Villains Aren't Stepping Stones!-Chapter 70: Wu Liena

Azure Dragon Sect, Main Hall.

The tea room was currently shrouded with the scent of high-grade spiritual leaves as Lin Feng served the tea to Haoran.

[Host, look at him! He is so majestic! That aura... it’s like a god walking among mortals! If you don’t cling to his thigh right now, I’ll self-destruct out of sheer frustration!]

’I know, I know! Shut up! I’m a natural at this! Watch a pro work!’ Lin Feng snapped back mentally.

"Young master, is the tea perfect? Is it too hot? Too warm? Or would you like me to brew another one?" Lin Feng asked, his voice a pitch higher than usual as he hovered around Haoran.

At this moment, he looked like a man trying to sell a broken carriage as a celestial chariot. "Those disciples of mine are truly useless! They don’t understand the first thing about hospitality for a guest of your caliber!"

Lin Feng rubbed his hands together, his eyes sparkling with a mixture of greed and genuine terror. "Ah, it has been two years, young master! You have gotten even more majestic than before! Truly a dragon among men, a qilin among beasts! Your very presence makes the spiritual energy of this forest bow in submission!"

[Host... stop. Please. The second-hand embarrassment is actually killing my processors!]

’Shut up, you lousy clumps of codes! What’s a little embarrassment compared to ascending to heaven in one step? Do you have any idea how many people in this world would kill—literally commit genocide—just to be in my position right now? This is a Golden Thigh! This is the protagonist’s ultimate cheat!’

[Host... You are truly shameless. When it comes to the ’Thickness of Face’ sub-stat, I, the System, hereby declare you the strongest in all the myriad realms!]

’That’s natural! There’s a reason why I’m your master and you’re just the UI!’

Haoran sat perfectly still, his spine straight, watching Lin Feng’s performance with a faint, amused smile.

He didn’t mind Lin Feng’s over the top praises, after all in the Central Region, flattery was a weapon used by the weak to survive and the strong to manipulate.

He appreciated the efficiency of Lin Feng’s sycophancy.

"How have you been doing these past two years?" Haoran asked, his voice smooth and cool as he took a sip of his tea.

"Good, good! It’s all thanks to you, young master!" Lin Feng exclaimed, bowing so low his forehead nearly touched the table. "If it wasn’t for the resources and the ring you gave me back then, I wouldn’t have reached where I am now! I’d probably still be a wandering rogue getting chased by spirit rabbits!"

[Host... how could you? What about me? I gave you the buildings! I gave you the techniques!]

’Stop acting like an abandoned girlfriend! I’m securing our future!’

"Here." Haoran reached into the air, and a token materialized between his fingers.

The token was crafted from a strange, dark metal that seemed to swallow light, embossed with the intricate golden insignia of the Shen Clan: a majestic Eastern Dragon circling the entire world, its jaws clamped shut as it began to eat its own tail.

He tossed it casually toward Lin Feng and he caught it with both hands as if it were a fragile egg.

’System, analysis!’

[It appears to be a token, sir... high-density spiritual alloy... wait, why am I answering like a certain penguin from a movie?! This is a high-level identification token, host!]

Lin Feng ignored the system’s glitching personality and turned toward Haoran with wide eyes. "Young master, this thing is...?"

"My Clan’s token," Haoran said. "Holding it means you are considered one of ours, kind of like an outer-circle retainer. It carries my personal mark, and you can use it for a lot of things. Once you reach the Profound Saint realm, head to the Imperial Capital. My clan will have a place for you and your students."

Lin Feng’s breath hitched as he stared at the token, this wasn’t just a gift; it was a life insurance policy for him and his entire sect!

[Holy crap! Boss, you’ve made it big! This is a VIP pass to the Central Region! Don’t forget about your loyal system once you take off!]

"Young master, this is truly a generational gift!" Lin Feng shouted, his eyes actually tearing up from the sheer relief of having a "backing." "I will pass it down as my family heirloom! I will worship it on an altar every morning!"

Haoran simply smiled.

Lin Feng, as the possessor of a "Sect Master System," would naturally act as a magnet for other "Children of Luck" or "Anomalies."

Instead of hunting them all down one by one, which was a tedious and messy process, it was far more efficient to incorporate them into his clan’s structure.

By taming this "Shepherd," he would eventually own the entire flock.

In the high-stakes game of the Central Region, power was common, but Luck was the true currency.

And who possessed more luck than literal darlings of heaven?

’In another world, a certain God King Tang tamed another child of luck to be his family’s loyal dog,’ Haoran mused inwardly. ’Why can’t I do the same? Am I inferior to that half-beast half-man mongrel? Heh.’

