Villains Aren't Stepping Stones!

”It’s been many years, Shen Haoran, and you’re still as thoroughly, insufferably arrogant as ever.”

The voice was like the dry scraping of autumn leaves against a fresh tombstone, slithering across the quiet stones of the grand plaza.

At that exact, heavy moment, from the deep, light absorbing group of the Hei Clan, a young man with an incredibly gloomy appearance and dark, heavy eyebags took a slow, deliberate step forward.

He possessed long, unkempt jet-black hair that fell loosely over his narrow shoulders and a pair of blood-red eyes that gleamed with a deep, unsettling malice.

He was draped in an absolute black silk robe that seemed to actively pull the surrounding sunlight into its dark threads, suffocating the natural radiance of the afternoon sky.

The surrounding crowd of peripheral disciples and noble scions instantly collective gasped as they recognized his silhouette.

”That’s... that’s Hei Xuan! The official heir and Heavens Chosen of the supreme Hei Clan!” a core disciple from a medium sect whispered frantically, his skin prickling from the raw death-qi emanating from the black-robed youth.

Another nodded beside him, ”He’s only thirty years old this year, and I heard he has already successfully broken through at the 6th stage of the Nascent Soul Realm! His cultivation speed is completely monstrous!”

”Wait... isn’t that the exact same guy whose face was ruthlessly pressed flat to the ground by young master She—hmmph!?”

Before the reckless speaker could even finish his historical sentence, a nearby companion violently clapped a hand over his mouth, his face turning completely white with an absolute, primitive terror.

”Are you an absolute, brainless idiot!? Do you want to die right here, right now!?” the companion hissed in a frantic, hushed panic, his eyes darting toward the Hei Clan vanguard. ”If the Young Master of the Hei Clan hears you digging up his past humiliations, he will use his dark curses to melt your entire lineage into liquid rot before the academy gates even grind open! Shut your miserable mouth!”

The reckless spear immediately paled as he nodded frantically.

Hei Xuan’s pale fist clenched violently within his wide sleeves as the faint, whispered fragments of the crowd’s chatter reached his sharp perception.

His blood-red eyes flared with a lethal, toxic light as he glared dead across the plaza at Haoran’s golden figure.

”I heard you’ve been spending your precious time going around the cardinal regions of the Empire over the past few years, Shen Haoran,” Hei Xuan sneered, his voice dripping with an intense, calculated mockery. ”What’s the matter? Are you so utterly terrified of facing the true unparalleled geniuses currently residing in the Central Region that you desperately decided to run away and bully those helpless, low-born weaklings inside the cardinal regions just to preserve your fading reputation?”

”Hah! As if our boss would ever be scared of a pathetic, brooding son of a bitch like of you!”

At that precise microsecond, before Haoran could even lift his chin to address the insult, Shen Xun’er stepped forward with an explosive, dynamic energy.

She flexed her legs and violently jumped forward across the stone bricks, covering dozens of meters in a single, fluid arc before landing squarely in front of Hei Xuan, standing a mere meter away from his gloomy face.

She puffed out her modest chest and grinned hysterically, her eyes burning with an absolute, unbridled confidence that held zero fear toward his higher cultivation realm.

”You miserable dogs of the Hei Clan are nothing but a bunch of spineless, cowardly monsters hiding in the dark corners of the world, relying on dirty tricks and taboo poisons! How dare a beaten dog like you have the absolute audacity to insult my boss?”

”You—!” Hei Xuan’s face instantly contorted into a violent, monstrous mask of pure rage as the word ’beaten dog’ struck his pride like a physical whip.

He suddenly, violently flared up his dense, saint-grade shadow-qi, causing the surrounding air within a fifty-meter radius to instantly darken and turn freezing cold, as if a localized eclipse had descended upon the plaza.

”You miserable little brat! Do you truly want to die right here?!”

Shen Xun’er grinned, ”Hah! Kill me if you can! If I even take a step back, I’d strip naked and run around the academy!”

”You’re asking for it!” Hei Xuan’s hands suddenly transformed into a dark shadow blade. ”Die!”

”Hei Xuan.”

Just then, before the dark shadow sword could even touch a single hair on Shen Xun’er, Haoran’s low, perfectly calm voice called out.

The sound was not loud, but it carried the absolute, unyielding structural weight of a sovereign’s decree.

Hei Xuan paused mid-movement, his shadow-qi freezing in mid-air as he instinctively raised his head to meet Haoran’s cold, completely unbothered golden gaze.

The sheer density of the aura radiating from the golden youth was so immense that it felt as if a heavy, invisible mountain had just been placed directly on top of his chest.

”If you dare lay a single finger on her,” Haoran spoke, his voice completely flat, lacking any human emotion, yet filled with a chilling, absolute finality. ”I will not be able to forgive you. And you know exactly what my lack of forgiveness looks like.”

Hei Xuan froze completely in place, his breath catching entirely in his throat as his analytical mind involuntarily replayed that horrific, earth-shattering incident from many years ago.

Within the dark recesses of his memories, he could still feel the crushing, absolute weight of Haoran’s boots pressing the side of his face flat against the cold jade floorboards of the ancestral palace, thoroughly humiliating his status and using his royal face to literally wipe the dirt off the ground.

That memory was a permanent, bleeding scar on his mental cultivation.

