Wait, How Did My Digital Girlfriend Become a Sword Immortal? Chapter 856.19: Hou Yi

After taking a short break, the party stepped onto the second floating peak.

This one was a palace too, seeming a tad fresher than Zhongli's abode.

Yet when they shoved open the doors, no scorching magma heat rushed out.

Instead, a bone-deep yin chill gripped the place.

The vast hall stood empty and utterly still, featuring just one stone statue kneeling solo in the middle.

The figure was a robust man.

His back stood rigid like a mountain range, while his knees sank deep into the stone ground, as though begging forgiveness from heaven and earth.

In his grasp lay a huge stone bow, its frame arched full like a crescent moon, aimed straight at the heavens.

Oddly, the bow lacked a string.

Even more bizarre, the man had no eyes.

The statue's face bore two profound, vacant sockets for eyes. Dark red blood streaks trailed down the cheeks, creating a horrifying view.

Chen Huaian halted, silently observing the stone statue.

In his sight, the atmosphere quivered faintly.

Golden characters gradually emerged encircling the statue.

[When the tenth sun hung in the sky, I saw her…]

[That was the sun, also a god, and also my wife!]

[Gods have no physical form. It parasitized within her body, looking coldly at me through her skin.]

[The god was laughing: Shoot. Kill me, and you kill the person you love most.]

[I lowered my bow, unable to bear looking at those eyes, so I gouged out my own eyes to sever the gaze with the god.]

[I used my flesh as a prison, sealing this last eye, along with her… forever in darkness.]

[Those who come after, remember: Gods have no fixed form. Wherever their gaze falls, that is the divine domain. A god must rely on a 'medium' to descend.]

[If you wish to slay a god, first sever the god's shadow.]

[Remember: A god's true body is often hidden in the place you love most or hurts the most.]

Suddenly, the script's style shifted sharply, carrying a heavy grief that weighed down through endless ages:

[I leave my broken body here, first to trap the god, second to stop people.]

[The path ahead is despair. Only those with great perseverance may proceed.]

[I have seen enough talented souls turn to bleached bones. I do not wish for the world to gain another pointless corpse.]

[If you lack the heart to sever attachments, if you lack the strength to prop up the collapsing heavens, stop here.]

[Turn back, and live.]

"Nothing! How can there be nothing?!" A muffled roar laced with bottled rage burst out from the rear.

To Bi Yue Wu and Tu Fu Xing, the hall appeared totally barren. Besides the hideous, eyeless statue at the center, nothing else existed.

No ancient relics or treasures, and no hints of any fortunes.

This glaring emptiness fueled the bitterness of the two battered immortals even more.

"Chen Huaian! Why stare at that worthless stone?"

Bi Yue Wu's expression darkened. He figured Chen Huaian was scheming once more.

"Do you believe this statue conceals some prize?"

Chen Huaian kept his back turned, replying coolly, "This Venerable One is simply honoring a true hero."

"A hero?!" Tu Fu Xing scoffed with utter contempt. "What nonsense and pretense! This hall is plainly vacant! No way forward? Then this Venerable One will force one through!"

He had zero interest in examining any statue.

An immortal's haughtiness had taught him to bulldoze issues with raw power.

Besides, his True Spirit had entered the mortal plane, rendering him supreme.

That chain bridge had stung him once, but what tricks could this barren palace pull?

Tu Fu Xing marched ahead, his overwhelming Divine Sense surging like a brutal wave. After thorough scans revealed no threats, he cocked his fist to pulverize the statue.

As his gaze lifted.

He locked eyes with the statue's hollow sockets.

Up on the ceiling, the lifeless, shadowy roof abruptly "parted".

Not rays of light.

But a stare!

Ten pale white rings materialized from nowhere, resembling giant eyeballs peering down disdainfully at this insolent speck.

In that instant, the hall's air turned solid.

"Ahhhhhhh——!!" A piercing wail of torment erupted without warning.

