Villains Aren't Stepping Stones!

It didn’t take long for the true disparity of the mortal world to manifest itself upon the stone architecture of the capital.

About an hour had quietly passed within the temporal flow of the mountain arrays, and almost everyone with a decent, stable talent and a properly reinforced foundation managed to successfully climb to the absolute top of the gravity-laden stairs and officially entered the majestic, white-fog-filled academy gates.

Those who were superficial, whose paths were inflated by trash pills or fragile pampering, were left weeping and broken upon the lower tiers, their names permanently erased from the registries of the elite.

Now, the surviving pool of several thousand young geniuses stood neatly assembled on a massive, continent-sized empty field carved from solid white spirit stone.

The sheer spatial layout of the courtyard was immense, designed to hold legions, and hovering directly in front of the gathered youths were the towering, mountain-sized holographic projections of the legendary Ten Sages.

Each projection radiated a faint, golden pressure that kept the entire crowd in a state of absolute, synchronized silence.

”Well, if I am being completely and brutally honest... that first trial was remarkably easy,” Gu Xunyi chuckled softly, her long purple hair catching the shifting light of the array as she casually played with a small, ancient relic bone between her slender fingers.

Her red eyes danced with a playful, chaotic amusement as she stood completely unbothered by the lingering gravity.

Haoran let out a long, weary sigh, his golden eyes narrowing slightly as he cast a dry look toward the purple-haired girl who had unceremoniously wedged herself right into the center of his personal group.

”You crazy woman... your grand Gu Clan delegation is securely positioned over there on the far left sector of the field. Why on earth are you still stubbornly sticking around with my entourage?”

”How absolutely, terribly cruel of you to say, Shen Haoran! Especially after everything we’ve supposedly been through together?!” Gu Xunyi instantly gasped, her hand flying to her chest as she fabricated a beautifully dramatic, mock-hurt expression, her red eyes wide with a theatrical betrayal. ”What about the deep, unbreakable spiritual relationship we’ve built over the last few years?! Are you truly going to cast me out into the cold like a common rogue?”

Haoran merely clicked his tongue softly, completely ignoring the erratic, unhinged banter of the purple-haired heiress as he adjusted the gold silk cuffs of his royal robes, his posture remaining perfectly aloof.

Huo Yue let out a low, rich chuckle from beside his shoulder, her wine-red eyes crinkling with a genuine amusement as she leaned slightly against his chest.

”Sister Xunyi, it seems that my Haoran doesn’t like your chaotic personality at all. Your charms appear to have completely hit a solid jade wall.”

Gu Xunyi smiled brilliantly back at her, her posture perfectly relaxed, entirely unbothered by the rejection. ”It certainly seems so for the current moment, Sister Yue. But I am absolutely and resourcefully confident that if I unearth enough forbidden, ancient secrets and show him the true majesty of a ruined world, I can eventually force him to like me! No man can resist the charm of a well-documented apocalypse.”

”Good luck with that grand endeavor,” Huo Yue smiled softly at her, her tone full of a playful, condescending pity.

”I told you not to associate yourself with that crazy woman,” Haoran covered her face with her palm, ”Didn’t you know Xunyi Disease is contagious?”

”Hey!” Gu Xunyi pouted, ”I’m not a virus!”

Huo Yue chuckled at that.

And at that exact second of their private conversation, the massive holographic projection of Venerable Sky Cloud violently flared with a blinding golden brilliance.

The old sage’s deep blue eyes scanned the entire assembled crowd of youths, and his deep, booming voice once again resounded across the massive field, instantly crushing all minor chatter into absolute silence.

”Congratulations to every single one of you who has successfully managed to survive the gravity steps and enter these inner grounds,” the old sage spoke, his voice carrying the dry, unyielding weight of a Rank 10 Master Teacher. ”However, do not let your fragile pride deceive you into thinking that this simple ascent will be all you ever need to do to pass our selection. The true, blood-soaked trials of the Imperial Academy only begin right now.”

The old sage paused, his white beard swaying slightly as he took a deep breath, his projection expanding until it completely filled the northern sky, initiating a grand, historical speech that would forever redefine the paths of the generation.

”The Heaven’s Will... hear that term and record it into the deepest recesses of your souls. That is the legendary, supreme conceptual Dao that only appears once every grand era, a cosmic mandate forged from the core rules of the universe. Those who successfully shoulder its absolute weight shall instantly ascend past the boundaries of mortality, shatter their cages, and become a true, eternal Immortal.”

Shen Haoran sighed. He already knew all of this, now he had to listen to an old man rambling about things he already knew.

Even Gu Xunyi groaned in annoyance. Not just Shen Haoran, every heir from Immortal Lineages already knew about these things.

However, unlike them, Huo Yue and everyone else eagerly listened.

After all, this is a secret they never knew.

”Throughout the long history of our epoch, whenever the time of manifestation approaches, countless peak cultivators who have spent millennia hidden in seclusion finally reach the absolute structural limit of the world’s laws. Every single hidden Human Supreme ruling from their white palaces, every gargantuan Imperial Beast dominating the primal wild zones, and every ruthless Demon King lurking within the abyssal sectors—all of them are fully, fanatically aware of a single, brutal truth: only one single entity among them can receive the mandate and become the undisputed Immortal of the generation.”

