Villains Aren't Stepping Stones!

The next day, the cold, pristine morning light of the Shen Clan Domain broke over the floating jade terraces, casting long, sharp shadows across the stone pathways.

Ning Xueli stood near the grand archway leading to the southern staging grounds, her arms crossed over her chest.

Her bright, purple eyes were narrowed into a sharp, piercing squint as she stared intently at Ling Luochen, who was walking toward her with a slight, almost imperceptible hesitation in her step.

”W-What is it?” Asked Ling Luochen, her voice catching slightly in her throat as she instinctively clutched the collar of her light blue silk dress, trying to maintain her usual aloof, frozen composure.

”You look.... remarkably mature,” Ning Xueli stated, her voice flat and laced with a deep, analytical suspicion.

She took a step closer, her eyes tracking the subtle, fluid rhythm of Luochen’s posture and the faint, glowing radiance beneath her skin, a visual phenomenon that had nothing to do with standard qi.

”R-Really? Well, if that’s the case, it must simply be because I successfully broke through my cultivation bottlenecks, right?” Said Ling Luochen, her pale cheeks flushing with a microscopic tint of pink that she desperately tried to suppress by channeling her freezing meridians.

”Yeah, absolutely not,” Ning Xueli scoffed, a dangerous, knowing smirk spreading across her lips as she leaned into her friend’s space. ”Luochen, I’ll get straight to the point without any useless dancing around. You had sex with Haoran last night inside the Matriarch’s quarters, didn’t you?”

Ling Luochen flinched violently, her entire icy demeanor completely shattering under the blunt weight of the accusation.

She opened her mouth to form a logical denial, but looking into Xueli’s sharp, unyielding eyes, she realized it was entirely useless.

She let out a soft, defeated sigh, her shoulders dropping slightly. ”Yeah. I did.”

”My girl!” Ning Xueli suddenly shouted, her suspicious expression instantly vaporizing into a brilliant, triumphant grin.

She brought her closed fist forward, holding it out between them with a look of absolute, rowdy approval.

Ling Luochen stared at the outstretched fist for a brief, confused moment, completely taken aback by the lack of jealousy or anger from her companion.

Slowly, a small, genuine smile graced her own lips, and she raised her hand, doing a firm, solid fist bump with her silver-haired sister.

”Congrats, my dear Luochen. You have now officially become an authorized husband stealer, be proud of that achievement,” Said Ning Xueli, her chuckles echoing softly against the mountain walls.

Ling Luochen blinked her large, pale pink eyes, a sudden, cold panic striking her mind as she registered the specific terminology. ”Wait... the young master already has an official wife?”

Ning Xueli nodded her head in an easy, casual affirmation. ”Well, a fiancée, really. Her name is Huo Yue, and like me, she’s from the Eastern Region. But in the grand scheme of things, it’s basically the exact same thing, right? There’s no way Haoran would let her get together with another man.”

”...She won’t try to brutally kill me when we meet, right?” Asked Ling Luochen, her throat suddenly going dry as she thought of the absolute mess adultery have caused since ancient times.

She remembered hearing about a wife killing her husband and his mistress after finding out about the affair.

”Nah. Probably not,” Ning Xueli shrugged her shoulders indifferently, turning her gaze toward the path ahead. After all, she didn’t really know a single thing about Huo Yue’s actual personality, as she hadn’t met her face-to-face yet. ”As long as you don’t try to take her primary seat, she’ll probably just view you as another side woman that Haoran kept, not even viewing you as a threat.”

At that conclusion, the two girls quickened their pace, finally arriving at the edge of the massive plain field that served as the primary launching pad for the clan’s external campaigns.

Floating directly over the scorched grass was a truly colossal, thousands of meters long Black Gold Imperial Ark, its massive hull roaring with the thunderous, high-frequency vibrations of its spatial engines, completely ready to take off into the upper stratosphere.

Standing directly before the boarding ramp was a gathering of absolute power that made the air freeze.

Chu Xueyu, Feng Yuyan, Leng Shuang, The Seven Enshrined Elders, the elite youths of the Ten Crowns, and Shen Haoran himself had already gathered in a tight, formal formation.

The two arriving girls froze instantly in their tracks, their hearts dropping into their boots as they realized they had arrived significantly later than their own supreme boss.

A wave of cold sweat broke down their backs, and they immediately scurried forward to stand at the absolute back of the entourage, lowering their heads and frantically apologizing to the matriarchs.

”We’re very, deeply sorry for our tardiness, Lady Chu Xueyu, honored Elders,” they spoke in an urgent, hushed unison.

In Ling Luochen’s specific case, she actually had a highly legitimate, physical excuse; her legs were still slightly trembling, and her body was beyond exhausted from the relentless, non-stop intimacy Haoran had subjected her to until the literal dawn.

Ning Xueli, however, had absolutely no excuse other than her own gossiping curiosity.

Ling Luochen nervously peeked through the strands of her hair, her gaze meeting that of Haoran, who was standing tall in his pristine golden robes.

He cast a slow, burning smile directly at her, his golden eyes filled with an indulgent, lazy amusement.

