Villains Aren't Stepping Stones!

Shen Haoran was floating in a dark, empty space, his eyes closed.

There was no sound, no direction, no temperature, and no passage of time.

He was suspended in a dark void, suspended between the razor’s edge of life and annihilation, hanging in the formless expanse of his own subconsciousness.

Just then, he opened his eyes.

POP! POP! POP! POP! POP—!

The moment his eyelids parted, the surrounding dark space violently tore open.

Millions upon millions of grotesque, lidless eyes and gaping, razor-toothed mouths opened simultaneously across the pitch-black void.

The infinite darkness itself seemed to be composed entirely of living, writhing flesh and oily, glistening membranes.

Every single mouth opened wide, shrieking, whispering, gurgling, and chanting in an incomprehensible, foreign, and alien tongue.

The unholy noise wasn’t merely audible—it echoed directly inside the deepest walls of Haoran’s mind with the weight of a thousand collapsing stars.

Unearthly vowels, forgotten cosmic names, and maddening frequencies tore through his divine sense, causing Haoran massive headaches that felt as though his brain were being scraped with rusty hooks.

A suffocating, terrifying vertigo washed over his soul, and he felt like he was rapidly losing his mind, his sanity fraying like thin thread under a roaring flame.

”Ngh...!”

Shen Haoran gritted his teeth so hard his jaw creaked, his knuckles turning white as he forcefully anchored his true spirit.

He ignored the maddening, alien chanting as he dug his heels into the non-existent floor of the void and forcefully took his first step forward.

As he walked, the nightmare manifested around him in physical form.

Oily, pitch-black tendrils sprouted from the void, ending in dripping, tooth-filled mouths that began eagerly licking and biting his skin.

They tore at his spiritual robes and gnawed at his heels, leaving burning, acidic trails of dark slime across his arms and shoulders.

But he ignored them, staring straight ahead with absolute, unyielding focus.

Then, disembodied, gigantic eyes floated out from the blackness, pressing within inches of his face.

They stared straight into his own eyes, their pupils dilating into terrifying, non-Euclidean shapes, their gazes piercing straight through his soul to unearth his deepest fears, doubts, and vulnerabilities.

They tried to break his pride, to make him bow, to drown his identity in an infinite sea of primordial terror.

But he ignored them all.

Step by step, with ice in his veins and an iron will that refused to bend, Shen Haoran marched forward through the gauntlet of cosmic horrors.

Finally, after what felt like an agonizing eternity spent drowning in blasphemous whispers and gnawing mouths, the overwhelming darkness abruptly peeled away.

He stepped out of the black void and arrived in a completely blank, snow-white space.

There was no sound here, no eyes on the walls, and no maddening chants.

Yet, the pressure in this silent, white vacuum was a thousand times more suffocating than the darkness he had just crossed.

Floating directly in front of him, suspended in the center of the blank expanse, was an entity that defied all mortal comprehension—a creature so grotesque, so deeply unnatural, and so profoundly wrong that merely perceiving its outline gave one severe goosebumps and made the soul recoil in instinctual revulsion.

It was an amorphous, shape-shifting mass of bubbling, pitch-black cosmic tumorous flesh, constantly expanding and contracting in sickening, rhythmic pulses like a dying heart.

It possessed no fixed geometry—one moment it resembled a mountain of weeping, translucent, oily tendrils; the next, it mutated into a swirling mass of elongated, jointless limbs, snapping jaws, and weeping, milky-white eyes that sprouted out of raw, bleeding sores across its surface.

A foul, suffocating miasma of rotting cosmic matter and decaying star-dust radiated from its form, the space immediately surrounding its body warping, melting, and twisting into sickening, unnatural angles.

It was the living embodiment of chaotic, mindless destruction—a primordial nightmare that predated the creation of the heavens, the stars, and the laws of reality itself.

Shen Haoran stood before the towering, writhing abomination, his robes fluttering in the entity’s suffocating aura as he raised his head, his face calm and cold, despite the cold sweat prickling his neck.

”You are.... Azathoth...?” Haoran muttered, his voice echoing clearly through the silent, blank space. ”A lingering will, perhaps...?”

ROAAAAAAAR—!!!!!

The entity—the lingering manifestation of the ancient, eldritch sword Azathoth—let out a deafening, reality-shattering roar!

The sound was not a voice, but a chaotic detonation of pure, unbridled madness that vibrated through the blank space!

Azathoth was furious.

It was a primordial, unholy existence—an ancient horror that devoured multiverse, drank the life force of universes, and reigned supreme in the dark voids beyond the cosmos!

It refused, above all else, to be dominated, sealed, or wielded by a mere mortal cultivator!

Even a lingering will, how could it allow a mere mortal to use its power?!

