Villains Aren't Stepping Stones!

Chapter 183: Battle In The Forest

The Central Region.

It was a boundless region that defied the conventional laws of space and geography.

Here sat the Veilwood Forest, a primordial expanse of emerald and shadow that only occupied parts of the vast land of the Central Region, but still reached toward an endless horizon.

It was truly a forest where the concept of "distance" lost its meaning, a never-ending forest that stretched to infinity and beyond!

It is home to tens of thousands of races, with billions of kingdoms, with each one of them spanning the size of an entire galaxy.

In this gargantuan ecosystem, stars were often mistaken for fireflies caught in the upper canopy, and the roots of the ancient trees drank from the nebulae of the void itself.

At this moment, deep within the heart of this verdant labyrinth, the silence of the ancient woods was shattered by the oppressive weight of killing intent.

Hundreds of people in black cloaks surrounded the entrance of a cave.

The air around them distorted from the sheer density of their collective cultivation.

These people were not mere foot soldiers, as each one of them possessed the power ranging from mostly Nascent Soul Experts, to some Spirit Ascension Realm experts.

They stood like statues of obsidian, their presence causing the local wildlife, creatures that could devour moons, to flee in terror.

At the forefront of this grim assembly stood their commander, a figure whose very breath seemed to wither the grass at his feet, an 8th stage Nirvana Rebirth realm expert.

They were surrounding the entrance of a cave, protected by two women who stood as the final line of defense.

These two were Medusa and Zhu Ziyan.

Their clothes were tattered, stained with both their own blood and the ichor of their enemies.

They were breathing heavily and injured, their bodies pushed to the absolute limit of endurance, but despite the trembling of their limbs, their gazes remained sharp and defiant.

"We finally cornered you." The leader, radiating an aura at the 8th stave of the Nirvana Rebirth realm, stepped forward.

His voice was like grinding stones, amplified by spiritual energy so that it vibrated in the marrow of their bones as he grinned at them.

"You guys were the ones destroying our bases in the past years, aren’t you? Do you really think you can offend Shadow Hall without punishment!?"

The Shadow Hall was a name whispered in fear across the Central Region, an organization whose reach extended into the darkest corners of the Tian Yuan Empire.

To strike at them was to invite a slow and agonizing erasure from existence.

Medusa and Ziyan remained silent, simply staring at them warily.

Medusa’s eyes were tracking every movement of the cloaked figures while Ziyan stood slightly behind her, her fingers twitching as she prepared for an attack, her face pale but set in grim determination.

"I heard there’s another one with you... Huo Yue, right?" Asked the leader, his eyes narrowing as he peered into the darkness of the cave. "Is she in the cave? Are you protecting her? If you hand her over, then we might consider letting you go."

A cold, mocking smile touched Medusa’s lips.

"You’re dreaming," she spat out, her voice laced with venom. "Don’t act like we don’t know what kind of people you, Shadow Hall, are. You don’t leave witnesses, and you certainly don’t show mercy either. So we will die here before we let you lay a finger on her."

"Alright, I guess we have no choice. Kill them," the leader ordered, his voice devoid of emotion.

He raised a hand, and the hundreds of experts behind him released their spiritual pressure simultaneously, causing the ground to crack and the massive trees nearby to groan under the weight.

At this moment, Medusa suddenly narrowed her eyes.

She knew that in her current state, she could not hope to bridge the gap between her current level and an 8th Stage Nirvana Rebirth expert backed by an army.

So without hesitation, she activated her secret technique, causing her body began to glow with a brilliant, iridescent light.

Then, the air temperature plummeted, and a terrifying, ancient pressure erupted from her soul.

She began to grow, her skin shimmered, turning into hardened scales that reflected the colors of a dying star while her bones lengthened and thickened with the sound of snapping timber.

Then, she transformed into a massive Rainbow Scaled Divine Serpent.

The transformation was breathtaking as much as it horrific.

Her form expanded until she reached up to fifty kilometers long, a titan of mythic proportions while her scales rippled with a kaleidoscope of lethal colors, and her size was such that she could probably swallow an entire mountain whole.

Her eyes, now the size of lakes, glowed with a vertical slit of primordial hunger.

