Villains Aren't Stepping Stones!

On another battlefield, positioned along the wide cobblestone avenue leading toward the perimeter of the Eastern Gardens, a thick, suffocating silence hung in the air just moments before the storm.

Shen Bai crouched silently on a thick tree branch, his eyes narrowed as he watched General Chen and his thousands of soldiers marching in a massive, heavy military column directly below.

The rhythmic thumping of their iron boots shook the stone street, their dark green armor shimmering under the moonlight as they rushed forward in a frantic effort to reinforce the burning gardens.

Without delaying for a single microsecond, Shen Bai’s hands blurred into a series of complex, rapid seal gestures.

He slammed his palms together, his golden eyes glowing with a sharp, lethal brilliance as he activated the grand killing formation he had meticulously set up beforehand!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM—!!!!!

The earth beneath the marching army burst open in an instantaneous flash of crimson and gold array lines!

Massive, glowing spatial runes sprouted across a thousand-yard radius, interlocking instantly to construct the Eight-Directional Hellfire Guillotine Array!

Before the soldiers could even register the sudden activation, the atmospheric pressure inside the array plunged.

Thousands of spectral weapons—enormous broadswords forged from compressed killing intent, razor-sharp throwing daggers of liquid light, and colossal, barbed halberds—materialized out of thin air within the array’s domain!

They rained down upon the dense ranks of soldiers like a localized thunderstorm of pure death!

SLASH! SLASH! PUKS! BANG!

”AAAGH! MY LEGS! MY LEGS ARE GONE!”

”HELP ME! THE ARRAY HAS TRAPPED US!”

”GENERAL CHEN! SAVE US!”

Terrified, blood-curdling screams of sheer agony echoed through the avenue as the spectral weapons tore through high-grade spiritual plate armor as if it were fragile parchment.

Heads were clean severed from shoulders, limbs were shredded into meat paste, and bright crimson blood sprayed across the stone walls in horrific, violent fountains.

To make matters infinitely worse, the array didn’t merely spawn weapons—the spatial runes twisted into gaping, dark portals, summoning hundreds of feral, bloodthirsty phantom beasts composed of shadow and hellfire.

Gigantic shadow wolves with jawlines wide enough to swallow a grown man whole pounced upon the screaming vanguard, snapping spinal cords and devouring soldiers alive, while flaming serpents coiled around groups of guards, crushing their ribcages until their internal organs burst out of their mouths.

It was a gory slaughterhouse.

The avenue transformed into a rivers of blood, littered with disemboweled corpses, crushed helmets, and screaming, dying men trying desperately to drag their mutilated bodies away from the ravenous phantom beasts.

General Chen, who was at the peak of the Spirit Ascension Realm, roared in pure, unbridled rage.

Seeing his men being slaughtered like cattle, his face flushed dark red as his massive broadsword erupted with a blinding, emerald green aura.

”HOLD THE LINE! DO NOT PANIC!” General Chen thundered, his powerful voice shaking the very air as he leaped into the center of the killing formation.

He swung his massive broadsword in sweeping, full-power arcs, creating giant emerald crescent waves that shattered dozens of spectral blades and decapitated three phantom shadow wolves in a single strike.

He moved frantically from one squad to another, using his immense peak Spirit Ascension domain to construct a temporary protective energy shield over a cluster of a hundred terrified, young Nascent Soul guards, taking the brunt of the array’s lethal bombardment onto his own broad shoulders.

”G-General... thank you...” a young, blood-covered soldier sobbed, clutching a severed arm as he cowered beneath General Chen’s glowing green aura.

”Shut up and hold your breath!” General Chen barked, blood trickling from his own nose from the sheer exertion of deflecting thousands of array strikes simultaneously. ”This is an ancient high ranking killing formation! I will break us out!”

Up on the hidden tree branch, however, the toll of maintaining such an a cataclysmic array was becoming dangerously evident.

Shen Bai was only at the Nascent Soul realm. Controlling a Rank 7 mass-slaughter array capable of trapping a peak Spirit Ascension general and thousands of elite troops was a task that far exceeded his current cultivation capacity.

The array was actively consuming his spiritual energy at an absurd rate!

His face turned as pale as a fresh corpse, his arms trembled violently, his fingers stiffening as his dantians were completely sucked dry of qi in less than ten seconds.

Cough!

Shen Bai coughed up a heavy stream of bright crimson blood, his eyes bloodshot as the array began to greedily drain his own blood essence and vitality.

The veins on his neck bulged darkly, his skin visibly shriveling and turning grey as his life force was rapidly devoured to keep the killing blades raining down below.

”I... I can’t... hold it...” Shen Bai rasped through his blood-stained teeth, his vision turning completely pitch-black as his soul shuddered on the brink of collapse.

Just as his fingers were about to slip and collapse the array...

A cool, slender hand suddenly grabbed him by the back of his neck, holding his slumping body upright.

Shen Ying stepped up behind him silently, her expression completely calm and unbothered.

Without saying a single word or asking for permission, she used her other hand to forcefully pry his jaw open and shoved several gleaming, top-grade spiritual pills directly into his mouth.

They were priceless, Grade 5 and 6 Divine Blood Rejuvenation Pills and Immortal Vitality Restoration Elixirs.

She pressed her palm firmly against his upper back, injecting a warm, smooth stream of raw medical energy into his throat, forcing him to swallow the pills instantly.

BOOM!

The moment the divine pills dissolved in his stomach, a massive, explosive wave of concentrated life force and pure, unadulterated vitality surged through Shen Bai’s dry meridians.

