Villains Aren't Stepping Stones!

Chapter 172: Chapter 172: The System

Underground Research Hall.

This is a massive structure built specifically fir Feng Yuyan, just like Chu Xueyu’s Palace and Leng Shuang’s Pagoda.

As the name suggests, it is located underground, connected to the Underground Grand Prison.

This is here where she conducts her experiments, and since she specifically connected it to the prison, she can have as many test subjects as she likes.

At this moment, a heavy, iron-bound door groaned on its ancient hinges as Shen Haoran stepped into the lightless realm that is the Underground Research Hall.

The air here was different from the outside world or the prison. For one, it didn’t smell of damp moss or decay, but of sterile, biting chemicals, preserved death, and the metallic scent of high-level formations.

Haoran walked down a dark, spiral staircase where the only light came from flickering spirit-lamps embedded in the walls.

At the bottom, he found a massive chamber that looked like the workshop of a mad god.

Rows of black iron cauldrons simmered with multi-colored vapors, and shelves were lined with hundreds of glowing potions.

In the center of the room stood a series of gargantuan glass tubes filled with a translucent, emerald preservative liquid.

Inside those tubes, the suspended corpses of dragons, phoenixes, high-level humans, and unknown races from the Vast Wilderness drifted like morbid ornaments.

He walked past a tube containing a six-winged celestial beast, its eyes still wide with the shock of its capture, and soon found his aunts, Leng Shuang and Feng Yuyan.

They were standing beside a bed made of cold, grey stone, and chained to the slab with soul-suppressing manacles was Ye Fang.

The youth’s current condition was pitiable, his mouth was bubbling with white foam, his eyes were rolled back to show only the whites, and his body twitched rhythmically as if he were being subjected to a constant internal shock.

”Aunt Yuyan, Aunt Leng Shuang. You called for me?” Haoran said, his voice echoing in the vast, hollow chamber.

Feng Yuyan, the Empress of Forbidden Creation, turned toward him with a brilliant, almost unsettling smile as she motioned for him to come closer with a beckoning finger.

”Haoran, my dear. You’ve arrived just in time. Come quick, quick, we have finally had a breakthrough in our research.”

Haoran walked toward them, his golden eyes fixing on the twitching System User for a single moment before turning his gaze back towards his aunts.

”We found out the truth about this ’System’ of his,” Feng Yuyan continued, her voice filled with a scholarly excitement that bordered on the manic.

”Oh?” Haoran raised an eyebrow. ”So? Is it as amazing as these Protagonists made it out to be?”

Hearing that, Feng Yuyan couldn’t help but snort in disdain.

”We thought it was something truly special, like a divine anomaly,” Leng Shuang said, shaking her head in a rare display of disappointment as her golden hair shimmered under the artificial lights. ”But in reality, it isn’t all that much. It’s a clever trick, certainly, but it still follows the established laws of the universe. However, it is still a decent research material for our future projects.”

”How so?” Haoran asked, stepping up to the edge of the stone bed.

”The ’System,’ as these people like to call it, isn’t some magical gift from the heavens or a decree from some high-tier cosmic power,” Feng Yuyan explained, pacing around the stone bed. ”Instead, they are effectively a miniature, portable Inheritance Realm.”

Haoran blinked, his mind quickly connecting the dots. ”An inheritance realm, huh?”

”Exactly,” Leng Shuang interjected, her voice cold and analytical. ”You know how some Supremes, knowing their end is near, would create a sprawling inheritance realm to pass on their legacy, treasures, and techniques to a worthy successor? They build trials, hoard pills, and wait for a fated individual to walk in. The ’System’ is simply a more efficient version of that. A dying Supreme, or perhaps a Saint reaching the end of their lifespan, would condense their entire legacy into a seed of consciousness and create these systems that contain all their knowledge and have them explore the universe to search for a host.”

”... interesting.” Haoran muttered, his eyes turning towards Ye Fang.

”There might be different types of these systems,” Feng Yuyan added, pointing a needle-thin finger at Ye Fang’s temple. ”But this one in Ye Fang is actually a system that contains a trace of the soul of a former Supreme. This ’Diary System’ rewards him because it is actively grooming him. Once Ye Fang’s soul grows strong enough and his body is sufficiently tempered, the soul fragment within the system can take over his vessel. That’s why he was able to easily get rewards; the system itself wanted him to grow stronger as fast as possible to make the possession easier.”

Haoran smirked. If the Heavenly Dao allowed this, then it certainly doesn’t think highly of people like these who rely on system.

