Villains Aren't Stepping Stones!-Chapter 50: 2 Years

"Oh, so you’re a former member of the Ogre Seven?" Huo Yue asked, her tone casual as she maintained a steady pace through the cooling evening sands. "You guys reached the finals two years ago and have a high chance if winning if it wasn’t for that girl."

Ziyan nodded, but her lips remained pressed in a thin line as she trailed a half-step behind Huo Yue, her eyes constantly scanning the red-haired woman’s silhouette.

This woman... Ziyan thought, her heart still racing from the display of power she had witnessed.

Huo Yue looked to be no older than herself, yet she was already a Core Formation expert—a realm that felt like a distant mountain peak to most.

This level of talent, not to mention the Ogre Seven’s leader, Tang Shan, perhaps even in the gilded halls of the Central Region, such a person would be hailed as a peerless genius.

No, she definitely will!

"Now that you mention it, I think I heard the name Zhu Ziyan during my travels..." Huo Yue began to muse, tapping her chin as she searched through the library of rumors she’d gathered over the last two years.

Was it from some rumors?

Did someone with similar name offended her previously?

He couldn’t really remember, but that name was truly familiar.

Just then, on her fingers, the ring pulsed as a telepathic message was sent to his brain.

"It’s the name those twins from that hotel in the border city kept mentioning," Fairy Liu reminded her with a dry chuckle. "The ones who tried to poison your tea out of sheer bitterness."

"Aha!" Huo Yue slammed her fist into her palm, a mischievous glint in her eyes. "You are that ’thieving cat’ those twins said stole their man! Zhu Ziyan of the Ogre Academy! Hahaha! Did you really steal their man? For someone who looked so cold, you are actually quite bold huh?"

Ziyan’s ears flattened slightly against her head, and she let out a weary, helpless sigh. "In my eyes, they were the ones who stole my fiancé. But there is no need to dwell on the past. Tai Yuhao is dead, and the ’man’ they fought over is now nothing more than a ghost."

"Oh? Your fiancé must have been quite the womanizer then. I’ve met a lot of women across these two years who cursed and hated your name because of that man," Huo Yue chuckled, completely unfazed by the scandal.

In truth, Huo Yue held no real prejudice against men who had many women, provided they weren’t complete assholes about it.

Her own father had married two wives at the same time, and after her biological mother passed away, she had been raised with nothing but love by her stepmother.

She had seen firsthand that a home could be harmonious even with multiple partners.

Besides, she was fairly certain Haoran was a bit of a womanizer himself—or at least, he had the aura of a man who would take whatever he absolutely fancied without asking the heavens for permission.

Truly the epitome of pride and greed.

She actually knew a lot about men in general, after all her older half-brothers, terrified that their precious sister would be tricked by some bottom-tier scumbag, had spent years drilling "the nature of men" into her.

They’d taught her the subtle signs of a liar, how to spot a man who actually had the spine to protect what was his, and even have her memorised those Bro Codes or something.

They actually looked oddly suspicious then, as if they are sneaking in some contraband.

"I don’t want to talk about him," Ziyan muttered, her gaze dropping to her boots.

"Alright, alright. I won’t pester you," Huo Yue shrugged, adjusting the heavy weight of the black-and-red ruler on her back. "Anyway, there’s a small trading town a few days up ahead. Once we’ve arrived and you’ve patched up those wounds, let’s go our separate ways."

Ziyan remained silent, staring at Huo Yue’s back.

A beat later, her curiosity got the better of her. "Hey.. do you mind if I ask what you plan to do? The Spirit Hall is tightening its grip and the allied forces are struggling to escape. Are you going to join the war? With your talent and potential, the Allied Front would pay a king’s ransom for your loyalty."

"Hmmmm?" Huo Yue trailed off, looking up at the first stars appearing in the desert sky. "Depends on my mood, I guess. My hometown is tucked away in a pretty secluded corner of the outskirts; the war probably won’t reach those old mountains. For now, I just want to finish exploring the Eastern Region. Once I’m bored here, I’ll head to the Central Region."

