Villains Aren't Stepping Stones!

”Begin!”

The moment the final syllable of Venerable Sky Cloud’s thunderous proclamation dissolved into the heavy, static-charged atmosphere, a sudden, sharp hum of raw primordial power vibrated through the stone floor.

Before any of the remaining hundred geniuses could even think of drawing a single breath or shifting their footing, a blinding flash of clear, mirror-like energy erupted directly beneath their boots.

At that exact second, a localized, immensely powerful spatial barrier shot straight up from the ground, morphing into a seamless, impenetrable dome of swirling silver runes that completely surrounded every single one of the remaining students.

The transition was so instantaneous, fluid, and absolute that the wide, flat plain field, the overcast sky, and the physical presence of their nearby companions were violently, systematically wiped clean from their senses.

Haoran blinked, looking around.

”This is... A completely separate, isolated pocket dimension, huh,” Haoran murmured smoothly into the absolute quiet of his private sphere.

His golden eyes swept calmly across the smooth, translucent walls of his silver cage, noting how the boundary lines actively absorbed and neutralized all external divine sense.

He didn’t show a single shred of panic or irritation at being forcefully separated from Huo Yue and the others.

Instead, moving with a slow, majestic grace that had been thoroughly drilled into his bones, he casually pulled back the wide, gold trimmed silk sleeves of his royal robes and sat down cross legged directly onto the polished floorboards of the empty space.

”Something completely, undeniably unique that has never been seen or recorded before under these heavens...”

Haoran closed his magnificent, liquid gold eyes, leaning his chin slightly forward as he entered a state of profound, cold introspection.

The parameters of this final trial were a literal trap for the vast majority of traditional geniuses.

Throughout his years of studying the supreme registries of the Shen Clan vaults, he knew that virtually ninety-nine percent of all contemporary cultivators were merely walking copies of their ancestors.

They spent their entire lives desperately trying to perfectly replicate the sword slashes, the alchemical formulas, or the cultivation pathways of dead sages, believing that absolute mimicry was the ultimate key to breaking through their mortal limits.

Their Shen Clan could never...

Seriously, he always wondered why only the Shen Clan thought of their ancestors as less talented than them and wanted to be better than them?

None of them even thought of improving the techniques and legacy left behind by their ancestors?

Oh, the Gu Clan was also different.

However, instead of improving upon their ancestors legacy, they instead accumulate knowledge by starting what they call as an Academic Exchange.

This is an event where anyone can go to their territory and exchange knowledge for knowledge.

They basically guve away their ancestral knowledge for other newer more unique knowledge of equivalent value.

This is one of the reasons why they were called crazy by other Immortal Clans and Immortal Sects.

Now, the Imperial Academy actually wasn’t like the other schools, as they are not looking for a perfect copy, but were looking for a pioneer who could write a new law.

’What under this heaven constitutes a true, unblemished miracle of creation?’ Haoran pondered silently within the quiet sanctuary of his sea of consciousness.

’A new blade technique? A variation of a core movement array? No. To a Rank 10 Master Teacher like Venerable Sky Cloud, who has watched the rise and fall of countless mortal kingdoms across thousands of years, a simple manipulation of spiritual qi or a slight adjustment to a standard mantra is nothing more than a child playing with mud.’

’These type of people have already seen every conceivable variation of the standard elements. If I merely retrace the steps of the ancient masters, I will never trample their records into the dirt.’

As his profound thoughts drifted deeper into the metaphysical structure of reality, his analytical mind gradually wandered into the grand, catastrophic mechanics of the Heaven’s Will and the ultimate, blood-soaked parameters of the Immortal Path.

The Immortal Realm was fundamentally, terrifyingly unique among all known cultivation realms across the cosmic star systems because of a single, brutal, and unyielding law of nature: only one single Immortal can actively exist within the boundaries of an entire era.

The moment a candidate successfully survives and claims the mandate, and ascends to that ultimate throne, the Immortal’s personal, unique Dao instantly becomes the absolute, dominant law of the universe, recognized and enforced by the very consciousness of Heaven and Earth.

Their specific willpower literally overwrites the underlying physics of the cosmos, overshadowing and suppressing all other competing paths under the sun.

From that monumental moment onward, every single other cultivator across the infinite star systems, no matter how jaw-droppingly talented, no matter how relentlessly hardworking, and no matter how heavily guarded by the passive luck of destiny they might be, would find their own personal Dao violently and completely suppressed at the final, terminal step of ascension.

