Villains Aren't Stepping Stones!

The roaring mountain gale rushed through the wide-open blast doors of the profound ark, carrying with it a heavy, suffocating scent of ancient primordial earth, molten ore, and concentrated draconic spiritual energy.

As everyone walked out of the profound ark onto the wide, floating celestial stone bridge that extended from the ark toward the ground, Shen Haoran immediately turned his head and saw the massive, towering stone paifang gate.

The colossal archway scraped the high clouds, its pillars entwined with coiled stone wyrms whose open jaws breathed ancient runes into the mist.

Suspended between its two colossal pillars, a radiant, slowly swirling vortex of incandescent golden and jade-green energy rippled like the surface of a deep ocean, connecting the mortal realm to the untamed depths of the Celestial Dragon Vault.

However, after a single passing glance, Shen Haoran quickly turned his head away and stared at the depressed Shen Xun’er, who was walking at the very back of the independent cultivator queue like a hollow, walking corpse.

Her head hung low, her hair limply framing her downcast face as she moved with mechanical, lifeless steps, her boots dragging across the glowing flagstones as if the weight of his disappointed words had physically crushed the bone marrow inside her spine.

She didn’t look at the breathtaking gate, didn’t spare a glance at the competing disciples around her, and simply allowed the slow momentum of the line to pull her along.

Standing at the threshold of the stone bridge, flanked by the senior elders of the White Dragon Sect and the leaders of the nine participating sects, Xun Xie’er raised her slender arm, her clear, melodious voice echoing across surroundings.

”All participants, you may now enter the Celestial Dragon Vault!”

Hearing her decree, the gathered group of cultivators stirred into motion.

One by one, cohort by cohort, the disciples and elders slowly stepped forward, all of them burning with desire and ambition.

Finally, lingering at the very tail end of the line, Shen Xun’er stepped onto the threshold, her figure shimmering before dissolving into the swirling vortex, entering the secret realm with her head still buried in her chest.

Shen Haoran, however, did not enter.

He stood casually at the back, his hands crossed inside his sleeves, waiting with cold patience until every last disciple, every elder, and every rogue cultivator had completely crossed through the portal, until the vast expanse of the bridge and the profound ark’s boarding deck were completely cleared of all trial participants.

Once the final ripple in the paifang’s portal settled into a steady hum, Shen Haoran turned around.

With slow, unhurried steps, he began walking back towards Xun Xie’er, her in-laws Chen Shan and Lin Ruo, and the various other elders from the White Dragon Sect and the surrounding regional forces who had remained behind to monitor the secret realm.

Seeing the black-robed youth casually walking in the opposite direction while holding his entry token loosely in his hand, Xun Xie’er’s delicate silver brows furrowed into a tight, questioning frown.

”Participant,” Xun Xie’er spoke, her tone carrying the polite yet firm authority of a sect mistress, ”the trial gates have already opened, you need to hurry up and enter the realm at once, or you will forfeit your qualified spot.”

Beside her, Chen Feng’s father, Chen Shan, stroked his beard with a curious glance, while several White Dragon Sect elders stepped forward, their hands resting loosely near their sword hilts as they stared warily at the lagging youth.

Yet, Shen Haoran did not speed up his pace, he did not bow, he did not offer an excuse, and did not make a single move toward the glowing paifang gate.

Instead, he just smiled.

It was not a warm, apologetic smile of a flustered junior.

It was a sharp, narrow, and profoundly mocking smirk—a look of condescending amusement that carried the icy, unyielding arrogance of an apex predator cornering a cage of domestic livestock.

HUMMMMM—

The instant that dark smirk parted his lips, the ambient temperature suddenly plummeted into an unnatural, bone-chilling frost.

The kind-faced mother, Lin Ruo, instinctively took a step back, clutching her husband’s sleeve, while the surrounding elders felt their soul violently shudder.

A sudden, suffocating wave of instinctual, primal dread wrapped around their throats, and without understanding why, everyone present started feeling intensely nervous.

The hairs on the backs of their necks stood on end, their spiritual senses screaming bloody warnings of impending, catastrophic doom.

