Villains Aren't Stepping Stones!

Chapter 179: New Specimen

The devastation in the marketplace of the Main City was a visceral wound upon the perfection of the Shen Clan’s architecture.

Cracks spider-webbed through the pavement, and several low-hanging balconies of the surrounding mansions had been reduced to splinters by the sheer atmospheric pressure of Ye Feng’s sudden eruption.

Amidst the settling dust and the terrified whispers of the crowd, Shen Xinye stood alone.

She looked profoundly melancholic, her short golden hair still messy from the shockwave and her eyes fixed on the distant horizon where the shadows had finally swallowed her husband.

The pain in her chest wasn’t just from the physical impact that had slammed her into the wall, but more of a hollow, aching void of betrayal.

’Have I been deceived?’ she asked herself, the answer tasting like poison. ’Yes. Absolutely. Beyond a shadow of a doubt.’

That man, whom she had spent years protecting with a fierce, almost motherly devotion, the man she thought was just an ordinary mortal, had played her for a fool.

She had believed he was suffering under the weight of the bloodline curse that had been transferred from her to him during their union, a burden she felt immense guilt for.

She had spent countless nights refining pills and searching for methods to prolong his "fragile" life, hoping that he can live peacefully, all the while he possessed a power that could shake the very foundations of the city.

He wasn’t a victim like she thought, he was a cultivator, and one who was even stronger than the Fourth Crown herself.

She wondered, with a sickening lurch of her heart, what he had felt when she showed him care, when she had wiped his brow during his faked "illnesses" or stood between him and the mocking branch disciples.

Was he feeling smug?

Was he enjoying the performance, relishing the way he could gain her sympathy with a single cough?

He was probably mocking her in the silent theater of his mind, wasn’t he? Not just her, but her mother, Shen Xiu, as well.

He had lived in their home, eaten at their table, and enjoyed their protection, all while viewing them as naive fools he could easily manipulate.

She couldn’t help but sigh, staring at an empty space in a daze.

At this moment, the air rippled, and Shen Haoran appeared.

He was accompanied by the Shadow Guard, who held the battered, shackled form of Ye Feng with an indifferent, iron grip.

The crowd of descendants immediately parted like a retreating tide, their eyes darting between the Heir and the fallen Fourth Crown.

Haoran stared at the onlookers for a moment, his gaze a silent command for them to maintain their distance, before he turned his focus to Shen Xinye.

His voice was calm, clinical, and devoid of any mocking intent, which somehow made the reality of the situation feel even more final.

"Shen Xinye," Haoran began, "after a preliminary scan of his spiritual fluctuations during the chase, we have reasons to believe that this man is a high-level spy probably sent or bribed by other forces to infiltrate the core of our branch lineages, and his ’mortal’ shell was just a sophisticated mask. I am here to inform you that, for the safety of the clan and the integrity of our laws, you probably won’t be seeing him anytime soon. He will be taken to the high-security sector for interrogation."

"A spy?" one of the onlookers whispered, the rumor spreading like wildfire.

"Scary... he was able to act like a mortal for years and even tricked a Crown. What a terrifying level of patience."

"Damn. I’ve insulted him before, thank heavens he didn’t snap and kill me."

Shen Xinye stared at Ye Feng’s unconscious face, and at this moment, he really looked pathetic in his sorry state, his Peak Nirvana Rebirth aura having flickered out, leaving him as an empty vessel.

She felt a wave of cold detachment wash over her as the gentleness and the debt she felt were tied to a man who didn’t exist began to fade.

The man before her was a stranger, a variable that had been neutralized.

With that thought, she took a deep breath and shook her head slowly.

"Thank you for informing me, Young Master," she said, her voice regaining its crystalline edge. "You have performed your duty to the clan. You may do as you please with him. He is no longer a concern of the Jiang-Shen household."

Haoran nodded, a flicker of satisfaction crossing his pupils.

’With this,’ he mused, ’the karmic thread between the protagonist and the primary heroine of his arc has been basically severed. Not just cut, but cauterized.’

He wondered briefly how much this intervention had weakened the "Luck" of this Ye Feng, and if it was already possible to kill him without the Heavenly Dao interfering.

