Wait, How Did My Digital Girlfriend Become a Sword Immortal? Chapter 793: Bad luck

"Did you catch the news? There's this amazing Artifact Refiner at the Kunlun Immortal Palace giving away elite spiritual artifact flying swords completely free of charge!"

"You're joking, right? No way is that real!"

"I was skeptical too initially, but my junior brother snagged one himself! His cultivation's so low he can't even wield it right, so he just straps it to his belt for bragging rights! He's parading it all over the place now. Consider this—even a pushover like him scored one, so it must be legit!"

"Damn, that makes sense! Come on, let's rush to the Kunlun Immortal Palace and see for ourselves!"

Talks like these buzzed across the various Ascender sects in the Hua area of Earth Star.

At first, such an outlandish story would have been dismissed outright, yet the growing number of Ascenders returning with premium spiritual artifact flying swords made it impossible to brush off.

And it wasn't merely one blade per individual, but often two or three apiece.

This surge naturally drew even greater crowds of Ascenders toward the Kunlun Immortal Palace in pursuit of their own blades.

Within mere hours, the space beyond the Kunlun Immortal Palace brimmed with followers from Ascender sects, the stone path almost trampled smooth from the endless stream of visitors.

Chen Huaian had arranged a simple table upon the vast thousand-zhang stone stairs of the Kunlun Immortal Palace, while Hua Jin the True One lingered nearby, her expression twisted in distress.

The notion to distribute the swords came from Chen Huaian, and the blades were his to command as well. Thus, she stood by powerless as exquisite swords were passed out one by one outside the Kunlun Immortal Palace.

She'd attempted to talk him out of squandering them all at the start, proposing instead to store them inside the Kunlun Immortal Palace or reserve them for his personal arsenal.

Yet Chen Huaian offered only a single retort—In times of hardship, tend to your own; in eras of abundance, aid the entire realm!

After all, the stockpile was so immense that the Kunlun Immortal Palace could never utilize every piece. Why allow them to rot unused in storage?

It proved wiser to leverage these swords for forging alliances, rallying all Ascender sects to unite against Chen Niu.

Faced with this logic, Hua Jin the True One had no choice but to hold her tongue, utterly convinced.

To avoid making the sword distribution appear too calculated, Chen Huaian would pose a covert query to each prospective recipient beforehand.

Swords were granted solely if their response pleased him.

"Should your mother and I tumble into the water, whom would you rescue first? Picture us both devoid of any cultivation."

The questioned Ascender paused briefly, then shot back, "I'd save you without question, Senior Chen! True, you and my mother lack cultivation, but I've got plenty! Pulling you out first, then her, would be no trouble at all!"

Chen Huaian grinned and inclined his head. "Such a devoted child! Take this sword!"

Clutching the radiant, jewel-like blade, that Ascender bubbled with thrill, bounding off in delight.

The following Ascender advanced. Chen Huaian eyed him closely for a bit, then inquired, "If your father and I plunged into molten lava, with no cultivation for either, who gets saved by you first?"

"My father, naturally!"

"Ha! What devotion! Enjoy your sword!"

...

Chen Huaian resembled a detached machine handing out swords without feeling.

Regardless of the query he posed or the reply from the Ascenders, he'd arbitrarily award one or two blades.

Still, a hefty remainder of flying swords persisted from this latest batch.

Unable to offload them entirely, Chen Huaian resolved to deploy them personally.

Come the crucial moment, he'd feign defeat against Lin Fan, letting the swords arrayed behind him get obliterated by Lin Fan's Ten Thousand Swords Return to the Sect maneuver. Who then could harbor doubts about him?

The mere image of that spectacle nearly brought laughter bubbling up.

"Now that you've all claimed your swords, This Venerable One has a single declaration—Celestial Jade Marrow stands as heaven and earth's utmost boon, reserved for the righteous. Yet the Demon Immortal incarnation from the Great Thunder Temple acts with savage disregard for rules. He's woven a flawless Heavenly Net snare ahead at the Celestial Jade Marrow's emergence spot, scheming to hoard every bit of Celestial Jade Marrow solely for himself."

"Fellows, imagine the peril to us Ascenders if demonic powers claim such vast riches?"

From the gateway of the Kunlun Immortal Palace, Chen Huaian's proclamation echoed sharply and boldly.

The assembled Ascenders exchanged glances, outrage etching across their features in waves.

This Celestial Jade Marrow represented the ultimate prize their sects had coveted eternally. Securing even a fragment would ensure endless cultivation supplies thereafter.

