Raising the Villain in Wrong Way

The spatial transfer was roughly equivalent to being stuffed inside a massive, spinning teacup and shaken vigorously by an angry giant.

When Lin Ji’an’s boots finally slammed onto solid ground, her knees buckled slightly, and she had to lean heavily on her Black Iron Spatula to avoid face-planting into the dirt.

Her stomach did a slow, nauseating flip, threatening to make a reappearance of the breakfast she had shared with Xie Wangchen.

"Ugh," she groaned, squeezing her eyes shut until the world stopped spinning like a top. "Zero stars. The Celestial Sword Sect really needs to invest in better portal stabilizers. My internal organs feel like scrambled eggs."

She took a deep breath, bracing herself for the smell of sulfur, rotting corpses, and the terrifying roars of mutated beasts.

The Outer Disciples in the plaza had spent the last twenty-four hours weeping, writing their last wills and testaments, and trading their life savings for basic healing talismans.

The "Myriad Illusions Lower Realm" had a reputation as a meat grinder, a grimdark hellscape designed to weed out the weak.

Ji’an opened her eyes.

She blinked once. She blinked twice. She rubbed her eyes with the back of her sleeve and looked again.

"What in the...?"

There was no barren wasteland. There were no rivers of blood or skies choked with toxic, black ash.

Instead, Lin Ji’an found herself standing in the middle of a sun-dappled, emerald-green meadow that looked like it had been ripped straight out of a high-end landscape painting.

The grass beneath her boots was soft, vibrant, and practically humming with pure, unadulterated Earth Qi.

A gentle, lukewarm breeze rustled through the canopy of ancient, towering Spirit-Pine trees, carrying the sweet, intoxicating scent of blooming jasmine and wild honey.

In the distance, a waterfall cascaded down a sheer cliff of white marble, feeding into a crystal-clear stream where silver-scaled fish leaped playfully into the air, catching the sunlight.

It wasn’t a hellscape. It was a five-star nature retreat.

"Are you kidding me?" Ji’an whispered, her jaw dropping as she slowly turned in a circle. "This isn’t a survival test. This is a vacation package!"

But as a chef, her eyes quickly bypassed the sheer aesthetic beauty of the landscape and locked onto the true treasure of the realm: The ingredients.

Because the Myriad Illusions Realm was a closed pocket dimension, sealed away from the pollution and over-harvesting of the outside world, the flora and fauna had been allowed to grow wild and unchecked for centuries.

To her left, growing at the base of a massive oak tree, was a cluster of Emperor’s Crown Mushrooms.

They were the size of dinner plates, their golden caps shimmering with spiritual dew. In the outside world, a single slice of that mushroom would cost a hundred spirit stones. Here, they were growing like common weeds.

To her right, a thicket of Fire-Thread Berries hung heavy on the vine, bursting with sweet, spicy juices that were perfect for glazing roasted meats.

Ji’an’s breathing hitched. The fear and anxiety of the impending tournament vanished entirely, replaced by the manic, possessive glee of a foodie turned loose in the world’s most exclusive supermarket.

"I have died," she declared solemnly, dropping to her knees in front of the golden mushrooms. "I died in the portal, and the culinary gods have brought me to Valhalla."

She immediately began pulling jade boxes from her spatial bag, her hands moving with the practiced, lightning-fast speed of a master forager.

"Cloud-Ear fungus... perfect for hot and sour soup," she muttered, carefully slicing the mushrooms at the stem. "Oh! Is that Iron-Bone Bamboo? The shoots are going to be so tender! Tang Bo and Liu Liu can wait. The squad is important, but fresh bamboo shoots wait for no man!"

For the next two hours, Lin Ji’an was on cloud nine. She was a hurricane of harvesting, moving through the brush, filling her spatial bag with a hoard of ingredients that would make even the Sect Leader’s personal chef weep with envy.

She was just reaching for a cluster of Moon-Dew Grapes hanging from a low branch when her heightened Five-Grain Constitution senses picked up a faint, almost imperceptible rustle of leaves.

Ji’an froze.

The giddy foodie vanished, instantly replaced by the cautious survivor.

’Right. Monsters. I forgot about the monsters,’ she thought, slowly lowering her hand and gripping her spatula tightly.

She channeled her Qi into the Yin-Yang Void Locket, masking her spiritual signature and blending her presence into the background radiation of the forest.

She parted the thick fern leaves with her spatula, peering into the clearing ahead.

It wasn’t a monster.

Sitting on a smooth, moss-covered boulder by the edge of the stream was a young man.

If Gu Zhiwei was the radiant, untouchable sun, this man was the gentle, soothing breeze of a spring morning.

He wore robes of a pale, willow-green that seemed to blend perfectly with the forest around him. His hair was soft, slightly wavy, and tied back loosely with a simple ribbon.

His features were exquisite, delicate but masculine, with eyes the color of warm, melted amber.

He was smiling. It was a smile so pure, so disarmingly gentle, that it could probably end wars and negotiate peace treaties on its own.

He looked like the ultimate campus idol. The kind of heartthrob who would have a fan club of screaming girls camping outside his dorm room, ready to throw their life savings at him just for a glance.

Currently, his fan club consisted of a flock of Mandarin Spirit-Ducks.

The ducks, which were usually highly territorial and aggressive beasts, were clustered around his boots, quacking softly.

One of the fluffy, colorful birds hopped onto his knee.

The young man chuckled, a rich, melodic sound that made the air feel warmer, and began to gently stroke the duck’s feathers.

’Wow,’ Ji’an thought, her eyebrows rising. ’He looks like a Disney Princess. If he starts singing, I’m going to lose my mind.’

But then, the gears in her genre-savvy brain clicked into place.