Villains Aren't Stepping Stones!

Far above the lower realm, beyond the cold clouds and the sea of stars, sat the home of the Shen Clan.

It was an endless place filled with grand white halls, tall towers that pierced the sky, and gardens where ancient trees grew leaves of silver and gold.

The air here was so thick with pure energy that common grass smelled sweet, and streams of clear spiritual water flowed quietly over beds of smooth jade stones.

In this high place, the troubles of small worlds were nothing more than dust blown away by an idle breeze.

Inside a quiet pavilion surrounded by blooming white lotus flowers, a woman was resting by an open window.

Her name was Chu Xueyu.

She wore long, flowing robes of pale silk that fell neatly around her seat, her long golden hair was held up by a simple jade pin, and her face was fair and calm, carrying an effortless grace that made even the proudest elders of the clan lower their heads in respect.

She was a woman whose name alone could make old sect leaders shiver in their boots.

But right now, sitting in the warm morning light with a cup of hot tea in her hand, she looked gentle and relaxed.

Buzz.

A small sound broke the silence of the room.

At her side, hanging from a silk belt, a round piece of carved white stone began to glow with a warm, golden light.

It was a communication tool tied directly to her son’s own communication artifact.

Seeing it react, her slender fingers lifted the warm jade piece with practiced ease.

The faint gold glow reflected in her soft eyes, and the calm look on her face melted into something much warmer as a motherly fondness rose in her chest whenever this little piece of stone lit up.

She held the jade close to her lips.

”Haoran,” she said, her voice soft and sweet like honey, carrying a gentle warmth she never showed to anyone else in the outside world. ”How are you doing there in the lower realm?”

*

*

*

Back in the Ancient Heaven Star.

Haoran stood at the top of the broken stone stairs underneath the Rising Dragon Sect.

Ling Luochen was still resting down in the dim cellar behind him, the blue screen hovering quietly in her thoughts while she recovered.

Haoran held a matching golden jade piece of communication artifact in his hand, his white robes fluttering against the cold draft.

Hearing the voice from the other side, Haoran did not spend time asking about the weather in the upper realm, nor did he offer sweet words to please his mother and immediately went straight to the point.

”Mother,” Haoran said into the jade. ”I have a favor to ask you.”

{”Don’t be so formal. I told you didn’t I? The Clan will always have your back. Now speak, what is it that you want us to do.”}

”Mother, please go to the Imperial Academy and asked them to surrender the Ancient Heaven Star to us, I want this place for my own.” Haoran stated, turning his gaze towards Ling Luochen, ”And also, I want to develop this world. So bring down our workers, our array masters, and our subordinates. Let’s turn this place into a world that can fully support the birth of a Saint.”

*

*

*

Back in the high white pavilion, Chu Xueyu paused with her teacup halfway to her lips.

She let out a soft, light laugh that sounded like small silver bells tapping together.

”Is that all?” she asked, setting her cup down on the low wooden table with a gentle clink. ”My silly boy, you make it sound like a big task. The Imperial Academy is just a school we establish, to put it bluntly, they’re our dogs. If you want something from them, not to mention a mere Lower Realm, even if you want to take the life of one of their Sages, we will simply take it.”

She waved her hand, and a piece of paper appeared in the air in front of her, ”I can write a short note right now, stamp it with our clan’s seal, and drop it on that old man Sky Cloud’s desk before noon. They would not dare utter a single complaint. In fact, they will probably thank you for taking the trouble off their hands.”

She rested her chin in the palm of her hand, her eyes curving slightly.

But asked why he wanted to do this.

”Still, a small, dried-up star in the lower realm is not worth much,” she said, sounding genuinely curious. ”The air there is thin, the stones are common, and the people are weak. Our clan has hundreds of rich worlds that produce divine iron and spirit herbs every single day. Why waste your time and our people’s work on a piece of dead rock at the bottom of the sky? Did you find something fun down there?”

*

*

*

Back in the Ancient Heaven Star.

Haoran looked down at his clean boots, then turned his gaze back toward Ling Luochen, who seemed to be gazing at an empty air, but he knew she was probably studying how the system work.

”There was a very interesting thing that was hidden in this dirt,” Haoran said into the artifact, his voice even and natural. ”The Will of this world was tired of being stepped on by the academy students, and to fight back, it pulled its remaining strength together and built an invisible tool. A system.”

{”A system... Similar to what Leng Shuang and Feng Yuyan are researching?”}

”Yes. Anyways, the Will of this realm found a man named Yun Ming, gave him that tool, and let him open a strange path,” Haoran went on. ”Through that path, it reached out to a dead world far away, a place without any cultivation, and hooked into the sleeping minds of common people there. It brought their souls down into this world, gave them false bodies, and called them disciples.”

