Villains Aren't Stepping Stones!

After his heavy, paradigm-shifting conversations with the mother and daughter of the Spirit Hall, nothing of note happened across the remaining days of the week.

The grand, sweeping gears of war had finally ground to a halt, leaving the Eastern Region in a state of quiet, transitional recovery.

Haoran spent the rest of the week just relaxing within the lavish imperial guest quarters, completely detached from the ongoing reconstruction of the city walls and the frantic political restructuring of the local kingdoms.

He focused his entire attention on going on leisurely, private dates with Huo Yue and completely indulging on her beautiful, willing body.

They spent hours upon hours inside the curtained chambers, the air thick with the scent of crimson flames and heavy passion.

She mentioned one day, while resting her flushed cheek against his chest in the quiet hours of the afternoon, that she hoped that he can take care of her friends—specifically referencing Medusa and Zhu Ziyan—if she herself can’t continue to satisfy him or if she simply wanted to rest her body from his relentless pace.

Hearing her frantic, desperate compromise, Haoran simply agreed with a lazy, satisfied smirk.

He had absolutely no intention of refusing beautiful, high-tier women getting directly sent on his way, especially when they carried the latent destiny of the world’s chosen powerhouses.

During these quiet days, he also tried to meet Xu Xiansu, wanting to investigate the sudden, dramatic awakening of her Sun Moon Divine Physique and test her reactions further.

But unfortunately, that enigmatic girl seems to have completely disappeared from the palace grounds.

According to the elite gate guards he questioned, she had quietly packed her few belongings, walked out of the massive city gates early the next morning after the banquet, and has yet to return to the jurisdiction of the Spirit Hall.

It was unclear whether she was deliberately evading his shadow to stabilize her newfound strength in secret, or if she has something she needed to do.

At this exact moment, the final evening of the week had arrived.

The sky above the Eastern Region was a deep, velvet indigo, and he and Huo Yue are currently walking hand in hand on the grand thoroughfares of the Spirit Hall’s capital city.

They were thoroughly enjoying the incredibly bustling streets, soaking in the lively atmosphere as thousands of commoners and rogue cultivators celebrated their survival.

Intricate wooden vendors and vibrant street food stalls were displayed all over the stone avenues, the air rich with the savory scents of roasted spirit beast skewers, sweet sugar-glazed plums, and steaming bowls of local medicinal broth.

Huo Yue chuckled softly, her fingers tightening around his palm as she leaned her shoulder against his arm, her long crimson hair swaying in the soft evening breeze. ”This scene... it truly reminds me of that specific time when we first met so many years ago. We were also walking side by side on the bustling street of Tan Wu City, right? Surrounded by common merchants and simple lanterns.”

Haoran hummed in a low, gentle tone, his golden eyes scanning the bright lanterns hanging from the eaves of the nearby shops. ”You still remember that trivial event? It’s been so long, and we have crossed so many boundaries since that day.”

”Of course I do!” Huo Yue proudly puffed her massive chest, her wine-red eyes shining with a fierce, unwavering light of absolute devotion. ”That is the exact day we first met in this vast world, the day my path was permanently altered, so how could I ever possibly forget it?”

”Oh?” Haoran smiled down at her, a rare, genuine warmth softening the sharp, aristocratic contours of his face. ”Is that so?”

Huo Yue smiled gently, stopping her stride entirely to turn and stare directly into his golden pupils. ”I remember reading an old scroll about some ancient scholar who stated that the two most happiest moments of your life, is the day you were born into this world, and the day you finally found out why. But looking at you now, I would like to strongly disagree with his philosophy.”

She stepped closer, facing him completely in the middle of the crowded avenue, ignoring the hundreds of pedestrians walking past them.

She reached out her slender, warm hand to tenderly caress his cheeks, her fingers brushing against his skin with a feather-light touch. ”I think the two happiest moments of my life is the day I was born, and the day we met for the first time in Tan Wu City. Everything before that day was just empty survival; everything after has been a gift.”

