of this precious qi will have to rely on the Method of Life Devouring."

Light flickered in Chen Lingxi's eyes.

The spiritual essence devoured by the Method of Life Devouring contained massive impurities; not even one part in a hundred remained. Using it for his own cultivation was like a cup of water for a cartload of burning firewood.

But this Myriad Breeding Dao-Seeding Marvelous Lotus Qi refused nothing. It devoured all that mottled, impure essence, converting it into nutrients for its own growth.

He had originally been worrying about where to find enough spiritual essence to nurture this wisp of precious qi.

After all, cultivators in this Qi-Depleted Grotto-Heaven were pitifully scarce, and there were even fewer he could actually kill and devour.

'Now that these experts from the Great Xuanzhuo Realm have descended, they will serve perfectly as resources for this precious qi.'

'This is a rare opportunity,' Chen Lingxi thought. 'Among the many descending experts I saw through the Mirror Listening Cauldron Vessel, all of them were circulating spiritual qi; none had successfully cultivated Dao Origin.'

'The avatars of these Great Xuanzhuo Realm experts will likely set up formations just as Lin Suri initially did, connecting to the Great Xuanzhuo Realm to guide even more, stronger avatars over.'

'Given time, once avatars at the Dao Foundation Realm arrive, making a move against them will become impossibly difficult.'

'I must strike first while they still haven't found their footing.'

He immediately stood up, walked out of the King of the East's Traveling Palace, and stood atop the peak of Cuojin Mountain with his hands behind his back.

The heavenly wind howled from afar, whipping at his bound hair.

In the distance, the sea of clouds churned. Chen Lingxi closed his eyes, focused his mind, and thought carefully.

Ultimately, his thoughts landed on the black-robed figure who had descended in Heqing Province.

'A cultivator from Ten Thousand Saints Gate...'

Chen Lingxi recalled that within the Mirror Listening visions, this person possessed the most ostentatious aura and the most undisguised murderous intent.

'I'll start with Heqing Province.'

Chen Lingxi hesitated no longer, silently activating the Cloud Soaring Technique.

A mass of cloud qi gathered beneath his feet, laced with flashing lightning.

The cloud qi lifted his body into the sky. Like a pale golden shooting star flying against the current, he tore through layers of clouds and mist, speeding toward Heqing Province.

The heavenly wind howled; mountains and rivers rapidly receded below.

Located in the southwest of Great Li, Heqing Province had originally been a prosperous land.

Crisscrossed with waterways and fertile fields, it produced abundant rice and silk, and had long been known as the "Southwestern Granary."

But ever since the rebel king Zhang Mozhu raised his army, it had become a battlefield. Lives were ruined, the common people displaced.

A few years ago, Zhang Mozhu's army breached Qiuzhu Prefecture, turning it into his headquarters in Heqing Province.

Now, Qiuzhu Prefecture retained none of its former prosperity.

The battlements on the city walls had collapsed in many places, left completely unrepaired.

The city gates stood wide open. The heavy doors were long gone, leaving only a hollow archway resembling the gaping, bloody maw of a giant beast.

The inner streets and alleys were desolate and ruined. Most shops on either side were boarded up; at the few that remained open, emaciated clerks sat on the thresholds, staring blankly into space.

A sparse scattering of commoners huddled in street corners. Clad in rags, with withered faces and numb eyes, they looked like a horde of walking corpses.

In the center of the city, most of the original government office had been torn down, replaced by a towering platform.

Constructed entirely from massive boulders, the platform's surface was carved with dense, eerie runes.

Those lines were a dark, bloody red, resembling grotesque bloodstains. The scent of gore swirling from them was enough to make anyone shudder.

The entire structure resembled a massive sacrificial altar.

Atop the platform right now, a red sandalwood throne stood in plain sight.

The carving on the throne was exquisitely detailed. A five-clawed golden dragon was etched into the backrest, its head held high and eyes wide open. It looked quite imposing, presumably crafted for Zhang Mozhu by his subordinates.

Yet at this moment, someone else leaned back in that throne.

It was not Zhang Mozhu.

He wore a long black robe. With his pale face, high cheekbones, and razor-thin lips, his entire visage exuded an indescribably sinister, harsh quality.

Slouching in the throne, he propped his chin up with one hand and rested the other on the armrest, carefully rolling some unknown object between his thumb and middle finger.

The corners of his lips were slightly raised in a lazy smile, yet the coldness seeping from his eyes was bone-chilling.

