Villains Aren't Stepping Stones!

Eastern Garden.

Shui Yi was breathing heavily, his chest heaving up and down as his ragged gasps echoed across the charred, ruined landscape.

The air around him reeked of superheated ozone, ash, and scorched earth.

His dark blue robes were torn and singing at the edges, covered in soot.

Hovering beside him in the air, its scales cracked and bleeding glowing golden fluid, was his Dragon Scaled Carp.

The ancient aquatic beast floated around him in slow, weak circles, casting a thin, flickering shield of water-element qi as if desperately trying to protect its master from further harm.

Shui Yi wiped a trail of blood from the corner of his mouth, his eyes scanning the vast, smoking crater that had once been the primary agricultural compound.

He gritted his teeth in sheer, agonizing fury as he realized that most of his subordinates were dead, their physical bodies completely vaporized by that apocalyptic golden sun.

Thankfully, as they were all elite Nascent Soul realm cultivators, their souls were durable enough to escape the initial blast.

In the brief second before their flesh turned to ash, their glowing nascent souls had detached from their dantians and shot into the sky, traveling along spatial pathways back to the Soul Slips stored inside the faction’s ancestral hall.

A soul slip was a supreme failsafe used by most established forces across the realm to protect their valuable members.

Every high-ranking disciple imbued a fragment of their core soul into the slip upon joining.

In the tragic event that their physical body was destroyed in battle, their surviving soul would immediately leave the corpse and be pulled across space back to the safety of the soul slip, where they could eventually be reshaped or granted a new vessel.

Of course, this spatial travel was not instantaneous.

The speed depended on distance, and if the killer was fast enough, they could easily catch up with the fleeing soul, trap it in a sealing array, or destroy it permanently.

As the dense clouds of white steam slowly began to drift away, Shui Yi looked further ahead into the heart of the crater.

To his astonishment, he noticed that the central garden plots—containing the most precious high grade Spirit Herbs, ancient ginseng roots, and rare medicinal stalks—were completely untouched and pristine!

It was as if the attacker had deliberately controlled the blast radius, leaving the valuable herbs entirely unblemished while vaporizing every guard standing around them.

”Oh wow, you actually survived.”

A calm, slightly surprised voice called out from above.

Huo Yue descended slowly from the heavens, a pair of magnificent, brilliant red flame wings flapping gently behind her back.

Heatwaves rippled off her flame feathers as it slowly dissipated when her boots finally tapped lightly onto the scorched, glassy stone.

A moment later, the air fluctuated and flickered beside her as Zhu Ziyan, Shen Tao, and Shen Fei materialized, stepping up to stand by her side with completely relaxed expressions.

Shui Yi snorted coldly, clutching his bruised chest as he glurred at her. ”Hmph! That last fire attack must’ve taken a massive toll on your qi reserves, right? Dropping that big of an attack isn’t something a mere Nascent Soul cultivator can do repeatedly without draining their dantian dry!”

Huo Yue simply chuckled, a bright, mocking smile curling up her lips. ”You’re right, but...”

She paused as she raised her hand and flicked her wrist, pulling a crystal bottle from her spatial storage ring.

She then popped the wooden stopper, poured several gleaming, top-grade spiritual pills into her open palm, and casually tossed them all into her mouth like sweet candies.

BOOM!

The moment she swallowed them, a violent surge of dense, pure flame-element qi exploded within her body.

The faint fatigue in her eyes vanished instantly, her aura skyrocketing right back to its peak performance!

”... unfortunately for you, I’m a top-tier alchemist,” Huo Yue grinned, dusting off her fingers. ”Running out of spiritual energy isn’t really a concept that applies to me. Still, I honestly can’t believe how idiotic of a decision it was for you to not deploy your Spirit Avatar during my attack.”

Shen Fei snorted from the side, crossing his arms over his chest as he looked at Shui Yi with absolute, elitist disdain. ”Isn’t it obvious? He knows that if his Spirit Avatar was damaged or destroyed by those flames, his soul and dantian would suffer permanent backlash. He probably wanted to play it safe and use his beast as a meat shield instead.”

Shui Yi’s cheek twitched violently at the brutal truth, his eyes flashing with embarrassment, but he gritted his teeth and said nothing to defend his pride.

