Villains Aren't Stepping Stones!

At this moment, Mu Gang and his advisors and generals were just about to end the meeting, rising from their seats with lingering tension, when they saw through the high arched windows of the grand hall that brilliant, apocalyptic ”sun” engulfing the entire sky and blinding the whole city.

The blinding golden radiance washed through the wooden blinds, turning the dark council chamber into a searing crucible of blinding light and stifling heat!

A second later, the delayed shockwave slammed into the building with the force of an exploding mountain!

BOOOOOOOOOOM—!

The heavy petrified-wood table shuddered, teacups shattered into fine dust, and the massive glass windows imploded inward in a storm of sparkling shards!

Then, a weak willed senior officer screamed at the top of his lungs.

”ENEMY ATTACK! WE ARE UNDER ATTACK!”

Panic erupted instantly throughout the grand meeting hall, transforming the once-orderly council into a screaming madhouse!

Senior officers stumbled backward over their chairs, generals drew their weapons with wide, bloodshot eyes, and advisors scrambled frantically across the vibrating floorboards as the deafening roar of the distant inferno shook the very foundations of Leaf Green City!

”It’s the Eastern Gardens! Heaven help us, the fire is coming directly from the Eastern Gardens!” a high-ranking senior officer, pointing a trembling, terrified finger toward the sky outside, where a massive mushroom cloud of superheated steam and golden flames was rising into the night sky. ”Our Grade 7 Sun-Dew Blossoms! Our ancient Ginseng roots! The entire agricultural reserve is being incinerated!”

Everyone’s eyes widened in shock.

That was the lifeline of their faction! If it was destroyed, even if their faction was not defeated, they will be left severely weakened that it wouldn’t be long before they collapse on their own!

”DAMN IT! I TOLD YOU SO!” General Chen roared at the top of his lungs, his face flushed dark red with pure, explosive fury as he grabbed Advisor Liu by his silk collar, lifting the skinny scholar clean off his feet and slamming him against a wooden pillar! ”I told you paper-pushing fools that they were targeting us! You worried about a few thousand Dao Points for defensive barriers, and now our entire garden is probably turning to ash because of your utter stupidity!”

”G-General Chen, unhand me!” Advisor Liu choked out, his face pale as chalk, his trembling hands clawing at the general’s iron grip.

Elder Zhao took a step forward to defend him, ”General Chen, calm down. How could anyone have predicted this? They dropped a literal star onto our heads! What kind of Nascent Soul junior commands divine flames of that scale?!”

”Predict it?! It was your damn job to predict it!” another armored general shouted, stepping forward and drawing his broadsword with a sharp, ringing clash, pointing the blade directly at Elder Zhao’s face. ”You guaranteed us that our Spatial Isolation Array and our defensive arrays could never be breached by newcomers! You swore on your cultivation that Shen Haoran wouldn’t dare attack! Look outside, you blind old bat! Our so-called grand defensive arrays didn’t even delay them for a single second!”

”D-Don’t point that blade at me!” Elder Zhao stammered, backing away until his spine hit the wall, his hands shaking uncontrollably as cold sweat drenched his robes. ”The array was fully powered! Not to mention Captain Shui Yi was stationed there with his peak Spirit Ascension Dragon-Scaled Carp! They also had thousands of guards all at Nascent Soul realm fully deployed! It’s not my fault that the enemy brought a terrifying monster who can vaporize an entire ocean in second!”

A general glared at him, ”You useless, cowardly frauds!”

An advisor stared worriedly at the garden, ”Our financial losses are irreversible! The faction is ruined!”

”Deploy the army! Execute the garden guards for failing their duty!”

”No! We must abandon the outer districts and retreat into the subterranean bunkers!”

”Retreat?! If we abandon the city, Faction Leader Mu Gang will be stripped of his title and it would mean losing the city!”

”BLAME THE ADVISORS! THEY DOOMED US ALL!”

”BLAME THE GENERALS FOR LEAVING THE EASTERN WALL UNDEFENDED!”

The council hall descended into complete, unadulterated chaos!

High-ranking elders were shoving each other violently, generals were threatening to execute advisors on the spot, and the lower-tier officers were weeping in fear as alarm bells began tolling wildly across every district of the city!

