Wait, How Did My Digital Girlfriend Become a Sword Immortal? Chapter 827: A Generous Gift
Previously on Wait, How Did My Digital Girlfriend Become a Sword Immortal?...
Chapter 827: A Generous Gift
...
Spirit Void Old Ghost hadn't perished.
He simply triggered a massive array, confining every demon from the Hundred Thousand Mountains within its bounds.
At first, his scheme involved refining every single demon inside, yet after deeper reflection, didn't that approach resemble depleting the pond just to snag the fish?
Such a tactic wouldn't suffice.
Maintaining these demons' lives could yet yield resources for the Cangyun Realm's cultivators. His initial goal had been to craft a present for the Moon Shadow Sect's Chen Sword Master. Should he slaughter all the demons, depriving the Moon Shadow Sect's cultivators of beasts for materials, that gift would morph into a curse breeding hatred.
Thus, Spirit Void Old Ghost opted for a lesser alternative.
He'd refine solely the demons at Emperor-class and higher, then free all those beneath Emperor-class to return to the Hundred Thousand Mountains.
Emperor-class demons were scarce to start with, and looming above them stood the five Great Sages, reduced to mere Demonic Souls after their thrashing.
"Spirit Void Old Ghost! We demons hold no grudge against you, no hatred! We even... we even rendered you a service!
Back when that old monk Burning Heaven almost slew you and you escaped to our Hundred Thousand Mountains for shelter, it was we who sheltered you!
If we'd foreseen this day, we would've swallowed you whole right then!"
The voice belonged to the Mountain-Moving Sage ensnared in the grand array. Its features contorted, not just from fury but also excruciating pain—much of its form had already been drawn into Spirit Void Old Ghost's Soul Summoning Banner. Soon enough, the Soul Banner would fully assimilate it, turning it into one of its thralls.
With its demonic body intact, despite Spirit Void Old Ghost's might, the array he established couldn't contain it.
Not to mention the Soul Banner; it couldn't even extract the Demonic Soul from the body.
Now, a mighty tiger brought low on the flatlands falls prey to hounds. Reduced to Demonic Souls alone, they posed no threat to Spirit Void Old Ghost.
"Silence your racket!" Spirit Void Old Ghost harrumphed icily. "The ones who sheltered me long ago weren't you lot from the Hundred Thousand Mountains' Demon Race, and definitely not any of you!
It was your Demon Sovereign, Tu Shan Yue!
Besides, her safeguarding this old man's existence demanded a toll. Else, how could she have endured the siege from the great sects?
How could she have advanced from the First Tribulation of the Great Ascension Stage to the Second Tribulation in merely a year? Absent this old man's aid, she couldn't have achieved it!
We engaged in a fair trade of advantages.
With our trade now fulfilled, it concerns you five creatures even less."
"How can it not involve us?!" the Roc Sage bellowed in a ragged tone. "We serve the Demon Sovereign! Harm us, and the Demon Sovereign in the Immortal Realm won't spare you!"
"Tu Shan Yue has ascended to immortality. She's an immortal now, separated from mortals by a vast divide. She won't intervene for you." Spirit Void Old Ghost replied calmly. "What this old man pursues here is the brutal rule of the wild—only the strong endure! If you seek fault, curse your frailty, curse your misfortune! Heh heh heh!"
Spirit Void Old Ghost pinched a hand seal with his fingers. The Soul Summoning Banner's Black Qi writhed like a serpent, lunging savagely at the Roc Sage's Demonic Soul.
That dark-blue Demonic Soul had once dominated the heavens, but now it resembled a helpless insect ensnared in a spider's silk. Each desperate lunge only invited the Black Qi to etch tiny fissures across its surface.
"Years ago, you wreaked chaos in the Eastern Sea, consuming countless cultivators from sects? The hour of reckoning arrives today."
A chilling grin twisted Spirit Void Old Ghost's lips. His left hand, gripping the carving knife, worked without pause. Upon the peach wood, the Roc's wings filled out with precision, their feather designs radiating a trace of the demon sage's savage might.
The Black Qi invaded the fissures in the Roc's Demonic Soul. Amid shrieks of torment, the soul's resistance waned, dissolving into a streak of azure light fully absorbed by the Soul Banner.
Spirit Void Old Ghost snapped his finger. The azure light pierced straight into the wooden carving's brow center.
The rigid Roc carving sprang to life, its eyes snapping open. A spark of the sage's haughtiness flickered through, only to be crushed by the Black Qi, yielding utter vacant submission.
Now came the turn of the Mountain-Moving Sage's Demonic Soul.
That bear-shaped Demonic Soul had been largely consumed by the Soul Banner already. Amid the Black Qi, just half its form lingered, yet it bellowed on, lunging futilely at Spirit Void Old Ghost.
"Obstinate fool." Spirit Void Old Ghost scoffed coldly.
Multiple chains erupted from the Soul Banner, pinning the Demonic Soul rigidly in the air. The carving knife flashed rapidly across the peach wood. The fissures on the black bear carving's brow mirrored those of the Roc Sage exactly.
With the last stroke complete, the Demonic Soul morphed into a ashen haze and fused into the wooden carving. The black bear figure's paw balled into a fist, its whole frame emanating a crushing presence akin to tumbling peaks and boulders.
