Villains Aren't Stepping Stones!

”What do you want?”

”Yo, Haoran.” Ling Yinchi raised her hand, smiling at him.

Her orange cheongsam was still slightly smudged with dust and earthworm fluids, but she carried herself with an easy, almost lazy posture, waving at him as if they were old childhood friends casually running into each other at a bustling market square rather than competing in a high-stakes, broadcasted imperial survival trial.

Haoran frowned. The sight of her flippant demeanor only served to mildly irritate him. ”If you don’t have anything to say, then leave.”

His tone was cold, sharp, and cut through the desert air like an unsheathed blade.

Beside him, Shen Xinye shifted slightly, her hand twitching, ready to react if either of the two women attempted anything foolish.

”Shen Haoran,” Su Meilin spoke, stepping forward to draw his focus away from her eccentric companion, her voice was steady, like still water, and her deep blue eyes looked directly into his. ”Is it possible for us to enter that place?”

Haoran stared at her, his golden eyes narrowing slightly as he observed her face.

Memories long buried in the back of his mind slowly surfaced as he vaguely remembered her during their youth, back when the Nine Immortal Clans would routinely hold grand, extravagant banquets to officially introduce their young heirs and boast about their respective talents to the rest of the world.

He recalled seeing a quiet, polite girl standing behind the Su Clan patriarchs during those formal gatherings.

However, soon after that period, rumors had circulated that she had mysteriously vanished, and Haoran had never heard of any further news about her since.

Not to mention he didn’t really care about her.

The rise and fall of other clan heirs meant nothing to his personal ambitions.

If it wasn’t for Shen Xinye bringing up her name and background during their walk through the desert earlier, he probably would have completely forgotten that this woman even existed.

At that moment, as he continued to look at both Su Meilin and Ling Yinchi, his eyes suddenly flickered into a brilliant, swirling rainbow light, before rapidly returning to their original golden color.

Ling Yinchi frowned, she subconsciously shifted her posture, feeling as if Haoran had strip her bare and seen all her secrets.

It was slightly jarring.

Haoran frowned internally.

’As expected, this Su Meilin is a heroine.’

The thick, six colored condensed karmic luck surrounding her soul clearly marked her as a key female figure bound to a destiny-favored child of heaven.

However, what surprised him was the faint, identical aura woven into the soul of the orange-haired woman beside her.

’I didn’t expect that Ling Yinchi was also one.’

Two distinct heroines standing together in the middle of a desert trial.

However, since they don’t have their protagonist present with them yet, Haoran couldn’t really care less about them.

Without a protagonist nearby to trigger chaotic karmic events or fortune-altering miracles, they were simply two talented cultivators from powerful clans.

They posed no threat to his plans.

”Do whatever you want. Just don’t get in our way,” Haoran said plainly, dismissing them without another thought.

With that, he grabbed Shen Xinye firmly by the waist, drawing her close to his side, and turned around to step through the dark, massive archway of the sandstone temple, vanishing into the ancient interior.

”Oh man,” Ling Yinchi sighed, placing a hand on her hip and scratching the back of her head with her other hand as she watched the two vanish into the darkness. ”I really can’t handle men who aren’t star-struck with my beauty. He didn’t even glance at my legs!”

Su Meilin turned her head toward her, staring at her with unreserved disgust. ”Can you please act proper? Your words and actions are entirely unbecoming of a heiress of an Immortal Clan. You are bringing utter shame to the Ling Clan.”

Ling Yinchi smiled eerily at her, her orange eyes gleaming with a strange, unnatural light that sent a faint chill through the air. ”Like I said, I don’t think that’s any of your business, is it?”

She took a slow, deliberate step forward, closing the distance between them until her face was merely inches away from Su Meilin’s.

Her voice dropped to an intimate, terrifying whisper that vibrated with subtle spiritual energy.

”Besides, when it comes to bringing shame to the clan... aren’t you the exact same? After all, you did fall in love with a mongrel from the lower realm.”

Su Meilin’s eyes widened in sudden, absolute shock. Her pale skin turned even paler as her breath caught in her throat. ”How did—”

She didn’t get to finish her words as she suddenly realized the truth behind the revelation.

