Wait, How Did My Digital Girlfriend Become a Sword Immortal?

Chapter 856.25: Step Forward to Die!

Golden immortal blood trickled down the white jade steps.Drip, drip.

In the deathly silence atop the floating peak, the sound was as clear and startling as thunder.

Wang Shouyi's knees gave way, and he collapsed to the ground.

He stared at the two shattered halves of the immortal corpse, his teeth chattering uncontrollably.

It was the reverence for "immortals" carved into his very bones, now shattered into pieces.

"Se... senior, you..." He wanted to look up at Chen Huaian.

But he felt the figure clad in white robes standing before him was even more towering, even more impossible to look directly upon than an immortal.

Zhang Yibai's hand gripping his sword tightened and loosened repeatedly, his expression grave.

He knew of the Cycle of Reincarnation, and from Chen Huaian, he knew of the threat posed by the Celestial God Clan.

This sword strike had not merely taken Bi Yue Wu's life.

It was Chen Huaian's declaration of war, a fight to the death against the host of celestial gods.

Only Gu Changsheng's eyes held nothing but fanaticism.

What immortals?

What True Spirit?

In his eyes, there was only the ancestor's composed demeanor as he sheathed his sword.

A Great Ascension cultivator slaying a True Immortal—such magnificence was unparalleled throughout all ages.

"All of you, get up."

Chen Huaian turned around, his tone flat.

As if killing Bi Yue Wu was nothing more than casually crushing an ant.

"You all leave this place first, return to the Kunlun Immortal Palace. Don't concern yourselves with anything else."

"Brother Chen, what are you planning to do..." Zhang Yibai started to speak but then stopped.

Perhaps it was an illusion.

He saw many incomprehensible things in Chen Huaian's eyes.

Helplessness, vicissitude, responsibility...

Having walked this journey to the floating peak.

Chen Huaian was still that Chen Huaian.

Yet it seemed he now carried too many burdens, having aged considerably.

"Bi Yue Wu is dead, the Upper Realm will surely sense it." Chen Huaian's gaze swept over the three of them. "The road ahead is one you cannot walk. Staying alive is the greatest help you can offer this Venerable One."

"Ancestor, we are not afraid to die!" Gu Changsheng said urgently.

"But this Venerable One is." The corner of Chen Huaian's mouth twitched as he cut him off, his gaze lifting towards the churning black clouds overhead. "This Venerable One fears that when slaughtering those hordes of fake immortals, he will still have to divide his attention worrying about you all."

The three fell silent.

Zhang Yibai knew Chen Huaian was deliberately speaking this way.

But it was also the truth.

The enemies Chen Huaian now faced were immortals.

They were far beyond the level where the three of them could be of any help.

Raising their strength as quickly as possible and solidifying their rear base was what they should be doing.

Not making a nuisance of themselves here.

Zhang Yibai's thoughts were very clear. When he could help Chen Huaian, he would naturally stand by his side. As for now, he could only offer a solemn bow.

"Brother Chen, you... take care!"

With Zhang Yibai taking the lead, coupled with the resolute look on Chen Huaian's face.

Gu Changsheng and Wang Shouyi had no choice but to suppress their sentimental feelings deep in their hearts.

The dragon vein's earth energy had returned to its place, and the retreat path through the great formation was now open.

The two of them followed Zhang Yibai and disappeared into the sea of clouds at the horizon.

...

The floating peak stood in solitude.

Only one man, one corpse, and one coffin remained.

The man sat upon the white jade steps, the coffin rested at the edge of the ten-thousand-zhang cliff.

Chen Huaian sat down cross-legged, not rushing to leave.

The Black Scales Sword lay horizontally across his knees. He took out that blood-stained jade slip.

His Divine Sense probed inside.

The true essence of the Immortal-Slaying Sword-Drawing Art flowed into his heart. At the same time, a cruel truth about this world was also unveiled.

No wonder.

No wonder those lofty immortals, unless descending with their True Spirit, were absolutely unwilling to descend to the Lower Realm in their True Form.

The spiritual energy of heaven and earth in this Lower Realm originated from that black coffin.

And what was buried within the coffin was a thoroughly dead corpse.

The chaotic energy emanating from the corpse, unfiltered by the great formation, contained that being's overwhelming hatred and karma towards the Celestial God Clan.

For immortals and the Celestial God Clan, this was "turbid qi."

This turbid qi permeated the entire Lower Realm. Only after being refined by the Nine Heavens Refining Profound Array into Celestial Jade Marrow and the spiritual energy within the Well of Heaven could it be used by immortals.

And those immortals who had pledged allegiance to the Celestial God Clan, because they had been under the Celestial God Clan's control from the very beginning, had a mark branded upon them from body to soul.

It was a kind of gray, ominous qi.

This gray qi did not belong to this world; it originated entirely from the Celestial God Clan.

The more an Ascender used the Ascension Pillar, the more loyal they were to the Celestial God Clan, the heavier the gray qi upon them became.

The gray qi was the dog leash around their necks.

When an immortal carrying gray qi stepped into this Lower Realm filled with "turbid qi," it was like throwing a red-hot branding iron into icy water.

It was rejection and searing pain originating from the depths of their soul.

"So that's how it is."

Chen Huaian looked at his own jade-like palm. He only had a tiny bit of gray qi on him because he was born into this polluted world.

He had already been tainted by karma at birth.

But this minor influence was nothing.

Therefore, the spiritual energy of the Lower Realm held no harm for him, but for immortals, it was a deadly poison.

This was one of the opportunities for mortals to slay immortals.

