Villains Aren't Stepping Stones!

Chapter 256 - 24: The Pioneer

The heavy obsidian doors of the grand observation amphitheater groaned softly as they swung inward, allowing the defeated examiner to slowly step inside.

The interior of the massive hall was packed with thousands of elite Master Teachers, their attention temporarily pulled away from the floating holographic screens as they registered his arrival.

The exact second the old master teacher’s weary silhouette fully appeared under the bright light of the soul-lamps, the tense, serious atmosphere of the faculty instantly ruptured.

A massive wave of booming laughter, mocking chuckles, and rowdy jests violently vibrated across the ascending tiers of seats.

"Old Deng! You absolute old fossil, you must have gotten remarkably rusty during your century of deep isolation!" one high-tier instructor shouted from the middle rows, slapping his desk in pure, unbridled amusement.

"Hahaha! Look at his expression! For the first time in three hundred years, the pride of the historical department has been completely, ruthlessly beaten by a twenty-four-year-old kid in a dao debate!" another elder roared, his shoulders shaking as he pointed a finger.

"For shame, Old Deng! For absolute, historic shame!" a third sage added, shaking his head with a theatrical, exaggerated sigh of disappointment. "To let a junior not even a hundred years old entirely dismantle your logical frameworks within a fraction of an hour... the reputation of our examination board has taken a heavy blow today!"

The master teacher who had just finished cross-examining Haoran—Old Deng—glared fiercely up at the tiers of mocking faces, his pale cheeks flushing with a mixture of residual exhaustion and intense irritation.

He violently slammed his wide sleeves against his sides, his voice booming through the auditorium to cut through their laughter.

"Oh, fuck off, every single one of you arrogant armchair philosophers!" Old Deng snapped, his cloudy eyes flaring with a sudden, sharp indignation. "Stop sitting up there barking like rabid dogs! I tell you right now, if it were any of you miserable fools standing in my exact shoes across that wooden table, trying to pierce his mental boundaries, you wouldn’t have done a single fraction better than I did! His willpower is a literal iron wall!"

"Hahaha! Unfortunately for your reputation, Old Deng, we were not the ones assigned to his desk!"

"That’s right! You have completely, thoroughly lost your historical majesty today, old friend!" the faculty continued to jeer, though their eyes held a deep, hidden trace of profound relief that they hadn’t been the ones chosen to face the Shen Clan’s heir.

On the highest, floating platform, Venerable Sky Cloud remained perfectly silent, his deep blue eyes staring fixedly at the recording of the finished debate on the central screen, entirely unbothered by the rowdy noise of his subordinates.

His mind was actively replaying every single syllable, every sharp retort, and every unyielding concept Shen Haoran had unleashed within that isolated room.

’Truthfully...’ the ancient Rank 10 Master Teacher thought to himself, his fingers slowly stroking his long white beard, ’if I had been the one sitting across from the boy, I could have undoubtedly done significantly better than Old Deng.’

That’s an understatement. In fact, given his current level of comprehension, be could have systematically beaten and dismantled Haoran’s logic within that debate.

But... that would only be due to the unfair advantage of his massive age and the boundless, cosmic wisdom he had accumulated over thousands of years of watching the world.

A sharp, solemn realization struck the old sage’s mind, causing his eyes to narrow into a thin line.

If it were him a thousand years ago... back when he was still a rising scholar trying to boost his reputation... even he would have probably struggled immensely to come up with a single valid counterargument against his raw, unadulterated conviction.

’I can’t believe it... for such a youngster to possess such an incredibly deep, flawless understanding of his own personal Dao...’

He stared at the figure of Haoran through thr holographic screen, ’If this boy were to ever turn away from the path of slaughter and officially become a Master Teacher within our institution, his speed of progression would be terrifying. He would probably reach the legendary, mythical Rank 11 within just a few short centuries.’

*

*

*

Meanwhile, Shen Haoran suddenly found himself standing in the center of an incredibly wide, flat plain field that stretched as far as the eye could see under a pale, overcast sky.

The white stone floor was completely empty, pristine, and entirely silent.

He slowly swept his golden eyes across the horizon, his brow raising slightly as he realized there was absolutely no one else present within the immediate area—not a single fellow disciple, not a single assistant instructor, and not a single examiner from the faculty.

’Am I seriously going to be forced to sit down and wait for the rest of the world until this trial concludes as well?’ Haoran thought to himself, letting out a short, amused sigh through his nose.

Moving with a slow, majestic grace, he walked directly to the very front edge of the current field, smoothed down the gold silk edges of his royal robes, and sat down cross-legged on the polished stone to enter a state of deep meditation.

He wondered briefly within his mind just how many hours or days he was supposed to waste out here in isolation before the next official trial finally managed to begin.

As his consciousness settled into the familiar, warm depths of his dantian, he decided to utilize the idle time to carefully review the entire audio of the earlier cross-examination.

His analytical mind systematically re-evaluated his own words, attempting to locate any microscopic flaws, logical inconsistencies, or semantic mistakes within his arguments that the ancient teacher might have missed.

’When that old man brought up the absolute dependency of my structural privilege...’ Haoran contemplated silently, his inner eye tracking the flow of his gold-burning qi, ’I answered by stating that the cradle does not define the child, but rather that the child glorifies the cradle.’

’Although the answer was indeed conceptually sufficient to shatter his focus... but from a perspective of absolute, flawless supremacy, it was still a fraction too defensive.’

’I shouldn’t have even bothered to validate his premise regarding the environment, instead, I should have simply stated that the wealth of the Shen Clan is not an external foundation at all, but rather a direct, material crystallization of my own soul’s drawing resources to itself before my physical birth.’

