Wait, How Did My Digital Girlfriend Become a Sword Immortal? Chapter 856.10: Entering the Formation!

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"Her Eminence Hua Jin, as the Leader of Kunlun Immortal Palace, you must stay to oversee it. Allow the younger ones this chance." Bi Yue Wu cast a frigid gaze at True One Hua Jin. Though only his True Spirit had descended, his immortal might pressed down on her effortlessly, like squashing an insect.

True One Hua Jin couldn't descend into the danger herself. She remained valuable, serving under Patriarch Bixi the True One. Replacing her if she perished would prove difficult, and justifying it to that cunning elder Bixi would be troublesome.

For the other Ascenders besides Hua Jin, their lives held no significance.

Instead of letting them consume Spiritual Energy in vain, using them as fodder made more sense.

Naturally, surviving the violent earth energy by sheer luck would count as their personal Fortune.

Immortals' orders, be they boons or sentences of death, demanded absolute obedience. Defiance spelled total ruin.

True One Hua Jin wished to spare Zhang Yibai and his companions from peril, particularly Wang Shouyi.

Zhang Yibai and Gu Changsheng might endure if they stepped into the formation.

Yet Wang Shouyi's entry would surely mean his doom.

Still, Bi Yue Wu had sealed her lips. Despite her eyes burning with desperation, no words escaped her.

Suddenly, footsteps echoed from behind the assembly.

Bi Yue Wu and Tu Fu Xing reacted first, turning toward the approaching figure. They spotted a man in pristine white robes, gripping a black-sheathed flying sword, his features striking and valiant, yet betraying no trace of aura. Surprise flickered involuntarily in their gazes.

Upon closer inspection.

His presence now stood revealed—a Feathered Transformation Realm Ascender.

Though his power fell short of Hua Jin's, Bi Yue Wu sensed this individual was no ordinary foe. Hua Jin might not prevail against him.

Moreover, he had closed to within a hundred meters undetected by him or Tu Fu Xing.

They were Immortals, after all.

Even if merely True Spirits in the mortal realm.

"Halt!" Tu Fu Xing's gaze darkened as immortal power descended like a towering mountain.

Boom—!

The earth cratered fiercely, gales roared.

Yet the newcomer showed little disturbance.

Soil and stone around him crumbled bit by bit, debris hurtling through the air, but he stood serene like a calm lake in a breeze. Merely the hems of his simple white robes fluttered more briskly in the wind.

"Two Immortal Elders, I am Chen Huaian, an Elder of Kunlun Immortal Palace."

Chen Huaian halted steadily before the Immortals' True Spirits and offered a cupped-hand salute.

"Just now, I overheard the Immortal Elders mention an Opportunity and Fortune inside that Great Formation. These juniors seem ill-equipped to seize such a prize...

Why not let me take the opportunity?

Lest it go to waste?"

Bi Yue Wu and Tu Fu Xing shared a look.

Fools they were not.

They recognized this self-proclaimed Chen Huaian, Elder of Kunlun Immortal Palace, as one stepping forward to shoulder the burden.

Such selfless loyalty from a powerful Ascender in this era proved exceedingly rare.

However, as Immortals, they transcended mortals. How could mere words from one below sway their decree?

Bi Yue Wu sneered, "Perfect timing. Join these juniors inside. Should the Opportunity and Fortune choose you, they couldn't claim it. What belongs to you stays yours."

Bi Yue Wu left one thought unspoken.

Without Opportunity or Fortune, death awaited within.

Chen Huaian sighed to himself.

He had aimed to substitute for Zhang Yibai, Gu Changsheng, and Wang Shouyi.

But these Immortals showed no mercy; negotiation proved impossible.

Very well.

His presence alongside would offer some protection. He'd strive to extract Zhang Yibai and the rest.

With Chen Huaian falling silent, Bi Yue Wu assumed acceptance and dismissed the brief distraction.

Drawing a deep breath, his face grew grave as he lifted the bronze compass.

Ancient runes upon it ignited sequentially, bursting into soft golden glow, resembling a tiny sun cradled in his grasp.

"Nine Heavens Profound Mechanism, obey my call!"

"Refining Profound Great Formation, activate—!"

His incantation rumbled low, each word shaking the atmosphere.

The compass's central needle whirled madly before halting.

Runes projected from it onto the ground, forming a circle that illuminated across a thousand miles.

Suddenly, golden runes blanketed the thousand-mile expanse centered on Bi Yue Wu.

