After the Great Dao died

Chapter 17 What do you want to exchange?

Four days passed in the blink of an eye.

The two precious mirrors hanging high in the sky prove that this is a divine chamber.

Early that morning, Chen Lingxi awoke from his breathing exercises and felt that the spiritual energy in his dantian had grown stronger, like a gentle green snake lying dormant within.

With just a thought, it can flow freely through his meridians.

"Today I will go to find that candle of time."

Chen Lingxi said, "That day, Lin Su cast the Time Candle into the Yuan River, and it seems he also used something like magic to cast a hand seal..."

Thinking of this, he subconsciously tried to use his ability to see where Lin Suri was, but found that he could not use it and seemed to be powerless.

"I forgot that I am now in the shrine."

Chen Lingxi realized what was happening: "I'm already in the shrine chamber, how can I see You Lin Su Ri?"

He pondered for a moment, then shook his head, a hint of anticipation appearing in his eyes.

"The divine chamber is mysterious; it is not impossible to explore its possibilities in the future."

He stopped thinking about it, washed up, changed into his old indigo short-sleeved shirt, and then went out.

A steward from the Marquis's mansion, over fifty years old with a sallow complexion, was already waiting in front of the corner room in the north courtyard. He was huddled in the corner to avoid the wind.

When Chen Ling came out of the bathroom, the manager only glanced at her and didn't say anything. He just gestured with his lip towards the row of low, back-facing houses behind him.

"Your fellow drug slave from the same batch still hasn't come out. Could he have died inside?"

Chen Lingxi's heart sank.

He and Liu Changle were both brought into the Baosu Marquis's mansion on the same day, and they were both tested on medicine under Zhao Yong's command. Over the past year, they had spent every day together and had already figured out each other's temperaments very well.

Although Liu Changle sometimes uttered strange and unusual words, he never procrastinated in his actions, and he would never miss the routine reporting of the official slaves without a reason.

If they were truly absent, the case would be investigated by the authorities. According to the "Great Li Memorial," all the slaves in the same batch would be held accountable, ranging from being flogged to being exiled for hard labor or even executed.

He strode towards the back room and pushed open the creaking wooden door.

The furnishings inside the house remained simple.

Liu Changle's bed was empty, with the thin quilt neatly folded, as if the owner would only be gone for a short while before returning.

Chen Lingxi reached out and touched the bed board; it was ice-cold, without a trace of warmth.

His gaze swept over the few rough earthenware bowls in the corner. Half a bowl of cold brown rice porridge remained at the bottom of the bowls, and a thin layer of ash had formed on the surface of the porridge, indicating that it had been sitting there for a long time.

"Liu Changle..." Chen Lingxi murmured the name, her brows furrowing slightly.

He had a vague idea of ​​what was going on.

A few days ago, when Wang Kong attacked him in the garden, he said they were "the only two drug slaves who survived."

At that time, he felt that Zhao Yong's act of testing medicine was strange. Now that Liu Changle has suddenly disappeared, he can almost conclude that this matter is related to Zhao Duguan.

It's just unknown whether Liu Changle is still alive.

He stood in the room for a few breaths, but ultimately did not linger any longer.

The steward coughed impatiently twice outside the door. Chen Lingxi took a deep breath, turned around and left the back room, saying to the steward, "Liu Changle is not in the room, and I don't know where he went."

The steward frowned, muttered a few words, and then waved his hand, saying, "Never mind, you can go. The officials won't question the servants of the Marquis of Baosu's household."

Chen Lingxi nodded and said no more.

As he walked out of the corner room in the north courtyard, he glanced back at the direction of the rear building.

The low houses looked even more dilapidated in the morning light, and the white calyx in the corner had long since withered, leaving only a few withered leaves shivering in the wind.

Chen Lingxi withdrew her gaze, stepped out of the side gate of the Baosu Marquis's residence, and faced the chilly spring breeze.

