Villains Aren't Stepping Stones!-Chapter 94: Prelude to War
The quiet, incense-choked air of the Sect Master’s inner sanctum at the Golden Cloud Immortal Sect was shattered not by a bell, but by the frantic, echoing footsteps of a panicked disciple.
The Sect Master, an 8th Stage Heavenly Saint whose white hair and beard flowed like a silk waterfall over his embroidered robes, didn’t even open his eyes at first.
He remained like a statue of meditative calm, his consciousness drifting through the ethereal layers of the High Heavens.
"Sect Master! Sect Master! Emergency! There’s an absolute emergency!" the disciple shrieked, skidding across the polished white jade floor and collapsing into a heap of robes and terror.
The Sect Master slowly opened his eyes, the pupils flickering with a cold, ancient light. "Calm yourself, child. The heavens are vast and the earth is stable. What could possibly warrant such a loss of composure? Has the boy I asked Elder Ji to monitor encountered some minor troubles in the lower Saint Burial Realm? Did a local beast dare to snap at him?"
"Even worse! Sect Master, the Shen Clan... they are mobilizing their army!" the disciple wheezed, his face pale as death. "The entire Shen Domain is vibrating with war-drums and war cries! They have officially issued a Decree of Eradication against our sevt! They said they will erase the Golden Cloud Immortal Sect from the maps of the universe for the ’unpardonable interference’ in their private domain!"
Hearing that, the Sect Master’s serene expression didn’t just fade; it disintegrated.
He then stood up so abruptly that the golden throne beneath him cracked. "What!? The Shen Clan? Mobilizing against us? Over a single intervention in a lower realm?! Are they stupid!? They will go to war with us over something so trivial!?"
Before he could even process the magnitude of the disaster, the spatial barriers of the hall were torn asunder and even distinct, suffocating auras erupted into the room.
They are the Seven High Elders of the Golden Cloud.
These were old men whose power ranged from the 4th to the 7th Stage of the Heavenly Saint Realm, the true backbone of the sect’s military might.
The strongest of them, a 7th Stage Heavenly Saint with eyes like burning coals, didn’t bother with etiquette as he blurred across the distance and grabbed the Sect Master by his ornate collar, lifting him nearly off the ground.
"You bastard!" the High Elder roared, his spit flying into the Sect Master’s face. "This was the ’completely safe bet’ you mentioned!? You told us the Shen Clan was too busy with internal politics to care about a scrap of destiny in the Saint Burial Realm! For the sake of a brat—a literal mortal child—you have invited those three bloodthirsty lunatics and their entire clan to our front gates!? How idiotic can one man be!? How idiotic can YOU be!?"
"This... I... I don’t know what happened!" the Sect Master stammered, his hands shaking. "I calculated the threads of destiny several times! I even consulted the Ancient Star Chart just to make sure! And all the signs pointed to this being a hidden opportunity! It was supposed to be the fastest way for our sect to rise to the level of a Hegemon with little to no risk! The boy is the key to the next epoch! Nothing should’ve gone wrong!"
"Well, your calculations was wrong!" the Elder snarled, his grip tightening until the Sect Master’s face turned purple. "And now the Shen Clan is marching to our gates! And they certainly aren’t asking for an apology! They are coming for our throats! They are out for our blood!"
He shoved the Sect Master backward, sending him stumbling against his throne, and delivered a stinging slap across his face that echoed like a thunderclap. "You bastard! Bastard! Why did we ever choose a gambler like you to lead us!? You better spend your remaining hours preparing our disciples for a meat grinder! The Shen Clan doesn’t take prisoners, and they certainly don’t listen to excuses!"
With a chorus of disgusted snorts, the seven elders turned and vanished into the void, their auras leaving behind a scent of ozone and impending doom.
The Sect Master sat in a daze, the cold jade of the throne feeling like ice against his back and a single bead of sweat rolled down his forehead and splashed onto his hand.
He slowly slid off the seat and fell to his knees, staring blankly at the floor.
He regretted it. He regretted it with every fiber of his being.
