Villains Aren't Stepping Stones!

The battlefield around them was a chaotic tapestry of fire and blood, but for Shen Xun’er, Shen Ji, and Jin Ci, the world had narrowed down to the titan standing before them.

Ah-Hu was a mountain of scarred, corded muscle, his skin the color of cooling magma, and in his hands, he gripped a club carved from the femur of a prehistoric behemoth, still dripping with the gore of the Spirit Hall soldiers he had pulverized moments prior.

The air around the Giant General shimmered with a raw, oppressive heat that causes the air to distort.

This wasn’t the refined qi of the civilized cultivator, but instead, it was a primal, bloodline-driven pressure that felt like being submerged in molten lead.

Something only those with unrefined cultivation can possess.

”This guy is bad news, isn’t he?” Jin Ci said.

His voice was steady, but a thick drop of sweat tracked a path through the dust on his forehead, hanging for a second on his chin before falling.

He began to circulate his qi, and his skin took on a translucent, faceted grey hue.

Shen Ji spat a glob of blood to the side, his eyes locked on the giant’s massive chest. ”At least 5th Stage Nirvana Rebirth realm. His physical density is off the charts. One clean hit from that club and we’re paste.”

”So what!?” Shen Xun’er barked, slamming her fists together, and the sound it caused was like two iron plates colliding. ”The Boss said to follow him, so we must follow him! If a giant stands in the path, we just have to break its legs and destroy it!”

Shen Ji and Jin Ci was about to say something, but Ah-Hu didn’t wait for their conversation to conclude.

With a roar that shattered the nearby stone ruins, he swung his massive club in a horizontal arc, with the weapon moving so fast it created a vacuum, pulling the air, and the three geniuses, toward the point of impact.

”Fifth Technique: Diamond Bastion!” Jin Ci roared.

He stepped to the front, his legs sinking deep into the earth as his entire body transformed into a statue of dark, unyielding diamond.

The Unbreakable Diamond Sacred Technique flared to life, creating a hexagonal barrier of golden light around him.

This is the fifth combat technique of the Unbreakable Diamond Sacred Technique, which is similar to the World Suppressing Diamond Palm used by Haoran during the tournament.

The only difference is that the one Haoran used was the first technique.

At that moment, the club collided with Jin Ci.

The sound was apocalyptic and a shockwave erupted from the point of contact, leveling every tent and stone pillar within fifty meters.

Jin Ci’s feet carved two deep trenches into the earth as he was pushed back, his diamond skin groaning under the pressure.

Cracks appeared in the ground beneath him, but the barrier held.

”Now!” Jin Ci hissed through gritted teeth.

Shen Ji moved like a thunderbolt as his Tyrant King Sacred Physique had already begun to hum, his muscles expanding and his veins glowing with a dark, violet light.

This was the terrifying nature of his physique: the longer the battle raged and the more pressure he endured, the more his strength multiplied.

”Tyrant King’s Reckoning!” Shen Ji leaped into the air, his fist trailing a wake of purple energy as he struck the giant’s knee with the force of a falling star.

The impact produced a dull, metallic thud, causing Ah-Hu to grunt as his massive leg buckled for a fraction of a second, but his skin, as hard as enchanted steel, still didn’t break.

”Too soft, little ant!” Ah-Hu growled in the tongue of the Wilderness, raising a massive foot to stomp Shen Ji into the dirt.

”Don’t ignore me!”

Shen Xun’er appeared beneath the giant’s shadow and took a deep horse-stance, her breathing rhythmic and heavy.

Then, she drew her right fist back, and suddenly, the air began to swirl around her arm as shimmering, emerald-green dragon scales manifested over her knuckles, traveling up her forearm like a gauntlet of living jade.

”Rising Dragon Talon!”

She unleashed a savage uppercut directed straight at the giant’s groin, and as her fist connected, a phantom image of a massive Green Eastern Dragon erupted from the ground, soaring upward with a deafening roar.

The explosive force of the technique didn’t just hit Ah-Hu; it lifted the twenty-foot titan several inches off the ground.

The dragon phantom exploded upon impact, sending a surge of pure destruction attribute qi into the giant’s system, disrupting his internal blood-energy.

Ah-Hu let out a pained howl, dropping his club as he clutched his midsection.

Fuck, that woman is insane! Thought Jin Ci and Shen Ji.

However, an opening is opening.

”He’s open! Don’t let him breathe!” Jin Ci shouted as he shed his defensive stance and charged.

Though his technique was centered on defense, the weight of a 5th-stage Diamond Body was a weapon in itself.

And with that, he became a human battering ram, slamming his shoulder into the giant’s gut.

