Villains Aren't Stepping Stones!

The sky over the Eastern Region was a chaotic tapestry of bruised violet and charcoal grey, illuminated sporadically by the dying flickers of the celestial tribulation.

And at this moment, Lu Xinglan moved like a streak of lavender light, her heart hammering against her ribs with a rhythmic terror.

She was the Pope, a sovereign of this land, and she could not simply stand by as a monster forged in the blood of its own kin ascended to a realm that defied mortal understanding.

However, before she could reach the epicentre of the disturbance, a sudden, oppressive chill permeated the air.

Amd at that moment, a figure appeared in her path with a speed that bypassed her Nirvana Rebirth senses—a woman with ash-pale skin, dark bat-like wings, and eyes that held the depth of an ancient abyss.

It was Shangguan Mu’er, and she stood suspended in the air, her presence acting as an immovable wall.

Lu Xinglan frowned, her spiritual energy flaring in a defensive stance. ”You are... Young Master Shen’s maid and bodyguard, right? Why are you stopping me? We can’t let that giant ascend! If he successfully broke through the Saint Realm and stabilizes his foundation, the Spirit Hall and everyone in this city will be erased from existence!”

Shangguan Mu’er remained eerily calm, her wings beating slowly against the turbulent winds.

She stared at Lu Xinglan for a few monents before she shook her head, her voice carrying a resonance that felt like it belonged to the void itself. ”I don’t know what the young master is planning, but please don’t disturb him at this moment. He is observing.”

”Why!?” Lu Xinglan’s voice rose in desperation, her hair crackling with static. ”You’re from the Central Region, so I’m sure you know how dangerous a Saint is! Even the weakest of them, a cultivator who has barely touched the Profound Saint realm, can beat the strongest Nirvana Rebirth expert with a flick of a finger! I don’t doubt your master’s talent, but this isn’t a matter of talent or combat power, it’s a matter of the Laws!”

Of course, Shangguan Mu’er understood it perfectly.

She had seen the true power of the Shen Clan elders, and she knew that what made a Saint so dangerous was their ability to manipulate space—the very fabric of reality.

At that stage, they no longer fought with just energy, but they fought with the environment itself.

No matter how powerful a Nirvana Rebirth practitioner was, they were still bound by the physical world, so they would eventually have to bow down before the laws of space wielded by a Saint.

”I know,” Mu’er replied, her yellow eyes never leaving the Pope’s face. ”But since the young master isn’t doing anything to stop it, he must have a plan and the absolute confidence to handle the situation. He has never been a man to gamble with his life. If he is allowing the breakthrough, it is because he finds the ’Saint’ useful for his own tempering. Do not disturb his focus.”

Lu Xinglan stared at Shangguan Mu’er, searching for any sign of hesitation, then turned her gaze toward Shen Haoran.

He stood amidst the swirling dust and lightning, a solitary figure of gold and black who looked as though he were merely watching a play.

Eventually, the Pope’s shoulders slumped, and she let out a long, weary sigh.

”I hope you’re right. For the sake of millions, I truly hope his confidence isn’t just arrogance.”

Down below, the earth groaned.

Haoran stood less than a hundred meters from the altar, the Gold Incinerating Supreme Flame forming a protective halo around him that incinerated the falling ashes and debris.

He stared at the giant, Korgar, who was already bleeding from his pores, his purple skin charred by the heavens, and his breathing coming in ragged, wet gasps.

”That’s five strikes. Only one more to go,” Haoran stated mockingly, his voice was carried by the wind, reaching Korgar’s ears like the tolling of a funeral bell. ”Don’t tell me you’ve reached your limit after sacrificing so many of your brothers. That would be quite the disappointment.”

Korgar couldn’t even let out a retort as the clouds reached a boiling poin, and the final bolt, the ”Heart-Cleaving Thunder”, descended.

It wasn’t a bolt so much as a solid pillar of burning hot celestial judgment.

Korgar looked up, his eyes filled with a crazed, suicidal light as he gritted his teeth until they shattered, and he roared a sound that transcended language.

The lightning struck.

”I! WILL! NOT! FALL!” Korgar shrieked.

He raised his massive, steam-emitting arms and, in a display of raw, stolen vitality, he cleaved the lightning into two, the residual energy carving two massive canyons into the earth on either side of him.

