Villains Aren't Stepping Stones!

"Thank you, Haoran," Ye Hongyan smiled at him, her voice softer and more delicate than it had ever been.

The sharp, rigid authority that usually defined her presence as a supreme master teacher had completely melted away, replaced by a radiant, peaceful warmth.

The two of them currently stood outside her office, with Ye Hongyan now looking visibly better than she did before.

The heavy shadows of sorrow and betrayal that had clouded her striking features under the willow tree were entirely gone, washed away by the tender, calculated affection she had just received.

The pale moonlight filtering through the high arched windows of the library corridor illuminated her face, catching the slight, unprompted curve of her lips.

"No, you don’t have to thank me, Hongyan," said Haoran.

His voice was smooth and comforting, hitting the perfect notes of a gentle, selfless protector.

He kept his posture relaxed, his hands casually tucked behind his back as he looked down at her with a reassuring, steady gaze.

Hearing him use her true name so casually outside the privacy of their hidden sanctuary caused a sudden, sharp flutter in Ye Hongyan’s chest.

She felt her cheeks immediately burning with a deep, furious crimson blush.

For a thousand years, she had been a revered, untouchable powerhouse, a paragon of discipline who dictated the rules to thousands of disciples.

But right now, standing in front of this teenage junior, she felt entirely reduced to an inexperienced, flustered young girl.

She shifted her weight from one foot to another, suddenly finding the pattern of the polished marble floorboards incredibly fascinating.

She adjusted her silver-rimmed glasses with a trembling hand, trying to reclaim even a shred of her academic composure, but the sheer, overwhelming proximity of his body made her mind swirl.

"I... I should probably go inside and organize the remaining documents for the upcoming faction wars," she stammered awkwardly, her words tumbling out in a hurried, disjointed rush.

She couldn’t even bring herself to look him directly in the eye, her fingers nervously wringing the edge of her silk sleeve.

"The curriculum updates... they require my signature before the morning bells toll, and I haven’t done any of them."

Haoran chuckled softly, the low, rich sound causing her heart to beat even faster against her ribs. "Work can wait for a few hours, Hongyan. You’ve had a draining day. You should rest your mind."

"Yes... yes, of course," she murmured, her voice dropping into a shy, breathless register.

She didn’t even argue that as a Heavenly Saint Realm expert, she couldn’t feel tired even if she stayed up for several weeks of non-stop battle.

She took a tiny, hesitant step closer to him, her entire being pulled forward by his magnetic charm.

She wrestled with her internal thoughts for a brief, agonizing second, her standard morals and centuries of rigid discipline engaging in a final, hopeless battle against her newfound obsession.

Losing the battle completely, she suddenly leaned in.

Moving with a sudden, desperate burst of courage, she planted a soft, lingering kiss right on his lips.

It was a brief, gentle touch, yet it carried the absolute, unyielding surrender of a woman who had completely thrown away her past life.

When she broke apart, her face was completely red all the way to the tips of her ears.

She offered him a final, deeply affectionate look, her eyes wide and soft.

"Goodnight," she said, her voice a breathless, melodic whisper.

Haoran nodded, offering her a perfectly executed, gentle smile. "Goodnight."

With that, he turned around and began to leave, his footsteps echoing softly as he walked down the long, empty library corridor.

Ye Hongyan remained frozen at the threshold, her hand pressed against her tingling lips, watching his retreating figure with an intense, possessive gaze until he turned the final corner and completely disappeared from her sight.

After that, letting out a long, trembling sigh of pure bliss, she finally entered her private office and closed the heavy wooden door, turning the key to lock herself within her sanctuary.

Outside, walking on the quiet, cobblestone streets of the academy grounds under the cover of the starry night, the gentle, affectionate expression on Haoran’s face vanished instantly.

In a fraction of a second, his features reverted back to their natural, icy apathy. His golden eyes gleamed with a cold, terrifying calculation.

He reached into his storage ring and immediately took out a specialized, dark silver communication artifact.

Although their standard academy identity tokens could indeed send messages across the campus, Haoran was absolutely sure that the high administration and the eyes of the hidden elders were constantly monitoring those institutional networks.

