Villains Aren't Stepping Stones!

The atmosphere of the Eastern Region had reached its absolute breaking point.

The sky was no longer a canopy of air but a swirling vortex of violet lightning, prismatic serpent scales, and the suffocating heat of a dying star.

In the center of this cosmic wreckage stood Shen Haoran.

Even as the earth beneath his boots turned to molten glass, he remained the eye of the storm, calm, collected, and utterly unperturbed by the apocalypse unfolding around him.

”Step back,” Haoran said, his voice quiet yet carrying over the roar of the continent-shattering struggle behind him.

He gently removed his hand from Huo Yue’s waist, giving her a reassuring nod before stepping forward into the scorched vacuum.

Korgar, this ten thousand meter titan of distorted space and stolen souls, roared a sound that shattered the eardrums of every soldier within a fifty-mile radius.

He had just shrugged off Medusa’s latest constriction, his purple skin glowing with the sickly light of a dying nebula and threw her to the ground.

She hissed in pain, but she could barely move.

Korgar looked down at the tiny golden speck that was Haoran, and for the first time, the Saint-level giant didn’t laugh at the small sight, instead, he felt a cold, sharp dread.

”You... little ant... you think you can stand against the heavens!?” Korgar’s voice caused the very air to vibrate with enough force to liquefy stone.

Haoran didn’t answer with words and he simply exhaled, and the Gold Incinerating Supreme Flame exploded from his body, not in a wild burst, but in a controlled, elegant manifestation.

The golden fire spiraled upward, forming a towering phantom of a celestial sovereign behind him, this is the true form of his Heavenly Flame he possessed.

A giant being made of flame said to have been the very first flame that birthed the world.

”Imperial Sword Style: Second Form—Celestial Horizon,” Haoran murmured.

Then, he drew Azathoth, and as the black blade cleared the scabbard, the world went silent.

The sound of the wind, the screams of the dying, and even the crackle of the flames vanished as Haoran swung the blade once.

Tjen, a line of absolute blackness, three thousand meters long, sliced through the air.

This wasn’t a physical cut; it was a spatial erasure.

Behind him, the Flame Giant mimicked his action and created a flame sword slash that burned through existence aimed towards the Korgar.

At that moment, Korgar shrieked as his left arm, larger than a mountain range, was cleanly severed from his body.

However, the limb didn’t fall; it simply dissolved into ashes as the flame energy of the heavenly flame consumed the matter.

”I’LL KILL YOU!” Korgar roared.

But at that moment, Medusa reacted and wrapped herself around the giant, preventing him from making a move.

Taking this chance, the others didn’t idle and tried to bind Korgar as well.

”Everyone, formation!” Qian Yunxi shouted, her six wings flaring as she took her place with the others to prepare for an attack.

The Five Crowns, Zhu Ziyan, Jin Ci, Bai Wenxin, Bei Nu, Hun Ming, Su Xishi, and Xu Jingshan, all unleashed their ultimate techniques.

”Rising Dragon’s Judgment!” Shen Xun’er roared, her fists becoming jade-scaled meteors as she launched them towards Korgar.

”Tyrant King’s Final Stand!” Shen Ji’s physique tripled in size, his skin turning a dark, bruised violet as he slammed into Korgar’s calf.

”Diamond Burial!” Jin Ci became a literal mountain of diamond, anchoring the giant’s other leg.

The others also released their strongest attacks.

The combined might of the Central Region’s greatest geniuses acted as a tether, holding the Saint-level monster in place for the executioner.

Haoran hovered in the air, his golden hair whipping in the chaotic winds as he looked at Korgar with the cold, calculating gaze of a grandmaster looking at a flawed chess piece.

He began to form a series of intricate hand seals, his fingers moving so fast they created a blur of golden light.

”You sacrificed your tribe for a power you don’t deserve,” Haoran said, his voice echoing in Korgar’s mind. ”Allow me to show you what true power looks like. One that isn’t stolen from the lives of ones kin.”

”Heavenly Flame Art: Nine Suns Extinguishing Void.”

Behind Haoran, the giant form of the Heavenly Flame suddenly turned into orbs of golden flame.

This is a technique passed down by the original Gold Incinerating Supreme Flame to the descendants of Shen Clan who possessed his seed flame.

They weren’t just fire, they were compressed stars, each one containing a fraction of the True Gold Incinerating Supreme Flame’s essence.

They began to orbit Haoran, accelerating until they became a single ring of blinding radiance.

”Go.” He pointed a finger at Korgar’s chest, and the nine suns instantly shot forward in a convergent line.

Medusa immediately silently cursed Haoran as she let of Korgar and retreated far away.

As each sun hit Korgar, the impact was like a supernova exploding at his body.

The first sun shattered Korgar’s burned through his skin and flesh, reducing his ribs to ashes.

The second scorched his internal organs.

The third and fourth pinned dried up the water and blood in his body.

And finally, the fifth through eighth suns began to incinerate his very life force, burning through the millions of sacrificed essences that fueled his Sainthood.

The battlefield was instantly turned into a white void of pure energy.

