Wait, How Did My Digital Girlfriend Become a Sword Immortal? Chapter 800: Devouring the Earth

As the threads of spiritual energy swept through, the earth vein energy tainted a dark crimson by Chen Niu's demonic influence appeared to meet its deadly foe. It started to surge wildly and shrink back, releasing a deep, thunderous growl akin to an underground dragon stirring in its sleep.

A faint quiver ran through the soil, even disrupting the balance of the far-off combat zone.

The illusory blood-red flood dragon shape that Chen Niu had conjured from the earth veins trembled in sync, its form growing less stable than earlier.

Chen Niu, locked in fierce combat with Lin Fan at that instant, sharply detected the odd shift in the earth veins.

Its gaze tightened, a cold shiver raced along its back, and it swiftly attempted to pull away and uncover the source.

Yet Lin Fan, drenched in his own blood, blocked its path ahead of time.

"Kekekeke—" Though riddled with injuries, Lin Fan displayed no hint of faltering. Instead, his surrounding aura kept climbing higher, his battle fervor raging: "Where do you think you're off to? Your foe is This Venerable One! You won't escape until you've battled This Venerable One to the end!"

"Condense—!" He uttered a deep command.

A thick cluster of flying swords burst forth from Lin Fan's storage pouch.

All of these were flying swords granted to him by the ancestor.

Usually, he was thrifty, reluctant to squander the flying swords the ancestor had given him. But with Chen Niu's fighting prowess proving so savage, he had no alternative.

Earlier, the ancestor had mentioned that once the flying swords were depleted, he should activate Ten Thousand Swords Return to the Sect, promising a delightful twist.

Though he couldn't fathom why the ancestor had said so—after all, he'd witnessed the tools wielded by Earth Star cultivators, and frankly, they hardly qualified as swords.

He'd rather label them fire sticks.

But...

"The ancestor's command stands as divine law!"

Flying swords lingered in the air behind Lin Fan. He extended his finger as if it were a blade toward Chen Niu, and amid a torrent of Sword Intent, the swords trailed by fierce winds hurtled at Chen Niu like bolts of lightning.

"Bow down to This Venerable One!"

"Curse it!" Chen Niu identified Lin Fan's energy and had felt the might of Explosive Sword firsthand.

It yearned desperately to spot whoever was meddling with the earth veins, yet right then, it was forced to confront the assaulting flying swords head-on.

"Need to wrap this up fast!" It plunged a hand into the blood-colored dragon qi and seized hold, a strand of dragon qi flowing into its frame. A spray of blood mist erupted across its body, as though it struggled to bear that earth vein force. It unleashed a tormented bellow, but pressed through. Its muscles swelled everywhere, and its presence suddenly spiked.

The initial flying sword struck with blinding speed.

It relied on its own flesh to intercept.

A thunderous 'BOOM!' echoed as chunks of meat and sword bits scattered.

Still, Chen Niu endured it, somehow.

...

Meanwhile, overhead from Zhang Mengchu, an intricate pattern of lights and shadows had formed unnoticed.

Etched upon it was the very grand array shaped by the earth veins right now.

The pattern turned gradually, with myriad runes blinking on and off inside.

Across the pattern, vital points lit up sequentially under the spiritual seals Zhang Mengchu unleashed via his sword finger. These glowing points weren't bolstering the array but instead serving as barriers.

He looked bent and fumbling about aimlessly, yet truly, he channeled himself to connect with the world, executing a deeply intricate reversal of the earth vein array.

The stance felt clumsy, but its impact remained full force.

"Huh, this is..." Chenghuang spotted the irregularity first, a spark of astonishment in its slit-like eyes.

"This fellow... can truly dissect and disrupt the earth veins like this? His grasp on formations has reached utter mastery!"

Hou also dropped its scornful glare. Its savage head tilted nearer, intently probing the energy waves from the mirror, its tone turning far more serious: "He's flipping the array against itself, drawing out the corrupted earth vein energy, then infusing True Essence to gnaw at the array hearts. With the minor to command the major, he's slowly seeping in...

He's 'stirring grit' into Chen Niu's demonic array!

Should he corrupt every array heart and smash them all at once, the 'force' Chen Niu tapped will crumble instantly and rebound!"

"Hiss—! What talent!" Chenghuang eyed Chen Huaian, shock and bewilderment flickering in its gaze. "Dragon Soul successor, how did you uncover such a powerhouse in formations?

The true lineages on Earth Star have shattered across endless rebirth cycles.

Today, nearly every cultivation manual falls under the Celestial God Clan's grip and their puppets. A formation expert like this shouldn't emerge from there."

"That sword cultivator clashing with Chen Niu feels off too." Hou squinted, musing to itself.

Be it the formation expert or the sword wielder, both strike as peculiar. They don't resemble Earth Star cultivators at all.

