Villains Aren't Stepping Stones!

Chapter 255 - 23: The Dao

The quiet interior of the isolated stone chamber seemed to shrink, the ambient light from the glowing jade manuals on the walls dimming until only the simple wooden table separating the two figures remained illuminated.

The air was thick, heavy, and utterly devoid of any natural draft, carrying the dry, suffocating scent of millions of years of accumulated written wisdom.

Across the smooth, unadorted dark wood sat the examiner, an old Master Teacher whose skin resembled weathered parchment, his eyes entirely blank and cloudy like a winter sky, yet vibrating with the profound, undeniable mental weight of a peak Nirvana Rebirth Realm expert.

He didn’t breathe, he didn’t even twitch; he simply existed as a physical manifestation of the academy’s unyielding standard.

At that moment, as Haoran sat down on the stone seat in front of the examiner, he suddenly opened his mouth.

"You have exactly one hour to prepare your mental arguments. Meditate deeply, review the records of the ancient sages lining these shelves, and steady your fragile heart before the third examination begins, then—"

"Ah, there is absolutely no need for such tedious delays," Haoran spoke, his smooth, melodic voice cutting directly through the fading resonance of the examiner’s reminder like a sharp jade blade.

He casually adjusted the wide, gold-trimmed silk sleeves of his majestic royal robes, leaning back slightly against his stone seat with a look of absolute, unbothered elegance.

His liquid gold eyes locked straight onto the cloudy pupils of the ancient teacher across the table, a relaxed smirk playing on his lips. "Honored examiner, we can easily start the debate right now."

The blank-eyed Master Teacher didn’t show a single thread of surprise or irritation at the youth’s flagrant display of supreme confidence.

Slowly, with a dry, mechanical precision, the old man leaned forward, his hands resting flat against the dark wood of the table.

When he spoke, his voice didn’t travel through the air, instead it vibrated directly inside Haoran’s sea of consciousness, cold, sharp, and laden with the conceptual weight of someone who witnessed a thousand fallen kingdoms.

"Arrogance is the first armor of the fragile, young master of the Shen Clan," the examiner spoke, his mental voice echoing like a heavy bronze bell. "You stand before the academy claiming a path, yet the universe has watched countless scions of the Immortal Lineages march into these chambers only to have their convictions reduced to fine white dust. Now, speak. Define the absolute core of your Dao, so that I may tear it apart."

Haoran’s smirk merely widened into a genuine, lazy smile.

He didn’t hesitate for a single second, his posture remaining perfectly loose, completely unaffected by the Nirvana Rebirth pressure actively trying to crush his mental boundaries.

"My Dao is remarkably, beautifully simple to define, honored teacher," Haoran replied, his golden eyes flaring with a dark, bottomless intensity that seemed to actively consume the lamplight. "It is the Dao of Supremacy. It is the absolute mandate that my will, my choices, and my path stand entirely above all existing things under the sun. It does not look up to the heavens, it does not negotiate with the earth, and it does not accommodate the destiny of others. It is the apex, unyielding truth that all of reality must naturally, permanently bow beneath my feet."

The examiner let out a low, dry sound from his throat—a sound that resembled the cracking of dry bone.

Then, he slowly shook his head, his cloudy eyes gleaming with a sudden, razor-sharp light of pure academic disdain.

"A shallow, stereotypical path," the examiner countered instantly, his mental voice striking like a physical whip against Haoran’s soul. "Your Dao of Supremacy is nothing more than a childish expansion of common mortal ambition. You confuse the political dominance of your Immortal Clan with the true, objective laws of the cosmos."

"Tell me, boy, how can a true supreme exist in a total vacuum? Supremacy explicitly requires subjects; it requires an empire, a hierarchy, a massive sea of weaker entities to stand beneath your shadow to define your height."

"If your entire supremacy is structurally dependent on the existence and submission of others, then your Dao is not absolute. It is a parasitic concept."

"The moment your subjects perish, or the moment you step into an empty, dead universe where there is nothing left to rule, your supremacy instantly becomes an illusion. It collapses because it has no baseline. How do you defend a Dao that is fundamentally enslaved to the existence of the very weaklings you look down upon?"

The ancient teacher’s argument was a classic, devastating logical trap designed to immediately shatter the mental cultivation of any proud young master.

It was a conceptual paradox that had forced countless geniuses to panic, their minds racing to defend their political structures while their foundations fractured from the inside out.

But Haoran didn’t even twitch, his breathing remained slow, rhythmic, and perfectly steady.

His smile didn’t fade for a single millimeter, if anything, his golden eyes danced with a deep, genuine amusement as he looked at the ancient man.

"Your premise is fundamentally flawed, honored teacher," Haoran answered smoothly, his voice completely devoid of any hesitation. "You look at supremacy through the narrow, limited lens of a mundane mortal king who needs a crown and a census to feel powerful."

