Villains Aren't Stepping Stones!

At that moment, amidst the drifting ash, floating embers, and the cool night breeze sweeping across the shattered canyon, Xu Xiansu appeared.

Her silhouette flickered with subtle ripples before solidifying, and she began walking towards him slowly, her pristine robes fluttering gently without a single speck of dirt or blood upon them.

”How is it? Are you okay?” she asked, her clear, melodious voice cutting softly through the heavy silence of the desolate crater.

Her sharp eyes carefully scanned his frame, noting the torn sleeves of his robes, the residual traces of the dark cosmic sludge that had receded back into his pores, and the slight rise and fall of his chest as his breathing gradually stabilized.

Haoran took a deep, steadying breath, letting the cool mountain air circulate through his newly expanded meridians, and opened his eyes.

”Yeah,” Haoran replied, his voice calm, level, and steady.

He glanced upward at the now-peaceful midnight sky, where ordinary stars twinkled quietly in the absence of the tribulation storm.

”By the way, have you seen that thing?”

Xu Xiansu tilted her head slightly, a faint expression of mild confusion gracing her elegant features. ”What thing? Your Spirit Avatar? Well, it’s indeed impressive.”

Her tone was remarkably casual, carrying none of the sheer, soul-shattering awe that any ordinary cultivator of this realm would display after witnessing a one thousand meter spirit avatar cleave the earth into a thousand mile abyss.

And indeed, she wasn’t really shocked or surprised; in that other life, while she was at the sidelines observing him, she had seen his Spirit Avatar, and it was more or less the exact same terrifying, majestic entity that reigned supreme over the heavens.

Haoran paused at that, his golden eyes narrowing slightly in deep, internal contemplation.

’Did she not see the eye?’ he thought, recalling the primordial, colossal eye that had opened in the clouds to pass divine judgment and speak directly into his mind. ’Could it be that only I had seen it?’

Well, it should be understandable right? After all, the Heavenly Dao’s target was him, so it probably only wanted to show itself to him.

He slowly shook his head, deciding not to think about it for now. There was no point in obsessing over an entity that had temporarily retreated behind the cosmic laws.

He looked back at Xu Xiansu, his lips curving upward. ”So? How did it go?”

Xu Xiansu smirked, a confident, brilliant smile spreading across her lips as she lightly flicked her sleeves. ”All is well. I successfully captured the city.”

Earlier, while Haoran and Mu Gang were locked in their battle, Xu Xiansu had taken advantage of the chaos and had quickly sneaked off into the deepest, fortified core of the pagoda.

She moved completely unhindered due to Huo Yue and the others eliminating all guards and soldiers, leaving no one to guard it.

So she had easily destroyed the academy mandate of the Botanist Faction and seamlessly replaced it with their own Shen Clan authority mandate.

So now, through the official mandate recognition, they are pretty much the complete and undisputed owners of Leaf Green City.

”Though...” Xu Xiansu turned her head, her gaze sweeping across the apocalyptic devastation caused by the battle, and she couldn’t help but let out a helpless, exasperated sigh. ”The reconstruction cost will surely be astronomical.”

Looking around, the central district was completely wiped off the map.

Where grand pavilions, jade palaces, and centuries-old spiritual gardens once stood, there was now only a smoldering, molten crater, fractured subterranean spirit veins spewing residual plasma, and a thousand mile long bottomless chasm that cleanly bisected the city’s outer perimeter.

Rebuilding an entire faction’s infrastructure from such utter ruin would require a mind-boggling amount of rare materials, labor, and capital.

Haoran merely hummed, utterly unbothered as he rested his hand casually against the dark hilt of Azathoth. ”That doesn’t matter. I have enough points to pay for it.”

Xu Xiansu nodded at that, completely aware of the absurd, bottomless fortune and that Haoran held in his possession after blackmailing the school.

Reconstructing a mere city, no matter how grand, was nothing more than spending a drop of water from his vast ocean of points.