For personal messages, strategic maneuvers, and sensitive clan operations, Haoran still highly preferred to use the secure, heavily encrypted communication artifact provided exclusively by his own supreme clan.

He tapped the surface of the silver device, injecting a small thread of his golden qi into the array circuits.

Within a split second, the air above the artifact warped, and a small, highly detailed holographic projection of Gu Xunyi appeared floating in front of him.

She was already back at her own family’s academy estate, lounging comfortably against a velvet chaise.

"Is everything completely ready?" he asked without a single introductory greeting, his voice cutting through the quiet night like a blade.

Gu Xunyi chuckled, the sound rich and dripping with absolute, mischievous amusement as she tilted her head toward the projection.

"Of course it is. It’s me we’re talking about here, Haoran. The arrays have been calibrated, the jade transmission slips have been thoroughly copied, and the informant network is primed. Everything is perfectly in place."

"Good," Haoran replied, his lips curling into a sharp, ruthless smirk. "Then, release that thing tomorrow morning at the exact moment before the first bells chime. I want the entire school, from the lowliest servant to the highest grand elder, to know exactly how much of a hypocritical bastard he truly is. Let them see him accusing a fellow female teacher as a common whore in a public classroom, and let them see the record of him choking and almost killing a premier-year student out of pure, unbridled anger."

"You betcha," Gu Xunyi gave a playful, mock military salute toward him, her red eyes sparkling with a shared, chaotic delight.

She couldn’t wait to see the absolute devastation the morning would bring.

Still, she couldn’t help but let out a soft sigh of curious wonder. "Still... how exactly did that old guy manage to offend you so heavily in the first place? Looking at the full trajectory of his downfall, he’s honestly turning out to be way too pitiful."

"You don’t sound like you actually pity him at all," said Haoran, his tone dry as he continued his steady pace down the dark street.

Gu Xunyi laughed loudly, the sound echoing through the small speaker of the device. "Hahaha! Oh, Haoran, you’re always so incredibly funny. I explicitly said he’s a pitiful, not that I actually feel a single shred of pity for him. Watching a righteous man break himself into pieces is my favorite form of entertainment."

Haoran snorted, shaking his head in mild amusement at her predictable, unhinged nature. "Whatever. Just ensure there are no flaws in the distribution. I’ll see you in class tomorrow."

"Okay~!" Gu Xunyi winked at him playfully before the holographic projection snapped shut, dissolving into thousands of tiny silver particles, and Haoran smoothly stored his communication artifact back inside his spatial storage ring.

He stopped in his tracks for a brief second, pausing at the edge of the Academy City, and looked up at the vast, uncaring night sky.

The chess pieces had been perfectly positioned, the traps had been laid, and the protagonists were completely blind to the net closing around them.

"Tomorrow..." he muttered to himself, a dark, dangerous chuckle escaping his lips. "I will finally end this pathetic farce tomorrow."

*

*

*

The next day.

The morning sun rose over the majestic spires of the Imperial Academy, casting a brilliant, warm light over the grand campus.

However, the atmosphere inside the main gates was anything but peaceful, as a strange, suffocating tension hung heavily in the air.

Elder Mu walked slowly inside the main academy building, his steps slightly heavy from a sleepless night of intense guilt and mental exhaustion.

He had spent hours trying to process his actions, his mind completely fried by the memory of Ye Hongyan’s cold, dead eyes, and so he intended to find her today and beg for forgiveness on bended knees.

However, the exact moment he stepped into the academy building grounds, he immediately noticed that something was profoundly wrong.

The groups of students who were usually bustling about, laughing and greeting the faculty members, instantly went completely silent the second his silhouette appeared.

Dozens of students were actually staring directly at him, their eyes wide with a mixture of profound shock, deep disgust, and absolute fear.

He stopped, thoroughly confused. He was a senior elder of high standing, a scholar through and through who was usually quite universally respected and revered across the institution.

So what in the heavens was happening right now?

Why were they looking at him as if he were a plaque-ridden monster?

"Excuse me, student," Elder Mu called out politely, reaching a hand out toward a nearby premier-year disciple who was carrying a stack of talisman papers.

