Wait, How Did My Digital Girlfriend Become a Sword Immortal? Chapter 714: It's all a scheme

Chapter 714: It's all a scheme

...

Chen Huaian stepped into the sword formation, moving toward the assembly while being bathed in their reverent gazes.

"Master!"

Li Qingran was the first to spring forward, throwing herself unreservedly into Chen Huaian's arms.

In this moment, the traditional boundaries between master and disciple were the last thing on her mind.

She paid no heed to how the surrounding cultivators might judge her actions.

Her only thought was that her master had nearly perished at the hands of those demons while shielding her and everyone else.

As Chen Huaian cradled the girl, whose shoulders were shaking with quiet sobs, a flicker of guilt crossed his mind—the truth was, he hadn't suffered any real harm. While the lightning from the heavenly tribulation had been agonizing and physically taxing, it had simultaneously been regenerating his body.

Through this cycle of destruction and rebirth, he had emerged from the tribulation entirely intact.

However, to entice the Five Great Demon Saints into descending, he had been forced to feign a state of critical injury, appearing to be on the verge of collapse.

The ruse had worked perfectly.

The Five Great Demon Saints had fallen for the trap completely.

Even if he hadn't put on this performance, those demon saints wouldn't have been able to flee. Still, this was far more efficient than hunting them down individually and wasting precious time.

In the silence of his heart, Chen Huaian offered an apology to Li Qingran.

The play, however, had to continue.

"Pfft—!" Suddenly, Chen Huaian’s complexion drained of color as he coughed up a spray of dark blood.

"Ma...Master?!" Witnessing this, Li Qingran was struck with terror. Her beautiful face turned ashen and her voice shook. She began frantically pulling out every healing pill in her possession, desperate to press them into Chen Huaian’s mouth.

Simultaneously, she guided Chen Huaian to rest against a nearby boulder.

"Cough cough... Your master is alright." Chen Huaian made a show of swallowing a few pills, his voice sounding thin and strained: "The power of heaven and earth is truly beyond the full grasp of mortals. Though This Venerable One emerged victorious from the tribulation, the toll on my body was severe.

It is a tragedy that I lack the strength to finish off those Five Great Demon Saints..."

Just as the words left his lips.

The remains of the Five Great Demon Saints suddenly billowed with dense, dark demonic energy.

Those were the demon souls of the saints.

As if reacting to Chen Huaian’s admission of weakness, they scrambled out of their physical shells, racing desperately toward the heart of the Hundred Thousand Mountains.

Only moments ago, they had remained motionless in fear.

But now that Chen Huaian appeared incapacitated, they seized their chance to flee.

When the demon souls of those at the Great Ascension Stage decide to retreat, no one present—save for Chen Huaian—possessed the power to stop them.

The gathered cultivators could do nothing but watch as the Five Great Demon Saints vanished into the distance.

Turning their eyes back to Chen Sword Master, what complaints could they possibly have?

The man had been broken and bloodied for their survival; how could they demand he pursue five high-level demon souls in such a state?

As for why Chen Sword Master hadn't finished them off sooner...

The answer seemed obvious to them.

Those demons must have been incredibly deceptive, masking the survival of their souls until the very last second!

That had to be it!

There was no way Chen Sword Master would intentionally allow such monsters to escape.

After all, those creatures had just attempted to take his life!

Not even a saint would show mercy under those circumstances, right?

Though the escape of the Five Great Demon Saints was a bitter pill to swallow, not a single soul doubted Chen Huaian’s sincerity.

"Ancestor, physical vessels are vital for the demon race. Even if their demon souls survived, it will take them at least a century to manifest new bodies... They cannot pose a significant threat for now. You have already done more than enough today."

Zhang Mengchu spoke with deep conviction, his gaze then sweeping across the crowd with a sharp, warning intensity.

If anyone dared to utter a word of dissent, he was prepared to strike them down on the spot.

Fortunately, no such voice arose.

With their lives intact and their Sects preserved, the escape of five souls was a small price to pay.

"This Venerable One... is restless..." Chen Huaian sighed, a sharp glint appearing in his eyes: "With Tu Shan Yue having achieved the status of a demon immortal, these demon saints might find a way to recover their forms much faster with her aid. As long as they draw breath, the Sects of the Cangyun Realm remain in peril...

While This Venerable One has reached the Second Tribulation of the Great Ascension Stage, those demons will avoid a direct confrontation with me.

My concern is that they will target the smaller and medium-sized Sects. In truth, even the great Sects might struggle to repel them.

I cannot be everywhere at once to defend against the hit-and-run tactics of these Five Great Demon Saints..."

As he finished, a heavy silence fell over the group, their faces darkening with worry.

Indeed, Tu Shan Yue was now a demon immortal.

With such a powerful patron, those demon saints wouldn't simply vanish.

Once they recovered and regained their physical forms, they would undoubtedly return for vengeance.

If they waited for an attack before calling for Chen Sword Master, it would be far too late!

But how could they solve this?

Should they install the Moon Shadow Sect’s teleportation arrays in every Sect to call for aid?

That would require massive amounts of gold, labor, and time. The demons would likely strike before the first stone was laid.

Li Qingran, still held in Chen Huaian's arms, suddenly stiffened.

She couldn't detect even a hint of a weakened aura from her master.

While the other cultivators were fooled, she was his Dao companion; their souls were intertwined, making her perception of him incredibly keen.

—Master was not injured at all.

But if he was perfectly fine, why was he playing the part of a dying man?

Li Qingran peeked up and caught Chen Huaian giving her a subtle, knowing wink.

Connecting that look with his dire warnings...

Li Qingran realized the truth.

"Awoo!" She pressed her face into Chen Huaian’s chest, hiding her expression from the others, and gave his chest a sharp, secret bite.

Her arms tightened around him with renewed force.

It was as if she were trying to squeeze him into a thin noodle.

Master was plotting once again!

How devious!

He had let those Five Great Demon Saints escape on purpose!

As for his motive, it quickly became clear to her.

To put it simply, if the Five Great Demon Saints were dead and buried, the various Sects of the Cangyun Realm would lose their common enemy and return to being a fractured mess.

After today's brush with extinction, the fear of the demon race was at an all-time high.

As long as the Five Great Demon Saints remained a looming threat capable of returning at any moment...

The various Sects would have no choice but to band together for survival.

Since only Master could stand against such foes, these alliances would naturally revolve around the Moon Shadow Sect.

Master could then use their need for protection to slowly absorb and unify these factions, eventually bringing the entire Cangyun Realm under one banner. When that day came, only the Moon Shadow Sect would remain.

Li Qingran understood his ambition to unite the realm.

She knew Chen Huaian had to return to Earth Star and couldn't stay in the Cangyun Realm forever.

The most effective way to ensure the safety of the Moon Shadow Sect was to make it the undisputed authority of the world.

With loyal experts like Zhang Mengchu and Li Ziping in charge of a unified realm, the Sect would be secure. Only then could Master treat this place as a safe harbor while he focused on the crisis threatening Earth Star.

Li Qingran saw the logic in it all.

She understood his vision perfectly.

But...

He still shouldn't have lied to his own disciple!

Did he have any idea how terrified and heartbroken she had been?

The more she dwelled on it, the more annoyed she became.

Awoo! She bit him again.

This time, she didn't hold back at all.

She was paying him back for every time he had bitten her!

...