Villain: Manipulating the Heroines into hating the Protagonist Chapter 977: Elders Take Action

Within the frigid expanse of the Ice Heart Pavilion, a realm sculpted from the very essence of winter, an otherworldly presence began to stir. Corridors, adorned with luminous, pale blue spirit-crystals, cast a cold gleam, maintaining an atmosphere so chilling that mortal breath would crystallize into falling snow. This environment was meticulously crafted, designed to suppress the innate heart-fire of its inhabitants, thereby fostering the unique cultivation of the Ice Heart Palace's signature technique—the Frozen Soul Art.

Yet, on this particular night, an intruder had infiltrated this haven of icy purity.

The incursion commenced not with a thunderous declaration, but with an insidious fragrance, a scent that dared to challenge the sterile air. It was an aroma so ethereal that the senses struggled to grasp it—a fleeting hint of night-lotus in bloom, laden with sweet nectar and the rich scent of damp earth from a summer evening.

The Drunken Lotus Slumber had arrived.

Wang Jian traversed the ground-floor hallway, his footsteps utterly silent upon the frost-kissed floorboards. His hands clasped behind his back, he moved with an air of profound relaxation, akin to a scholar leisurely wandering through his personal arboretum. He observed the unseen currents of the airflow array as they artfully guided the potent poison towards the disciples' chambers.

In the third room to the left, a young female disciple was seated in a cross-legged posture upon a prayer mat woven from snow-grass. Known as Lan’er, she was a cultivator at the Middle Stage of Foundation Establishment. At this moment, she was diligently circulating her Qi, endeavoring to refine a fragment of glacial essence acquired from the market earlier that day.

Her brow was creased in deep concentration, her complexion pale and flawless, emanating a subtle chill. Suddenly, the tension etched upon her forehead eased. The biting cold emanating from the glacial essence, a sensation that typically demanded immense willpower to endure, transformed into a comforting warmth.

She opened her eyes, only to find that the austere walls of her meditation chamber had vanished. In their place, a vast panorama of golden flowers swayed gently under a benevolent sun unfolded before her. The persistent spiritual pressure that had habitually burdened her shoulders simply evaporated.

"So warm..." she murmured, an entranced, dreamy smile gracing her lips.

Her hands, previously held in a firm mudra, went suddenly limp. She faltered, her body succumbing to a profound heaviness, as if sinking into a bed of the softest feathers. Without a sound, she collapsed backward onto the floor, her chest rising and falling with the steady rhythm of deep slumber.

Wang Jian paused at her doorway. He did not step inside, contenting himself with observing from the threshold. His Stellar Demonic Eyes, possessing an unnerving clarity, penetrated the fabric of her white robes, meticulously assessing the quality of her Yin essence.

’Pure,’ he noted with a detached, analytical appreciation. ’Her Primordial Yin remains intact and potent. An exquisite vessel for dual cultivation. Once properly initiated, she will undoubtedly serve as an excellent subordinate.’

He continued his progress. Room after room, the identical scene unfolded. The poison was an alchemical marvel, expertly bypassing the inherent defenses of Foundation Establishment cultivators by masquerading as a beneficial surge of spiritual energy, only to then draw their consciousness into the oblivion of dreams.

’Liu Ruyan has truly surpassed herself,’ Wang Jian mused, a subtle flicker of satisfaction surfacing within him. ’Most poisons inflict damage upon the meridians or contaminate the blood essence, thereby diminishing the value of the cauldron. However, this… this preserves them in pristine condition. It traps them in a moment of ephemeral bliss, awaiting the opportune moment for harvesting.’

He perceived the deepening silence enveloping his surroundings. The faint hum of Qi circulating within the disciples’ quarters gradually receded, yielding to the profound stillness of a tomb. Twenty disciples, representing the future hope of the Ice Heart Palace, were now entirely at his mercy.

However, as the insidious poison began its ascent towards the second floor, resistance intensified. The air currents grew thinner, and the cultivation bases of the potential targets were considerably stronger.

Wang Jian halted at the foot of the grand staircase, meticulously carved from a single, monolithic block of translucent ice-jade. He could distinctly feel the disruption in the flow of Qi above. The Drunken Lotus Slumber had now reached the senses of the Core Formation Elders.

Unlike the disciples, their spiritual seas were as vast as lakes, a stark contrast to mere puddles. The instant the foreign agent attempted to breach their consciousness, their formidable defensive instincts were immediately activated.