"It's quite the tale." Chen Huaian gave a cryptic grin. "For now, just know they can stall for time. Chen Niu might not outmatch Lin Fan. Better yet if Lin Fan fells Chen Niu's incarnation. If not, it won't derail This Venerable One's scheme, nor hinder Taotie's resurgence."

Scarce had the words echoed when, in the mirror, Zhang Mengchu appeared to have pinpointed the crux.

He shot upright in a flash, brushed the dirt from his palms, a wicked grin curling his lips as he projected a mental message toward Lin Fan's brutal skirmish:

"Lin the Lunatic! Hang in for ten more breaths!

This elder will let that elongated beast savor the bite of earth vein rebound!"

With that, he thrust both palms down hard against the earth!

The array hearts he'd undermined inside the formation ignited all at once then.

BOOM!!!

The whole ground seemed to rouse in that instant!

Multiple pillars of silvery-white light pierced upward from the array hearts he'd tainted before, weaving together into a colossal sword marked with a Yin-Yang Fish, which cleaved down at the blood-colored dragon qi hovering over Chen Niu.

"ROAR—!"

The dragon qi roared in rage, the myriad blood strands linking it to Chen Niu breaking apart successively.

But its resistance proved wholly vain.

The array hearts stood long corrupted. The backlash hit as endless silvery-white chains erupting from the blood energy, binding it utterly.

This blade blow was impossible to evade at its core.

"NO—!"

Chen Niu's eyes bulged in wrath, yet it watched powerless as the dragon qi it'd laboriously assembled via the earth veins split clean in half by that strike.

The blood dragon howled in pain, its blood energy poised to sink back into the earth veins, as if a mere breeze would disperse it.

"Mountain-Moving Seal! Suppress!"

In a blink, Chen Niu hastily called forth a seal resembling carved jade.

Its razor claws wove signs swiftly at its torso, undeterred even by Lin Fan's Explosive Sword barrages.

Ultimately, the blood-colored dragon qi got partly snared by the Mountain-Moving Seal, coiling on the dirt like a tiny serpent, hanging onto bare existence.

Yet for Chen Niu, that sufficed.

"This Venerable One never planned to resort to this method. Gulping down earth veins disrupts the cosmic balance. This Venerable One's main form will surely take a hit, but..."

Chen Niu fixed a savage stare on Lin Fan: "You unpredictable pests, hopping about in This Venerable One's path over and over, do you really believe This Venerable One lacks the means to crush you?

Having resolved today to unleash a forbidden art, not one of you will dream of departing!"

As the declaration rang out, a gleam of determination and frenzy sparked in Chen Niu's eyes.

It suddenly gaped its gore-smeared jaws, dove at the ground, and drew a savage, inhaling gulp at that strand of earth vein dragon qi below.

"GULP—!"

"ARGHHHH—!!!"

The instant after, Chen Niu emitted a soul-rending shriek of torment.

Its frame ballooned wildly, like a swelling air sac.

The indigo-black scales sheathing its body burst open in sequence, exposing the madly twisting meat and gore underneath!

Thick, warped bone spurs, glowing with an ominous dark red sheen, erupted fiercely from its backbone and limbs, grinding out a spine-chilling "CRACK."

Far worse, its flood dragon shape looked unable to hold all this immense earth vein might it'd ravenously swallowed. Massive lumps swelled nonstop across its hide, as if molten rock churned inside, set to rupture any second.

A murky red blood fog, laced with rampant earth vein Killing Intent, spewed from the fissures riddling its body, shrouding the vicinity in a disordered, tainted murk.

Its aura rocketed upward in a wildly erratic, almost suicidal frenzy.

The once-mighty oppression now deepened to a void-like depth, bearing down on the distant observer Hua Jin the True One and the newly risen Albert, nearly choking the breath from them.

Even Lin Fan, in his savage onslaught, sensed his motions hitch, his features twisting in genuine dread for the first time.

Centered on Chen Niu, the terrain began splintering and sinking across a vast stretch, as though the buried power had been brutally siphoned and consumed by it.

The full valley ringed by the Demon Sealing Pagodas quaked fiercely, like the apocalypse had arrived.

"Insanity! It's lost its mind! Swallowing earth veins by force will wreck its true form badly, maybe even drop its cultivation level!"

Within the Demon Sealing Pagoda, Chenghuang exclaimed in shock, its eyes brimming with disbelief.

Chen Niu ranks as a Demon Immortal, holding no lowly place in the Immortal Realm. To stoop to this extent...

It revealed its iron will!

Hou's face grew profoundly stern too: "Yet the strength it's seized right now is genuine... Short-lived and fraught with dire repercussions later, but sufficient to overwhelm all here!"

"Can't delay any longer." Chenghuang glanced urgently at Chen Huaian: "Dragon Soul heir, take up the tribute at once. While your allies can hold Chen Niu briefly more, we have to hasten things!"

...