Villains Aren't Stepping Stones!

”Shen Haoran...”

The name felt like a block of frozen iron sliding down Chu Yan’s throat, completely paralyzing his vocal cords.

He froze entirely, his physical frame locked in place beneath the vice-like grip clamping around his right wrist.

His wide, panicked eyes could do nothing but stare blankly into the cold, liquid gold of Haoran’s pupils, which were currently hovering a mere inch away from his own face.

At that exact instant, Chu Yan’s entire conscious heart was utterly and violently overcome with a primitive, suffocating fear.

And if anyone from his original world and have read the book were to be in his place right now, they would find it completely understandable.

After all, within the script of the original web novel, this golden-haired youth currently standing in front of him wasn’t just a generic minor antagonist or a superficial young master meant to be stepped over in a few Chapters.

No. Shen Haoran was the absolute, undisputed Final Villain of the entire literary work.

In that apocalyptic final arc of the book, the author had painted a picture of absolute, terrifying despair that made it incredibly frustrating to read.

The author had made the Shen Clan so incredibly, absurdly powerful, and their conceptual Daos so flawlessly absolute, that the narrative had been forced to aggressively wank the character of Xu Xiansu, granting her the most insane, logic-breaking plot armor and reality-warping variables imaginable.

Not to mention it had required the combined forces of all clans and sects in Central Region along with the complete, unbridled economic wealth of the entire Tian Yuan Empire just to barely stand on the same stage and take down Shen Haoran and the supreme and mighty Shen Clan.

And all of that just for them to barely secure a victory by the skin of their teeth at the absolute end of the script!

Right now, standing at the very bottom of the ladder at the entry level of the Imperial Academy, Chu Yan possessed absolutely zero confidence, zero preparation, and zero capability of winning a head-on confrontation against this monster.

If Haoran chose to snap his wrist right here or even kill him, then his entire transmigrator journey would be cut short on day one.

However, amidst the roaring panic in his mind, a sharp, confusing question violently pushed through the fear.

’Just what is the actual, current relationship between Qian Yunxi and Shen Haoran? They shouldn’t know each other now, or rather, they haven’t even interacted in the books.’

Just then, he thought of a terrifying possibility.

’...Could this Shen Haoran be a transmigrator like him? If so, I’m doomed. If he thinks I’m a transmigrator as well, then he’ll probably kill me!’

As for why he thought that, because that’s also what he will do if he found a much weaker transmigrator who knew the plot like him.

So could all those butterfly effects actually because of this Shen Haoran and not because of him?

That means this Shen Haoran transmigrated earlier than him, and it’s even possible that he’s a reincarnation.

Whatever the case, he probably already took all those treasures that Xu Xiansu will get in the future!

Damn it!

”Yunxi,” Haoran spoke smoothly, his voice a flat, unbothered drone that didn’t even look at Chu Yan as he addressed the girl behind his shoulder. ”Do you know this guy?”

Qian Yunxi immediately shook her head from side to side, her flawless blue eyes filled with a deep, defensive coldness as she took another deliberate step back into the shadow of the alliance.

”I have absolutely only met him for the first time today, my lord. I possess zero connection to him.”

’My loed!? Chu Yan thought to himself, his inner eyes widening into massive circles of absolute, burning shock. ’She called him loed?! In the original text, she was a proud, independent noble lady who refused to bow her head to anyone in the capital even though she was always bullied! Why is she addressing this final villain with that level of submissive, integrated reverence?!’

No, wait. During the giant invasion, it was Shen Haoran who lead the resistance...did they already established a relationship back then?!

Shit! Could it be Qian Yunxi was already...?!

He felt his heart tighten and his stomach to churn.

Shen Haoran’s golden eyes remained locked dead onto Chu Yan’s pale face, his grip on the youth’s wrist remaining perfectly tight, completely unbothered by the stranger’s internal crisis.

His analytical mind began to rapidly, fluidly dissect the variables of the situation.

If what Qian Yunxi said was completely true, that they were absolute strangers who had never shared a word before today, then why did this brat act with such an intense, desperate certainty, as if he intimately knew her?

’He’s a certified protagonist entity,’ Haoran analyzed, his thoughts cool and detached as he evaluated the invisible markers hovering around Chu Yan’s soul-force. ’And based on his current unnatural behavior...I can only think of two things why he acted like this.’

