Villains Aren't Stepping Stones!

Haoran stood at the rooftop for a few moments, completely motionless beneath the cold starlight, staring intently at the exact spot where Nyx had disappeared into the fractured dimensional rifts.

The ambient space where her primordial form had rested still carried a strange, heavy static—a residual distortion that made the surrounding molecules of oxygen sluggish to reform.

The wind howled softly against the sharp stone edges of the parapet, but the golden youth remained as unyielding as an ancient monument, his mind operating at a terrifyingly rapid pace.

At the same time, he was also deeply contemplating about that extraordinary technique that she had given him right before she dissolved back into the cosmic void.

It was a profound, completely absolute concept imprinted directly into the recesses of his soul, known within the outer dimensions as the Law of Absolute Severance.

It is the pure ability to completely bypass karma, luck, fate, and destiny to kill the target with absolute certainty.

It was an undeniably terrifying technique, an ultimate execution mechanism that existed entirely outside the jurisdiction of the mortal plane or the standard path of the Dao.

For someone like him who was constantly dealing with the annoying, destiny-warping properties of the world’s chosen ones, it was a asset and something that would greatly help him in his eventual rebellion against the sky.

However, despite its absolute supremacy, it wasn’t something he can use casually or without severe consequence.

For one, this specific technique can only be used safely once every decade. Because its fundamental mechanism involved completely distorting and snapping the world’s natural laws in a localized zone, frequent use would cause the world’s fragile karmic balance to entirely collapse, potentially creating a spatial tear that would swallow whole star systems before the universe could reset its parameters.

Not to mention that by using this specific technique of absolute erasure, he wouldn’t be able to properly steal or absorb the latent luck of the protagonists he had killed.

In other words, this isn’t a technique to just end a life, but it also sheared away the target’s past, present, and future timelines, leaving nothing behind for him or his clan to harvest.

For someone like him who wanted to aggressively increase the overall luck and historical destiny of his supreme Shen Clan to prevent their prophesied decline, then this technique wouldn’t help him in achieving that grand goal.

If he erased every protagonist from existence entirely, his family would remain stable but wouldn’t grow to monopolize the heavens.

However, this is also an irreplaceable, supreme trump card he can use to directly eliminate incredibly troublesome protagonists like those with absurd, logic-defying systems that basically make them invincible pretty quickly.

Like those abnormal entities possessing a Sign-In System or an Infinite Upgrade System—parasitic constructs that allowed a common mortal to gain millenniums of cultivation, divine artifacts, and supreme techniques simply by walking into a specific sacred area or resting in a tavern.

Against those specific, fast-growing monsters who could leap from being a complete absolute nobody to the Supreme Emperor realm in a matter of years without weathering a single real tribulation, standard political warfare and calculated tempering were useless.

For those anomalies, the Law of Absolute Severance was the only perfect answer.

This is a cosmic eraser for a cosmic mistake.

After a long while of calculating the infinite possibilities of the future, he took a deep, steady breath and let out a soft sigh, the golden light of his eyes fading back into its usual calm, aristocratic veneer.

He sheathed Azathoth fully into its scabbard, the wet, clicking sounds of the eldritch mouths completely silencing as the blade went dormant once more before he stored it inside his storage ring.

”Well,” Haoran whispered to the empty rooftop, ”it’s time to go back. Maybe I can still watch the fireworks with Huo Yue.”

At that exact moment, right as he turned his back on the northern horizon, another magnificent round of fireworks exploded violently in the dark sky above, casting a brilliant crimson and emerald canopy over the sprawling roofs of the city.

But Haoran didn’t even look back and just left the isolated rooftop, his body immediately transforming into a silent, golden streak of light that drifted down from the high structures like a falling autumn leaf.

He returned to the crowded street level within a fraction of a second, merging effortlessly into the shadows just outside the perimeter of the grand avenue.

Then, he immediately used his vast, refined spiritual sense to rapidly locate Huo Yue’s distinct, fiery signature amidst the sea of tens of thousands of citizens, and soon, he found her without any difficulty.