As long as they were in the Lower Realm, an immortal's strength would continuously weaken over time, and they would endure bone-deep pain at all times.

Chen Huaian closed his eyes and began to deduce and comprehend that immortal-slaying sword strike.

This sword technique had no end.

It nurtured Sword Intent with killing intent.

It perfectly aligned with the Path of Slaughter bestowed upon him by that Fierce Beast.

Only now, he only killed immortals.

According to the jade slip's description, this Path of Slaughter was divided into four realms.

First Realm: Sever the Mortal Dust. Slay the immortal body, sever vitality; can harm ordinary immortals.

Second Realm: Slay the True Spirit. Annihilate the immortal soul, shatter the True Spirit; Earth Immortals find it hard to survive.

Third Realm: Shatter the Dao Fruit. Sever the Laws, annihilate the origin; Golden Immortals meet their end.

Fourth Realm: Bury the Myriad Heavens. The sword emerges, no gods remain, the Heavenly Dao collapses.

Now, having slain Bi Yue Wu with a single sword strike, and with the Sword Intent comprehended from the Green Lotus Sword Manual as his foundation, his Immortal-Slaying Sword Intent had already entered the Second Realm.

Chen Huaian took a deep breath.

In the distance, from the massive immortal corpse of Bi Yue Wu, wisps of golden immortal spiritual energy drifted out, which he swallowed in great gulps like a whale.

That was the essence of a True Immortal's lifelong cultivation.

*Crack.*

It was as if some barrier within him shattered.

Great Ascension First Tribulation... Great Ascension Second Tribulation—early stage, middle stage, late stage...

All the way to the peak of Great Ascension Second Tribulation!

Just a hair's breadth away from the Third Tribulation.

The Heavenly Tribulation did not descend.

Within this Nine Heavens Refining Profound Array, even the Heavenly Dao was obscured.

Or perhaps it was hard to say if this world even had a normal Heavenly Dao anymore.

Chen Huaian slowly opened his eyes. The sharp light within his pupils receded, returning to nothingness.

"Not enough."

He looked at the sword in his hand and spoke softly to himself.

"One more should be enough."

...

Upper Realm.

A golden-armored immortal who had been in deep meditation suddenly opened his eyes.

"Pfft!"

A mouthful of golden blood sprayed out. Tu Fu Xing's face was deathly pale.

If the True Spirit was destroyed, the True Body would suffer backlash.

But what shocked Tu Fu Xing even more was.

The moment his True Body awoke, he simultaneously sensed that Bi Yue Wu's immortal soul... was extinguished.

Utterly annihilated!

"Dead? Not only descending in True Form, but also dead?!"

Tu Fu Xing's face was filled with disbelief.

That was a true—True Body descent. Even if suppressed by the turbid qi, it was absolutely not something ants of the Lower Realm could contend with.

Unless...

"There must be some great terror within that Nine Heavens Refining Profound Array!"

Tu Fu Xing's heart was filled with fear, but immediately after, a cold, willful presence descended into his Sea of Consciousness.

It was the Heavenly Emperor's wrath.

The moment he felt cowardice, the moment thoughts of retreat arose, the Heavenly Emperor's warning would linger in his mind.

Fail the mission, and you die!

Tu Fu Xing shuddered.

He had no choice.

"This Venerable One refuses to believe it?!"

Gritting his teeth, he took out a Realm-Breaking Talisman, a flash of ferocity in his eyes.

"Let's see just who is playing tricks and pretending to be a ghost!"

...

Lower Realm, atop the floating peak.

Space shattered like a mirror.

A figure wreathed in blazing, earth-yellow divine light forcibly squeezed its way in.

"Sizzle—"

The moment it descended, the dense "turbid qi" in the surrounding air, like strong acid, began frantically corroding Tu Fu Xing's protective immortal light.

Pain.

Excruciating pain that penetrated to the bone.

Descending with a True Spirit would never cause such intense agony.

Tu Fu Xing's face contorted, but he couldn't afford to care about that.

His gaze was fixed dead ahead.

There, Bi Yue Wu's corpse, split in two, lay sprawled on the ground, its golden blood already cold.

And beside the corpse.

A figure clad in white robes sat cross-legged.

That person had a black sword laid across his knees, his eyes slightly closed, as if he had been waiting there for a long time.

It was Chen Huaian.

That mortal Sword Cultivator.

Tu Fu Xing's heart gave a violent jolt.

The scene was too bizarre.

There were no signs of a fierce struggle, no ruins from magical treasure bombardments.

It was as if Bi Yue Wu had simply offered his neck for slaughter, cleaved apart by a single sword.

"Chen Huaian!"

Tu Fu Xing's voice was hoarse. He forcibly endured the erosion of the surrounding turbid qi on his Divine Soul. Immortal Power surged around him, a protective divine cauldron materialized behind him—he was on guard to the utmost.

"Speak quickly, who killed Bi Yue Wu?!"

The wind stopped.

The white-robed Sword Cultivator slowly opened his eyes.

What kind of eyes were those?

Calm, profound.

No reverence for immortals, only the composure of looking at prey.

Chen Huaian placed a single hand on the hilt of the sword across his knees.

He stood up.

"You're asking this Venerable One?"

He looked at Tu Fu Xing, who was poised for battle as if facing a great enemy, and the corner of his mouth lifted into an extremely faint arc.

"Clamor! Since you've already descended, why ask unnecessary questions?"

*Zheng.*

The long sword was drawn an inch from its sheath.

"Step forward, and receive your death."

...