’Either he is a Regressor type of protagonist who has successfully lived through a future timeline and traveled backward through the river of time... or he is a Reincarnation or a Transmigration type of protagonist whose soul originates from an outer world, possessing the knowledge of an alternate timeline of this world through a book like that cousin of mine.’

’Of course, there might be other reason like a system that can see the future or a simulation system, but either way, he must explicitly know the future of this era in some profound way, and he has purposefully, strategically chosen to get close to Qian Yunxi.’

’But why her specifically? Isn’t Qian Yunxi a villain? Shouldn’t he get close to a heroine?’

Feeling incredibly curious, Haoran stared intently at Qian Yunxi’s silhouette and silently, fluidly activated his Karmic Light Observation technique.

*HUMMM!*

For a brief fraction of a second, his golden pupils violently shifted, turning into a brilliant, blinding rainbow-colored light that cleanly traced the invisible threads of destiny wrapped around her body, before smoothly, perfectly returning to its original liquid gold state.

’She’s...’ Haoran’s inner mind experienced a rare, genuine spark of profound shock as the karmic feedback fully crystallized within his consciousness. ’...The color of her destiny have completely transformed. She has actually become a Heroine?!’

He was shocked, to say the least.

He clearly remembered when he checked a few months ago that both Qian Yunxi and her mother, Lu Xinglan, were both villains!

So how did she suddenly come to possess the brilliant, pristine destiny lights of a main heroine?

’...So the destined roles assigned by the heavens can actually fluidly change, warp, and swap depending entirely on the active choices and situational variables of the people?’ Haoran thought, a cold, predatory amusement rippling through his spirit. ’Fascinating. This destiny thing is far more malleable than I thought.’

He slowly turned his head back to face Chu Yan, his voice dripping with a deep, condescending aristocratic pity that cut through the youth’s pride like a cold blade.

”It seems that you have taken a sudden, unseemly liking to Yunxi’s...” He smirked, wrapping his arms around Qian Yunxi’s shoulders, ”and to achieve your shallow desires, you even desperately wanted to manufacture a fabricated lie to earn her trust. How thoroughly, utterly deplorable of a behavior.”

Chu Yan’s eyes violently widened, his modern ego flaring up in a sudden, panicked defensive reflex as he tried to yank his wrist back from the iron grip.

”What?! No! That’s an absolute, unadulterated nonsense! No! I am being entirely, completely serious right now! I really know of a perfect residential villa inside the city! I only wanted to express my sincere thanks to her Spirit Hall, that’s the absolute only reason I wanted to show it to her!”

He stared at Haoran’s arms, and at Qian Yunxi who didn’t resist, and at that moment, all his hypothesis should already have been confirmed by that simple act.

Haoran let out a short, cold snort through his nose, his lips curling into a sharp, mocking smirk. ”This is your very first time setting foot inside the boundaries of this pocket dimension, is it not? Yet you say you know a place. If you truly wanted to lie and manufacture a fake connection just to get close to her shadow, you should have at least taken the effort to make your story baseline believable to someone’s ear.”

”I am not lying to you!” Chu Yan insisted fiercely, his teeth grinding together as a cold sweat poured down his neck.

Of course, he could never, under any circumstances, actually reveal to the final villain which he suspected to be a transmigrator, that he knew of this hidden property simply because he had read about it inside the Chapters of a modern web novel, right?

Although he felt like his heart was ripped apart seeing the girl that was supposed to be with him with another man, he needed to keep acting like he just wanted to repay her as to not make Haoran suspect that he was also a transmigrator.

He had to defend his claim.

”Yeah?” Haoran raised a single golden eyebrow, his tone lazy, cool, and completely unbothered by the youth’s frantic resistance. ”Then stop wasting your breath on empty denials, trash. Tell me, what exactly is the official name of this perfect residential place? And who currently owns the deeds to its courtyard?”

”It’s the Falling Blossom Villa securely located inside the residential sector of the Leaf Green City!” Chu Yan shouted out in a desperate bid to prove his honesty, his voice echoing across the white stone tiles. ”And the property is currently owned by none other than Senior Xie Ji!”

...shit! I revealed too much!

He need to salvage the situation!