Waves of runes surged, harboring mysterious light poised to erupt.

They coalesced into a radiant beam piercing skyward, breaching the Nine Heavens.

Boom—!

Beyond the Nine Heavens, the starry river quaked.

Starlight flickered erratically. Orderly orbits twisted under the invading force, like an unseen stellar web yanked asunder.

Dark golden waves radiated swiftly from the beam across the vaulted heavens. Stars dimmed in their wake, the lofty sun briefly paling.

...

Upper Realm, inside Lingxiao Palace.

"What's going on?!"

"Why has the star track fallen into disorder?!"

"Such violent tremors from the Lower Realm... who dares disrupt the cosmos?"

Gathered Immortals sensed foreboding. Divine Senses instinctively probed the disturbance's source, faces etched with shock and uncertainty.

This force meddling directly with star tracks exceeded Lower Realm cultivators' capabilities. Even typical Immortals struggled to wield it.

Atop the throne, dark golden divine radiance undulated faintly.

Heavenly Emperor Hao Tian's steady voice quelled the hall's unrest.

"No cause for alarm. 'Tis but Bi Yue Wu triggering the Nine Heavens Refining Profound Array. Resume your seats. Cease conjecture."

Though questions persisted, the Immortals held their tongues.

Yet beneath downcast lids, uneasy glances betrayed their wariness of this "Nine Heavens Refining Profound Array" and its buried peril.

...

Lower Realm, where the beam impaled the ground.

Rumble—!

A profounder roar emanated from the earth than Tu Fu Xing's earlier shift of the Demon Sealing Pagoda.

"What's this? Is the earth cleaving open?!" Wang Shouyi braced against a boulder, eyes wide in terror at the expanding fissure beneath him.

"Not splitting—the whole region is descending." Zhang Yibai's face hardened.

Flight seemed ideal here.

But an odd power gripped him. His feet rooted as if mired in soil, immobile.

Luckily, no rift yawned underfoot. Fissures skirted him, affording just enough footing.

Surface rock and dirt ripped away like by colossal fingers, sloughing outward to expose depths tens of thousands of feet below:

A colossal Underground Palace surged upward from the depths!

First emerged the dome, not ornate glazed tiles, but forged from ebony megaliths exuding primordial antiquity.

As crust flaked off, further sections unveiled.

Cliff-like walls bore colossal murals, faded into obscurity.

Dimly discernible: eldritch ancient beasts and primordial battlefields.

These images alone evoked desolate decay, lethal grandeur, a suffocating majesty.

No palace this. More akin to... a mausoleum.

A titanic barrow entombing some inconceivable entity.

Even this merest glimpse unleashed decaying aura and crushing pressure, blanching True One Hua Jin's visage, nearly choking Wang Shouyi, and sobering Zhang Yibai and Gu Changsheng's curiosity into grim resolve.

Chen Huaian's pupils narrowed faintly.

The latent Sword Intent in him resonated ever so subtly—and quivered—as the Underground Palace manifested.

The terrain kept ascending, drawing the group deeper underground with it.

Ambient light swiftly faded, plunging them into abyssal void.

Sole illumination came from Bi Yue Wu's compass glow and night pearls adorning the Palace's eaves.

Oppressive dread weighed on every soul.

Movement proved impossible; breath labored; thoughts neared stasis.

After endless moments, the quakes and vertigo ceased.

Dead silence enveloped them.

One massive door loomed ahead.

A hundred zhang in height, seemingly pure bronze, scarred and patinaed, its antiquity unfathomable.

Chen Huaian sensed forebodingly:

Should Earth Star have cycled through reincarnations unending, this Underground Palace evaded such turns.

For before this bronze portal, an uncanny sensation gripped him.

He had entered a realm severed from Earth.

Gazing upward, though descended from surface, no sky remained—only beastly maw of darkness.

The door's seams sealed flawlessly, untouched since antiquity.

Mysteries lay beyond.

Unknown even to Bi Yue Wu and Tu Fu Xing.

Their inaugural venture into the Nine Heavens Refining Profound Array's core.

Now, confronting this behemoth portal, caution and dread filled Bi Yue Wu and Tu Fu Xing's eyes.

"The Refining Profound Array stands entered, door revealed." Bi Yue Wu's voice resounded in the hush, steady yet faintly echoing. "Her Eminence Hua Jin remains. The rest, proceed within. Test your affinity with the Opportunity inside."

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