Haoran remained entirely silent. He stared down at Huo Yue, taking in the absolute, beautiful madness of her pure, unfiltered obsession, and he couldn’t help but lean his face deeply into her warm palm, inhaling her familiar scent.

He doesn’t know why, but this specific woman just had this incredibly bizarre, intoxicating charm that made him utterly unable to resist her presence.

Looking at her now, he felt a dark, possessive urge ripple through his soul; he wanted nothing more than just to forcefully capture her, tie her up in the deepest chambers of his clan’s ancestral palace, and never allow her to leave his side for a single second.

But... as he looked at the bright, burning embers of her wine-red eyes, he knew he can’t do that.

Or rather, looking at the grand design of the future, he shouldn’t.

Once he succumbed to his dark urges and locked her away, then Huo Yue wouldn’t be able to properly grow and become the magnificent, world-shattering woman that she was destined to be—the peerless Flame Empress who suppressed the entire era with her fused Heavenly Flames, the legendary woman who will be known across the infinite star systems as the greatest, most unmatched talent in human history.

He remembered clearly from the stolen memories of his cousin’s consciousness, during the final Chapters of the novel, there was the historical descriptions left behind by the supreme chroniclers during Huo Yue’s eventual ascension to the Supreme Emperor Realm.

”The endless dao of the world can only be trampled below her feet. The heavens above could do nothing more than be completely silent in her presence. She carries the dazzling, absolute Heaven’s Will, and under her illuminating, eternal fire, everything else across the infinite universes became dim, listless, and utterly insignificant.”

Haoran reached out, putting his strong hands around her slender waist and pulling her body flush against his, pressing his forehead gently against hers as the crowds flowed around them like a river around a solid rock.

”What?” Huo Yue chuckled softly, her breath mingling with his in the cool night air as she looked up at his serious expression. ”Are you actually touched by my words, Young Master Shen?”

”Yeah,” Haoran whispered, his voice a low, heavy drone that vibrated directly into her core. ”Tell me more.”

Huo Yue smiled gently, her heart skipping a beat at his rare display of vulnerability as she leaned into his touch, her voice dropping into a soft, hypnotic rhythm as she began to utter sweet, intoxicating words.

”In months when even heaven stood bare,

It was your name that kept me there.

When all the stars seemed dim and thin,

Your memory kept my soul within.”

”I never knew that grief had teeth,

Until your voice was lost beneath.

The endless dark of silent nights,

Where loneliness consumed all light.”

”You are the thread through every seam,

The quiet stitch inside my dream.

Through broken corners, worn and scarred,

You held together my shattered heart.”

”If my soul has ever known a place,

It was not wealth, nor crown, nor grace.

Not towers high nor mountains far,

But where your gentle heartbeats are.”

”Without you, spring would bloom in pain,

Its flowers dressed like grief in rain.

And every feast, though bright above,

Would toll like bells for buried love.”

”You became more than one adored,

More than the hand my spirit stored.

You were the light I carried through,

The way I learned to live from you.”

”Those cruel months apart made clear,

That distance cannot conquer here.

It starves the flesh and bends the bone,

But never breaks a heart once known.”

”Your golden hair in lantern’s gleam,

Falls bright like sunlight in a dream.

And in that warmth I still can see,

The life once cold return to me.”

”If kingdoms fade and worlds depart,

I’d still remain with steady heart.

If all abandoned where you stood,

I’d stand beside you, firm and good.”

”I walked through silence, grief, and pain,

Through endless roads and bitter rain.

Yet every path, though wild and new,

Would bend its weary steps to you.”

”You were no chain to bind my soul,

But fire that made my spirit whole.

The reason still, through fear and strife,

My heart beat fierce and chose its life.”

”Let empires fall like dust in air,

Let crowns dissolve beyond repair.

