Villains Aren't Stepping Stones!

Chapter 199: Chapter 199: Determination

”What’s the situation?” Asked Lu Xinglan as she appeared at the massive wall of the city.

Her voice was taut, vibrating with the authority of the Pope, as she addressed an elder who was stationed there.

The elder was a man who looked to eighty years(but is definitely older than that), his robes singed and his breath coming in ragged gasps, but he did not turn his head to answer.

Shen Haoran and the others also followed after her, their footsteps landing heavily on the ancient, reinforced stone of the battlements.

The air at the top of the wall was thick with the smell of sulfur and the distant, low-frequency thrum of thousands of rhythmic footsteps.

The elder simply pointed at the horizon.

There, the sky had turned red, a bruised and bloody crimson that swallowed the natural blue of the atmosphere.

The sun was obscured by a thick, rising haze of ash, and at the edge of that world, the barbarians can be seen charging towards them, leaving behind a trail of fire and lava.

Thousands of Fire Giants, their skin glowing like molten ore, were moving in a unified, terrifying tide.

Each step they took cracked the earth, and where they trod, the vegetation burst into flame instantly.

It was a terrifying picture, something straight out of an apocalypse or the end of the world.

The sheer scale of the approaching force made the Spirit City, once a bastion of hope, look like a small, fragile toy about to be crushed under a heavy boot.

”This... This is ridiculous!” One of the nobles exclaimed, his voice cracking into a high-pitched shriek.

Another one clutched his expensive jade pendant as if it could save him. ”This isn’t what I came here for! We were told this was a tempering exercise, a suppression mission! Not... not a suicide charge against a sea of monsters!”

”That’s right! If we fight them, we will really die!” another youth added, his face a ghostly shade of white as he looked at the rising pillars of smoke. ”I still have a lot of things to do! I’m the heir to my clan! I have a harem waiting for me! I haven’t even finished refining my core!”

”Crown Prince! Let’s leave!” a group of them swarmed toward Xu Xiaojun, their voices frantic. ”It’s not worth it, risking our lives for mortals and these savages from the Eastern Region! They aren’t even Imperial citizens in the true sense—they are just backwater peasants! Let’s take the Ark and go back to the Capital! We can tell the Emperor the situation was already hopeless when we arrived!”

Xu Xiaojun remained silent, staring out at the horizon. His hand trembled slightly on the hilt of his sword, and while his pride screamed at him to be a hero, his survival instinct was louder.

He completely agreed with them. The Fire Giants looked like gods of destruction, and his 2nd Stage Nascent Soul cultivation suddenly felt as insignificant as a candle in a hurricane.

Lu Xinglan and Qian Yunxi listened to them, their fists clenched until their knuckles turned white.

The sheer cowardice of the Capital’s elite was a slap in the face to every Spirit Hall disciple who had already died on the front lines.

Their desire to break free from the Imperial influence, to cut ties with a throne that sent such spineless children to ”save” them, was strengthening with every word spoken by the nobles.

”Pussies.” Shen Xun’er snorted, her voice cutting through the panic like a blade.

She leaned against the battlements, looking bored. Her remark made the nobles stop mid-sentence, their faces flushing with a mix of fury and embarrassment, but they didn’t dare retort.

They knew that if they spoke back, she would likely throw them over the wall herself before the barbarians even arrived.

”Young miss, I also don’t think it’s worth it for these people,” one of the disciples of the Purple Sky Immortal Sect whispered to Bai Wenxin. ”Our sect’s foundation is in the Central Region. To lose our core disciples here for a region that the Emperor himself doesn’t value... it is not logical.”

Bai Wenxin remained silent, her wine-red eyes fixed not on the approaching giants, but on the side profile of Shen Haoran, who stood silently at the edge of the wall.

She was weighing the cost of life against the value of reputation, her mind a cold calculator of sect interests.

”Senior brother, what do you think?” A Diamond Titan Sect disciple whispered to Jin Ci, his voice low and urgent.

Jin Ci just smiled, a wide, fearless grin that showed his teeth. ”Let’s wait and see.”

He stared at Haoran with a singular intensity and remembered what his master had told him, that this man possessed the Unbreakable Diamond Sacred Technique, and that it was even more complete and primordial than the version their own sect had guarded for millennia.

The Diamond Titan Sect had never been afraid of death or battle; they were the iron shield of the cultivation world.

Although they didn’t exactly call themselves ”righteous” in the traditional, flowery sense, it was not in their being to abandon an entire city to be slaughtered.

To turn tail and run while civilians cowered behind them would be a stain on their martial hearts that could never be cleansed.

If this Shen Haoran decided to retreat, it could only mean that he is not worthy of that technique, and they will do everything in their power to retrieve it—even if it means their entire sect will be destroyed in a war against the Shen Clan.

They would never allow a coward to inherit the technique created by their ancestors!

”Senior brother?” the Endless Path Immortal Sect members stared at Hun Ming.

He stood with arms crossed and eyes closed, seemingly meditating amidst the chaos, but the spiritual energy around him was beginning to fluctuate wildly.

”Young miss, I think we should go,” said a disciple of the Blissful Immortal Coupling Palace, tugging at Su Xishi’s sleeve. ”These barbarians are creatures of pure, violent instinct. I don’t think they’re the kind of people that we can use our charms against. Our techniques will be useless if they just smash us into the ground without looking at us.”