"My supremacy does not derive its validity from the submission of the masses, nor does it require a single subject to bow to establish its objective reality."

"It is an internal, absolute state of existence. If I were to stand entirely alone within a completely dead, empty void where every single star had burned to ash and every living soul had vanished into nothingness, my supremacy would remain completely unbroken and absolute."

"Why? Because even in an empty universe, my will remains the undisputed master of its own destiny. I do not rule over the weak to be supreme; I am supreme because my Dao is the absolute, unyielding standard of reality itself."

"The outer world does not define my height, I define the parameters of the outer world. If subjects exist, they bow because it is their natural place. If they do not exist, the void itself must accommodate my silence. It is not a parasitic relationship, but a total, and absolute independence."

The examiner’s cloudy pupils narrowed slightly, the air inside the stone room suddenly dropping by thirty degrees as he registered the absolute, unshakeable stability of the youth’s mental defenses.

He didn’t allow Haoran a single second to breathe, immediately launching his second, far more dangerous conceptual strike.

"An elegant semantic dance, but entirely hollow when faced with the absolute weight of Time," the examiner hissed mentally, the stone walls groaning as he unleashed a wave of pressure that seemed mimicked the flow of the Thousand Life Illusion. "You speak of absolute independence, yet your physical form is currently sitting at merely the 5th stage of the Nascent Soul realm."

"You are still thoroughly bound by the mortal laws of flesh, hunger, and decay. The great wheel of Samsara turns for all entities beneath the immortal plane. If a greater powerhouse, an Earthly Saint, a Heavenly Saint, or a hidden Human Supreme, wishes to unleash their full martial output to crush your bones into fine white dust right now, your so-called supremacy would be instantly, brutally erased from the timeline."

"True supremacy must possess the absolute, unyielding strength required to defend its claim against the universe. If your life can be snuffed out by a stronger blade or a casual turn of a cosmic wheel, then your Dao is nothing more than a fragile, temporary delusion of a lucky youth who hasn’t met his executioner. How can you claim to stand above all things when you can still be systematically slaughtered by the very laws of the world you claim to dominate?"

The great pressure inside the room multiplied, a heavy, suffocating weight pressing down directly onto Haoran’s shoulders, trying to force his back to bend, trying to trigger the primal, instinctual fear of death that resided within every mortal soul.

Haoran merely let out a low, rich chuckle, his hands remaining casually resting on his lap as he met the examiner’s gaze with an absolute, terrifying calm.

He didn’t show a single shred of panic, his mind remaining as clean and pristine as a mirror-like lake.

"Strength is merely a mathematical variable, honored examiner," Haoran replied, his smile widening into a sharp, cold smirk. "You confuse a temporary deficit in linear cultivation time with a fundamental flaw in my conceptual Dao. Cultivation realms are nothing more than steps on a ladder that I am currently, rapidly climbing."

"Today I am Nascent Soul; tomorrow I shall sit at the peak of the Saint realms, and the day after, the cosmos itself will find my true height unmeasurable."

"A stronger blade may look down upon my current flesh, but they can never touch or alter the absolute nature of my will."

"Even if the heavens were to collapse upon my coordinate right now, and a supreme entity were to tear my physical vessel into a million bleeding pieces, my Dao would remain completely undefeated."

"Why? Because I would face my destruction without a single thread of fear, without a single compromise of my convictions, and without ever acknowledging their right to rule over my spirit."

"True supremacy is not defined by an inability to experience physical damage; it is defined by the absolute, unyielding fact that nothing in existence, neither death, nor time, nor the wrath of a god, can ever force your soul to submit or bend its knee."

"If they kill me, they merely slaughter a mortal body, but they can never conquer the Dao that holds my existence. And as long as my will remains unbroken, my supremacy stands absolute even in death."

The ancient Master Teacher’s hands subtly tightened against the dark wood of the table, a sudden, blinding flash of pure golden light erupting within his cloudy pupils.

The sheer, unyielding density of Haoran’s answers was starting to actively strain the examiner’s own conceptual understanding of the universe.

He realized with a jolt of cold dread that the youth wasn’t just reciting a memorized doctrine; he truly, fundamentally believed his own words with every single fiber of his immortal soul.

"Then let us speak of the ultimate boundary," the examiner roared mentally, his voice shaking the very foundations of the isolated stone room, causing the thousands of ancient books and scrolls on the shelves to violently rattle and hum.

"You believe your supremacy is above all, that it is a path that stands above even luck, destiny, and the pre-written script of the world’s consciousness. But look at your own flesh, Shen Haoran! You were born as the sole heir of the strongest Immortal Clan. You were given the supreme protection of a mother who forced the heavens to submit. You were granted the peerless inheritances of ancient lineage, the loyalty of countless saints, and the continuous pampering of an unmatched family fleet."

