Wait, How Did My Digital Girlfriend Become a Sword Immortal? Chapter 684: Appearance of a Strange Beast

After Lin Fan and Chen Niu departed, an eerie stillness descended upon the entire basin.

The numerous sect Ascenders, who had previously watched with greedy eyes, were now either deceased or had fled the scene.

None dared to continue lusting after the Celestial Jade Marrow.

The basin's core lay in utter disarray, a pungent mixture of blood and scorched earth hanging heavy in the air.

Hua Jin the True One sat rigidly on a rock, her face pale, her gaze somewhat vacant, her fingers unconsciously tracing the jade bones along the edge of her folding fan.

Wang Shouyi stood vigilantly nearby, observing her with profound concern, his lips parting as if to speak, yet hesitating lest he disturb her contemplation.

"Your Eminence..." he eventually uttered, his voice barely a whisper.

Hua Jin the True One abruptly jolted back to awareness, her eyes sharpening, flashing first with shame and irritation at her disheveled state being noticed, then swiftly transitioning into deep exhaustion and an almost paranoid vigilance.

Despite extensive consideration, Hua Jin the True One remained profoundly unsettled.

Rather than idly speculate on potential attempts to seize the final emergence of Celestial Jade Marrow, proactive preparation seemed the wiser course.

Her gaze was fixed intently on the basin's center, where the purple-gold halo began to coalesce once more, denser and more viscous than any prior manifestation, almost revealing dark golden hues within the purple. This radiant spectacle ignited within her both profound elation and intense unease.

Its sheer abundance was abnormal.

"There can be no further missteps!" she gritted through clenched teeth, seemingly addressing Wang Shouyi, yet primarily speaking to herself.

The terrifying vision of that dreadful sword cultivator's ten thousand swords roaring in unison, and the subsequent silent yet mountain-shattering Sword Intent, were seared deep into her Divine Soul like branding marks. She absolutely refused to become an object of ridicule and defeat again, especially not with this ultimate opportunity within reach.

With Wang Shouyi's aid, Hua Jin the True One nearly depleted her entire stock of array disks and single-use restriction talismans from her Storage Pouch. Streams of light, some brilliant and others dim, shot from her hands, precisely embedding themselves into the ground, the air, and even the periphery of the churning purple-gold halo at the basin's heart.

Layer upon layer of translucent light membranes silently unfurled, resembling inverted crystal bowls, enveloping the area where the marrow was about to materialize in multiple protective layers.

Runes shimmered across the light membranes, emitting auras of confinement, deceleration, and deflection.

The air became dense with Spiritual Energy threads, almost imperceptible to the naked eye, weaving together into a deadly snare.

At several concealed Formation Cores, potent Thunderfire Talismans and ice-sealing talismans lay buried; their activation would trigger a destructive chain reaction.

She even went so far as to expend her Vital Essence, establishing a "Body Shift and Shadow Exchange" restriction between herself and the core area, guaranteeing instant teleportation at the critical moment.

Upon completing these elaborate preparations, fine beads of sweat already adorned Hua Jin the True One's forehead, and her breathing was somewhat ragged.

She surveyed the basin's core, now enshrouded in multiple layers of restrictions, resembling a dragon's den or a tiger's lair, a flicker of ferocity and... a barely discernible, almost pathological sense of security gleaming in her eyes.

Hehe...

Let us see this time.

Who could possibly contend with her now!

Soon, she would directly teleport there and shield the Celestial Jade Marrow with her very body!

"With Senior Zhang's formidable formation suppressing space on the periphery, and my Heavenly Net in the inner layer... unless that terrifying Sword Maniac returns..." she mused silently, unconsciously touching the strands of hair severed by the invisible Sword Qi, her heart still trembling with residual fear, "Otherwise, no one can lay a hand on my Celestial Jade Marrow again!"

Chen Huaian stood at the edge of the grand formation, silently observing Hua Jin the True One's meticulous actions.

The layered restrictions, in his experienced eyes, were riddled with flaws, yet he refrained from speaking out or immediately summoning Li Qingran.

For one, these restrictions could indeed pose some challenge; for another, witnessing Hua Jin the True One's desperate efforts to set them up, he inexplicably felt... a need to preserve some semblance of hope for her, to grant her a chance that "seemed poised for success."