His aura was calm as still water, unruffled and without the slightest trace of leaking spiritual qi, as if he were the most ordinary of mortals.

But beneath that seemingly placid exterior lurked a thick, nauseating stench of blood.

It was as if the man had crawled out of a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood.

This was the Ten Thousand Saints Gate cultivator who had descended from the Great Xuanzhuo Realm.

In this grotto-heaven, he styled himself the [Demon Saint].

Below the platform, a man knelt on the ground.

It was none other than the rebel king Zhang Mozhu.

Once upon a time, Zhang Mozhu had been a formidable warlord in his own right.

Born with divine strength, he had possessed the power to uproot mountains and lift cauldrons since childhood. In his youth, he was famous throughout his village for wrestling tigers and killing bears.

Later, someone taught him an external martial method for tempering blood and qi, and his rise became meteoric. At barely thirty, he stepped into the Entering Profound Realm. With his blood and qi condensed as thick as mercury, his fists could shatter mountains and rivers, his kicks split the earth.

Across Great Li, he was considered a truly prominent figure.

Commanding an army of eighty thousand and occupying three provinces, he proclaimed himself the Heaven-Pacifying King. With a myriad of experts under his command, even the Great Li Imperial Court dared not underestimate him.

Yet before this Demon Saint, he lacked the courage to even lift his head.

"Zhang Mozhu."

The Demon Saint spoke, his voice sounding exceptionally young.

Zhang Mozhu trembled all over.

"Your subordinate is here."

"Let me ask you," the Demon Saint said lazily. "How are the preparations for the altar?"

Zhang Mozhu answered respectfully, "Reporting to the Demon Saint, the altar is prepared on the western drill grounds.

"Everything has been arranged according to your instructions. The formation cores, foundations, and runes are completely without error. I have ordered men to guard it day and night; we do not dare slack off in the slightest."

"Mm." The Demon Saint slowly stood up from the throne.

He walked to the edge of the platform and stood with his hands behind his back, looking down at Qiuzhu Prefecture.

It was dusk. The setting sun hung behind the western mountains, its afterglow dyeing the entire city dark gold.

Sparse wisps of cooking smoke in the city were blown crooked by the evening breeze, dissipating into the twilight in the blink of an eye.

He gazed at the lifeless city for a long time before suddenly asking, "How many people are in Qiuzhu Prefecture?"

Zhang Mozhu answered without hesitation, "To reply to the Demon Saint, Qiuzhu Prefecture's registered households total three hundred and twenty thousand, with a population of 1.32 million."

The Demon Saint nodded slightly, a hint of a smile appearing on his face.

That was enough to set up the formation.

"Not bad," he said softly, his tone carrying a touch of praise. "1.32 million... it is enough."

Zhang Mozhu knelt on the ground, not daring to breathe, the hairs on his body standing on end.

Right at that moment—

On the distant horizon, the originally peaceful sea of clouds suddenly began to churn.

A streak of cloud qi drifted over from the edge of the sky.

Beneath the cloud qi, flashes of lightning faintly flickered.

Pale golden arcs of lightning darted and danced through the clouds, occasionally detonating in blinding flashes that illuminated half the sky in a brilliant golden glow.

The Demon Saint abruptly narrowed his eyes.

He raised his head and gazed at the thundercloud rapidly drifting toward them from afar, extreme surprise flashing in his eyes.

Mixed within that surprise was a faint, intrigued amusement.

It was like a fierce tiger strolling through the mountain forests, suddenly seeing a reckless rabbit bounding straight toward it.

The smile on the Demon Saint's lips deepened. He sat back down on the dragon throne, propping his chin on one hand as he watched the distant horizon.

Zhang Mozhu also looked up at the sky.

He was, after all, a martial artist at the Entering Profound Realm. Although he groveled like an ant before the Demon Saint, his courage and bearing remained far beyond ordinary people.

He stood up and took a deep breath. The blood and qi of his Entering Profound Realm surged, and blood energy flashed within his physical eyes.

It was precisely the [Profound Pupil].

He lifted his gaze toward the thundercloud.

As Zhang Mozhu stared intently, he saw the clouds and mist part.

Then, he saw a person.

The person was tall and slender with a handsome face, looking to be only in his early twenties.

He wore a deep black robe that flapped wildly in the high winds, outlining a solid, lean physique underneath.

His face was like jade, and his brow carried a calm composure that belied his age. Like a famous sword hidden in its sheath, his sharp edge was concealed, yet he naturally exuded a chilling aura no one dared underestimate.