Unable to handle the intense heat of his gaze, she couldn’t help but lower her head fully, her face burning crimson as she clutched her hands behind her back.

Chu Xueyu cast a calm, all-knowing glance toward the two girls, a faint, sultry smirk gracing her lips for a microsecond before she gave them a brief, majestic nod of her head, silently telling them it was perfectly alright.

Just then, the heavy, rhythmic sound of dozens of deliberate footsteps resounded from the grand valley entrance.

Everyone turned their heads around simultaneously, watching as a massive, organized group of elite cultivators walked briskly towards the staging platform.

They were the premier inner disciples and core elders originating from the Flower Mountain Sect and the prestigious Luo Clan of the central region.

They moved with an immaculate, disciplined grace, and they were being directly led at the front by the familiar figures of Xia Mengyao and Luo Mingye.

”Haoran!”

The moment her eyes locked onto his golden hair, Luo Mingye completely abandoned her clan heiress dignity.

She cheered out loud, her face lighting up with pure, unbridled joy as she broke into a sprint, running across the plain field and throwing her entire body into his arms, hugging his chest tightly.

Xia Mengyao let out a long, weary sigh seeing her best friend act like an obsessed child in front of the supreme entities of the region, but she didn’t say a single word of reprimand, her own eyes softening slightly as she approached the heir.

The surrounding disciples from the Flower Mountain Sect and the Luo Clan all simultaneously dropped to their knees or cupped their hands deeply towards the gathered masters of the Shen Clan, their postures radiating an absolute, deeply submissive reverence.

Although they had heard rumors across the central provinces, they were still thoroughly surprised and shaken at just how jaw-droppingly close Luo Mingye was permitted to be to the sole heir of the unmatched Shen Clan.

Haoran casually wrapped a strong arm around Mingye’s slender waist, giving her a reassuring squeeze as he nodded down at her. ”Well, now that absolutely everyone has arrived at the staging ground, we can finally depart for the capital.”

He turned his body towards his mother, giving her a respectful nod to signal that everything is is fine and they can leave.

Chu Xueyu took a heavy step forward, her silver robes billowing within the fierce wind generated by the Ark’s engines.

Her purple eyes swept over the hundreds of gathered geniuses, her voice rising into a majestic, bell-like resonance that echoed across the entire mountain range.

”Disciples of the Shen Clan, look upon the vessel before you. Today, you do not merely journey to an academy to learn the basic arts of immortal cultivation, but you march to the Imperial Capital as the living iron will of the Shen Clan. The Tian Yuan Empire has rotted in its own historical luxury, and the surrounding clans have forgotten the terror of our name. Go forth, carry our shadow into their grand pavilions, and let them know that whatever destiny their heavens have written for this era, it must bow beneath the heel of our clan. Let none stand before you, and return with the world in your palms.”

The crowd trembled under the sheer weight of her words, a roar of agreement rising from the disciples.

Feng Yuyan then stepped up beside her sister, her red hair blazing like a plume of fire as she crossed her arms, her sharp, playful grin cutting through the solemnity.

”My sister already told you what you need to do, so I will give you a much simpler law to memorize during your flight: do not dare to lose. The resources of our clan and the ancestral weapons of our vaults have been poured into your veins. If any upstart genius from the central lineages tries to challenge your path or look down upon your background, do not waste your breath in an argument. Burn their pavilions, shatter their dantians, and leave their bodies in the mud. The Shen Clan does not acknowledge weaklings, so see to it that you make the capital bleed.”

A collective shiver of dark excitement ran through the ranks of the Ten Crowns practitioners as they felt the raw, unhinged protectiveness of the matriarchs.

Leng Shuang moved forward next, her presence instantly causing the ambient temperature of the field to drop by twenty degrees, her voice as thin, sharp, and absolute as a sheet of polar ice.

”Maintain your focus. The academy is a crucible of hidden variable, but do not let the luxury of the capital soften your resolve, and do not let their numbers deceive your sight. Keep your blades clean, your minds firm, and your absolute loyalty anchored to the heir’s shadow. If you act with honor, the clan will grant you what you desire, but if you falter or show a single thread of cowardice before the enemy... I will personally ensure your souls are frozen inside the ancestral purgatory for eternity.”

The silence that followed her speech was heavy, absolute, and filled with a profound, instinctual dread.

Finally, the eldest of the Seven Enshrined Elders, a withered old monster whose single breath could scatter the clouds of a province, stepped to the very edge of the platform.

He leaned heavily on his gnarled ironwood staff, his cloudy eyes flashing with a sudden, terrifyingly dense Heavenly Saint light.

”Juniors... for a full hundred thousand years, our lineage has watched the birth and fall of countless minor realms and kingdom from the shadows of this domain. The current throne thinks they have gathered enough luck to rewrite the natural balance of the world through their chosen heroes. Go and shatter their illusions. Prove to the heavens that the destiny of a mortal is nothing more than ink on paper before the martial weight of our clan. Protect the heir with your flesh, crush the upstarts with your strength, and let the name of the Shen Clan echo across the stars once more. Go!”

With that final, thunderous command, the grand doors of the Black Gold Imperial Ark swung wide open, and the roaring energy of the ascension officially swept the generation into the open sky.