Villains Aren't Stepping Stones!

Nuo Wan was, by all accounts and definitions, completely an ordinary student of the prestigious Imperial Academy.

Currently three hundred years old—a relatively modest age in the grand, sweeping timescales of high-level cultivation—he had only managed to reach the peak of the Spirit Ascension Realm.

In a colossal institution teeming with transcendent monsters, ancient bloodlines, and heaven-defying prodigies who could break through realms as easily as breathing, he wasn’t anyone special at all.

He possessed no legendary innate physique, no supreme ancestral weapon buried in his soul, and no powerful clan elders to pave his path with endless resources.

He was just a moderately talented commoner from a minor border province who had gotten incredibly lucky years ago, miraculously managing to pass the brutal entrance examinations through sheer grit to become an official student.

During his long tenure at the academy, he hadn’t made any earth-shattering waves.

He had quietly joined a small, low-tier student faction that pooled their meager resources together, eventually owning a small, humble food stall in one of the commercial districts of Academy City just to scrape together enough currency to survive.

And right now, his time had finally run out.

He was about to graduate and face the harsh realities of the wider continent.

He currently stood in the massive, echoey marble lobby of the Central Administration Office.

He was following a painfully slow, suffocatingly long line composed of thousands of other graduating students who were also leaving the academy alongside him today.

The atmosphere in the grand hall was thick with a mixture of nostalgia, anxiety, and a profound sense of uncertainty for the future.

With a heavy sigh, Nuo Wan reached into his basic storage ring, took out his jade Academy Identification Token, and injected a small thread of his qi into it.

The surface glowed faintly, displaying his profile and the current, meager balance: 917 Dao Points.

He stared at the three-digit number, his expression turning thoroughly bitter.

If he chose to take the standard route and officially exchanged these remaining points for raw resources from the school’s treasury before signing his exit papers, the administration would only give him about nine million low-grade spirit stones.

To an ordinary mortal, nine million spirit stones sounded like an astronomical mountain of wealth.

But for a cultivator at the absolute peak of the Spirit Ascension Realm, nine million stones wouldn’t even provide a fraction of the incredibly rare, high-tier energy required to safely attempt a breakthrough to the next major cultivation realm.

’So, what should I do?’ Nuo Wan thought, rubbing his temples in frustration. ’Should I just use this little bit of points to buy some decent spiritual herbs or minor enchanted artifacts from the stores instead?’

He immediately shot the idea down. With this pathetic amount of points, he wouldn’t be able to obtain any decent, high-tier resources anyway.

After all, he was about to permanently leave the protective walls of the institution, and whatever generic resources he could buy with 917 points here, he could easily obtain in the open markets outside the academy if he fought hard enough.

’Well, I guess I have no real choice left,’ he mused, his shoulders slumping in resignation. ’I might as well just transfer these points directly to my junior brothers and the small faction before I sign my discharge papers. They did take good care of me over the years, and a few hundred points could help keep our food stall afloat for another semester.’

Just as he was about to step forward in the agonizingly slow line, a sudden, frantic commotion erupted near the heavy entrance doors of the administration lobby.

Several students who had just run inside were huddling together, their voices carrying an erratic, electric edge of excitement.

”Hey, did you hear the news? There’s some crazy guy buying up points right outside, in the streets!” one student whispered loudly, his eyes wide.

”So what?” another student scoffed, crossing his arms dismissively. ”There are always faction scouts trying to buy points from graduates at a discounted rate right before they leave. It’s a standard hustle.”

”No, you idiot, you don’t understand!” the first student hissed, grabbing his friend’s shoulder fiercely. ”The buyer isn’t some generic student faction leader! Word is he is a true young master directly from an absolute Immortal Lineage! And that’s not even the best part—if you sell him your points, you can actually request to formally work for his clan’s external enterprises! He’s offering employment contracts on the spot!”

”Seriously!?” a third student interjected, his jaw dropping instantly. ”An actual Immortal Lineage offering employment!? Are you absolutely sure about this?”

Standing just a few feet away, Nuo Wan’s ears perked up instantly as his heart skipped a violent beat.

For commoner cultivators like him who lacked a noble surname, being able to secure a stable job and work for an entity belonging to an Immortal Lineage was like an unattainable, cosmic dream.

In fact, the vast majority of academy graduates who didn’t hail from a powerful, wealthy background faced an incredibly brutal trilemma upon leaving the school.

They could either choose to wander the dangerous world alone, attempt to form their own minor faction from scratch, or desperately petition to join an already established external power.

For normal, practical people like them, joining an existing faction was the only realistic way to survive.