What terrified Zhang Mozhu the most were the pale golden arcs of lightning wreathing the man's body.

The lightning was not overwhelmingly fierce, but deeply restrained, wrapping around him like a thin layer of gauze.

Countless tiny sparks danced and flowed within the lightning, and with every flicker, they evaporated the clouds and mist within several zhang.

Standing atop the clouds, the man's aura was heavy as a mountain, like a deity stepping out of the Thunder Pool.

Zhang Mozhu stared fixedly at the figure, his pupils suddenly contracting.

"Chen Lingxi!"

Zhang Mozhu naturally recognized him.

Over two years ago, when he and Xiao Zhushan went to intercept and kill Crown Prince Ying Chi, he had seen this man.

Back then, in Zhang Mozhu's eyes, Chen Lingxi had just been a not-particularly-strong outsider.

But today, standing above the clouds, this man was like a massive sun hanging overhead, or a thunderbolt about to strike, sending cold sweat pouring down Zhang Mozhu's back.

'In just a short two or three years, how could this Chen Lingxi have become so strong?'

Zhang Mozhu swallowed hard.

Hearing Zhang Mozhu call out the man's name, the Demon Saint raised an eyebrow.

He narrowed his eyes. A dark light flowed in his gaze, the two points of blood-red light at the bottom of his pupils flaring brilliantly as he tried to see through the newcomer's cultivation.

He practiced an investigative technique known as the "Blood Eye Qi Observation Technique." Before these blood eyes, the depth of a same-realm cultivator's Qi Sea, the abundance of their spiritual qi, and the strength of their physical body would all be laid bare!

But when he looked at the young man in the clouds with those blood eyes, he found the man's aura completely obscured. Whether the spiritual qi in his Qi Sea or the blood energy in his physical body, both were hidden behind an incredibly profound barrier. It was like looking at the moon's reflection in water through a thick fog—hazy and indistinct.

He actually couldn't see through the man's depths.

'Now this is getting interesting,' the Demon Saint thought, the amused smile in his eyes deepening.

Just as he was about to shout a question...

Chen Lingxi took a step forward.

With that single step, pale golden lightning detonated beneath his foot.

The lightning condensed into an invisible staircase, supporting his body as he walked step by step toward the platform.

His robes fluttered loudly and his long hair danced wildly in the wind. The invisible aura radiating from his body—though masked by the Hidden Edge Method, still faintly leaking through—pressed down upon the platform with overwhelming force.

The Demon Saint frowned slightly.

He couldn't see through the young man's cultivation, yet he faintly sensed an aura that made him deeply uncomfortable.

Within that aura was an awe-inspiring, inviolable majesty, as if an ancient Great Sage had just awakened from a deep slumber and was looking down at him coldly.

He did not like this feeling.

'Who exactly is this person? With lightning flickering around him and the sharp glint of sword qi, could he be from the Thunder Pool?'

He was just about to ask when Chen Lingxi suddenly moved.

Without a single word of nonsense, Chen Lingxi took a step, and the void beneath his feet violently shattered.

A Longevity Bridge stretching across the sky abruptly manifested beneath him.

Constructed entirely from spiritual light condensed to the absolute extreme, the bridge was carved with intricate, ancient runes that pulsed with a deep, heavy brilliance!

Like a true dragon suppressed for ages finally breaking free from its chains, it carried an apocalyptic, terrifying might as it smashed violently toward the platform!

At the same time, within the rudimentary Inner Divine Palace inside Chen Lingxi's body, the phantom of Great Sage Yaotian sitting cross-legged on the high platform suddenly opened its eyes.

Those eyes were deep as an abyss, stars faintly swirling within them, as if connected to an indescribable, ancient universe.

The instant the Great Sage opened his eyes, an indescribably terrifying surge of vital energy erupted from the Inner Divine Palace, flooding into Chen Lingxi's limbs and bones like a burst dam.

An unimaginable aura exploded from Chen Lingxi's body!

In this moment, he was like a true deity descending to the mortal realm.

The Demon Saint's previously lazy expression instantly froze on his face.

He felt the aura of the young man before him drastically change in an instant.

Like a famous sword that had hidden its edge for years finally being drawn from its sheath, the sword light shot into the sky, so blinding that it hurt the eyes.

Even more terrifying, that aura contained a horrifying pressure that brought his entire body's blood energy and spiritual qi to a grinding halt.

It was as if he were looking at a true Great Sage awakening from an eternal slumber, opening those star-filled eyes to look coldly down upon him.