Wait, How Did My Digital Girlfriend Become a Sword Immortal? Chapter 862.2: Who can...share my burdens?

The tear ripped open in the sea of clouds hung unclosed for ages, resembling a hideous wound slashed across the skies and ground.

A sword mark sliced through the nine heavens. The Four Heavenly Kings stared at that mark, their faces draining to utter pallor.

"Yo, you dodged quite quickly."

Gripping the lackluster gray sword, Chen Huaian advanced on Virūḍhaka, Mo Li Qing.

His pace dragged slowly, but it beat to a tempo nearly mirroring the Dao.

Every step provoked a groan from the nearby space, strained beyond endurance.

"You... don't you come any closer..."

Mo Li Qing's Azure Cloud Sword quivered in his grasp.

It was an immortal artifact tempered over ten thousand years, but right then, it whined in terror like mere scrap metal facing its bane.

"The sword is not used this way."

Chen Huaian whispered gently.

He lifted his hand.

No elaborate sword technique flashed; it was merely a plain, direct stab ahead.

This stab crawled at a snail's pace.

Slow enough for Mo Li Qing to track the sword tip's path cutting the air, to witness the turbulent energy swirling over the drab gray edge.

Yet evasion proved impossible.

Within his senses, across his sight.

As this sword lunged forth, the whole world dissolved.

Emptiness engulfed everything. Amid heaven and earth, solely this one sword endured. It dominated every inch of space, blocking all paths of escape.

—The Great Dao is supremely simple.

Does the Sword Dao differ?

"No!!!"

Mo Li Qing frantically called upon the Azure Cloud Sword, striving to block.

*Crack.*

A faint crackle.

The blade, crafted from this realm's toughest cyan-gold stone, turned brittle as crystal upon grazing Chen Huaian's gray sword, splintering bit by bit.

The gray sword's drive never faltered. Unhindered, it plunged into Mo Li Qing's forehead center.

The edge invaded his form, but no blood emerged.

For that sword embodied Chaos, the Origin, the genesis of heaven and earth.

Though Chen Huaian wielded just a fragment of this ancient force.

Upon entry, it utterly consumed Mo Li Qing's life force, immortal soul, and full reservoir of immortal power.

*Puff.*

Mo Li Qing's frame crumbled to drifting ash, borne away by the breeze.

The first Heavenly King, slain.

"Big Brother!!!"

Terror gripped the surviving trio.

Their mightiest, Mo Li Qing, lay dead. Though aware they couldn't rival Chen Huaian, the Heavenly Emperor's command forced them onward.

"Fight him to the death!!"

Virūpākṣa, Mo Li Shou, bellowed in rage and unleashed the Purple-Gold Flower-Fox Marten from his arms.

The odd creature ballooned amid the gale, morphing into a sky-gobbling behemoth. Its gore-filled jaws gaped wide, snapping at Chen Huaian.

Chen Huaian never glanced up.

"Annoying."

He whipped his hand sideways.

A gray light curve slashed through.

That star-eating monster couldn't even wail before cleaving neatly in half airborne.

Then, the sword glow's surplus power surged on, grazing Mo Li Shou's throat.

Head dropped, soul snuffed.

The second, slain.

Dhṛtarāṣṭra, Mo Li Hai, madly plucked the Jasper Lute. Earth, water, fire, wind converged into a turbulent maelstrom.

Chen Huaian simply strode once forward.

His figure pierced the gale like a keen blade.

He neared Mo Li Hai, extended his palm, and softly pinned the humming lute string.

*Twang—*

The cord broke.

Snapped with it was Mo Li Hai's heart meridian.

The third, slain.

At last, only Vaiśravaṇa, Mo Li Hong, lingered.

Shaking, he brandished the frayed Primordial Chaos Pearl Umbrella, backing to the South Heaven Gate ruins' brink.

"Don't... don't kill me..."

He was divine.

A Heavenly King basking in millennia of offerings and reverence.

Yet now, he groveled like a mangy cur pleading for life.

