Villains Aren't Stepping Stones!

”Yawn~”

The sound was melodic yet utterly weary, a sharp contrast to the silent, scholarly atmosphere of the grand study.

Feng Yuyan, the middle child of the three sisters, stretched her arms above her head with a lazy, feline grace, her movements sluggish as she walked into her younger sister’s private sanctuary.

Behind her, Leng Shuang trailed like a shadow, her footsteps light but dragging, her expression as perpetually emotionless as a statue carved from glacial ice, though the dark circles beneath her eyes betrayed the same crushing fatigue that plagued her sister.

These two sisters, ever since they had found out about the truth of the systems, hadn’t spent even a day of rest and remained locked in their laboratory.

”You’re finally here,” Chu Xueyu said, her voice calm and measured.

She didn’t look up from her work immediately, her elegant hand continuing to glide a brush across a scroll with practiced precision.

Once she was done, she looked up and motioned toward the luxurious silk-cushioned chairs arranged around her desk. ”Take a seat. Grandmother seems to have something important she wanted to tell us.”

Feng Yuyan and Leng Shuang didn’t need to be told twice as they immediately sank into the chairs, the tension in their bodies finally beginning to ebb.

”So?” Chu Xueyu asked, setting her brush aside and folding her hands on the desk.

She looked toward the shimmering, ethereal figure of Shen Daiyu, who stood near the window, silhouetted by the brilliant light of the floating islands outside.

”What is it, Grandmother? Why involve us three specifically?”

Shen Daiyu turned, the sunlight catching the sharp, regal angles of her face.

She didn’t offer any greetings or pleasantries and immediately went straight to the point, her brows were knit together in a rare, genuine furrow of concern. ”It seems Haoran is going to be in quite a bit of danger from now on.”

The reaction was instantaneous.

”What!?”

The three sisters stood up in perfect, terrifying unison.

The sheer shock of their grandmother’s words acted as a catalyst as their hidden auras, all incredibly vast, ancient, and pressurized beyond the comprehension of any mortal cultivator, instantly flickered into existence.

The very fabric of the Shen Clan’s dimension immediately began to groan, twisting and tearing like wet parchment.

The air pressure plummeted, and the delicate scrolls and ink-wells on the shelves rattled as if an earthquake had struck the very foundations of the Shen Clan’s reality.

Everyone in the Shen Clan felt it and couldn’t help but shiver, curious and angry at the one who manages to anger these three lunatic sisters.

The Seven Enshrined Elders tried to investigate what caused the commotion, but at that moment, Shen Daiyu raised her head.

In instant, the Elders shivered and immediately flew away, sensing the familiar aura of that lunatic Shen Daiyu.

Shen Daiyu snorted, finding it funny that her peers were as cowardly as ever.

Yes. The current Seven Enshrined Elders were her peers, and they were part of the Ten Crowns around three thousand years ago.

When she saw that the Elders have fled, she immediately turned her gaze back to her granddaughters, and before the internal space could collapse entirely, simply snapped her fingers.

The sound was sharp, like a crystal shattering.

Then, a ripple of translucent, golden energy expanded from her hand, instantly smothering the volatile auras and forcing the dimension to knit itself back together.

Within a beat, the room went unnaturally quiet, the raging pressure vanishing as quickly as it had appeared.

Chu Xueyu and the others stood frozen, their chests heaving, their eyes burning with a mixture of residual fury and intense, desperate curiosity.

They looked at their grandmother, their silent stares demanding an explanation that left no room for obfuscation.

Shen Daiyu sighed, the sound echoing with the weariness of a thousand lifetimes. ”Can you calm down? Let me explain the situation before the three of you go ballistic.”

Then, she began to detail the recent turn of events: how Haoran’s aggressive, systematic erasure of the ”Chosen Ones” had caused a profound, anomalous spike in their clan’s collective luck and destiny.

The spike had been so violent, so unexpected, that it had caused the foundational Concealment Array, the lifeblood of their secrecy, to destabilize for that critical, heart-stopping instant.

”Although we managed to secure the core nodes and stabilize the formation,” Shen Daiyu continued, her voice grim, ”the Heavens have surely felt something was amiss.”

Indeed. After all, it was such a massive karmic commotion that defies its understanding.

Someone as greedy as that thing will surely notice that the luck it provided to its chosen were all aggressively stolen by the ones it deemed to be a mere stepping stones.

”The heavenly dao is not stupid, and that momentary slip was probably more than enough for it to tell that some was wrong. In other words, maintaining the secrecy will be exponentially harder from now on.” Shen Daiyu sighed, rubbing her forehead stressfully, ”Furthermore, the Heavens will likely become much more active and aggressive in protecting its remaining ’chosen’ ones. So it will become significantly more difficult for Haoran to subdue or eliminate future targets without triggering a direct heavenly intervention.”

The three sisters grew solemn. The weight of her words settled into the room like a burial shroud.

”That Concealment Array...” Feng Yuyan suddenly spoke, her voice uncharacteristically soft and analytical. ”Can you Supremes still maintain it with the current situation?”

Shen Daiyu nodded, but then shook her head, her golden eyes glinting with a rare flicker of vulnerability. ”Yes, but not for long. Our current number of active Supremes is insufficient to fully sustain the array while the world is actively trying to pierce through it. We need more hands on the metaphysical helm, and we need more power poured into the foundation.”

