Villains Aren't Stepping Stones!

”You pesky humans!” Luu’go roared, ”How dare you get in the way of the Fire Giant Tribe!”

The air around Shen Xinye, Shen Ying, and Bai Wenxin suddenly grew unnaturally heavy, thick with the scent of ozone, medicinal herbs, and the sulfurous stench of the barbarian vanguard.

Standing before them was Luu’go, the only female General among the Fire Giant Tribe’s elite.

Her skin was a deep, bruised crimson, etched with jagged, white frost-runes that pulsed with a rhythmic light.

She stood exactly twenty-five feet tall, carrying a dual-headed mace crafted from the heart of a fallen meteor, still radiating a dull, malevolent heat.

”This is going to suck,” Shen Ying muttered.

She sat cross-legged atop the head of her Crimson Dragon Burning Flame, her fingers already dancing through her storage ring.

The dragon, a manifestation of her Heavenly Flame, let out a low, crackling growl that sounded like a forest fire consuming dry timber.

”Strong,” Bai Wenxin remarked concisely.

She adjusted the grip on her dark purple spear, the wind beginning to spiral around the tip of the blade in sharp, invisible razors.

Her wine-red eyes narrowed, calculating the giantess’s reach and the frequency of her runic pulses.

Shen Xinye, however, remained as steady as an ancient pine atop a mountain peak as she stood with her hands at her sides, her fingers twitching rhythmically.

”Remember what the Young Master said,” she spoke, her voice cutting through the roar of the distant battlefield. ”They possess flawed cultivation. Their energy is vast but unrefined, and they lack the delicate control to even summon a Spirit Avatar. We do not need to match her in raw strength, we only need to be more precise, and we can beat her.”

Luu’go didn’t care for their analysis as she let out a piercing battle cry that sounded like grinding metal and lunged.

For a creature of her size, her speed was a nightmare as the meteor mace was swung in a massive vertical arc, aimed directly at the three ”ants” before her.

”Move!” Shen Xinye commanded.

In a burst of speed, the three women vanished from the point of impact as the mace struck the earth with the force of a tectonic shift, creating a crater deep enough as if an entire section of the earth was carved out as it sends a spray of molten rock into the air.

”I hate this, I hate this, I hate this. Why did I think it was a good idea to follow that man?” Shen Ying muttered under her breath.

However, despite her words, she dived toward Luu’go, the Crimson Dragon opening its maw to unleash a torrent of liquid fire.

At the same time, Shen Ying threw three heavy bronze cauldrons into the dragon’s breath along with several herbs, ”Damn it. I will surely refine your bones and have it turned into cauldrons, and your flesh and blood into ingredients for my pills!”

The cauldrons, heated to the point of instability by the Heavenly Flame, hit Luu’go’s shoulder and chest before exploding in a sequence of concussive blasts.

The shrapnel, infused with the dragon’s fire, shredded the giantess’s skin, but Luu’go merely grunted, the frost-runes on her body glowing brighter to dampen the thermal damage.

”Wind Walk: Gale Piercer!” Bai Wenxin appeared in the smoke, moving so fast she seemed to be made of air itself.

Her spear became a blur of motion, striking the giantess’s ankles and knees a dozen times in a single heartbeat. Em

Every thrust was backed by the cutting power of a hurricane, aiming for the gaps in the giant’s natural armor.

Luu’go roared in frustration, trying to swat Bai Wenxin away, but the wind goddess was elusive, dancing around the heavy mace with effortless grace.

”Sister Xinye! Keep at it!” Bai Wenxin shouted.

”Understood,” Shen Xinye replied as she held out both hands, her index and middle fingers pointed like barrels. ”Sword Intent: Rain of a Thousand Petals!”

From her fingertips, hundreds of tiny, glowing sparks of sword intent erupted.

To a common observer, they looked like beautiful cherry blossoms drifting in the wind, but as they struck Luu’go, they didn’t drift along her skin, instead, they tore through her flesh and bones.

Each ”petal” was a compressed needle of pure killing intent, puncturing the giantess’s skin and traveling deep into her muscles to disrupt her blood-energy.

Luu’go staggered, her movements becoming jerky as the sword intent shredded her internal meridians.

”Little pests! I will melt your bones!” She slammed her mace into the ground again, but this time, she poured her blood-energy into the weapon.

