Villains Aren't Stepping Stones!

The cataclysmic attack stunned everyone present into breathless petrification as they stared up at the massive spirit avatar cleaving through the firmament.

The titanic, pitch-black blade resembling that of Azathoth descended with the weight of an entire collapsing star, dragging behind it an apocalyptic wake of devouring void sludge and weeping spatial tears.

The air groaned, the clouds were pulverized into nothingness, and the atmospheric pressure alone flattened the earth beneath it, carving a chasm thousands of feet deep before the blade even touched the ground.

Seeing this extinction-level strike descending upon their heads, the hundreds of thousands of native cultivators fell to their knees, their minds blank, waiting for their flesh and souls to be erased from the cycle of reincarnation.

Every single observer on the battlefield, from the lowliest junior disciple to the seasoned elders of the Four Sacred Grounds, thought that the natives were completely done for.

Standing behind their protective barriers, the tens of thousands of Imperial Academy students felt an overwhelming surge of triumphant euphoria rush into their veins.

Seeing the terrifying might of their fellow student effortlessly suppress an entire world’s vanguard, the students opened their mouths and were just about to erupt into thunderous, celebratory cheers—

WHOOOSH—!

At that exact second, before they could say a single word or utter a single cheer, a pristine, blinding golden light suddenly appeared.

It did not burst like an explosion; it bloomed like an ancient, inviolable lotus of absolute authority.

The moment the golden radiance brushed against the descending blade of void energy, the apocalyptic destruction, the howling atmospheric tempests, and the chaotic spatial tears instantly calmed down in an instant!

The violent wave of power of this strike didn’t simply bounce off or shatter, instead it was forcefully pacified!

Its wild, chaotic momentum systematically reorganized, regulated, and rendered into a calm, gentle breeze of harmless golden particles that drifted harmlessly across the wasteland!

From within the center of the blinding solar light, Chen Feng appeared, revealing his fully manifested Spirit Avatar.

It was a magnificent, three hundred meter tall humanoid dragon titan composed entirely of dense, interlocking golden scales and flowing draconic energy, holding a massive energy blade.

The avatar had the proud, sharp contours of an ancient dragon warrior, adorned with celestial armor, radiating the pure, unyielding majesty of absolute cosmic law.

Floating safely and securely inside the glowing, crystalline forehead core of the three hundred meter golden giant stood Chen Feng himself, his silver hair dancing in the solar wind, his golden sword held firm as his blue eyes burned with fierce, protective resolve.

Chen Feng let out a sigh of relief.

At least, he managed to successfully deflect the attack.

Seeing their supreme champion single handedly neutralize a thousand meter cataclysmic slash and manifest an invincible three hundred meter dragon avatar, the hundreds of thousands of surviving native cultivators erupted into ecstatic, tearful cheers and fanatical praises.

”LORD CHEN FENG HAS BLOCKED THE STRIKE!”

”THE WHITE DRAGON EMPEROR IS INVINCIBLE! PRAISE THE SOVEREIGN GUARDIAN OF OUR WORLD!”

”LOOK AT HIM! HE STANDS TALL AGAINST THE DEMONS OF THE UPPER REALM!”

The indigenous army wept with relief, bowing and shouting with renewed, boundless devotion that shook the horizon.

In stark, humiliating contrast, the tens of thousands of Imperial Academy students looked on with wide, trembling eyes, their faces pale as ghosts, frozen in utter shock and disbelief.

The cheers died instantly in their throats.

To see a native from a depleted, lower realm world, a place they considered nothing more than a barren hunting ground, not only survive an attack from such a massive spirit avatar, but effortlessly neutralize its chaotic momentum with his very own spirit avatar, shattered their fundamental understanding of martial hierarchy.

Down in the mud, hiding beneath the edge of a jagged rock formation, Tang Lin stared up at Shen Haoran’s towering colossus with bloodshot, frantic eyes.

Different... He is completely, terrifyingly different!

