Villains Aren't Stepping Stones!-Chapter 64: I’ll Be Your Eyes

The sky over the Seven Treasure City had ceased to be a canopy of stars and became a canvas of blinding, incandescent white.

Dai Xuan and Buo He, two legends who had survived centuries of carnage and upheaval, stood frozen in the air, their auras flickering like guttering candles against the sheer magnitude of the "Little Boy" explosion.

They stared in absolute, paralyzing shock at that mushroom cloud—a pillar of divine fire that touched the very heavens and seemed to mock the power of any mortal cultivator.

Goodness, is this even possible!? They couldn’t help but wonder, their hearts hammering against their ribs with a frantic, primitive rhythm.

The night sky had basically turned into day, a forced dawn brought about not by the rotation of the world, but by the terrifying weapon of a young girl.

Just what kind of existence could even think of creating this kind of weapon? Does that person wanted to destroy the world?!

’Forget about Spirit Ascension like us,’ Dai Xuan thought, his throat dry as desert sand, ’even Nirvana Rebirth experts would get vaporized if they took that level of power head-on, right?’

It was at that moment where he recalled Xueli’s words, spoken with such chilling calmness, ’A weapon you only need to use once is the best weapon...’

Indeed, if you used this once, and the world witnessed the resulting void where a million-man army used to stand, no one would ever dare try to provoke the Ning Clan again.

It will bring fear that will be etched into the very topography of the Eastern Region.

Although a cynical part of him didn’t believe that Xueli possessed another weapon of this caliber—surely such a treasure was a singular, ancient inheritance—, but "what if"?

Does he dare bet his life on it?

Does he dare assume she is empty-handed?

Absolutely not!

If he bet wrong, he’d be lucky to die instantly. What if, because of his strength, he couldn’t die immediately and suffered hell before dying?

He turned towards Buo He, his face pale and his pride thoroughly shattered. "Let’s retreat. This operation... is a failure."

They gained nothing but the hatred of the Ning Clan, and the loss of millions of soldiers.

They were already struggling against the Spirit Hall, now, they will really fall into an even terrible state.

Buo He nodded, after all, even a "muscles-for-brains" like him, driven by instinct and madness, knew that it was foolish to continue this mission.

There was no glory in being turned into ash.

However, just as they were about to burn their essence to flee, the shadows beneath them flickered.

It was subtle, a ripple in the darkness that shouldn’t have existed in such blinding light, and before they could even scream, before a single defensive spell could be cast, they were swallowed by their own shadows—dragged down into a bottomless, silent void that left no trace of their existence in the physical world.

Back on the city wall, Qing’er slowly lowered her hand as she turned her gaze away from where Buo He and Dai Xuan had just been, her expression as tranquil as a dark lake.

It wasn’t in her nature to simply cut the weeds but leave the roots; to her, a threat left alive was simply a chore postponed.

Since they were here, they didn’t need to return.

With those cold, efficient thoughts, Qing’er extended her will.

Suddenly, across the scorched plains outside and inside the city, the shadows of any enemy soldiers who hadn’t been vaporized by the initial blast began to move.

The darkness rose up like liquid obsidian, devouring the survivors where they stood.

Finally, when the blinding light of the explosion finally subsided and a hollow, unnatural darkness returned to the cratered earth, Qing’er had already ensured that not a single enemy soul remained.

Xueli turned towards Qing’er and nodded, a silent thanks passing between the two women.

Then, she turned her attention to her father.

Ning Xiao was still standing there, rubbing his eyes from the lingering brightness, his face a mask of confusion and dawning relief.

Without hesitation, Xueli ran towards him, her blue dress fluttering like the wings of a butterfly as she threw herself into his arms, burying her face in his chest.

"Father... thank goodness you’re okay. I thought... I thought I wouldn’t make it in time."

Ning Xiao paused, his body stiff for a heartbeat before his arms wrapped around her.

Despite his eyes still stinging and the smell of ozone and burnt earth in the air, he couldn’t help but smile, his tears of grief turning into tears of joy. "Ah, daughter... you must’ve suffered a lot, huh? To come back with such power... to save us like this..."

Qing’er watched this reunion from a distance, her red eyes completely emotionless.

To her, such displays of sentiment were alien, but she remained a silent, lethal sentinel, ensuring that the peace bought by the bomb remained undisturbed.

*

*

*

At this same moment, countless distance away back in the Lamia Kingdom, the atmosphere was a world apart from the blood and fire of the Ning Clan.

Shen Haoran and Huo Yue were heading to their private quarters after having spent a long afternoon exploring the sandstone beauty of the kingdom.

They had walked through the markets and watched the moon over the dunes, pretty much flirting with each other in a way that made even a desert heat seem mild by comparison.

Haoran stood outside the room provided for Huo Yue by Queen Medusa as the moonlight caught the golden thread of his robes as he turned to her and smiled. "I had fun today, Yue’er. Truly."

