Villains Aren't Stepping Stones!

At this exact moment, deep within the silent sanctuary of Ye Hongyan’s private office.

The morning light filtering through the large gothic window had initially brought a rare, tranquil peace to her heart, the memories of the night before under the willow tree lingering like a sweet fragrance.

But that fragile serenity was shattered in a single, devastating fraction of a second.

She immediately stood up from her mahogany chair, her physical composure fracturing completely as her personal communication artifact given to every staff of the Academy clattered loudly on her desk, rolling across the polished wood before coming to a stop.

She stared down at it in absolute, unadulterated shock, her breath catching in her throat.

Without a single moment of hesitation, her heart hammering violently against her ribs, she reached into her robes and took out her primary academy identity token.

She swiped her finger across the cool surface, and a large holographic screen snapped into existence, casting a pale blue glow over her trembling face.

Then, navigating with frantic, desperate speed, she scrolled directly to the main academy forum.

There, pinned at the very top of the interface under a crimson alert tag, was a freshly uploaded video.

Her eyes widened as she clicked it. The footage showed Elder Mu completely unhinged, his face distorted into a mask of pure, demonic rage as he was violently choking a helpless student on the floor, while a fellow teacher—Xiao Long—was trying incredibly hard to pry his iron fingers off the boy’s purple throat.

Based on the shattered background of the room, the destroyed desks, and the rays of the setting sun casting shadows, she could be certainly sure that this horrific display of violence had occurred immediately after she and Haoran had left the classroom, leaving Mu Chen entirely alone with his thoughts.

Did he truly take out his absolute, petty anger on an innocent student just because his pride was wounded?

Did he try to murder a child simply because he couldn’t handle the consequences of his own toxic actions?

"Mu Chen... You really are the lowest of the low," her eyes narrowed into sharp, icy slits, a profound wave of disgust completely washing over the remaining remnants of her past affection.

It seems like what Haoran told her was the truth, he wasn’t just a bitter scholar anymore; he had transformed into a dangerous, volatile monster who preyed on the weak.

Or rather, maybe he was already like this long ago, and he was just suppressing everything.

Just then, before she could even close the holographic screen, the very air within her office compressed violently.

*BOOM!*

A massive, earth-shattering explosion occurred in the distance, the following shockwave tearing through the academy grounds and rattling the heavy bookshelves of her office until several ancient scrolls fell to the floor.

Ye Hongyan’s eyes widened to their absolute limits, her face draining of all color as her saint level spiritual senses immediately mapped the coordinates of the blast.

"That place... The Nascent Class!?"

The horrifying realization struck her like a physical blow.

Does Mu Chen also want to take out his unhinged, vengeful anger at Haoran directly?!

Is he trying to kill the boy who had done nothing but offer comfort and understanding to her?!

"I won’t allow that. I will never allow you to touch him, Mu Chen!" she hissed through her teeth.

Without a single moment of hesitation, her power erupted from her body in a blinding flash of silver light, tearing a vertical rift in the fabric of space.

She stepped through the tear, and her figure completely vanished from the room.

*

*

*

Back in the Nascent Class Grade A.

The walls had already buckled outward from the sheer pressure of the initial confrontation, the stone tiles underfoot ground into a fine, gray powder.

"Die, you wretched brat!" Elder Mu roared, his mind entirely consumed by the roaring abyss of his broken pride.

He lunged forward, his fingers hooked like iron talons as his Earthly Saint energy condensed into a lethal, crushing singularity aimed directly at Haoran’s head.

But at that exact, critical moment, before his strike could traverse the remaining distance, the shadows stretching across the floorboards suddenly twisted, warped, and liquefied.

Moving with a preternatural, silent speed that completely defied the physical laws of momentum, the dark tendrils shot upward like thick, ink-black chains.

They wrapped themselves tightly around his wrists, his torso, and his legs, anchoring him to the ground and instantly stopping him from moving a single inch forward.

"W-What!?" Elder Mu gasped, his momentum instantly neutralized as he strained against the dark bindings, his face turning an angry shade of crimson. "What the hell!? What in the world is this thing?! What did you do to me, Shen Haoran!?"

Haoran stood completely undisturbed behind the protective wall of his Crowns, a cool, terrifyingly nonchalant smile playing on his lips as he casually dusted off the sleeve of his robes.

"Nothing. I didn’t do a single thing, Elder. But... if I were you, I might want to dodge that."

He lazily raised his index finger, pointing directly behind Elder Mu’s rigid back.

Elder Mu’s eyes widened to their absolute limits as a sudden, ice-cold presence materialized out of thin air directly against the nape of his neck.

The sheer, suffocating intent to kill radiating from behind him was so dense it felt like physical manifestation.

Without a single moment of hesitation, relying entirely on the raw combat instincts he had honed over a millennium, he forcefully used his spatial authority of Saints to bend the local space, warping his physical body three feet to the left.

*SHNG!*

At that moment, a pitch-black dagger, vibrating with a high-frequency spatial tear, sliced through the exact position where his skull had been a fraction of a second prior, severing a few stray strands of his gray hair.

Turning his head around with frantic speed, Elder Mu found a beautiful, ethereal woman standing silently in the dust.

She possessed long, midnight-black hair that flowed around her like silk, and her deep, blood-red eyes stared back at him with a completely cold, emotionless gaze that mirrored the abyss itself.

