Villains Aren't Stepping Stones!

The incandescent vortex of the paifang gate collapsed behind him with a low groan as Shen Haoran stepped smoothly across the threshold.

The dense, choking pressure of the spatial transition washed over him like a passing summer draft, completely failing to disturb even the hem of his dark, flowing robes.

Haoran stood high above the sky of the secret realm, overlooking the vast, untamed world unfurling beneath his boots.

The Celestial Dragon Vault was colossal—a pristine, primeval miniature continent encapsulated within an ancient planar bubble.

Below him, colossal mountain ranges shaped like the spines of slumbering primordial dragons stretched across thousands of miles.

Vast canopy forests of glowing, petrified spirit wood breathed emerald-hued clouds into the lower atmosphere, and winding rivers of liquid amber carved glowing canyons through the bedrock.

Towering pillars of ancient stones pulsed at regular intervals across the realm, anchoring the dense, unrefined spiritual qi that had remained sealed away since the dawn of the world.

It was an untouched paradise of ancient fortune and resources.

He looked around, "It’s adequate. I doubt there’s going to be a decent inheritance here, though."

He shook his head and decided to search for Shen Xun’er.

But, the very moment he said that, the exact instant his divine sense expanded to map the geographical contours of this ancient pocket world to search for Xun’er, a sudden, deep resonance echoed from the depths of his soul.

Hidden deep inside his inner world, nestled within his Hanging Gardens, an isolated, ancient relic began to stir.

THUMP.

Locked inside an astral array-sealed chest, a glowing purple orb pulsed with a rhythmic, heartbeat-like vibration.

Shen Haoran frowned slightly, hovering motionless in the high sky as he felt the foreign resonance vibrating against his internal world boundaries.

That was the Formless Void Physique source core, the divine physique that he had ruthlessly stripped and extracted from his own "father" during back in the Saint Burial Realm.

Shen Haoran already possessed his very own divine physique, the Infinity Dragon God Physique, a physique that turns out to be one of the nine Dragon God Physique, which means he can never fuse with another divine physique or else he will explode.

As such, he had never possessed the slightest desire to integrate it for himself.

Besides, his divine physique was just a seal for his Supreme Trinity.

This physique has remained dormant since then, floating silently within the spatial treasury of his inner realm, untouched and unrefined.

So why did it suddenly show such violent reactions now?

Closing his eyes, Haoran shifted his consciousness inward as he observed the glowing purple orb resting within the Hanging Gardens’ treasury, submerging his sharp divine sense into the pulsing core.

Instantly, he felt a faint, thread-like tug.

Something seems to be calling it.

An ancient, primordial frequency, an origin resonance that shared the exact same wavelength as the Formless Void Physique, was vibrating through the very spatial fabric of this secret realm, pulling at the orb like a distant lodestone.

Haoran channeled his divine perception, tracing the invisible spatial thread across the miniature continent.

He tried to search for the source of this call, tracking the undulating resonance through the atmospheric layers, and quickly found it coming directly from the geographic center of the secret realm.

Without hesitation, his golden eyes flashed with calculated resolve.

SWOOSH—!

With a single step that folded the air beneath his soles, Shen Haoran transformed into a silent streak of purple-gold light, flying with blinding speed toward the continent’s epicenter.

The vast mountain ranges and glowing forests blurred beneath him, disappearing behind his slipstream in mere seconds.

Before long, he arrived high above a colossal, desolate plateau.

Rising out of the shattered gray bedrock stood a ruined, ancient divine temple.

The temple was colossal, constructed from blocks of obsidian and weathered white celestial marble that predated the current epoch by untold millennia.

Massive fluted pillars lay snapped in half across the cracked courtyards, overgrown with pale, glowing spatial moss.

Fragmented statues of towering celestial figures, their faces worn smooth by cosmic winds, stood guard over cracked sacrificial altars and collapsed domed pavilions.

The entire perimeter hummed with a distorted, dreamlike gravity that caused the ambient light to bend in strange, unnatural angles.

Haoran descended from the clouds, intending to land upon the main courtyard and enter the ruined divine temple to unearth whatever was drawing out the void core.

However—

KRRRRRR-CRACK—!

The instant his boots came within three yards of the temple’s fractured archway, the local fabric of reality did not merely bend, it was violently tore open!

A silent, pitch-black crack in space appeared directly beneath his feet, expanding into a colossal dimensional rift in the span of a single millisecond.

Before any ordinary cultivator could even register the shift in atmospheric pressure, the spatial tear swallowed Haoran whole.

HUMMMMMMMMM—!

The sudden, dizzying pull of a dimensional transfer swept past him.

When the blinding light faded, Shen Haoran did not find himself in a subterranean tomb or a hidden chamber of the ruined temple like he initially expected.

Instead, he found himself standing weightlessly upon the boundless, silent expanse of vast outer space.

Beneath his boots lay no ground, only a floor of woven starlight.

Millions of brilliant, incandescent nebulae swirled around him in magnificent ribbons of sapphire, violet, and gold.

Dying suns collapsed in the distant background, while newborn star clusters spun slowly in the cosmic void.

And there, standing barely twenty paces in front of him upon a platform of compressed starlight, was a breathtakingly handsome man.

