I Really Am A Villain

Xu Zimo and Xie Changliu exchanged glances, surprised at how easily Karona had agreed. It was more unexpected than either of them had imagined.

“What’s wrong? Afraid I’ll go back on my word?” Karona laughed softly. “Relax. When I, Karona, say something, I always make it happen.”

“There’s nothing to be afraid of,” Xu Zimo said, tossing the Soul-Rebirth Pearl toward her. “Even if you did change your mind, it would just mean a bit more effort on our part.”

Karona caught the pearl and examined it carefully. Once she was sure it was intact, she put it away with great care. For a ghost, a Soul-Rebirth Pearl held tremendous significance, and she dared not take it lightly.

She extended her right hand, and a key-shaped object floated in the air.

The key began to rotate slowly, and it seemed to unlock some kind of seal in the void.

It turned out that this ghost temple itself was the entrance to the forbidden land.

As the temple sealed itself off, spirit energy filled the air, and the surrounding yin aura thickened.

Echoes of wailing and cries of anguish filled the air.

At the center of the sound, a gray portal emerged from the void.

From within it, countless skeletal hands and broken bones struggled to crawl out, but a powerful suction force dragged them back inside no matter how hard they resisted.

“Let me out… let me out…” the skeletons whispered weakly.

The sight was chilling.

“Please, go ahead,” Karona said with a smile.

Xu Zimo stepped through the portal first, and Xie Changliu followed right after.

Karona’s smile faded. She waved her right hand, and the floating key returned to her palm. The gray portal vanished.

“You shouldn’t have let them go in,” came a raspy, aged voice.

From the dark corner of the hall, an old man emerged. He was barely a meter tall and leaned heavily on his cane as he spoke hoarsely.

“The gods are restless these days. Tensions keep rising between the two sides. If you send them in, I fear…”

“I sent them to the border between the ghost and god races,” Karona said calmly.

The old man blinked, then chuckled. “Ah, clever move. The border is tightly guarded, they won’t survive long.”

Within the forbidden land, beneath a vast, unknown mountain.

The ground was littered with the corpses of gods and ghosts alike, scattered across the scarred and barren earth.

It was the aftermath of a small-scale battle.

But no one paid it any mind; such skirmishes happened daily, and the dead were hardly worth mentioning.

The air above them twisted, and Xu Zimo and Xie Changliu appeared, landing right atop the battlefield of corpses.

“So this is the forbidden land,” Xie Changliu said, gazing into the distance.

Not a single living plant could be seen, only barren mountains and wide plains shrouded in cold, eerie winds.

“What should we do now?” Xie Changliu asked. “The forbidden land might not be that vast, but finding a single small city like Sunflower here would be like searching for a needle in the sea.”

Xu Zimo nodded. He understood perfectly.

Back at the Ghost God Collegium, Lan Canyin had given him a map that covered the entire Ghost-God Heaven, but there had been almost no details about the forbidden land.

That made sense. Not just anyone could enter this place, and once they did, getting out was even harder.

As far as anyone knew, the Nether City provided entry into the forbidden land, but no one had ever returned to tell how to leave it.

“I might have an idea,” Xie Changliu said.

“Oh? What idea?” Xu Zimo asked.

“I have a vial of Hundred Ghost Liquid.” Xie Changliu pulled out a small bottle from his storage ring. Inside was a black liquid, dark yet oddly translucent.

“If we coat ourselves with this liquid, we can mimic the aura of the Spectral Ghost Race. Anyone below the rank of Ghost Monarch, and even most Ghost Monarchs, won’t be able to tell the difference. Only beings stronger than that might notice.”

He added, “I got this in Nether City. It played a big role in helping me steal the Soul-Rebirth Pearl.”

“You mean… we’ll disguise ourselves as ghosts?” Xu Zimo realized.

“Exactly. We’ll blend in, learn the lay of the land, and take our time from there,” Xie Changliu said.

“That could work,” Xu Zimo agreed.

They stripped the nearby ghost corpses of their armor and clothing and put them on.

Then, with a single drop of Hundred Ghost Liquid each, a dark, swirling mist enveloped their bodies.

It coiled around them like spectral wind, wrapping them in ghostly aura.

Their skin itched, as though a swarm of ants were crawling and biting all over.

Xu Zimo lifted his gaze toward the north.

“The energy there is dense and violent,” he said. “That must be where the ghost forces are gathering. Let’s go take a look.”

Following the flow of sinister energy, the two traveled northward. Along the way, they encountered countless Lost Souls.

There were skeletal ghosts clawing their way out of the ground, drifting wraiths hovering in the air, fire-eating flame ghosts, malice fiends, and spirits born of pure resentment.

But thanks to the ghostly aura cloaking them, none of these creatures attacked. They merely glanced their way before moving on.

“You two, what are you doing here?”

A squad of ghost soldiers approached from ahead.

Their leader was a wolf spirit ghost, clearly a wolf in life, now twisted into a vicious and terrifying creature.

“We’re from a patrol unit,” Xie Changliu said quickly before Xu Zimo could speak. “We were ambushed by the gods and barely escaped alive.”

He recalled the dead ghosts they’d seen earlier and spun his story from that.

The wolf spirit ghost didn’t seem suspicious, after all, deaths were commonplace here.

The creature gave them a long look before saying flatly, “Since your squad’s dead, you’ll follow me now. You both seem quick-witted, I’ll take you in.”

“What should we call you, boss?” Xie Changliu asked with a grin.

“Our captain is called Hexben,” a long-haired ghost beside the wolf spirit said quickly. “He’s one of Ghost Monarch Nether-Prime’s most trusted subordinates.”

“Then we’ll follow Boss,” Xie Changliu said with a smile, exchanging a quick glance with Xu Zimo. “Hope you’ll look after us.”

“Good. We’re heading to the southern perimeter, come along,” Hexben said.

He turned and led the group forward. The rest of the ghost squad followed, Xu Zimo and Xie Changliu among them.

“Lately the gods have been restless,” Hexben said as they marched. “Keep your eyes sharp. If you come across a Flower of Death, don’t even think of keeping it for yourself. All of it goes to the Ghost Monarch.”

Xu Zimo knew that warning was aimed at them, but he said nothing.

As they walked, Xie Changliu asked casually, “Boss Hexben, why exactly are the gods fighting us ghosts? Wouldn’t it be better to share the forbidden land evenly and keep the peace?”