Villains Aren't Stepping Stones!

Back inside the massive observation amphitheater, the thousands of elite Master Teachers stood completely frozen in their seats.

The previous atmosphere of lighthearted jests and intellectual superiority had been utterly, violently vaporized within a single fraction of a second.

Every single pair of eyes was pinned to the central holographic display, tracking the shifting, dark gold-rimmed perimeter of the sphere that had just materialized inside Shen Haoran’s isolated pocket dimension.

A collective, suffocating wave of profound shock and near-primitive terror swept across the ascending rows of the faculty.

”A domain!?” one high-tier instructor shouted, his voice cracking as he accidentally shattered the stone armrest of his chair with a sudden, uncontrolled leak of his spiritual energy.

”How in the nine layer of heavens is that even remotely possible for a junior to pull off!?” an ancient elder gasped, his hands trembling as he clutched his silk sleeves, his spectacles sliding off his face. ”That... that is an absolute phenomenon that only a supreme entity residing at the apex of cultivation, the Supreme Emperor Realm can physically possess!”

They were thoroughly, completely shocked.

Across the millions of years of recorded cultivation history within the Prime Origin Realm, a true Domain was universally recognized as an ultimate, world-shaking ability exclusively obtained by those sovereign monsters who had successfully broken past the Saint categories.

It was a divine manifestation that allowed a Supreme Emperor to completely, ruthlessly reject the natural laws of the surrounding world, replace the physical world with their own personal canvas, and forcefully impose their own absolute, arbitrary rules upon every single living entity caught within its borders.

Naturally, there were a few historically documented anomalies.

Some completely insane individuals possessing utterly alien minds, such as the terrifying Matriarch of the Shen Clan, Chu Xueyu, and her equally unhinged blood sisters, Feng Yuyan and Leng Shuang, could famously achieve a localized version of this feat even though they were merely standing at the peak of the Heavenly Saint Realm.

But they were universally known as the few, logic-breaking exceptions who had forced the heavens to submit through sheer, unprecedented paths of slaughter and forbidden creation!

To see a mere twenty-four-year-old Nascent Soul Realm brat casually creating his own fully functional domain right before their eyes... one can only begin to imagine the sheer, reality shattering scale of the faculty’s shock.

However... as the initial wave of absolute panic and shock slowly began to settle within the room, a few of the more traditional, strictly logical Master Teachers in the upper tiers looked at each other, their analytical minds frantically searching for a baseline parameter to evaluate the trial.

”...Although successfully creating a functional domain while sitting at merely the Nascent Soul realm explicitly proves just how much of a monstrous, unprecedented anomaly he is,” a conservative Rank 8 Master Teacher spoke up, his tone tight, ”if we are to evaluate this strictly based on the unyielding parameters of the final trial... a domain itself isn’t really a completely new or unrecorded concept in our history. The ancient masters have already walked that path.”

”...That is actually entirely true,” another instructor murmured, nodding his head in a slow, hesitant agreement. ”The goal explicitly demanded a pioneer, something that has never been seen or heard of before by the ancestors. A domain, while absurdly advanced for his current age, is still a known category of high-tier combat.”

Everyone across the massive hall looked at each other, the whispers rising as they felt thoroughly uncertain and conflicted about how to score the golden youth’s magnificent performance.

Just then, the towering golden throne on the far right of the high platform violently flared, and Venerable Sky Cloud spoke once again.

His raspy, ancient voice carried a deep, echoing resonance that instantly crushed every single whisper in the amphitheater into dust.

”You blind, short-sighted fools,” the old sage muttered, his deep blue eyes flashing with a sudden, piercing light of pure academic disdain as he looked down at his subordinates. ”Look closely at the internal composition of his structural world before you dare to open your mouths to judge his path.”

Everyone across the grand hall turned their heads towards him simultaneously, holding their breath as the leader of the Ten Sages continued his explanation.

”A standard domain is, at the absolute end of the day, just a temporary, highly concentrated material manifestation of a cultivator’s personal martial Dao,” Venerable Sky Cloud explained, pointing his long, wrinkled finger directly at the holographic image of Haoran sitting in the center of the dark gold void. ”It is designed purely to suppress external enemies and provide a massive spiritual boost to the user during combat. It is nothing more than a temporary bounded field meant for battlefield dominance.”

”But look at what this boy has just forged. That structure isn’t just a combat domain, you fools... that is a living, breathing micro-world that, with the unique, primordial help of his fragmented Gold Incinerating Supreme Flame, possesses the absolute capacity to naturally sustain physical life. In fact, based on the current energetic loops and the structural integration of his creation, I am entirely sure that if that localized world was left completely alone to develop over the centuries, it can even create new, independent life forms entirely on its own accord.”

Everyone turned their wide, panicked eyes back towards the screen, their minds completely exploding in a fresh wave of absolute shock and sheer disbelief.

Creating independent life out of its own accord within a personal energy field?

How under the laws of nature was that even remotely possible for a mortal soul to achieve without the direct intervention of the world’s core?

Even that mad woman Feng Yuyan, whose Dao is the Forbidden Creation, needed a pre-existing lifeform to completely create those monstrosities she releases in the outside world.