Tang Lin’s soul shivered violently. In his past life, Shen Haoran had been a ruthless, arrogant genius known as the greatest talent in the empire, yes, but that was it, he was an arrogant genius, but he was not that monstrous compared to his peers!

But this Shen Haoran standing before him today was on an entirely different level of power.

What happened? Did his rebirth somehow change things? Or maybe did he also returned to the past like he did?

’...whatever, I can’t get involved in this monster’s battle,’ Tang Lin thought, gritting his teeth until they bled.

He forcefully shook his head, tore his eyes away from the sky, and immediately decided to go back to his work, his fingers blurring as he rapidly try to dismantle the final nodes of the Nine-Abyss Primordial Sealing Array.

High in the sky, Shen Haoran remained suspended within the forehead of his spirit avatar, his golden eyes observing the tranquil, perfectly neutralized zone surrounding Chen Feng’s three hundred meter golden dragon avatar.

Even in the Imperial Academy, having a 300 meter Spirit Avatar puts you at the top of geniuses.

Haoran turned his gaze towards the downcast and angry students, glaring intensely at Chen Feng.

However, unlike them, he was not angered in the slightest and just casually rested his hand against the hilt of his sword and hummed softly in quiet amusement.

”Let me guess...” Haoran spoke, his deep, resonant voice booming through the firmament with effortless clarity. ”You have a physique fundamentally related to the concept of ’Order’, am I right?”

Chen Feng flinched visibly, his posture stiffening as he stared at Haoran in shock.

The secret of his Heavenly Order Dragon Body was the deepest, most sacred mystery of his existence—an ancient, primordial inheritance that had allowed him to rise from an impoverished orphan to the pinnacle of his realm.

No one in the entire Ancient Heaven Star knew the true, fundamental nature of his physique, yet this upper-realm youth had identified its core conceptual rule with a single, passing glance.

Haoran stared at him with a cold, knowing smirk as he remembered very clearly what Xiao Long’s system had detailed in the past regarding the lore of the Nine Dragon God Physiques—each one was an incarnation of the primordial foundational aspects of all creation, governing fundamental cosmic pillars, and one of them was Order.

Just now, when his strike landed, Haoran had keenly observed the sudden shift in his own attack.

Unlike what others thought, it had not been overpowered through force, but rather, upon contacting Chen Feng’s golden aura, the chaotic aspect of hus strike had suddenly lost its destructive intensity and become artificially orderly, its chaotic frequencies forcefully reorganized and harmonized until the entire strike was rendered stable, inert, and effortlessly neutralized.

”You seem to know an extraordinary amount about my physique,” said Chen Feng, his voice dropping into a guarded, dangerous cadence as his golden avatar tightened its grip on its blade.

Haoran didn’t waste any energy talking to him or explaining cosmic systems to a frog in a well.

Earlier, while floating within his avatar, Haoran had already discreetly activated his Karmic Light Observation technique, peering directly into the luck surrounding the silver-haired youth.

What he discovered was astounding: this man, Chen Feng, was a full-fledged, genuine Son of Destiny—a protagonist of the highest tier.

And unlike the earlier, budding protagonists Haoran had encountered and crushed back in their nascent stages, this one had already reached the undisputed peak of his native world.

Chen Feng’s personal karmic luck was not just thick—it was literally overflowing, manifesting as a towering, incandescent dragon of pure golden fortune that bridged heaven and earth!

This was the very first time Haoran had seen luck so strong it manifested itself into its own form.

With such boundless, concentrated karmic luck shielding his life, killing him here and now on his own realm without triggering catastrophic, universe-bending karmic interventions or unexplainable spatial miracles was pretty much impossible.

A fully matured world protagonist...

Haoran mused, his eyes narrowing with a sharp, calculating glint. ’Killing him outright today is impossible... but I can still make him suffer immense, agonizing losses.’

BOOM!

Shen Haoran’s one thousand meter Spirit Avatar once again raised its massive, pitch black sword high into the stratosphere!

