Villains Aren't Stepping Stones!

The roaring crescendo of the crowd reached a fever pitch, a literal wall of sound that vibrated the very foundations of the Divine Arena.

Xiao Nanan, hovering high above on her shimmering sword, felt the static of raw power prickling her skin, and with a flourish of her voice-amplifying artifact, she cast her declaration to the heavens.

"Now! With the power invested in me by the Main Line and the witnessing eyes of the Nine Heavens! I now declare! The Shen Clan’s Heaven’s Choice Tournament has officially begun! Let blood and glory pave the way for the King!"

The final syllable had barely left her lips when the air in the arena floor shattered.

Shen Tao, who had been the picture of stoic stillness only moments before, vanished.

He didn’t use a flashy movement technique or a burst of elemental wind; it was pure, terrifying kinetic acceleration.

He reappeared instantly before Shen Jian, his frame coiled like a spring of black iron as he thrust a palm forward, aimed squarely at Shen Jian’s heart—a strike meant to end the conflict before it could truly breathe.

But Shen Jian was not the Second Crown by mere happenstance, his eyes flared, catching the movements of the Third Crown.

"Don’t think a trash like you can hit me twice!" he roared, his voice thick with the arrogance of the high-born.

He crossed his forearms, a barrier of turbulent wind and jagged lightning erupting to meet the impact.

*BOOM!*

The collision generated a massive, spiraling tornado that ripped across the arena floor, scouring the white sands and sending a cloud of grit into the air.

The shockwave was so violent that the other eight Crowns—including the poised Shen Xinye and the disdainful Shen Fei—were forced to retreat several dozen paces to avoid being caught in the chaotic aftershocks of the clash.

Shen Haoran simply crossed his arms, his eyebrow raised in interest as he watches the two.

Within the eye of the storm, the two Crowns stood locked in a stalemate of strength.

"Shen Jian..." Shen Tao spoke, his voice low and vibrating with a weight that seemed to bypass the ears and strike directly at the soul. "Many years ago, in the dark of the lunar eclipse, you and your father schemed against me and stole my Supreme Bone while I was awake and unable to scream. You crippled my foundations, stole my future, and even struck down my grandfather when he tried to intervene. Now, I stand before you not for a petty revenge, but to prove a singular point to the heavens!"

His grip tightened on Shen Jian’s wrists, the bone in his own fingers groaning under the strain. "The path to the Supreme isn’t something that can be decided by a stolen piece of bone! It isn’t a gift granted by birth! It is something you crawl your way into, inch by agonizing inch, bleeding and breaking, until you have reached the top through the sheer merit of your own suffering!"

Shen Haoran gained massive interest. So this Shen Tao was likely a protagonist as well, right?

"What the hell are you talking about!?" Shen Jian snorted in absolute disdain, his Nascent Soul aura bursting outward in a jagged explosion of power.

The pressure forced Shen Tao to stumble back, his boots carving deep furrows in the sand.

Shen Jian glared at him, finding him very unpleasant to look at, "That is just the desperate logic of a talentless dog! Those without the blood of gods, no matter how hard they work or how much they bleed, can never hope to reach the pinnacle! A swallow can fly for a thousand years, but it will never become a phoenix!"

At that moment, a terrifying phenomenon occurred.

Beneath the tattered fabric of Shen Jian’s robe, a brilliant, pulsating light began to emanate from his chest.

It was a kaleidoscope of celestial colors—radiant golds, deep violets, and primordial greens—that seemed to harmonize with the laws of the universe.

In the high VIP stands, the Third Enshrined Elder’s hands trembled so violently that the jade armrests of his throne began to crumble into dust.

His eyes were bloodshot, fixed on that shimmering light.

’The Supreme Bone...’ he thought, his heart a boiling cauldron of grief. ’That is the source of our lineage’s pride... the bone that should have belonged to my Tao’er!’

He turned a look of pure, murderous hatred toward the Second Enshrined Elder.

The latter remained utterly calm, his eyes closed, the picture of serene indifference as he watched his own grandson utilize the stolen fruit.

The Third Elder bit his lip until he tasted copper, forcing himself to turn back to the arena.

"A trash like you, who has spent how many years rotting in a backyard, cannot even comprehend this talent!" Shen Jian laughed, the sound high and manic.

The Supreme Bone pulsed, sending a surge of divine energy through his meridians that made his very skin glow.

"At least with me, I can put it to good use!"

He lunged forward, his movement so fast it left after-images in the air.

Shen Tao reacted with the instinct of a man who had lived every second of the last seven years in a state of battle.

He didn’t have Qi to reinforce his speed, so he relied on the absolute perfection of his reflexes.

*Boom! Boom! Boom!*

The two engaged in a brutal, all-out fist fight, and it was honestly a terrifying spectacle.

There were no elegant sword forms, no complicated spell-casting, no manipulation of the elements.

It was just a pure, raw, and primal force.

Every time their fists met, the sound was like a temple bell being struck by a mountain, causing a sonic boom so loud it could probably burst ordinary people into sludge of blood and flesh.

Shen Tao gritted his teeth, using every ounce of his power just to keep up.