"Something is amiss!"

A sharp, commanding voice reverberated from the upper landing, sending vibrations throughout the very structure. It was imbued with potent spiritual power, a sonic wave intended to alert the entire district.

"Who dares trespass within the Ice Heart Palace!"

The ensuing shout was deafening within the confines of the pavilion, causing the icicles suspended from the ceiling to tremble. Yet, Wang Jian remained utterly unfazed. He did not even betray a flicker of surprise. He was acutely aware that beyond the perimeter of the Seven-Star Obscurity Array, the night remained in undisturbed silence. The resounding shout had struck the spatial barrier he had erected and dissipated harmlessly into the formless void.

‘Scream all you want,’ Wang Jian thought, unfurling his folding fan with a sharp snap. ‘No one is coming to save you. The City Lord is enjoying his wine, the guards are patrolling the next sector, and the world believes you are sleeping soundly.’

He took a step onto the first stair. Then the second. He adjusted his aura, carefully suppressing the vast, terrifying ocean of his Stellar Core. He dialed it down, compressing it until he radiated the fluctuating, unstable energy of a Late Stage Foundation Establishment cultivator—a man who had perhaps touched the threshold of a higher realm but had not yet stepped through.

Above him, the sound of hurried footsteps echoed.

“Intruder!”

Three figures burst onto the upper landing, their robes billowing in the sudden release of their spiritual pressure.

Leading them was Bing Yun.

She was a vision of frozen beauty. Her silver hair flowed behind her like a waterfall of moonlight, and her pale blue eyes burned with a mixture of shock and killing intent. She held nothing in her hands, but the air around her twisted, forming invisible blades of ice. Her cultivation at the Middle Stage of the Core Formation Realm was fully unleashed, creating a zone of absolute zero around her.

Flanking her were two older women. To her left was Elder Leng, a stern-faced woman with a scar running down her chin, wielding a jagged longsword made of blue crystal. To her right was Elder Han, slightly shorter but radiating a dense, defensive aura, her hands glowing with icy light. Both were at the Early Stage of the Core Formation Realm.

They stopped at the top of the stairs, looking down at the solitary figure standing calmly in the middle of the flight.

Wang Jian looked up, fanning himself gently despite the freezing temperature. He met Bing Yun’s gaze with a small, polite smile.

“Good evening, Fairy Bing,” he said, his voice smooth and cultured. “ I hope I haven’t disturbed your rest.”

Bing Yun’s eyes narrowed. Recognition flashed instantly in her gaze, replacing the initial confusion.

“You,” she hissed, the word dripping with venom. “ The arrogant servant from the auction. The dog of the Fragrance Melody Sect.”

She scanned him, her Divine Sense sweeping over his body. She confirmed his cultivation—Late Stage Foundation Establishment. A nobody. An ant. And yet, the insolence of this man, standing alone in their sanctuary while her disciples were ominously silent, made her blood run cold.

“Where is your master?” Bing Yun demanded, looking past him into the shadows. “ Where is Hua Yimei? Does she think sending a mere servant to die will delay us?”

Behind her, Elder Leng stepped forward, her crystal sword humming. “ He must have used a poison array. The disciples... I cannot sense them. He drugged them!”

“You court death, invading our sanctuary!” Elder Leng shouted, her temper flaring hotter than her element allowed. She raised her sword, gathering a massive amount of Ice Qi. “ A Foundation Establishment trash dares to defile the Ice Heart Pavilion? I will flay the skin from your bones!”

Wang Jian chuckled softly, closing his fan and tapping it against his palm.

“Invading? No, no,” he corrected gently, shaking his head. “ I am merely here to return the greeting from this afternoon. You called my sect ‘ruins.’ You insulted my... employer. I felt it was only polite to come and show you the true nature of the ‘ruins’ you so despise.”

“Die!” Elder Leng didn’t wait for Bing Yun’s order. She pushed off the landing, diving down the stairs with her sword raised, intending to split Wang Jian in two with a single strike of Glacial Cleave.

Wang Jian didn’t move. He didn’t raise a defense. He simply watched her descend, his smile widening by a fraction.

Just as Elder Leng crossed the midpoint of the air above the stairs, the shadows in the vaulted ceiling beams exploded.

BOOM!

A figure wreathed in roaring, golden flames dropped like a meteor. The heat was instantaneous and overwhelming, flash-vaporizing the moisture in the air into a dense, blinding fog.

