Villains Aren't Stepping Stones!

Chapter 42: Chapter 42: A Girl’s Resolve

(Ning Xueli’s POV)

The moment I stepped into 901st step, it felt like the sky itself had collapsed and decided to rest specifically on my shoulders.

The moment my boot made contact with the cold, unforgiving stone, a sickening crack echoed through my ears—the sound of my own joints screaming in protest.

My vision blurred into a hazy smear of silver and gray, and for a heartbeat, I couldn’t feel my feet.

It felt like I was no longer a person, but was a piece of iron being hammered on an anvil of pure, imperial will.

’Give up,’ a voice whispered in the back of my mind, sounding cold and seductive. ’Just collapse. If you fall now, the pain stops. You’ve done more than enough, after all you’re just a girl from a small clan. You were never meant for this.’

My knees buckled, hitting the edge of the step with a dull thud that sent a jolt of agony straight to my spine.

My lungs felt like they were filled with molten lead; every breath was a jagged struggle against a gravity that wanted to flatten me into a stain on the staircase.

I looked down at my hands, trembling violently against the rock, and I felt a tear of pure, raw exhaustion track through the soot on my cheek.

I couldn’t do it.

The gap between me and the top was an infinite chasm.

I am already at my limit.

Maybe...

Maybe I should just give up?

After all, it’s not like a young master from a prestigious clan in the central region would miss a girl like me, right?

In his mind, I’m probably just a girl he took pity on after using my body.

But then...

Through the thunderous ringing in my ears, I remembered his voice. Not the cold, distant voice he used with the world, but the one he had looked me in the eyes with—the one that had promised a different kind of reality.

”I shall take note of that resolve. That much, I can promise to believe in.”

I tilted my head back, the movement costing me a grunt of pain, and saw him, Haoran.

He wasn’t looking away from me, he wasn’t disgusted at my pathetic state, he was just sitting on that 999th step, bathed in a golden-purple light that made him look like a god from the ancient scrolls, and he was waiting...waiting for me.

He had told me he would leave me behind if I failed, but he also said he would wait as long as I didn’t give up.

To anyone else, that was a threat, but to me, it was the only lifeline I had ever been given.

If I stop now, I lose him, I realized, a sudden, piercing clarity cutting through the fog of pain.

If I collapse here, I go back to being a ’flower’ in a garden, waiting to wither. I’ll be forgotten by time, just another loser left in the dust of the Desolate Region.

The thought of him standing up and walking away, leaving me alone in this silence, hurt more than my cracking ribs ever could.

”I... will not... let you... go,” I wheezed, the words tasting like copper and grit.

I felt a heat begin to stir in the center of my chest—not the pressure of the stairs, but a defiance that belonged to me.

My Qi, which had been frantic and disorganized, began to harmonize under the sheer force of my desperation.

It wasn’t about being a supreme anymore, it wasn’t about this inheritance, now it was about my greed.

I was greedy for his gaze, I was greedy for his attention, I was greedy for everything that he is.

My fingers dug into the stone, drawing blood, but I used that pain to anchor myself.

Slowly, agonizingly, I forced my left leg to straighten. The pressure tried to shove me back down, to break my spirit like dry kindling, but I met it with a snarl.

My flesh felt like it was being ground into paste, and my bones groaned as if they were about to shatter into splinters, but my will had finally found its edge.

I took another step.

902nd step.

The weight didn’t get lighter, but my heart felt heavier—weighted with a determination that made the Emperor’s pressure seem like a mere breeze.

At this moment, I felt like Iwasn’t just climbing a staircase; I was crawling out of my own insignificance.

Watch me, Haoran, I thought, my eyes locking onto his silhouette through the silver mist. I won’t be a flower that can only wait to wither. I’ll be a woman, worthy of standing beside you.

903.

904.

905.

The number of steps became a blur, like a rhythmic counting of my own agony.

Every step I took was a battle won against a world that wanted me to remain small, and even as my vision had narrowed to the singular point of the next stone edge, I gritted my teeth and persisted.

The light emitting from the Imperial Stairs which, I thought beautiful at first, was now like a deep, suffocating ocean I was trying to swim through while chained to a boulder.

Seriously, I never even knew that I could be this stubborn.

Back when I was trying in Ogre Academy, unless Grandmaster himself insisted it, I wouldn’t push myself that hard during training.

In some occasions, I would even sneak out of the academy to head to the city and have fun.

I’m incredibly lazy, and I hate pain the most.

After all, my clan is the richest in the entire region, and my Grandpa Sword was the strongest known expert in the entire region.

Why should I suffer when my backing was so powerful? Isn’t that nonsense? What use was her backing for if she had to endure pain and grueling training?

But... As I accompanied Haoran, I felt like I have changed, even though it wasn’t that long ago.

I endured and persisted when he told me to fight a beast beyond my level. I endured that mind breaking Trial of Will. I endured that incredibly dangerous Trial of Combat, and now I was forcing myself to endure this final trial.

In the past, just hearing one of those things would immediately make me give up.

But now... I was actually persisting, all for the sake of that man’s recognition.

I shook my head, as by the 950th step, my vision began to fail, with dark spots danced at the corners of my eyes, and my heartbeat now a frantic, irregular drum in my ears.

I could feel the blood trickling from my nose, warm and metallic against my lip, and even my lungs felt like they were on fire, screaming for air that the Emperor’s pressure refused to let me have.

Just ten more... I lied to myself at 960.

Just ten more... I lied again at 970.

And by the 990th step, I was no longer walking, I was crawling, my fingernails were torn, leaving dark, bloody streaks on the pristine white jade of the stairs.

The pressure here was absolute—it felt as though the Bright Silver Emperor himself was standing on my back, demanding I acknowledge my own worthlessness.

But then, I saw his boots.

Just a few more steps. Haoran’s golden-purple aura was so close now that it acted as a beacon in the blinding silver haze.

I could feel his Qi and the faint, manly scent that clung to him. That scent was more intoxicating than any pill, more revitalizing than any spirit spring.

Ah... He’s so close...

I’m almost... there...

With a final, guttural scream that tore through my throat, I thrust my body forward onto the 999th step.

The moment my weight shifted onto the final platform, the crushing gravity vanished instantly, replaced by a weightlessness so sudden I felt like I was floating.

The adrenaline that had kept my broken body moving evaporated, my muscles turned to water, and my consciousness began to slip into a dark, welcoming void.

I started to pitch forward, my face destined for the hard stone, but the impact never came as trong, firm arms caught me before I could fall.

I felt the cool silk of his robes against my bruised cheek and his steady, thundering heartbeat beneath my ear.

I was so small in his embrace, trembling like a leaf after a storm, but for the first time in my life, I felt safe, safer than even when I was in my clan.

Haoran didn’t push me away. He held me as I drifted on the edge of passing out, I felt his breath against my ear and heard his voice—no longer cold, but carrying a weight of genuine, sovereign approval.

”Good job,” he whispered, the words vibrating through my very soul. ”Your will and resolve, I have acknowledged it. Xueli, from now, I want you by my side.”

A single tear escaped my closed eyes, disappearing into the fabric of his robes.

I had done it.

I had reached the top.

I had earned my place by his side.