Villains Aren't Stepping Stones!

”Just kill me....”

Huo Yue was currently covering her face entirely with her hands, her fingers spread just a fraction of a millimeter so she could peer through the gaps, her cheeks burning a shade of crimson so intense it practically illuminated the dining room.

She felt incredibly, profoundly embarrassed as every single person sitting around the massive table stared directly at her, their expressions ranging from poorly suppressed giggles to open, unadulterated amusement.

At this exact moment, they were all safely back inside the luxurious, protective wards of the Falling Blossom Villa, gathered together to enjoy a lavish, multi-course dinner after a long, grueling day of traversing the various sectors of Academy Dimension.

Just a few minutes earlier, the atmosphere in the dining hall had been dominated entirely by Huo Yue’s booming, celebratory voice.

Fresh off her massive alchemical windfall in the Leaf Green City marketplace, she had strutted into the villa like a victorious conquering general.

She had slammed her jade identity token onto the table, loudly bragging to the entire room about earning an astronomical 25 thousand Dao Points in a single afternoon.

She had gone so far as to puff out her chest, stand up on her chair, and arrogantly declare that she would generously treat every single one of them to the finest immortal restaurants and premium cultivation resources for the next month—provided, of course, that they all formally kneeled down and acknowledged her as the supreme ”Big Sister” of the villa.

She had even smugly winked at Haoran, implying that her newfound wealth could easily support his needs.

But then... the tragedy occurred.

Zhu Ziyan, sitting quietly beside her and simply not wanting her dear friend to continue aggressively embarrassing herself to the point of no return, had calmly cleared her throat.

With a completely deadpan, innocent expression, the cat-eared girl dropped a psychological nuclear bomb onto the conversation by casually revealing that Shen Haoran had actually earned a staggering, monumental total of ten million Dao Points during his brief afternoon stroll near the administration building.

And that exact, devastating revelation was the sole reason why Huo Yue was currently curled up into a pathetic, trembling ball in her cushioned chair, desperately trying to shrink into the fabric so she could vanish from the mortal plane.

She had boasted so loudly, so proudly, and so thoroughly about her generic 25 thousand points.

She had even gone around promising to treat her fiance, the young master of the legendary Shen Clan like a charity case, thinking thay this will be the only time where she is richer than him, yet it turned out he was already far, infinitely far richer than her wildest dreams could ever comprehend!

Ten million points was enough to casually purchase a small lower realm!

... okay, maybe she’s exaggerating, but still!

’If you’re already so absurdly, monstrously rich, why on earth didn’t you just say so beforehand?!’ Huo Yue screamed frantically within the absolute safety of her internal thoughts, her fingers twitching against her flushed face. ’Now I look like an absolute, brainless clown who tried to flex a single copper coin in front of the owner of the world’s grandest gold mine! The humiliation is real!’

”Well... look at the bright side, sister Yue. It’s ultimately the pure thought that counts, right?” Shen Xinye said, a gentle, highly sympathetic smile gracing her soft features as she tried to patch over the absolute awkwardness of the silence.

”Indeed,” Xia Mengyao nodded her head in firm agreement, taking a slow, elegant sip of her premium soup. ”Your willingness to share your hard-earned wealth with the rest of us is a testament to your generous nature, Huo Yue. There is no shame in that.”

”Exactly, it’s completely fine. After all, we all have some sort of deeply buried, historical archive of absolute shame in our pasts, right?” Ling Luochen added helpfully, waving her chopsticks in the air to dismiss the tension. ”What doesn’t kill your social standing only makes your cultivation skin thicker!”

Hearing that profound piece of rogue logic, everyone around the table simultaneously nodded their heads in a silent collective agreement, a brief ripple of shared, embarrassing memories running through their minds.

”By the way... I just noticed, where exactly are all the boys tonight? Aren’t they going to eat?” asked Qian Yunxi, her brilliant blonde hair swaying gracefully from side to side as she tilted her head, looking around the massive, half-empty dining hall in confusion.

”Shen Tao and the rest of the Ten Crowns left the villa extremely early to gather intel and also to earn some quick points,” Xu Xiansu answered smoothly, cutting her steak with clinical precision. ”Before they set out, they specifically left a message saying they would immediately head straight to the central auction house after finishing their tasks and will definitely not be returning here for dinner. As for Haoran... Well, the moment he entered the villa, he immediately headed straight upstairs to his private room. He looked so unusually exhausted.”

Yes. Unusual. This is the first time Xu Xiansu had ever seen him look like that. He must’ve had a long day.

”Yeah, that’s entirely true,” Ziyan nodded her head, her feline ears drooping slightly as a wave of serious concern crossed her purple eyes.

Everyone’s eyes turned towards her, even Huo Yue opened her fingers to take a peek.

”He was forced to fight a completely shameless, utterly repulsive peak Earthly Saint Realm expert earlier in the central plaza. That old guy was actually using his vastly superior cultivation base and centuries of experience just to openly bully the weak right in the middle of the street. How completely disgusting. A Master Teacher of that caliber should be profoundly ashamed of his own existence.”

She had entirely forgotten that only a few minutes prior to that incident, Shen Haoran had been executing the exact same ruthless, heavy-handed method of power suppression to forcefully terrify and bully the weaker commoner students in the teleportation line.

