Villains Aren't Stepping Stones!

The blue light of the round core bounced against the dark granite walls of the broken cellar.

Haoran chuckled. The sound was low and dry, slipping from his throat with an easy, chilling amusement.

His knuckles, which had been frozen in surprise a moment ago, relaxed completely, letting his long fingers rest lightly on the smooth, glowing surface of the sphere.

The little sphere suddenly shuddered violently inside his hand, the blue flame inside its center flickered, shrinking down toward its core like a frightened animal pulling its head into its shell.

It did not have a human heart, but it had lived for billions of years, watching all kinds of men walk upon its soil.

It knew that sound. It was the sound a hunter made when he found a golden beast trapped in a pit, realizing that the prize in front of him was worth ten times more than the meat he had set out to catch.

Haoran looked down at the shaking light, his face as still as ice.

”You have lived a long time,” Haoran said in a calm, flat voice, his words dropping into the quiet cellar with heavy weight. ”You know how things go in this universe. When someone steals from you, you punish them. When a stray beast bites you, you kill them. You made a tool that took the lives of my people and stood in my path. By all rights, I should close my fingers, crush this blue shell until it turns into cold ash, and let this entire star split into three pieces.”

He paused, letting the cold air wrap around the trembling sphere.

”But, I will give you a chance. If you wish to keep breathing, if you wish to see tomorrow’s sun rise over your mountains, you will bow your head and submit to me.”

The sphere buzzed with a sharp, angry hiss.

[”No!”] the voice snapped back, its mechanical tone breaking into raw, stubborn defiance that rattled the stone beneath their boots.

[”I have watched your kind for countless years! You step onto my lands with clean shoes and leave them soaked in red! You strip my soil of its spirits to feed your own bellies, and you spit upon the dust when you leave! I would rather see this entire ball of rock crack open and fall into the sun than bend my back to the very wolves that have been chewing on my ribs!”]

The voice shook with deep, ancient hatred, pouring out every ounce of bitterness it had held back while hiding beneath the mountains.

Haoran stared at it, ”You really won’t consider it?”

[”Do not play games with me, boy!”] the Will hissed, its blue light flaring with pale sparks. [”You are just a student wearing fine robes! Even if I kneel to you today, what about tomorrow? What about a hundred years from now? The elders of your school will still send down their students. Their greed will never stop. Working with you changes nothing. It only makes me a dog to the one who kicked me.”]

Haoran did not get angry. He did not tighten his grip, nor did he raise his voice, instead, he just smirked, the corner of his mouth curving upward in a slow, arrogant line, filled with the kind of pride that looked down upon the sky itself.

”You have been locked in this small well for so long that your eyes can only see the mud on the walls,” Haoran said softly, his voice full of easy disdain. ”You think the people who come down here are masters? You think that pathetic academy represents the peak of the heavens? To me, that school is merely a small courtyard where my elders send me to pass the idle days of my youth. In the realm above, above the clouds that your mind cannot even touch, there is a clan whose shadow covers thousands of star seas. The Shen Clan. And I am its sole heir.”

He tilted his head slightly, his golden eyes locking onto the center of the blue core.

”An ownerless wild dog gets kicked by every passerby on the road,” Haoran continued, his tone light, as if he were talking about the weather. ”Because you belong to no one, anyone can step on your grass and dig up your stones. But if a beast wears the iron collar of my family, even the grand rulers of the highest heavens must step aside when it walks past. Swear to obey me. Give me what I ask for. In return, I will send a single word back to my home. A single pagoda will be established here, and from that day on, this world belongs to the Shen Clan. The academy will not dare to set a single foot across your borders. My people will bring true treasures from above, pour celestial water into your dried rivers, heal your cracked leylines, and build this small rock into a fortress that will stand until the end of time.”

The words hit the cold stone like heavy bronze bells.

The bright sparks of blue fire stopped buzzing.

The sphere hung limp in Haoran’s hand, the light inside it turning dim and slow as its ancient mind turned his words over and over.

It knew what the great families of the upper world were like, after all, it had felt the crushing weight of their shadows through the tears in the sky.

If what this youth said was true, if he really carried the blood of that terrifying clan, then the elders of the academy were indeed nothing more than servants in front of his gates.

To stay stubborn meant dying right here, right now, crushed under the fingers of this white-robed monster.

Even if it survived today, the next batch of students would arrive in a thousand years to strip the remaining bark from its trees.

But to yield... to yield meant becoming a servant. Yet, a servant to an emperor was safer than a wild beast hunted by common dogs.

