Villains Aren't Stepping Stones!

"Damn it!"

Chu Yan cursed under his breath, violently kicking a loose jagged rock. The stone flew through the air, crashing into a nearby tree trunk and shattering into small fragments.

Shen Haoran had once again one-upped him.

It was incredibly frustrating, a constant thorn in his side that seemed to grow sharper with every passing day.

But as the initial wave of anger subsided, a cold, analytical clarity washed over Chu Yan’s mind.

He should have already expected this.

After all, Shen Haoran was a transmigrator just like him, an outsider who had dropped into this world with an unfair advantage.

He obviously knew about the plot of the web novel, the opportunities, the characters, and almost everything about the world.

In the brutal logic of these cultivation stories, it was only natural to subdue, cripple, or destroy anyone that could pose even a remote threat to your ultimate ascension.

In this specific case, Shen Haoran had played his cards with terrifying precision: he had chosen to subdue Ye Hongyan, bringing her formidable influence to his side, and simultaneously destroy Elder Mu’s psychological standing, neutralising him without ever having to draw a sword.

Chu Yan exhaled slowly, forcing his temper down before he looked toward a thoroughly dejected Elder Mu, whose powerful shoulders were slumped in a display of absolute vulnerability.

Walking over, Chu Yan knelt down slightly and offered words of comfort. "Elder Mu, please don’t be so glum. Think about it rationally. Teacher Ye waited for you for over a thousand years. Do you honestly think she would permanently turn her back on you, or let a bond that deep be destroyed, by something as minor as a brief misunderstanding with a junior?"

That was exactly right.

Having thoroughly read the original web novel in his past life, Chu Yan knew precisely just how much Ye Hongyan loved Elder Mu.

Her devotion wasn’t a superficial crush; it was an ancient, weathered monument of absolute loyalty.

It had reached the point where she had once even threatened to kill her own biological father for actively splitting them apart and trying to force her to marry another man from another prestigious clan.

Her hatred for her family’s manipulative actions ran so deep that if it wasn’t for the desperate, tearful interventions of her own mother, Ye Hongyan would have already executed her father the very moment she broke through to the Heavenly Saint realm.

Of course, this terrifying hostility wasn’t because she was some simple, love-brained maiden who foolishly believed romance was above all else in the universe.

Her rage was entirely justified by a dark, hidden history.

Years ago, that vile nobleman whom her father desperately wanted her to marry had actually drugged her tea during a formal family banquet, attempting to force himself on her while her spiritual energy was temporarily suppressed.

Thankfully, her mother had appeared just in time, breaking down the chamber doors and saving her before anything irreversible could happen.

However, instead of punishing or executing that disgusting man for his monstrous crime, her father had actually turned around and harshly scolded Ye Hongyan.

He had called her foolish and ungrateful, explicitly saying that she had missed a golden opportunity to bind their family to another powerful lineage and strengthen their clan.

Ye Hongyan felt incredibly bitter because of that, and worse, the final straw came when her father openly threatened her, stating with absolute coldness that he would personally hunt down and slaughter Elder Mu if she did not comply and marry the noble heir.

At that exact moment, Ye Hongyan had absolutely lost it.

The dormant power within her flared, and she threatened to kill her father herself right then and there.

She swore an oath that if she lacked the strength to do it now, she would cultivate day and night until she did.

Furthermore, she declared that if she ever found out that even a single hair on Elder Mu’s head had been harmed, she would immediately commit suicide, ensuring her father’s grand political alliance would rot into nothingness.

Because of that terrifying ultimatum, her father finally backed down and stopped pressuring her.

Centuries later, when Ye Hongyan successfully broke through to the Heavenly Saint realm, achieving a level of power that defied her clan’s control, her own mother begged her on bended knees to spare her father’s life for the sake of their past marital bonds.

Ye Hongyan, who remained fundamentally filial and still deeply loved her mother, ultimately decided to spare the old man’s life.

However, she completely severed all ties with her clan, leaving her ancestral home behind to wander the vast world alone, before eventually becoming recognized across the empire as one of the legendary Ten Sages and joining the prestigious Imperial Academy.

Such a fiercely loyal and devoted woman... would she truly get permanently mad at Elder Mu just because he lost his temper and got angry at a provocative junior?

Chu Yan highly doubted it. In fact, based on his understanding of that woman, he firmly believed that Ye Hongyan was probably creating excuses in her own mind right now just to whitewash and justify what Elder Mu had done, desperately trying to find a logical reason for his sudden outburst because she still cared so deeply.

"Elder Mu, if you keep sitting here acting so dejected and defeated like this, then you are playing right into the enemy’s hands. There really won’t be another chance for the two of you to be together if you give up now," Chu Yan stated firmly, his voice cutting through the older man’s despair.