And indeed, who would entrust someone who is so incredibly useless and cowardly that they wouldn’t even think of trying to get stronger on their own.

Most Protagonist would rather cry and curse the world for their weaknesses while lazily waiting for a system instead of trying to train.

How... pathetic.

”We also theorize that perhaps most of the hosts of these systems are simply the reincarnations of former Supremes,” Leng Shuang said. ”The systems containing their past legacies are just helping them return to their former selves. It’s a way of reclaiming their peak power without the risk of a natural rebirth. But without more research material, without more ’System Users’ to dissect, we wouldn’t be able to tell for certain if this is the rule or the exception.”

”I see. That makes sense,” Haoran nodded.

These two are certainly very impressive.

The mystery that had baffled the novel readers for eons was being deconstructed by his aunts in a matter of days.

You must know, in most novels with a system, even until the end of the story, the system’s origin mostly remain a mystery.

”So it turns out that the systems weren’t creating rewards and increasing the protagonist’s power out of nothing. They were just dispensing pre-stored treasures and helping the protagonist return to their former self, or simply fattening them up so they can eventually take over their bodies.”

This...this is something Haoran finds reasonable.

He wondered what type Lin Feng was...if his system was the type to take over him, then Haoran would have to kill him.

The one that is useful to him is Lin Feng, and not whoever will take over his body.

But for now, he has no way of knowing.

”Precisely,” Feng Yuyan said. ”It’s a parasite disguised as a gift.”

Haoran looked at the pathetic state of Ye Fang, then to Feng Yuan and Leng Shuang, ”Do you want me to search for more System Users, Aunts?”

Leng Shuang nodded firmly. ”If possible, the more the better. I want to see if there are systems that originate from outside the Prime Origin Realm. I want to see if we can reverse-engineer the ’Reward’ mechanism to benefit the entire Shen Clan.”

Feng Yuyan also nodded, her eyes gleaming with a scientific hunger. ”If we have more research material, we can do more reckless and more thorough research without having to fear that we will lose our test subjects. Right now, we have to be so... gentle.”

Leng Shuang pointed at Ye Fang’s spasming form. ”Just like this guy. If we had a dozen more system users, we could try pulling the system out of his soul by force. Even if his soul shattered in the process, we would still have extra materials to continue. But since this is the only one we have, we must be careful not to break him before we’ve mapped every meridian.”

”I understand,” Haoran replied, his voice echoing the cold pragmatism of his lineage. ”I will try and bring back more research material for you, Aunts.”

”I also want to research that boy, Shen Tao,” Feng Yuyan said suddenly, letting out a long, dreamy sigh as she leaned against one of the glass tubes. ”That ’Internal Energy’ he cultivated... it’s just so interesting! It’s different from our Qi. I want to thoroughly dissect him, peel back his layers, and know all his secrets! I bet his marrow tastes like heaven.”

”Please don’t,” Haoran sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

Shen Tao is also a ’Protagonist’ type, and currently, his presence is bringing the Shen Clan a significant amount of luck because he himself is still loyal to the Shen Clan.

If Feng Yuyan did something to make him hate the clan, or if she tied him up and dissect him, then they would certainly lose quite a lot of their luck, which Shen Daiyu says is already in a state of delicate balance.

For now, Shen Tao is more useful to them alive and loyal.

”I know, I know,” Feng Yuyan huffed, crossing her arms. ”Grandmother already warned me. She said if I touch a single hair on his head, she’ll lock me in the Supreme Hall for a thousand years. But a girl can dream, can’t she?”

Haoran turned to leave the chamber, his mind already set on the future. ”You will have plenty of research materials once I go to the academy, Aunt Yuyan. I’ll send them back in crates if I have to.”

”Oh, you’re just so sweet,” Feng Yuyan whispered, her eyes returning to the twitching Ye Fang. ”I can’t wait.”

”Anyway, If there is nothing more, I have to get going aunt. There are a lot of things I have to take care of.”

Leng Shuang nodded at him, ”Nothing more. Go do your own thing, Haoran.”

”Yep! We’ll stay here for s bit, see you around, oh dear nephew of mine!” Said Feng Yuyan.

With that, Haoran walked back up the dark staircase, the sounds of his aunts’ clinical discussions fading behind him.

He thought of the Protagonists and System Users waiting in the world outside.

To them, they were the masters of their own destiny, the chosen ones of the heavens.

But to the Shen Clan, they were merely fuel for the fire, and specimens for the jar.