Villains Aren't Stepping Stones!

Deep within the ancestral borders of the Shen Clan Domain.

Floating islands of ancient, moss-covered white jade hovered silently above mountain peaks that pierced the upper stratosphere, anchored to the tectonic plates only by heavy, glowing chains of spatial arrays.

On one of these floating sanctuaries, surrounded by a dense orchard of night-blooming spiritual weeping willows whose silver leaves softly hummed a melody of absolute stillness, sat a small pavilion.

Inside this pavilion, Ling Luochen, Ning Xueli, and Feng Yanmei sat on intricately carved stools of profound polar ice, slowly drinking cups of premium Nine-Transformation Snow Lotus Tea.

The steam rising from the liquid didn’t disperse; it curled in the air, forming intricate geometric runes before dissolving into pure, unadulterated spiritual energy that saturated their pristine dantians.

”Ah, why on earth can’t I join the academy during this enrollment session?!” Feng Yanmei whined loudly, her voice echoing off the crystalline pillars of the pavilion as she slammed her forehead flat onto the cold surface of the stone table.

Her lower lip was pouted so heavily it practically quivered with an intense, childish frustration.

Perched securely right on top of her bright golden hair was a small, fluffy phoenix chick, the legendary beast from a supreme lineage that she had bonded with since her childhood.

The little phoenix chick opened its tiny beak and let out a series of high-pitched, sharp chirps, shaking its downy wings in an apparent protest at the sudden kinetic impact of its master’s head hitting the table.

Ning Xueli let out a soft, elegant sigh, reaching out a slender hand to gently rub the young girl’s back in long, soothing strokes to break her tantrum. ”Yanmei, be reasonable. You haven’t officially broken through the barriers of the Golden Core Realm yet. You know the minimum cultivation requirement to be qualified for the Imperial Academy’s enrollment has always been at the first stage of Golden Core realm.”

”But I’m already at the absolute peak of the 6th Stage of the Core Formation Realm!” Yanmei protested instantly, snapping her head up from the table, her cheeks flushing a bright, angry crimson as she glared at her companions. ”And you have to remember that I’m only sixteen years old! Sixteen! By all the historical metrics of the entire Tian Yuan Empire, I’m considered a peerless genius second only to cousin Haoran! I can easily break through to the Golden Core in five years at the absolute most! Why do I have to wait ten more agonizing years before I can join the next official enrollment session?! It’s completely unfair!”

”There, there, don’t lose your focus. It’s only a single decade,” Said Ning Xueli, her voice a calm, smooth line that acted like cold water over the young girl’s burning temperament as she picked up her jade cup and blew gently across the surface of the liquid. ”Ten years is not that long of a period in the grand scheme of an immortal’s journey.”

”That’s exactly right,” Ling Luochen added, her icy, beautiful eyes tracking the flight of a spiritual butterfly outside the wooden eaves. ”For an average cultivator walking the standard paths of the Central Region, a short span of ten years is merely the standard, default duration they allocate to go on a single, routine session of secluded meditation just to clear their mental impurities. You will close your eyes once, refine your qi as usual, and the time will have passed before you even realize it.”

Ling Luochen took another slow, measured sip of her snow lotus tea, the freezing liquid sliding down her throat and instantly aligning her internal ice-attribute meridians.

She set the cup down with a soft click, turning her gaze directly toward the silver-haired girl sitting across from her. ”By the way, Xueli... I want to ask, how are your father and your clan after all that invasion? I just finished my own deep secluded meditation session this morning, and the moment I stepped out of the inner chambers, the peripheral guards were already buzzing with rumors about a massive, coordinated invasion from the Wilderness that struck the Eastern Region.”

Ning Xueli shook her head slowly, a faint, melancholic shadow passing over her beautiful features before she forced a reassuring smile. ”They are completely fine, thankfully. The regional defenses held up under the strain, and the casual counter-offensive launched by our young master and the rest of the Crowns completely pulverized the threat before it could breach the inner cities. Still, I honestly can’t believe my father didn’t even bother to send a single message to tell me about an event of that magnitude. I would’ve abandoned the mission given to us by Aunt Xueyu and left to helped them defend our ancestral cities.”

Ling Luochen put down her tea cup entirely, her thoughts involuntarily drifting back across the vast spatial distances, remembering her own mortal father whom she had left behind in the harsh, competitive environment of the lower realm.

She adjusted the cuffs of her blue silk robes, her voice dropping into a tone of quiet, universal understanding. ”Well... maybe that’s just how parents are when it comes to their flesh and blood. They don’t want their children to be in even a sliver of danger, completely preferring to shoulder the weight of an apocalypse on their own, even though they are fully aware that their children have grown strong enough to handle themselves against the storms of the world.”

Ning Xueli stared at her for a long moment, reading the deep, hidden loneliness etched into the usually ice cold cultivator’s eyes, and nodded her head in silent agreement. ”Yeah. You’re probably right. It’s a foolish kind of love, but a love nonetheless.”

Ling Luochen let out a quiet sigh, shaking away the brief melancholy before refocusing on the immediate reality.

She leaned forward slightly, surveying her friend’s aura. ”By the way, how is your current cultivation progressing? You gained a lot in that secret realm that Lady Chu Xueyu had sent us, right?”

