I Really Am A Villain

“You don’t have to say it like that, you just want me to stand on the same side as your Lu Heavenly Clan,” Xu Zimo replied calmly.

“That is my intention,” Lu Nanyi admitted, “but it’s also the truth. What does the young master think? If you fear the Eternal God-Clan, we can each flee our separate ways. There may still be a sliver of hope for survival.”

“Fear? Hardly,” Xu Zimo shook his head. “Very well, then. I’ll stay here for three days and see whether the Eternal God-Clan dares to come.”

After speaking, he sheathed his blade. Half of Royal City now lay in ruins. Xu Zimo stood in midair, crossing his legs as he sat in the sky, motionless.

Lu Nanyi remained below, waiting silently. Many within the city were curious, but none dared to approach.

Xu Zimo sat in the void for a full day and night. The setting sun circled the heavens once and rose again. Then, ripples began to shimmer through the air before him.

Xu Zimo raised his head and saw a man in a black robe standing before him.

“You from Sun-Moon Tower want to meddle in this too?” Xu Zimo asked, sensing the powerful killing intent surrounding the newcomer, his identity was obvious.

“No, no,” the black-robed man replied with a faint smile. “I came here for you, young master. Would you be interested in joining Sun-Moon Tower?”

Before Xu Zimo could respond, the man continued, “No need to refuse so quickly. If you agree, you can immediately become the master of Sun-Moon Tower’s branch in this Royal City. As for the Eternal God-Clan, we’ll deal with them for you.”

“Not interested,” Xu Zimo said flatly.

“Then I won’t disturb you,” the black-robed man said with a bow. The instant his words ended, his figure vanished without a trace.

Xu Zimo paid him no further attention. His gaze shifted to the distant horizon, where a dark cloud of crows came flying toward him.

They were utterly silent. If one looked closely, each bird’s wings seemed to be linked to the next, and their pitch-black eyes shone with eerie stillness.

Xu Zimo frowned. Shadow Tyrant in his hand flared, and a slash of blade intent swept across the heavens, enveloping all the incoming crows.

When the blade light fell, it was as though it devoured the sky itself. Every crow was annihilated, leaving behind nothing but drifting specks of dust.

“Twofold Illusionary Dust Formation, activate.”

The voice came from nowhere and everywhere at once. The countless particles of dust floating in the air suddenly arranged themselves into a yin-yang pattern, spinning rapidly.

At the center of that rotation, stood Xu Zimo.

“A forced teleportation formation,” he murmured.

The next instant, an overwhelming suction surged from the void and swallowed him whole.

Space twisted and churned as he was pulled through. Xu Zimo recognized the formation’s workings, but he didn’t resist. He wanted to see what game the Eternal God-Clan was playing.

His body drifted through the void for what felt like an eternity. The dust-like array shimmered faintly as he was carried along, until at last, he felt weight return, and he fell from the air.

When he landed, he looked around and took in the scene.

Dozens of elderly men, their hair and beards snow-white, sat cross-legged around him in a circle.

Beneath him was a mountain. Seeing it, Xu Zimo’s eyes narrowed slightly, and he uttered two quiet words.

“Azure Mountain.”

The Eternal Emperor’s True Fate had been an Azure Mountain, but that was only a manifestation. The one beneath his feet now was the real thing.

So this was the Eternal God-Clan’s headquarters.

The ground was barren and lifeless, yet the aura here was ancient and vast. Around him, each of the old men radiated terrifying power as they sat motionless, as if participating in some grand ritual.

“Are you the one who killed the Eternal Emperor?” one of them asked.

“Is this all the Eternal God-Clan has?” Xu Zimo replied, scanning the circle of elders.

“What arrogance!” another elder snorted coldly.

Their auras erupted simultaneously, and Xu Zimo realized, each one of them was a Grand Emperor.

In the Nine Heavens, a lineage with hundreds of Grand Emperors wasn’t unheard of, but when such power gathered together, it was enough to shake anyone’s heart.

The pressure of hundreds of imperial auras pressed down like a storm, suffocating the air itself.

Xu Zimo let out a low growl as Shadow Tyrant in his hand surged with the Power of Faith. Blade intent roared into the heavens, tearing open the oppressive aura before him.

“Slash!” he shouted.

The blade light erupted, cleaving across Azure Mountain toward the gathered elders.

One elder extended his right arm, it stretched dozens of meters long. With a single flick of his finger, he crushed the blade light in his grasp. Then he swung his palm downward, summoning countless phantom handprints that blotted out half the sky and crashed down toward Xu Zimo.

Xu Zimo raised his blade horizontally, blocking the storm of palm winds. Even so, the sheer force hurled him backward through the air.

“Lock!” the other elders chanted in unison.

Their voices, movements, and expressions were perfectly synchronized, an inhuman level of coordination.

Each extended a hand, and from their fingertips streamed gray vapors. These vapors intertwined in the void, forming chains that shot toward Xu Zimo to bind him.

Facing the assault of so many emperors, some even stronger than he, Xu Zimo’s pressure mounted.

But his blade intent churned violently. A small knife, condensed from Saint Sovereign Lu Sheng’s soul, emerged slowly from his body and hovered before him.

He brought his palms together, enclosing the small blade between them.

“Eightfold Heavensplit!” His shout carried a touch of madness.

His blade intent exploded outward, wild, chaotic, unstoppable. It was as if all demons were dancing; the power was boundless, enough to destroy heaven and earth.

“Eightfold” referred to the eight trigrams, encompassing all directions of the world, spreading in a perfect circle that covered heaven and earth.

Centered on Xu Zimo, the blade intent erupted outward in every direction.

The overwhelming, heaven-rending power swept through everything, cutting apart the world itself.

The surrounding elders’ faces changed drastically.

“Retreat!” one shouted.

Their once-tranquil figures scattered in panic, retreating millions of miles in a single step, vanishing into the distance.

When the blade intent finally dissipated, Xu Zimo looked up. The sky itself had been torn open, a vast black crack stretching across it, slowly mending itself.

The ground had split into a bottomless chasm. Everything nearby had been reduced to nothing.

As the small Heaven-Splitting Blade returned to him, Xu Zimo watched the elders reappear from the void.

They were Grand Emperors, killing them so easily was impossible.

But their fighting intent had vanished. One of them spoke calmly, “You have passed the trial. The Patriarch wishes to see you.”