Having been denied the ability to cultivate Qi due to his shattered meridians, he had spent every waking hour pushing the limits of his physical shell.

He had trained under waterfalls of liquid mercury, he had run through fire with boulders strapped to his back, he had turned his body into a weapon that didn’t need the heavens’ permission to exist.

The hardship he endured, there is no way Shen Jian can compare!

"Die! Die! Die!" Shen Jian laughed as he swung his fists in a blur of motion.

Each punch created a sonic boom that would have shattered the internal organs of a lesser man, as if he was a god-ling playing with a mortal.

Shen Tao began to bleed, his body full of injuries, but his eyes fixed on the rhythm of the thief’s movements.

Blood sprayed from his nose and ears as the pressure of the Nascent Soul aura hammered at his skull, but he endured.

He welcomed the pain, even. Every bruise was a testament to his journey; every broken rib was a price he was willing to pay.

He would not allow a conceited, depraved thief to make a mockery of the twenty years of hell he had endured to stand on this sand.

Just as Shen Jian grinned, seeing an opening, he delivered a devastating uppercut to Shen Tao’s stomach.

The force was enough to lift the heavier man off the ground, but instead of flying back, Shen Tao ignored the agony of his rupturing innards and reached out.

His fingers, like claws of tempered steel, latched onto Shen Jian’s extended arm.

"Got you," Shen Tao whispered, a bloody smirk splitting his face.

Shen Jian’s eyes widened in a sudden, icy flash of realization. "Let go!"

"Break!"

With a roar that tore from his very soul, Shen Tao used his other hand to strike the joint, and a sickening *CRACK* echoed through the entire stadium, silencing the crowd.

Shen Jian’s right arm bent at an impossible, grotesque angle!

"AAAAHHHH!" Shen Jian screamed, a high-pitched sound of pure, unadulterated agony that had never been heard from a Crown before.

Taking that chance, Shen Tao took a deep, rattling breath.

This time, he didn’t retreat, but instead, he reached deep into the core of his being, calling upon the secret technique he had spent ten years refining in the silence of his grandfather’s mountain—the technique he had saved specifically for this day.

At that moment, a brilliant, vibrant purple energy suddenly erupted from his skin.

It wasn’t the shimmering, ethereal light of Qi. It was denser, and more visceral.

This is the external manifestation of his own life-force, made manifest by his sheer will and grit.

During his agonizing training, he had mastered the method to condense his abundant physical energy and force it to flow through his flesh as if it were Qi.

He had named this energy Internal Energy, the power of the self over the power of the world.

"You! What is this!?" Shen Jian screamed, his face pale from shock and pain. "You are a mortal! You cannot have Qi!"

"This is not Qi," Shen Tao replied. "This is the manifestation of my decades of efforts."

The Supreme Bone in Shen Jian’s chest sensed the threat as it glowed with a frantic, blinding intensity, attempting to protect its host.

"DIE!" Shen Jian shrieked, gathering every ounce of his Nascent Soul Qi and the divine energy of the bone into his left fist as he lunged forward in a suicidal charge, the space around his fist collapsing into a black hole of power.

Similarly, Shen Tao condensed every drop of his Internal Energy, every memory of his pain, and every spark of his will into his right fist.

He didn’t dodge. He didn’t block. He just threw a straight punch, meeting Shen Jian head-on in a collision of destinies.

A massive, world-shaking explosion occurred at the center of the arena.

The shockwave was so powerful it threatened to crack the barrier protecting spectators, and forcing the Enshrined Elders to strengthen the arena’s barriers.

A thick shroud of smoke and pulverized sand filled the air.

Minutes passed in an agonizing silence.

And as the dust finally cleared, the hundreds of millions of spectators leaned forward as one.

At the center of a new, fifty-meter-deep crater, the two men stood.

They were locked in a final, mutual strike, with each man had his fist buried in the other’s cheek, their robes were gone, their skin flayed and bleeding.

But then, the difference became clear.

Shen Jian’s eyes were glazed, the kaleidoscope light of the Supreme Bone fading into a dull grey.

"You... trash... how..." he wheezed, his voice a mere shadow of its former arrogance.

Then, his body went limp as he dropped to the ground like a puppet with cut strings, his eyes rolling back into his head as he lost consciousness.

Shen Tao remained standing, though he was breathing in shallow, wet gasps.

His body was a map of horrific injuries, his shoulder was dislocated, his ribs were shattered, and his purple aura was flickering out, and even though he looked as though he was about to fall, his back remained as straight as a spear.

He looked down at the unconscious Shen Jian with a gaze of profound, cold pity.

"Having a talent that isn’t yours... enjoying a prestige that you never earned... Shen Jian, your entire existence was a lie told by a thief."

He wobbled, his vision turning black, but he firmly planted his feet into the sand one last time. "Remember this, if you ever wake up: the greatest achievement you will ever have in your miserable life... was the honor of being defeated by me."

As the final word left his lips, the last of his strength evaporated.

His body gave up, and he dropped to the ground beside his defeated cousin, unconscious, but victorious in the eyes of the heavens.

The Divine Arena was silent for a heartbeat, and then a roar erupted that threatened to tear the sky asunder.