Villains Aren't Stepping Stones!

Shen Haoran, Gu Xunyi, and Huo Yue appeared at the summit of the pyramid.

The air at the peak was thick, heavy, and motionless, carrying a tense quietness that seemed to freeze time itself.

There, they saw Bai Wenxin and Su Xishi standing off to the side, their expressions cautious and alert.

In the center of the peak, Shi Tian and Hei Xuan stood facing each other, their bodies locked in rigid, confrontational postures, staring at each other with intense, unyielding gazes that promised violence.

The moment the newcomers appeared, the four figures immediately turned their gazes towards them, the sudden shift in attention slicing through the suffocating atmosphere.

”Oh?” Huo Yue blinked, taking a small step back as she rolled her shoulders, a look of genuine surprise crossing her face. ”My qi is completely restricted.”

Gu Xunyi narrowed her eyes, scanning the subtle, glowing runes carved faintly into the ancient stone beneath their feet.

”It must be an array limited only to this place,” she said softly, her voice steady despite the alarming revelation.

Haoran simply clenched his fist, opening and closing his fingers to feel the raw flesh and blood of his own hand.

The total absence of spiritual energy didn’t really bother him; if anything, the stillness in his meridians felt almost refreshing.

”Those people are really trash,” said Hei Xuan, a look of utter disgust washing over his face as he spat on the ground. ”They can’t even break through from the Crowns and let you pass.”

Shi Tian turned his gaze towards Gu Xunyi, his previous hostility instantly vanishing, replaced by a radiant, charming smile.

”Sister Xunyi, do you want this mandate too? I can give it to you.”

Gu Xunyi chuckled, a melodious sound that belied the danger of the moment. ”You first had to get it, young master Shi Tian.”

Shi Tian’s eyes lit up, the light in them instantly shifting from warmth to a cold, predatory spark.

He turned back and glared at Hei Xuan, his jaw setting into a sharp line. ”Brother Xuan, our alliance ends here. That Mandate, I’ll be the one taking it.”

Hei Xuan’s cheek twitched violently, a vein throbbing on his temple as he held back his temper. ”Shi Tian, let’s do that after dealing with the greatest threat here.”

Shi Tian frowned, his eyes darting away from Hei Xuan to land squarely upon Haoran.

He observed Haoran’s calm demeanor, realized the sheer danger of letting such a variable remain unchecked, and nodded slowly. ”You’re right. Apologies.”

Hei Xuan nodded, his lips curling into a deceptive smile as he focused his full attention on Shen Haoran. ”So, Shen Haoran, how do we settle this? Qi is sealed here, so fighting is useless—”

”Who said that?” Shen Haoran smiled, his voice dangerously smooth as he slowly reached up and untied his outer sash.

He slipped off his heavy top robes and let them fall to the mountain floor with a soft, heavy thud, fully revealing his upper body.

Without the loose fabrics hiding his frame, Haoran’s physique was nothing short of a masterpiece—carved like an ancient god from pristine marble, boasting broad shoulders, a tightly sculpted chest, and razor-sharp, dense abdominal muscles that spoke of unfathomable physical conditioning.

Yet, what captivated the gaze of everyone on the summit was the breathtaking artwork inked into his skin.

Sprawling across his right arm, wrapping tightly around his thick shoulder, and slithering up the right side of his neck was an intricate, tribal Eastern dragon tattoo.

Inked in deep, pitch-black lines and laced with shimmering accents of rich gold, the dragon looked alive, its ink seeming to ripple and flex with every subtle movement of his massive muscles.

Hei Xuan and Shi Tian smiled wryly, the sweat breaking out on the back of their necks despite the chilling mountain wind.

”Hey, you serious?” Hei Xuan said, his voice dropping an octave as his eyes took in the sheer mass and density of the man before them.

”You want to fight like barbaric savages?” said Shi Tian, nervously adjusting his footing, his former noble composure cracking under the weight of Haoran’s physical presence.

”What’s wrong?” Shen Haoran went into a combat stance, sinking his weight into his hips, light on his feet, his hands raised in a clean, lethal guard. ”We’re all men here, aren’t we? Let’s settle this in the most primal way of fighting, and whoever wins gets the mandate.”

Shi Tian and Hei Xuan stared at each other for a fraction of a second, exchanging a non-verbal agreement forged in pure survival instinct.

Without a single word, they both dropped into low, explosive fighting stances.

”Fine.”

”Don’t regret it.”

Then, they bolted towards Haoran.

