Villains Aren't Stepping Stones!-Chapter 91: Your Weapon

At this moment, the sky over Fragrant Flower City was no longer a natural canopy, but had transformed into a churning vortex of bruised purples and charcoal greys, lit by the loud, erratic pulsing of violet lightning.

The roar of the thunder that followed was not like a sound but a physical vibration that rattled the teeth of every living soul within the city walls.

"Heh. Hahaha!" Shen Haoran let out a sharp, mocking laugh that cut through the distance and moved like a streak of golden light, his blade Azathoth whistling through the air as he delivered a flurry of strikes against Jiang Chen.

The "Peerless Sword Venerable" could only cross his arms and endure the onslaught.

It was a pathetic sight, truly.

Jiang Chen, despite his ancient soul, was trapped in a body that was still only at the Body Refining Realm.

He possessed no Qi to manifest techniques, no spiritual essence to form shields, and no cultivation base to counter-attack, he was like a living, breathing, glorified punching bag.

However, the luck of an Anomaly was truly a terrifying thing, as although his Formless Void Divine Physique was only at Minor Completion—rendering him not yet immune to all laws—it acted as an absolute fortress of the flesh.

It amplified his physical durability to a monstrous degree, allowing his skin to become as hard as celestial ore as he took blow after blow that would have turned a normal cultivator into a red mist, enduring the spiritual force of a Golden Core expert with nothing but gritted teeth and bloodied lips.

"Jiang Chen! Where is that pride you spoke of earlier?" Haoran taunted, his voice amplified by the wind. "Where is the man who said he would stand above the heavens? Where is the genius who promised to become Supreme? What a joke! Look at you now! You are nothing but a sandbag for my amusement!"

Then, with a sudden, explosive movement, Shen Haoran delivered a mid-air kick directly to Jiang Chen’s solar plexus.

The force was so great it sent Jiang Chen hurtling through the air like a cannonball, his body smashing through two stone buildings before he could even blink.

Before Jiang Chen could even settle in the debris, Shen Haoran appeared in the air above him, descending like a falling star and slammed his heel into Jiang Chen’s chest, pinning him back into the cratered earth.

The ground groaned and buckled, a shockwave of dust and rubble erupting outward.

"Come on! Get up!" Haoran sneered, leaning down to stare into Jiang Chen’s eyes. "Aren’t you very arrogant just now? Was all that talk about standing above heavens just the barking of a dying dog?"

Jiang Chen spat out a mouthful of blood, his purple aura flickering but not fading as he stared up at Haoran with a gaze filled with venomous spite. "You... you coward! You can only rely on your superior Cultivation! If we were in the same realm, I would have already cut your head off! Suppress your level to the same level as mine and then we shall see who is the true superior!"

Shen Haoran’s lips curled into a reflexive grin. "Very w—"

He stopped abruptly as the word died in his throat, and his grin vanished as if wiped away by an invisible hand.

A cold, logical clarity suddenly pierced through the adrenaline of the fight as he froze, his body going rigid.

’Was I about to agree just now?’ he thought, his mind racing. ’No. That is completely illogical. Why would I ever give up my hard-earned advantage? Why would I lower my defenses against a man who wants to slaughter my entire clan, just because of a petty taunt?’

Could it be...?

It didn’t take long for him to realized with a jolt of fury that his own mind had been subtly nudged, as if some external force had manipulated him.

And if he had to guess, it was done by the very Heavenly Dao that protected protagonists.

It was trying to force him into a classic trope of "fair play" that would allow the underdog to win.

His face twisted in raw, unadulterated anger as he raised his head toward the churning clouds, his golden eyes burning with a light that rivaled the lightning.

"You think this is funny!?" he roared at the sky. "How dare you mess with my mind!? How dare the Heavens try to dictate my actions!?"

He pointed Azathoth directly at the eye of the storm. "I walk the path of supremacy! I am the master of my own fate! Even the heavens cannot interfere with my will!"

He was done playing.

He was done testing the "protagonist template."

Without moments of hesitation, he reached into his storage ring and pulled out a small, unassuming jade knife.

It looked simple, but the air around it immediately warped and turned grey.

This was an artifact imbued with a sliver of sword intent from an ancient Supreme of the Shen Clan.