Huo Yue’s eyes widened. So only one Immortal can emerge in every generation, is that what he’s saying?

Then what about the others? Are they destined to never rise?

That’s... pitiful of them...or rather, does that mean if she wanted to ascend to the peak, she’d have to compete with Haoran in the future?

She... doesn’t want that!

”The moment the Heaven’s Will prepares to descend, the universe’s natural laws become highly volatile, fluid, and unstable. Ancient, long-forgotten forbidden realms violently tear open across the provinces. Lost inheritances of dead gods spontaneously emerge from the dirt, and heavenly treasures that can permanently strengthen or rewrite one’s personal Dao appear everywhere under the sun. The entire cultivation world enters an unparalleled, magnificent golden age—and simultaneously, a dark, terrifying age of absolute, unbridled slaughter.”

Xu Xiansu clenched her fist. She already knew all of this, of course. This golden age is just starting now, and in the next hundred years, the entire Prime Origin Realm would really fall into chaos.

Everyone will be competing for opportunities; son killing their fathers, fathers killing their sun, wife killing their husbands, husbands killing their wife, brothers killing their brothers...in that chaotic, yet golden age, the human morals had been reduced to its absolute limits.

Back then, she had even caused the destruction of an entire lower realm, killing billions of people just to forcefully snatch an Imperial Artifact from her enemy who was hiding in that lower realm.

The old sage’s blue eyes gleamed with a sharp, clinical light as the holographic screen behind his throne began to display massive, ancient murals illustrating the historical stages of the great ascension.

”Base on historical records, scholars have deduced that this grand competition for the ultimate immortal throne can only happen in several distinct, ruthless stages.”

”First Stage, The Gathering of Destiny. It is a stage where before any cultivator can even attempt to look upon or challenge the physical manifestation of the Heaven’s Will, they must first aggressively accumulate a sufficient volume of Heavenly Destiny.”

Haoran frowned, his interest already pique.

”Destiny is not a passive concept, but an active resource that can only be obtained by violently conquering lower realms, establishing supreme sects, utterly defeating your generational rivals, claiming ancient inheritances from the tombs, or accomplishing monumental feats recognized by the heaven’s consciousness itself. Those who stand at the end with insufficient destiny are not even acknowledged or permitted to see the manifestation; they are left blind in the dark.”

Haoran frowned. Isn’t that what the protagonist were doing base on his theories? They are taking the luck, or destiny of those around them, causing almost every person who associate with them to suffer tragedy after tragedy.

”The Second Stage, The Dao Wars. This is the stage where once the core candidates are established, they begin openly, ruthlessly fighting one another across the domains. Let it be understood that this stage is not merely a matter of physical combat or raw spiritual qi, instead, their personal Daos themselves will directly, violently clash in mid-air. A Sword Dao cultivator’s refined sword intent may cleanly cut through a thousand material worlds with a single swing. A Time Dao cultivator may effortlessly erase centuries of an opponent’s lifespan with a simple, casual gesture. A Karma Dao cultivator may systematically execute an entire lineage through the laws of cause and effect. Every single victory achieved during this phase violently steals a massive portion of the defeated opponent’s personal destiny, systematically strengthening the victor’s ultimate claim to the throne. The vast majority of geniuses will die during this bloody phase.”

It really is. Haoran’s eyes gleamed.

”The Third Stage, The Immortal Road. The stage when the slaughter is complete and only a mere handful of absolute monsters remain standing across the star systems, the Heaven’s Will finally manifests physically as the Immortal Road. A magnificent, celestial path stretching across the literal geography of the universe will appear in the sky. Every single step taken upon this golden road tests the absolute structural validity of a cultivator’s personal Dao. Weak, derivative Daos will instantly collapse into dust. Incomplete, flawed Daos will violently shatter, destroying the cultivator’s dantian. Those foolish entities who merely borrowed power from ancient relics or relied on ancestral pampering instead of forging their own unique path will be ruthlessly, completely rejected by the road’s pressure. The further one advances along the steps, the more crushing and absolute the weight of the Heaven’s Will becomes. Countless legendary geniuses who once shook the entire continent will find their bodies turned to ash upon this very path.”

Xu Xiansu clenched her fist. In that other life, this is where she had died. She encountered Haoran in the Immortal Road, and she mindlessly rushed at him, intending to kill him.

But in the end, she was thoroughly defeated and killed.

”And thr Final Stage, The Battle Beneath Heaven! At the absolute, glorious end of the Emperor Road, the tiny handful of surviving candidates will stand directly face-to-face before the naked majesty of the Heaven’s Will itself. Within this ultimate sanctuary, there are absolutely no allies to rely upon. There are no Immortal sects to back your path. There are no Immortal Clans to shield your body from danger. There is only your lone, unyielding Dao against the universe. The final candidates must fight a war of absolute attrition until only one single entity remains physically capable of standing upon the stone. The sole victor receives the Heaven’s Will, merges their dao directly with the core of the universe, and at that exact, monumental moment, they become the supreme Immortal, and the entire universe will acknowledge them as its sole, absolute ruler of the current era!”

The Venerable Sky Cloud lowered his hand, the golden light of the screen slowly fading back into a calm, steady hum.

He looked down at the pale, sweating faces of the thousands of students, his voice dropping into a solemn, final warning.

”The academy exists to find the seeds for this very path. Prepare your minds, for the first selection begins now.”