During the past year since they arrived in the Central Region, Medusa had not been idle, and through constant life-and-death battles with Shadow Hall and other experts, she had actually learned how to stimulate her bloodline, tapping into the ancestral memories of the Divine Serpent lineage.

This allowed her to transform into the true form of the Rainbow Scaled Divine Serpent, a creature feared even in the higher planes.

Huo Yue had named this technique...

Primal Reversion.

She was currently at the 5th Stage Nirvana Rebirth realm, but in this state, her physical defense and raw elemental power were magnified by countless fold.

In this state, she can even fight against peak Nirvana Rebirth realm experts!

However, despite seeing her transformation, the Shadow Hall people did not flinch, though a few of the Nascent Soul cultivators took an involuntary step back.

They were elite killers, trained to face gods and monsters alike, so most of them simply stared at her gargantuan form and began to chant in unison, summoning their Spirit Avatars.

The forest was suddenly filled with giants.

Every Spirit Ascension Realm expert was now standing on the head of the phantom images of various creatures, ethereal wolves, shadow hawks, and multi-armed titans, with heights that ranged from 50 meters to a hundred meters.

Even the Nirvana Rebirth realm leader summoned his Spirit Avatar: a towering, four-armed shadow deity clad in jagged armor, wielding blades of pure darkness.

With a deafening war cry, the army of phantoms charged, colliding with the massive divine serpent.

The impact sent shockwaves that leveled the forest for several light years in every direction.

Thankfully, Medusa was using her tail to shield the cave, preventing their clash from damaging it and causing it to collapse.

Meanwhile, Zhu Ziyan immediately rushed inside the cave entrance.

She knew her limits, and she knew that she couldn’t help in this level of battle; the clash between Medusa and the leader was a vortex of energy that would shred her to pieces if she stayed too close.

Her priority was the interior—protecting the person deep within the shadows.

But the Shadow Hall was thorough, and at that moment, dozens of Nascent Soul experts ignored the titanic battle outside and rushed towards the cave, their black cloaks fluttering like the wings of vultures.

"Kekeke! It’s just you now, little girl!" one of the experts hissed, his voice echoing off the damp cave walls.

"Obediently step aside and we can just kill you on the spot! Why suffer for a lost cause?" another shouted, his palms glowing with a sickly green flame.

Zhu Ziyan stopped at the narrowing of the cave tunnel as she took a deep breath, calming the frantic beating of her heart.

She closed her eyes for a split second, and when they snapped open, they were no longer human, and instead, they glowed with a fierce intensity.

A sign of her activating her Tyrannical Tiger Subduing Eyes.

Space itself seemed to ripple as she called upon every beasts she had subdued.

Then, from the swirling vortices of energy, dozens of tiger-type demonic beasts appeared, each one was a powerhouse, standing at the Peak of the Golden Core Realm.

"Go!" she ordered, her voice ringing with an authority that brooked no disobedience.

The tigers, their fur bristling with elemental lightning and fire, roared with a sound that shook the cave’s foundation as they rushed towards the Shadow Hall members like a striped tide of claw and fang.

The Shadow Hall immediately turned serious and attacked them.

Although they were only at the peak of the Golden Core Realm, technically a full stage below the Nascent Soul experts, Demonic Beasts possessed physical abilities and innate ferocity that surpassed humans.

Their hides were like enchanted steel, and their instincts were honed for slaughter, allowing them to suppress most humans on the same level as them or hold back those slightly stronger through sheer, bloody-minded tenacity.

The tunnel became a charnel house of spells clashing against beastly might as Ziyan stood her ground at the center of the chaos, her hands moving in intricate patterns to buff her summons and lash out with mental shocks.

"I will not let any of you pass!" Ziyan declared. "I swear this with my life."

Her eyes, determined and unwavering, were now completely different from the eyes of the coward who kept running away many years ago.

In the crucible of the Central Region, the girl who once relied on others had forged herself into a guardian.

Behind her, the cave remained dark and silent, but as long as she drew breath, the Shadow Hall would find the path blocked by the roar of tigers and the iron will of a woman who had finally found something worth fighting for.