He glared at Jiang Chen. It didn’t matter how powerful the Formless Void Divine Physique was; at Minor Completion, it was still just a mortal construct.

The sword intent of a Supreme—a being who could slice through dimensions—would instantly erase Jiang Chen from the annals of existence, soul and all.

"Let’s see how you can survive this!"

As Shen Haoran was about to channel his Qi into the knife to activate the killing blow, the sky let out a roar that sounded like a scream of celestial outrage.

Then, a bolt of violet lightning, thicker and more concentrated than any before, descended with impossible speed, aiming directly for Haoran’s head.

In that fraction of a second, Qing’er, who had been standing at the edge of the battlefield like a silent sentinel, reacted.

With speed that defies logic, she reached out her hand and bent the very fabric of space, creating a spatial fold that snatched Haoran from his position and brought him ten meters back to her side.

The lightning struck the spot where Haoran had been standing an instant before.

The explosion of energy was blinding, but surprisingly, the grounded Jiang Chen, who was beneath Haoran, was actually completely unharmed.

In fact, the wounds on his body began to knit together, and his energy surged, his power breaking through to the peak of Qi Gathering Realm!

Jiang Chen stared at his hands, then up at the sky, then finally at Shen Haoran before he let out a loud, hysterical laughter that echoed through the ruined street.

"Hahahaha! It seems even the heavens don’t want me to die! The world itself is on my side, you Shen dog! You cannot kill what the universe has ordained to live!"

Shen Haoran watched the laughing man, and for the first time in his life, he felt a heat in his chest that wasn’t the resonance of his physique.

It was pure, unbridled anger.

He felt insulted.

The fact that the heavens were so blatantly cheating to protect this man was a slap in the face to his status, his pride, and his path.

It was as if the universe was mocking his failure to kill a trash so much weaker than him, causing his blood to boil, and his heartbeat sounding like a war drum in his ears.

He walked the path of supremacy; he was meant to be the one who looked down upon the world. How could he stand this humiliation?

"Qing’er," he said, his voice dropping to a whisper that was more terrifying than a shout.

"Young Master," Qing’er answered, stepping into his shadow, her red eyes reflecting the violet storm.

"Can I ask you for something? This might be dangerous. In fact, you might end up crippled or even die," he asked, his gaze never leaving Jiang Chen.

Qing’er looked surprised for a fleeting moment, but her expression quickly settled into one of absolute, unwavering devotion. "Young Master, I am your shadow. My weapons are the darkness, and your weapon is me. My life, my cultivation, and my existence belong to you. Therefore, Young Master, please do not hesitate. Use me as you see fit."

Shen Haoran nodded, his hand gripping the hilt of Azathoth so hard the leather groaned. "Whatever happens... block those lightnings. I don’t care if the sky falls. Hold it back for me. I don’t believe that trash can escape from me."

"Understood."

Without another word, Qing’er ignited her Saint-realm cultivation as she flew upward, her black bodysuit blending with the dark clouds as she stood guard in the sky.

She raised her hands, and a massive, semi-transparent dome of solidified shadow began to expand over the battlefield, creating a localized "Forbidden Zone" where the heavens were barred.

Shen Haoran turned his gaze back to Jiang Chen, who was slowly standing up, his confidence renewed. "You really are as resilient as a demonic cockroach, aren’t you?"

Jiang Chen chuckled, dusting off his robes. "Not really. It’s just because the heavens are in my favor. I am the chosen one of this era, Shen dog. And you are just a hurdle for me to jump over."

"Not for long."

Haoran moved.

At that exact moment, the sky roared again, and three massive bolts of lightning struck the shadow dome.

Qing’er gritted her teeth, her form flickering as she absorbed the celestial backlash, causing the dome to groan and crack, but the dome successfully held back the lightnings.

Shen Haoran appeared in front of Jiang Chen in the blink of an eye, and this time, he didn’t coat his sword in the golden light of his Qi.

Instead, a grey, silent mist began to cling to the blade.

It was Sword Intent—the raw, conceptual power of "Cutting."

He grinned, a dark and ruthless expression that promised only oblivion appearing on his face. "Can your physique endure a my intent to cut, Jiang Chen? Why don’t we find out together?"

As the blade descended, the purple aura around Jiang Chen flared in terror.