“What—!” Elder Leng gasped, her instincts screaming danger. She tried to twist in mid-air, raising her sword to block.

Hua Yimei crashed into her.

“Burning Heaven Palm!”

Hua Yimei’s hand, encased in the solidified essence of the Golden Phoenix Flame, slammed into the flat of Elder Leng’s crystal sword.

The impact was catastrophic. The ice attribute Qi coating the sword was not just shattered; it was consumed. The Phoenix Flame, fed by the high-grade fruit Wang Jian had given her, possessed a domineering property that burned spiritual energy itself.

Elder Leng was blasted sideways, smashing into the banister and tumbling down to the ground floor in a shower of splintered wood and ice.

“Ambush!” Bing Yun screamed, her eyes widening in horror as she recognized the attacker. “ Hua Yimei!?”

Before she could process it, a second shockwave rippled through the situation.

Elder Han, who had remained to protect Bing Yun's flank, suddenly felt an icy dread creep into her very soul, a chill entirely unrelated to her ice cultivation.

From the shadow of a decorative pillar nearby, a figure materialized not gradually, but in an instant, transitioning from invisibility to presence.

Chen Ying appeared. She wore no bulky armor, only the sleek, black stealth suit designed by Wang Jian for maximum agility, leaving her limbs unhindered. Her chosen weapon wasn't a sword, but a slender, dark metal stiletto, crafted for penetrating defenses.

"Sleep," Chen Ying uttered softly.

She struck with lethal precision, targeting the meridian point just beneath Elder Han's armpit, a known vulnerability in the Glacial Armor technique that Wang Jian had highlighted in their briefing.

As a seasoned fighter, Elder Han twisted with her last bit of time, conjuring an icy shield over her vulnerable side.

CLANG.

The stiletto scraped against the ice, leaving a mark but failing to pierce it completely. Nevertheless, the sheer force of Chen Ying's blow, amplified by her Core Formation cultivation, sent Elder Han stumbling back, severing her from Bing Yun.

"You..." Elder Han gasped, her gaze fixed on the assassin, her face obscured by a black veil. "Core Formation... another Core Formation expert!"

The landing zone had devolved into a chaotic melee. On the ground floor, Hua Yimei was locked in combat with Elder Leng, unleashing a torrent of fiery kicks and palm strikes. Chen Ying, meanwhile, circled Elder Han like a predator, her strikes appearing and disappearing from the shadows, effectively pinning the defensive elder down.

Bing Yun found herself isolated at the top of the stairs, her chest heaving. The tide had turned in a mere instant: three Core Formation experts against three. However, they had been caught off guard, and the advantage of the Phoenix Fire's attribute was currently suppressing the entire environment.

Her eyes shifted to Wang Jian.

He remained on the stairs, untouched by the surrounding pandemonium. The shockwaves from the intense battles swirled around him, yet seemingly veered away, repelled by an unseen force.

"Hua Yimei... a mere assassin..." Bing Yun seethed, her killing intent fixated on Wang Jian. "So you brought allies. You believe this gives you an edge? I am a Middle Stage Core Formation cultivator! I will obliterate your master and your hired help, and then I will subject you to eternal torment!"

She raised a hand, concentrating a fearsome amount of azure light. The very air around her began to fracture, birthing hundreds of ice needles.

"Is that so?" Wang Jian inquired calmly.

He took a single step forward.

And then, he let his mask fall away.

THRUM.

The sound wasn't deafening, but it resonated deep within everyone present, like the heavy, final clang of a tomb door being sealed shut.

The fragile, fluctuating aura of the Late Foundation Establishment Realm dissipated. In its place, a profound darkness surged from Wang Jian's being. This was not the chaotic, malevolent darkness of a common demonic cultivator, but the suffocating, immense, absolute darkness akin to a collapsing star.

The Stellar Demonic Core within his dantian began to spin, releasing its immense pressure.

The gravity on the staircase seemed to intensify tenfold. The ice needles swirling around Bing Yun trembled violently before shattering, cascading down as mere dust, crushed by the sheer density of Wang Jian's spiritual pressure.

Bing Yun's eyes widened in disbelief. Her breath caught in her throat. The pressure assaulting her was more than mere power; it was a qualitative suppression, ancient and predatory, like facing a beast that devoured dragons.

"Core... Formation..." she stammered, her voice losing its earlier sharpness. "You... you are also..."