Ziyan’s voice was barely a whisper. "Central Region... as expected. You certainly have the talent to stand out even in a place like that."

"Maybe," Huo Yue chuckled softly, her thoughts drifting to a certain golden-haired youth who was likely waiting for her somewhere in those distant lands.

"....By the way," Ziyan said, her voice regaining some strength. "I’ve told you my name, and I’m curious about yours. Is it alright to ask? If you don’t mind me asking of course, you can refuse if you want."

"No, it’s fine. My name is Shen Huo," Huo Yue lied smoothly.

"Divine Fire?" Ziyan muttered. The name was incredibly domineering, even for a high-level cultivator.

It sounded less like a name and more like a title of a goddess.

"Yep. Pretty cool, huh?" Huo Yue praised herself internally for the quick thinking. It was a perfect blend of Haoran’s surname and her own.

Suddenly, Ziyan stopped walking.

Huo Yue paused and turned back, raising a confused eyebrow. "What’s wrong? Tired? We can rest if you want. We’ve still got two days of sand-walking until we hit the town, and you’re still bleeding a bit."

"Sister Shen," Ziyan spoke, her voice devoid of its previous hesitation as dhe looked up, her feline eyes burning with a sudden, sharp determination. "Can you... can you allow me to accompany you on your journey?"

Huo Yue blinked, her mouth hanging open slightly.

"Come again?"

*

*

*

At this moment, within the sacred stillness of the Bright Silver Emperor’s inheritance realm, the air atop the 999th step suddenly thickened, turning into a pressurized vortex of golden and purple energy.

BOOM!

A thunderous resonance erupted from Shen Haoran’s chest, the sound of a spiritual gate being blown off its hinges as the Dragon Core within him spun with frantic, celestial speed, pulling in the ambient silver starlight and refining it into the domineering Qi of the Shen Clan.

In that singular moment of enlightenment and compression, his cultivation surged, breaking through the bottlenecks to reach the 5th Stage of the Golden Core Realm.

He stood up slowly, his every movement radiating a calm, supreme grace as he patted the invisible dust from his white-and-gold robes, his eyes scanning the silver mist.

He could feel the law of diminishing returns taking hold; the crushing pressure of the Imperial Steps, which had once acted as a magnificent forge for his Infinity Dragon God Divine Physique, was now little more than a mild weight.

His body had already gained a permanent resistance to this level of gravity.

This training was now no longer useful, but still, it did help him increase his strength, the Heaven Dou Academy is truly way too generous right?

"Congratulations once more, Young Master," the spirit of Lei Yin appeared, his spectral form slightly more stable but still bowing his head in a gesture of profound, involuntary respect. "To advance two stages within the Golden Core realm in such a short timespan... your talent is truly a calamity for your enemies."

Haoran ignored the praise, his gaze fixed on the center of the altar. "How much longer until she finishes inheriting your legacy?"

He was staring at Xueli. She was suspended in the air, curled into a protective fetal position, her body was wreathed in a cocoon of silver light, making her look more regal.

The powers of the Bright Silver Emperor was weaving her body together, reconstructing her meridians and soul into something the Eastern Region had never seen before.

"It should be within this week, Young Master," Lei Yin replied, his voice a melodic whisper. "The reconstruction of her bloodline is almost complete, and she is now currently in the final stage of soul-tempering."

"I see," Haoran murmured, his golden eyes reflecting the swirling silver light. "Then I shall wait for one more week."

He didn’t mind the delay. For a cultivator of his caliber, a week was but a blink of an eye, a moment of meditation in the grand river of time.

He settled back onto the summit, not to cultivate, but to observe, watching the birth of a new power.

And for Haoran, the investment of time was worth every penny; he was not just waiting for a follower, but for a weapon that he had personally helped forge.