”Hey,” Huo Yue tilted her head, her fiery eyes locking onto Shui Yi with sudden curiosity. ”I heard a rumor that you guys in the Botanist Faction are secretly keeping the Spirit Nurturing Flame, ranked 15th on the ancient Heavenly Flame Rankings, and using its life-giving heat to nurture your spirit herbs. Is that true?”

”Like hell I’d tell you!” spat Shui Yi, glaring at her with venomous hatred. ”Do you think I would hand over the faction’s greatest secrets to a invader?!”

”Hmm,” Huo Yue simply smiled, completely calm despite his outburst andn just waved her hand dismissively in the air. ”Well, whatever. It doesn’t matter if you tell me or not; we’ll find it once we sweep the city. By the way... you can tell your guys to stop pretending to be dead now. It’s getting a little embarrassing.”

Shui Yi paused for a moment, before grunting, ”Get up.”

At those words, the thick pile of charred rubble and burnt dirt nearby suddenly exploded outward.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Almost a hundred figures rose up from the smoking ash, dusting off their blood-stained robes.

Every single one of them was an elite guard at the Nascent Soul realm who had used high-grade earth-burrowing talismans or protective artifacts to barely survive the initial explosion.

They formed a tight, angry circle around the four invaders, glaring at them with murderous hatred and drawn weapons.

Three people even stood behind Shui Yi. They are his most trusted and most capable officers, all at the Peak of Nascent Soul realm.

”Man, a hundred guys against just the four of us... it’s hardly fair, is it?” Huo Yue mocked, putting on a hilariously exaggerated look of distress and sighing loudly before she turned her head slightly and nodded toward Ziyan. ”Alright, Ziyan, let them out. Let’s make this a proper fight.”

Zhu Ziyan nodded, her cute cat ears twitched on top of her head, her sharp feline eyes glowing with a brilliant, golden light!

SWIIISH—!

The empty space directly behind her back suddenly distorted wildly, opening a massive, hundred-meter-wide spatial rift!

Then, a deafening, earth-shattering chorus of wild roars roared out from the portal as hundreds of sleek, terrifying feline demonic beasts surged out of the void.

Panthers with fur made of shadow, lions enveloped in crackling lightning, and tigers with razor-sharp steel claws flooded the crater, their powerful cultivations ranging from the late Golden Core realm all the way to peak Nascent Soul.

CHIRP~!

High above, a tiny, adorable golden shadow descended from the clouds.

The baby Gryphon, Juju, flapped its small wings, let out a cheerful, high-pitched chirp, and landed softly right on top of Ziyan’s head, fluffing its feathers proudly as the army of beasts roared in unison.

Seeing all these, Huo Yue couldn’t help but laughed before turning towards Shui Yi.

”Now, we’re even,” said Huo Yue, her eyes sparking with a wild radiance as she adjusted her position, before tilting her head, her lips curling into a sharp, mocking grin. ”So, oh inferior liquider, care for a dance?”

”Hmph!” Shui Yi snorted, his bloodshot eyes flashing with pure, murderous indignation.

He kicked off the scorched ground and leaped high into the air, landing firmly on the back of his Dragon Scaled Carp.

”You arrogant, loud-mouthed girl... let me show you what despair really is! Spirit Avatar!”

BOOM!

From beneath his feet, a colossal armored warrior made entirely of swirling, high-pressure blue energy emerged.

The towering ethereal entity roared, its dense water-element qi surging like a violent tidal wave.

Then, the giant crouched down, wrapping its translucent arms around the massive, golden-scaled form of the beast, and started to fuse seamlessly with the Dragon Scaled Carp.

The air around them vibrated with horrifying pressure as the scales of the carp hardened into shimmering, draconic battle armor, merging the spirit avatar’s raw martial output with the creature’s immense physical vitality.

But, at that exact moment—

”Disappear!”

Huo Yue laughed wildly, her palms slamming together before pulling apart to reveal a dense, blinding sphere of compressed destruction.

Channeling the raw, volatile power of four distinct Heavenly Flames simultaneously, she created another roaring, miniature sun and threw it directly toward Shui Yi with a flick of her wrist.

WHOOOOSH—!

The artificial star tore through the atmosphere, melting the air in its path!

However, the fusion transformation was already fully completed, and the Dragon Scaled Carp, now completely covered in ethereal blue energy dragon armor, let out a terrifying, earth-shaking roar.

Swinging its massive, armored tail with violent, force, it swatted away the descending sun upward into the high atmosphere.

BOOOOOOOOOOM—!!!!!