A ring of magma erupted outward in a 360-degree wave of destruction.

”Dragon’s Protection!” Shen Ying commanded.

The Crimson Dragon coiled around the three women, its fiery scales absorbing the magma wave.

Shen Ying’s face was pale, the strain of maintaining a Heavenly Flame construct against a Nirvana Rebirth general taking its toll. ”I can’t keep this up forever! Use the big stuff and kill that thing!”

At that moment, she reached into her storage ring and threw a handful of golden pills toward her companions. ”Dragon-Tiger Vitality Pills! Eat them now!”

Xinye and Wenxin caught those pills, stared at them for a moment before they swallowed them.

At that moment, they instantly felt a violent surge of spiritual energy replenish their reserves.

”Sister Wenxin, pin her down!” Xinye shouted, her hand finally reaching for the sword she always kept in her storage ring—a weapon she only used when the situation turned dire.

”With pleasure!” Bai Wenxin’s aura exploded as the wind around her turned from a gale into a localized tornado. ”Forbidden Art: Eye of the Hurricane!”

She thrust her spear into the ground, and four massive pillars of wind erupted around Luu’go, swirling in opposite directions.

The sheer centrifugal force created a vacuum, locking the giantess in place and pulling her arms away from her body.

”AAAHHH! DARN TECHNIQUES!” Luu’go struggled, her tattoos flaring as she fought the atmospheric pressure, her feet carving deep ruts into the stone.

”Shen Ying! Use that move now!” Shen Xinye commanded as she drew her blade from its sheath.

The sword, named Frost-Edge Willow, hummed with a sharp, silver light that seem to caused the surrounding temperature to lower.

Shen Ying bit her finger, drawing blood and smearing it across her palm. ”Crimson Dragon: Call of the Ash-Wraiths!”

From the flickering embers of the dragon’s flame, dozens of translucent, burning figures began to emerge.

These were the Flame Spirits—the echoes of those who had fallen to the Crimson Dragon Burning Flame in the past.

They swarmed Luu’go, their touch not just burning her flesh, but draining her heat and vitality to fuel the dragon.

They clung to her like a shroud of living cinders, screaming with a sound that chilled the soul.

”Damn it! All of you will pay for this! Our chief will not let you go!” Luu’go was trapped, burning, and being drained of life.

At that moment, she looked up, seeing Shen Xinye descending from the sky like a falling star.

”Maybe,” Xinye whispered. ”But Giant, there is one thing you must know...your king will lose to our king. That is a fact that cannot be changed.”

This time, she didn’t shoot barrage of Sword Intent Bullets like the usual, and instead just gathered every ounce of her Sword Intent, her spirit, and the energy from the Dragon-Tiger pill into the edge of her blade.

”Ultimate Sword Art: Severing the World’s Thread!”

She passed through Luu’go in a single, silent streak of silver light, and for a heartbeat, everything on the battlefield seemed to pause.

The wind died down, and the flame spirits vanished.

Luu’go stood perfectly still, her eyes wide with a mixture of shock and realization.

Then, a thin, silver line appeared diagonally across her torso, from her shoulder to her hip.

With a sound like a mountain splitting, the top half of the Giant General slid off her lower body, crashing into the dirt in a spray of purple blood.

The frost-runes on her skin flickered one last time before going dark forever.

Shen Xinye landed softly, her sword already sheathed as he stumbled slightly, her face drained of color, but she remained upright.

”Target eliminated,” she panted.

Shen Ying dissipated the Crimson Dragon and landed beside her, breathing just as hard. ”Remind me... next time... to just stay in the alchemy lab. My hair is definitely singed.”

Bai Wenxin leaned on her spear, looking at the massive corpse of the giantess before she looked at Shen Xinye with a new level of respect. ”Your sword... This is the first time I have seen it, you haven’t used it even in the tournament.”

”I doubt it will change the outcome,” Xinye replied, looking toward the center of the battlefield where the golden pillar of Shen Haoran’s flame was still towering over the horizon. ”...that man is an anomaly, I doubt there is anyone in this world that can even challenge him.”

The three women stood amidst the wreckage, a trio of goddesses who had just proven that the ”flawed” system of the Wilderness was no match for the refined and complete legacy of the Shen Clan and the Immortal Sects.

Around them, the barbarian army began to falter, their morale breaking as they saw another of their Great Generals fall to the ”ants” of the Central Region.