Villains Aren't Stepping Stones!-Chapter 126: Two Protagonist

Huo Yue let out a long, melodic moan of pure, unadulterated satisfaction, her spine arching as she stretched her arms toward the twilight sky.

The heavy oak doors of the grand auction house creaked shut behind them, but the thrill of the victory was still humming in her blood.

She took a deep, invigorating breath of the cool evening air, the scent of night-blooming jasmine mixing with the lingering aroma of expensive incense from the auction hall.

"Ah, that felt incredible!" she exclaimed, her eyes sparkling with a mischievous ruby light. "Did you see their faces? That ’Great Solar Pill’ I refined actually sold for 127 thousand spirit stones! And to think, I only spent about 10 thousand on the raw ingredients. That’s more than ten times the profit! At this rate, I’ll be able to buy a small kingdom by next month."

Medusa, walking with her usual noble grace, adjusted the collar of her dark robes.

And although her expression remained stoic, but there was a faint glint of contentment in her eyes.

"Their wine was particularly good," she remarked, her voice like smooth velvet. "Aged in spiritual jade barrels, if I’m not mistaken. It had a bite that reminded me of the desert sun."

"I’m more interested in that Life Spirit Tea," Ziyan added, her cat-ears twitching under her hood as she scanned the bustling street. "It’s a shame they only serve it to the VIP booths, and even then, only one cup per person. I could feel my meridians softening with every sip. I wish we could have bought a whole tin of the leaves."

The three of them continued their lighthearted banter, blending into the crowd of wealthy merchants and traveling cultivators as they began the walk back toward the high-end Inn where they had secured a suite.

To any passerby, they looked like three young noblewomen enjoying the spoils of a successful day.

But as they turned a sharp corner into a less-populated thoroughfare, the atmosphere shifted.

Medusa’s pace slowed almost imperceptibly, her hand twitching, as if she was about to unleash hell if Huo Yue just gave the wat.

"Huo Yue..." she said, her voice dropping into a low, warning register.

Huo Yue didn’t even turn her head, her smile remaining fixed on her face even as her eyes turned cold. "Yeah. I know. They’ve been sticking to us like leeches since the moment we stepped off the auction house. A bit annoying and predictable, isn’t it?" 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

She looked around, her analytical mind cataloging the surroundings.

The streets were still filled with mortal vendors and low-level practitioners, which is completely unsuitable place if a battle were to happen.

"We can’t do this here," she whispered. "If we fight in the city center, the aftershocks from our Qi will level three city blocks and more. Too many innocent people would be implicated in the crossfire. Let’s give them what they want—a quiet place to die."

With a subtle shift in direction, Huo Yue led the group toward the eastern gate.

They moved with a deliberate, unhurried pace, leading their pursuers away from the stone walls and deep into the ancient, dense woods that bordered the southern edge of the city.

Finally, after a few minutes of navigating through the thick underbrush and towering silver-bark trees, they arrived at a secluded clearing.

The three of them stopped, leaning back against the thick, gnarled trunk of an ancient oak.

The silence of the forest was absolute, broken only by the distant hoot of an owl.

Huo Yue crossed her arms over her chest, her gaze fixed on a patch of seemingly empty shadows near a cluster of ferns.

"Aren’t you going to come out?" she called out, her voice echoing with a sharp, mocking edge. "You’ve been following us for quite a while. It’s rude to keep girls waiting."

The leaves rustled violently for a second before a figure shimmered into existence.

It was a man draped in a heavy, shadowy cloak. He stepped forward, his face obscured by a deep hood while he stood about twenty paces away, his posture tense and coiled like a spring.

"I’m surprised you managed to detect me," the cloaked figure said, his voice raspy and filtered through a concealment spell. "I’ve been using a high-grade Concealment Technique to hide myself since we left the auction house. Not even most Golden Core experts would have sensed a ripple."

Huo Yue lowered her arms and stood up straight, her red eyes locking onto the dark void of his hood. "Detection is part of my trade. Now that you’ve finally shown yourself, why don’t you get to the point? What exactly do you want from three ’helpless’ women in the middle of the night?"

"Hand over the map fragment," the man commanded, his voice hardening. "That thing is useless to a pampered alchemist like you. It belongs to someone who has the strength to follow where it leads."

Huo Yue stared at him for a heartbeat before she let out a short, melodic laugh, shaking her head. "No way. I paid 65 thousand spirit stones for that tattered piece of paper. I happen to like the way it looks in my collection. Besides, finders keepers—or in this case, highest bidder wins."

