Villains Aren't Stepping Stones!

Chapter 127: Chapter 127: Danger

The moonlight that had previously illuminated the clearing was suddenly swallowed by a viscous, undulating darkness.

Huo Yue felt the temperature plummet, not into a natural chill, but into a soul-deep frost that made her very marrow shudder.

Between her and the fallen Yun Li, a figure manifested from the ether—a silhouette draped in a cloak so black it seemed to be a hole torn in the fabric of reality itself.

A miasma of shadowy aura swirled around him, smelling of wet earth and ancient rot.

The figure did not immediately acknowledge the three women, and instead, he stared down at the smoldering remains of Yun Li with the predatory curiosity of an entomologist looking at a rare beetle.

”Hmm,” the figure rasped, his voice sounding like dry parchment being torn. ”Such a high-quality soul... the density of the spirit is remarkable for a native of this backwater region. The elder would surely give me a generous bonus if I handed him over intact for the Soul-Refining Vats.”

Then, he slowly turned his head as his hood shifted, revealing a pair of glowing yellow eyes that burned with a sickly, feverish light, and as they landed on Huo Yue, the light intensified.

”Oh? Such a strong soul! And the scent of medicinal herbs and heavenly fire... You must be an alchemist! This is great! Two people with such resilient spirits in one night! The elder will surely reward me greatly! With these two, I can probably shatter my bottleneck and break through to the 3rd Stage of the Nirvana Rebirth realm!”

Huo Yue felt a primal scream echo in her mind. Being stared at by those yellow eyes felt like having her skin peeled away layer by layer, and every instinct she possessed, honed by her years of experience and training under her Master, told her to run.

She took a few steps back, her breath hitching as she gazed at the figure warily, but before she could retreat further, a cold, firm presence moved in front of her.

It was Medusa. She stepped into the gap, her golden-slotted pupils fixed on the intruder as she extended her hand to the side protectively, her posture radiating an icy, lethal calm.

”Oh? And what do we have here?” The man blinked in genuine surprise, his gaze sweeping over Medusa’s regal features. ”A Rainbow-Scaled Divine Serpent? In a place like this? Your bloodline purity is astonishingly high. I can refine your marrow into a Saint-grade pill to increase my own cultivation. Good... I’m truly lucky today. This continent is a treasure trove of rare ingredients.”

”Back off!” Medusa’s voice was a low hiss that carried the weight of a death sentence.

Her aura, previously suppressed to hide her strength, suddenly exploded, causing the forest ground to cracked beneath her feet as the full, overwhelming might of a 2nd Stage Nirvana Rebirth realm expert flooded the clearing, pushing back the dark mist.

”Impressive. Truly impressive for a beast of the lower regions,” the man laughed, the sound high-pitched and grating. ”But it is not enough! You play with the sparks, while I command the void!”

He raised his arms, and a dark aura engulfed the entire surroundings, snuffing out the stars and causing the sky to turn into an ink-black void.

”SPIRIT AVATAR!” he roared.

From his body, a titanic pressure surged upward as a massive, 80-meter-tall Spirit Avatar materialized—a horrific humanoid shadow clad in jagged, ethereal armor.

It possessed curved, obsidian horns and leathery bat-like wings that spanned the width of the forest.

The man himself floated safely within the translucent head of the avatar, his yellow eyes glowing like twin suns in the dark.

”Kekekeke! Die, you insolent snake!” The shadow-giant raised a massive fist and swung it toward the ground.

”Hmph! You think you’re the only one with a Spirit Avatar!?” Medusa didn’t flinch, her golden eyes flared with a blinding brilliance as she summoned her own manifestation.

In a flash of iridescent light, a second figure towered over the trees, taking the form of a 180-meter-tall female deity, the avatar possessed a mane of countless writhing snakes for hair and a lower body that coiled like a colossal serpent.

She towered over the man’s shadow-giant, her scales reflecting the dark energy of the man’s aura.

”What!? How could it be so big!?” the man exclaimed, his voice cracking within his avatar’s head. ”How could someone from this backwater realm have such deep foundations!?”

”Die!” Medusa stood motionless within the head of her avatar, her arms crossed over her chest.

The serpent-goddess moved with terrifying fluidity, her massive hands reaching out to grab the shadow-giant by its throat.