Chu Xueyu, Leng Shuang, and Feng Yuyan exchanged a long, meaningful look.

They were not naive. They understood the implications of that statement perfectly.

The Supreme Hall was effectively demanding that they break their current seals, ascend to the Supreme Emperor realm, and commit themselves to the endless task of managing the array from the heart of the clan.

However, such a decision came with a monumental cost.

The reason Supremes rarely left the Supreme Hall wasn’t just to preserve their life essence for the legendary opening of the Immortal Road; it was because their very existence was the anchor for the clan’s survival.

Their presence was a vital component of the concealment array, and leaving might cause it to destabilize.

However, if all Supremes were tending to the arrays, it would leave the Shen Clan with no Supreme to shoulder it, so it has been a rule that there had to be at least one Supreme who won’t participate in maintaining the array and will just be assigned as a guardian who would stand watch and protect the clan in case of a catastrophic emergency.

And this guardian was always the youngest, for not only did they possess a longer remaining lifespan, but they were significantly stronger, as is the case for the Shen Clan.

In this generation, Shen Daiyu was the guardian.

This was the reason why she can come and go from the Supreme Hall to the outside world.

So if Chu Xueyu, Leng Shuang, and Feng Yuyan all ascended, it meant that, at best, only one of them would be permitted to come and go from the Supreme Hall to the outside world.

And even then, that person would primarily be stuck to the Hall, just in case of an emergency that required their strength.

Silence permeated the room, causing the atmosphere to go tense.

Finally, Leng Shuang broke the silence as she turned toward Chu Xueyu, her eyes devoid of their usual coldness, replaced by a sudden, resolute warmth.

”Then it is decided. You will be the guardian, Xueyu.”

Feng Yuyan also smiled, a genuine, sisterly expression that reached her eyes. ”Yeah, she’s right. After all, you’re the youngest of us, and more importantly, you are Haoran’s mother. If he really is going to be in grave danger, he will need you watching over his path more than he needs us.”

”You two... don’t be ridiculous,” Chu Xueyu frowned, her voice rising in protest. ”No. I—”

”Alright, can you listen to me first before you start a drama? You’re making me sick.” Shen Daiyu interrupted, her voice sharp enough to cut through the heavy emotional atmosphere.

The three sisters turned toward her, blinking in confusion.

Feng Yuyan tilted her head, her brow furrowed in genuine bewilderment. ”Eh? But... didn’t you just tell us all of this specifically to force us to ascend, Grandmother?”

”Who said that?” Shen Daiyu flicked her forehead with a sharp, stinging motion.

Feng Yuyan grumbled in pain, rubbing the spot while glaring at her grandmother.

Shen Daiyu snorted, ”You three absolute idiots. You’ve been living so long that you’ve forgotten how to actually listen to the words being spoken.”

She then walked toward the desk, and slammed her palm down with a sound like a thunderclap.

”Listen well, you useless brats. The Supreme Hall isn’t so weak or so pathetic that we need help from three little musketeers just to maintain a simple formation. If we were truly that desperate, the Shen Clan would have fallen a million years ago.”

The sisters looked at each other, their confusion deepening.

”Then... if we aren’t needed to maintain the array, why did you come here and tell us all of that?”

Shen Daiyu clicked her tongue, looking toward the ceiling as if asking the Heavens for patience. ”I’m just here to inform you that we’ll all be incredibly busy and preoccupied for the time being. The Supreme Hall’s core forces will be entirely locked into the array maintenance and cannot be deployed if something goes wrong on the outside. The three of you are now the primary line of defense. You better be prepared to handle whatever comes next.”

The three sisters immediately turned solemn, the realization of their true duty settling upon their shoulders.

They nodded in unison, their expressions hardening into masks of absolute determination.

”Understood, Grandmother. We shall not fail.”

”Well, that’s all of it,” Shen Daiyu said, turning toward the door. ”I’m leaving now, my dear daughters of mine.”

”Granddaughters,” they corrected in unison.

”Semantics,” she waved a hand over her shoulder.

With a light, echoing laugh, Shen Daiyu walked out of the study, her gait graceful and unburdened.

But the very moment she stepped out of the room after phasing through the door, the smile vanished from her face.

Her shoulders slumped, and hot, stinging tears began to fall comically from her eyes, tracing paths down her cheeks as she wept silently into the empty hallway.

”I went and did it,” she whispered to the shadows, her voice cracking with the strain of the lie. ”Me and my darn heart.”

Truthfully, she came here to convince the three to ascend and help in maintaining the array, but upon seeing them, she just couldn’t bear to say it.

For her, the happiness of her family far outweighs the need of the clan.

Of course, she couldn’t really let the clan be destroyed or something, so she had to do their work instead.

As for being the guardian, she believes that those three are more than enough to fight against a Supreme, so she doesn’t have to worry about that.

”...It’s fine, it’s fine.” She tried to convince herself, ”It’s just the work of three Supremes, I can do that. I’m Shen Daiyu, and I ain’t a bitch.”

Three Supremes...she can manage that much, right?

Damn it! Those girls better be grateful that they’re family.

With that thought, she vanished.