It will never accept such thing!

It wanted to devour Shen Haoran’s soul!

It wanted to consume his dantians, erase his consciousness, and turn his physical body into a puppet vessel for its own chaotic rebirth!

It wanted to be in complete control!

The mass of black, eye-covered tendrils erupted outward, shooting toward Haoran like a tidal wave of living death, its thousands of razor-toothed mouths snapping in a frenzy to swallow his spirit whole.

Facing the terrifying, world-ending charge of the outer god’s will, Shen Haoran didn’t step back, he didn’t flinch.

Instead, he snorted in disdain.

”A sword... is meant to be wielded,” Haoran spoke, his voice dropping into a low, terrifyingly calm register that carried the supreme, undisputed weight of a sovereign monarch. ”I am supreme. I am Shen Haoran. I will never allow a mere weapon to take control of my soul—even if you are some ancient, outer god from the void!”

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM—!!!!!

At that exact, dramatic second, the absolute foundation of Shen Haoran’s soul exploded with divine, transcendent light.

His left eye flared with an ancient, dazzling silver radiance, shimmering with the overwhelming power of extreme creation.

His right eye flared with a deep, majestic purple light, burning with the unyielding pressure of extreme destruction.

And right at the center of his forehead, a third eye violently opened—a blinding, incandescent golden eye that radiated the pure and pristine authority of extreme domination!

This was his own unique soul.

A power that can only belong to him.

The Supreme Trinity.

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM—!!!!!

A magnificent, catastrophic tri-color aura composed of blazing gold, profound purple, and blinding silver burst out of his body like a supernova!

The three radiant colors interlocked, causing the very space itself to distort and twist, forming a wall of aura that cover his entire body.

The overwhelming pressure of his Supreme Trinity expanded across the blank space, crushing the atmospheric weight of the void into absolute submission!

The surging wave of black, eye-filled tendrils unleashed by Azathoth hit the tri-color aura wall and came to a screeching, violent halt.

”KNOW YOUR PLACE!” Shen Haoran thundered, his voice echoing with the combined authority of three divine laws.

He stepped forward, his tri-color aura expanding violently.

The blinding silver, purple, and golden light surged forward like an unstoppable, cosmic tsunami, crashing directly over the massive, writhing form of Azathoth.

The divine aura burned away the foul, oily miasma, suppressing the snapping mouths and blinding the thousands of weeping eyes.

The writhing mass of tumorous, pitch-black flesh groaned and screeched in agonizing submission as Shen Haoran’s supreme willpower forcibly drove its chaotic, mindless nature down into the dirt, slamming heavy, tri-colored divine chains of spatial and soul authority around its primordial core.

Under the undisputed dominance of Shen Haoran, the wild, chaotic will of the outer god sword was completely crushed, subdued, and bound to his command!

But Azathoth’s primordial will tried to struggle, thrashing against the tri-color aura like a dying leviathan struggling inside an iron cage.

Thousands of its weeping, milky-white eyes dilated in frantic terror, and its razor-toothed mouths let out ear-splitting, alien shrieks that shattered the surrounding white void into jagged, floating glass shards.

It thrashing tendrils slammed against the glowing barriers, attempting to unleash its chaotic, world-devouring madness to corrupt Haoran’s soul from the inside out.

Yet, under Shen Haoran’s cold suppression, every single effort was completely useless.

”I said... KNOW YOUR PLACE!” Haoran roared, his tri-color aura flaring with blinding intensity of a supernova.

The silver spatial authority locked the entity’s geometry into stillness, the purple extreme destruction soul force crushed its chaotic consciousness, and the golden extreme domination eye scorched its dark essence.

Under the force of the Supreme Trinity, the towering, mountain-sized mass of black tumorous flesh began to buckle, compress, and fold.

Like a crumpled piece of paper under an invisible, hydraulic press, the forty-meter abomination was forcefully crushed smaller and smaller.

Ten meters... five meters... two meters!

The writhing tendrils merged back into solid metal, the thousands of mouths snapped shut into smooth, polished steel, and the weeping eyes dissolved into intricate, dark blade runes.

Slowly, it shrank, folding upon itself over and over until the cosmic horror was reduced back to its original, true physical appearance—a sleek, pitch-black Tang Dao Sword.

The blade hovered silently in the center of the blank white space, its dark iron guard humming with a quiet, suppressed, and completely subdued resonance.

Without a single second of hesitation, Shen Haoran stepped forward and grabbed the handle with his bare right hand.

BOOOOM—!!!!!

The moment his fingers wrapped tightly around the hilt, a violent, soul binding shockwave echoed through his spiritual pathways.

The black Tang Dao ceased its resistance entirely, its eldritch power submitting completely to his own command.

And at that moment...