In the beginning, the contest over Celestial Jade Marrow pitted solely the Kunlun Immortal Palace against the Great Thunder Temple.

But revelations now exposed the Great Thunder Temple as fiends masquerading as Buddhist practitioners.

Should Celestial Jade Marrow reach the Kunlun Immortal Palace, humanity's cultivation lineage might thrive indefinitely.

Conversely, demonic fiends possessing it could doom the world to desolation, swarming with infernal legions once the Wells of Heaven fully unlock.

They'd long since grown desensitized, reluctant to entangle in the Celestial Jade Marrow fray.

Nevertheless, armed with the swords from Chen Huaian—be it from bolstered strength inflating their bravado or sheer thanks for his generosity—these Ascenders found their resolve reignited.

On this occasion, their zeal targeted not the Kunlun Immortal Palace, but wholly the Demon Immortal avatar, Chen Niu.

"We must deny Chen Niu the Celestial Jade Marrow at all costs!" one bellowed, fist thrust skyward.

A thunderous wave of assent erupted from the throng.

"Exactly! Though we're not Kunlun Immortal Palace affiliates, we're human through and through! How dare we permit demonic scum to plunder heaven's gifts?"

"Battle Chen Niu till the end! Stop him from claiming the Celestial Jade Marrow!"

The cacophony of yells fused into a formidable surge of fervor.

That said, Hua Jin the True One harbored little faith in these Ascenders.

"Senior, they're hollering with gusto now, but confronting Chen Niu directly might freeze them solid with a mere look from him. Don't count on them aiding your victory over Chen Niu or claiming the Celestial Jade Marrow. I'm curious if even a third of these Ascenders will find the guts to strike at him with their blades?"

She withheld the latter portion of her concern, confident Chen Huaian grasped her implication.

—Squandering such valuable artifact flying swords on these ineffective lot proves pointless.

"It matters not." Chen Huaian feigned ignorance, his demeanor grave. "We humans in cultivation have forever wanted that essential battle fervor. Their current alliance against Chen Niu already delights This Venerable One immensely. Provided we leaders hold firm at the critical juncture, the spirit won't shatter."

Realizing her views diverged from Chen Huaian's, Hua Jin the True One inwardly exhaled and let it rest.

"Assist This Venerable One in pinpointing Chen Niu's whereabouts. With spirits running high across the board, now's ideal to mobilize."

At his words, Hua Jin assented with a nod. She retrieved the Array Disk and commenced computations via her digits.

Beyond locating Chen Niu, she divined the auspices—favorable or dire—for this bid to capture the Celestial Jade Marrow.

As incantations flowed from her lips, tapping into celestial mysteries, a mound of earth slowly formed atop the Array Disk, trailed by a droplet of water materializing in its wake.

"Earth shaping a peak, water pooling on the peak's shadowed flank, ridge oriented southward, chief summit northward..."

"This spot is... Mount Taihua?!" Hua Jin the True One's brows knit tightly.

Mount Taihua lay not distant from Kunlun. Astonishingly, Chen Niu had amassed both the Celestial Jade Marrow and the four Demon Sealing Pagodas there.

This Demon Immortal wielded power to reshape Earth Veins. Such a move transcended mere enticement of the unpredictable element.

Her divinations pressed onward. Bit by bit, a crimson mist gathered upon the Array Disk. An icy dread climbed from her feet, piercing toward her heart's meridian.

Hua Jin the True One's sight blurred into blackness. A gush of stale blood erupted onto the Array Disk, drenching the earth clump and water bead in scarlet, rendering the whole surface a ghastly, foreboding crimson.

Regaining awareness, she beheld the sanguine mist twisted into a serpentine blood dragon atop the disk, its icy gaze locked unyieldingly upon her.

"Earth Veins warping to malevolent force... Utterly ill-fated!"

Hua Jin the True One's head tingled with horror. She gaped at the blood dragon, lips quivering, her lovely visage ashen as death.

Furthermore, the malice stemmed not solely from Chen Niu and the Earth Veins. Another presence lurked within.

Amid the bloody haze, flashes of Sword Qi flickered, alongside silhouettes of unfamiliar figures.

Had the Celestial Jade Marrow contest devolved into such turmoil?

The instant after, a palm descended upon the blood dragon, pulverizing it in a firm grip.

Chen Huaian had intervened.

"Ill-fated? Where's the ill fate?" Chen Huaian chuckled softly. "Let's proceed and demonstrate to Chen Niu the real terror!"

...

Update note on the single chapter: I've been hit with gastroenteritis, dealing with nausea and runs. I've started IV treatments lately. Normal updates will pick up once I'm somewhat recovered.