Villains Aren't Stepping Stones!

"Cough, cough!"

Ling Yinchi coughed violently as she struggled to get up from the shifting mound of red sand, her beautifully vibrant orange hair now a completely tangled mess.

The pristine, seductive charm she had exuded just moments ago was utterly ruined, her high-slit black and orange cheongsam covered in fine desert dust and stained with patches of green, acidic earthworm blood that had rained down from the sky.

"Damn it, that Shen Haoran is as reckless as ever!" She gritted her teeth in absolute fury, her sharp orange eyes flashing with a dangerous, resentful light.

She remembered in the past how Shen Haoran also used to just attack without caring about who will get caught in it.

That man haven’t changed at all!

She rubbed her throbbing temples and looked around the vast, restructured valley.

The landscape had been completely transformed by the cataclysmic collision between the diamond palm and the giant red oni avatar.

The dunes had been flattened into jagged, smoking craters, and the dozen or so male students who had been eagerly praising her just minutes prior were now completely buried under the heavy sand, their limbs sticking out pathetically as they groaned in pain, their faint cultivation bases barely keeping them from suffocating.

Beside her, completely indifferent to the localized disaster, Su Meilin just casually patted her baggy robes.

She brushed a few stray grains of sand off her pristine, white and blue fabric with a slow, meticulous motion.

Her deep blue eyes never once wavered, completely ignoring the buried students as she stared intently at the massive, ancient sandstone inheritance site that had risen from the depths of the earth.

’Inheritance site...’ she thought, her gaze looking complicated, as if remembering an old but very important memory. ’He used to enter this sort place, didn’t he? I wonder how he is? He probably became a crybaby without me correcting him.’

"Cough..."

At that exact moment, a weak cough broke the heavy silence as one of the buried men actually managed to dig himself out.

He brushed the red sand off his face and stood up, trying his best to look composed.

Despite the dust, he was undeniably handsome—possessing the classic, delicate features of a genuine young master from an influential capital family who hadn’t worked hard a single day in his life, relying entirely on resources and family status to pass his exams.

Ling Yinchi blinked, her irritated expression suddenly shifting back into a slow, amused smirk as she examined his face. "Oh, someone actually stood up. Very good, I applaud your resilience. As a reward for your survival, you’ll be my new boyfriend, and I gave you permission to use my name."

The handsome young master blinked in utter bewilderment.

His mind, still disoriented from the shockwave of the previous battle, struggled to process her words.

But within a fraction of a second, a look of sheer, ecstatic greed washed over his face, and he began grinning as if he had just won the ultimate grand lottery of the empire.

To be acknowledged by a maiden of the Nine Immortal Clans—even as a temporary partner—was a golden ticket to great wealth and prestige!

Every single one who became this young miss’ boyfriend will drown in resources as long as they can keep her attention to them.

However, such a thing was almost impossible. The longest relationship she had lasted half a month before she got bored.

But still, for someone like him, even just a day is enough, and he can brag about it for a lifetime.

If they can even cross that line...

"Yes! Thank you, Miss Ling! No... thank you, Miss Yinchi!" he stammered, stepping forward with his chest puffed out, completely forgetting about his buried, suffering classmates.

Ling Yinchi smiled sweetly at him, her eyes curving into two beautiful crescent shapes, but then she felt a heavy, piercing gaze landing on her cheek.

She turned her head slightly, her smirk widening as she looked toward Su Meilin.

"What is it, Su Meilin? Why are you staring at me like that? Don’t tell me... do you want my new man as well? I’m willing to share if you beg nicely."

"I have heard rumors that you like changing boyfriends as often as the seasons," Su Meilin spoke, her voice cold, flat, and completely devoid of emotion as she looked at her rival. "I initially thought there was no way someone descended from such a great, immortal bloodline could be that utterly depraved, but seeing it with my own eyes today, it seems the rumors are completely true."

Ling Yinchi just chuckled, entirely unbothered by the harsh insults.

She crossed her arms, her voluptuous figure shifting beneath her rumpled cheongsam as she let out a soft, mocking laugh.

"That’s none of your business, is it? I like keeping handsome boy toys around to amuse me, so what? The heavens gave me the power and the status to do whatever I please under the sun. Why should I live a boring, ascetic life like you?"

Su Meilin stared at her for a long, quiet moment, then shook her head with a look of profound, silent contempt. "Do whatever you want."

With that, she didn’t waste another second bickering.

She tapped the ground lightly with the tip of her white boot, immediately using a high-tier movement technique to turn her body into a blur of blue light, running at maximum speed towards the dark, grand entrance of the inheritance site.

Right now, the situation was incredibly delicate.

With his terrifying, transcendent strength, Shen Haoran could easily stop anyone from entering that temple if he wanted to, claiming the ancient legacy entirely for the Shen Clan.

If she wanted to secure a portion of the treasures or opportunities inside, she needed to approach him directly and negotiate a truce before he entered the ruins.