The Ling Clan were universally known throughout the empire for their terrifyingly potent mental and spiritual strength, so much so that they were known to produce the greatest Seers and fortune-tellers in the entire world.

Their soul foundation was unnaturally dense, granting them sensory abilities that far transcended ordinary cultivators.

Even ordinary members of their Clan could read subtle emotional shifts, sense surface thoughts, and even see directly through someone’s innermost memories if their guard was lowered.

The most skilled members of the Ling Clan could even directly manipulate another person’s mind, rewrite their perceptions, and permanently alter their memories without leaving a single trace.

This was precisely why most people didn’t want to interact with them in social settings.

It was also the reason why the Ling Clan generally didn’t like interacting with outsiders due to the fact that constantly feeling other people’s underlying greed, lust, envy, and various negative emotions was mentally exhausting for them to endure.

Su Meilin took a quick step back, her blue eyes narrowing into sharp slits as her spiritual energy flared around her body to seal her mind against further intrusion. ”You Ling Clan are really annoying to deal with.”

”Now, now, don’t insult my clan,” Ling Yinchi said, leaning back and waving a finger playfully in the air, her eerie aura instantly evaporating into her usual flippant demeanor. ”If we’re talking about who is the most annoying to deal with, then it’s definitely the Gu Clan, right? Those crazy lunatics couldn’t rest for a single decade without unleashing ancient curses and toxic plagues to cause total chaos in the world.”

Su Meilin remained silent for a moment, her tense shoulders relaxing slightly, though she internally agreed with the statement.

The Gu Clan was universally loathed; their dark methods and obsession with ancient buried past and releasing ancient demons or curses made them unpredictable monsters that even the other Immortal Clans preferred to avoid.

”Anyways, you to see what’s inside as well, right?” Ling Yinchi asked, turning her gaze back toward the towering entrance of the ancient ruins. ”Let’s go in. I’m curious about this place.”

”Mn,” Su Meilin nodded, her cold, composed demeanor returning completely. ”Let’s proceed.”

She paused for a brief second, looking back over her shoulder at the distant sand dunes where the male students who had accompanied Ling Yinchi earlier were still buried or unconscious.

”What about your boy toys? Are you going to leave them behind to die in the sand?”

Ling Yinchi didn’t even bother to turn her head, simply waving her slender hand dismissively over her shoulder as she took her first step toward the temple.

”Leave them be. They are all grown men with cultivation bases; they can take care of themselves.”

With that cold, unconcerned dismissal, she crossed the threshold and entered the dark sandstone temple.

Su Meilin stood alone in the quiet desert air for a few brief moments, her eyes lingering on the shifting sands, before letting out a soft sigh and following after her, stepping into the shadows of the ancient ruins.

*

*

*

*Cough! Cough!*

Lin Che slumped heavily against the crumbling, sun-baked stone wall of a narrow alleyway, his breathing ragged and shallow.

Blood, dark and thick, seeped through his torn linen shirt where one of Shen Haoran’s silver sword-intent bullets had cleanly gouged through his shoulder.

Even with his impressive Spirit Ascension recovery rate, the residual sword intent lingering within the wound acted like microscopic, gnawing blades, actively resisting his body’s attempts to seal the flesh.

He clutched his injured shoulder, his fingers trembling, while his lungs burned as if he were inhaling molten copper.

Earlier, the moment he entered the temple, he immediately found himself in the middle of a massive city made of sandstone.

He truthfully expected a traditional tomb layout—a series of linear corridors, dusty burial chambers, and obvious pressure-plate traps—Lin Che had instead stumbled through the spatial barrier straight into an ancient, subterranean metropolis buried beneath the desert floor.

Towering sandstone buildings, broad avenues, twisting side streets, and towering aqueducts stretched out endlessly beneath an eerie, artificial sky of swirling purple twilight.

It was an grand, dead city.

And it was a nightmare.

The entire city acts as a maze, with countless beasts scattered that chased anything they see.