Ah-Hu stumbled back, his eyes bloodshot as the sheer audacity of these ”ants” was fueling a berserker rage within him.

He clapped his hands together, creating a localized shockwave of fire that blew the three of them back.

”You... hurt... Ah-Hu!” The giant’s tattoos began to glow burning hot as he reached out and grabbed a nearby stone pillar, ripping it from the earth to use as a makeshift spear.

Shen Ji landed on his feet, his aura significantly more oppressive than it had been minutes ago.

His skin was now a deep shade of crimson, and his eyes burned with the violet light of the Tyrant King. ”He’s getting faster. Jin Ci, draw his attention! Xun’er, prep your big move!”

”On it!” Jin Ci roared.

He sprinted in a circle around the giant, his diamond skin reflecting the flames of the battlefield.

Ah-Hu lashed out with the stone pillar, but Jin Ci didn’t dodge, and instead used his forearms to deflect the strikes, sparks flying whenever the stone met his diamond-hard flesh.

”Is that all!? My grandmother hits harder than that!”

While Jin Ci played the role of the indestructible bait, Shen Ji and Shen Xun’er synchronized their movements.

Shen Ji anchored himself, his feet disappearing into the ground as he clasped his hands together, gathering every drop of his Tyrant King energy into a single point.

”Tyrant King’s Absolute Suppression!” A gravitational field erupted around Ah-Hu, the sudden increase in weight making the giant’s movements sluggish.

This was the opening Shen Xun’er needed as she began to spin.

At first, she was a blur of red and gold, but as her speed increased, the air around her turned into a localized cyclone.

”Twin Dragon Hurricane!”

She became a vortex of lethal kicks, and every time her foot connected with the giant’s torso, a phantom image of a dragon lashed out.

Two dragons, one azure and one emerald, entwined around the giant, their spectral claws tearing at his red skin as she struck him thirty times in the span of three seconds, each blow landing with the weight of a battering ram.

Ah-Hu was being shredded, and his ”steel” skin was finally failing, blood spraying from a dozen shallow gashes.

”Enough!” The Giant General roared, his blood-energy erupting in a final, desperate burst as he swung his massive arm, swatting Shen Xun’er out of the air like a fly.

She crashed through a stone wall, buried in the rubble.

”Sister Xun’er!” Shen Ji shouted, his focus wavering.

Ah-Hu seized the moment and ignored Jin Ci and lunged for Shen Ji, his massive hands reaching out to crush the life out of him.

But from the rubble of the fallen wall, a terrifying pressure erupted and the debris was blown away by a surge of green qi.

Shen Xun’er stood up, her lip bleeding, her clothes tattered, but that predatory grin was wider than ever.

”You fucking bastard... Think I’m a goner? Sorry, I won’t go down until you’re dead!”

She sprinted back into the fray, her speed even higher than before as she leaped onto Jin Ci’s back, then used his diamond shoulders as a springboard to launch herself high above the giant’s head.

”Shen Ji! Now!”

Shen Ji roared, his Tyrant King physique reaching its temporary peak as he lunged forward and grabbed the giant’s arms, pinning them to his sides with a strength that defied logic.

The ground beneath Shen Ji’s feet shattered, his legs sinking up to the knees as he held the titan in place.

Ah-Hu struggled, his muscles bulging, but he couldn’t break free from the Tyrant’s grip.

High in the air, Shen Xun’er drew both hands back and the phantoms of the two dragons returned, coiling around her arms until she looked like she was wielding the heavens themselves.

”Dragon King’s Descent!”

She fell like a guillotine.

Both fists connected with the top of Ah-Hu’s skull, creating a sound that wasn’t a thud, but a crack that echoed across the entire battlefield.

The golden and green energy exploded downward, traveling through the giant’s spine and out through his feet.

Ah-Hu’s eyes went dull, his massive body stiffened for a second before he collapsed forward, the impact shaking the city walls.

The Giant General was dead.

Shen Xun’er landed on the giant’s back, breathing heavily, her knuckles bleeding through the scales.

Shen Ji slumped over, his physique receding as the violet glow faded, leaving him trembling from exhaustion.

Jin Ci returned to his human form, his skin pale and covered in bruises that would have killed a lesser man.

”One down,” Shen Xun’er panted, wiping the blood from her mouth with the back of her hand.

She then looked toward the center of the battlefield, where Shen Haoran’s golden flame was still incinerating the horizon.

”Let’s find the next one.”

Jin Ci looked at the mountain of a corpse and then at the girl who had just cracked its skull and could only stare at her in a daze. ”Sister Xun’er, I think I’m in love.”

Shen Ji stared at him, shocked.

Shen Xun’er just tilted her head, ”What does that mean?”

Her response made everyone stare at her.