”You... who are you?!” a senior elder of the White Dragon Sect shouted, his voice cracking with sudden panic as he reached for his spatial ring—

FLASH—!!!!!

Just then, the fabric of reality itself seemed to skip a heartbeat.

Shen Haoran moved with a speed that completely transcended the visual, spiritual, and physical perception of the lower realm’s laws.

He did not leave a blur, nor did he cause a displacement of air.

One second he was standing ten paces away, and in the very next instant—

Shen Haoran was already standing directly in front of Xun Xie’er, his right hand shooting out like an iron vice and mercilessly grabbing Xun Xie’er straight by her delicate neck!

GASP!

The sudden, brutal impact lifted the peak 9th-stage Nirvana Rebirth beauty clean off her feet, her slender legs dangling in the air.

Her crystalline silver eyes bulged in pure, unadulterated shock, her breath violently cut off as Haoran’s fingers dug into her throat, effortlessly severing the circulation of her spiritual meridians before she could even summon a single spark of her qi.

”XIE’ER!”

”MADAM!”

Everyone was completely stunned for a moment.

Chen Feng’s parents turned pale as corpses, their minds failing to comprehend how a random, unassuming participant could casually cross a dozen paces and seize the first beauty of the empire like a helpless chicken.

”BASTARD! RELEASE LADY XUN AT ONCE!”

”KILL HIM! TEAR HIS SOUL APART!”

All elders and dozens of White Dragon Sect imperial guards instantly reacted with furious, blood-curdling roars, their bodies erupting with explosive pillars of elemental qi.

Swords were unsheathed, ancient talismans were primed, and their hands formed lethal killing mudras, preparing to obliterate the black-robed youth into atomic dust.

But...

Before any of them could make a single offensive move, before a single blade could swing half an inch through the air, the pitch-black shadows beneath their boots violently twisted and turned.

The flat, two-dimensional shadows cast by the setting sun suddenly morphed into thick, living pools of undulating, abyssal darkness.

BOOOOOOOOOOM!

From the depths of the weeping shadows, a colossal crushing gravity erupted upward.

Thousands of jagged, pitch-black tendrils made out of shadows snaked out of the floor, wrapping tightly around the ankles, waists, and chests of every single elders and guards on the deck!

With a terrifying force that defied all martial logic, the living shadows violently slammed all of them straight down against the cold stone floor.

CRACK! CRACK! BANG! THUD!

The ground groaned under the gravitational collapse.

Seasoned elders who had ruled their respective territories for centuries were pressed face-first into the stone slabs, their ribs cracking, their dantians entirely suppressed, completely unable to lift a single finger or channel a single thread of their qi against the crushing darkness holding them down like pinned insects.

Then, from the dense, swirling pool of liquid shadow rising directly behind Shen Haoran’s back, a solitary, terrifying figure slowly materialized into physical reality.

It was Qing’er.

Her long, silky, pitch-black hair danced wildly with the violent mountain wind like a curtain of liquid shadow.

Her eyes, a pair of cold, glowing, and utterly emotionless crimson rubies, stared down at the struggling elders with the clinical, unfeeling detachment of an ancient executioner looking at dead meat.

She was draped in a sleek, pitch-black, skin-tight full bodysuit that clung perfectly to every curve of her athletic frame, completely devoid of ornamentation save for the dark, devouring aura of her dark qi radiating from her fingertips.

Standing with his hand still wrapped securely around the choking Xun Xie’er’s neck, Shen Haoran casually turned his head slightly, his golden eyes meeting Qing’er’s crimson gaze.

”Good work, Qing’er.”

Qing’er bowed, ”It is my honor, young madter.”

Xun Xie’er stared at him in complete shock, her delicate hands instinctively rose to claw at the iron grip clamped around her throat, but no matter how much she struggled, twisted, or strained her dantians, she couldn’t muster even a single sliver of spiritual strength.

Her peak 9th-stage Nirvana Rebirth cultivation, a power that stood at the zenith of this lower realm, capable of splitting mountain ranges and freezing entire lakes with a flick of her sleeve, felt utterly severed, as if an insurmountable cosmic mountain had pinned her meridians into dead silence.

