The Reincarnated Villain Can Break the Fourth Wall!-Chapter 84: Promotion or Plot Twist!

"Su Xiaobai, we are promoting you to inner court disciple."

"...Come again?"

Su Xiaobai stared at the elder, his brain doing the mental equivalent of a cart stuck in quicksand. He had walked into the sect hall expecting the usual: yelling, maybe a slap on the wrist. A demotion at worst. After all, who could forget his masterpiece—obliterating the trial formation?

But a promotion? Seriously?

His eyes flicked to the elders. Their expressions ranged from ’smug bastard who planned this’ to ’grudging boomer approval.’ If this were a drama, the soundtrack would be screaming, ’Something ain’t right!’

’Wait, wait, inner court? Don’t I need to hit Nascent Soul Realm for that?’ Su Xiaobai scratched his head. He was still happily loafing around in core formation realm, after all. Did someone mix up the paperwork? Or was this some sort of elaborate sect hazing ritual?

Oh, the elders were whispering in their heads, he just knew it: ’Oh, Su Xiaobai, you’re so screwed. But let’s make it look like a promotion first.’

"Uh... thanks, I guess?" Su Xiaobai ventured cautiously.

Before he could process this disaster properly, she arrived.

______

That night, Bai Yujian graced his quarters unannounced—because why wouldn’t she? Privacy was for mortals, apparently.

She stood in the doorway like a tender goddess, yet her eyes colder than a bank vault.

"You start training tomorrow," she announced, voice so cold it could’ve flash-frozen his morning tea.

"Training? For what...?" Su Xiaobai’s gut churned. Training always meant two things: pain, and more pain.

"In one month, we head to the capital."

"The capital? Why?"

"Do you think you can defeat a Nascent Soul cultivator while at Earthly Rebirth Realm?"

Su Xiaobai’s brain hit the brakes. If this were a regular protagonist moment, he’d puff up his chest and declare, ’I will rise to the challenge!’ But let’s be real—if someone’s asking you this, they’ve already signed you up for a deathmatch.

"Sure," he said finally, giving her a shit-eating grin. "One realm above? Piece of cake."

For a moment, her icy glare softened into something suspiciously amused. "Good." And with that, she vanished like a ghost with a packed schedule.

"Piece of cake," Su Xiaobai muttered to himself. "What could possibly go wrong?"

Xiao Lu, still lying next to him in bed, smacked her forehead. ’STOP SAYING THAT, It only gets worse,’ her expression screamed. ’Do you want to die?’

_____

Meanwhile, in the Sect Hall...

Bai Yujian had single-handedly turned the elders’ meeting into a battlefield.

"This is ridiculous," one elder scoffed. "The boy hasn’t proven himself. Destroying a trial formation doesn’t make him inner court worthy!"

"He chose not to sacrifice innocent lives during the trial and eradicated the true evil—the shadow that commanded it. That alone proves his worth. As it stands, he could easily rank at the top of the outer court." Bai Yujian said coolly.

"He lacks experience!" another elder protested. "What message does this send to the others?"

"Fine," she said, her smile sharp,"Let him earn it. Two Nascent Soul disciples will challenge him. One by one. Ten days. No breaks."

The room erupted in gasps.

"Two?!"

"For every peak lord who disagrees," she added sweetly. "Two per disagreement."

Zhao Tianxuan nodded mechanically, doing his best to appear like he was on board with the plan.

Truth be told, he was quietly losing his mind trying to figure out how to sell this insanity to the rest of the sect. But from the look in Bai Yujian’s eyes, it was clear she already had something diabolical up her sleeve.

Whatever scheme she had cooked up, though, one thing was certain—it was Su Xiaobai who was about to get roasted.

A heavy, sinister silence settled over the room as the elders exchanged uneasy glances. One by one, they nodded in reluctant agreement, sealing the poor boy’s fate with every bob of their heads.

______

Morning Reality Check!

Su Xiaobai woke up suspiciously alive. Which, frankly, felt wrong. Life going smoothly? Yeah, no. He called this sixth sense ’cultivator PTSD.’

He stretched lazily, enjoying Xiao Lu’s soft, warm body nestled against his. For a brief, fleeting moment, life felt... okay.

Then Bai Yujian kicked his door open.

"Get up," she ordered, glaring at him like he’d stolen her life savings.

"Morning," he muttered sarcastically, rubbing his eyes. Her gaze zeroed in on Xiao Lu, who was naked next to him.