The miniature sun detonated high in the clouds, causing the entire sky above Leaf Green City to light up in a blinding, incandescent flash of golden fire that turned midnight into pure daylight for thousands of miles around.

Hovering inside the forehead of the fused dragon-carp hybrid, Shui Yi looked down at her with cold contempt.

”That level of attack won’t work on me anymore, little girl!”

Huo Yue’s grin only widened, her fiery eyes glowing with thrill-seeking excitement. ”Oh? That’s interesting. Very well, I’ll take you on myself.”

With that, a pair of majestic, burning flame wings burst out from her back.

Pushing off the ground with explosive force, she flew straight up to the high sky, leaving a trial of golden embers behind her.

Shui Yi frowned, his eyes tracking her speed. ”Courting your own death!”

He commanded his armored dragon-carp beast to pursue her into the clouds, but not before turning back toward the battlefield below and roaring at the top of his lungs.

”ATTACK! WIPE THEM ALL OUT!”

”KILL!”

The nearly hundred surviving elite guards of the Botanist Faction all roared in unison, their Nascent Soul auras bursting out of their bodies in wild, chaotic surges of energy as they lunged forward with drawn blades, spears, and glowing talismans!

”Go!” Zhu Ziyan ordered softly.

”ROAAAAAR!”

The vast army of feline demonic beasts roared back, their razor-sharp steel claws and elemental domains exploding into life as they met the charging human army head-on.

Shadow panthers leaped into the front lines, lightning lions unleashed crackling thunderbolts, and fiery tigers tore through the guards, creating an instantaneous, chaotic bloodbath in the crater.

However, amidst the swirling chaos of the clash, the three primary deputy officers under Shui Yi, bypassed the surging horde of beasts completely, locking their lethal intents onto the remaining three figures.

SWISH—!

The first officer, a tall, battle-hardened warrior, lunged forward like a phantom.

He pulled out a long, dark-steel spear and channeled every ounce of his wood-element qi into its tip, driving it straight toward Shen Tao’s throat with terrifying, armor-piercing speed.

Shen Tao didn’t even bother to draw a weapon or step backward.

As the deadly spear tip was inches from his skin, he casually raised his right leg and brought his right elbow down with great precision.

CLANG—!

With a crisp, heavy metallic ring, Shen Tao simply caught the flat sides of the spear tip between his right knee and right elbow, pinning the weapon completely dead in mid-air.

The massive impact shockwave blew back the dust around his boots, but the spear point couldn’t advance a single millimeter further.

The first officer’s eyes widened in absolute, mouth-agape horror as he tried desperately to pull his weapon free, only to find it locked in an iron vise.

Simultaneously, the second officer, whose body was completely covered in wild, crackling blue lightning, moved so fast that he turned into an indistinct blur.

Utilizing his high-speed movement art, he circled around to gain immense kinetic momentum, using the centrifugal force to deliver a crushing, lightning-infused roundhouse kick straight toward the side of Shen Fei’s neck.

BOOM!

Shen Fei simply raised his left arm, placing his bare forearm in the path of the lightning-clad leg.

The explosive force detonated against his skin, sending crackling sparks flying across the ground, yet Shen Fei blocked the high-velocity attack without moving an inch.

His posture remained completely stable, his eyes looking back at the shocked officer with bored disdain.

Meanwhile, a few hundred yards away on a high ridge, the third officer pulled out a massive, golden composite bow.

Pulling the bowstring back to its limit, he unleashed his spiritual energy into the arrow rest.

And in a fraction of a second, he fired hundreds of glowing, high-speed spiritual arrows in a sweeping, rain-like barrage straight at Zhu Ziyan.

Before the lethal storm of arrows could reach her, the tiny baby Gryphon, Juju, sitting comfortably on top of Zhu Ziyan’s head, let out a cute, high-pitched chirp.

CHIRP~!

The tiny creature flapped its soft golden wings, and an instantaneous, impenetrable hurricane wind barrier surged into existence around Zhu Ziyan.

The hundreds of glowing spiritual arrows slammed uselessly into the swirling wind wall, shattering into harmless, glowing particles of light without a single one reaching her robes.

High above the battlefield, far above the clouds where the wind howled violently, Huo Yue hovered in place.

Covered in intense, multi-colored divine flames, her red wings flapping smoothly, she was grinning like a demon while staring right into the eyes of the armored, dragon-carp-riding Shui Yi.

Then, without hesitation, they clashed.