Ling Yinchi watched Su Meilin’s retreating figure with a lazy, thoughtful gaze, until her new boyfriend stepped closely beside her.

Eager to display his new status and comfort her, the handsome young master smiled warmly and tried to reach out his hand to hold hers.

"Yingchi, you see I—"

*Slap!*

A loud, resounding slap echoed violently across the silent desert valley.

The sheer kinetic force behind the strike caused the boyfriend to lose his balance completely; he stumbled backward and fell hard onto the jagged sand, a few pieces of his broken teeth flying out of his mouth as thick crimson blood began dripping heavily from his swollen gums.

He looked up at her, his eyes wide with a mixture of profound confusion, disbelief, and mounting horror.

He wanted to ask why she did that, but he couldn’t even utter a single word and just shivered uncontrollably when he met the bone chilling coldness radiating from Ling Yinchi’s orange eyes.

The playful, seductive maiden from a moment ago had completely vanished, replaced by an untouchable, merciless tyrant, the authority and arrogance belonging only to those who hailed from an Immortal Lineage.

"What were you doing just now?" she asked, her voice dropping to a low, quiet whisper that carried a dangerous weight.

"I..." The boyfriend tried to speak, but he was too afraid, and can only gulped, shivering in fear.

Ling Yinchi stepped forward, her shadow completely eclipsing his trembling form. "Trying to reach out and touch my hand? Did I give you permission to touch me, you worthless cur?"

The boyfriend shook his head in frantic, absolute fright, tears of pain and terror welling up in his eyes as he scrambled backward against the sand, desperately trying to apologize through his bleeding mouth.

Ling Yinchi didn’t care for his excuses and just raised her foot and stepped directly onto his chest—so hard that a sickening, loud cracking sound of fracturing ribs immediately resounded through the air.

The heavy weight of her Nascent Soul qi pinned him to the floor, and her boyfriend began struggling violently, his hands clawing at her ankle as he gasped for air, completely unable to break free or even breathe under her immense pressure.

"Remember your place, garbage. You’re just a toy I can play around with when I’m bored and throw away when I’m tired," she whispered, leaning down slightly so only he could hear her cold, venomous words. "Don’t take a mile when I give you an inch. A dog should know better than to touch its master."

The boyfriend’s eyes rolled back into his head, thick white foam appearing at the corners of his mouth as his body went entirely limp, passing out from the intense pain and lack of oxygen.

Ling Yinchi took her foot away from his chest, still looking cold and emotionless as she stared down at his unconscious, twitching form.

She adjusted the hem of her orange cheongsam, letting out a soft, dramatic sigh before shaking her head in mock disappointment.

"What a pity you’re already unconscious," she murmured, a small, artificial pout forming on her lips. "It seems you won’t be able to accompany me into the grand ruins after all. You’re far too fragile. So... let’s break up. Don’t worry, it’s not because of you, but because of me. Blame me and don’t blame yourself."

With that casual declaration, she turned on her heel and walked calmly towards the inheritance site, completely ignoring the remaining men who were still buried in the sand, entirely deaf to the groans of the sycophants who had been flattering her earlier.

In front of the inheritance site, the air was cool and heavy with the scent of ancient stone and residual spiritual qi.

Haoran and Shen Xinye stood quietly before the towering, dark archway of the sandstone temple.

The green, acidic blood of the giant earthworm still dripped from the high pillars, sizzling faintly as it eroded the ancient stone.

"Young master, are we chasing him?" asked Shen Xinye, looking up at him with a serious, expectant expression.

She knew that Lin Che had fled into the depths of these ruins with a severe shoulder wound, and leaving a hidden Spirit Ascension expert alive inside the trial zone could pose an unpredictable risk to their score.

Shen Haoran nodded slowly, his expression entirely relaxed. "Yeah. Don’t worry, he won’t be able to get away."

After all, this inheritance site wasn’t actually constructed by a Supreme Emperor himself in the ancient past; it was a carefully managed, artificially sealed pocket realm designed and maintained by the Imperial Academy faculty.

The elders had simply placed a portion of a long-lost Supreme Emperor’s actual legacy at the very end of this trap-filled site to serve as the ultimate prize for the most outstanding disciples.

Ye Hongyan had already told him exactly where the secret shortcuts and hidden spatial bypasses of this entire trial dimension were located.

While Lin Che was currently forcing his way through the main, trap-laden corridors of the temple and bleeding heavily, Haoran could easily intercept him at the central chamber whenever he pleased.

Oh, to have a teacher as your lover...

"Before that..."

He turned around slowly, his dark eyes narrowing as he heard the rapid rustling of fabric and the soft footsteps of cultivators approaching their position.

Through the clearing dust, he saw Su Meilin and Ling Yinchi standing just a few yards behind them, their eyes fixed on his towering figure.

Haoran crossed his arms, looking down at the two daughters of the Immortal Clans with an expression of absolute, crushing indifference.

"What do you want?"

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