Blame was thrown back and forth like poisonous knives, everyone frantically trying to absolve themselves of the catastrophic failure as the smell of burning vegetation and melting stone drifted into the shattered hall!

Through it all, the sheer, suffocating terror of facing an unknown, god-like force that could summon a falling sun stripped away every shred of dignity these senior members possessed!

But, at that moment...

BANG—!!!!!

A sudden, crushing wave of terrifying spiritual pressure exploded out from the head of the table!

The massive petrified-wood table instantly cracked down the center, splitting into two halves that crashed hard against the floor!

The sheer physical weight of the 2nd Stage Nirvana Rebirth Realm aura slammed into every single person in the room like a falling meteor, pinning the generals, advisors, and elders flat against the floor or slamming them against the walls!

The screaming stopped instantly, and the room fell into a suffocating, dead silence, broken only by the sound of heavy, terrified panting and the distant, roaring flames outside.

Mu Gang stood up slowly from his seat, his jet-black hair whipped around his head like dark serpents, and his emerald-green eyes burned with a lethal, icy fury that looked as though it could freeze the very heavens.

He smoothed down his pristine green robes, stepping casually over the shattered halves of the table as he looked down at his trembling, blood-spitting subordinates with utter, unbridled disgust.

”Are you done making fools of yourselves?” Mu Gang spoke, his voice surprisingly quiet, yet carrying a heavy, vibrating resonance that rattled the teeth in their skulls.

Not a single person dared to answer.

General Chen dropped Advisor Liu to the floor, Elder Zhao collapsed onto his knees, and the officers pressed their foreheads against the shattered wooden planks, completely silenced by their leader’s dominance.

”A single fire technique strikes our outer garden, and my senior council degenerates into a pack of hysterical, squealing swine,” Mu Gang said coldly, stepping toward the shattered window and gazing out at the towering inferno consuming the Eastern Gardens.

His eyes narrowed as he felt the distinct, lingering aura of the golden flames. ”It seems Shen Haoran and his little retinue are far more impatient than I anticipated. They believe that by destroying our garden, they can force us into a panic and draw our forces out of position.”

He turned back around, his posture straight, commanding, and towering like an immovable mountain amidst the chaos.

”Listen to my orders carefully,” Mu Gang commanded, his emerald eyes flashing with sharp, military precision. ”General Chen!”

”Y-Yes, Faction Leader!” General Chen scrambled to his feet, bowing his head deeply, his broadsword immediately returning to its sheath.

”Take the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Heavy Guard Divisions and head directly to the perimeter of the Eastern Gardens,” Mu Gang ordered sharply. ”Do not engage the flame-caster directly in close-quarters combat! Form the Verdant Wood Containment Array around the burning sector, isolate the fire from spreading to the residential districts, and hold the line! Their primary goal is to create chaos, so do not let them draw you into a wild chase!”

”Understood!” General Chen barked, turning on his heel and rushing out of the hall to mobilize his troops.

”Advisor Liu, Elder Zhao!” Mu Gang turned his icy glare onto the two trembling men.

”W-We are here, Faction Leader!” they choked out in unison.

”Activate the emergency subterranean spirit reserves immediately,” Mu Gang instructed coldly. ”Reroute one hundred percent of our remaining energy directly into the central pagoda’s protective formation array! I want the ninth floor locked down so tightly that not even a spatial rift can penetrate its walls! If a single enemy disciple steps within fifty yards of our mandate, I will personally feed both of your souls to the Man-Eating Spirit Vine!”

”We will carry out your orders instantly! Instantly!” Advisor Liu and Elder Zhao squeaked in terror, scrambling frantically out of the room as fast as their legs could carry them.

Mu Gang then looked at the remaining generals and vanguard leaders kneeling before him.

”The rest of you, rally all remaining Nascent Soul and Golden Core disciples to the central plaza,” Mu Gang declared, his dark green robes fluttering as his 2nd Stage Nirvana Rebirth domain expanded, enveloping the entire manor in a protective, glowing green shield. ”Shen Haoran thinks he can play the master tactician by striking our flanks. But no matter how many gardens he burns, as long as I stand at the central pagoda, Leaf Green City remains mine.”

He stepped out onto the balcony, looking toward the dark rooftops of the inner city with a cold, bloodthirsty smirk.

