Villains Aren't Stepping Stones!

Chapter 128: Chapter 128: Desperate Situation

The air in the clearing, already thin and heavy with the scent of ozone and scorched earth, seemed to freeze as the second shadow emerged from the void.

The moonlight, pale and uncaring, illuminated the horrific sight of Medusa—the regal, indomitable queen of the Lamia tribe—impaled from behind by a hand that dripped with the dark, viscous essence of her own vitality.

”Medusa!”

Huo Yue and Zhu Ziyan’s voices tore through the night in a synchronized scream of absolute fright.

To see their strongest protector, the woman who had just flattened mountains with a single tail-swipe of her avatar, reduced to such a state in a split second was a psychological blow that almost shattered their resolve.

Ziyan’s fur stood on end, her feline instincts screaming for flight, while Huo Yue’s heart hammered against her ribs like a trapped bird wanting to break out.

It wasn’t from fear, it was her desire to rescue her companion, her friend!

”Calm down! Now!” Fairy Liu’s voice boomed inside Huo Yue’s consciousness, cold and sharp as a glacier. ”Do not let your emotions cloud your mind! At your current power, you wouldn’t even be able to interfere in a battle of this level! Stepping forward now is not bravery; it is a swift path to a meaningless death!”

Huo Yue gritted her teeth until she tasted blood, her knuckles turning white as she clutched the air. ”I know, Master! I know! But she’s dying! I can’t just watch!”

Her bright red eyes burned with a mix of helplessness and a burgeoning, desperate rage. ”Master, can’t you do anything? You were a powerhouse once! Please, help her!”

A long, agonizing silence followed within her mind.

And when Fairy Liu spoke again, her voice was uncharacteristically heavy, laced with a bitterness that reached back a century. ”I... I can’t. Not easily. Look at their robes, Yue. Look at the sigil on their collars—the weeping eye. These two are members of the Shadow Hall. They are specialists, butchers who specifically refine techniques to capture and deal with the souls of powerful experts. They are one of the most terrifying forces in the central region, guarded by a genuine Heavenly Saint expert... and they were the very reason I died and was forced into this ring in the first place.”

And also, she didn’t mention it, but the Shadow Hall is actually a subservient force under the rule of the Hei Clan, one of the Nine Immortal Clans, which the Shen Clan is a part of.

The Nine Immortal Clans are called that not only because they have once gave birth to genuine Immortals that ascended to the legendary Immortal Realm, but also because they have literal Supremes, all alive, guarding them.

”What??” Huo Yue’s gaze snapped back to the cloaked figure as the realization hit her like a physical weight.

These were the monsters who had hunted her master to the brink of extinction, the enemies she sworn to her master that she will exterminate one day to avenge her!

At that moment, the battlefield shifted.

Despite the hand protruding from her chest, Medusa’s slotted pupils flared with a terrifying, ancient light.

She did not scream from pain, instead, she twisted her body with the fluidity of a true serpent, delivering a devastating, Qi-infused kick to the chest of the figure who had sneaked up on her.

The force of the strike sent the assassin skidding back fifty paces, his heels carving deep rifts in the scorched stone.

Medusa used the momentum to jump back, creating a gap between herself and the two predators.

Her breathing was ragged, a wet, whistling sound, but her hands were steady as she reached into her storage ring, pulled out a handful of the high-grade Origin Mending pills that Huo Yue had refined, and crushed them into her mouth.

Almost instantly, her pale skin began to knit together, the gaping wound in her chest closing under the sheer force of the medicine and her own divine bloodline.

”Rainbow-Scaled Divine Serpent... truly impressive,” the second cloaked figure noted, stepping forward.

He didn’t seem bothered by the kick; he simply brushed the dust from his chest, his aura vastly different from the man Medusa had just fought.

It was stable, deep, and carried the weight of a mountain.

”To be able to defeat my 8th Brother proves the purity of your bloodline is beyond anything we expected to find in this gutter. But that’s where the surprise ends. I am at the 5th Stage of the Nirvana Rebirth realm. No matter how high your bloodline is, or how many pills you swallow, a snake cannot swallow the sky.”

Medusa took a deep, shuddering breath, her eyes narrowing as her aura surged once more as rainbow colored scales started covering her skin, and instantly, the air around her began to vibrate with the hum of her killing intent.

”We’ll see about that, you shadow-crawling vermin.”

With a sound like a thunderclap, the two of them clashed, and this time, it was as no longer a battle of massive, lumbering avatars, but a localized disaster.

The very fabric of heaven and earth seemed to split as they traded blows.

There were no fancy battle techniques, no wasted movements—just pure, high-speed hand-to-hand combat where every punch carried the power of an exploding star.

Medusa, driven by a primal need for survival, was actually keeping pace with a 5th Stage expert, her scales glowing with an iridescent, protective sheen.

However, while the titans clashed, the person referred to as ’8th Brother’—the man Medusa had previously flattened—slowly rose from his crater.