After all, choosing to become a wanderer was nothing more than a glorified, poetic name for a dirt-poor, desperate rogue cultivator who would likely die in some forgotten ditch over a single spirit herb.

And forming a brand-new faction required massive, astronomical amounts of initial capital, territory, and political protection that no ordinary graduate could ever hope to afford unless they had accumulated hundreds of thousands of points during their school years.

Therefore, joining an established, powerful faction was the most logical, safest choice.

In fact, Nuo Wan had originally planned to apply to join the Imperial Army once his graduation was finalized today.

With his peak Spirit Ascension Realm strength, he knew he could at least secure a comfortable position as a captain of a standard frontier troop.

But now, if these sudden, wild rumors floating through the lobby were actually true, then a far better, infinitely more glorious option had just fallen from the heavens.

What was a mere native Imperial Family compared to a primordial, transcendent Immortal Lineage?

The difference was like a small puddle compared to a boundless ocean.

If you knew even a fraction of your ancient continental history, you would know that thousands of years ago, it was actually a certain supreme clan from the Immortal Lineages that had casually supported and funded the current Imperial Family to overthrow the previous dynasty and take the throne in the first place!

The emperors were essentially just caretakers of the land for the true masters of the world.

”Are they really still out there in the streets?” someone shouted frantically from the back of the crowd.

”Yes! I swear on my cultivation base!” the first student yelled back, a look of pure triumph on his face as he waved a freshly stamped parchment contract. ”I already gave away all my remaining points to him! And in return, I successfully secured a high-paying administrative job within the Divine City itself!”

”Holy shit! The Divine City!?” the crowd gasped in unison, their eyes turning bloodshot with envy. ”That actual Divine City!? The absolute economic and martial heart of the empire!?”

”Yeah! Go right now before he fills his quota and leaves! If you delay, you’ll regret it for the rest of your immortal life!”

”Yes! Yes! I’m going right now! Screw this line!”

Chaos instantly broke out in the administration lobby.

Dozens of graduating commoner students violently abandoned their positions in the long queue, turning around in a frenzied stampede to sprint toward the exit.

Nuo Wan hesitated for only a fraction of a second, his mind weighing the risks, before he firmly gritted his teeth, stepped out of the line, and immediately ran outside into the blinding sunlight.

He can only apologize to his juniors for being so selfish.

But he needed to secure his own future first, and he swore in his heart that once his juniors graduated, he can use his connections to help them land a job.

The moment Nuo Wan burst through the heavy entrance doors of the administration office and stepped onto the massively wide streets, he stopped dead in his tracks, his breath completely catching in his throat.

The entire place had been transformed into an makeshift imperial court.

Right in the absolute center of the wide plaza, floating a few inches above the cobblestones, sat an incredibly opulent, intricately carved golden throne.

Sitting languidly upon the throne was a single young man.

He had brilliant, shimmering golden hair that caught the sunlight like spun sunfire, and he was dressed in immaculate, flowing black and gold robes that radiated an aura of terrifying, unyielding authority.

It was Shen Haoran.

Standing directly beside the throne, holding a beautiful silk umbrella over his head to shield him from the sun, was a stunning cat-eared girl in a form-fitting black and purple qipao.

Her posture was completely submissive and loyal as she stood by his side.

It was Zhu Ziyan.

Haoran lazily held his own pristine identity token in his right hand, the large, glowing holographic screen projecting out into the open air to record the incoming transactions.

A massive, strictly organized line composed of hundreds of eager graduating students had already formed across the entire width of the plaza, stretching out as far as the eye could see.

Directly in front of the golden throne, a heavy obsidian desk and a comfortable wooden chair had been placed.

On the desk lay a stack of glowing, spirit-bound parchment documents alongside a high-grade ink well.

A student at the front of the line was currently sitting in the chair, his hands shaking with intense excitement as he injected his points into Haoran’s floating screen.

With a quick movement, the student bit his finger, pressed his blood-print onto the parchment document on the desk, and signed the official contract, cementing his future employment within the legendary domains of the Shen Clan.

”Congratulations, after you graduate, take the copy of this contract to the Divine City and you can start working as a guard.”

”Yes, yes! Thank you so much young master!”

Haoran offered a faint, amused smirk, his golden eyes watched as the student in front of him stood up, holding the contract like it was a treasure and immediately moved aside.

Then, another student behind him sat down.

”Greetings young master.”

”Hm.”

At that moment, Nuo Wan frantically rushed to join the back of the line, his heart pounding with the realization that the grandest opportunity of his life was sitting right in front of him.

’Employment, here I come!’