”That specialized micro-world is directly, inextricably bound to the very matrix of his nascent soul,” Venerable Sky Cloud continued, his white beard swaying as his voice rose into a trace of awe. ”Which means that the stronger his individual cultivation base becomes, the larger, denser, and more expansive that internal world will grow. As he climbs the ladder of the Saint realms, it is entirely, theoretically possible for that tiny thirty-meter field to gradually turn into its own vast, independent universe entirely.”

Everyone couldn’t help but froze hearing that.

A soul containing an entire universe? Perhaps not even those Immortal can achieve that, right?

However, there was one highly specific hypothesis that even the Venerable Sky Cloud did not dare to mention out loud to the assembly, keeping it deeply locked within the quiet sanctuary of his own ancient thoughts.

This newly birthed world was made entirely using Haoran’s own unique combination of divine gifts and was directly connected to the matrix of his singular soul, which was already an incredibly scary, logic-defying concept for a junior to manifest.

However, at the absolute end of the day, according to the immutable laws of the Prime Origin Realm, a single living person can only ever possess one individual soul, even if one were to split it and have them inhabit other bodies, it is technically still one soul.

Therefore, the absolute physical limit of this specific ability would naturally restrict his soul to holding just a single, solitary universe within its spiritual boundary.

’But...’ the old sage’s mind spun at a terrifying speed as he stared at the golden youth’s pristine physique, ’what if he doesn’t stop at the boundaries of his soul?’

Imagine if this young man eventually manages to use the raw, microscopic infrastructure of his individual biological cells to house that exact same world-birthing ability... then it should be theoretically and mathematically possible for him to turn every single microscopic cell in his physical body into a fully functional, independent universe.

According to the basic physical parameters of a human body, a standard cultivator’s physique has around 30 to 40 trillion cells comprising their flesh.

If Shen Haoran could eventually figure out a method to successfully transform all 40 trillion of those individual cells into entire, expanding universes powered by his infinite dragon-qi... Venerable Sky Cloud couldn’t even begin to imagine or calculate just how terrifyingly powerful this young man was going to become once he officially reached the absolute peak of the upper realms.

He would definitely become a multiverse walking in the skin of a human.

”Shen Haoran...” the ancient Rank 10 Master Teacher muttered silently to himself, a cold shiver running straight down his old spine. ”What an absolutely, profoundly scary young man.”

*

*

*

Of course, sitting entirely alone within the quiet silence of his silver barrier, Shen Haoran had already naturally thought of the exact same cosmological hypothesis that the old sage was currently sweating over in the viewing room.

As he slowly stabilized the rotating flows of the Genesis Protocol, his analytical mind had already tracked the cellular pathways of his Infinity Dragon God Physique.

He realized with a sharp, cold clarity that turning his cells into individual cosmic houses was indeed entirely, theoretically possible within the rules he had just written.

However, given his current, limited strength at the 5th stage of the Nascent Soul realm and his basic, unrefined knowledge of high-tier world-laws, he didn’t even remotely know where to begin executing that level of biological transmutation without instantly blowing his own body into fine red mist.

But for the current moment, as the silver runes of the academy’s tracking arrays hummed with power, he was more than thoroughly satisfied with his performance.

He had cleanly broken the scope of the trial.

Yet, as he spent a few more quiet moments exploring the unique internal mechanics of his newly birthed dark gold domain, another highly specific, incredibly magnificent detail suddenly caught his attention, causing a dangerous, deeply amused smirk to spread across his handsome face.

He realized that since this micro-world was a blank canvas where the standard laws of the Prime Origin Realm were completely rejected, he could entirely control, alter, and manipulate the absolute laws of this specific space through his law of Domination.

In other words, as long as he was standing inside this boundary, he could flawlessly bypass every single spiritual and physical restriction of the outside world.

Which meant that while he was sitting inside this specific world, he could finally ignore the level restrictions requirements and grant his soul full, unrestricted access to the legendary Imperial Artifact, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, utilizing its boundless, god-tier armaments without needing to reach the Heavenly Saint Realm.

That was an artificial used to kill a Supreme Emperor from the Shen Clan!

In other words, as long as he brought a Supreme inside his world, he can kill them using the Hanging Gardens.

Unfortunately, that’s just in theory. A Supreme Emperor could break through this world like ripping apart a wet paper.

Still, being able to use the Garden at its full capacity despite being limited to this world is already a great thing.

’If that’s the case, then...’ Haoran’s golden eyes flared with a sudden, intensely wicked, and thoroughly private light as his thoughts took a remarkably, delightfully scandalous turn, ’if I can completely bypass the conceptual restrictions on strength and universal laws within this boundary... then it should also be entirely possible to bypass the physical and biological restrictions on strength...’

In other words... the crushing, volatile physical limitations that currently prevented his fragile Nascent Soul body from safely engaging in absolute, unrestricted dual-cultivation with the terrifyingly dense, saint-tier physiques of his closest companions, could be completely lifted.

He could probably finally, flawlessly do it with Qing’er without any structural danger, so long as they were standing safely inside the boundaries of this private world... or perhaps... even with his own magnificent, fiercely possessive mother, Chu Xueyu, completely free from all restrictive laws.

Shen Haoran couldn’t help but let out a low, rich chuckle at the absolute, chaotic magnificent beauty of the thought, his golden hair swaying as he closed his eyes to wait for the final gates to open.

It seems like he had not just pioneered a path to his supremacy, but he had also built his own private paradise.