"Every single step you have taken since the day you opened your eyes has been thoroughly cushioned, financed, and secured by the immense karma and destiny of your lineage!"

"You are a product of the very system you claim to stand above! If you truly possess a Dao of absolute independence and supremacy that cuts through destiny, then your entire existence is a massive, walking contradiction!"

"You have used the destiny of your clan to climb to this height, yet you claim to bypass it. If we strip away your family name, strip away your mother’s protection, and strip away the wealth of the Shen Clan, you would be nothing more than a common rogue cultivator scrambling for scraps in the dirt! Your supremacy is entirely bought and paid for by the karma of others! How do you defend a Dao that is completely built upon the foundation of the very destiny it claims to stand above?"

The argument was an absolute masterstroke of pedagogical execution.

It targeted the one vulnerable point that virtually every young master of an Immortal Lineage possessed: the unshakeable truth of their immense structural privilege.

It was an attack designed to trigger a profound sense of imposter syndrome, forcing the candidate to realize their own inherent hypocrisy.

The room went dead silent, the heavy golden light of the examiner’s eyes locking onto Haoran’s face like a localized execution array, waiting for the first sign of hesitation, the first twitch of panic, or the first drop of sweat.

But Shen Haoran merely leaned forward, resting his chin casually on the palm of his hand, his golden eyes glowing with a brilliant, blinding light of pure, unadulterated arrogance.

His smile didn’t falter for a single microsecond; instead, he let out a low, melodic laugh that completely shattered the heavy tension in the air.

"What an incredibly hollow, small-minded perspective for a high ranking Master Teacher," Haoran spoke, his voice completely smooth, full of a deep, condescending pity that made the examiner’s soul-force violently shudder.

The examiner frowned at his words, but didn’t say anything and let him finish. After all, this is a debate, not an argument.

"You look at my birth, my wealth, and my family’s unmatched protection as a form of debt or dependency, but I look at them as the most basic, fundamental baseline of my reality."

"I did not choose to be born into the Shen Clan, the universe simply had no choice but to place an entity of my caliber into the absolute strongest cradle available on the mortal plane to accommodate my arrival."

"My family’s wealth, my mother’s terrifying strength, and the elite loyalty of my shadow guards are not external crutches that sustain my supremacy, they are merely the natural, default extensions of my supreme destiny manifesting in the material world."

"Why should I feel a single thread of shame or hesitation for utilizing the tools that belong to my house? If the cosmos has seen fit to lay a path of solid jade beneath my boots, I would be an absolute fool to walk in the mud just to prove a point to a commoner."

"Strip away my family name? Strip away my mother’s protection? Go ahead and do it within your mind, teacher. If you throw my soul into the body of a nameless beggar dying in a frozen ditch with shattered meridians and zero resources, the outcome of the era would remain completely unchanged."

"I would simply re-climb the ladder, recreate my dao, slaughter my way back to the apex, and force the world to bow to my will all over again under a different name."

"My supremacy does not exist because I belong to the Shen Clan, instead the Shen Clan sits at the top of the world because it was chosen to birth me."

"In other words, in my case, the cradle doesn’t define the child, but the child that glorifies the cradle."

The old Master Teacher sat completely frozen to his stone seat, his mouth slightly open as his mental voice went entirely dead.

The thousands of ancient books and scrolls lining the shelves suddenly stopped rattling, the ambient spiritual energy of the room dropping into an absolute, breathless stillness.

He had spent three hundred years cross-examining the proudest geniuses of the empire within this very chamber, poking holes into their fragile understandings of the natural laws, and systematically forcing them to confront their own mortal limitations.

But as he stared into the unyielding, liquid gold eyes of the youth sitting across the table, he realized with an absolute, primitive clarity that there were no holes left to poke.

Shen Haoran’s Dao of Supremacy was not a construction of logic or a theory of elements; it was an absolute, unyielding pillar of pure, unadulterated willpower that naturally consumed and digested every single logical trap thrown at its base.

He didn’t defend his path; he simply forced the universe to accommodate his reality.

"I... I have no further questions for your defense," the examiner finally spoke out loud, his physical voice raspy, dry, and thoroughly exhausted as he slowly lowered his hands from the table, bowing his head in an absolute, unconditional defeat. "Your understanding of the core of your dao... is absolute. You have passed the third trial with a perfect evaluation."

Haoran smoothly stood up from his stone chair, his golden robes rustling elegantly as his trademark, lazy smile graced his lips.

He cast a final, calm look at the defeated old sage before turning his body toward the door.

He thought this examiner could at least make him hesitate...it turns out, he couldn’t even make him flinch.

How utterly... Boring.