The cloaked person’s temper seemed to snap as a violent, turbulent aura erupted from his body, the spiritual pressure causing the surrounding grass to wither and turn to ash.

It was the unmistakable power of a 3rd Stage Golden Core Realm expert, but the density of the Qi was far higher than a normal practitioner of that level.

"Oh?" Huo Yue raised a delicate eyebrow, her expression unimpressed. "Impressive foundation. Your Qi is thick and stable. I can tell you didn’t reach this level by overdrawing your potential through low-grade pills and artificial boosters. You’ve actually put in the work."

The cloaked man didn’t respond to the compliment and just took a slow step forward, his killing intent manifesting as a cold wind. "I’m not going to repeat myself. Hand over the map, and I might let you walk back to the city with your limbs intact."

"Heh. Who do you think you are?" Huo Yue took a sharp step forward, her own presence expanding like an igniting star.

Suddenly, various colored flames burst out from her pores, swirling around her like protective dragons.

Then, the full blown, crushing aura of a 5th Stage Golden Core erupted from her, instantly suppressing the man’s pressure.

The cloaked person visibly flinched, taking a stumbling step back. "H-Heavenly Flames!? And so many at once!? How is this possible? No human body can house that many conflicting essences!"

"Surprised? Don’t be," Huo Yue smirked, the heat from her aura causing the air to shimmer and distort. "I haven’t even made a move yet, and you’re already shaking."

The cloaked man snapped out of his shock, his fear turning into a desperate, feral sneer. "So what if you’re at the 5th Stage?! I’ve killed 6th Stage experts before! I am a genius, and I do not recognize the disparity of ranks!"

He moved like a bolt of violet lightning, covering the distance in a fraction of a second as he appeared directly in front of Huo Yue, his fist glowing with a dark, necrotic energy as he delivered a punch aimed straight at her solar plexus.

Huo Yue’s reaction was instantaneous.

She didn’t retreat, instead, dhe countered with a fist of her own, her knuckles wreathed in the emerald flame of the Clear Heart.

*BOOM!*

The two fists clashed, creating a powerful shockwave of fire and wind that uprooted dozens of trees in the clearing and shattered the boulders nearby.

The sound was like a thunderclap in the silent forest, and when the dust settled, the cloaked man had been sent skidding back a dozen steps, his boots carving deep furrows in the earth.

Huo Yue, meanwhile, remained standing exactly where she was, her feet hasn’t moved an inch.

"That’s it?" she asked, flicking a stray ember from her sleeve. "That’s the strength you used to threaten me? And you dare act all high and mighty?"

"Tsk. I guess I have no choice," the man spat.

Then, the force of the wind from the clash had finally caught his hood, flinging it back to reveal the sharp, bitter features of Yun Li.

His eyes were bloodshot, filled with the madness of a man who had lost everything.

Suddenly, Yun Li began to glow with a deep, pulsating purple light as the air around him grew heavy, and he began to channel his ultimate technique. "You think you’ve won? I’ll show you the true power of an Immortal—"

"Wave Splitting Burning Palm!" Huo Yue declared, her voice cutting through his monologue.

She didn’t wait for him to finish his power-up and just extended her palm, and a massive, towering hand made of white-hot, multi-colored flames manifested in the air, flying toward Yun Li with the speed of a meteor.

"Powering up in the middle of a life-or-death battle?" Huo Yue scoffed as the palm connected. "What, do you think this is a novel where the enemy waits for you to finish your transformation? Idiot."

*CRASH!*

The explosion was deafening, and the forest was illuminated as if it were midday.

When the smoke cleared, Yun Li was sprawled in a smoldering crater, his clothes charred and his skin sizzling from the pure, concentrated heat of the Heavenly Flames.

He was barely breathing, his eyes rolled back in his head.

Huo Yue began to walk toward the crater, Medusa and Ziyan following closely behind.

Huo Yue then reached into her sleeve, intending to finish the job and take whatever other fragments he had.

Just then, a high-pitched, creepy laugh echoed through the trees, seemingly coming from nowhere and everywhere at once.

"Kekekeke! How interesting! I was just wandering around and I came across such high quality souls! I’m really lucky today!"

Huo Yue froze, her instinctual ’danger’ sense screaming louder than it ever had before.

Inside the ring, Fairy Liu flinched hearing that iconic laugh!

It was the laugh of someone who belonged to the Shadow Hall!

They are the one responsible for her "death"!