Villains Aren't Stepping Stones!

Shen Haoran sat comfortably in front of Mu Gang, casually taking a slow, measured sip of the fragrant tea that Xu Xiansu had brewed just now.

He gently put down the porcelain cup onto the polished wooden table between them with a faint, quiet clink.

Raising his eyes, he stared at Mu Gang with a calm, completely unbothered expression, his lips curling into a subtle, knowing smile.

”It seems your subordinates have all been defeated.”

”What!?” Mu Gang stood up in great shock.

The heavy wooden chair behind him screeched violently against the floorboards as his face contorted in disbelief.

He immediately spread his spiritual senses across Leaf Green City, sweeping through every sector, every garden, every subterranean passage, and every alleyway.

His heart sank into a cold, bottomless abyss as his divine sense confirmed the terrifying truth that indeed, he felt that all his high-ranking officers, his battle-hardened deputy captains, his grand council advisors, and his elite guard units had been completely defeated, their qi signals extinguished or rapidly fading into nothingness!

But how!? Mu Gang’s mind raced in frantic, disorienting panic. It has only been thirty seconds since Shen Haoran appeared here!

Have all of them been defeated in that short amount of time?!

How could an entire faction’s high-ranking command structure, all Spirit Ascension experts, and Nascent Soul veterans, along with fortified formation arrays, be utterly dismantled, crushed, and executed within a mere half-minute window?

It was an impossible, mind-boggling feat that defied all martial logic and cultivation common sense!

He turned back towards Haoran, his eyes wide with trembling confusion, and finally, he noticed the steaming cup of tea that Haoran was drinking.

Since when did he brew that tea? How come he only found out about this now?

Mu Gang was a peak powerhouse whose spiritual perception could normally detect the slightest vibration of a falling leaf or the subtle shift of thermal energy across miles.

Yet, if it wasn’t for Haoran telling him, he wouldn’t have known that his subordinates have already fallen.

In fact, that thing can be explained by carelessness, no matter how far fetched, but Haoran having a fresh cup of tea hand-brewed right in front of his face without him even registering a single second of the action until this very moment was a completely different matter entirely!

This proves that something was wrong!

”You...” Mu Gang pointed a trembling finger directly at Haoran, his voice choking in his throat.

But then, as his bloodshot eyes scanned the space surrounding the Shen Haoran, his gaze landed squarely on the serene girl standing quietly behind Haoran, and he couldn’t help but narrow his eyes in sudden, horrified realization.

Is it her?

He was spot now.

Right now, the quiet, ethereal girl standing gracefully behind Shen Haoran—Xu Xiansu—was exuding an almost imperceptible, divine temporal boundary.

This wasn’t merely high-speed movement or stealth; she had subtly warped time and spatial perception around the entire room.

While to Mu Gang only thirty seconds had seemingly elapsed, inside her localized spatial domain, time had been stretched, allowing Shen Haoran’s inner circle to execute their lightning-fast strikes across the city while Haoran casually enjoyed a leisurely brew.

How was she able to do that...could it be...that legendary Sun Moon Divine Physique?!

Amongst all physiques, this was the only one that can control the flow of time.

Mu Gang’s knuckles turned bone-white, his teeth grinding so hard they threatened to shatter.

He looked at Haoran’s unfazed look, completely composed and noble, then at the silent girl whose mastery over temporal laws made a mockery of his entire life’s work.

The sheer humiliation of being played like a clueless pawn inside his own faction headquarters burned through his chest like molten lava.

”Shen Haoran. Do you truly believe you can come into my domain, slaughter my men, play with my own senses, and treat the Botanist Faction as nothing more than a minor inconvenience for your tea time?” Mu Gang rasped, his voice dropping into a low, terrifying growl that rattled the teacups on the table.

Shen Haoran didn’t even flinch. He leaned back slightly, resting his elbow on the armrest of his chair, his gaze cool and indifferent.

”A minor inconvenience? No, Faction Leader Mu. You overestimate your worth. You were never an inconvenience—merely a scheduled task on today’s agenda. Your officers were weak, your council members were corrupt, and your grand defenses were nothing more than fragile glass before my people. The battle was over before I even took my first sip.”

”Arrogant brat!” Mu Gang spat, his face flushing into a dark, monstrous shade of crimson as dark green veins bulged across his neck, forehead, and arms like writhing serpents. ”You talk as if you have already claimed victory! You think killing my deputies makes you the master of Leaf Green City?! You know nothing of the true foundation of the Botanist Faction!”

Haoran picked up his teacup once more, swirling the warm amber liquid gently. ”Your foundation is built on farming weeds, borrowed authority, and fear. Once the pillars supporting your structure are kicked away, what remains of a grand faction? Nothing but a hollow shell.”

”SHUT YOUR MOUTH!” Mu Gang snapped, completely losing his composure as centuries of built-up martial pride and authority exploded in an instant.

But Haoran didn’t care about his outburst and just took a sip of his tea, and chuckled.

”As long as I am here, the Botanist Faction shall remain standing!” Mu Gang roared at the top of his lungs, his voice echoing like an apocalyptic thunderclap that shattered every crystal lantern and glass window in the hall into a million sparkling shards!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM—!!!!!

At that exact, terrifying second, his power immediately surged over his body in a catastrophic, blinding explosion of emerald and golden energy.

The floorboards beneath his feet instantly disintegrated into fine wood dust, his robes billowed violently as his Nirvana Rebirth real cultivation erupted outward in a crushing, suffocating hurricane of raw martial pressure.