”He was my—”

”Okay, no need to say more.” Haoran nodded his head in a slow, calculated appreciation, his smirk widening into a terrifying line of pure, unbridled malice. ”Then... goodbye.”

With that final, chilling word, Haoran suddenly, violently flared his internal dantians, his qi exploding out if his body.

*BOOM!*

The absolute, unmatched full power of a 5th Stage Nascent Soul Realm cultivator, instantly erupted from his physical frame like a volcanic explosion, and the sheer kinetic shockwave caused the solid white stone bricks of the square beneath Chu Yan’s boots to instantly fracture into millions of spiderweb cracks.

And with it, a heavy, suffocating atmospheric pressure immediately slammes straight into Chu Yan’s chest like a physical iron sledgehammer, preparing to cleanly shatter his meridians onto the pavement.

Damn it! Damn it! He really is a transmigrator! Shit! Shit! He’s really going to kill me!

However, before the killing blow could fully clear the space...

”Young Master Shen... I humbly ask that you please give this old man a shred of face and immediately cease all hostilities within this courtyard. This territory is, after all, the sacred ground of the Imperial Academy; if you truly desire to settle your mortal grudges, there is a far more appropriate, blood-stained fighting city designed explicitly for that purpose.”

At moment, a low, calm, and incredibly deep voice drifted through the spatial rifts from the left side of the platform.

Haoran’s gold-tinted eyes narrowed slightly, his momentum smoothly pausing as he turned his upper torso around to locate the source of the interruption.

Standing a dozen paces away near the decorative jade pillar was an old, unassuming master teacher wrapped in the pristine white-and-silver robes of the high-tier faculty.

He was looking at their position with a gentle, polite smile playing on his wrinkled face, but his cloudy eyes vibrated with the undeniable, planet-shattering density of a peak Nirvana Rebirth expert.

”Senior Ming?!” Chu Yan’s eyes violently widened in a sudden, breathless recognition the moment his gaze locked onto the old man’s features.

This is the old man he had helped and talked to a few months ago!

He was actually a master teacher here in Imperial Academy!?

The old man, Senior Ming, merely offered a short, silent nod of acknowledgment toward the panicked protagonist, before turning his focus entirely back to face the golden-haired heir of the Shen Clan, his posture remaining perfectly respectful, yet completely unyielding in his defense of the academy’s basic peaceful boundaries.

Shen Haoran stared dead into the old man’s eyes for a long, clinical three seconds, evaluating him

’So this should be his backer in this academy...hmm.’

”Well, if that’s the elder wants. I shall give you this much face.”

He wasn’t planning on killing him anyway, not to mention he probably can’t do it right now and it’d be a waste to try his Law of Absolute Severance on this guy.

With a smooth, effortless flick of his wrist, he cleanly released his iron grip from Chu Yan’s bruised wrist, his golden aura instantly snapping back into his body without a single shred of lingering friction.

He turned his magnificent back on the protagonist entirely, his gold silk robes billowing in the wind as he began to walk away toward the city gates.

”Let’s go,” Haoran commanded smoothly.

”Hm? Where exactly are we going in such a hurry, Haoran?” Huo Yue asked, a beautiful, curious smile playing on her lips as she and Zhu Ziyan instantly shifted their steps to follow closely behind his shoulders, the rest of his circle seamlessly falling into a tight vanguard position around his path.

”Where to?” Haoran let out a low, rich, and thoroughly mocking chuckle that echoed across the stones, his golden eyes dancing with a deep, predatory amusement as he looked toward the horizon. ”Of course we are going straight to the Falling Blossom Villa inside the Leaf Green City. After all... that helpful brat just explicitly assured our path that the property is far, far easier to take away from its owner. It would be an absolute shame not to accept his generous recommendation.”

The moment his words cleared the air, every single member of the Ten Crowns, along with Zhu Ziyan, Ning Xueli, and the others, all simultaneously realized the sheer, catastrophic irony of Chu Yan’s situation.

They all turned their heads back to cast a final, pitying look at the frozen guy, and a massive wave of booming laughter, mocking giggles, and amused chuckles violently rippled through the entire alliance, their voices carrying across the square as they marched away to steal his future base of operations.

Chu Yan stood completely alone in the mud, his face turning an absolute shade of ash as he realized that he was just a breath away from losing his life.