Why had he let greed cloud his judgment?
Why had he thought he could outmaneuver a family that had forced the heavens to kneel?
The "fate" he had tried to steal now felt like a noose tightening around his neck.
Unfortunately for him, and for the thousands of disciples currently sharpening their swords in total ignorance, there are no medicines for regrets in this entirety of university.
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Of course, the news of the Shen Clan’s mobilization didn’t just stay within the clan domain, but it had rippled through the Imperial Capital like a tidal wave of fire.
Every major force, every hidden sect, and every merchant guild shook in collective shock.
The Shen Clan hadn’t declared a formal war in nearly thirty thousand years, and the last time they did so, the current Imperial Family rose to power!
At this moment, in the heart of the Imperial Palace, the Emperor of the Tian Yuan Empire sat at his desk, staring at the reports.
His face was a mask of stoicism, but his fingers drummed a restless rhythm on the dark wood. "The Shen Clan... declaring war over a lower-realm dispute? How troublesome. Those sisters are going to turn the High Heavens into a slaughterhouse, and I’ll be the one left to clean up the rubble."
But he tossed that report to the side.
That war would be over in awhile, there is no need to spend time thinking about it.
He has more work to do.
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Meanwhile, in a district of the capital that never slept, a sprawling maze of red lanterns, floating silk curtains, and the scent of intoxicating perfumes, a different kind of power watched the storm.
At the highest floor of a tall, golden tower, a room draped in crimson velvet and lit by floating spirit-candles housed a woman whose beauty was considered a natural disaster.
She had long, flowing white hair that pooled on the red bed like spilled milk, and atop her head were two fluffy white fox ears that twitched at the sound of distant war-horns.
Behind her, nine magnificent white fox tails swayed lazily, each one representing a different mastered law of the universe.
She wore a robe so revealing it would have caused a heart attack in any mortal, lying back with a bored expression.
A female servant knelt at the foot of the bed, her head bowed so low she was practically kissing the floor.
"The Shen Clan? Again?" the Fox Queen asked, her voice a sultry, dangerous purr. "Are those crazy sisters up to something again? Seriously, that family has more than a few screws loose. Chu Xueyu probably broke a fingernail and decided an entire sect needed to cease existing."
Only someone with her level of power—the Sect Master of the Blissful Immortal Coupling Palace—could speak so offensively about the Shen Clan without worrying about her head being separated from her shoulders.
The servant trembled, her voice small. "They say... they say a Heavenly Saint from the Golden Cloud entered Lady Leng Shuang’s realm and even interfered with the Young Master Shen Haoran’s mission, Mistress."
"Oh, so they touched the pup? Well," the Fox Queen chuckled, a sound like silver coins clinking together. "I guess that sect is already dead, they just haven’t stopped breathing yet. Those three are incredibly overprotective of their son and nephew."
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At this moment, the massive military field of the Shen Domain was a sight that would have made an army of gods hesitate.
Chu Xueyu stood at the center of the massive floating plaza, her white robes billowing.
To her left was Feng Yuyan, her eyes glowing with a violet, scientific hunger.
To her right was Leng Shuang, the twelve realms hidden within her humming with a suppressed, tyrannical resonance.
Before them stood the Shen Clan Military.
This was not the Shadow Guard, after all, they belong personally to the three sisters and Haoran.
These millions of soldiers are drawn from the branch families and the thousands of subservient worlds the Shen Clan ruled.
These were warriors who had fought their way out of their own lower realms to prove their worth, each one a veteran of a thousand battles.
For the first time since the dawn of the current epoch, the banners of the Shen Clan were raised in a formal declaration of total war.
The Shen Clan’s insignia painted on a flag fluttered with the wind, and seemed to glow with a blood-red light as the millions of soldiers let out a synchronized roar that shattered the clouds above the Imperial Capital.
"Today," Chu Xueyu’s voice carried to every ear, "the world remembers why we are the masters of the light and the dark. The Golden Cloud may think that they could interfere in our garden. They are wrong. And we shall show them that our garden is fertilized with the ashes of fools."
