I Really Am A Villain

A thunderous explosion shook the heavens, and the entire space shattered like pieces of broken glass.

The flowing water beneath Xu Zimo’s feet vanished into nothingness as the Flower of Death, having completely corroded the old tree, finally arrived.

“There’s no need,” Xu Zimo rejected the tree spirit’s offer of help. “If I can’t even handle these Flowers of Death, how could I possibly face the other Ancient Gods?”

“There are countless Flowers of Death here,” the tree spirit warned, “but most are merely seeds that have grown into lesser blossoms. Among them is one true, original Flower of Death, the source. If you can seize control of that one, you can command all the others. But be cautious. The true Flower of Death is on the same level as my World Tree. Do not underestimate it.”

Xu Zimo nodded slightly. For most people, finding a single true flower among this endless sea of identical blossoms would be impossible.

But he possessed the Traceless Compass, a compass that could locate all things.

The enormous Flower of Death loomed before him, its monstrous petals spread wide, glaring at him like an open maw.

Xu Zimo’s eyes narrowed. Infinite blade energy rippled across his weapon, Shadow Tyrant, and he drove it viciously into the flower’s core.

The Flower of Death shrieked. Its petals had tremendous suction, attempting to wrench Shadow Tyrant, and Xu Zimo himself, away.

Xu Zimo let out a cold snort. Power of Faith surged from him, the collective will of all beings flooding into the blade. A flash of steel pierced the air as he drove the weapon straight through the flower’s heart.

“Primal Dao of Fire!” he roared.

Blazing fire erupted, engulfing the entire flower in a roaring inferno.

But the Flower of Death was formidable. It did not fear fire. Even as it burned, it released waves of corrosive death energy, trying to rot Xu Zimo’s body away.

“Out of my way!” Xu Zimo shouted. Stepping on air, he kicked down on the flower’s petal and vaulted upward, sprinting across the sky toward the heart of Sunflower City.

The Flower of Death was relentless. It ignored even the tree spirit, pursuing Xu Zimo with single-minded fury.

Arriving at the center of the city, where flight was restricted, Xu Zimo leapt onto the roof of a tall mansion.

From there, he looked around. Countless Flowers of Death filled the entire city, all nearly identical, blooming in a field of purple-black despair.

In his hand, the Traceless Compass compass spun rapidly, seeking the faintest thread of fate hidden among chaos.

The faster it turned, the stronger its aura became.

In the vastness of creation, nothing truly vanishes. All things, however faint, leave a trace, a glimmer of life, a whisper of destiny.

As Xu Zimo searched, the monstrous Flower of Death lunged from behind.

Its petals spread wide, ready to envelop him, but the Heaven-Shattering Giant at Xu Zimo’s back emerged once more.

The giant roared, seized the flower, and hurled it far away.

Yet this act only enraged the rest.

Around the city, every Flower of Death began to tremble and unleash even more powerful waves of death energy. The air itself turned thick with decay and ruin.

The Tree of Life above Xu Zimo’s head began to wither, its once-brilliant leaves turning brown under the oppressive miasma.

“It has to be soon,” he muttered.

He continued running, dodging, and weaving through the city as he manipulated the spinning compass.

Its speed grew faster and faster until its motion became a blur, impossible to follow.

Seeing that it couldn’t catch Xu Zimo, the gigantic Flower of Death changed tactics.

From the sky, billions of petals began to fall like rain.

Each petal carried a trace of deathly rot. Whoever it touched would feel decay seep directly into their soul and spirit.

Even the Tree of Life could not withstand it for long, its leaves fell rapidly, one by one.

“Damn it,” Xu Zimo cursed, gripping Shadow Tyrant tightly.

He wasn’t afraid of the true Flower of Death itself, what frustrated him was that he still couldn’t find the real one.

Destroying tens of thousands of them would be useless if the original still lived.

“I’ll hold them back, you focus on the search,” said Jumang’s tree spirit, appearing from afar.

“I am already a dying tree. Let me burn what’s left of my life.”

As his words fell, a surge of immense life force exploded into the sky.

Beneath the city, the colossal tree that supported Sunflower City began to awaken and rise once more, shaking the earth.

Buildings collapsed one after another amid the deafening rumble.

“The Wood God lives, let death retreat!” the tree spirit cried.

The once-fallen trunk straightened again, radiating divine light. Holy power burst from within him, and in that moment, the World Tree seemed to rise once more, connecting heaven and earth like a divine pillar.

Life energy poured down like torrential rain, each drop representing a spark of vitality, smothering the city’s deathly aura.

Behind the tree spirit, a towering shadow appeared, stretching across the heavens, standing proudly as though questioning the sky itself.

Its face was obscured, but it emanated a godlike aura of pure, verdant majesty.

Every Flower of Death trembled in fear.

When life grows strong enough, even death must bow before it.

This was Jumang’s final radiance, the last surge of his divine strength.

Its power was beyond imagination.

But just then, around the edges of Sunflower City, something stirred.

A hidden formation activated.

The roots of all the Flowers of Death intertwined, forming a vast pentagram across the ground.

Within it, the roots became thick cords that extended upward, five of them bursting from the star’s corners.

Each root shot into the sky and pierced the tree spirit’s body, trying to drag him down from his divine pillar.

The two forces locked in a desperate struggle.

Xu Zimo could see that the tree spirit’s life force was rapidly depleting. He would not last much longer.

At that moment, the compass in Xu Zimo’s hand stopped spinning.

Its needle pointed directly toward one location, the true Flower of Death.

“Found it,” Xu Zimo said with fierce joy.

He summoned Chaos, his divine beast, from the God World and leapt onto its back, charging toward the target.

Along the way, countless Flowers of Death tried to intercept him.

But most of their power was occupied by the tree spirit, and Xu Zimo himself was protected by the Tree of Life, none could stop him in time.

After a furious sprint of several hundred meters, the compass’s needle came to rest completely.

Xu Zimo looked ahead.

There, surrounded by countless lesser blossoms, hid one flower that subtly differed, a faintly pulsing, deeper hue.

“So it’s you,” Xu Zimo said coldly.

Chaos roared, its claws tearing through the surrounding Flowers of Death.

As Xu Zimo reached out to pluck the true flower, he suddenly felt his hand aging, wrinkles deepening, skin withering.

An instinctual warning struck him: if he truly touched that flower, his entire body would rot to dust.

He hesitated briefly, then withdrew the World Tree sapling the tree spirit had given him.