’True supremacy doesn’t explain its tools, instead, it simply declares that the tools belong to the master by universal right.’

He recorded the refinement into his Dao Heart, his mental canvas turning even sharper, cleaner, and more absolute than before.

Finally, after a full three hours of uninterrupted, silent isolation, a sudden shimmer of spatial qi rippled across the empty plain field, and another physical figure finally arrived through the array.

It was Gu Xunyi.

"Oh! Haoran!" her loud, cheerful voice instantly broke the quiet peace of the field.

The moment her red eyes locked onto his golden hair, a massive, unhinged grin stretched across her porcelain features, and she immediately broke into a brisk run, rushing straight towards his seated position.

"As expected of the world’s greatest monster, you’re already sitting out here looking entirely bored!"

Haoran opened his eyes slowly, staring up at her crouched form with a dry, calculating look. "I must admit, I fully thought that mindless Sword Maniac from the Jian Clan would be the first one to finish his cross-examination after me. I honestly didn’t expect the second arrival to be you. It seems I slightly underestimated your mental cultivation, crazy girl."

Gu Xunyi grinned proudly, her red eyes sparkling with a chaotic delight as she brushed her long purple hair over her shoulder. "Heh! I may look like a complete, unhinged lunatic to the commoners of the sects, but at my absolute core, I am a true, certified academic! When it comes to a battle of raw, semantic debate, I am a total expert. You have to remember, Haoran... our grand Gu Clan possesses the absolute largest library, the densest collection of hidden scripts, and the most massive number of ancient books across the entire geography of the empire, you know? I’ve been arguing with the dead ghosts of philosophers since I was seven years old!"

He did, in fact, know that historical detail regarding her house, so he merely closed his eyes again, refusing to validate her bragging.

Still, arguing with the spirit of dead philosophers? How crazy can you be?

At that exact moment, a sharp, cold hum of spatial energy sliced through the air, and a third person materialized a dozen paces away.

It was a remarkably handsome young man possessing sharp, piercing brown eyes and exceptionally long white hair that was bound tightly behind his neck in a clean ponytail.

He was dressed in a simple, unadorned white combat robe that bore no clan insignia, and a long, unadorned steel sword was strapped loosely to his left hip.

His entire silhouette radiated an offensive velocity that made the air feel thin.

"Oh, look, it’s the legendary sword maniac himself," Gu Xunyi smiled brightly, waving her hand casually toward the newcomer. "How are you doing today, Jian Xi? Did you manage to convince the old men that your metal has a soul?"

The white-haired swordsman, Jian Xi, didn’t even bother to slow his stride.

He cast a single, freezing, completely deadpan glance directly at her purple hair, his voice flat. "Crazy woman."

Gu Xunyi instantly pouted her lower lip, her cheeks puffing out in an intense, childish frustration as she stamped her boot against the stone. "Why on earth does every single person I encounter in this capital keep calling me that specific name?! I am a perfectly sane researcher!"

However, before her tantrum could escalate any further, the space all across the wide field began to violently, rapidly blink in a brilliant succession.

Then, within the span of a few short minutes, several dozen elite figures started appearing across the plain field, one after another—virtually all of them originating from the core lineages of the Nine Immortal Clans and the Twelve Immortal Sects.

The Ten Crowns were among them, and they immediately stood near Haoran.

Eventually, a massive wave of dense, familiar heat rippled through the space, and Huo Yue, Zhu Ziyan, Ning Xueli, Ling Luochen, Qian Yunxi, Xia Mengyao, and Luo Mingye successfully appeared as a unified group.

The moment their eyes stabilized, they didn’t waste a single second on anything else as they all immediately marched straight across the stone field to position themselves securely beside Haoran’s shadow.

Even the cold, detached princess Xu Xiansu, quietly walked over and stood a few paces away from his right shoulder, utilizing his presence as a natural shield.

Haoran swept his eyes across the arena.

At this current moment, out of the tens of thousands of proud geniuses who had initially gathered at the gates, there were now only about a hundred students left physically standing within the final testing ground.

Such a crazy statistics. Out of tens of thousands, only a hundred remained after the third trial.

Finally, the grand, sky-sized voice of Venerable Sky Cloud echoed once more from the heavens, carrying a deep thread of genuine respect.

"Congratulations to the 127 true elites of this era who have successfully managed to defend the validity of their personal Daos before the faculty. You have proven that your paths are not mere derivative copies of ancient scripts."

"Now... Let us begin the fourth and final trial! The Pioneer!"

"For this final crucible, the faculty will explicitly grant you absolutely zero instructions, zero guidelines, and zero hidden clues."

"To successfully pass this test and secure your permanent placement within the core inner circle of the Imperial Academy, you must step forward and physically, conceptually show us something that has never been seen before under these heavens."

"Whether it is a brand-new, unrecorded Cultivation Technique that alters the flow of qi... a complex Battle Technique that cuts through a new variable of space... a legendary Alchemy Pill that introduces a new combination of medicinal laws... or a completely original Formation Array that warps the environment... it matters not. It can be absolutely anything, so long as it is completely, undeniably, and thoroughly original to your own intellect."

"Our institution abides by an immutable, eternal law: anyone who is fundamentally incapable of creating their own unique path will never, under any circumstances, possess the capacity to become a true Immortal!"

"Why? Because a true Immortal does not merely inherit the glory of the past... they step onto the stage of creation and define the future!"

"You have a month to birth a miracle. Begin!"