Villains Aren't Stepping Stones!

The system landed heavily on the shifting sand, its feet sinking slightly into the golden grains as it exhaled a ragged breath.

It was breathing heavily, a mechanical approximation of physical exhaustion forced upon Xiao Long’s overtaxed soul matrix.

Up above, it stared intently at the majestic silhouette of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

The colossal floating fortress had completely stopped its aggressive bombardment, its massive runic matrices flickering down to a low, stable hum, as if the entire structure was entering a mandatory cooling cycle after unleashing such a devastating overdrive assault.

It was understandable, as Haoran did pushed the gardens to three hundred percent non-stop attack.

The thick mechanical smoke and spatial distortions surrounding the two worlds drifted lazily, and was even starting to repair itself and closed on its own.

The system immediately seized this sudden, vital window of silence to aggressively recover its rapidly draining qi reserves.

Its core processors whirred frantically, pulling in whatever stray ambient energy it could manipulate within the locked space.

The situation was becoming incredibly catastrophic.

Although its deep storage databases possessed countless legendary Immortal grade artifacts, primordial weapons, and divine items meant to eventually be given out as rewards to its hosts, every single one of those supreme tools was currently being thoroughly suppressed by the local, primal laws of this specific mortal plane’s will.

Because the environment lacked the true immortal essence required to activate them, the system couldn’t really use them to turn the tables.

In other words, they were nothing more than beautiful, locked dead-weight inside its spatial inventory.

And on the flip side, those lower-ranked, common items it possessed to be given to its host to increase his strength and solidify his foundations were simply far too fragile to continuously withstand another prolonged onslaught of the garden’s space-tearing rays of light.

Those heaven defying tricks it had just pulled off, like when he weaponized old charcoal and rotted wood, had cost so much luck that it could not replicate those miraculous counter-measures a second time.

The system frantically planned to escape this apocalyptic trap, because it knew it absolutely cannot survive for a long time.

However, it couldn’t really think of a plan to escape.

In order to initiate a spatial leap back into the relative safety of the outside world, it would first need to completely deactivate its own domain.

However, doing that would just immediately mean being caught, crushed, and utterly pinned by the dictatorial laws of Haoran’s independent world.

The moment its protective dome fell, the system would find itself entirely at Haoran’s mercy, stripped of its independent terrain and exposed to his commands.

So right now, while resting, it was also running continuous simulations, analyzing hundreds of thousands of various tactical possibilities just to find a single, viable path to survive.

And despite its immense, cosmic computing power, it couldn’t think of one single positive outcome.

The system can feel it clearly now, pulsing through the digital parameters of its soul interface: the heavenly luck, that great cosmic shielding that belonged naturally to those rare individuals favored by the heavens, was rapidly and violently dissipating into nothingness.

The depletion of Chu Yan’s stolen destiny had left its reserves critically low, the numbers dropping in a terrifying downward spiral.

This is basically dead end, no chance to win, no chance survive...

No... wait.

According to a sudden, obscure calculation hidden deep within the inventory data logs, there is still another chance.

A single, statistical anomaly remained.

The system reached deep into Xiao Long’s personal storage ring and took out a simple, weathered jade pendant.

By all objective analytical standards of the cultivation world, it was just a completely ordinary, low-grade pendant, devoid of any high-tier defensive arrays or valuable spiritual materials.

However, this specific object carried a profound, heavy emotional weight, because it was the original token given to Xiao Long by his mortal parents, who had loved him very much and had spent their lives using every single scrap of their familial connections to make sure he successfully became a respected master teacher within the prestigious Imperial Academy.

It was a physical manifestation of pure, unadulterated human sentiment.

Unfortunately, his parents died, and he became so decadent that he neglected his studies and cultivation, becoming known as trash in the entire academy.

’A gamble,’ the system thought, its internal coding fluctuating wildly as it examined the ordinary jade.

It was a cold, logical machine program; it inherently didn’t like to gamble on unquantifiable human factors, but at this current state, it had absolutely no other choice left available.

It would channel and expend every single shred of the remaining luck of Xiao Long into this single token, banking everything on a sudden, heavenly miracle to change the course of history.

Meanwhile, back high above within the pristine control room of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

Haoran sat perfectly composed on his golden throne, his posture relaxed as he stared down at the completely motionless, silent figure of the System on the holographic screen.

He calmly raised his right hand, channeling his qi to activate his specialized Karmic Light Observation technique, intending to visually inspect the current state of this Xiao Long’s remaining world luck values.

...hm?

Haoran’s left eyebrow shot up by a fraction, a look of mild surprise crossing his features as his golden eyes completely flickered into the brilliant, shifting color of a rainbow, capturing the hidden threads of fate.

The aura surrounding that master teacher was now completely faded.

It wasn’t gray or anything, it still had colors, but unlike before, when it had been a dazzling, blindingly bright display of seven distinct light streams screaming with plot armor, now those strands were just incredibly dim, thin, and dull seven-colored wisps drifting weakly around his form... a definitive sign of a protagonist’s luck running out entirely.

This is a sign that the universe was no longer actively shielding his existence.

Haoran grinned coldly, a sharp, victorious smirk returning to his lips as he deactivated the karmic technique, his rainbow eyes instantly returning to their original, calculating golden color.

He extended a single finger toward the screen.

”Kill him.”

At that precise moment, complying with his absolute command, a single, massive runic circle appeared once again in front of the hanging fortress.

The array compressed the residual energy of the core, and with a sharp, deafening snap, it shot a single, highly concentrated ray of purple light straight towards the system down below.

The beam traversed the distance instantly.