The man appeared to be in his late twenties, possessing a sculpted, noble visage that seemed chiseled by the hand of an ancient creator.

His skin glowed with the soft, ethereal brilliance of moonlight, and his long, flowing hair was not made of mortal strands, but composed entirely of liquid, shifting starlight that floated weightlessly in the vacuum, trailing cosmic dust.

He wore magnificent, flowing celestial robes woven from deep indigo space fabric, adorned with silver constellations that shifted and rotated in real-time according to the movements of the surrounding galaxies.

The handsome man looked at Shen Haoran with deep, ancient, and profoundly noble eyes that held the weight of countless cosmic eras.

A gentle, magnanimous smile parted his lips as he raised his hands in a grand, welcoming gesture.

"Welcome, young wanderer," the man’s voice echoed through the cosmic void, not as a physical vibration of air, but as a pure, resonant frequency that directly shook the mind. "I am Astraeus, the God of Space. The great architect of celestial paths and the master of the boundless void."

Astraeus lowered his hands, his starry gaze piercing straight toward Haoran’s soul, sensing the dormant purple core resting within his inner world.

"For ten thousand millennia, my divine remnant has slept within the fragmented ruins of this world, waiting for a soul capable of carrying the ultimate legacy of the void. And today, the wheels of fate have turned. You have brought the Formless Void Physique into my sanctuary."

Astraeus took a step forward, the nebulae swirling gently around his silken hem as he began to outline his grand proposition.

"The Formless Void Physique is a divine constitution of great power, but it seems you already possessed one yourself." Said Astraeus, observing Haoran, "Is this the reason why you never tried to fuse with it?"

That’s not it at all. Haoran thought.

He didn’t try to fuse with it simply because he doesn’t need it.

"But under my guidance, you need not fear. I can personally assist you in the fusion process, anchoring your soul within my stellar matrix so that your vessel can body integrate the void without danger."

The God of Space raised his chin, his tone carrying an unmasked, lofty pride as he began to boast of his legendary feats in the realms above.

"In the glorious expanse of the Divine Realm, my name, Astraeus, was once carved upon the highest celestial monuments!"

"I am one of the most revered, untouchable beings in the grand pantheon!"

"I have bridged severed galaxies with a single thought, woven the dimensional barriers that keep the primordial chaos at bay, and commanded the veneration of entire star systems!"

"To receive my personal guidance and inherit the mantle of the void is a fortune that even the God Kings of the divine realm could only dream of possessing in a hundred lifetimes!"

Astraeus smiled warmly, extending a glowing hand of starlight toward the black-robed youth, fully expecting the mortal cultivator to fall to his knees in overwhelming, tearful gratitude.

"Now, young man, would you be my successor?"

Shen Haoran stood casually upon the starlight floor, his arms crossed loosely inside his dark sleeves, his golden eyes completely unruffled by the grand cosmic scenery or the divine proclamation.

Without a single second of hesitation, Haoran calmly parted his lips.

"I refuse."

Astraeus froze.

The God of Space stared at him in utter, uncomprehending bewilderment, his hand remained suspended in the vacuum, his starry brows furrowing into a tight knot.

In his millions of years of existence, across countless epochs and civilizations, never had a mortal, let alone a youth standing at the Spirit Ascension stage, flatly rejected the divine grace of a great deity.

"You... refuse?" Astraeus blinked, his voice tinged with sheer disbelief. "Mortal, do you not comprehend what is being offered to you? You hold a divine physique core, yet you lack the means to safely integrate it! Do you wish to let such a cosmic treasure remain a useless rock in your possession forever?!"

"I have no interest in placing a lesser void constitution into my own body," Haoran replied smoothly, his tone cold, clinical, and laced with casual indifference. "However, you are right, the physique core does not need to go to waste. I have a far better candidate amongst the people who entered this realm alongside me today."

Hearing this, Astraeus slowly shook his head, letting out a heavy, disappointed sigh that stirred the surrounding cosmic dust.

"Are you trying to pass my position to others? But that’s impossible." Astraeus muttered, looking down at Haoran with pitying eyes. "The moment this secret realm’s gates opened, my divine sense had already expanded across every corner of this pocket dimension, and I have already scanned the potential, bloodline purity, and the foundation of every single individual present in this trial, but none meet my criteria."

"Their meridians are too rigid, their comprehension of spatial curvature is non-existent, and their souls are far too fragile to endure the agony of void assimilation. You are the only vessel in this entire world capable of holding the inheritance."

Shen Haoran’s lips curled upward, a faint, condescending smirk forming on his face.

"Is that so?" Haoran chuckled softly.

SNAP.

Haoran raised his right hand and casually snapped his fingers.

HUMMM—!

A burst of golden-red spiritual light erupted from his fingertips, projecting a crystal-clear, rotating holographic projection of Shen Xun’er right into the center of the vast cosmic space.

The projection displayed the girl in full detail—her slender, athletic frame clad in robe, her short golden hair ending in green shade swaying slightly, her delicate porcelain face, and most importantly, that hidden potential hidden behind her insecurities.

Haoran pointed casually at the floating projection, his golden eyes gleaming with dark, calculating ambition as he looked at the God of Space.

"Look closer, God of Space. Take this one. Refine her body, rebuild her confidence, and turn this broken drake into the bearer of your void."

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