He walked calmly towards her precise location, navigating the thick, cheering crowds with an elegant grace that ensured not a single commoner’s sleeve actually brushed against his golden silks.

He found her standing at the very back of the dense crowd, away from the loud vendors, positioned on a raised stone terrace where the wind blew softly.

She was completely alone, her long crimson hair catching the vibrant, shifting lights of the sky as she stood entirely still, staring up at the grand fireworks festival.

Without a single word of hesitation, he walked right up behind her tall, beautiful form and gently hugged her slender waist from behind, pulling her back flush against his chest.

Huo Yue didn’t flinch or show even a hint of alarm at the sudden, close contact. She just naturally leaned back her head against his broad chest, her posture instantly relaxing into his embrace as if her very soul already knew it was him without even needing to look back or spread her divine sense.

”I thought you wouldn’t be able to watch the final fireworks with me tonight?” She asked softly, her voice a warm, rhythmic purr as she raised her hands to place them tenderly over his strong fingers on her waist.

”Hmm. Well, it turned out to not be quite the world-ending emergency as I initially thought it would be,” Haoran said smoothly, resting his chin gently on her soft shoulder, his golden hair mingling with her crimson tresses. ”Someone who claimed to know me just decided to drop by and give me a little friendly warning about the nature of this world’s cage or something.”

”I see,” Huo Yue nodded, not pushing for details she knew weren’t her place to carry yet.

She trusted his strength implicitly; if he was relaxed enough to hold her waist like this, then everything should still be functioning properly.

The two of them went completely silent, the noisy cheers of the surrounding commoners fading into background static as they stood together on the high terrace, staring up at the magnificent display in the sky.

”We’re leaving for the Central Region tomorrow morning,” Said Haoran, his eyes reflecting the emerald streaks of light above. ”The clan’s flying arks have already completed their spiritual replenishment.”

”I know,” Huo Yue hummed, her body shifting slightly against his chest as a cold, sharp focus returned to her eyes. ”Medusa, Ziyan, and I are leaving tomorrow morning as well. We have a lot of score to settle with the Shadow Hall.”

It was finally time for her to step out of the Eastern Region and return to the Central Region and take back her master from the jaws of the underworld.

And once she successfully locates the hidden headquarters of the Shadow Hall, she will finally be able to utilize her supreme techniques to completely revive her master’s scattered soul.

After all, she already had absolutely all the required things listed by her master to revive her.

The four fully fused Heavly Flames resting inside her core would act as the ultimate alchemical furnace, not to mention the various priceless, ancient herbs and spiritual items that she had carefully collected and hidden away during her perilous time traveling through the Central Region’s hidden realms.

According to her master’s old notes, once Liu Ruyan is able to successfully reconstruct her physical body using the pure, unadulterated essence of the Heavenly Flames as a foundation, her soul will experience a massive, unprecedented evolutionary leap.

She can probably breakthrough directly to the legendary Earthly Saint Realm upon her rebirth, utilizing the vast, explosive energy of the flames and the various supreme materials to shatter the mortal barriers in a single evening.

The thought of that impending vengeance made her blood hum with a violent anticipation.

”A few months,” Said Haoran, his voice low and comforting against her ear as he felt the tight tension in her muscles. ”It won’t be very long before the gates of the Imperial Academy officially open for new students. At that time, once you have settled your scores with the shadow hall, we won’t ever be separated again.”

”Yeah,” Huo Yue smiled gently, her eyes softening as she closed her eyes for a brief second, fully letting herself visualize that incredible moment of absolute reunion where she could finally stand beside him as a true queen of the era, without any ghosts from her past holding her back. ”I’ll count the days, Haoran.”

At that exact moment, a deep, earth-shaking boom resonated from the center of the spiritual array.

A single, final, and truly massive fireworks capsule shot into the absolute highest stratum of the sky, exploding into a colossal wave of pure golden light that briefly turned the night back into day, signaling the grand, magnificent end of the fireworks festival.

As the final sparks slowly rained down over the silent city, the two of them remained held together, ready to face the turning of the world’s tides.