Villains Aren't Stepping Stones!

A few minutes earlier.

The grand, ambient atmosphere of the private villa was completely still.

Shen Haoran walked out of his secluded personal domain, his footsteps entirely silent against the polished jade floors as he stretched his arms, feeling the smooth, unyielding circulation of his spiritual energy.

Deciding to take a short break from his intensive ”training”, he headed straight toward the villa’s spacious kitchen.

There, sitting comfortably at the marble island counter, he saw Xu Xiansu.

She was completely absorbed in her own world, her slender fingers elegantly scrolling through the glowing, holographic screen projected from the Academy’s Identity Token.

The blue light cast soft shadows across her sharp, beautiful features, illuminating the focused expression she always wore when parsing through information.

”Make me some tea,” Haoran said casually, his voice cutting through the quiet room as he walked over and sat down on a high stool right across from her.

Xu Xiansu paused her scrolling, her gaze shifting up from the holographic interface to lock onto his face.

She rolled her eyes at him with a sharp, dramatic huff, making sure he saw her annoyance at being treated like a servant.

Yet, despite her vocal displeasure, her movements remained fluid and obedient.

She reached for the fine porcelain teapot, infusing it with a tiny spark of her own qi to instantly bring the water to a perfect simmer, and poured him a steaming cup of fragrant, high-grade spiritual tea.

He took a slow, appreciative sip of the golden liquid, letting the rich aroma wash over his senses, and nodded in satisfaction.

”Not bad.” He praised, although it wasn’t as good as Qing’er’s tea, it was more than enough to satisfy him. ”By the way, where are the others? I can’t sense Huo Yue, Shen Ying, or Ziyan anywhere in the villa.”

Xu Xiansu deactivated the holographic screen with a wave of her wrist, leaning her chin on her palm as she answered.

”Huo Yue and Shen Ying went to the bustling market quarters to sell some of their refined pills in exchange for some quick points. As for Ziyan, she went out a while ago to try and officially join a student faction to secure some long-term backing.”

Haoran nodded slowly, tapping his fingers rhythmically against the porcelain cup as he fell into deep thought.

Points...

The word echoed in his mind. He also heavily needed to get some points if he wanted to have easy life in this academy.

After all, Xie Ji had already mentioned it before, anything in this academy can be bought with points.

Although he doesn’t know to what extent that ”anything” was, but having as much point as possible is definitely the best option.

Yesterday, before Xie Ji had officially packed his bags and left the academy grounds forever, Haoran had actually wanted to buy all of his remaining points for himself to give his own balance a massive boost.

Unfortunately, the timing had been just a bit too late; Xie Ji had already proactively exchanged every single one of his accumulated points for physical cultivation resources to carry back to his clan.

However, that brief conversation had made him realize a major loophole in the system.

The transaction of points between students was not strictly forbidden by the academy’s bylaws.

In fact, it might even be entirely allowed for wealthy, resourceful new students to directly purchase the points of senior students who were about to permanently graduate or leave the institution.

But actually finding those students who were on the verge of leaving was a massive challenge in a place as vast as the Imperial Academy.

And even if you miraculously managed to locate one, there was no guarantee they would sell you their points.

Most of the time, they would probably simply transfer or sell them directly to their own trusted juniors or the established student factions they had spent years building up.

So, how should he start with this points gathering?

Should he sell his things in his storage space? No, he wasn’t that desperate yet.

Haoran leaned back on his stool, his eyes narrowing slightly as he tried think of a good way to earn some points.

But, at that moment, he felt an intense gaze coming from his side.

Tilting his head, he looked at the beautiful woman sitting across from him, noticing the subtle, tense shift in her posture the moment he smiled at her.

Xu Xiansu stared at him, her heart fluttering uncomfortably against her ribs.

Deep inside her soul, a storm of complicated, chaotic feelings was constantly raging.

She felt a profound, exhausting cocktail of love and hate for this man.

She hated how effortlessly he dominated every situation, how arrogant and untouchable he seemed, how he had completely turned her life upside down, and most of all, she hated how she couldn’t really bring herself to truly hate him.

At the exact same time, she couldn’t deny the terrifying, magnetic pull he had over her, a deep-seated affection that she desperately tried to suppress but failed to eradicate.

She knew that he knew this, about how much pull his words has towards her.

Just like earlier, a simple order from him and she immediately went and poured him some tea, and she even made sure to heat it up first, as if she was afraid that he will find it disgusting to drink cold tea.

Haoran, possessing an incredibly sharp intellect, knew exactly what was going on in her chaotic mind.

He lived for these subtle psychological games and absolutely loved to tease her whenever the opportunity presented itself.

”Why are you staring at me like that, Xiansu?” Haoran asked, leaning forward over the counter, his golden eyes gleaming with pure mischief. ”If you keep looking at me with such fierce passion, I might start to think you want to recall those passionate times we spent back in the past.”