But in her mind, her Shen Haoran’s actions were always a display of absolute majesty, while anyone else doing it was a vile criminal.

The double standard was absolute.

”A peak Earthly Saint powerhouse!?” Shen Xun’er suddenly looked up from her massive plate of steak, her eyes widening into massive plates as she stared at Ziyan in absolute shock. ”Did the Boss manage to beat his absolute ass into the dirt!? Heavens, how completely shameless of that old scholar! If an incident like that had occurred within the borders of the Shen Clan Domain, that old bastard would have already been violently crippled, stripped of his meridians, and turned into a biological chimera by Lady Feng Yuyan!”

The exact second the name Feng Yuyan left her lips, a sudden, suffocating chill seemed to violently drop into the warm dining room.

Shen Xinye, Shen Ying, Ning Xueli, and Ling Luochen—who all personally, intimately knew the true, unadulterated terror of Feng Yuyan’s medical experiments back in the Shen Clan’s Domain—all simultaneously froze mid-bite.

Their faces immediately turned completely pale, and they nodded their heads in a synchronous, rhythmic pattern, their bodies visibly shivering as a cold sweat broke out across their spines.

That absolute lunatic was the exact kind of terrifying woman who would look at you with a gentle, breathtakingly beautiful smile while casually turning your still hot and freshly pulled intestines into a plate of spaghetti right before your very eyes, before politely forcing you to eat them down to the last bite just to see your reaction.

She was a complete, unhinged lunatic wrapped in the robes of a genius researcher!

”Anyways!” Huo Yue suddenly bounced straight back up from her ball of depression, her physical energy exploding outward as if her earlier, catastrophic embarrassment had vanished into thin air.

She slammed her hands onto the table, her eyes gleaming with excitement. ”Girls, hurry up and finish with your food right now! We are running incredibly late for the grand opening of the central auction! The rare spiritual herbs and hidden treasures are going to be sold off first!”

She then abruptly spun her body around, locking her sharp gaze directly onto the sitting Ziyan, and pointed a fierce, accusing index finger straight at her nose.

”Not you though, Zhu Ziyan. You are strictly staying right here inside the villa tonight.”

”Hm?” Ziyan blinked her massive purple eyes, her feline ears twitching in genuine confusion. ”Why can’t I go to the auction?”

”Somebody has to stay behind and properly take care of Haoran while he’s in that exhausted state, you know?” Huo Yue smirked, a deeply devious, playful glint flashing across her eyes as she stepped closer to the cat-eared girl. ”You don’t want to just leave him all alone in that dark room while his mental energy is drained, do you? Where is your loyalty as my friend? You can’t even look after my fiance?”

”N-No!” Ziyan shook her head, ”B-But, sister Yue, aren’t you afraid that something might happen? We’re a boy and girl alone, you know?”

”Something might happen? A boy and a girl?” Huo Yue chuckled, ”Like what, Ziyan? Tell me.”

”Uuuhh.”

Huo Yue smirked and walked over, walking circles around her seat as she tapped her chin thoughtfully. ”Hmm... It’s decided tben, but first, if you’re going to be nursing a supreme young master, we need to dress you up into something much more appropriate for the occasion.”

”Oh! I can absolutely help with that!” Ning Xueli raised her hands high into the air, a wide, chaotic smile of pure glee spreading across her face as she practically vibrated with excitement. ”I brought with me an entire crate of specialized silk maid outfits!”

Haoran might like these, so she decided to bring them.

A little bit of spice, you know. And it’s not just maid outfit either.

”N-No... wait, please, there is absolutely no need for—” Ziyan stammered, her face turning crimson as she tried to push her chair back to escape.

”It’s completely settled then! No arguments allowed!” Huo Yue cheered.

Just then, sitting across the table, Luo Mingye noticed the deeply reluctant, completely flustered look burning within Zhu Ziyan’s purple eyes.

Feeling a surge of her usual, straightforward rogue righteousness, she opened her mouth, about to loudly volunteer herself to stay behind and take the maid duty instead to save her friend from the embarrassment.

But before she could even raise her hand or utter a single syllable, Xia Mengyao—who was not only intelligent but also knew her friend and her thoughts—reacted with blinding speed.

She reached under the table and delivered a fierce, agonizing pinch directly to Luo Mingye’s sensitive side.

”Ow!” Luo Mingye violently flinched, her body jerking as she glared at the red head beauty with absolute fury, her teeth bared. ”What the absolute hell was that for, Mengyao!?”

Xia Mengyao didn’t offer a verbal explanation.

She simply brought a slender, pristine index finger to her lips, letting out a soft ”shh” sound, her cool gaze telling the rogue princess to remain completely silent and let the matchmakers do their work.

Luo Mingye snorted loudly in irritation, rubbing her sore side, but she ultimately did exactly as requested, sinking back into her chair and staying out of the trap.

”Alright, let’s go, team! Operation Comfort is a go!”

Huo Yue laughed loudly, grabbing a completely paralyzed, red-faced Ziyan by the arm and dragging her out of the kitchen towards the upper residential quarters.

Meanhile a giggling Ning Xueli followed closely behind like a dark disciple of fashion chaos.