What followed was the most primal, most savage display of hand-to-hand combat the summit had ever witnessed.

Strip away spiritual energy, strip away refined martial arts techniques and grand sword plays, and humanity devolves right back to its rawest, most brutal instincts.

Shi Tian closed the distance first, his noble pride discarded in favor of a vicious, low-down dirty tactic.

He stomped heavily on the ground, deliberately kicking a cloud of sharp, jagged dusts straight into Haoran’s eyes while swinging a brutal, bone-breaking right hook aimed directly at Haoran’s temple.

Simultaneously, Hei Xuan lunged from the blind side, dipping low to slide behind Haoran, intending to throw a lethal, point-blank knee strike straight into Haoran’s groin, followed by a throat-crushing claw.

They were fighting like desperate dogs, utilizing every foul, underhanded move to secure a quick execution.

Yet, Haoran didn’t even flinch.

He didn’t blink as the grit flew toward his face; he simply tilted his head a fraction of an inch to the left.

Shi Tian’s fist whistled uselessly past his cheek, grazing nothing but empty air.

In the same breath, without even looking back, Haoran snapped his right leg backward like a coiled steel trap.

His heel collided solidly with Hei Xuan’s incoming knee, stopping the dirty groin-strike mid-air with a sickening *CRACK* of pure kinetic impact.

Before Hei Xuan could even gasp from the shock of the bone-jarring collision, Haoran pivoted on his left foot.

The golden and black dragon tattoo on his back rippled dramatically as his back muscles flexed. Using the momentum of his pivot, Haoran drove his left elbow backward into Hei Xuan’s jaw.

*BOOM!*

The raw, unadulterated power behind the strike sounded like a battering ram hitting solid wood.

Hei Xuan’s head snapped violently sideways, blood and spit flying into the air as he was sent tumbling across the rough terrain.

”Die you bastard!” Shi Tian roared, taking advantage of Haoran’s turned back.

He leaped forward, wrapping his arms in a desperate chokehold around Haoran’s neck, while digging his thumbs brutally into the soft tissue right beneath Haoran’s ears, trying to gouge into his pressure points and blind him from behind.

Haoran didn’t try to pull Shi Tian’s hands off. Instead, he chuckled—a low, terrifying sound that vibrated straight through Shi Tian’s chest.

Then, he reached up, grabbed Shi Tian by his hair and collar with one hand, and ducked his hips.

With effortless, terrifying power, Haoran executed a brutal shoulder throw, slamming Shi Tian headfirst into the hard pyramid floor.

*BANG!*

The stone shattered beneath Shi Tian’s skull as dust erupted into the air.

Shi Tian groaned, dazed, his vision swimming with stars, but Hei Xuan was already back on his feet.

Driven by wild adrenaline, Hei Xuan charged in like a mad beast as he pulled a hidden, jagged piece of sharp slate from the ground and thrust it directly toward Haoran’s liver in a lethal stabbing motion.

Haoran’s eyes casually followed the desperate strike and easily caught Hei Xuan’s wrist mid-air with his left hand, stopping the improvised blade dead in its tracks.

The sheer force of Haoran’s grip was so intense that the bones in Hei Xuan’s wrist groaned under the pressure.

He then pulled Hei Xuan forward, smashing his own forehead directly into Hei Xuan’s nose.

A sickening *crunch* echoed across the peak.

As Hei Xuan stumbled back, his nose flattened and gushing blood, Shi Tian crept up from below, executing a desperate, feral double-leg takedown, biting down hard onto Haoran’s thigh muscle in a grotesque effort to force the giant to his knees.

Haoran merely looked down at Shi Tian biting his leg, his expression utterly bored, as if an annoying insect had landed on him.

”What are you, a dog?” Haoran asked calmly.

He raised his right fist high into the air, the gold-and-black dragon across his chest seemed to flare with monstrous life as his lat muscles expanded.

Like a lightning, he brought his fist down like a falling meteor, smashing it straight into the center of Shi Tian’s back.

*THUD!*

The impact knocked the wind entirely out of Shi Tian, forcing his mouth open and releasing Haoran’s leg as he collapsed flat onto his stomach, coughing up blood.

From behind, Hei Xuan tried to throw a desperate, wild headbutt, but Haoran simply stepped inside his guard, grabbed Hei Xuan by the throat with a single hand, lifted his entire body off the ground, and slammed him down directly on top of the sprawling Shi Tian.