A colossal, ancient aura of primordial wood and life-corroding force wrapped around his frame like roaring dragons of pure energy, turning the air inside the room so impossibly dense that space itself began to warp and fracture around his towering form!

Shen Haoran stared at him, his gold, tranquil eyes locking onto the roaring, aura-draped figure of Mu Gang, and slowly shook his head in quiet disappointment.

He was actually hoping to use the immense, terrifying pressure of a genuine Nirvana Rebirth realm expert like Mu Gang to compress his own dantians, push his physical pathways to their threshold, and force a breakthrough to the Spirit Ascension realm.

He believes he has accumulated enough energy and understanding of his dao to advance, what he was lacking now was pressure and opportunity.

So this time, he had deliberately angered and mocked Mu Gang, allowing him to gather his strength and build his momentum, anticipating an overwhelming martial domain that would ignite his own bottleneck.

But if Mu Gang was only this strong, just an average Nirvana Rebirth Realm student, then this entire visit was a completely wasted trip.

Mu Gang saw Haoran’s disappointed eyes, and the subtle, dismissive shake of the boy’s head struck his pride like a burning hot blade.

Centuries of his dominance, revered authority, and untouchable status were being openly pitied by a mere Nascent Soul junior!

”YOU DARE LOOK DOWN ON ME?!” Mu Gang screamed in pure, unbridled rage, his bloodshot eyes nearly bursting from their sockets.

Without a shred of hesitation, Mu Gang reached into his inner robes, pulled out a jade vial, and instantly swallowed some pills—three glowing, prohibited Grade 8 Heaven-Sunder Vitality Combustion Pill!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM—!!!!!

The moment the forbidden pills dissolved inside his dantians, his life essence and core blood burned in a catastrophic, blinding burst of crimson and emerald light.

His aura climbed up violently, skyrocketing past the 2nd stage of Nirvana Rebirth Realm threshold, smashing through the bottleneck, and forcefully expanding into the terrifying realm of late stage of Nirvana Rebirth!

The atmospheric density around him plummeted to absolute zero, causing space itself to distort, ripple, and fracture like fragile glass under the sheer, suffocating gravitational weight of his awakened power!

Shen Haoran blinked, his golden eyes sparkling with a sudden, renewed glint of genuine interest.

He felt the crushing, spatial-warping pressure settle over the room, pressing heavily against his shoulders and making his blood surge with excitement.

Finally, he nodded in satisfaction.

”This should be more than enough,” Haoran murmured softly.

”DIE, YOU ARROGANT BRAT!” Mu Gang roared at the top of his lungs, his voice echoing like an apocalyptic thunderclap that completely tore off the roof of the grand hall.

Mu Gang lunged forward with explosive velocity before he swung his right arm, executing the battle technique that he had spent so much money to buy—The Imperial Arbor Breaking Palm!

A colossal, two-hundred-foot palm made of compressed, life-eroding emerald qi materialized out of thin air, hurtling straight toward Haoran’s chest with the weight of a falling star.

Shen Haoran didn’t retreat. He stepped forward, his dantians roaring as he channeled his full Nascent Soul strength, raising his right fist to meet the colossal palm attack head-on.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM—!!!!!

The grand collision detonated with a catastrophic, earth shattering shockwave!

The entire main base of the Botanist Faction was instantly pulverized into fine dust and flying stone shrapnel.

A hundred-yard crater burst open beneath their boots, stone tiles, carved pillars, and ancient artifacts being vaporized in a fraction of a second!

SWISH—!

The sheer, overwhelming force of a Nirvana Rebirth strike pushed Shen Haoran back, his boots skidding across the fracturing bedrock for over fifty yards!

Blood trickled from the corner of his lips as his internal meridians groaned under the immense, crushing pressure.

He blinked, raising his thumb to wipes the drop of blood on the corner of his lips, and he couldn’t help but smile.

”HAHAHA! DO YOU FEEL IT NOW?!” Mu Gang cackled maniacally, his hair flying wildly in the tempestuous wind as he hovered in mid-air inside a domain of twisting space! ”IN THE FACE OF TRUE NIRVANA REBIRTH POWER, YOUR PATHETIC NASCENT SOUL CULTIVATION IS NOTHING MORE THAN AN ANT BENEATH MY BOOTS!”

Mu Gang didn’t give him a single second to catch his breath.

He blurred through space, reappearing directly above Haoran, and unleashed a rapid, machine gun barrage of heavy, space-distorting punches.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BOOM!

Every punch unleashed a shockwave that tore through the surrounding district!

Surrounding guard towers caved in, ancient stone walls collapsed into rubble, and deep, hundred-meter fissures ripped through the earth across the gardens.

Shen Haoran raised his arms in a cross-block, parrying and tanking the relentless barrage, his body being driven deeper and deeper into the fracturing bedrock with every thunderous hit!

”COLLAPSE AND DIE WITH YOUR EYES WIDE OPEN!” Mu Gang shrieked, slamming both palms down into the ground.

Massive, barbed wooden roots as thick as ancient dragons erupted from the earth around Haoran, coiling tightly around his limbs, chest, and neck, pinning him to the crater floor while draining his spiritual energy at a terrifying rate.

Space around Haoran tightened like a crushing iron vise, compressing his physical body to its absolute limit.

Shen Haoran’s breath hitched, his chest heaving under the suffocating, world-crushing force of the Nirvana Rebirth domain.

His muscles strained, his bones creaked, and blood seeped from his skin.

Yet deep within his eyes, hidden beneath the illusion of struggle, a sharp, brilliant light burned—the immense pressure was finally forcing his stubborn Nascent Soul bottleneck to crack open!

He couldn’t help but smile as he felt that.