Villains Aren't Stepping Stones!

Leaf Green City was an absolutely gargantuan metropolis tucked deep within the southeastern quadrant of the academy’s private pocket dimension.

The entire structural expanse of the territory was owned, funded, and aggressively maintained by the Botanist Faction—a highly prominent, incredibly influential senior student syndicate that had made it their absolute lifecycle mission to systematically grow, harvest, mutate, and sell all sorts of high-tier spiritual herbs, celestial plants, and divine stalks across the pocket dimension.

Because of their ironclad monopoly on the botanical markets, this city served as one of the ultimate, undisputed central hub for every single aspiring alchemist, veteran pill-master, and rogue medicine-maker looking for any rare ingredients to successfully refine a high-grade pill.

The very air drifting through the crowded stone avenues didn’t smell of common city dust; it was completely, permanently saturated with a thick, deeply intoxicating aroma of blooming medicinal flora, crushed spirit roots, and simmering cauldrons.

In this sprawling city, located within a significantly more affluent, quiet, and array-fortified residential district where only the wealthiest senior cultivators could afford to purchase a lease, there stood a massive, exceptionally beautiful villa.

The property featured a wide, sprawling courtyard completely full of hundreds of pristine, ancient peach blossom trees that gently rained down soft pink petals with every passing draft.

Situated right in the center of the manicured flora, there was also a beautifully designed, jade-lined pond with some exotic, colorful koi fish calmly swimming around the crystal-clear spirit water, their scales glittering with faint traces of ambient elemental qi.

Here, within the peaceful borders of this courtyard, a young man possessing short, neatly trimmed black hair and a pair of calm, thoroughly gentle brown eyes was slowly, rhythmically sweeping the stone yard with a simple bamboo broom, a soft, satisfied smile playing across his lips.

He was Xie Ji, the absolute, undisputed owner and creator of this grand villa, which he had affectionately, formally named the Falling Blossom Villa.

To those who have seen this villa, they would probably think that this was purchased for a sky high price that would empty even an entire Spirit Stone mine.

But they couldn’t be more wrong.

A full hundred years ago, back when he had first successfully passed the grueling enrollment trials as a young, naive junior, this entire prime lot used to be completely full of toxic wild weeds, overgrown grass, and jagged stones, and the main villa structure itself was nothing more than a small, tattered wooden shack that became a breeding ground for spiders, roaches, and snakes.

The entire property was something he had personally received as a miraculous reward when the reigning Mayor of Leaf Green City, who also operated as the absolute, undisputed supreme leader of the Botanist Faction, had issued a highly difficult, city wide mission to cultivate and successfully grow a remarkably volatile, specific type of ancient spiritual herb.

Xie Ji, relying entirely on his own unyielding patience, meticulous research, and unique affinity for botanical pathways, had been the absolute first student across the entire generation to successfully bring the herb to a full, pristine bloom.

Impressed by his quiet dedication, the faction leader had willingly granted him the absolute ownership deeds of this specific lot as his permanent reward.

Although the territory admittedly didn’t look that good, luxurious, or impressive when he had first received the deeds a century ago, Xie Ji had still been remarkably, profoundly thankful to the ancestors for granting him a private anchor within the competitive dimension.

And now, after an entire, uninterrupted century of daily meticulous care, structural renovation, and spiritual enrichment, the small lot had beautifully transformed into this magnificent sanctuary—a stunningly beautiful villa that had eventually been officially, highly praised by the Mayor himself as a model of botanical cultivation.

However...

Xie Ji slowly stopped his sweeping motion, letting out a long, heavy sigh from his chest as he felt a sudden, bittersweet pang of deep sadness swelling within his heart while staring at his hundred years of intense, non-stop hard work.

Although he was admittedly not considered an overwhelmingly talented martial monster compared to the heaven-defying heirs of the primary Immortal Lineages, but through his sheer, unyielding perseverance and continuous, daily accumulation, he had still successfully managed to break through his bottlenecks to reach the formidable 1st stage of the Nirvana Rebirth Realm at exactly 150 years old.

In the outside world, across the vast geography of the Four Cardinal Regions, a cultivator of his specific caliber and age would already be considered an absolute ancestor-level figure capable of establishing a dominant top tier royal family or super sect.

Being a fully verified expert of the Nirvana Rebirth Realm inside this pocket dimension, he was already officially, legally eligible to receive his final graduation papers from the Enshrined Elders, which meant he would soon be permanently leaving this beautiful villa that he had worked so incredibly hard to design and renovate from the dirt.

