Villains Aren't Stepping Stones!-Chapter 130: A New -

Medusa did not know how long she had been flying; time had ceased to exist as a linear concept.

Her vision had blurred into a tunnel of rushing wind and the rhythmic, desperate beating of her own heart.

She didn’t know where in the world they were right now—whether they had crossed the borders of the Southern Region or drifted into the jagged peaks of the untamed territories—but one thing she knew with absolute certainty: she could not stop.

She didn’t stop until the very last drop of her Qi had dried up, leaving her meridians feeling like cracked riverbeds.

With a final, ragged breath, her flight failed, and the three of them dropped like stones, plummeting into the center of a deep, jagged canyon where the shadows were thick enough to hide the dead.

Medusa hit the ground hard, her scales scraping against the cold stone, but she held the two tightly, protecting them from the fall.

Her chest heaved, every breath she took is like a sharp blade of fire in her lungs as she stood up and looked down to her left and right, seeing the two girls lying in the dirt below her.

Then, she expanded her senses one last time, feeling for the cold, demonic presence of the Shadow Hall.

Nothing.

Only the sound of the wind whistling through the canyon walls and the distant howl of a wolf.

They were safe. For now.

At this moment, Huo Yue stood up, her movements were stiff, like a marionette with tangled strings.

Her eyes were red and swollen from the torrent of tears she had shed during the flight, but the grief had begun to curdle into something sharper, something more violent.

Without a word, she lunged forward, her fingers digging into Medusa’s collar with a strength born of pure hysteria as she slammed the serpent queen back against the massive rock wall of the canyon with a sickening thud.

Huo Yue’s face was a mask of distorted agony and anger, her teeth were bared, and a low, guttural sound escaped her throat.

Ziyan’s eyes widened in fright. She had never seen the usually cheerful and mischievous Huo Yue like this before, so she immediately rushed forward, grabbing Huo Yue’s trembling hands and looking at her with a face full of worry.

"Sister Yue, please! Calm down! Let’s talk about this."

Huo Yue didn’t listen. In fact, she didn’t even seem to hear Ziyan’s voice as she gritted her teeth so hard it sounded like stone grinding on stone, and she pushed Medusa harder against the rock, the sharp edges digging into the serpent’s wounded back.

Medusa did not resist. She didn’t even raise her hands to defend herself and simply stared back at Huo Yue with those orange pupils of hers, her expression one of tired, regal calm.

"We’re safe now," Medusa said, her voice a low rasp. "And like I said before, you can hate me for an eternity. I can take it. What now? Are you going to hit me? Will drawing my blood bring her back?"

As if provoked by the cold logic in Medusa’s voice, Huo Yue’s fury reached a breaking point.

Without hesitation, she gathered the flickering, multicoloured flames of all her Heavenly Flames into her right hand, the heat so intense it began to singe her own sleeve.

She let out a scream of pure, unadulterated pain and threw a full-force punch toward Medusa’s face.

But Medusa remained unmoved, she didn’t even blink as the fist whistled toward her.

*BOOM!*

The fist didn’t hit Medusa’s skin. At the very last microsecond, Huo Yue shifted her aim, and her fist slammed into the solid rock wall right beside Medusa’s head.

The impact was cataclysmic; a mountain worth of stone walls of the canyon shattered into fine white ash instantly, the heat of the flame melting the granite into glass.

"WHY?!" Huo Yue screamed, her voice breaking into a jagged sob as she slumped against Medusa, her forehead resting against the serpent’s shoulder. "Why did you leave her?! Why didn’t we stay and fight?! We could’ve helped her!"

"Help her? Don’t make me laugh. You saw the situation," Medusa said, her voice softening just a fraction, though it remained as steady as a heartbeat. "There was no way around it. Liu Ruyan chose this. She gave her existence to buy us that few moments of time to escape. Or would you rather everyone of us died back there? Would you rather her sacrifice be for nothing, just so we could die together?"

Huo Yue knew there was no way around it. In the deepest, most rational part of her mind, she knew her master had made the only choice that mattered.

But her heart was screaming, like a wild animal caught in a trap!

She just couldn’t accept the outcome!

She couldn’t accept a world where the woman who had teased her, taught her, and loved her, will be sacrificed just so they can survive!

"Damn it!" Huo Yue cursed, letting out a final, ragged sound as she let go of Medusa’s collar and pushed herself away, her hands shaking as she turned her back on them.

Without looking back, she began to walk deeper into the shadows of the canyon, her silhouette growing smaller against the towering stone walls.

Ziyan tried to call out to her, her hand reaching out, but she was stopped by Medusa’s hand on her shoulder.

"Stop," Medusa commanded. "Let her cool her head off. Losing someone who means so much to you... it is something that no one can truly accept in a short amount of time. Perhaps it is a weight she will carry for a lifetime. However, it is a hurdle everyone must cross someday. She needs to face this silence alone."

Ziyan stared at Medusa, then at the departing, lonely back of Huo Yue. Soon, she let out a long, heavy sigh and sat down on the dirt, deciding to follow the older woman’s advice.

Medusa looked up at the sliver of the night sky visible between the canyon rims as she closed her eyes, her thoughts drifting toward the spirit that had saved them.

’Huo Yue,’ she thought silently, ’this is a bitter pill to swallow, but you have to move past this. If you allow this grief to become your cage, you will remain exactly as you are—a child with a flame she cannot control. If you want to honor her, you have to become the person she knew you could be.’

*

*

*

At this moment, sitting alone on a high, wind-swept boulder deeper in the canyon, Huo Yue stared at the night sky in a daze.

The stars, usually something she finds beautiful, now looked like cold, uncaring eyes.