The inner spiritual world collapsed!

The blank white space cracked like brittle porcelain and disintegrated into thin air.

SWISH—!

When he blinked, he was back in the real world.

He was still standing in the center of the deep, molten crater amidst the smoldering ruins of the Botanist Faction district.

High above in the pitch-black sky, the dark, swirling vortex of the Heavenly Tribulation remained locked in place, and the single, colossal golden eye of the Heavenly Dao was still peering down through the clouds, staring directly into his soul.

Right now, he felt lighter—impossibly light, even. The agonizing, soul-scorching pain from the previous heavenly lightning strikes was completely gone, completely neutralized by his transcendent transformation.

The boundless, divine power of the Supreme Trinity—his silver creation left eye, his purple destruction right eye, and his golden domination third eye—was still coursing through his body, filling his dantians with infinite, roaring energy.

Simultaneously, the black oily sludge of Azathoth was also still pouring out of every pore of his skin, dripping onto the earth like living tar.

The moment the dark, viscous liquid touched the molten bedrock, it began greedily devouring the surroundings—eating away at the stone, consuming the residual wood-element qi, and disintegrating the atmospheric energy into pure, chaotic void matter.

CRACKLE—!

High above, the colossal golden eye of the Heavenly Dao narrowed slightly, its emotionless, cosmic expression shifting as it observed the pitch-black Tang Dao sword resting in Haoran’s right hand.

”A thing from the outside...” the ancient, rumbling voice of the Heavenly Dao echoed directly through the atmosphere, carrying an unmistakable, chilling resonance.

The Heavenly Dao’s eyes showed a clear hint of rare, primordial greed staring at the sword.

”You, anomaly... are not worthy of possessing that weapon. A cosmic artifact of such nature belongs to the order of the heavens, not to a flawed, fleeting mortal.”

Shen Haoran raised his chin, letting out a sharp, cold snort of absolute disdain, but he didn’t even bother to comment on the Heavenly Dao’s hypocritical greed.

To argue with a unfeeling, greedy mechanism was beneath his dignity.

Instead, he closed his eyes, taking a deep, long breath as the wind howled around his dark robes.

There was one vital thing he must do first.

To be recognized as a true Spirit Ascension realm expert, one must not merely accumulate qi or survive a tribulation, instead, they must fully actualize their personal dao, manifest their true sovereign intent, and form their own Spirit Avatar.

THUMP.

His heart beat once, a sound that echoed across the entire ruined city like a heavy bronze war drum.

THUMP.

His dantians roared, the gold and purple qi within his spirit pathways swirling into a blinding, atmospheric vortex that swept away the dust and ash for miles around!

Shen Haoran opened his eyes.

His left eye shone with brilliant silver, his right eye burned with deep purple, and the golden eye on his forehead radiated an incandescent, god-like brilliance.

He slowly raised his left hand, pointing a single, sharp finger directly toward the colossal golden eye staring down at him from the center of the storm clouds.

Actualize your dao, and declare them to the world!

”I want this sky... to no longer cover my eyes!” Haoran declared, his voice echoing like an immortal thunderclap.

The dark tribulation clouds violently trembled!

”I want this earth... to no longer bury my heart!” he roared, his aura expanding and shattering the bedrock beneath his feet into a hundred-meter crater.

The subterranean spirit veins roared in response.

”I want all living beings... to know my will!” Haoran thundered, his gold and purple qi shooting straight into the high heavens like a pillar supporting the cosmos.

He glared straight into the colossal iris above, his expression turning icy, sharp, and filled with undisputed dominance as he pointed directly at the core of the Heavenly Dao.

”And I want you... so-called Heaven... to vanish into smoke and dust!”

He smirked, spreading his arms wide and declared.

”For I am Shen Haoran—the Sovereign who dictates the Dao.”

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM—!!!!!

The heavens and the earth detonated with blinding, incandescent brilliance.

A magnificent, catastrophic pillar of gold and purple light erupted from his dantians, tearing through the cloud layers and shooting ten thousand miles into the cosmos.

From within the blinding radiance, space itself fractured and reshaped itself as his ultimate actualized dao materialized into physical reality!

And with a deafening roar that shook the foundations of the universe, the Spirit Avatar appeared—a colossal, one thousand meter tall gold and purple figure clad in divine, sovereign imperial robes, bearing his very own appearance!

You must know, the Spirit Avatar is the manifestation of one’s dao, given form by what they believed to be ”invincible”.

Shen Haoran was so arrogant, so prideful, that he believes himself to be invincible throughout heaven and earth!

The towering giant opened its brilliant golden-and-purple eyes, holding a thousand-meter spectral shadow of a black sword, looking down at the Heavenly Dao’s eye with pure, undisputed, and supreme dominance!