The fingers wrapped around her neck were like divine shackles, effortlessly cutting off her air and circulating energy alike, leaving her hanging before him as helpless as a frail mortal maiden.

Meanwhile, pinned violently against the cold stone floor by the undulating, abyssal shadows, Chen Feng’s parents, the elders, and the elite sect guards all stared at the woman standing behind the youth in pure fear and shock.

They could not move a single finger. The mountain-heavy gravitational force pressing down upon their spines threatened to shatter their bones into powder, while the suffocating qi from Qing’er paralyzed their souls.

The elders, who had spent centuries looking down upon millions with haughty arrogance, were trembling like autumn leaves under the emotionless gaze of her crimson eyes.

Shen Haoran stood tall and composed, holding the first beauty of the empire mid-air with effortless ease.

He smiled, a gentle, refined, yet deeply chilling smile, and asked.

”Tell me, Lady Xun,” Haoran’s voice was smooth, relaxed, and devoid of the slightest strain, washing over the silence like a quiet melody. ”Where has your illustrious husband gone? After we got thrown, did he tell you his location?”

Xun Xie’er’s silver eyes widened slightly as her racing thoughts finally piecing together the terrifying reality with agonizing clarity.

The casual suppression of her peak Nirvana cultivation, the complete disregard for these elders, and above all, the direct inquiry regarding the world’s supreme sovereign...

This young man did not belong to any hidden lineage or ancient clan of the Ancient Heaven Star.

He was, without a shadow of a doubt, one of those terrifying calamity-bringers descended directly from the untouchable upper realm.

Realizing this, Xun Xie’er gritted her teeth tightly, her jaw locking in defiance.

She refused to open her mouth, refusing to give him even a single syllable or a subtle nod that might compromise her husband’s location.

Although, she really has no idea where he is currently. She didn’t even know that they got thrown by a spatial crack.

Haoran didn’t mind her stony silence in the slightest. His golden eyes merely curved with amused patience as he casually shifted the topic.

”A loyal wife, truly admirable,” Haoran chuckled softly, his tone taking on a light, conversational cadence. ”Then let us speak of more domestic matters. Are you Chen Feng’s only wife? Or does our grand White Dragon Emperor keep a flock of other jade beauties tucked away in his myriad palaces and sacred pavilions?”

Xun Xie’er still didn’t answer. She kept her lips firmly pressed together, her silver eyes blazing with fierce, protective hostility.

Yet, as the question left his lips, an involuntary flicker of complex emotion, a subtle tightening of her brows, an almost imperceptible shift in the tension of her shoulders, and a faint shadow of suppressed melancholy, flitted across her delicate facial contours.

To an ordinary person, such a reaction was completely invisible.

But to Shen Haoran, whose divine sense could dissect the deepest workings of the human psyche in a second, that brief hesitation was louder than a booming thunderclap.

From her subtle reaction alone, Shen Haoran immediately concluded and fully believed that there were indeed others.

Then, without warning, Haoran raised his left hand, extending a single finger and pressing it gently against the center of her lower abdomen, right over the vital sea of her lower dantian.

A subtle, piercing thread of his divine sense sank effortlessly through her silken robes, tracing her pathways and meridians in a single sweep.

Haoran tilted his head slightly, a look of genuine, highly amused curiosity surfacing on his face.

”How curious,” Haoran remarked, his voice smooth and teasingly clear. ”You have stood by his side since his humble beginnings, you are recognized across the continent as his legal, wedded wife, and you manage his sect... yet why is your primordial Yin completely intact? Why are you still an untouched virgin?”

He leaned in closer, his golden eyes sparkling with mocking intrigue.

”Is it because your cultivation requires you to maintain an unblemished purity? Does your constitution demand chastity before breaking through the Saint threshold? Or... is our celebrated White Dragon Emperor simply not interested in that sort of thing when it comes to women?”

Hearing such private, intimate matters spoken aloud with cold, shameless mockery in front of her in-laws, the elders of the realm, and her own guards, Xun Xie’er’s face instantly flushed in a brilliant wave of burning, unbearable humiliation.