The long street of Yuanjiang Prefecture has shed its winter desolation, and the shops on both sides of the bluestone road have opened one after another, with vendors selling steamed buns, soup noodles, and firewood and charcoal, their shouts rising and falling.

Several old willows on the street corner sprouted new buds, their tender yellow branches swaying in the wind like a young girl's newly combed black hair.

Chen Lingxi walked along the street and soon left the bustling city.

"Indeed, under the power of complete enlightenment, the area of ​​the divine chamber is not limited to a length and width of five hundred feet."

As I pondered these thoughts, I continued on my way, and soon the Yuan River came into view.

In March, the Yuan River begins to swell with spring water.

The riverbed, which had been dry and barren last winter, has been filled with the mighty spring flood. The river water is no longer the murky, leaden gray of winter, but has a clear, bluish-green hue.

The sunlight fell on the river surface, and was broken into countless golden specks by the fine waves, so dazzling that it was almost impossible to open one's eyes.

The willow-lined embankments on both sides are shrouded in mist and smoke, their new green leaves like smoke. Occasionally, a few peach trees peek out from the water, their petals falling into the river with the wind, swirling and drifting downstream.

Several egrets waded in the shallows in search of food, and occasionally a small boat would paddle by, startling a splash of water.

Chen Lingxi walked slowly along the riverbank, as if he were just an ordinary spring outing traveler.

His gaze seemed to casually sweep across the river, but in his mind he was comparing the location to the one in his memory inch by inch.

That night, Lin Su stood on the edge of the riverbank, threw the Time Candle into the river, and then drew three talismans on the sinking spot with his fingers like a sword.

Chen Lingxi remembered that stone bridge.

It was a three-arched stone bridge, its body covered with moss and old vines. The river beneath the arches was deep and dark, its color several shades deeper than elsewhere.

He walked to the bridgehead, pretending to stop and admire the scenery, but his peripheral vision had already swept over the water under the bridge arch.

There were a few withered leaves floating on the water, but unlike elsewhere they did not drift with the current. Instead, they gathered together and swirled slowly, as if something underwater was holding them in place.

"This should be the place."

Chen Lingxi made up her mind and looked around.

It was late morning, and there were few pedestrians along the riverbank. Only a few peddlers carrying loads hurried across the bridge, and no one noticed him.

He went around to the side of the bridge and found a secluded stone staircase to go down to the water's edge.

The river water was icy cold, and although it was already March, the chill accumulated over winter still lingered deep in the water.

Chen Ling took off his outer clothes and shoes and socks, leaving only a pair of trousers. He took a deep breath and circulated his spiritual energy and blood.

In an instant, two forces flowed simultaneously through the meridians, one as warm as spring water and the other as hot as molten copper, keeping the oppressive chill at bay.

Without further hesitation, he leaped into the air.

"Thump—"

Water splashed up, only to be quickly swallowed up by the river.

Chen Ling closed her eyes and sank to the bottom of the water.

This section of the river is not very deep, only about ten feet deep, but the water is dark and the visibility is extremely low.

Using the faint light filtering through the water, he struggled to discern directions, his fingers groping inch by inch through the mud and sand.

The fine sand at the bottom of the river flowed through his fingers, cool and slippery.

He touched a few pebbles, a piece of rotten wood, and even a rusty iron anchor, but he could not find any trace of the Candle of Time.

His breath was about to fade.

Chen Lingxi surfaced to catch her breath, readjusted her direction, and dived back in.

This time, he swam straight down towards the area where the fallen leaves were swirling.

The moment his fingertips touched the soft mud, he finally touched something extraordinary.

It was a piece of something less than half a foot long, made of neither gold nor jade. It was so cold to the touch that it didn't feel like it had been soaked in river water for months; instead, it had a strange dryness to it.

Chen Lingxi grabbed it in her hand, pushed off the riverbed with her toes, and broke out of the water.