She held the black dagger with a flawless, reverse grip, her posture low and predatory.

"Who in the world are you!?" Elder Mu glared at her, his teeth grinding together as he felt the heavy, unnatural weight of her cultivation realm.

She didn’t feel like a normal cultivator; she felt like a living weapon born from the dark.

"She’s Qing’er," Haoran spoke from behind, his tone smooth, relaxed, and thoroughly amused by the elder’s frantic state.

Elder Mu stared at the woman, taking in her attire, her presence, and immediately came into a realization. "You... Is she part of the Shen Clan’s Shadow Guards?"

The Shen Clan’s Shadow Guards weren’t exactly a secret amongst the high ranking cultivators.

Although their numbers and strength remained a mystery, most people know that they exist.

It is even rumored that every single one of them are at the very least Profound Saint Realm.

Haoran smiled, but didn’t answer, he just leaned back slightly, crossing his arms as he watched the play unfold. "You shouldn’t ask such question now, Elder... After all, she seems to really want to execute you."

The very instant the words left Haoran’s mouth, Qing’er didn’t offer a single verbal reply as her physical body quickly dissolved back into pure, liquefied shadows, rushing across the broken floorboards towards him like a tidal wave of darkness.

However, looking at the approaching shadow strike, Elder Mu’s face twisted into a mask of pure, unadulterated madness.

The public humiliation from the morning, the betrayal of his love, and the insolence of these children had pushed him past the point of absolute sanity.

He was a supreme Earthly Saint! He was a someone who stood at the top of the world! He would not be hunted down like a dog by a servant brat!

"Damn it! I’m completely done holding back for this wretched institution!" he shrieked, his voice cracking as his consciousness fractured entirely under the weight of his rage. "So what if the rules are broken?! So what if this entire pocket dimension gets utterly destroyed into cosmic dust!?"

The full-blown, unsealed, and unrestricted power of a peak Earthly Saint Realm expert burst out of his physical body like a dying star.

*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!*

The sheer, catastrophic volume of energy didn’t just break the classroom—it completely and instantly vaporized the entire multi-story Imperial Academy building, turning millions of tons of reinforced stone, ancient protective wards, and wooden desks into a roaring, blinding storm of supersonic shrapnel and white-hot dust.

The shockwave traveled outward at terrifying speeds, ripping through the surrounding campus, tearing down ancient pavilions, and utterly wrecking half of the majestic Academy City within three breaths.

Screams of absolute, agonizing pain and sheer terror echoed through the air as hundreds of junior and senior students who had been walking nearby were instantly crushed by the immense kinetic pressure or sent flying like broken ragdolls through the sky, their bodies mangled by the flying debris.

Cultivators with weaker foundations were instantly blown into clouds of blood mist as the raw atmospheric gravity of a peak Saint tore through their defensive barriers.

The ground split open in massive, jagged chasms, swallowing entire courtyards whole as the city collapsed into ruin.

Amidst the absolute, apocalyptic devastation, a single, glowing sphere of dense, ink-black shadow energy stood completely unyielding amidst the storm.

Haoran, Huo Yue, and the five crowns of the Shen Clan were perfectly enclosed within the barrier, protected completely by Qing’er’s shadow defensive manipulation.

Haoran stood in the center of the dark sphere, his golden eyes watching the destruction through the translucent barrier with a cold, thoroughly satisfied smirk.

But, that was not the end of the madness.

Elder Mu hovered high above the ruined, burning wasteland of the collapsed city, his long robes torn and his gray hair flying wildly around his face like a demon lord ascending to power.

The raw, unfiltered volume of his peak Earthly Saint energy was so immensely massive that the entire enclosed Academy Dimension began to violently shake and groan under the structural strain.

Deep, jagged black cracks—tears in the very fabric of local reality—were clearly visible spreading across the blue sky above like a shattering glass dome, the void of the outer cosmos bleeding through the fractures as Elder Mu looked down from the sky.

"Ah, so this is what the power of an Earthly Saint really was." Said Shen Haoran.

Fights between Saint Realm experts usually happens in the vast outer space due to the fact that their power can cause catastrophic events.

So most people doesn’t have the opportunity to see them.

But now, he finally had the chance to see it in person.

Indeed. He was extremely powerful, it feels like with a mere twitch of his finger, this entire dimension would collapse into a black hole.

"Young master," Qing’er turned towards Haoran, "If we fight, I may not be able to protect you properly. You should go inside your—"

"No need." Haoran shook his head, "You aren’t the one who’s going to fight him."

Qing’er blinked, "Then..."

Just then...

"MU CHEN!!!"

A wrathful voice echoed throughout the academy dimension, then, a terrifying power immediately pressed down on reality, and the entire dimension was stabilized.

Cracks that appeared started repairing themselves, and the shaking stopped almost immediately.

Then, from the sky, the figure of Ye Hongyan appeared, her face twisted into righteous fury as she glared at the man she once loved.

Elder Mu faltered seeing her, "Hongyan..."

"Don’t call me that!" Ye Hongyan glared at him, "You have gone too far this time, Mu Chen."

At that moment, a black and pink scythe materialized from her hands as she pointed it at him, her eyes burning with hatred and also, pain.

"As one of the Ten Sages, I, Ye Hongyan, hereby sentence you..."

"Death."