For the first time, her icy mask cracked. She turned away with a scowl. Was she... blushing? Su Xiaobai scratched his head. Why’s this thousand-year-old hag acting shy now?

"Five minutes," she snapped. "Get dressed."

After lazily trailing behind Bai Yujian, Su Xiaobai found himself standing in what seemed like a painfully familiar place—the sect’s training grounds. Or, more accurately, the scene of his crime. Yep, the same training grounds he had obliterated during his spectacular (and unintentional) destruction of the Astral Gate Formation.

The once-pristine area was now a patchwork of broken ground and haphazard repairs, with core disciples trudging around in their signature red robes, grumbling as they patched up the damage like underpaid contractors. One particularly pissed-off disciple shot Su Xiaobai a glare that screamed, ’You did this.’

But what really caught his attention were two unexpected figures in the crowd.

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Hu Jiao’er and Hu Mei’er.

The twins noticed him instantly, their lips curling into identical mischievous smiles as they gave him a synchronized wink.

Su Xiaobai shivered. That wasn’t flirtatious—it was predatory.

Weren’t these two ’newly selected’ outer disciples just two days ago? The same clueless newbies who had barely survived the trial with him? So why were they now strutting around in core disciple uniforms like they owned the place?

"Am I hallucinating?" Su Xiaobai muttered, rubbing his eyes. "Or did these two get some kind of fast pass to the top?"

Before he could ask, Bai Yujian hurled a wooden sword at him.

"Strike the training dummy. Ten thousand times."

"Ten thousand?! Are you serious?!"

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"Do I look like I’m joking?" Her tone was flatter than the sect’s annual dumpling festival.

Spoiler alert: She wasn’t.

And so, Su Xiaobai cursed his luck, his life, and most importantly, Zhu Qing for not rescuing him yet.

Where was she, anyway?

Shouldn’t she have dragged him to her mystic peak by now?

___

By midday, Su Xiaobai’s arms felt like he’d been commissioned to personally lift the damn mountains the sect was named after. Sweat poured down his face as he glared daggers at the training dummy, which somehow managed to look smug despite being an inanimate object.

"Why aren’t you broken yet, you wooden bastard?" he snarled, swiping at it half-heartedly.

Nearby, Bai Yujian sipped tea, reclining in the shade like some kind of frosty empress on vacation.

"Done!" Su Xiaobai gasped, letting the sword clatter to the ground.

Bai Yujian set her cup down with an infuriatingly serene smile. "Good. Now double it."

"Double…?"

If this were some romance novel, he could practically hear the audience swooning over her ’tough love’ routine. But guess what? It’s not romantic when you’re the one getting ground into paste.

"You’ve got two months," she said coldly, her tone more chilling than the Frost Peak winds. "Ten Nascent Soul disciples. No one will hold back."

"Two months? Ten Nascent Soul disciples?" Su Xiaobai’s expression darkened, his lips curling into a sneer. "Why don’t you just poison my tea and save us all some time?"

Around him, the core disciples fixing the training grounds looked at him with equal parts pity and amusement. The rumor mill had clearly been spinning—everyone but him seemed to know the full story.

When Bai Yujian finally explained the "deal," Su Xiaobai raised an eyebrow so high it threatened to escape his forehead.

"Ten of them?" he repeated, his tone laced with venomous mockery. "Sure. Let me just ascend to deityhood real quick. Maybe I’ll make it a fair fight while I’m at it."

For once, Bai Yujian hesitated. Her smile cracked, revealing the faintest flicker of doubt. Even she knew this plan was insane. But the sect’s elders had forced her hand. Five peak lords had opposed his promotion, each sending two Nascent Soul disciples to crush him in "honorable" combat.

She looked at him with steely determination. "That’s why we’re going to the Dragon Spirit Sea in a month. If you reach Earthly Rebirth Realm there, you’ll stand a chance."

Su Xiaobai let out a sharp, humorless laugh. "Oh, so now I’m your pet project? Is this the part where I thank you for the generous opportunity to be slaughtered in style?"

Bai Yujian didn’t flinch, but her gaze grew distant, like she was calculating how many ways this whole thing could blow up in her face.

Defeating one Nascent Soul disciple? Sure, it was ambitious, but not impossible. Ten? Even she knew that was about as likely as an elder admitting they were wrong. The five peak lords had made sure of it—each sending their personal favorites to crush Su Xiaobai into fertilizer.

Her gaze sharpened again. Nope, she wasn’t about to let them win.

The capital... Yes, the Dragon Spirit Sea. That was her move.