I Really Am A Villain

Inside the crystal coffin, a group of fire-red beings carefully lifted Xu Zimo’s body out.

He was still shrouded in the energy of annihilation, and even these red beings kept their distance, unwilling to touch that deadly aura.

They isolated him with protective seals, then slowly pushed him toward the strange lake before them.

The water–fire lake was eerily calm, as though it had remained unchanged for tens of thousands of years.

As Xu Zimo’s body sank gradually into the water, one of the red beings asked, “Should we give him some protection? The Myriad Streams might be too fierce for him.”

“Why bother? Let fate decide whether he lives or dies,” another replied coldly.

“Let’s just hope we can get a clue about that escaped one soon. Then we can finally relax,” another sighed.

At last, as Xu Zimo’s body was completely submerged, faint gray wisps began to drift up from the surface.

“It’s working,” one of the red beings said with relief.

In truth, they had been nervous, worried that even the Myriad Streams might fail to counteract the Absolute Annihilation Curse. The stream was powerful, but not omnipotent.

“As long as it works,” another said. “Keep watch, don’t let him recover completely. We just need him awake and conscious. Once that happens, pull him out.”

After giving the order, the leader of the red beings left.

“What about the Heavenly Court?” someone asked among the group that remained. “He wants more Water Beasts, do we give them?”

“Yes,” the leader replied firmly. “Right now we must rely on the Heavenly Court. Only with their help can we survive. Otherwise, if the entire Inferno Crucible Heaven unites, our current advantage will disappear.”

Within the lake, the water seemed utterly still, motionless, suspended in time.

Even after Xu Zimo entered, it felt as if both space and time themselves had solidified.

“Child… wake up. Wake up. You are safe for now.”

In the darkness of his mind, a distant voice was calling to him.

Xu Zimo opened his eyes and looked around.

In truth, he didn’t need the Myriad Streams to heal him, because he wasn’t actually injured.

When the Absolute Annihilation Curse had struck, he had activated the Gate of Eternity from the Heaven-Unity Three-Gates God-Scripture, which nullified the deadliest part of the curse.

Still, the lingering annihilation energy was incredibly destructive. Xu Zimo had to hide his resistance carefully and ultimately sacrificed one of his condensed divine leaves to offset it.

That leaf came from the inheritance of Jumang, the Ancient Wood God, and each one represented a life.

Even for someone like Xu Zimo, condensing a single such leaf was no easy task.

Originally, he had intended to fake his death and then track the black-robed men afterward.

He hadn’t expected them to be so gullible, to truly believe he had died and carry him straight into this hidden world.

As the saying goes, search the world in vain, only to find what you seek by accident.

Now he had seen the blue beings’ true forms and uncovered part of their mystery.

He still didn’t fully understand their plan, but he had already begun to piece things together.

Opening his eyes wider, Xu Zimo decided to investigate the lake, the so-called Myriad Streams, to see what made it so unique.

But as soon as he stirred, a voice echoed again from deep within the water, calling out to him.

Xu Zimo didn’t know who, or what, it was. He decided to ignore it for the moment and instead focused on sensing the lake’s essence.

He narrowed his eyes.

Before, he had thought the blue being within his body was the Myriad Streams.

But now, as he felt the energy around him, he realized the two were not the same at all.

The power of the blue being was stronger, more refined.

The two forces shared the same origin, but the blue being seemed to be the core from which the Myriad Streams had derived.

That was the impression Xu Zimo got from his divine sense.

If it weren’t for the red beings watching above, he would have released the blue being immediately to see how it reacted to this place.

After carefully studying the energy of the Stream, Xu Zimo began to move.

He condensed a substitute body from spirit energy to take his place and fool any observers, while his real form quietly sank deeper into the water.

He could sense an immense power gathering at the bottom of the lake.

The mysterious voice also came from below.

A strange intuition told him that the answers he had been searching for might lie there.

But the lake was deep, so deep it seemed bottomless.

He swam for what felt like an eternity without reaching the end, until even he began to tire.

Then the voice came again.

“You’ll never make it like that.”

“Who are you?” Xu Zimo finally called back.

“I am the true master of this place. You may call me the Water God, Gongtu,” the voice replied.

“You’re joking, another Ancient God still alive?” Xu Zimo said in disbelief. “In this era, if any of you Ancient Gods are still around, that’s no different from being immortal.”

The voice went silent for a long time, then answered, “It seems you know quite a bit. No, wait. I sense several familiar auras on you.”

It muttered softly, half to itself, half to him.

“No… no, it’s been too long. Let me think.”

After a long pause, it said, “Ah, yes. Old friends, I almost forgot their scent.”

Xu Zimo immediately knew who the voice meant. The Fire God, the Wood God, and the Wind God, whose legacies he carried.

“You also bear my aura?” the voice said in surprise. “No… that’s not me. That’s a fragment of my will, something I once separated from myself. You truly know more than I expected.”

“So you really are the Water God?” Xu Zimo asked, beginning to believe.

Because many of the things the voice said were secrets he had never shared with anyone, and yet the speaker recognized them instantly.

“Come down. Let us meet face to face,” the voice said.

“How do I get down there?” Xu Zimo asked.

He wasn’t familiar with the structure of the Myriad Streams. Charging downward by force might alert everyone in the particle world above, and though he wasn’t afraid of them, now wasn’t the right time for open conflict. He needed to understand the truth first.

“Place your hand on the wall in front of you,” the voice instructed. “I will bring you inside.”

As the words faded, a section of the wall ahead of him suddenly protruded, forming a raised stone surface covered in strange markings.

Without hesitation, Xu Zimo pressed his palm against it.

A low humming sound began to echo through the depths.