His cloak was in tatters, and his body gravely injured, but his eyes were filled with a toxic, humiliated rage as he watched his fifth brother engaging Medusa and decided, with a cruel smirk, not to interfere.

Instead, his gaze drifted toward the two girls standing by the tree. He needed to vent his anger, and the weak alchemist and that cat were the perfect target.

Without a word of warning, he blurred into motion, flying toward Huo Yue and Ziyan like a black arrow aimed at their hearts.

Ziyan was the first to notice it, her instincts screaming as her ears twitched.

”Sister Yue! Watch out!” Ziyan shrieked, but it was already too late.

The speed of a Nirvana Rebirth expert was something a Golden Core practitioner couldn’t even perceive, let alone react to.

But at the exact moment the dark hand was about to crush Huo Yue’s throat, her eyes changed, and the vibrant red eyes was replaced by a deep, ancient blue light.

Then, a surge of burning hot, freezing cold flame erupted from her body, creating a shockwave that actually halted the 8th Brother’s advance.

Fairy Liu had taken over.

The 8th Brother stumbled back, his eyes widening in absolute shock as he stared at the girl before him, sensing a soul fluctuation that shouldn’t exist in such a young body. ”You... You are a soul... no, this spirit energy... That flame... I recognize that Heavenly Flame! You are Liu Ruyan!? The Maiden of Alchemy!?”

Huo Yue—or rather, the spirit of Liu Ruyan—let out a soft, elegant smile that didn’t belong on a teenager’s face as she adjusted her sleeves with a grace that spoke of centuries of prestige.

”Ah,” she sighed, her voice echoing with a double-layered resonance. ”It has been almost a hundred years since you people hunted me down and forced me to abandon my physical shell. I can’t believe I am still remembered by the low-level trash of the Shadow Hall. I suppose my title still carries some weight.”

Though she said that, she was actually afraid right now. After all, she is just a soul, and she can barely bring out the power of a Nirvana Rebirth realm, and even if she burned her own soul, fighting a 6th or 7th stage Nirvana Rebirth realm is the best she can do.

The 8th Brother hesitated for a fraction of a second, his fear of the legend fighting with his greed. But soon, his expression became firm and feral. ”So what!? You are now just a spirit! You probably can barely use a fraction of the power of a Nirvana Rebirth using that girl’s body! I am not afraid of you! Once we bring both the serpent and you back to the Hall, the Great Elder will surely grant us anything we desire!”

Liu Ruyan’s grin turned sharp and lethal, and without wasting another word, she waved her palm in a slow, graceful arc that seemed to pull the moisture out of the air.

”Sea Splitting Palm!”

The 8th Brother was instantly hit by a powerful, ripping force that felt like an ocean current trying to tear his atoms apart.

Despite his powerful physical strength, he was thrown away like a ragdoll, crashing through several miles of forest before stopping.

Liu Ruyan didn’t wait to see if he survived as she turned and flew toward the center of the clearing to assist Medusa.

The 5th Brother was just about to deliver a lethal, shadow-infused strike to Medusa’s flank when Liu Ruyan appeared, her hand wreathed in the white flames of her soul, and struck him down, forcing him back.

”Are you okay?” Liu Ruyan asked, her voice calm as she stood back-to-back with the serpent queen.

Medusa, severely injured and leaning on her spear, frowned at the girl beside her as she sensed the difference immediately. ”Huo Yue? No... you’re not her. The aura is different. Who are you?”

”I am her teacher,” Liu Ruyan replied simply. ”And right now, I am your only hope of survival.”

Just then, the 5th and 8th brothers reappeared in front of them, standing side-by-side.

The 5th Brother’s eyes were wide with a manic, hungry delight. ”The Maiden of Alchemy! How incredibly lucky can one night be?! So you were still alive, hiding in a piece of jewelry like a common spirit! This is a harvest beyond my wildest dreams!”

The 8th Brother frowned, clutching his bruised chest. ”Brother, be careful. Even as a soul, she is still strong. Her control over the flame dao is terrifying.”

”Kekekeke! So what!?” the 5th Brother roared, his shadow aura turning into a boiling, bloody red. ”The Shadow Hall never fails a hunt! Come on, Brother! Let’s use ’that’! No more playing!”

With that, the 5th Brother let out a guttural roar as a blood-red aura surrounded him, swirling with the screams of a thousand captured souls.

His aura began to rise at an unnatural rate, skipping stages like they didn’t exist.

Liu Ruyan’s face darkened and she immediately tried to launch a preemptive strike to interrupt the ritual, but the 8th Brother threw himself in her path, utilizing a suicidal defensive stance to block her.

Before she can launch another strike, the 5th Brother emerged from the red mist, his muscles were bulging, his eyes were pure black, and his power had reached a terrifying plateau.

At this moment, he now possessed the crushing pressure of an 8th Stage Nirvana Rebirth Realm expert.

Liu Ruyan’s emerald eyes flickered with a rare trace of worry.

”An 8th Stage... and I am using a borrowed body. This... this might be more than just ’troublesome’.”