Then, she crossed her arms over her chest, tilting her head with a look of genuine, understated amusement. ”Well, I say congratulations are in order. Both for capturing the city, and for your breakthrough.”

Haoran smirked at her, his golden eyes sparkling with playful, teasing arrogance. ”Is that so? Then are you going to give me a gift?”

Xu Xiansu snorted, rolling her eyes with mock exasperation. ”In your dreams. I only have enough points to buy a ribbon.”

Haoran didn’t miss a beat, his smirk widening into a dangerous, roguish grin. ”Then just wrap yourself with it and come to my room. That’d be a gift worth remembering.”

Xu Xiansu shot him a sharp glare, though the faint twitch at the corner of her lips betrayed her amusement, before curling her mouth in pure disdain. ”Aren’t you the one who said that you don’t take back clothes that you’ve used and thrown away?”

Haoran turned fully towards her, taking a casual step forward as he smoothly raised his hand, gently lifting her delicate chin with his finger, his gaze locking directly into hers with confidence.

”Well, you’re not a piece of clothing, are you?”

Xu Xiansu gently slapped his hand away with a quiet scoff, a subtle blush dusting the edges of her cheeks.

And at that exact, lively moment, a series of powerful spiritual fluctuations whistled through the night sky.

The Ten Crowns, along with Zhu Ziyan and Huo Yue, finally arrived at the edge of the crater.

SWISH—!

Before anyone else could even land properly on the ground, a fiery red blur shot forward through the air.

”HAORAN!”

Huo Yue immediately jumped forward and hugged him tightly around the neck, burying her face into his chest before pulling back with a beaming, triumphant grin.

She began loudly bragging with absolute, uninhibited excitement, her crimson eyes flashing with pride.

”You should have seen me! I completely beat the absolute crap out of my opponent!” Huo Yue declared, pumping her small fist in the air. ”That arrogant liquider thought he could suppress me with his disgusting liquid arts, but I completely burned his defenses, beat the living daylights out of him, and dropped a sun at him and his men. And that’s not even the best part—look what I found right after digging through their gardens!”

She snapped her fingers, and a small, vibrant wisp of pure, azure spiritual fire flickered playfully above her palm, radiating a dense, ancient heat that warped the surrounding air.

”A genuine, unrefined Heavenly Flame!” Huo Yue beamed proudly, holding it up like a prized trophy for Haoran to admire. ”The Spirit Nurturing Flame, ranked 15! With this, we can accelerate the growth of our herbs!”

Shen Ying perked up and stared at the flame in envy. How come she doesn’t have the power to absorb more than one Heavenly Flame?

So unfair!

Meanwhile, standing a few paces quietly behind the energetic red-haired girl, Zhu Ziyan just stood with her hands neatly folded in front of her robes.

She maintained a poised, yet rather submissive demeanor, offering Haoran a respectful, gentle bow of her head, her calm eyes reflecting quiet relief and reverence upon seeing him safe, whole, and standing at the peak of the Spirit Ascension realm.

Behind them, the Ten Crowns of the Shen Clan stepped forward one by one, forming an orderly, imposing semicircle amidst the ruins to formally report their respective battles to their Young Master.

Shen Tao stepped forward first, his aura tranquil, profound, and steady as he gave a crisp, respectful salute. ”Young Master, after we finished our assignments, we made sure that the eastern sectors have been completely secured. Not a single member of the Botanist Faction managed to escape. Most were killed, and the others were captured.”

Shen Fei stepped up beside him, his body radiating the unbreakable, grounded power of his Sacred Physique as he reported, crossing his arms.

”I went with him, young master. There is a total of 24 surviving members of the Botanist Faction currently unconscious and beaten up.”

Shen Xinye stepped forward next, the pale-blue Frost-Edged Willow longsword and her divine golden crown already stored away in her storage ring.