The two attackers crashed into a groaning, bleeding pile of broken bones and bruised pride.

Throughout the entire savage, bloody encounter, Shen Haoran hadn’t even broken a sweat.

His breathing remained completely steady, his stance perfectly balanced.

He stood over the two beaten prodigies, his massive frame framed by the open sky, the gold-and-black dragon tattoo glinting under the sunlight, untouched and completely victorious.

”You... Are you really a human?!” Shi Tian spat out, coughing up a mouthful of saliva and blood.

He stared up at the pristine, untouched youth with a mixture of sheer physical exhaustion and profound disbelief.

He was the heir of the Shi Clan—a family renowned not only for their wealth but also for their earth-shattering physical cultivation and unmatched bodily density—yet he had been handled, pinned, and thoroughly dominated like an unruly toddler without his opponent even breaking a sweat or using a single drop of qi!

Beside him, Hei Xuan remained silent, groaning in sheer pain as he clutched his broken, bleeding nose.

His arrogant face was swollen, his vision spinning with bright stars.

He couldn’t bring himself to spit out another boast or insult; the terrifying gap in their raw martial reflexes and physical strength had beaten every ounce of pride out of his system.

Shen Haoran simply chuckled softly, completely indifferent to Shi Tian’s incredulous question.

He lifted his boot off Shi Tian’s broad shoulder, stepping smoothly past the two defeated heirs, and turned his golden, calm eyes towards the maidens standing near the edge of the platform.

”I’ll be taking the mandate then,” Haoran stated casually, his voice echoing cleanly over the quiet summit.

Gu Xunyi offered a light, graceful shrug of her delicate shoulders, her regal smile as serene as ever. ”Go right ahead, Haoran. I already told you earlier, my clan has no pressing need for another one.”

”Same here,” Bai Wenxin chimed in smoothly, folding her arms beneath her chest as her long purple hair fluttered in the wind. ”Our faction has more than enough standing within the academy.”

”Our Blissful Immortal Coupling Palace doesn’t need one either,” Su Xishi added with a playful, teasing wink, her fluffy fox ears twitched cutely as her white tail swished behind her waist. ”We operate on a completely different business model anyway!”

Her statement was entirely accurate. The Blissful Immortal Coupling Palace was a unique, ancient faction that operated a high-end, prosperous brothel and information network in practically every major city across the entire Academy Dimension.

Because their establishments were leased and integrated into existing metropolitan hubs rather than requiring sovereign territorial governance, there was truly no direct need for them to go out of their way to claim and manage an official mandate.

If they happened to acquire one during a trial, great, it would be a nice bonus; if they didn’t, then they didn’t really lose anything of value.

Huo Yue just shrugged, not answering out loud, a mischievous, satisfied grin playing on her lips as she crossed her arms and admired Haoran’s chiseled back.

She licked her lips, thinking that she will definitely climb his bed later tonight.

Shen Haoran nodded in understanding as he turned his attention back to the center of the platform and walked smoothly past the two groaning heirs, approaching the divine, floating artifact.

Reaching out his right hand, his fingers made direct contact with the surface of the massive, glowing green stone.

*SWIISH—!*

The very moment his fingertips brushed against the jade surface, the Academy’s Mandate emitted a blinding, brilliant emerald light that shot straight up into the firmament, illuminating the entire sky of the trial space!

The massive token began to spin rapidly, floating higher before rapidly compressing its spatial volume.

In less than three seconds, the giant monument shrunk down until it became the exact size of a human palm, falling softly into Haoran’s waiting hand.

*HUMMM—!*

The warm, dense spiritual array within the palm-sized jade token hummed softly, binding itself to his personal spirit signature and confirming his ownership.

Immediately following the claim, the sky above the Apex Pyramid fractured into thousands of glowing, golden ripples.

The grand, thunderous voice of Venerable Sky Cloud echoed from the heavens, vibrating through the soul of every single surviving disciple in the entire dimension.

[”The Academy’s Mandate has been claimed! Congratulations to disciple Shen Haoran for successfully securing the jade token at the peak of the pyramid! By order of the Master Teachers and Ten Sages of the Imperial Academy, this trial has officially reached its conclusion!”]

[”All remaining participants will now be extracted from the dimension! Prepare yourselves for spatial recall!”]

A massive, sweeping pillar of golden light descended from the heavens, engulfing the great Pyramid, the mountain ranges, the forests, and the desert plains in a single, divine flash—bringing an end to the chaotic trial as the world dissolved into pure, returning light!