The young student turned around, but the absolute second his eyes locked onto Elder Mu’s face, he let out a sharp, terrified shriek.

He dropped his papers entirely, the sheets scattering across the floor, and immediately fled down the hallway at full speed, screaming at the top of his lungs about how he was too young to die and how he didn’t want to be choked to death by a crazed elder.

"What exactly is happening here?" Elder Mu muttered, his brows furrowing deeply as a terrible, icy premonition began to rise rapidly from his stomach to his chest.

The ambient spiritual energy around him began to fluctuate with his growing anxiety.

Just then, as he exited the main building into the secondary outer courtyard, he noticed a lowly outer court servant sweeping the fallen leaves along the side of the stone road.

The servant wore crude, simple robes and worked with a quiet, rhythm.

For some inexplicable reason, the moment Elder Mu’s gaze landed on the sweeper, he actually felt a sudden, intensely good feeling for this completely random man, even though they didn’t know each other at all and had never exchanged a single word in their entire lives.

It was an unexplainable, intrinsic pull of absolute affinity.

It was exactly like the strange, cosmic feeling of deep connection he had felt when he first encountered Chu Yan, and previously with Tai Yuhao.

In fact, it was actually also because of this exact, overwhelming feeling of spiritual affinity that he had blindly sided with Tai Yuhao a week ago, completely abandoning his professional neutrality, which had ultimately caused him to heavily offend Shen Haoran.

"Young friend, excuse me for interrupting your work," Elder Mu stepped forward, politely greeting the sweeper with a soft, diplomatic bow.

The sweeper, whose name was Lin Che—another hidden, low-profile transmigrator who possessed a secret system and was laying low as a common servant—looked up from his broom, thoroughly confused.

But the absolute millisecond his eyes registered Elder Mu’s distinct robes and facial features, his body went completely rigid, and he immediately panicked, stepping back defensively.

’Holy shit, it’s him! The crazy elder from the morning mass transmissions!’ Lin Che thought frantically, his heart hammering against his ribs as he gripped the wooden handle of his broom like a weapon. ’He’s not going to lose his mind and try to kill me right here, is he?!’

"Young friend, please do not fear," Elder Mu said, his tone thoroughly gentle, though his face looked incredibly haggard. "It seems you know exactly what has transpired today and why everyone across the campus seems to be actively avoiding me like a plague. May I humbly ask for the true reason behind this madness?"

Lin Che blinked, his defensive stance loosening slightly as he stared Elder Mu up and down.

Looking at the old man’s exhausted, deeply hollowed eyes and wrinkled face, he suddenly felt that this senior elder was actually quite incredibly pitiful—he looked exactly like a tragic, broken childhood friend who had just been completely and mercilessly NTRed by a smooth, yellow-haired rich young master in a hentai doujinshi.

"Elder... it seems you truly didn’t know what happened this morning," Lin Che began, let out a soft sigh as he shook his head in pity.

"Well... it’s like this..."

Lin Che began to thoroughly detail the contents of the widespread morning leak.

He explained how a completely flawless, unalterable audiovisual recording of yesterday’s classroom confrontation had been blast-transmitted to every single communication artifacts and academy tokensin the academy.

He described how the entire student body had watched and listened to Elder Mu screaming at the revered Sage Ye Hongyan, publicly branding her a whore, questioning her thousand-year purity, and how the recording explicitly showed him deploying lethal Saint-realm force to choke and nearly murder Chu Yan, an innocent student, out of a petty rage.

The moment Elder Mu heard the full, gruesome details of the widespread public exposure, the world around him seemed to lose all color.

The absolute horror of the psychological trap slammed into his mind with the force of a divine tribulation.

His carefully preserved reputation, his standing, his honor, and his last remaining hope of ever reconciling with Ye Hongyan—everything had been utterly, systematically liquidated overnight.

A profound, suffocating madness took over his consciousness.

The sealed spiritual energy within his meridians broke through its constraints, erupting out of his body in a terrifying, violent roar of pressurized wind that shattered the stone tiles beneath his boots into dust.

His face distorted into a mask of pure, unadulterated hatred.

"SHEN HAORAN, YOU BASTARD! YOU DESERVE DEATH!"