Her expression was calm, composed, and graceful as she bowed slightly. ”Reporting to Young Master. One of their attempted to flee, but I intercepted him in the corridors, and executed him on the spot. Young master, that man is cowardly and weak, he has no uses aside from being greedy for wealth.”

Right next to her, Shen Ji let out a low, booming laugh, his massive knuckles still bearing faint, smoldering traces of his dark-golden Tyrant King Sacred Armor.

”That Advisor Liu of whatever was running right beside him, Young Master! I pinned the old rat down, smashed through his defensive barriers, broke directly into his spirit avatar, and crushed his dantians with my bare fists. Both council heads have been permanently eliminated. And just like Shen Xinye said, they’re cowardly and weak, there’s no need to use them.”

Shen Jian stepped up, his golden hair messy as his eyes burned with lingering battle euphoria. ”Unfortunately, I killed all my opponents. But considering they are killed, then we don’t have any uses for them. Young master, I suggest we just throw them away.”

Shen Xun’er stood slightly behind Shen Jian as she lowered her head respectfully, her voice steady and clear despite the complex emotions swirling in her heart.

She didn’t dare voice out any reports. After all, she felt like she was the one who did the least amongst their entire group, and she felt embarrassed for reporting.

She turned towards Shen Xinye, her eyes revealing a very complex look; there was envy, pride, anger, and various other emotions that she doesn’t know how to describe it.

Standing beside her, Shen Hei offered a polite bow towards Huo Yue before his eyes locked onto Haoran with absolute loyalty.

”Young master, as you have ordered, I had eliminated all messengers and spies after I completed my missiong, preventing anyone from sending help.”

Shen Cai stepped out next, his face covered in faint smudges of black gunpowder, his wide grin stretching from ear to ear as he chuckled maniacally.

”Hahaha! Young Master, you should have seen it! Seven Spirit Ascension avatar tried to gang up on me, so I deployed seven Grade 8 Dark-Star Iron battle robots and bombarded them with plasma shells and high-frequency drills until their avatars shattered into dust! The underground chamber is completely ruined!”

Shen Bai stepped forward, still looking like a walking corpse after being forced feed pills and forced to use high ranking formations, ”The defensive formations, spatial barriers, and emergency teleportation arrays of Leaf Green City have been thoroughly hijacked and rewritten under our Shen Clan’s core formation runes. So I can guarantee that no outside reinforcements can enter, and no remaining fugitives can escape.”

Finally, Shen Ying drifted forward, her bored, completely emotionless expression returning to her as she tried to held back her envious glances at Huo Yue.

Of course, Huo Yue wasn’t blind to that gaze, so she deliberately showed off the flame while acting nonchalant, as if she didn’t see her.

Though, that smug grin was a dead giveaway.

Shen Ying almost wanted to fight it out with her, but decided against it and spoke in her usual flat, indifferent tone. ”That General Chen. I believe he is a good candidate to recruit, young master. Sensible, smart, and very loyal, we just have to break him a little.”

Listening to each of the Ten Crowns, Zhu Ziyan, and Huo Yue deliver their flawless, dominant reports, Shen Haoran looked across the extraordinary group of geniuses standing before him.

The entire leadership of the Botanist Faction had been wiped out, their armies shattered, their arrays rewritten, and their grand city brought entirely under his ironclad heel—all accomplished in a single, overwhelming night of ruthless conquest.

A warm, deeply satisfied, and majestic smile spread across Shen Haoran’s face as he looked at each of them and nodded with pride.

”You all did exceptionally well,” Shen Haoran said, his voice resonant and carrying an undeniable warmth. ”We have succeeded. Leaf Green City belongs to us now. Let’s return.”

With that, Shen Haoran turned, walking side-by-side with Xu Xiansu, with Huo Yue clinging to his side, Zhu Ziyan following gracefully behind, and the Ten Crowns falling into a unified, invincible escort formation, their figures disappearing calmly into the moonlit night as they walked back toward their new domain.