Xiao Long drifted down from the air beside them, nodding his ethereal head in solemn agreement. "Indeed. My disciple, Chu Yan, speaks the absolute truth. Elder Mu, you must understand that a woman’s heart is like a hidden valley; even when blocked by the fiercest winter storms of anger, the ancient rivers of affection still run deep underneath the ice. You cannot let a passing cloud convince you that the sun has died."

Although he couldn’t understand why someone so powerful would become like this because of a woman, he still decided to comfort him.

After all, during the past week, they have become friends.

When they first met, Elder Mu actually disdained, and rightfully so as the original Xiao Long was an absolute trash.

But with the help of the system, he managed to impress Elder Mu and they became friends then.

"Do you... do you really think so?" Elder Mu looked up, his eyes bloodshot, searching Xiao Long and Chu Yan’s face for any sign of hope.

"Yes, absolutely! That’s why, lift your head up high and try again," Chu Yan urged, slapping the elder’s shoulder with a supportive grin. "Your love has survived a millennium of separation, forced isolation, and family tyranny. It isn’t so incredibly fragile that it can be broken by a single dramatic scene in a faculty room, right?"

Elder Mu’s expression brightened considerably at those words, the lingering fog of depression lifting from his features as he let out a sudden, booming laugh that echoed across the hilltop.

"Hahaha! Indeed, young friend! How incredibly embarrassing of me, to be lectured so thoroughly on the matters of the heart by a junior!"

He stood up straight, forcefully patting the dust and dirt off his heavy robes, his old authority returning to his posture.

"That’s right! My love isn’t that weak! I have endured far worse than the mocking smirks of a brat!"

Chu Yan secretly breathed a massive sigh of relief seeing this transformation.

At the very least, his primary institutional backer inside the academy hadn’t fallen into a crippling depression.

If Elder Mu remained motivated, they still had a fighting chance to turn the tables on Shen Haoran.

*

*

*

At this exact moment, inside the serene, heavily warded sanctuary of Ye Hongyan’s private office.

The aloof, dignified youngest member of the Ten Sage was currently in a state of absolute psychological chaos.

Her face was completely red, burning with a deep, furious crimson blush that reached all the way to the collar of her robes.

She was reading the dark, cloth-bound book left behind by Haoran with such intense, breathless concentration that her knuckles were turning white against the pages.

"No! What do you mean you can’t be together?!" she suddenly shouted aloud to the empty room, her voice cracking with genuine emotional distress as she read a particularly tragic Chapter. "You clearly love him! It’s just a few centuries of an age gap! What is so bad about that?! Why are you letting the judgments of superficial outsiders dictate your happiness?!"

She flipped the page frantically, her eyes darting across the ink characters as the fictional narrative gripped her soul.

Then, as she read further down the page, her breath hitched completely, her heart hammering against her ribs.

"What!?" she gasped, slamming her hand down on the mahogany desk, entirely forgetting her status as a revered cultivation master. "You actually want to cut off your relationship with your beloved student because your toxic first love—the one who abandoned you and stayed silent for years—suddenly wanted you back?! You absolute bitch! Your student is the one for you! He’s absolutely perfect for you! So what if he’s your student?! What is so bad about it?!"

She was entirely swept away by the narrative, her maternal and romantic instincts thoroughly manipulated by the masterfully written prose.

Finally, after a while of breathless reading, her trembling fingers arrived at the very end of the book.

Her eyes widened in sheer suspense as the climax unfolded on the final paragraphs.

"No! Don’t go! It’s his graduation day! He’s waiting for you under the peach blossom trees! Just turn around and live happily ever after!"

She eagerly flipped the page to read the long-awaited resolution.

...There was no next page.

The book abruptly ended on a massive, agonizing cliffhanger.

"NO!" She slammed her hands on the table, and thankfully, it was made from a high quality materials, if not, it would’ve been reduced to atoms.

She was breathing heavily, her stomach churning at the thought of the female teacher leaving the academy to meet with her first love while her beloved student was waiting for her under the peach blossom tree, the place where they first met.

She wanted to go inside the book, slap the teacher for being blind and throw her towards her student!

"No, no, I need to calm down." She told herself, telling herself that it was just a story and she shouldn’t get worked up.

She stood up, walked towards the window and noticed that it was already night.

She stared at the streets, and couldn’t help but sigh.

However, she still felt incredibly uncomfortable.

She wanted to know what happened next, she wanted to see if the student and teacher really got together, she wanted to see if the teacher finally woke up from her love blindness and see that her student was the one for her.

"...student Haoran should have the second volume, right?"

She blushed at the thought.

"No, before that. Why does student Haoran have a book like this? Could it be he likes these type of romance... forbidden love between student and teacher?"

She actually felt a bit shy. Could the reason why Haoran asked to come inside her office because he has some....feelings, for her?

But they obviously just met!

Or is he just like that with every teachers?

No, Haoran is obviously a good kid, he’s definitely not a deviant.

So, could it be love at first sight?

"This..." She was speechless, if that was true, then how is she supposed to face him next time?

Obviously, a student and a teacher shouldn’t...

...right?