With a heave that felt like an earthquake, she slammed the dark avatar down into a nearby mountain peak.

The collision was cataclysmic. Several mountains were instantly flattened into rubble, and the earth groaned, splitting apart in jagged chasms that swallowed the forest floor.

The sound caused by that was a deafening roar that could be heard for hundreds of miles.

”Tsk! I’m not done yet!” the man roared.

His shadow-giant scrambled up from the wreckage, its wings beating back the dust as it threw a desperate, dark-infused punch.

Medusa’s avatar blocked it with a forearm that felt like solid jade, the impact creating a localized tornado that stripped the leaves and bark from every tree for miles around.

Huo Yue and Zhu Ziyan were nearly swept away by the shockwaves. Thankfully, a shimmering barrier of emerald light erupted from the ring on Huo Yue’s finger.

Fairy Liu, utilizing a fragment of her soul power, anchored them to the ground while Ziyan huddled behind Huo Yue’s back, her ears tucked in fear.

They stared at the two massive entities clashing in the sky—titans whose footsteps reshaped the map of the Southern Region.

’Master! What is that!?’ Huo Yue asked telepathically, her voice trembling. ’Is this... is this the true power of a god!?’

Fairy Liu’s voice responded, calm but grave. ’No. That is a Spirit Avatar, Huo Yue. It is a manifestation of the soul and the Dao that a cultivator gains once they truly step into the Spirit Ascension Realm. It is the physical proof of one’s invincible will.’

’What?! This is the first time I’ve ever heard of such a thing! All the ’experts’ I saw in the Eastern Region never did this!’

’Not surprising,’ Fairy Liu replied with a hint of disdain. ’I told you before, didn’t I? The people of the Eastern Region practice a flawed, incomplete cultivation method. They have degraded their bloodlines and their very understanding of the Qi. Those who reach Spirit Ascension through such ’trash’ methods are like hollow husks; they cannot form a true Spirit Avatar. At best, they can manifest a faint, ghostly shadow that is barely ten meters tall. What you are seeing now is the true path of the Prime Origin Realm.’

’Amazing! This is amazing!’ Huo Yue’s golden eyes burned with a new ambition.

’Don’t be too impressed,’ Fairy Liu cautioned. ’This fighting style using a Spirit Avatar is a double-edged sword. It is used primarily by those below the Saint realm because it provides a massive boost to raw power. However, it consumes a staggering amount of energy and makes the cultivator a massive, slow-moving target. Once you reach the Saint realms, you will learn to condense this power into your own small frame. A single finger from a Saint can shatter a hundred-meter avatar.’

As they spoke, Medusa’s avatar seized an opening as she slapped the shadow-giant to the ground with a tail-swipe that shattered the bedrock.

With a roar of power, the serpent-goddess summoned a spear of concentrated Qi that glowed like the sun as she drove it downward, aimed directly at the head of the man’s avatar.

In a blinding flash of light, both avatars vanished simultaneously, their energy exhausted or retracted.

The silence that followed was heavy, broken only by the sound of falling rocks.

Huo Yue and Ziyan didn’t wait and immediately sprinted toward the impact site.

There, they found Medusa standing in a crater of glass and ash.

She was breathing heavily, her face pale and her regal robes torn, but she still stood tall, her eyes fixed on the man who lay broken and bleeding on the ground before her.

Medusa sensed them approaching and turned her head slightly.

”You two, stay back over there,” she commanded, her voice strained. ”I’ll finish this vermin first and extract his soul for questioning.”

She drew a silver spear from her storage ring, the tip shimmering with lethal intent as she raised the weapon, poised to drive it through the man’s skull to end his life.

But suddenly...

”Urgh! Cough!”

Medusa’s body jerked violently as a spray of dark blood erupted from her mouth, and her golden eyes wide with a sudden, agonizing shock.

The silver spear fell from her nerveless fingers, clattering onto the stones as her knees buckled as a wave of absolute cold swept through her meridians.

She slowly, painfully looked down at her own chest. There, protruding through her ribs from the back, was a bloody, mangled hand.

The fingers were dripping with her own essence, and the air around the hand was warped by a dark, rotting Qi.

”Bas...tard!” Medusa gasped, her strength failing as her vision began to blur.

Behind her, the figure wearing a black cloak stood like a demon from the pit, a cruel, ancient smile stretching across his face.