The air inside the metropolis hummed with an ancient, oppressive pressure.

Roars, bone-chilling screeches, and the heavy thud of gigantic paws echoed from every direction.

High-level demonic beasts—beings that had been captured, bred, and left to roam this subterranean ruin by the academy’s founders—stalked the deserted avenues.

From multi-eyed shadow panthers that slithered through the alleys to massive stone-scaled gargoyles perching atop the sandstone roofs, the place was a churning meat grinder for uninvited guests.

Worse, flight and other movement techniques are completely forbidden.

The moment Lin Che had tried to channel his Spirit Ascension qi to float above the rooftops and survey the terrain, an invisible, crushing weight had slammed down onto his shoulders like a falling mountain.

Any attempt to defy gravity, leap beyond human limits, or utilize high-tier spatial movement techniques would instantly trigger a heavy gravity formation that would smash the offender directly into the stone streets, leaving them vulnerable to the roaming beasts.

He had no choice but to rely on his own two feet, ducking through dark alleys and slipping behind decaying pillars like a fugitive.

He didn’t even have time to heal his injuries as he was afraid that Haoran will immediately caught up with them, only now allowing himself to relax when he realized that Haoran wasn’t following him yet.

He didn’t even appear in the map yet.

Thankfully, with the system’s map, he avoided the beasts and already reached halfway through this maze-like city.

At that moment, he stared at the translucent, glowing blue mini-map that hovered in his field of vision, visible only to his eyes.

Red dots, representing the roaming beasts and hidden spatial traps, shifted continuously across the grid.

A pulsing golden line traced a safe, intricate path through the complex urban grid, guiding him through the labyrinthine alleyways while avoiding the dense patrols of apex predators.

”Damn it... That Shen Haoran is simply insane. How could he be so strong?!” he cursed under his breath, spitting a small mouthful of blood onto the dusty ground.

His eyes burned with a mixture of lingering terror, intense frustration, and deep indignity.

He was a transmigrator! He possessed a sign-in system! He was a secret 1st Stage Spirit Ascension cultivator!

Yet, in a brief, one-sided clash that lasted less than two minutes, a youth of the same generation had treated his ultimate defensive artifacts like glass and shattered his 300-meter Spirit Avatar with a casual gesture.

The sheer gap in raw capability made Lin Che’s blood run cold.

Shen Haoran hadn’t even drawn a proper weapon; he had simply pointed a finger and nearly ended his life.

”System, this sign-in reward better be worth it,” Lin Che muttered, clutching his chest as he felt his internal qi gradually stabilize the throbbing pain in his shoulder. ”I just exposed my true strength, ruined my peaceful slacker life, and got hunted down by a monster from an Immortal Clan. If this Supreme Emperor inheritance turns out to be some mediocre low-tier pill or a broken sword, I’m going to lose my mind.”

[Host, never worry. This sign-in spot is the best one yet, and you can definitely get something great,] the system’s monotone voice responded smoothly in his mind. [It is even possible for your cultivation to jump to Nirvana Rebirth or Profound Saint directly]

”Is that so...” Lin Che murmured, a sharp, ambitious glint returning to his tired eyes.

If he could reach the Saint, no, even Nirvana Rebirth Realm here, he would undergo a total physical and spiritual transformation.

His body would be re-forged in divine flames, granting him the strength to truly stand against the monstrous geniuses of the high realms.

He might even be able to wash away the humiliation he had suffered at the hands of the Shen Clan’s young master.

He took a deep breath, pushing his back away from the rough stone wall.

He wiped the dried blood from his jaw, smoothed out his torn, dust-covered robes, as he spoke, ”System, give me my healing potions.”

At that moment, a small vial with red liquid appeared on his palm.

Without hesitation, he opened it and drank the contents, and within an instant, all the wounds on his body healed!

Now, with his body fully healed, his heart hardened in determination.

Retreating only means certain death. He must continue, unless there is a chance of survival.

His eyes fixed on the pulsing marker on his system map, he stepped out of the shadow of the alleyway and decided to continue once again, vanishing into the silent, treacherous maze of the sandstone city.