Tu Fu Xing and Bi Yue Wu, taken utterly by surprise, suffered the full force.

Directly facing a god invites incineration by divine fury.

Unable to perceive the golden cautions, they ignored the ban on "meeting the god's gaze".

Bloody tears gushed from their eyes right away. Beyond the glare's agony, their souls roasted on infernal flames.

Their eyeballs evaporated instantly under that "gaze", reduced to blackened, oozing craters.

"Duck your heads! Don't look up!"

Chen Huaian barked lowly, shoving Wang Shouyi's head down with one palm.

Zhang Yibai and Gu Changsheng had already bowed their heads at the immortals' first cries.

Sizzle sizzle—

A sickening burnt stench filled the air.

Those ten "eyes" held no heat, yet their stares cracked pillars and charred floors, nearly searing the void itself.

Chen Huaian realized they were now trapped in an illusory realm much like before.

Just as when he'd embodied 'Zhongli'.

This replayed Hou Yi's ordeal.

Yet it wasn't the actual 'Celestial God Clan'. Hou Yi had crafted this test to caution successors.

Fake it might be, but deadly serious.

After all, a legend like Hou Yi far outclassed petty immortals such as Tu Fu Xing and Bi Yue Wu.

"Damn you… ahhh! My eyes… this Venerable One will slaughter you!!" Pain-crazed and eyeless, Tu Fu Xing unleashed his immortal might fully.

Feeling the dread pressure overhead, he bellowed and called forth his natal immortal treasure. The mini cauldron morphed into a light ray, hurtling savagely at the airborne orbs.

But the cauldron phased harmlessly through them, like striking ghosts.

The orbs not only persisted; they flared brighter, enraged.

The "gaze" converged sharply.

Whoosh!

Tu Fu Xing had no chance to howl before half his form erased into vapor.

His True Spirit lay in ruins. The leftover half scattered as immortal essence.

Bi Yue Wu proved shrewder than Tu Fu Xing.

Scarred by prior disasters, he grasped the perils of the Nine Heavens Refining Profound Array and whipped his head away at the first oddity.

Now, detecting Tu Fu Xing's True Spirit's demise, dread iced his core, body quaking.

Chen Huaian shut his eyes, feeling the surroundings via his spirit.

At once, he mulled over Hou Yi's inscribed admonition closely.

The ten suns overhead were mere god-cast projections.

With the medium intact, the god endured eternally.

So, where hid the medium?

That golden line resurfaced: [A god's true body is often hidden in the place you are most reluctant to strike.]

Chen Huaian's initial suspicion fell to his own groin.

Then to Zhang Yibai, Gu Changsheng, Wang Shouyi.

Ultimately, he rejected all notions.

This statue marked Hou Yi's grave marker.

As Hou Yi's heir, Hou Yi became his elder, his master.

Destroying a master's statue? Utter blasphemy.

Yet blasphemy was demanded.

Chen Huaian gripped the Black Scales Sword's pommel.

"Forgive me, Senior," he whispered, wrist snapping abruptly.

Clang——! A crisp sword hum echoed like a dragon bursting free.

The blade leaped from its sheath, becoming icy lightning. Ignoring the blazing suns above, it plunged directly—into the kneeling statue's chest.

Thud—!

A heavy thud.

Like stabbing decayed hide.

From the statue's vacant sockets, thick black blood abruptly poured.

Then, a ear-splitting, genderless screech exploded from inside, rattling souls across the hall.

Crack!

The chest exploded. Fissures webbed out, engulfing the whole form.

As the statue collapsed, the ten fiery orbs warped and faded.

Darkness reclaimed the hall.

Only Bi Yue Wu's pained groans lingered from the floor.

Chen Huaian summoned, and the Black Scales Sword returned.

It clicked into sheath like striking jade.

He stared wordlessly at Hou Yi's shattered remains for ages, then bowed profoundly.

A soft golden glow drifted from the ceiling.

A ragged scroll coalesced over the debris mound.

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