In the silence, memories flooded back, unbidden and vivid.

She thought of Liu Ruyan, laughing that elegant, annoying laugh as she sealed away Huo Yue’s Qi and slapped her shins with a bamboo stick just to develop her physical endurance.

She thought of Liu Ruyan, flicking her forehead with those spiritual fingers whenever she made a slight mistake in a pill’s cooling temperature, the sting always followed by a hidden look of pride.

She thought of Liu Ruyan, the way her translucent hand would gently caress Huo Yue’s head whenever she achieved a breakthrough, the warmth of the soul more real than any physical touch.

She thought of Liu Ruyan, always appearing like a guardian deity to save her from the dangers her own recklessness and willfulness had invited.

Most of all, she thought of Liu Ruyan’s final smile—the look of a teacher who was satisfied with her student.

"Master..." Huo Yue whispered, her voice a small, broken thing in the vastness of the canyon as her fists clenched until her knuckles turned white, her nails drawing blood from her palms. "What will I do now... What will I do without you?"

Just then, her thoughts drifted to Haoran, her fiance, the golden-eyed youth who seemed to know everything before it happened.

She reached into her storage ring and took out the silver communication artifact he had given her.

It felt heavy and cold in her hand.

She stared at it for a long time, her thumb hovering over the activation rune.

She wanted to call him. She wanted to beg him to use the power of the Shen Clan to hunt down the Shadow Hall.

But...

She hesitated, her finger trembling, and slowly, she shook her head. No. She couldn’t be the "willful child" anymore.

Her master said that the Shadow Hall is backed by a clan that even Haoran’s family doesn’t dare to casually provoke.

If she asked Haoran for help, he and his clan will surely be dragged into the conflict.

And she’d rather die than to drag the man she loves into the mess that she caused herself.

She will have her revenge with her own two hands!

She wiped away her tears with the back of her hand, her gaze turning from the stars to the dark horizon.

Her eyes, once soft and full of mischief, were now hardened into two chips of resolute flint as she stored the artifact away.

*

*

*

The next day, the first light of dawn began to creep into the canyon, turning the grey rocks into shades of bruised orange.

"Sister Yue didn’t return for the entire night," Ziyan muttered softly.

She was sitting by a small, smokeless fire, watching Medusa meditate.

The serpent queen’s skin was already starting to regain its healthy luster, her breathing rhythmic and deep.

"Do you think we should go look for her?" Ziyan asked, her cat-ears twitching with anxiety. "It’s been over ten hours."

Medusa remained silent, her eyes closed.

"I think we really should look for her," Ziyan pressed, standing up and pacing the small clearing. "She’s so vulnerable right now. What if she does something she’ll regret? What if she tries to go back to the forest alone?"

Medusa’s eyebrow twitched, but she didn’t open her eyes.

"I’m going to go look for her," Ziyan declared, her ears twitching with nerves. "Sister Medusa, what about you? Are you just going to sit there while she’s out there hurting?"

Medusa opened her eyes, her gaze flat and incredibly annoyed.

She opened her mouth to deliver a sharp rebuke about the necessity of solitude, but she was interrupted by the sound of rhythmic, steady footsteps echoing against the canyon walls.

They both turned their heads.

Huo Yue emerged from the shadows of a jagged overhang.

She looked different. Her clothes were still torn and stained with soot, and her face was smudged with dirt, but the frantic, hysterical energy was gone.

She walked toward them with a stride that was calm, measured, and terrifyingly resolute.

Ziyan’s face brightened instantly. "Sister Yue! You’re back! We were so worried!"

Medusa silently sighed in relief, though her expression remained stoic.

’It seems she didn’t break,’ the serpent thought. ’In fact, she seems to have matured now.’

Medusa stood up, brushing the dust from her robes. "Those Shadow Hall vermin might still be scouring the surrounding territories with their soul-compasses. We can’t stay in one place for too long. Our tracks are hidden for now, but not forever. Where should we go next? We need a plan."

Huo Yue stared at them for a long moment, then she turned her gaze toward the distant, shimmering haze of the horizon.

"To the Central Region," she said. Her voice was no longer that of a girl, now it held a weight of authority that made even Medusa blink.

Hearing her words, the girls stared at her, their eyes wide in shock.

The Central Region was the heart of the Tian Yuan Empire—the place where the strongest sects and the most ancient clans resided.

It was a place of infinite opportunity and infinite danger.

"Only in that place can I increase my strength quickly enough," Huo Yue said, clenching her fist and staring at it as if she could see the soul of the flame within. "Those people... they said they wanted to ’offer’ my master’s soul to an elder. That means she most likely isn’t dead, but is just being held prisoner."

Huo Yue looked up, her red eyes burning with a dark, focused fire. "I will save her. I don’t care if I have to burn the Shadow Hall to the ground, but I will do it. However, staying in the four regions will only slow down my cultivation, since the resources here are too thin, and the experts are too weak. Only in the central region, where the resources are rich, can I quickly get stronger."

The two stared at her, they couldn’t help but think that she was now like a completely different person.

They slowly smiled and nodded.

"Alright," Medusa shrugged, a small trace of a smile touching her lips. "If that’s the path you’ve chosen, then we’ll go. You’re the leader of this little group, after all. I’m just a follower."

"That’s right," Ziyan nodded fiercely, her ears twitching with a newfound sense of purpose. "Wherever Sister Yue goes, we go."

Huo Yue smiled softly—a real, genuine smile that held a trace of her old self, but tempered by the iron of her resolve.

"Thank you. For everything."

Then, her face turned cold and serious once more.

"Then, let’s go. To the heart of the world. To the Central Region."