He desperately wanted to unleash his shadow arts and brutally beat this arrogant girl for daring to talk back to his face; however, looking at the sharp, unyielding lines of Shen Haoran’s posture and the faint, black-gold runes pulsing within his eyes, he knew with absolute certainty that he was not ready to fight a total war against him right now.

He didn’t want to show his full cards before the official enrollment trial even opened.

But if he simply backed down right now in front of the tens of thousands of watching noble scions... wouldn’t his name be forever recorded across the capital as a sniveling, terrified coward?!

He would become the ultimate laughingstock of the Nine Immortal Clans!

’Shit! Dammit!’ He silently, furiously cursed within his own mind, his body trembling slightly from the sheer, unresolved contradiction of his pride and his fear.

At that exact, critical moment of near-explosive tension, the slow, rhythmic sound of deliberate clapping suddenly resounded from the side of the courtyard, cutting through the heavy spatial pressure like a silver bell.

A beautiful young woman with long, vibrant purple hair that flowed down her back like silk and a pair of sharp, intensely curious red eyes walked forward leisurely, her pristine white dress contrasting sharply with the gloom of the plaza.

Almost everyone immediately gasped seeing her.

”Look over there! That’s Gu Xunyi! The sole heiress to the grand Gu Clan!” a young noble master shouted in recognition.

”My god, it’s that crazy woman!” a girl from a minor sect whimpered, instinctively hiding behind her senior brother’s robes. ”The absolute lunatic who intentionally released the forbidden Soul-Burning Plague that had been sealed inside an ancient subterranean ruin, completely wiping out and killing ten million living people in a single week?!”

”The Gu Clan truly are full of nothing but unhinged, crazy people who should be locked in a cage.”

”Wait, I heard a different rumor... didn’t she travel all the way to the southern region last year and personally release a primordial sealed demon from the dark ages?”

”No, that’s incorrect. I think that was a rogue friend of hers who did that, and she just financed the entire operation to study the spatial arrays.”

Gu Xunyi completely and lazily ignored the terrified murmurs of the surrounding crowd, her red eyes remaining fixed entirely on the two boys standing at the precipice of a bloodbath.

She stopped her stride a few paces away, a soft, graceful smile gracing her lips. ”Alright, that is more than enough posturing for one morning, boys. We are all fundamentally part of the supreme Immortal Clans, bound by the ancient alliances. We shouldn’t be wastefully fighting each other before the academy gates even open, yeah?”

Hei Xuan let out a long, silent breath of immense relief within his chest, deeply thankful that someone of her high standing had stepped in to give him a perfect, face-saving way out of the confrontation.

He quickly snorted coldly, recalling his volatile shadow aura back into his dantian with a heavy flick of his sleeves. ”Hmph. Be thoroughly thankful for her intervention, little girl. Consider your life spared for today.”

With that final, weak attempt to preserve his crumbling dignity, he turned around with a rigid stride and walked straight back into the protective ranks of the Hei Clan disciples.

Gu Xunyi then turned towards Haoran, taking a few steps towards him.

”Shen Haoran, how have you been faring over these past few years?” Gu Xunyi smiled beautifully at him, her purple hair swaying as she tilted her head with a look of genuine, relaxed familiarity.

Haoran’s strict expression softened

slightly, a calm, mocking smile playing on his lips as he looked at the purple-haired girl. ”I’ve been perfectly fine, Xunyi. Though it seems you truly couldn’t resist the urge to do something completely insane during your travels, you crazy woman. Releasing an ancient, soul-burning plague that slaughtered millions of living entities just to map out the ruins of an ancient forgotten kingdom? I must say, my Aunt Yuyan would be exceptionally and deeply proud of your methods if she were here.”

Gu Xunyi let out a low, musical chuckle, her shoulders shaking with an amused delight. ”It would be my absolute, highest honor if the infamous Empress of Forbidden Creation herself were to be proud of my modest academic achievements. I only wish to reach half of her legendary stature.”

At that exact fraction of a second, before their casual conversation could continue any further...

”Haoran!”

A clear, passionate voice violently ripped through the quiet space where the Nine Immortal Clans have gathered.

The dense crowd of thousands of students was suddenly, forcefully parted as a streak of pure crimson fire tore through the pathways.

Huo Yue, her magnificent wine-red eyes burning with a fierce, unwavering light of absolute devotion, finally arrived before his face, her long red hair flying wildly behind her shoulders as she skidded to a halt.

However, the moment her eyes adjusted to the immediate surroundings, her frantic expression instantly froze.

”Hm? Sister Yue?” Gu Xunyi blinked her large red eyes in absolute, unadulterated confusion, her gaze darting between the Flame Empress and the golden-haired heir.

Huo Yue turned her head slowly, her pupils shrinking to the size of pinpricks as she processed the purple-haired girl’s presence.

Her jaw almost dropped open in pure shock. ”Sister... Sister Xunyi?! What on earth are you doing standing here?!”

Shen Haoran blinked his golden eyes, his analytical mind experiencing a rare, genuine moment of confusion as he stared back and forth between the two outstanding women.

He looked at Huo Yue’s stance, then at Gu Xunyi’s relaxed smile, his mind frantically wondering when and where under the heavens these two completely different entities had actually managed to meet each other during his absence.