Haoran watched the light flicker, knowing precisely where the knife was pressing against the creature’s throat.

”You have suffered for countless years,” Haoran whispered, his voice smooth and cold. ”You hid beneath the dirt, watched your people die, and gathered your blood to make a fool like Yun Ming your champion. And look where it brought you. Your champion’s head is rolling in the dust of my world, and his soul is being chewed into grease inside my blade. This is your only door. Refuse me, and you rot in the ground. Agree, and you step out of the slaughterhouse forever.”

The cavern was dead still for a long time.

Ling Luochen did not make a sound, her breath held tight as she watched the young master tame the very heart of a world with a few cool words.

The blue core glowed once, a soft, pale pulse that felt like a long, tired sigh.

[”What... would you have me do?”] the voice asked, the mechanical edge completely gone, replaced by the weary submission of a beaten ruler lowering his flag.

”I want that small trick of yours. The tool you placed inside Yun Ming’s head. You will keep running it. You will remain as the core of that system, you will maintain the invisible lines, and you will continue to pull those strange souls from across the void to stand beneath my feet. An army of lucky, unkillable fools who smile when they die... that is a tool I find quite useful.”

A pause followed, the blue sphere shaking slightly with a new worry.

[”It is not that simple,”] the Will answered, its tone hesitant and troubled. [”I cannot simply reach across the dark void and pluck souls from any world I please.]

The blue light dimmed further, as if showing a dark picture of that distant land.

[”I can only take players from Blue Star because that world has no spiritual qi. Its earth is covered in iron and poison, its skies are gray, and its people have never touched the Dao. Because of its dead nature, the Will that watches over that world has been slumbering since the dawn of its creation. It does not wake, it does not watch, and its borders are thin. It was only because of that deep sleep and our close distance that I was able to cast my fishing lines through the clouds and pull their sleeping minds into this realm.”]

Then, the voice grew bitter and stressed. [”But due to Yun Ming’s actions, all VR sets had been banned.”]

The sphere buzzed with a low, nervous hum.

[”Yun Ming grew desperate. When the students pushed him into a corner, he forced me to rip their life-force out through their skull! Tens of thousands of those youths had their brains burned to water in their own pod, their blood poured out of their eyes and ears before their parents’ faces! The rulers of that land have gone into a total panic and they declared the VR pod forbidden and must be destroyed. Their soldiers are marching through every street, breaking down doors, smashing every pod, and burning the iron parts in large pits! Even if I reach out my hands, there are no open gates left to pull them through!”]

But Haoran just shrugged, his white shoulders moved with careless ease, not a single trace of worry touching his smooth brow.

”We’ll deal with that once we get there.”

His hand tightened once more around the blue orb, his golden eyes sharpening until they pierced like cold needles into its center.

”Let’s get back to business. I have given you my terms, and I have shown you the path of life. Now, give me your answer. Do you submit, or do you die?”

The blue core flickered rapidly, the light swimming inside its glass-like shell as if caught in a violent wind.

It hovered on the edge of the blade, knowing that the youth before it would not ask a third time.

”Wait... there is one more thing,” the voice said, sounding small, hopeful, and desperate. ”Because of countless years of plundering, my origin have greatly suffered, and cultivation have gotten harder, with less and less people being able to breakthrough. And this war also exhausted my luck, and I believe that reaching Spirit Ascension would be harder from now on. If I follow you, can you promise you can let me recover and even allow Saints to walk my land once more?”

Haoran looked at the sphere, his face utterly unbothered, as if the request were as small as granting an extra grain of rice to an ant.

”I can.” Haoran nodded, ”Even if no one else can.”

The cavern fell quiet again.

The blue core stopped moving. It used its deep, ancient senses to reach out, gently brushing against the aura of the youth holding it.

It did not find the shallow, noisy arrogance of a spoiled rich boy, instead, it felt an ocean of dark, heavy authority that went down so deep that its own planetary mind could not see the bottom.

It felt the newly fused dragon bones resting inside his flesh—two great powers that should have ripped each other to pieces, beaten into quiet obedience by his single will.

It saw the cold, unshakable belief in his eyes, knowing that this man did not make promises he could not keep, because to him, the entire world was just a board waiting for his fingers to move the pieces.

The blue light softened, bowing its bright flame until it sat gently in the center of his palm, completely still.

”Very well,” the Will spoke, its voice deep, calm, and filled with total submission. ”From this day forth, the Ancient Heaven Star bows to the young master of the Shen Clan. My leylines are your roads, my sky is your roof, and my luck is your weapon. I will serve as your tool, and I will forge your army.”