Xu Xiansu’s face flushed a brilliant shade of crimson, her irritation flaring instantly as she slammed her hand lightly on the counter.

”In your dreams, Shen Haoran! I am looking at you with disgust. Don’t flatter yourself. I am merely wondering when the heavens will finally strike you down for your endless arrogance.”

”Ah, how cold,” Haoran chuckled, entirely unfazed by her outburst as he took another sip of his tea, his tone shifting from playful to analytical. ”But since you’re clearly so energetic today, give me your thoughts. I have a plan to forcefully acquire points from the graduating seniors, but tracking them down before they dump their points into their respective factions or some juniors is a massive logistical nightmare. What do you think is the best way to corner the market?”

Xu Xiansu scoffed, turning her head away slightly, but her analytical mind immediately began to spin at a terrifying speed.

After all, what Haoran didn’t know, and what she carefully kept hidden in the absolute darkest depths of her consciousness, was that she possessed the fragmented memories and vast tactical knowledge of her other self from an entirely alternate timeline 300 years into the future.

In that dark, chaotic future, she had been an empress, a master strategist, an experienced leader who had navigated ruthless wars, espionage, and complex faction politics before her eventual end.

When it came to grand strategy, economics, and predicting human behavior, she was an absolute apex predator.

”It’s a simple problem of supply and demand, coupled with information asymmetry,” Xu Xiansu said, her tone suddenly shifting into something sharp, clinical, and undeniably authoritative.

Haoran raised an eyebrow, but said nothing, waiting for her to finish.

She turned back to look at him, her eyes flashing with a cold, brilliant light. ”If you try to find individual seniors one by one, you will fail. With how old the academy is, the student factions probably already have automated systems and scouts deployed to catch them the moment they announce their departure.”

Haoran smiled, genuinely intrigued by the sudden change in her demeanor. ”Go on.”

”If you want to beat the factions, you don’t chase the sellers, instead, you manipulate the market so the sellers have no choice but to come to you,” Xu Xiansu explained, a confident, knowing smirk gracing her lips. ”Think about it. Why do graduating seniors sell their points to their factions? Sentiment? Maybe. But most of all, it’s because the factions offer them convenience, protection, or a fair trade in external resources that they can actually use outside the academy.”

She leaned forward, tapping her finger on the holographic token. ”You need to create a massive, undeniable incentive. If you offer to buy their points at a conversion rate that is slightly higher than the standard faction market price, and you pay them in universally coveted resources, like high-grade cleansing pills, pure spirit stones, or some artifacts, then they will betray their factions in a heartbeat. Greed is a universal constant, after all.”

”Hmm, that’s what I thought of as well,” Haoran murmured. ”But that still doesn’t change the fact that we need to find them. We can’t just announce to the entire academy that we want them to find us, right? Unless you are incredibly desperate, no one would travel far away to sell things for just a little over the market price. And I don’t want to waste my resources for points that I wouldn’t even use outside this place.”

”No. You don’t look for them, you use a net,” Xu Xiansu stated smoothly. ”I did my research and the academy has a centralized administrative hub where all departing students must officially sign their discharge papers and hand over their leftover points back to the academy if they haven’t spent it all. It’s a mandatory legal bottleneck. If you station yourself right outside that hub, or better yet, intercept them at the high-traffic market gates right before they do their final paper work, you can catch every single one of them.”

She crossed her arms, looking at him defiantly. ”Offer them a deal they can’t refuse right on the spot. Before the faction leaders even realize their seniors are giving their points away to an outsider, you will have already drained the vault. That should be easy for you, after all, you are from the Shen Clan, right?”

Haoran stared at her for a long moment, genuinely impressed by the sheer efficiency and absolute ruthlessness of her strategy.

Truthfully, he was just asking her earlier out of curiosity, he never expected her to actually provide some useful input.

Although he believes he will find out all of these on his own, it still saves him some time.

”Brilliant,” Haoran praised genuinely, standing up from his stool and brushing down his black and gold robes. ”An absolute masterpiece of a strategy, Xiansu. I knew keeping you around was the right choice.”

”Don’t get cocky. I only answered because I want to see you fail against the major factions,” she shot back, biting her lower lip as her heart skipped a beat at his praise, the chaotic mix of affection and spite making her glare at him.

”We’ll see about that,” Haoran laughed softly. ”I’ll take your advice and head to the main administrative quarters and the surrounding markets right now. Let’s go see how many points we can legally rob today.”

Xu Xiansu snorted, ”There is a teleportation circle in the city square. Use that to head to the Academy City, that’s where those who wanted to graduate would sign their papers. You better hurry up.”

Haoran smirked and caressed her head, ”Good girl.”

With a confident stride, Haoran walked out of the villa’s kitchen and exited the estate, his mind fully focused on executing the flawless ambush his beautiful strategist had just laid out for him.

Meanwhile, Xu Xiansu was way too stunned by that gesture that she remained frozen in shock.