”Come, Shen Haoran,” Mu Gang murmured into the night wind. ”Show me if your strength matches your arrogance.”

*

*

*

In the dense, shadowed tree canopy overlooking the main thoroughfare leading directly into the burning Eastern Gardens, four figures remained motionless.

Shen Ying, Shen Bai, Shen Xun’er, and Shen Hei lay in wait, concealed completely from the world within a pristine, shimmering pocket of folded space created by a high-grade Rank 5 Concealment Array that Shen Bai had personally drawn upon the bark of an ancient spirit oak.

To any passing guard or scanning divine sense, the branch they crouched upon appeared utterly vacant, blending seamlessly with the rustling leaves and cool night air.

Down below, the distant roar of crackling golden flames and the panicked screams of fleeing garden workers echoed through the streets.

”Look at that inferno,” Shen Xun’er whispered with a dark, admiring smirk, her fingers clenched tightly. ”Sister Huo Yue truly outdid herself this time. She turned their prized agricultural reserve into a giant, glowing bonfire in less than three seconds.”

Shen Bai let out a quiet, dry chuckle, adjusting the fine silk cuffs of his robes without shifting a single inch of his body weight. ”What else would you expect from the young master’s future main wife? Her flames are truly unyielding, and completely merciless. A woman of such destructive, supreme beauty and terrifying talent is honestly the only kind of genius truly worthy of standing right beside Young Master Haoran as his fiancée.”

”Hmph, agreed,” Shen Hei grunted softly from the darkest corner of the array, his shadowy form blending so naturally into the night that he looked like a living silhouette. ”Her attack this time was precise, loud, and completely devastating. This one single attack had utterly shattered their morale before the real battle even officially began. A fitting display for the Young Master’s chosen bride.”

Shen Ying leaned her shoulder casually against the invisible spatial barrier of the array, watching the distant columns of thick, superheated smoke rise toward the moonlit sky.

”Those pathetic plant-breeders actually thought they could hide behind a soft water dome and an oversized fish and remain safe. It’s almost tragic how thoroughly delusional these dirt sniffers are.”

”Well, what do you expect? They’re glorified gardeners playing at being martial warlords,” Shen Bai sneered, a sharp, arrogant grin twisting his handsome features as he looked down at the empty stone avenue below. ”Their so-called leaders probably spend all their time calculating trade profits and watering weeds instead of refining their martial dao. They don’t even understand the catastrophic disparity between a backwater faction and a true, ancient immortal lineage. These are people who haven’t seen the world, dreaming of being an actual relevant force.”

”Well, let them dream a little longer,” Shen Xun’er giggled softly, her eyes flashing with lethal anticipation under the dark hood of her mantle. ”Because their dream is about to become a nightmare.”

Just as her whisper faded into the night air...

THUD! THUD! THUD! THUD!

The heavy, rhythmic thunder of thousands of armored boots violently shaking the cobblestone avenue echoed from the western district!

General Chen burst into view at the head of a massive, sweeping military column!

Clad in heavy, dark-green spiritual plate armor, his broadsword unsheathed and dripping with dense Nascent Soul aura, he led the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Heavy Guard Divisions of the Botanist Faction—over three thousand fully armed battle disciples—rushing at breakneck speed directly toward the blazing perimeter of the Eastern Gardens!

”Move! Move, you sluggish fools!” General Chen roared, his deep voice echoing off the stone walls of the surrounding buildings as he waved his blade forward. ”Form the Verdant Wood Containment Array the moment we reach the ridge! Isolate the golden flames, surround the perimeter, and prepare your heavy spiritual ballistas! Do not let a single drop of that cursed fire spread to the inner residential sector, or Faction Leader Mu Gang will have all our heads!”

”Yes, General!” the thousands of marching guards roared back in unison, their spiritual energy flaring up to form a collective, shimmering green canopy over the entire marching battalion.

Up inside the hidden branches, watching the massive, unsuspecting army march directly beneath their feet like cattle walking into a slaughterhouse, Shen Bai’s grin widened into a sinister, predatory smile.

His hands slid out from his wide sleeves, glowing with dense, silver spatial array runes that flickered like dying stars.

Shen Bai grinned, his golden eyes sparkling with pure, sadistic thrill.

”Now, time to wreck them.”