"And this," Haoran added, tossing another spatial ring toward Lin Feng.

Lin Feng caught it greedily, a bit of drool actually escaping the corner of his mouth.

He didn’t even try to hide his hunger for more resources, after all to a Sect Master like him, resources were like fuel for the fire.

Raising disciples aren’t cheap!

Haoran stood up, his robes settling perfectly without a single wrinkle. "I’ll be taking my leave then. I have a long flight ahead of me."

"Young master, thank you! Thank you!" Lin Feng scurried to his feet, bowing repeatedly. "I, Lin Feng, and the entire Azure Dragon Sect will be your most loyal followers from now on! Your word is my command! If you say the sun is blue, I’ll paint the sky myself!"

Haoran waved a dismissive hand as he turned to leave, but he paused for a moment, his gaze shifting to a specific shadow in the far corner of the hall—a corner where a silver-haired girl had been listening in secret.

He held her gaze through the darkness for a split second, a cold glint in his eyes, before turning to walk out the door.

"No need to see me off," he said.

With a mental command, his celestial sword whistled through the air, hovering at the threshold.

He stepped onto it and took off, like a silver streak that vanished into the afternoon sky in an instant.

Lin Feng waited until he was sure Haoran was gone before he collapsed back onto his bench, clutching the ring to his chest.

’Hehehe~! Lemme see what that young master gave me this time.’

Thousands of rank 4 spiritual herbs, thousands of rank 4 pills, thousands of special ores for artifact Refining, dozens of Grand Tier Spirit Grade Cultivation Techniques and Battle Techniques, and so many spirit stones!

"I’m rich! I’m rich! I’m rich!" Lin Feng cheered, dancing around the tea room. "Who needs a competition? I could buy a kingdom with this!"

"Master..."

Just then, the cold, hollow voice of Wu Liena sounded from the doorway.

Lin Feng stopped his victory dance and turned, smiling like a business that just got a good deal. "Oh, Nana! Where were you? I wanted to introduce you to the Young Master! It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet a real peak-tier noble! You missed out on the Golden Thigh!"

Wu Liena stared at the token in Lin Feng’s hand, and for a moment, she hesitated, her silver eyes trembling with an emotion that looked suspiciously like fear mixed with suppressed rage.

Eventually, she spoke, her voice barely a whisper. "Master... You really shouldn’t associate yourself with that man. Or his clan."

"Huh?" Lin Feng blinked, genuinely confused. "Why? He’s powerful, he’s rich, and he just gave us a free pass to the Capital! What’s the problem?"

Wu Liena opened her mouth to say something, to tell him about the truth of the Shen Clan’s ruthlessness, or perhaps something deeper, but she eventually shook her head, her face was as pale as her robes. "Nothing. Do what you like. It’s your sect."

She turned around and walked out, her footsteps heavy and uneven as Lin Feng stared at her in confusion before letting out a shrug and stared at the ring once again.

The moment she stepped outside and closed the door behind her, her strength seemed to fail as dhe plopped down onto the floor, her back against the wood, breathing in short, heavy gasps.

Her mind flashed back to a scene ten years ago—a memory she had tried to bury under layers of her cultivation training and silence.

In that memory, she saw a woman with long, golden hair drenched in blood.

The woman had cold, emotionless golden eyes and wore a pure white robe that was rapidly turning crimson as she walked.

That woman was beautiful, like an enchanting goddess of war, holding a sword that dripped with the lifeblood of Wu Liena’s entire family.

She was standing over mountains of corpses and rivers of blood, and she was humming, as if she was simply taking a stroll.

A younger version of Wu Liena was there, hiding under a pile of her own kin’s bodies, paralyzed by the scent of death, watching everything through a crack in the floorboards.

At that moment, the golden-haired woman had turned around, and she had looked directly at the hiding spot and smiled—a smile so uncanny, so devoid of human warmth, it felt like looking into the eyes of something completely alien, trying to imitate a human smile.

"There you are," the woman had whispered.

Wu Liena gasped, snapping back to the present.

She was drenched in a cold sweat as she gritted her teeth, her fists clenched so hard that her sharp fingernails pierced her palms, causing blood to trickle down her wrists.

"Chu... Xueyu!" she hissed through her teeth, the name tasting like poison.

The token in the other room represented the Shen Clan, the very clan that was responsible for the massacre of her clan, the clan of that woman who bathed in blood and flesh of her own kin.

To Lin Feng, that token might be a ladder to heaven, but to Wu Liena, it was the cold touch of a ghost reaching for her throat.