Chen Huaian regarded him. Those apathetic eyes betrayed zero sentiment.

"Since you picked up the blade."

"You must be prepared to be killed."

The gray sword descended.

Like the sun dipping low, extinguishing the final dusk glow.

*Puff.*

The fourth, slain.

The winds hushed.

Beyond the South Heaven Gate, no gods persisted.

Just four lumps of immortal power essence, thick enough to seem tangible, hovering aloft—the essence of the Four Heavenly Kings' lifetime Cultivation.

Chen Huaian parted his lips and drew a deep breath.

*Whoosh—*

The Heavenly Demon Art spun into action, swallowing everything like a gigantic whale.

Like a whale sucking water from afar, the four masses of essence were pulled in, surging directly into his body in an instant.

*Rumble!*

Noises resembling raging rivers and crashing torrents echoed from inside Chen Huaian's body.

It was power thundering; it was his cultivation realm smashing through its limits.

His aura, having just entered the Celestial Immortal realm, now skyrocketed wildly like a rocket launch.

Early-stage Celestial Immortal... mid-stage... late-stage... peak!

*Crack.*

A hidden barrier shattered apart.

From Chen Huaian as the epicenter, a boundless, grand, horrifying aura exploded forth—one potent enough to rattle the nine heavens!

That was the power of an Immortal King.

His untamed gray hair whipped furiously. Gray streams of chaotic energy coiled into dragon forms swirling around him.

He stood motionless. Still, the space encircling him kept crumbling and rebuilding itself.

Upper Realm, Nine Heavens, Lingxiao Treasure Hall.

Silence enveloped the gathered immortals.

A grave hush prevailed.

The Haotian Emperor occupied the Nine-Dragon Golden Throne. His face, typically veiled in sacred glow, now scowled so darkly that it seemed gloom might drip down.

The civil and martial immortal officials beneath quaked in deeper terror, hardly daring to breathe.

Merely moments earlier.

They had witnessed firsthand that "ant" from the Lower Realm wield a sword they dared not utter, massacring the Heaven Gate's Four Heavenly Kings with chicken-slaughtering ease.

Even more horrifying.

He was devouring immortals.

He regarded the Four Heavenly Kings as mere sustenance, refining them right there, shattering his bottleneck to ascend straight into the Immortal King realm!

Immortal King!

A pinnacle countless immortals failed to attain despite hundreds of thousands of years in cultivation?

This wildcard expanded at breakneck speed.

So swiftly that dread seized every heart...

"My ministers."

The Haotian Emperor's voice quivered, barely containing his furious wrath.

"Who can... share my worries?"

"Who can... slay this demon?!"

"I will reward them heavily!"

No response came.

Pagoda-Bearing Heavenly King Li stared down at his feet. Third Prince Nezha toyed with his Universe Ring, acting deaf. The Twenty-Eight Mansions yearned to tuck their heads between their legs.

The Four Heavenly Kings, armed with mighty treasures, had fallen so neatly. Who dared rush to their doom now?

It was no fight anymore.

It was just sending a "takeout meal" to that fiend.

"Useless! All of you are useless!!"

The Haotian Emperor abruptly crushed the dragon throne's armrest. The Heavenly Emperor's sovereign might burst out, jolting the entire hall.

"I have nurtured you for ten thousand years, and at this critical moment, is there not a single one of you who can be of use?!"

Amid this stifling tension and unease.

A voice, ancient yet vigorous, rang out gradually.

"Your Majesty, please calm your anger."

The immortals turned toward the voice's origin. An elder clad in Bagua Daoist robes, grasping a horsetail whisk, stepped forward unhurriedly from the officials' ranks.

His hair and beard shone white, brows mild and gaze kindly. He appeared as a timeless immortal free from worldly strife.

Yet every soul there, beholding this elder, showed profound reverence in their eyes.

—Taishang Laojun.

He was one of the Three Pure Ones, an incarnation of the Dao Ancestor.

He represented the deepest foundation of heritage in their Lingxiao Palace!