If only he possessed a specialized technique to see through the invisible currents of luck and fate—to see the actual numerical decline of a protagonist’s "Plot Armor"—then everything would be much easier to manage.

’Hmm, I should check the Garden’s Library after I finish dealing with everything,’ he thought. ’Those people from Ancient Babylonian Empire collected everything from across the eras, so there must be a Heaven-Peering Eye or a Karma-Sensing manual tucked away in a corner.’

He turned his attention toward Xia Mengyao and Luo Mingye, who had been watching the entire exchange with wide, solemn eyes.

"You two," Haoran said, "it seems I won’t be able to see you off properly. My schedule has become... complicated. I have a lot of things to do at the moment regarding these prisoners."

Luo Mingye offered a small, supportive smile and shook her head, her green hair catching the light of the sun, "No worries, Young Master. We understand. You have the weight of the clan on your shoulders. You can do your job; don’t worry about us. We’ll see you later."

Xia Mengyao offered a respectful bow, her expression a mix of relief and lingering daze. "Until next time, Young Master Haoran."

Haoran stared at them for a few heartbeats, acknowledging their presence, before he nodded and once again disappeared into the shadows, merging with the darkness alongside the Shadow Guard and their prize.

*

*

*

Deep within Feng Yuyan’s Forbidden Research Facility.

The chamber was silent, save for the rhythmic bubbling of green preservative fluid and the low hum of the soul-suppression arrays.

Feng Yuyan was leaning over a series of complex diagrams drawn in glowing blue ink on a hovering sheet of parchment.

"What do you think, sister?" Feng Yuyan asked, her brow furrowed in a rare display of genuine frustration.

Leng Shuang stood across from her, her arms crossed over her chest, staring at the first prisoner, Ye Fang, who was currently suspended in a magnetic field.

She shook her head, her voice like cold marble. "It’s impossible. Not with our current understanding."

"Indeed. We tried to isolate the ’System’ anchor within his soul palace," Feng Yuyan continued, sighing as she looked at the data. "But the moment we apply the extraction intent, the anchor begins to dissolve into pure, chaotic energy. It’s as if it’s programmed to self-destruct if it’s ever removed by force. And the ’Inheritance’ inside? It’s locked behind a karmic gate that requires a specific soul-frequency...his frequency."

"It is a parasitic bond," Leng Shuang added, her eyes narrowing. "The system is woven into the very fabric of his ego. To extract the inheritance from the system, we would effectively have to rewrite his entire existence without killing him. It is a puzzle with no solution given our current variables. We lack the necessary data on the system interface."

"If only we had more system users," Feng Yuyan sighed, tapping her chin with a slender finger. "If we had three or four of them, I could afford to let one or two ’break’ during the deep-dive research. We could compare the anchor points and find a common vulnerability. This process would be so much easier if we had a larger sample size."

Leng Shuang nodded in agreement. "One specimen is a mystery. Multiple specimens are a pattern."

"Well," a voice echoed from the shadows of the doorway, "I happen to have one here that I think you’ll find quite fascinating."

The two sisters turned as Shen Haoran stepped into the light. With a casual motion, he signaled the Shadow Guard, who threw the unconscious, shackled body of Ye Feng onto the central research table.

"This is...?" Feng Yuyan leaned in, her eyes widening as she sensed the lingering, unnatural remnant of power belonging to a Nirvana Rebirth realm within the man’s meridians.

"Could it be...?" Leng Shuang stepped closer, her hand hovering over Ye Feng’s chest, sensing the hidden, soul-bound system that refused to yield to a standard scan.

The two stared at the new test subject in a state of absolute delight, and even the ever-emotionless Leng Shuang had her eyes lighting up with the fire of a researcher who had just been handed a miracle.

"A second system user," Haoran said, a dark smirk playing on his lips. "And this one is even more elusive than the first. He actually has something that increases his power to Peak Nirvana Rebirth and also puppets at Nirvana Rebirth realm as well."

"Oh, Haoran," Feng Yuyan whispered, her hands beginning to glow with a pale, experimental light. "You always did know exactly what I wanted for my birthday."

Haoran smiled, "Well, I aim to please."

With this, a new round of research can begin.