The shriveling skin on his face instantly plumped back up, the grey hue vanished, and his dry dantians were forcefully flooded to their absolute brim with fresh, roaring spiritual energy.

Shen Bai gasped loudly, taking a deep, shuddering breath as his vision cleared, his hands immediately regaining their solid, unbreakable grip over the killing formation’s control seals.

Below, the fading spectral blades and phantom beasts violently rejuvenated, raining down upon General Chen’s shield with double the speed and ferocity.

A few feet away on the same hidden branch, Shen Hei and Shen Xun’er just stood there, staring at the two of them with deadpan, blank expressions, completely not knowing what to say.

Shen Xun’er blinked her eyes slowly, her lips twitching as she looked at Shen Ying, who was casually pulling out yet another handful of Grade 5 pills from her spatial ring, ready to force-feed Shen Bai the second his face turned pale again.

”Is... is this how array masters fight now?” Shen Xun’er whispered, leaning her head toward Shen Hei. ”Using a fellow member as a human battery while feeding him pills like dog food?”

Shen Hei adjusted his dark mantle, letting out a quiet, helpless sigh as he looked down at the screaming chaos below.

”As long as it kills the enemy... I suppose it is efficient.”

At that moment, General Chen let out an earth-shattering, guttural roar that echoed across the entire district, his bloodshot eyes flashing with pure, unadulterated fury.

The air around him twisted and cracked under the sheer, suffocating weight of his peak Spirit Ascension Realm cultivation!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM—!!!!!

The earth fractured into a thousand jagged pieces as his supreme Spirit Avatar finally emerged into reality!

A colossal, green ethereal figure burst out from his body, towering over fifty meters into the dark night sky!

It was a massive, intimidating entity built with absurdly thick, ancient muscles, sporting four monstrous arms that rippled with destructive energy, and possessing a single, giant, glowing green eye situated right at the center of its flat forehead!

General Chen floated directly inside the forehead of this towering energy giant, his dark green armor covered in blood.

Standing beneath the massive feet of the spirit avatar, the surviving subordinates whom he had desperately protected stood up one after another, drawing their weapons with renewed, fanatical zeal as they found hope under their general’s absolute protection.

”YOU COWARDLY INVADERS!” General Chen thundered, his voice booming through the spirit avatar’s throat like a mountain collapsing!

He glaringly locked his single-eyed monster’s gaze directly onto the hidden tree canopy where Shen Bai, Shen Ying, Shen Xun’er, and Shen Hei were positioned.

He slowly raised all four of the avatar’s massive, boulder-like fists into the air, and his Spirit Avatar mimicked his exact movements, its four colossal red arms lifting high above its head as swirling, high-density wood-and-earth energy gathered around its knuckles.

”DIE!”

All four massive fists came crashing down toward their position like four falling meteors!

Shen Bai reacted with lightning speed! Despite his face being slick with sweat and blood, he slammed his right palm violently against the tree bark beneath his boots!

SWISH-SWISH-SWISH—!

A complex, multi-layered defensive array expanded in a second!

Glowing golden spatial runes interlocked to form a massive, crystalline dome—the Heavenly Turtle Fortress Array—that completely encased Shen Bai, Shen Ying, Shen Xun’er, and Shen Hei inside an impenetrable, golden barrier.

Simultaneously, without missing a single beat or pausing for a fraction of a second, Shen Ying casually grabbed another handful of Grade 5 and 6 vitality and qi restoration pills from her spatial ring and forcefully stuffed them straight into Shen Bai’s mouth!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM—!!!!!

The four colossal fists of General Chen’s spirit avatar slammed violently against the golden array barrier.

The kinetic shockwave wiped out every tree, building, and wall within a five-hundred-meter radius, turning the surrounding street into a flat, cratered wasteland.

The golden crystalline barrier shuddered violently, deep spiderweb cracks appearing across its surface before the raw energy from Shen Bai’s freshly replenished dantians forcefully repaired the fractures.

Shen Xun’er crossed her arms over her chest, watching the massive, one-eyed red giant draw its four fists back for another earth-shattering barrage.

She tilted her head slightly, looking at the sweating array master with a raised eyebrow.

”Do you think this will hold?” asked Xun’er, her voice cool and unbothered despite the world shaking around them.

”Donfh—” Shen Bai tried to answer through his stuffed cheeks, his eyes bulging as he tried to speak, but Shen Ying just mercilessly stuffed three more massive, glowing crimson pills straight into his mouth, completely choking off his words.

”Eat. Don’t talk,” Shen Ying instructed in a monotone, completely indifferent voice as she pushed another pill past his lips with her thumb.

Shen Bai looked like he wanted to protess, he hadn’t even digested the previous pills, and now she’s shoving another batch!?

But seeing that cold, emotionless eyes, he decided to just remain silent.

Shen Ying then slowly looked up, her clear, calm eyes scanning the towering green spirit avatar outside the flickering golden barrier.

General Chen was already roaring again, his four massive arms pulling back to unleash a continuous, machine-gun-like barrage of punches against their defensive dome.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

”Hmm,” Shen Ying murmured, casually dusting off her hands on her embroidered silk skirt. ”I guess we need to disrupt him or we’ll just be stuck on the defensive the entire time.”

At those soft, casual words, a spatial rift opened in front of her!

SWISH—!

Several ancient, heavy bronze cauldrons—each over six feet tall, forged from high-grade star-iron, and overflowing with dense, unstable, volatile alchemy residues and compressed elemental volatile ores—materialized out of thin air, hovering silently in a neat semicircle right before her!

A cold, sinister smirk touched her lips as her eyes flickered with a dangerous, alchemical light.

”Let’s blow him up first.”