”Hmm.” Su Xishi just hummed, her white fox ears twitching as she monitored the vibrations of the earth, but otherwise remained silent.

It was as if she was waiting for a signal, a change in the air.

Bei Nu and the other alchemists simply stood at the side, looking entirely detached.

They weren’t going to fight anyway, just provide pills from the rear lines, so whether the army chose to retreat or fight was none of their concern.

As long as the Ark was ready to fly, they were safe.

The Fourth Prince, Xu Jingshan, simply stared at the approaching barbarians, silent, as if thinking about something.

At the corner, Xu Xiansu watched the barbarians, then turned her gaze to Haoran.

’What is he going to choose, I wonder?’ she thought. ’Escaping here is the most correct choice. However, just because it’s correct, doesn’t mean it’s right.’

She knew that once they leave, this entire city will fall.

The Spirit Hall would be razed, and hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of lives, would be snuffed out in a single night of fire.

She doesn’t know if Huo Yue, Medusa and Shen Ming can still arrive on time and save the entire region, after all, many things have already changed.

Because they arrived earlier, it scared the barbarians into attacking.

Calculating the time, Huo Yue and the others should still be in the Southern Region.

In other words, if Shen Haoran retreated and the others followed suit, then the entire Eastern Region will definitely be doomed.

She wondered if this man was the same as the one in her memories, cold and focused only on his own path, or if there was something else beneath that golden exterior.

At that moment, Haoran turned away from the horizon and looked towards the Five Crowns and Shangguan Mu’er, his expression unreadable.

”Are any of you scared?”

The question was simple, devoid of judgment.

The Crowns did not hesitate and immediately shook their heads.

They had been forged in the cruelest training grounds of the Shen Clan, and their elders had sent them to the Vast Wilderness for training.

To show fear now would be to admit they were no longer even fit to stand behind him.

”It is our duty to help the weak,” said Shen Tao, his voice firm and resonant as he clutched his sword, his internal energy circulating with a steady, rhythmic thrum.

Shen Xinye nodded, her eyes like cold stars. ”I may not be the most righteous person in the world, but I just can’t turn my back seeing people die if it can be prevented. It would leave a crack in my Dao heart that I could never repair.”

Shen Ji chuckled, rolling his shoulders and causing his Tyrant King Sacred Physique to emit a dull, metallic hum. ”The only reason I even came here is because I want to fight. These red-skinned giants look like they can actually take a punch. I’m not leaving until I see what color their blood is.”

”Young master, no, Boss—I’ll follow you anywhere!” Said Shen Xun’er, grinning as she began to wrap her knuckles in white linen, her eyes burning with a feral excitement.

”It is whatever,” Shen Ying shrugged, though she was already checking her storage ring for offensive alchemical bombs. ”...but running is too much effort.”

Shangguan Mu’er said nothing, but she stepped firmly beside him, her bluish-silver hair whipping in the wind, her presence a silent oath of loyalty.

Then, Haoran turned towards Lu Xinglan.

He saw the despair in her eyes, and the flickering hope of her daughter.

He then glanced at the noble scions, who were already starting to back away and were just waiting for one person to retreat before they all retreat as well.

”It seems we have to trouble you with providing support,” Haoran said to the Pope.

Lu Xinglan stared at him. Although his voice was soft, she knew this wasn’t a request, but an order.

So she nodded.

At that moment, Haoran took a step into the air before he turned back to the crowd of the noble geniuses, his voice amplified by his qi so that it boomed like thunder across the entire city.

”Behind us stands the last gate to safety. Anyone who fears death may leave now—I will not curse you for it. Return to your clans, bow your heads, and speak of how others bled so you could live another day.”

”But those who still carry pride in their bones, raise your eyes to the heavens. The enemy believes cultivators have grown soft, fat on spirit stones and empty titles. Today, we remind them what the Dao truly is.”

”A true cultivator does not kneel before fate.”

”A true cultivator carves a path through it with blood and steel.”

”So follow me, and let the heavens witness our names.”

The speech was short, blunt, and stripped of the flowery prose the nobles were used to.

It was a challenge, a raw appeal to the martial pride that many of them had forgotten they possessed.

Then, Haoran turned back to the horizon, and as he did, a terrifying heat began to emanate from his body.

Within seconds, his heavenly flame, the Gold Incinerating Supreme Flame, erupted from his skin.

It didn’t just burn; it shone with a blinding, solar radiance that temporarily turned the red sky back to gold and the temperature on the city walls rose by twenty degrees instantly.

Haoran’s eyes turned into pools of liquid gold as he watched the vanguard of the giants.

”I will show you the proper way how to play with fire, Barbarians.”

With those words, he shot forward like a falling star, a streak of golden flame cutting through the ash-choked sky, heading directly into the heart of the barbarian army.

The silence on the wall was broken by a roar from Shen Ji as he leaped after him, followed by the rest of the Crowns.

Jin Ci laughed loudly, his body turning into the color of dark diamond as he too threw himself off the battlements.

One by one, the elite disciples of the sects, shamed and inspired by the sight of a man charging an army alone, began to unleash their powers and follow the golden light.

Xu Xiansu stood on the wall, her heart racing as she watched the familiar golden flame of Shen Haoran collide with the red tide of the giants.

At that moment, for the first time, she began to think that maybe, just maybe, the history she knew was about to be burned to the ground.