"Foundation Establishment?" Wang Jian completed her sentence, his tone laced with mockery of her earlier assessment. "Eyes can be deceived, Fairy Bing. But power cannot."

He ascended the stairs, one deliberate step after another. With each step, his aura grew more oppressive, pressing against her protective Qi field, constricting it, suffocating her.

"You called me a servant," Wang Jian stated, his voice now carrying a resonant, metallic timbre. "You dismissed me as an insignificant ant."

He halted three steps below her, gazing up at her pale, fear-stricken face. His eyes were now entirely black, the spinning starlight within them both mesmerizing and terrifying.

"Look at me now," he commanded. "Does an ant cast a shadow this immense?"

Far below, on the ground floor, the battle between Hua Yimei and Elder Leng raged on.

"Sect Leader Hua!" Elder Leng cried out, her sword deflecting a flaming fist, steam hissing violently. "Have you lost your mind? Attacking the Ice Heart Palace... the Alliance will bring ruin upon you! Your sect will be razed to the ground!"

Hua Yimei didn’t respond with words. Instead, fire was her answer. Her eyes blazed gold as the Golden Phoenix Flame coursed through her veins, bestowing a feeling of immense power. For years, she had languished as a mediocre Middle Stage cultivator, dismissed by elites like Leng. But now, thanks to Wang Jian’s enhancements, she was effortlessly overpowering a cultivator of the same rank.

"The Alliance?" Hua Yimei’s laughter was a harsh, commanding sound. "There is no Alliance here. There is only the Master."

She whirled, her leg engulfed in flames, launching a roundhouse kick that obliterated Elder Leng’s ice shield.

"Disrespecting my Master warrants punishment," Hua Yimei pronounced, her voice chillingly imperious, fully embodying the persona Wang Jian demanded. "Kneel!"

She relentlessly assaulted Elder Leng, pushing him back from the stairs, ensuring Bing Yun remained isolated.

On the upper landing, Chen Ying moved like a silent specter. Elder Han, a bastion of defense renowned as the sect’s 'Iron Ice,' had erected a formidable barrier of Glacial Walls.

Chen Ying eschewed brute force to breach the walls. Instead, she employed the Stellar Demonic Shadow Arts Wang Jian had imparted to her. Her target wasn’t the wall itself, but the shadow it cast.

Shadow Pierce.

Elder Han cried out as a gash appeared on her shoulder, despite the wall remaining untouched.

"What sorcery is this?!" Elder Han shrieked, swinging her sword wildly.

Chen Ying offered no reply. She was an instrument, a blade. Her movements were precise, her strikes aimed at tendons and meridian nodes. Her objective was to dismantle, not destroy; to incapacitate, not kill.

Meanwhile, as the titans battled above, a clandestine drama unfolded on the lower levels.

In the East Wing dormitory, the poison had taken its toll. However, within the basement security control room, three Peak Foundation Establishment disciples had managed to barricade themselves before the gas reached its full potency.

One of them, a senior disciple with a determined expression, stood before the Emergency Transmission Array. This was an intricate runic circle etched into the stone floor, designed to circumvent standard jamming by utilizing blood essence as its power source.

"We must signal the City Lord," the disciple gasped, her face ashen, sweat beading on her forehead. "The Elders are engaged in battle. I can feel the shockwaves."

"Hurry!" her companion urged, eyes fixed on the door. "The shadows... they are stirring beneath the gap!"

The senior disciple bit her tongue, spitting a mouthful of her cultivation blood onto the array.

"Ice Heart Distress Signal: Crimson Flash!" she yelled, striking the central node with her palm.

The array erupted in a blinding crimson light. A concentrated beam of spiritual information surged upward, engineered to penetrate the roof and detonate above the city, alerting every cultivator within a hundred-mile radius.

ZOOM.

The beam ascended, passing through floors and the roof.

And then it encountered the Seven-Star Obscurity Array.

BWONG.

A sound like a colossal gong struck underwater reverberated. The crimson beam failed to penetrate. It struck the spatial distortion of the Seventh Grade array and deviated, curving back upon itself, ricocheting off the invisible dome like a rebounding sphere.

The beam plummeted back into the courtyard, dissolving into harmless sparks.

The disciple in the basement stared at the monitoring crystal in utter horror.

"It... it rebounded?" she whispered, her voice quivering. "That's impossible. The distress signal bypasses standard..."