The surrounding air twisted and turned into violent, jagged knots, spatial fractures spiderwebbing across the clouds as a second, even heavier wave of golden energy gathered along the black blade!

Chen Feng clicked his tongue in deep annoyance, feeling the overwhelming, world-crushing pressure mount once again.

He mobilized his dragon avatar, preparing to enforce the laws of Order once more—

CRACK—SHATTER—!!!!!

But...

At that exact, critical moment, down in the muddy fissures of the plain, Tang Lin finally completed his frantic task and successfully finished dismantling the core foundation of the Nine-Abyss Primordial Sealing Array.

However...

The timing could not have been more disastrous!

The sheer, catastrophic destructive scale that Shen Haoran’s spirit avatar releases, coupled with the ancient sealing formation suddenly going completely haywire due to its vital nodes being violently disrupted from within, caused the already fragile spatial fabric of this lower realm to suffer an unprecedented, catastrophic collapse!

SKRRRRRRR—BOOOOOOOM!

Space itself started distorting violently, twisting into grotesque, swirling vortexes of chaotic, broken dimensional currents!

Shen Haoran paused mid-swing, his sharp brows furrowing into a slight frown as he instantly dissolved his thousand-meter avatar, landing gracefully beside his inner circle atop a stable ridge.

”WHAT IS HAPPENING?!”

”THE SKY IS CAVING IN!”

Frantic, deafening panic erupted across the entire battlefield.

Tens of thousands of academy students and native cultivators alike screamed in sheer terror as massive, pitch-black spatial rifts and jagged cracks in space opened violently beneath their feet, in the air above them, and behind their formations.

SWISH! SWISH! WHOOSH!

The localized gravitational collapse created an irresistible, vacuum-like pulling force.

Hundreds of screaming disciples, war-beasts, and native elders were helplessly lifted into the air and rapidly sucked into the swirling cracks in space, their bodies vanishing in flashes of erratic dimensional light.

Seeing the spatial storm expand toward their coordinates, panic began to ripple through the vanguard.

However, amidst the chaotic winds, Shen Bai calmly stepped forward, his eyes completely composed as he turned towards the other Crowns along with Huo Yue, Zhu Ziyan, Qian Yunxi, Ning Xueli, Xia Mengyao, Ling Luochen, Luo Mingye, and Xu Xiansu.

”Don’t worry,” Shen Bai spoke, his clear, confident voice cutting through the roaring tempest. ”The space was just destabilized by the sudden collapse of the array nodes and the young master’s power. It is merely an involuntary spatial dispersion event. It will probably scatter and send us to every different corner of this world, but with our cultivation foundations and defensive and offensive artifacts, nothing should happen to us. We will regroup at our designated coordinates.”

They all looked at Shen Bai, nodded at him in trust, and fully believed him. After all, he was their undisputed expert Formation Master, whose knowledge of spatial arrays was second to none.

With the sole exception of Shen Haoran, of course.

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH—!!!!!

One after another, colossal spatial vortexes swept across the ridge.

Huo Yue noticed a crack appearing beside her and turned towards the others, ”Well, guess I’ll be going now.”

She then looked up to Haoran, ”Haoran! Take care! I’ll be leaving first!”

Waving her fist with a bright grin, she was immediately swallowed by a crimson spatial tear, just in time after she finished her farewells.

Following her, Qian Yunxi, Xia Mengyao, Luo Mingye, Xu Xiansu, Zhu Ziyan and Ning Xueli also vanished into a shimmering azure rift.

Beside them, the Ten Crowns were also pulled into separate, roaring dimensional rifts.

And finally, Shen Haoran, with his hands clasped calmly behind his back, allowed the chaotic spatial currents to wrap around his frame, his figure dissolving gracefully into the swirling void.

The dimensional storm roared with apocalyptic fury across the vast plains, sweeping up every last student, every native warrior, the Four Great Masters, Chen Feng, and Tang Lin, sucking every single living soul into the chaotic cracks in space, until the desolate, shattered plains fell into complete, dead silence, and not a single person remained.