He climbed the stone steps back to the shore, soaked to the bone, water dripping from his hair.

As the March breeze blew by, even with the warmth of his blood and qi, he still couldn't help but shiver.

Chen Ling didn't bother to wipe herself, and just looked down at her palm.

—The Candle of Time.

The candle is entirely black, with an ancient and simple design, making it impossible to discern the material or the patterns.

It lay quietly in his palm, like a piece of withered wood that had been washed away by the river for countless years, utterly inconspicuous.

But Chen Lingxi clearly felt a faint pulse where his palm touched, seemingly there yet not there, as if something long dormant was sensing his heartbeat through the candle wall.

He quickly dressed, tucked the Time Candle close to his body inside his clothes, and then strode into the shadows of the bridge arch.

The area under the bridge was dimly lit, with only a few streaks of light reflecting off the water and swaying on the stone walls.

The location is secluded, and even if someone passes by on the bridge, they will never see what's happening inside the archway.

Chen Lingxi sat down with her back against the stone wall, holding the broken candle of time in her hands, calming her mind and spirit.

He remembered what he saw in the shrine that night.

Lin Su used spiritual energy to infuse the Time Candle, which awakened the cauldron within it.

Although he didn't know why Lin Suri had sunk such a treasure into the river, nor did he know what the cauldron was, he was completely unafraid at the moment, simply because...

Chen Lingxi looked up at the sky, where two bright mirrors hung high, like the sun and moon.

"In this sacred chamber, even death is acceptable."

He shook his head slightly, and the wisp of blue spiritual energy in his dantian slowly circulated under his thought, emerging from the dantian and finally condensing in his palm.

The instant the spiritual energy comes into contact with the candle of time—

A sudden change occurred.

The candle, as black as rotten wood, suddenly lit up.

A crimson glow rippled from the very center of the candle, initially only the size of a pinhead, then slowly opened like a vertical pupil, the red light like a blood tide, instantly engulfing the entire bridge arch.

The light made the bridge arch appear as if it had sunk into a sea of ​​blood.

The red light reflected on the water flickered, and Chen Lingxi's shadow on the stone wall was stretched and distorted like a ghost.

"The candlelight flickers, time passes; embers fade, mountains and rivers change. A wisp of smoke vanishes, a thousand years of white bones sing a song."

The familiar verses resounded in his mind like the grandest bells.

The voice seemed to transcend the barriers of time, each word carrying an indescribable sense of vicissitude and heaviness.

The Candle of Time rose into the air, hovering between his palms.

The vertical pupil at the center of the candle opened completely, and deep within the pupil, a pieced-together face slowly emerged.

The innocence of an infant, the vigor of a teenager, the composure of a middle-aged person, the decay of an old person... the characteristics of countless age groups are presented on this face at the same time, and constantly changing, as if Chen Lingxi saw a person's entire life in just a few breaths.

Her vertical pupils were fixed on him.

In that instant, Chen Lingxi felt as if she had been dissected from head to toe.

The spiritual energy in his dantian, the qi and blood in his meridians, and every thought in his mind seemed to be laid bare under this gaze.

"Cultivator on the second floor of the Qi Circulation Hall."

Ding Zun spoke.

The lips on that face slowly opened and closed, the voice deep and resonant like the earth's tremors, each syllable striking Chen Lingxi's heart, causing his blood to surge.

"Lifespan..." His vertical pupils narrowed slightly, as if he were carefully chewing on something: "Fifty-one years left."

Its voice paused, then took on a playful tone.

"You summoned me with your spiritual energy, so you want to do business with me."

"Here lie a thousand treasures and wondrous techniques, and countless creations; you may obtain them all if you are willing to pay the price."

It paused, the light in its vertical pupils flickering, and a half-smile appeared on its face, both ferocious and eerie.

"The second floor of the Qi Circulation Hall..." Ding Zun's voice trailed off, as if teasing his newly captured prey: "What would you like to exchange?"