"Really?" Huo Yue’s eyes brightened, a soft blush creeping onto her cheeks.

She felt happy, after all, this time, she wanted their reunion date to be great, so she spent great efforts in choosing the best spots.

Thank the gods she memorised the layout of the city when she and Ziyan were planning to infiltrate and commit the heist of the century.

Haoran nodded, leaning his shoulder against the doorframe. "Yeah. You may not know this, but I grew up within the high walls of my clan. For me, my whole world was confined to the Imperial Capital. The politics, the training grounds, the court... that was my reality. This is actually the first time I’ve stepped foot in any place outside the Capital for reasons other than duty."

He paused, thinking back. Of course, those times when he was on a mission to ruthlessly get rid of Demonic Cultivators in the vast, monster-infested wilderness outside the Empire did not count.

To him, those were just "excursions to the slaughterhouse," not "seeing the world."

Huo Yue’s eyes widened, her heart twinging with a sudden pang of empathy. "That’s... kind of sad, Haoran."

"Sad? Not really. I had everything a cultivator could dream of," Haoran said, though a hint of introspection clouded his gaze. "Although I do think it’s a pity."

That was his genuine thought.

Although he possessed power and authority many would kill to have, he had never once truly seen the world in person.

His life had been incredibly monotonous: cultivate, kill demonic cultivators, study ancient texts, and cultivate again.

Ever since he was born, that was all he knew. He was taught to always be the best, to scheme, to use others as stepping stones, and to always maintain a pride that bordered on the divine.

He was bred to be superior, and that superiority had kept him in a gilded cage of his own making.

All his knowledge of the world’s beauty came from ink on parchment. And although Haoran believed there was nothing wrong with that—logic dictates that facts are more reliable than experiences, after all—he still couldn’t help but feel that it was a pity.

After all, this world was so vast, with its hidden realms and celestial wonders... isn’t it a pity not to see it for yourself?

That was why being here in the Eastern Region had been something he secretly looked forward to.

Even if he didn’t show it, he found the chaotic, raw energy of this "desolate" place, quite refreshing.

"I’ll be going back to the Imperial Capital in three days to take care of those family matters," Haoran said, his voice dropping an octave. "And after that, I will stay within the Imperial Academy for the recruitment cycle. It will probably be quite a while before I can go out and explore again."

Just then, Huo Yue reached out and grabbed his hands, her grip firm and warm.

"T-Then... I’ll be your eyes!" she declared, her voice ringing with a sudden, fierce determination.

Haoran looked at her, genuinely confused for a moment. "My eyes?"

Huo Yue nodded vigorously. "The communication artifact you gave me—it has a video recording feature, right? And the image-sync? I’ll call you every week. I’ll take photos of everything I see. I’ll explore this entire empire while you’re busy in the capital and I’ll show it all to you! I’ll be your eyes and show you just how beautiful this world really is!"

Her excitement was infectious as she began to list the wonders she planned to find. "Did you know? There is a river in the Southern Region that reflects the starlight so perfectly it looks like you’re walking on the Milky Way! And there’s a legendary tree in the Western Region that stretches so high it’s said to be a bridge to a floating island of Giants! There are even legends of an ice village where the Snow Spirits live and dance in the aurora!"

She stepped closer, her eyes locked onto his. "There are many, many beautiful things in this world, Haoran. And if you can’t see them yet, then I will bring them to you. It might not be as good as being there, but until the day you are free to explore by my side, I will note down every beautiful place I find... so that one day, we can visit them all together!"

Shen Haoran stared at her, his eyes widening in a rare moment of genuine shock. He expected her to say many things, but never in his imagination did he expect her to offer him the world.

Slowly, the cold, clinical mask he usually wore began to crumble as a soft, gentle smile appeared on his face—a look so human it would have terrified his enemies in the capital.

He reached out and pulled Huo Yue into a firm, protective embrace, resting his chin on her shoulder.

"As expected..." he murmured, his voice laced with a strange, possessive warmth. "I really can’t bear to leave you, Yue’er. You make me want to tie you up and just keep you by my side forever, just so I don’t have to face that monotonous world alone."

"That’s..." Huo Yue blushed furiously, her heart thumping against his chest, but she didn’t know what to say to such a "Haoran-style" compliment.

He held her for a long moment, the silence of the palace hallway wrapping around them.

Then, he pulled back just enough to look into her eyes, his expression uncharacteristically soft.

"Can you... stay with me tonight?"

Huo Yue’s face turned the color of a ripe spirit-peach, her breath hitching in her throat.

She looked at the man who was both a cold-blooded genius and the one who had saved her from despair.

She didn’t refuse, and instead, she nodded slowly, her voice a soft, steady whisper. "...Mn. I’ll accompany you. Not just tonight, Haoran... for as long as you want."