I Really Am A Villain

“I don’t believe a word you say,” Lu Sheng replied flatly. “The world worships the White Emperor, but none of them realize that he is the true evil.”

“Lu Sheng, that’s not fair,” the scholar in the Confucian robe said with a faint smile and a shake of his head. “Every emperor and saint since the dawn of time, whose hands weren’t stained with blood? You were no different.”

Hearing this, Lu Sheng fell silent, unwilling to argue.

When Xu Zimo walked out of the great hall, he found the entire city had returned to normal. Ji Jiuning was sitting cross-legged nearby, quietly healing her injuries.

Seeing Xu Zimo emerge, she quickly stood up. “What was inside?” she asked.

“If I told you it was Lu Sheng, would you believe me?” Xu Zimo asked.

“You met Lu Sheng?” Ji Jiuning froze. “He’s still alive?”

“Not much different from a corpse,” Xu Zimo said with a dismissive wave. “Let’s go.”

“Go where?” she asked quickly.

“To kill everyone,” Xu Zimo said calmly, his eyes steady. “There are five major sects and three great academies. Besides Heaven-Mammoth and you, five others remain.”

“But this battlefield is vast. Finding them won’t be easy,” Ji Jiuning pointed out.

“That’s not an issue,” she explained when Xu Zimo didn’t reply. “As time passes, this battlefield will gradually shrink. The death energy surrounding it will start closing in. Even a Grand Emperor can’t endure that for long. Eventually, everyone will be forced into the center to fight.”

Xu Zimo nodded. “That’s interesting.”

“But if we can find the map brought by our former senior brother from Northern Hills Fox Clan,” Ji Jiuning continued, “we’ll understand the layout of this place and seize the advantage.”

As they spoke, they left the city behind.

They had come from the south, so now they moved northward. Xu Zimo already had a rough sense of direction, he had gone from ruins to the plantain forest, then to the phantom city. He wondered what the next place would be.

They crossed a vast plain, no trees in sight, just endless grass rippling underfoot. In the distance, a faint outline of a village appeared.

As they approached, the smell of blood filled the air. On a nearby stone stele, three words were carved.

White Wood Village.

The moment they stepped inside, green blood spurted from the ground. The corpses of whitewood trees, creatures that had long gained sentience, lay scattered across the road, hacked apart.

All things possess spirit. These trees had cultivated life, yet now they were slaughtered.

Xu Zimo and Ji Jiuning walked deeper into the village. The further they went, the more corpses they saw. It was clearly a large settlement.

At the very end stood a single figure, back turned to them. She wore a tight black outfit, two swords, one long, one short, strapped to her sides. Her short hair brushed her ears, and the air around her churned with killing intent.

“Who are you?” Ji Jiuning asked first.

“Seven Kills,” the woman said softly, turning with a faint smile. “Young Master Xu, you truly have a short memory.”

“So it’s you,” Xu Zimo said, smiling faintly. “Didn’t expect to find you this easily.”

Their gazes met. Ripples of killing intent swelled between them like rising waves.

“Perfect,” Seven Kills said coldly, drawing her two mismatched blades. “The humiliation Ghost God Collegium suffered that day, I’ll take it back today.”

Though she wasn’t trained by the academy directly, she had been taught by one of the Nine Ghost Gods and thus considered herself part of their lineage.

The two blades spun between her palms, their sharp aura cutting through the air.

A faint breeze passed, and before Xu Zimo even saw the sword’s movement, a few strands of his hair floated down.

A chill suddenly pressed against his throat.

He raised his blade, Shadow Tyrant, in front of him, steel met steel with a thunderous clang. Xu Zimo’s arm trembled slightly under the force.

Seven Kills spun the short sword back into her grip, expression calm.

Ji Jiuning’s eyes flickered. Behind her, the white fox appeared once again, growling lowly before pouncing toward Seven Kills.

“Step back!” Xu Zimo shouted.

But it was too late.

As the white fox lunged, Seven Kills’s pupils suddenly shifted into a triangular shape. The two swords spun at blinding speed, her body twisting with impossible precision.

With three quick strikes, slash, slash, slash, the white fox’s body was torn apart.

The swordplay was too fast, unreal.

In an instant, the massive fox was reduced to shreds of meat. Though it was a summoned spirit, the damage it suffered was real.

Ji Jiuning spat blood, her face turning pale.

“Step back,” Xu Zimo said quietly. “She’s mine.”

He looked at Seven Kills. The name itself, Seven Kills, came from the sixth star of the Big Dipper, the star that governs slaughter and destruction, the most violent among the celestial bodies.

Seven Kills charged forward, her long and short blades weaving a storm of sword winds.

Xu Zimo’s Shadow Tyrant swept upward.

A boom split the air, both swords shattered.

Seven Kills looked at the broken blades in her hands and said calmly, “Good sword.”

She raised her right hand toward the sky. “Sword, come.”

A surge of immense sword intent answered her call. The dim sky above brightened, seven stars ignited across the heavens.

“The night I was born, seven star-swords fell from the sky. The mark of the Seven Kill Star burned into my chest,” Seven Kills said softly. “My teacher named me after it, Seven Kills.”

As her words fell, a radiant sword descended from the heavens, a sword carved from starlight itself.

The blade shimmered like a constellation, its glow cascading like a river of light. Behind that beauty, however, was a killing intent so dense it nearly swallowed the air.

Seven Kills slowly raised the Seven-Star Sword, its brilliance flaring.

“The Grand Thousand Beings, the Sixty-Two Paths, Seven-Star Heaven-Sword!” she intoned.

Xu Zimo smiled slightly. He didn’t announce his own weapon’s name. Shadow Tyrant, now fused with the Grand-Pivot God-Sword, feared no divine weapon under heaven.

The Seven-Star Heaven-Sword shot forward, stars flaring along its edge. Xu Zimo’s blade swung to meet it, steel and starlight collided.

The explosion that followed drowned the air, and the two figures crossed paths and separated again.