Wait, How Did My Digital Girlfriend Become a Sword Immortal? Chapter 804: Breaking the Formation

The palm strike from Hua Jin the True One rattled the heavens and the earth.

However, it couldn't budge Lin Fan at all, who stood protected by countless swords.

Countless flying swords gathered into a mighty sword formation hovering over Lin Fan's head, with the surging sword qi scattering the clouds across a hundred miles, uncovering the vast blue sky.

The palm force of Hua Jin the True One collided with the sword qi. Although the sword qi flowed without end, the core power of that palm eventually wore thin. The moment its true essence faded, the sword qi hurled her backward.

A hundred zhang distant.

Hua Jin's hand, concealed behind her, quivered faintly. Her palm bore deep sword cuts that exposed the bone. A thin thread of true essence had congealed over the injury, stopping the blood from flowing.

Despite that, she sensed as though she gripped a blade that kept wriggling wildly in her hold.

"Such impressive defensive strength," Hua Jin the True One whispered, her eyes narrowing as she fixed her gaze on the still Lin Fan inside the sword formation.

She had unleashed her utmost power in that palm strike, but the figure in the sword formation stayed seated in meditation, completely unshaken.

*Pfft—!*

The flower bud amid the crystal cluster slowly took solid form, then began to unfurl.

A top-grade Celestial Jade Marrow dropped from the bud's heart. Lin Fan rose, grasped the top-grade Celestial Jade Marrow, then spun around and went back to his spot to resume his meditation.

He spared not a single look toward Hua Jin the True One.

The ancestor had warned that this woman must not be slain.

If not, her body would now be pierced by no fewer than ten swords.

True enough, the ancestor remained overly merciful. Even a minor kindness from the foe lingered in his mind, leading him to concede ground time and again?

Lin Fan tilted his head to the sky, his features brimming with pity.

He himself aimed to embody such mercy.

Lin Fan seized Hua Jin the True One's own sword, gripped it firmly with both hands, and snapped it clean in half before flinging the pieces away. His action was as casual and light as crushing an insect.

Seeing this, Hua Jin the True One, who had barely steadied her emotions, felt a fresh wave of rage blaze through her mind.

At the same time, the knight of the Sanctuary clutched his sacred sword close.

Though fractured, the sacred sword held hope for mending.

Yet should it land in the grasp of this enigmatic Eastern cultivator, doom would seal it. A mere whim from him could reduce his sacred sword to worthless rubble.

"Your Holiness, what's our next move?"

Albert eyed the tense standoff, his face shadowed with worry.

As per the oracle's decree, this marked the final descent of the wondrous treasure. Past chances had slipped by due to their lacking might. Now, believing the moment ripe at last, they faced rivals for the wondrous treasure who proved tougher one after another.

"Hold steady." Under the Pope's white blindfold, a soft holy glow stirred. "Our opening persists... Another is paving the way for us."

Unlike the Sanctuary, still hungering for the Celestial Jade Marrow, the vampire ancestor Cain showed far greater caution.

He huddled in a shadowy nook, wary of drawing the meditating Lin Fan's notice.

Greed didn't evade him.

Mainly, prior to venturing into Eastern realms, holy light alone among supernatural forces could deal him grave, lasting wounds.

His fighting prowess relied chiefly on his almost indestructible healing.

While holy light curbed the Blood Clan's might, it hampered his regeneration.

Cain once believed holy light his sole weakness.

But as Hua Jin the True One struck, he had covertly probed the enigmatic sword cultivator's sword qi. The outcome: a finger severed clean off. Losing a finger barely qualified as harm usually—it would mend in under a second.

Yet now, after half a quarter-hour, the finger showed no sign of regrowth.

The severed edge gleamed mirror-smooth, encircled by a strand of silver-white energy that persistently eroded his mending tissue.

This silver-white energy stemmed from the same source as the towering silver-white beam in the enigmatic sword cultivator's sword formation.

He had overheard those nearby name this silver-white energy—sword qi.

Even this scrap of sword qi had locked away his healing. Standing amid that silver-white sword qi beam, wouldn't he be pulverized to nothing, beyond any revival?

This thought sent a shiver racing down Cain's back.

The enigmatic Eastern lands brimmed with horror. He never should have arrived!

...

"I won't accept this!"

To Hua Jin, Lin Fan shattering her magic tool in plain sight amounted to outright insult.

She fully grasped that the flying swords encircling this sword cultivator had woven into a grand formation. A direct assault would merely bring her defeat.

To unsettle this enigmatic sword cultivator and claim the Celestial Jade Marrow, breaking the formation came first.

Just two paths existed to shatter a formation.

One: uncover its hidden mechanism and dismantle it cleverly.

Two: overwhelm it with sheer cultivation might through raw force.

These paths could align. The second demanded Senior Chen to keep widening the Well of Heaven, easing the bounds of heaven and earth. In time, her cultivation would eclipse that of the enigmatic sword cultivator.

But until then, more Celestial Jade Marrow would surely emerge, and she refused to let it slip.

She needed a means to breach the formation.

Hua Jin the True One clenched her teeth, pivoted, and sought out the two elders she relied on most—Zhang Yibai and Gu Changsheng.

Zhang Yibai and Gu Changsheng had joined the expedition.

Yet with Chen Huaian there, their intervention proved unnecessary.

Thus, Zhang Yibai and Gu Changsheng had watched from afar the whole time, even placing a table before them to snack on seeds.

Now, as Hua Jin the True One drew near, bewilderment crossed their faces.

"Senior Zhang, Senior Gu, I implore you both to aid me in breaking this formation!" Hua Jin the True One bowed deeply, her look sincere and pleading. "This junior recognizes your profound skill in formations. This junior has exhausted all options. I can't pierce that sword cultivator's sword formation—it's like an unbreakable shell. Naturally, securing the Celestial Jade Marrow eludes me too."

Zhang Yibai, Gu Changsheng: "..."

Hua Jin sought their aid to dismantle Lin Fan's sword formation?

Hah?

Zhang Yibai's lips twitched as he glanced at Lin Fan within the so-called "formation."

Labeled a sword formation, it lacked true formation essence.

A genuine formation demanded a core and patterns, with true essence circulating to forge its unique rules. Lin Fan had simply arrayed true essence-infused flying swords to mimic a sword formation's shape. This wasn't a real formation; it merely mimicked one.

The cause for Hua Jin the True One's failure to breach this sword array was straightforward.

—She lacked the strength!

But voicing that to her face was impossible.

Hua Jin the True One had already approached for assistance.

Though reluctant to assist—Lin Fan being their ally—they needed to play the part. After aiding Hua Jin the True One in "breaching" the formation, should she still falter against Lin Fan, she wouldn't blame her loss of the Celestial Jade Marrow on the "formation's" resilience.

"Fine! Though this formation dazzles with intricacy! This old fellow won't back down easily!"

Zhang Yibai sprang to his feet at once, hiked his sleeves, and marched toward the grand formation.

At this sight, hope flickered in Hua Jin the True One's eyes, kindling optimism within her.

Meantime, Lin Fan, seated in meditation inside the sword formation, appeared to detect something and lifted his gaze.

The instant his eyes locked with Zhang Yibai's.

It felt like linking a circuit.

A subtle gleam sparked in their eyes. Mutual understanding passed silently.

...