”Yeah. I recently managed to break through to the 8th Stage of the Golden Core Realm,” Ning Xueli replied, a modest but confident glint appearing within her pupils. ”And base on the information I have gathered, that level of power should be just about enough to ensure I rank safely above the average line of the new disciples inside the Imperial Academy.”

”Is that so? You’re already that far ahead...” Ling Luochen muttered, a rare trace of envy passing through her cold heart. ”I am currently sitting at only the 5th Stage of the Golden Core Realm after my breakthrough this morning. If the baseline is that high, it seems it would be incredibly hard for someone from my background to stand out or claim a proper master in that place.”

Ning Xueli nodded her head in a solemn affirmation. ”Very true. Did you know that the ultimate geniuses originating from the core Immortal Sects and the supreme Immortal Clans are already stepping into the academy at the 2nd or 3rd Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm? Back in the Eastern Region, a person holding that level of power is already considered an ancestor-level figure who can rule a medium sect or guard a kingdom for a millennium. Yet, in the capital, these people are just young disciples around our exact age.”

”Tell me about it,” Ling Luochen nodded, her lips forming a wry, helpless smile. ”Back when I was still in the Saint Burial Realm, the entities I encountered holding that caliber of power were already walking corpses—shriveled, ancient monsters who had survived for thousands of years through forbidden arts and soul-swapping. Yet here, it’s just the baseline for being a genius. How depressing.”

They both let out a long, synchronized sigh, leaning back against the cold stone railings.

Having both come from relatively backwater territories before being brought into the inner circle of the Shen Clan’s shadow, these two girls had surprisingly gotten along far better than anyone had initially anticipated.

There was no arrogance between them, only a shared, mutual understanding of the sheer scale of the mountain they were trying to climb.

”Speaking of which,” Ling Luochen’s voice dropped into a lower, curious whisper as she glanced toward the central mountain of the domain, where a massive, black-and-gold mansion stood in absolute isolation. ”I wonder what exact level of power the young master has reached by now? He has been locked away since his return from the Eastern Region.”

Feng Yanmei suddenly sat straight up, the melancholy completely vanishing from her face as a proud, manic grin stretched across her features.

She leaned across the table, her eyes sparkling with absolute adoration. ”Before leaving for the Eastern Region campaign, my cousin was already standing securely at the 3rd Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm! Now that he has been in a state of absolute, uninterrupted seclusion for months since he returned, he should easily be at the 4th or 5th Stage once he finally chooses to step out of his mansion!”

Just as those proud words left her mouth...

*BOOM!!!*

An absolute, cataclysmic explosion of raw, unadulterated spiritual power suddenly erupted from the private mansion that belonged entirely to Shen Haoran.

The sheer force of the kinetic shockwave was so immense that it instantly shattered the spatial arrays connecting the floating islands.

The massive jade chains rattled violently, and a pillar of absolute, brilliant gold and ink-black light shot straight up from the roof of the mansion, piercing through the clouds and tearing a massive, miles-wide rift in the sky above the domain.

The ambient temperature of the entire sector dropped to sub-zero before instantly skyrocketing into a burning heat, the world’s laws themselves struggling to calculate the sudden, volatile appearance of this power.

Ning Xueli and Ling Luochen immediately stood up from their stools, their jade cups clattering onto the stone table as their faces turned completely pale from pure, instinctual shock.

”This qi... this absolute density...” Ning Xueli stammered, her hand flying to the hilt of her sword as her hair whipped around her face from the residual wind. ”Haoran has officially broken through! But this energy... a single sub-realm breakthrough shouldn’t cause the heavens to shake like this!”

”Yeah. That energy... it’s absolutely insane,” Ling Luochen whispered, her icy, demonic aura completely suppressed by the golden light radiating from the distant mountain as her breath came in short, panicked gasps as she measured the weight of the pressure pressing down on her shoulders. ”Isn’t this density... isn’t it already sitting on the exact same structural level as a peak Spirit Ascension Realm master?!”

She still remembered with vivid, terrifying clarity the exact moment when her own master, Shangguan Mu’er, had successfully broken through to the Spirit Ascension Realm back in the hidden valleys.

The raw energy and spatial distortion she had released during that monumental achievement was just about equal to the level of power currently flowing out of Haoran’s private chambers right now.

Yet, Haoran was supposed to only be navigating the Nascent Soul realm!

”Let’s go right now!” Feng Yanmei grinned hysterically, all her earlier frustration completely vaporizing as she looked at the magnificent golden pillar.

She immediately reached up and grabbed the small bird on her head, tossing it into the open air. ”You lazy, overfed bird! Stop sleeping and take us there immediately!”

The little phoenix chick let out a loud, high-pitched chirp of absolute protest at the rude treatment, but seeing the sheer gravity of the golden light in the distance, it immediately complied with its master’s will.

*SCREECH!!!*

In a spectacular flash of pure, crimson nirvana flames, the tiny bird’s form violently expanded, transforming within a fraction of a second into a massive, fifty-meter-wide primordial phoenix whose feathers burned with a brilliant, golden heat.

Feng Yanmei, Ling Luochen, and Ning Xueli didn’t waste a single second; they immediately hopped onto the broad, burning back of the great beast.

With a powerful sweep of its massive wings, the phoenix shattered the air, flying at a terminal velocity straight toward the source of the world-shaking power.