Everyone else, who were watching from the periphery, were forced to shield their eyes.

It was a display of power that shouldn’t have been possible for a normal Nascent Soul realm cultivator, but Haoran was far from normal.

Haoran was effectively punching through the barriers of the Saint realm through sheer technique and the purity of his Heavenly Flame.

Korgar’s gargantuan body was being eaten away by the golden fire, his screams were no longer sounds, but ripples of agony in the fabric of space.

”It’s over!” Shen Xun’er cheered from the wall, his hope rekindled. ”Boss did it! He killed a Saint!”

But Haoran’s expression didn’t change. He didn’t even celebrate, and simply watched as the ninth sun struck Korgar’s heart.

Finally, as the last sun hit Korgar, it created a mushroom cloud of golden and violet fire rose ten thousand meters into the sky, clearing the ash-choked atmosphere for a brief, beautiful moment.

And as the light faded, the giant’s massive silhouette was gone, replaced by a swirling cloud of purple dust.

Haoran sheathed Azathoth, his breathing only slightly elevated.

But then...

”Young Master, watch out!’ Shangguan Mu’er shrieked, her demonic wings snapping open as she dived toward him.

From the center of the purple dust, a hand, now skeletal and made of solidified, dark-matter souls, reached out and grabbed the space itself.

The dust settled, and it revealed that Korgar had not died. Instead, the destruction of his physical body had allowed the millions of sacrificed souls to reach a state of hyper-compression.

And at this moment, he looked like a shadow carved out of the night sky, his eyes two burning violet suns.

He no longer has any flesh nor organs, what he is now is a mere skeleton, yet it carried power greater than the one he had before.

”You... burned my flesh...” Korgar’s voice was now a million whispers at once. ”But you cannot burn our will. These souls... they do not want to die. They want to live through me!”

He moved with a speed that bypassed even Haoran’s reaction.

Then, with a single finger flick from the Saint-entity, it directly sent Haoran flying back through seven stone pillars, his Unbreakable Diamond forcefield shattering like glass.

Shangguan Mu’er, who was coming to his rescue, was blown away by the force.

”Haoran!” Huo Yue screamed, her flames erupting in a frantic burst as she rushed to catch him.

Haoran crashed into her arms, the force of the impact sending them both sliding across the molten ground.

He coughed once, a trickle of red blood escaping his lips.

At that moment, he touched the edge of his mouth, and saw his blood, and he couldn’t help but widened his eyes.

This is...my blood?

I can actually bleed?

This is the first time in his life that he has ever bleed in battle.

He looked up at the Saint-entity, his eyes narrowing for the first time in the entire war.

The Saint-entity, Korgar, hovered in the air, his aura directly suppressing the entire world.

”Fuck. How dare you hit the boss!” Shen Xun’er screamed in anger.

”Everyone! Attack! Don’t hold back!”

”Here! Take them and attack!” Bei Nu started distributing pills to everyone.

And with that, they roared as the combined attack of Zhu Ziyan, the Five Crowns, the Spirit Hall Pope, Medusa’s prismatic beam, and the rest of the geniuses, struck Korgar simultaneously.

The explosion was immense, yet when the smoke cleared, the Saint-entity was untouched.

He stood there, surrounded by a swirling moat of souls that simply ate the incoming energy.

”Is that all?” Korgar asked, raising a hand.

Then, with a simple wave, he unleashed a wave of violet gravity.

In that instant, the Five Crowns were slammed into the earth, their bones groaning under a weight equivalent to a mountain range.

Medusa was forced back into her human form, her scales bleeding as she fell from the sky.

Lu Xinglan was pinned to the city wall, her purple robes tattered.

Everyone was blown away by the force, struggling to even move a finger.

Far back, Haoran stood up, pushing Huo Yue gently behind him.

”Are you okay?” Asked Huo Yue worriedly.

”Hm. Don’t worry.” Haoran nodded as he wiped the blood from his mouth, his face returning to its mask of calm indifference, though his aura was now flickering with a dangerous, unstable light.

”It seems,” Haoran said, his golden eyes glowing with a cold, terrifying light, ”that I was too lenient. You’ve traded millions of your kin’s for a shell of Saint power, and now you think you’re strong because of that?”

He reached into his storage ring and pulled out a small, unassuming jade bottle.

Inside, a single drop of blood, darker than any ink and pulsing with the heartbeat of a primordial era, shimmered.

”I was saving this for some worthy opponent or whatnot,” Haoran whispered. ”But since you seems to have gotten a bit arrogant, allow me to put you back in your place.”

The fight was not over. Korgar was strong, a monster of hyper compressed souls that defied the logic of the Eastern Region...but, that’s all he was.

He stood as a wall of darkness, a Saint who had lost his mind but found an invincible power.

But as Haoran uncorked the bottle, the smile that played on his lips was not one of fear, but of the predator who had finally found a prey worth the effort.

The two stared at each other, a youth of gold and a monster of shadow, while the Eastern Region trembled in anticipation of a clash that would decide if the region remained or was turned to ash.