After all, should the blow be too devastating, what if she completely broke down and abandoned the practice of the Heavenly Demon Art?

Buzz——!!!

The purple-gold halo at the basin's heart finally reached its zenith, no longer manifesting as a pillar of light, but rather churning and boiling like viscous purple-gold magma.

A surge of majestic Spiritual Energy, ten times more refined and concentrated than ever before, erupted abruptly, carrying an ancient and profound rhythm that caused the entire basin to resonate and tremble.

It is coming!

Hua Jin the True One's spirit instantly became acutely tense, her entire focus riveted on the core area.

Clear light pulsed from the folding fan in her hand, poised to activate the restrictions and the Body Shift and Shadow Exchange at any given moment.

Pop! Pop! Pop!

Three soft sounds, akin to bursting bubbles.

Three exquisite Celestial Jade Marrows, each surpassing previous ones in size, utterly crystal clear, seemingly containing flowing liquid purple-gold galaxies within them, slowly emerged from the viscous halo—their emitted spiritual light almost illuminating the entire night sky.

Three pieces!

Completely unspoiled!

Evidently of superior quality, and right before her very eyes!

Hua Jin the True One's heart nearly burst from her chest.

Unbridled joy instantly eclipsed all unease, even causing her to disregard the extremely faint yet heart-palpitating abnormal fluctuations emanating from deep within the purple-gold halo.

"Mine! Finally, they can be mine!" She unhesitatingly activated the "Body Shift and Shadow Exchange" formation.

Her figure instantly blurred, on the verge of appearing beside the nearest marrow.

However, just as her form was about to solidify—

"ROAR——!!!"

A heaven-shaking, earth-shattering roar, as if originating from the very depths of the earth, from the boiling purple-gold halo itself, suddenly exploded.

This roar carried primeval ferocity, brutality, and a terrifying pressure composed purely of refined Spiritual Energy, instantly shattering Hua Jin the True One's joyous mental defenses, which had only moments ago been so robust.

Boom!!!

The viscous purple-gold halo suddenly exploded outwards, then rapidly collapsed inward and condensed.

A claw.

A colossal claw, purely condensed from the most refined purple-gold Celestial Jade Marrow, emerged without warning from the epicenter of the halo's collapse.

The claw was perfectly crystal clear, gleaming with a precious light, yet it radiated a terrifying power seemingly capable of rending all existence.

The instant the claw appeared, the space before Hua Jin the True One shattered like fragile crystal.

The confinement light membranes, the Spiritual Energy threads, the hidden thunder and dark fire she had meticulously arranged... before this claw, they vanished like soap bubbles in sunlight, dissipating without even a sound.

Time seemed to halt.

The wild joy on Hua Jin the True One's face had not yet faded, but her eyes were already consumed by horror and bewilderment.

Her half-solidified figure was directly in the path of the emerging claw.

Smack! A dull, impactful sound.

Hua Jin the True One was sent flying backward like a kite with its string severed, her protective clear light instantly shattering, blood gushing wildly from her mouth, her entire being transforming into a blurry afterimage hurtling backward faster than she had arrived!

She slammed hard into the mountain wall at the basin's edge, hundreds of feet away, deeply embedding herself into it, as rubble from the mountain wall clattered down.

The purple-gold halo completely dispersed.

Revealing the entity within.

It was a monstrous creature, a magnificent lion seemingly sculpted from flawless purple-gold crystal, yet far grander and more imposing than any ordinary lion! Its entire body shimmered with liquid treasure light, its contours exuding power and wild elegance. Its massive head was slightly uplifted, its eye sockets containing two leaping purple-gold flames like concentrated stars, coldly surveying the devastated basin.

It paid no heed to Hua Jin the True One, embedded in the mountain wall, her fate uncertain.

The head, formed of refined marrow, subtly turned, opening its enormous maw.

It gently inhaled towards the nearest premium Celestial Jade Marrow floating in the air.

Whoosh!

That marrow, containing vast quantities of refined Spiritual Energy, completely powerless to resist, transformed into a stream of light and vanished into its magnificent purple-gold mouth.