The peerless sword cultivators whose intent could slice through a thousand material worlds, the ancient time cultivators who could erase centuries with a lazy wave of their fingers, the spatial masters who could warp the geography of a province—all of them may rapidly, successfully reach the absolute peak of their respective individual paths, but they can never, under any circumstances, break through the glass ceiling into the true Immortal Realm while the current reigning Emperor remains active on the throne.

It was not a matter of a lack of talent, a lack of individual effort, or a deficiency in heavenly destiny; it was simply the cold, mathematical fact that the Heavenly Throne was already fully occupied by a singular sovereign weight.

The universe could only support one absolute ruler at a time.

Only when the reigning Immortal finally dies in battle, successfully transcends to an even higher plane of existence beyond the cosmic core, or voluntarily relinquishes their supreme position through an absolute abdication does the universal suppression finally vanish into thin air, allowing the dormant Daos of all living beings to clash and compete once more for the sacred right to become the next Immortal Emperor.

At that exact, terminal fraction of a second, sitting entirely alone in the absolute darkness of his silver dimension, Shen Haoran suddenly, dangerously smirked.

A sharp, razor-sharp light of pure, unadulterated arrogance violently flared within his golden eyes as an unprecedented, reality-shattering thought completely locked into his mind.

’Well, for now, let’s see... something completely unique to me...’ he thought to himself, a slow smile creeping across his handsome features. ’If I am to simply showcase any of my individual gifts to the examiners through the screen, would they truly see something completely unrecorded in the ancient scrolls?’

He ran through the ledger of his unique traits, his mind analyzing their history with a clinical, detached coldness.

His legendary Supreme Trinity... his magnificent, world-shaking Infinity Dragon God Divine Physique... his sharp, space-shearing Heavenly Sword Dao Bone... the terrifying, cosmic black blade Azathoth strapped to his soul... and most of all, his primordial, destiny-breaking Law of Absolute Severance bestowing upon him the power to bypass karma and execute the chosen ones of the heavens without consequence.

’The Infinity Dragon God Divine Physique?’

Haoran shook his head slightly within his mind, his smirk turning into a dry, condescending amusement.

’While it is an exceptionally rare, legendary physical constitution that only appears once every few thousand years, the historical archives of the prime origin realm explicitly prove that a few ancient monsters during the primordial epoch had already successfully awakened and walked the earth with that exact same body.’

’The Heavenly Sword Dao Bone?’ He dismissed it just as quickly. ’Countless sword maniacs across the history of the Jian Immortal Clan have birthed similar bones within their chests, using them to sharpen their offensive intent until they could cut through the clouds of a continent.’

Not to mention his own father, who was praised by the Sword Emperor as a one in a lifetime talent in Swordsmanship.

’The Law of Absolute Severance?’

Even that conceptual masterstroke, while terrifyingly absolute, was a law derived from an outer entity.

Someone, somewhere in the deep history of the outer void, had already wielded its parameters to butcher gods.

’...and it’s obviously not the Gold Incinerating Supreme Flame, since the main body is still in our clan.’

Ultimately, aside from the reality-warping consciousness of his Black Imperial Sword, Azathoth, and the unique, recursive mechanics of his Supreme Trinity, someone in the ancient past had already walked, mastered, or thoroughly utilized those individual things unique to his identity.

If he merely presented them in their raw, separated forms, the Rank 10 Master Teachers up on the golden thrones would certainly praise his luck and his bloodline, but they would never see a true, unadulterated pioneer.

”So...” Haoran muttered out loud, his voice a low, gravelly vibration that caused the silver runes of the barrier to subtly shake and flicker under the sudden, massive concentration of his aura.

What if he did something that no cultivator in the entire history of this prime origin epoch has ever even dared to conceive within their wildest dreams?

What if he forcefully and systematically combine all of those separate, legendary anomalies together into a single, unified matrix, and create an entirely new, unrecorded path of cultivation meant for my existence alone?’

There has been experts in the past with Infinity Dragon God Physique, there has been someone with Heavenly Sword Dao Bone, there has been many people with one of his traits that managed to reached the pinnacle.

However, there has never been someone like him who possessed all of them.

With that thought, the Gold Incinerating Supreme Flame inside his dantian violently roared to life as he began to completely, aggressively reconstruct the internal layout of his soul-force.

He wasn’t going to show them a technique; he was going to show them a new way to conquer the universe.