After all, he had spent his entire life operating as a quiet lone wolf; he possessed absolutely no junior disciples, he had no biological relations within the academy, nor was he actively part of any of the bloodthirsty, dominant political student factions ruling the inner districts.

He had no one to pass the deeds down to.

That’s precisely why, after a long period of internal calculation, he had reluctantly decided to place this villa up for a formal auction house, intending to exchange the property for a massive amount of portable heavenly resources and high-tier spirit items that he could easily take along with hi. as he prepared to leave the school.

”Ah, now that the final days are drawing near... I am honestly starting to hesitate...” he muttered softly to himself, his fingers tightening slightly on the bamboo handle of his broom.

Within the strict organizational parameters of the Imperial Academy, reaching the Nirvana Rebirth Realm doesn’t actually mean a practitioner is forcefully required to pack their bags and graduate immediately from the dimension.

After all, according to the official registries of the campus, the single strongest, most terrifying student currently residing in the inner districts was a legendary monster who sat firmly at the 1st stage of the Profound Saint Realm, and who was exactly 500 years old this year.

However, that specific individual had spent the last two centuries aggressively planning to permanently join the Imperial Academy’s official faculty as an Elder, but because he kept continuously, miserably failing the strict pedagogical tests required by the Ten Sages, he had stubbornly refused to leave the student registry, remaining on the books as an eternal senior just to preserve his access to the inner libraries.

The absolute, unyielding age limit set by the foundational ancestors for any student to continue actively studying as a registered student inside this dimension was exactly 300 years old.

The moment a cultivator touched that terminal marker, they would be forcefully required by the enforcement arrays to graduate and leave the realm, no matter what specific level of cultivation they had managed to reach.

For Xie Ji, at 150 years old, he still had plenty of decades left on his clock. But he didn’t care about the politics of the elders; he simply wanted to finally go back to the outside world and see his hometown.

A full, uninterrupted hundred years had passed since he had last looked upon his family’s ancestral estate.

His mind couldn’t help but wander through the warm fragments of his childhood memories.

He wondered how his elderly parents were currently doing under the outer sun?

Did they eventually give him a few more younger siblings after his departure?

Were his own biological brothers already old, silver-haired grandfathers ruling over their own small provincial courts?

However, he couldn’t continue his quiet stream of thoughts, as his sharp spiritual perception instantly noticed a sudden, highly coordinated group of heavy fluctuations manifesting directly outside the main wooden gates of his villa.

Xie Ji’s brown eyes instantly frowned, his peaceful expression shifting into a line of deep, calculating caution.

He wasn’t expecting a single guest or anything to arrive at his residence today, was he?

So who are they? What are they doing here?

Could it be those annoying group of nobles? Those people have been coming here frequently, wanting him to sell his villa to them.

He clicked his tingue, and with a single, effortless step forward, his physical form vanished from the center of the peach courtyard through a fluid manifestation of minor spatial movement, instantly reappearing right behind the grand wooden archway of his outer gates.

He reached out his hand, smoothly sliding the heavy iron bolt back, and swung the doors open.

There, standing neatly in a tight, imposing vanguard alignment directly outside his threshold, he saw a remarkably unique, breathtaking group of young people quietly standing on the stone pathway.

They were Shen Haoran and his group.

Xie Ji’s frown deepened slightly as his clinical gaze swept over the pristine, completely unstrained textures of their luxurious silk clothes.

His sharp perception failed to detect a single thread of the characteristic, deep mental exhaustion that usually accompanied the older senior students of the city.

”You guys are... newly arrived freshman students?”

He remembered that the official registration and testing for the new enrollment cycle should have only just concluded this morning.

At that moment, Haoran took a step forward, smiling at him, ”Greetings, senior. I am Shen Haoran, and these are my companions.”

Standing at the absolute front of the group, the golden-haired youth offered a calm, remarkably elegant, and perfectly polite smile.

His majestic gold-trimmed silk robes fluttered softly in the light breeze of Leaf Green City, his liquid gold eyes radiating an unbothered, sovereign depth that made Xie Ji’s internal Nirvana core instinctively tighten with a sudden, unexplainable sense of primal caution.

He was a bit shocked. With his perception, he naturally noticed that this young man was just at the fifth stage of Nascent Soul Realm!

So how come he can make him deel wary?

Haoran smoothly stepped forward, his posture loose, yet perfectly anchored. ”Do you perhaps happen to have some spare time available on your schedule, Senior? My companions and I would highly desire to come inside your courtyard and have a quiet chat regarding the future of this villa.”