Wait, How Did My Digital Girlfriend Become a Sword Immortal? Chapter 856.25: Step Forward to Die!

Golden immortal blood slowly dripped along the white jade steps.

Drip, drip.

Upon the silent summit of the floating peak, that sound rang out clear and shocking like roaring thunder.

Wang Shouyi's legs buckled, sending him crashing to the ground.

He gazed at the bisected immortal corpse, his teeth clattering in fear.

The deep-seated awe for "immortals" etched into his bones had now been utterly broken.

"Se... senior, you..." He tried to raise his eyes toward Chen Huaian.

Yet the white-robed figure before him loomed even taller, even more untouchable than any immortal.

Zhang Yibai's grip on his sword clenched and released over and over, his face etched with solemnity.

He understood the Cycle of Reincarnation, and from Chen Huaian, the danger of the Celestial God Clan.

This single sword hadn't just ended Bi Yue Wu's existence.

It served as Chen Huaian's bold challenge, a deathmatch against the swarm of celestial gods.

Gu Changsheng's gaze burned with pure fanaticism alone.

What of immortals?

What of True Spirit?

To him, only the ancestor's calm poise as he returned his sword to its sheath mattered.

A Great Ascension cultivator felling a True Immortal—such glory echoed through the ages unmatched.

"All of you, get up."

Chen Huaian pivoted, his voice even and indifferent.

As though dispatching Bi Yue Wu amounted to no more than squashing a mere insect.

"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 began, then held his tongue.

Maybe it was just his imagination.

Yet in Chen Huaian's eyes, he glimpsed countless unfathomable depths.

Resignation, weariness of ages, duty...

After the trek to this floating peak.

Chen Huaian remained himself.

But now he shouldered far heavier loads, as if years had etched deep lines upon him.

"Bi Yue Wu is dead, the Upper Realm will surely sense it." Chen Huaian's eyes passed over the trio. "The path forward lies beyond your reach. Survival is the utmost aid you can provide this Venerable One."

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

"But this Venerable One is." Chen Huaian's lip quirked as he interrupted, his sight rising to the roiling black clouds above. "This Venerable One dreads splitting his focus to protect you amid the carnage of those false immortals."

Silence gripped the three.

Zhang Yibai recognized Chen Huaian's intent in those words.

Yet they rang true nonetheless.

The foes arrayed against Chen Huaian were immortals.

Far surpassing any realm where the trio could assist.

Hastening their own power growth and fortifying the base behind was their true duty.

Not causing trouble here.

Zhang Yibai's mind stayed sharp. When the moment came to aid Chen Huaian, he would stand firm beside him. For now, a deep bow sufficed.

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

With Zhang Yibai leading, and Chen Huaian's firm resolve clear.

Gu Changsheng and Wang Shouyi could only bury their emotions deep within.

The dragon vein's earth energy restored, the escape route via the grand formation now clear.

They trailed Zhang Yibai, vanishing into the horizon's cloud sea.

...

The floating peak lingered alone.

Just one man, one corpse, one coffin endured.

The man perched on the white jade steps, the coffin poised at the cliff's ten-thousand-zhang edge.

Chen Huaian settled cross-legged, in no haste to depart.

The Black Scales Sword rested across his lap. He drew forth the bloodied jade slip.

His Divine Sense delved within.

The profound essence of the Immortal-Slaying Sword-Drawing Art seeped into his mind. Simultaneously, a harsh reality of this realm unfolded.

No surprise.

No wonder the exalted immortals, save for True Spirit descents, shunned manifesting their True Form in the Lower Realm.

This Lower Realm's heaven-and-earth spiritual energy stemmed from that black coffin.

Buried inside lay a fully deceased corpse.

The raw chaotic energy from it, untouched by the grand formation's filter, brimmed with that entity's seething hatred and karma aimed at the Celestial God Clan.

To immortals and the Celestial God Clan, it was "turbid qi."

This turbid qi saturated the whole Lower Realm. Only after the Nine Heavens Refining Profound Array purified it into Celestial Jade Marrow and the Well of Heaven's spiritual energy could immortals utilize it.

And immortals sworn to the Celestial God Clan bore a mark seared from flesh to soul, imposed since their subjugation began.

A sinister gray qi.

This gray qi hailed not from this world, born wholly from the Celestial God Clan.

The deeper an Ascender's reliance on the Ascension Pillar, the fiercer their fealty to the Celestial God Clan, the thicker the gray qi clung.

The gray qi chained them like a hound's collar.

When an immortal laden with gray qi entered this turbid qi-filled Lower Realm, it resembled plunging molten iron into frozen depths.

Rejection and agony searing from the soul's core.

"So that's how it is."

Chen Huaian examined his jade-pale hand. A faint trace of gray qi lingered, from birth in this tainted realm.

Karma had marked him from the start.

But such a slight taint meant little.

Thus, the Lower Realm's spiritual energy posed no threat to him, yet proved fatal venom to immortals.

This formed a prime chance for mortals to topple immortals.