For all I hold, through loss and blue,

Is smaller than the world—you.”

Huo Yue took a deep breath, finishing that poem as she stared at him

”More,” Haoran demanded, his grip on her waist tightening until her breath caught.

”Enough, enough,” Huo Yue smiled wryly, her face flushing a deep crimson as she reached down and gently pinched his waist to break the intense tension. ”I’ve already run out of sweet things to say, you insatiable beast. My vocabulary isn’t as grand as your sect scholars.”

Haoran slowly pulled his forehead away, staring down at her with a pair of dark, hungry eyes that glowed like molten gold—an intense, predatory expression that looked as if he couldn’t wait another second but to devour her whole right there on the stone bricks.

Huo Yue chuckled softly seeing his reaction, a wave of profound satisfaction and pride washing over her heart. ”My, it truly seems you won’t be able to live without me anymore, Haoran. You’re completely hooked on my fire. But for now, control yourself; let’s go watch the grand fireworks display. I heard the elders of the Spirit Hall spent quite a massive fortune in spirit stones to prepare for this specific show.”

Though she said those teasing words to maintain her composure, inside her own mind, she was also completely unable to wait and let Haoran devour her body again.

She was so deeply, thoroughly obsessed with his touch that she wouldn’t mind whatever twisted, brutal thing he wanted to do to her behind closed doors.

At that exact moment, Haoran seemed to have successfully calmed the roaring energy of his body.

He nodded slowly, his face returning to its usual mask of calm, collected indifference. ”I know a good place to watch. The high pavilion near the northern wall has the best view of the—.”

At that exact second, before he could even finish his words, the ambient spiritual energy in the air suddenly went completely stagnant.

A woman whose face was entirely concealed beneath a dark, tattered grey hood suddenly appeared out of the crowded market, walking directly past them.

As her shoulder lightly brushed against Haoran’s gold silk sleeve, a low, rasping voice that sounded like grinding tectonic plates whispered directly into his ears.

”It has been absolute eons... how have you been faring in this cycle... Azathoth?”

Haoran paused dead in his tracks. The world around him seemed to lose its color for a brief fraction of a second.

He snapped his head around instantly, his golden eyes scanning the crowded avenue as he watched the grey-hooded woman walking away into the sea of pedestrians, her silhouette seemingly bending the light around her as he frowned deeply.

”Haoran?” Huo Yue stared up at him, her brow furrowing as she felt the sudden, icy drop in his body temperature.

She quickly turned her head to stare at the exact location he was looking at, but her sharp, peak Golden Core senses found absolutely nothing out of the ordinary—just a sea of common townspeople and rogue cultivators walking happily along the decorated streets.

”...You didn’t see her?” Asked Haoran, his voice low and incredibly sharp.

”See what?” Huo Yue tilted her head in absolute confusion as she spread her divine sense across the block, finding nothing but normal human vitalities. ”There’s nothing there but the merchants, Haoran. What did you see?”

Haoran’s frown deepened. The fact that a entity could approach him, speak the ancient name of the Outer God sealed within his blade, and remain completely invisible to a peak Golden Core protagonist meant that the variable was far beyond the legal parameters of this lower region.

He turned his gaze back towards Huo Yue, his face turning incredibly serious and solemn. ”Sorry, Yue. I might not be able to see the fireworks with you tonight. Go back to the pavilion and stay with Medusa and Ziyan.”

Huo Yue looked deeply into his eyes, reading the absolute, unyielding gravity of the situation within his golden pupils.

She didn’t ask foolish questions, nor did she try to hold him back, instead, she just nodded firmly, her hand releasing his palm in a show of absolute trust. ”I don’t know what’s happening, but be careful. Don’t let your guard down.”

Haoran nodded once, his golden robes fluttering as he immediately activated his movement technique, transforming into a silent streak of gold light as he followed the precise, fading trail of the grey-hooded woman through the bustling streets.