”You shameless, wretched demon...!” Xun Xie’er choked out through her constricted throat, her silver eyes glaring at him with pure, murderous venom, as if she wished nothing more than to tear him to pieces with her bare teeth.

Yet Haoran was completely untouched by her hatred.

He just stared at her calmly, that faint, polite smile resting upon his lips, his golden pupils entirely unruffled by the fierce storm of her defiance.

He had gathered what he needed.

Then, without a single second of hesitation, a thread of razor-sharp sword intent coated the tip of his extended index finger, condensing into a miniature, needle-thin beam of pure annihilation.

SWISH—!

With cold efficiency, Shen Haoran drove his finger straight toward the center of Xun Xie’er’s chest, aiming directly to pierce her heart and obliterate her nascent soul in a single strike.

Mercy? He does not have it.

This woman was deeply, hopelessly in love with Chen Feng.

Her devotion was carved into her very soul, and she was the type of heroine who would gladly, without a shred of hesitation, give up her own life, her cultivation, and her soul to shield her beloved from harm.

Of course, if he wanted to, he could easily break her spirit over time, and make her give up on Chen Feng, turning her into his obedient, broken plaything to torment that man.

But why should he waste his valuable time on her?

She was undeniably breathtaking—a peerless jade beauty with long sky-blue hair and silver eyes that could topple mortal empires.

But Shen Haoran was the heir of the Tian Yuan Empire’s number one Immortal Clan; he was surrounded by peerless geniuses and untouchable beauties like Qing’er, Huo Yue, Xu Xiansu and the others.

He did not lack beautiful women by his side in the slightest.

To him, an enemy’s devoted heroine was nothing more than a strategic asset to be harvested or an obstacle to be discarded.

Her death right here would sever a massive pillar of Chen Feng’s luck, send the White Dragon Sect into hysterical disarray, and strike a devaststing blow to the protagonist’s mental state before their eventual clash.

However—

BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT—!!!!!

The moment the sword intent finger touched the fabric over her chest, barely a hair’s breadth from piercing her skin, a sudden, blinding celestial anomaly violently detonated.

ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAR—!!!!!

An ear-splitting, majestic dragon roar that sounded like the awakening of a primordial cosmic god ripped through the fabric of the atmosphere.

Deep within Xun Xie’er’s chest, right beside her heart, an ancient, concealed divine seal that had remained dormant for years suddenly ignited.

A colossal, incandescent pillar of pure, radiant golden dragon light burst out from her body with cataclysmic force.

The golden light took the shape of a colossal, ethereal white dragon phantom whose scales blazed with the laws of Heavenly Order, its massive spectral claws sweeping forward to violently repel the foreign intruder.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM—!!!!!

The sudden, catastrophic detonation of this protective energy blasted across the floating stone bridge.

The violent shockwave tore Haoran’s grip clean off her neck, hurling his body backward through the air like a launched projectile.

”Young Master!”

Qing’er’s cold, emotionless expression broke for the briefest fraction of a second.

Her figure instantly dissolved into a streak of pure midnight shadow, appearing behind Haoran mid-air, her slender arms reached out with impossible gentleness, absorbing the kinetic shockwave against her own frame as she safely and smoothly caught him, her boots sliding lightly across the ground to bring them both to a steady, graceful halt.

The golden dragon light swirled protectively around the gasping, coughing Xun Xie’er, forming an impenetrable, glowing sphere of law that hoisted her safely away from Haoran.

Shen Haoran straightened his dark robes, resting his hand against Qing’er’s shoulder as he smoothly pushed himself up.

He didn’t look angry, nor did he look frustrated or flustered by the failed execution.

Instead, a low, genuinely amused chuckle escaped his chest, his golden eyes gleaming with dark, predatory delight as he stared at the glowing golden dragon barrier wrapping around the trembling woman.

”Ha... haha...” Haoran chuckled softly, shaking his head with an appreciative grin. ”Of course. How could I have forgotten?”

He raised his eyes toward the swirling golden phantom, his smirk widening into a look of absolute, condescending amusement.

”A true protagonist always leaves behind a life-saving protection for his beloved heroine.”