While in the Lower Realm, an immortal's power would steadily erode, tormented by unrelenting bone-piercing torment.

Chen Huaian shut his eyes, pondering and grasping that immortal-felling sword stroke.

This sword art knew no conclusion.

It forged Sword Intent from killing intent.

It meshed seamlessly with the Path of Slaughter granted by that Fierce Beast.

Now, his kills targeted solely immortals.

As the jade slip detailed, this Path of Slaughter split into four stages.

First Realm: Sever the Mortal Dust. Cleave the immortal flesh, end vitality; wounds ordinary immortals.

Second Realm: Slay the True Spirit. Obliterate the immortal soul, rend the True Spirit; Earth Immortals perish.

Third Realm: Shatter the Dao Fruit. Cut the Laws, erase the origin; Golden Immortals fall.

Fourth Realm: Bury the Myriad Heavens. Sword rises, gods vanish, Heavenly Dao crumbles.

Having dispatched Bi Yue Wu with one stroke, bolstered by Sword Intent from the Green Lotus Sword Manual, his Immortal-Slaying Sword Intent had advanced to the Second Realm.

Chen Huaian drew a long breath.

In the distance, strands of golden immortal spiritual energy wafted from Bi Yue Wu's colossal corpse, which he inhaled voraciously like a leviathan.

The distilled cultivation essence of a True Immortal's lifetime.

*Crack.*

Some inner barrier fractured.

Great Ascension First Tribulation... Great Ascension Second Tribulation—early, mid, late...

Up to the pinnacle of Great Ascension Second Tribulation!

A mere whisper from the Third Tribulation.

No Heavenly Tribulation came.

Under the Nine Heavens Refining Profound Array, even the Heavenly Dao lay veiled.

Or one might doubt if this world retained any true Heavenly Dao.

Chen Huaian's eyes fluttered open gradually. The piercing gleam in them faded to serene void.

"Not enough."

He regarded the sword in his grasp, murmuring softly.

"One more should suffice."

...

Upper Realm.

A golden-armored immortal in meditation abruptly snapped his eyes wide.

"Pfft!"

Golden blood erupted from his mouth. Tu Fu Xing's complexion turned ashen.

True Spirit's ruin rebounded on the True Body.

But what stunned Tu Fu Xing more was.

Upon his True Body's awakening, he felt Bi Yue Wu's immortal soul... snuffed out.

Completely eradicated!

"Dead? True Form descent, and still dead?!"

Disbelief twisted Tu Fu Xing's features.

A genuine True Body manifestation. Even amid turbid qi suppression, Lower Realm vermin couldn't match it.

Unless...

"Some dire peril lurks in that Nine Heavens Refining Profound Array!"

Terror gripped Tu Fu Xing's heart, but then a chilling, tyrannical force invaded his Sea of Consciousness.

The Heavenly Emperor's fury.

The instant fear stirred, retreat tempted, the Heavenly Emperor's admonition echoed.

Mission failure meant death!

Tu Fu Xing trembled.

No alternative remained.

"This Venerable One refuses to believe it?!"

Teeth grinding, he produced a Realm-Breaking Talisman, savagery flashing in his eyes.

"Let's see who dares toy in the shadows!"

...

Lower Realm, floating peak summit.

Space cracked like fragile glass.

A silhouette shrouded in scorching earth-yellow divine radiance forced entry.

"Sizzle—"

Upon arrival, the thick "turbid qi" nearby assaulted like corrosive acid, gnawing at Tu Fu Xing's immortal light shield.

Pain.

Torture drilling into the marrow.

True Spirit descent never wrought such torment.

Tu Fu Xing's visage warped, yet he ignored it.

His stare locked straight ahead.

There sprawled Bi Yue Wu's corpse, halved, golden blood congealed cold.

Beside the remains.

A white-robed figure sat cross-legged.

Black sword across his knees, eyes half-shut, as if long anticipating arrival.

Chen Huaian.

That mortal Sword Cultivator.

Tu Fu Xing's heart lurched fiercely.

The sight defied reason.

No battle scars, no shattered grounds from treasure clashes.

As if Bi Yue Wu had meekly bared his throat, felled by one clean sword.

"Chen Huaian!"

Tu Fu Xing's voice rasped. He bore the turbid qi's assault on his Divine Soul. Immortal Power flared, a divine cauldron manifesting behind—he stood utterly vigilant.

"Speak! Who slew Bi Yue Wu?!"

Winds fell still.

The white-robed Sword Cultivator's eyes opened languidly.

What eyes!

Serene, abyssal.

No deference to immortals, merely a hunter eyeing quarry.

Chen Huaian's hand settled on the sword hilt across his lap.

He rose.

"You're asking this Venerable One?"

He eyed Tu Fu Xing, battle-ready as against a dire foe, a subtle curve touching his lips.

"Clamor! You've descended already—why pose pointless queries?"

*Zheng.*

The blade slid an inch from its scabbard.

"Step forward, and receive your death."

...