”A dead world?” Chu Xueyu murmured, her interest piqued. ”Souls without cultivation? What good are common mortals? They aren’t even worthy to clean our streets.”

”Yes, but they are special,” Haoran answered simply. ”Cut off their arms, crush their chests, take their heads—it does not matter. The tool pulls them right back out of the earth within moments, whole and laughing as if nothing happened. They do not fear pain, and they do not run from blood. But that is not the important part.”

Haoran’s eyes turned cold and sharp as he looked into the wind.

”The core of this world took all the good luck it had saved up for thousands of years and dumped it into that leader,” Haoran explained to his aunt. ”Then, through the system, it cut that luck into hundreds of thousands of tiny threads, tying one to each of those foreign souls. It turned every single one of those fools into an artificial child of fortune.”

On the other end of the jade, Chu Xueyu went completely still.

The smile on her lips faded, replaced by the sharp, focused look of a true leader of the Shen Clan.

She was not a sheltered girl; she knew the great value of fortune better than almost anyone.

True children of fortune were rare gifts of the sky, people whose luck could turn a falling mountain into a pile of gold.

Their clan had spent countless years trying to find ways to eliminate them but always failed, and the most they can do was simply to seal most of them away.

And even then, it didn’t stop the heavenly dao from creating more.

”Are you sure?” she asked, her voice dropping into a low, serious tone.

”I saw them fight and their fortune,” Haoran said. ”They are a bit weaker than genuine ones born under lucky stars, but their luck is real. Not to mention they can make up for their shortcomings with their sheer numbers.”

Haoran leaned against the stone railing, his voice calm but steady.

”Even if it’s just a few thousand fools who can never truly die, each carrying a piece of heaven’s luck on their shoulders, they will be useful.” Haoran said. ”Right now, they are raw and messy because that fool Yun Ming did not know how to raise dogs. But if we feed them proper techniques, if our clan supplies them with real armor and sharp blades, they will become something else entirely.”

He paused, letting the thought settle.

”Think about it, Mother. In the wars ahead, when we clash with the other ancient families or open the forbidden gates in the high skies, we do not need to risk the blood of our own children. We can simply send this undying pack first. They will run into the slaughter fields with big smiles, chew through enemy formations, eat up the traps, and steal the luck of everyone they touch. They will die ten times a day and come back ten times stronger. Having an army of lucky, unkillable tools that ask for nothing but fun... they will definitely be a huge help in the future.”

In the high pavilion, Chu Xueyu let out a slow breath.

A wide, cold smile spread across her beautiful face.

The slight hesitation she had felt about wasting resources on a lower world vanished completely.

Haoran was truly her own son—cold, practical, and always seeing three steps ahead of everyone else.

To turn a dying lower world into a factory that pumped out lucky war puppets was a move worthy of the Shen bloodline.

”I see,” Chu Xueyu said, her voice warm and cheerful once more. ”You always find the most interesting toys, Haoran. An army of lucky fools... yes, that does sound quite delightful. The elders will be very pleased to hear this.”

”So you will handle the paperwork?” Haoran asked.

”Paperwork? Who needs paperwork for an empty dirt hill?” Chu Xueyu laughed softly. ”I will have your aunt Leng Shuang take our family’s black iron tablet down to the academy gates within the hour. By sundown, the old geezers will have signed every piece of paper transferring the Ancient Heaven Star to our private treasury. I will also dispatch three teams of earth workers, five formation elders, and two chests of spirit-soil seeds to your coordinates. Within half a year, that broken star will look like a proper garden.”

”Good,” Haoran replied, his tone as relaxed as if they had just agreed to buy a basket of fruit from the market. ”Send them quickly. The world’s mind needs time to gather its strength, and the sooner we clean up the mess here, the sooner we can get the tool working again.”

”Do not worry, my dear,” Chu Xueyu said with a soft chuckle. ”Your mother will make sure everything is ready before you finish your afternoon tea. Take care of yourself down there, and do not let those dusty winds ruin your health. How long till you finish the trials?”

”We should be done in two years, mother.” Replied Haoran, ”Coincidentally, the Will also needs that amount of time to prepare.”

”Very well.”

The golden light on the communication stone flickered and slowly went dark as the connection closed.

Haoran lowered his hand and tucked the warm jade stone back into his inner robe as he stood at the edge of the high stone platform.

The cavern wind picked up, howling through the hollow spaces between the broken walls, but Haoran’s white robes remained clean, neat, and unruffled.

The pieces on the board were falling into their proper places.

The academy was out of the way, the clan was moving in, the world’s mind was bound to his will, and the small tool resting down in the dark was safely held by a woman who would never dare to turn her back on him.

He let out a quiet breath into the cold mountain air, turned around, and walked back down into the shadows of the cellar to wait.