It cleanly pierced the body, the spatial distortion violently blowing away a massive portion of Xiao Long’s left chest along with his entire left arm, leaving a clean, cauterized crater of missing flesh and bone.

Even the system’s temporary Supreme Emperor cultivation were unable to block the strike.

[Host... this is officially my very last gift to you...] the mechanical voice echoed weakly within Xiao Long’s consciousness, its internal processing code shattering under the damage.

[System structural failure imminent... Initiating automatic emergency shutdown sequence...]

[...3... 2... 1...]

*BZZZZT!*

The pale, machine-like light inside Xiao Long’s eyes instantly snapped off, and he immediately gained full control of his own physical body and soul matrix once again.

But that very same instant, the unmitigated torrent of physical agony from his missing chest and severed arm flooded his nervous system, and he felt like he was about to completely pass out from the sheer, burning hot pain.

”AAAAHHHH!”

He screamed at the top of his lungs, a raw, guttural human shriek of absolute suffering that echoed across the plains.

He fell heavily to his knees, his remaining right hand clawing at the dirt, before collapsing entirely, laying face flat on the hot sand as his consciousness teetered on the edge of oblivion.

In that precise instant, with the system officially offline and the host incapacitated, the surrounding golden desert domain vanished entirely like a popped bubble, dissolving into thin air.

Haoran’s oppressive, black metallic world immediately took over the landscape, its heavy gravitational laws crashing down upon the clearing.

Up above, the automated firing systems of the Hanging Gardens didn’t pause to show mercy.

Within a fraction of a second, another massive, blinding ray of light shot down from the fortress, aiming directly at his prone, helpless body to finish the execution.

But, in that exact, breathless split second of impact, the ordinary jade pendant clutched tightly in his right hand suddenly erupted with a brilliant, blinding emerald-green glow, unleashing a wave of pure light.

The emotional weight of his parents’ love, amplified by the final conversion of his remaining luck values, constructed a completely solid barrier of pristine light around his form.

*BOOM!*

The descending ray of light crashed violently against the emerald shield, but the barrier held completely, deflecting the spatial distortion away into the black metal.

At the exact same time, a dense, concentrated stream of life energy began to rapidly pour out from the glowing pendant, flooding into Xiao Long’s gaping chest wound and aggressively beginning to heal his shattered flesh.

Haoran’s brow furrowed into a sharp, deeply irritated frown as he watched the unexpected defensive manifestation on the holographic feed.

He didn’t hesitate; he slammed his palm onto the control matrix of his throne, immediately firing several more massive rays of light in a non-stop, rapid-fire barrage, determined to shatter the green shield through sheer, unadulterated volume of force.

*BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!*

The landscape down below turned into an absolute, blinding hellscape of continuous, apocalyptic explosions.

The fortress rained down structural destruction without a single breath of pause.

And after almost a hundred consecutive rays of light had been violently discharged into the crater, Haoran finally stopped the assault as he felt uncomfortable.

The interior of the throne room and the lower decks of the Hanging Gardens were literally turning into a sweltering oven, the immense heat generated by the continuous firing of the garden’s weapons causing the defensive alloy walls to groan.

Haoran leaned forward, his golden eyes intently observing the smoking, molten devastation down below through the holographic screen, trying to find any visible signs of Xiao Long’s destroyed soul.

”Young master,” Qing’er spoke up suddenly, her sharp, well-trained eyes noticing a peculiar, faint phenomenon.

She pointed a slender finger toward the lower corner of the screen. ”Look there. There is still a glowing green light radiating from the center of the ruined land.”

Haoran also saw it perfectly now, and the absolute, ridiculous resilience of the protagonist variable caused him to lose his composure for a split second.

He couldn’t help but click his tongue in pure, unadulterated annoyance. ”Tch. Annoying pest.”

Down below, within the center of a heavily smoking, glassed crater of melted black metal, Xiao Long stood there on his own two feet.

He was breathing heavily, his gasps ragged and filled with shock, but his body was completely, fully healed.

His missing left chest and severed arm had been completely reconstructed by the green light, and he was currently clutching the cracked, fading jade pendant in wide-eyed bewilderment, staring at his own hands as if he couldn’t believe he was still alive.

Haoran was about to continue the attack, but at that moment...

”WHO DARES HARM MY SON!?”

The voice echoed throughout Haoran’s world, causing the space to start crumbling.

However, Haoran forced it to hold, because he knew that if this voice were to attack, he definitely needs the power of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

Just then, from the pendant, a phantom image of a majestic man appeared.

Xiao Long’s eyes widened seeing the person. He never met the man personally, but the moment his eyes locked on him, he instantly knew.

It was his father.

”D-Dad?” He choked, almost sobbing.

This was the body’s response to seeing the man it once hold dear.

Just then, memories instantly flooded his mind.

”Ugh!?” He groaned, clutching his head.

However, it only lasted a second.

’...I see, I understand it now.’

The system knew that it couldn’t protect Xiao Long, so it had used all its remaining power and luck and forcefully altered the past.

The system made it so that his parents were actually from the Immortal Realm who fled in this part of the world and gave birth to him.

However, not wanting their enemies to found him and endanger him, they sent him to the Imperial Academy and faked their death, but actually returning to the Immortal Realm.

The jade pendant they left behind was a protection, meant to shield and heal him, and alert his parents that he was danger.

”Son,” his father smiled at him, ”Don’t worry, with your father here, no one can hurt you.”

Xiao Long stared at the man, and at that moment, he felt as if everything was going to be alright.

This is his system’s final gift.

A backer stronger than even the Shen Clan.