The Venomous Foe Sage's Demonic Soul proved the slyest. It sought to unleash a deadly toxin to erode the Soul Banner, but the array laid by Spirit Void Old Ghost halted it cold.
Black Qi flooded forth like waves, encasing the toxic fumes in successive layers.
The Demonic Soul writhed in shapes of serpents or scorpions under duress, ultimately converting to a murky green ray that burrowed into the wooden carving.
The Black Wind Sage's Demonic Soul became a raging gale, rampaging inside the formation, though Spirit Void Old Ghost subdued it brutally via the Soul Banner's might.
"Winds shift without fixed shape, but even they bow to control." He issued a wicked laugh. The carving knife etched intricate wind motifs on the peach wood as the Demonic Soul twisted into a dark whirlpool and integrated into the carving.
Set upon the earth, the wooden carving whipped up eddying blasts, setting nearby foliage to clamor fiercely.
At last, the Manifestation Sage's Demonic Soul awaited.
This rhino-resembling Demonic Soul stood as the toughest. Even amid the Black Qi's embrace, it exuded boundless savagery.
A flicker of solemnity crossed Spirit Void Old Ghost's gaze. He wove seals with both hands. The Soul Banner's Black Qi erupted fiercely, enshrouding the Demonic Soul in fold upon fold.
As the carving knife lifted and struck, the armored rhino wooden carving began to form.
Upon the Demonic Soul's shift to crimson radiance and its fusion into the carving, the rhino figure emitted a deep bellow, quaking the ground faintly, though the Black Qi's dominance swiftly quelled its vigor.
Sealing the five great demon sages finished, Spirit Void Old Ghost shifted his attention to the meat, gore, and Demonic Souls of the over ten Emperor-class demons trapped in the formation.
"Gather—!" He lifted his hand to seal. The Soul Banner's Black Qi amassed the flesh and blood into a churning cloud of crimson vapor while he chanted spells softly.
Beneath the chants, the crimson vapor shrank steadily, its sheen growing ever more vivid. In the end, it solidified into a pill fist-sized like a babe's, blood-red all over, with swirling complex designs on its skin. A potent blood aroma mingled with Spiritual Energy, thickening the very atmosphere to a sticky density.
Regarding the Demonic Souls of those Emperor-class demons, he drew them entirely into the Soul Banner. The banner's Black Qi thickened further, the cries of specters and wolves turning all the more desolate.
Spirit Void Old Ghost stowed his carving knife, brushed the perspiration from his brow, and exhaled deeply.
Gazing upon the five wooden carvings and that pill arrayed before him, a malevolent, ghostly smirk tugged at his mouth's edge.
"Chen Sword Master... this old man devoted half a month to forging five great demon sages and seventeen Emperor-class demons. This present... ought to please, yes?"
"This old man's plea to borrow the Moon Shadow Sect's Destiny Energy and Mountain Gate sparked the matter; resolving the Moon Shadow Sect's looming crises and crafting the five great demon sages as tribute marks the resolution. Cause precedes effect in harmony. Even if the Heavenly Dao twists unpredictably, it won't harry this old man excessively now..." He whispered to himself, an unshakeable dread lingering in his stare.
Yet ultimately, he extended his hand, tucking the pill and carvings into his storage ring, then leaped onto the Soul Summoning Banner and rocketed skyward.
As the Soul Banner advanced, a colossal black gale instantly surged, eclipsing the sun. Echoes of ghostly laments and wolfish howls pierced the clouds while he raced toward the Moon Shadow Sect.
...
Right then, beyond the Moon Shadow Sect's Mountain Gate, Chen Huaian prepared to ride his sword toward the Hundred Thousand Mountains. The azure light had barely flared from his fingers when he detected the dread aura hurtling from the distant skyline.
He glanced upward.
A vast black gale blanketed the firmament, advancing like a colossal monster.
"Hiss, hiss, hiss—!"
The gale bore the moans of myriad resentful spirits. Its crushing pressure seemed to congeal the ambient air.
The Moon Shadow Sect disciples had fallen into chaos, unsheathing their blades in haste, their countenances ashen as they gaped at the black gale.
"Enemy assault! Alert the Elders at once!" a voice thundered, laced with dread. That profound suppressive force rendered motion laborious.
The black gale closed in relentlessly, halting just outside the Moon Shadow Sect's Mountain Gate. Its descent boomed like thunder, the shock sending nearby trees flying root and branch.
Dust clearing, Spirit Void Old Ghost's form materialized from the Black Qi. The Soul Summoning Banner floated at his back, cloaked in Black Qi, the spectral wails fading gradually.
His eyes scanned the flustered Moon Shadow Sect disciples, locking finally on Chen Huaian.
The disdain in his gaze evaporated at once, supplanted by a veiled deference.
Spirit Void Old Ghost hastened ahead, clasping his hands in salute to Chen Huaian, and spoke courteously, "Chen Sword Master, recall this old man's words half a month past about readying a gift?
The gift stands refined now. This old man arrives expressly to offer this modest tribute, as a sign of my esteem."
Chen Huaian arched a brow, eyeing Spirit Void Old Ghost. The sword light on his fingers dimmed away slowly.
In Spirit Void Old Ghost's outstretched left palm lay five wooden carvings, while his right clutched a blood-red pill sized like a babe's fist.
The instant these six objects met the open air, a fierce Demonic Energy lanced heavenward, veiling the skies over the Moon Shadow Sect.
...