And at that moment, the world returned to a terrifying, unnatural calm as the clouds vanished instantly, revealing a sky filled with cold, distant stars.

However, a world-shaking power suddenly erupted from Korgar.

Space itself began to distort around him like a heated mirage, and his physical form began to expand, fueled by the millions of souls he had consumed.

He grew in size, towering over the ruins of the city and the camp, his head piercing the clouds as he reached over ten thousand meters in height.

Now, he was like a colossus of shadowed violet energy, the first Saint of a small tribe in the Vast Wilderness.

However...

”What a shallow aura,” Haoran whispered, completely not impressed.

To his Karmic Light Observation, Korgar’s luck was a flickering, sickly purple, being incredibly unstable and was even rotting.

This shows that this barbarian was a Saint in name only, and his foundation was like a house of cards built on sand.

Just then, Korgar raised his mountain-sized leg, his shadow engulfing the Spirit City.

He intended to destroy everything with a single stomp—to erase the humans who had resisted him.

But at that moment, the air grew incredibly heavy with a primordial, ancient pressure.

Then, a rift tore open in the high atmosphere, and a fifty thousand meter long Rainbow Scaled Divine Serpent, suddenly descended from the sky.

It moved with a speed that defied its gargantuan size, its iridescent scales reflecting the starlight in a million lethal colors.

Before Korgar could bring his foot down, the serpent wrapped itself around him in a crushing embrace.

”AAAHHH!” Korgar roared in anger and pain as the serpent’s coils tightened, the pressure enough to crack even his newly forged Saint bones.

He fell to his knees, the impact creating an earthquake that was felt across the entire Eastern Region.

He struggled to get up, his massive hands clawing at the shimmering scales, trying to escape the constriction.

Then, the Rainbow Scaled Divine Serpent opened its mouth and a seven-colored glowing orb manifested at the top of its tongue, gathering the elemental essence of the world into a single point of absolute destruction.

Under Korgar’s terrified eyes, the orb fired, turning into a beam of prismatic light that instantly engulfed a massive stretch of land.

It was a power that could probably have vaporized entire planets had it been fired in the void.

The explosion turned the horizon into a wall of white light, and this one scene alone sent chills down everyone’s spines.

The noble scions on the city wall, the hardened soldiers of the Spirit Hall, and even the arrogant sect disciples fell down on their knees, their bodies shaking with a primal fear.

But Haoran simply raised an eyebrow, a flicker of genuine surprise crossing his face. ”Isn’t that... Medusa?”

He recognized the aura instantly, despite the radical change in her size and appearance.

After all, her spiritual signature was still the same as it was many years ago, albeit much stronger, purer, and filled with a divine authority that suggested she had finally awakened her true lineage.

At that moment, as the smoke from the prismatic blast began to clear, a ten meter tall white tiger with majestic, feathered wings suddenly descended from the sky.

It landed with a soft thud near Haoran, and riding atop it was a familiar black and purple-haired young woman, her cat ears twitched as she surveyed the battlefield with a look of fierce pride.

It was Zhu Ziyan.

Then, a beautiful woman with long, flowing crimson hair descended in front of him.

She floated down as light as a feather, her back adorned with wings made out of flickering, intense crimson flames that seemed to harmonize with Haoran’s own Gold Incinerating Supreme Flame.

Haoran looked at her, his heart giving a rare, subtle throb of warmth as he smiled softly, his voice dropping to a gentle tone. ”It has been awhile, Yue.”

Huo Yue looked up at him, and that stoic, near-emotionless face that she had worn as a mask of survival for years instantly vanished.

It was replaced by the bright, youthful look of the young girl she had been many years ago—the girl who had once looked at him with stars in her eyes in the small Tan Wu City.

Without hesitation, her flame wings vanished into sparks.

At this moment, she didn’t care about the watching armies, the defeated Saint, or the chaos of the war.

She rushed towards him and tackled him into a fierce hug, burying her face in his chest. Her eyes, usually so sharp and cold, immediately went teary, soaking the silk of his robe as she held onto him as if he were the only solid thing in a shifting universe.

”Haoran,” she sobbed, her voice muffled against him. ”You have no idea how much I’ve missed you.”

Haoran sighed and chose to remain silent, however, his arms slowly coming up to return the embrace, shielding her from the cold winds of the Eastern Region