I Really Am A Villain

He did not know how long he had been running. This endless passage seemed to have no end.

Xu Zimo was enveloped by darkness, swallowed by silent roars.

Finally, his footsteps stopped.

A grand hall appeared before him.

The hall stood at the very end of the passage, surrounded on all sides by sheer cliffs, as though it were suspended in midair.

The doors of the hall were tightly shut. Thick layers of dust covered them, sealed for who knew how many years.

And Lin Ruhu’s white thread stopped here.

Xu Zimo frowned slightly.

He threw a punch forward. The power in his fist was terrifying, shaking the void itself.

Boom!

An explosion rang out.

Yet when it struck the hall, there was not the slightest reaction.

After trying for quite some time, Xu Zimo realized that no matter what he did, he could not force this door open.

With no other choice, he crushed the red crystal in his hand.

He summoned the Grand Sun Dao Lord.

The red crystal burst forth with light, and the water-and-fire-intertwined figure of the Grand Sun Dao Lord slowly emerged.

“The Master’s Palace?” The Grand Sun Dao Lord looked at the hall before him, clearly surprised.

“I didn’t expect you to actually find this place.”

“What is this place?” Xu Zimo asked.

“The place where the Dominator once lived. It is also the deepest part of the Three Corpse Cave,” the Grand Sun Dao Lord replied, nodding approvingly. “You’re impressive. That corpse should be inside. What comes next will likely be a hard fight.”

“A hard fight?” Xu Zimo frowned. “Who is the opponent? The Three Corpses?”

“Logically, yes,” the Grand Sun Dao Lord shook his head. “But so much time has passed that I’m not certain whether things have changed.”

“I can’t open this door. You try,” Xu Zimo said.

“Of course you can’t,” the Grand Sun Dao Lord laughed and shook his head. “If brute force were enough, I wouldn’t be able to open it either. This door requires a password.”

He casually tapped several times in the void.

The space itself rippled.

Thump, thump, thump.

Dull sounds echoed as the massive door began to rotate. Before long, the two halves slowly opened.

“It seems you have quite a bit of connection to this Three Corpse Cave,” Xu Zimo said.

An ordinary person could never know such a password.

“I have nothing to do with them. It’s just that…” The Grand Sun Dao Lord’s eyes carried a trace of reverence. He shook his head.

“Never mind. Let’s go inside and take a look.”

Xu Zimo nodded.

He stepped straight in and saw that the hall was vast beyond expectation.

At the very center stood a throne.

The seat towered above everything else, dignified and imposing.

On both sides of the throne were rows of stone chairs.

In the central area of the hall, to the left side, there was a smaller chamber.

The Grand Sun Dao Lord seemed nostalgic, gently touching the stone chairs one by one.

Xu Zimo walked alone into the small chamber.

Inside, a blood pool lay before him, filled with countless precious items. Lin Ruhu sat by the pool.

Just like what Xu Zimo had seen in the River of Fate, Lin Ruhu was eating meat and drinking without restraint.

There seemed to be nothing else in his eyes except the mountain of delicacies in front of him.

“Ruhu! Ruhu!!” Xu Zimo shouted.

But Lin Ruhu did not respond at all. He only continued eating.

Xu Zimo stepped through the air, intending to approach him.

Suddenly, a giant hand appeared in the void and grabbed toward Xu Zimo, forcing him to stop before crossing the pool.

“Don’t rush,” the Grand Sun Dao Lord said as he entered the chamber as well. “Your friend has already been possessed. Trying to save him now is… almost impossible.”

“What do you mean?” Xu Zimo frowned.

“You’re telling me it’s impossible?”

“The Three Corpses have always sought physical bodies so they could leave the Three Corpse Burial Ground,” the Grand Sun Dao Lord explained. “I suspect they carried out countless experiments.”

Xu Zimo nodded.

All those corpses in the passage, and that bizarre dried corpse, suddenly made sense.

The experiments were extremely difficult, and countless people died because of them.

“Your friend should be the only successful experiment,” the Grand Sun Dao Lord continued.

“His body was too weak. Look at how he eats. The one possessing him should be the Upper Corpse. The Three Corpses are actually easy to distinguish. The Upper Corpse loves eating, the Middle Corpse loves luxury, and the Lower Corpse loves desire. Right now, he is feeding. Once everything here is consumed, he will fully merge with the Upper Corpse.”

“If you stop him now, he will die. Not just death, but total annihilation of the soul, without even the chance to reincarnate.”

“So there’s no saving him?” Xu Zimo narrowed his eyes, a trace of murderous intent flashing within them.

“Basically, yes,” the Grand Sun Dao Lord replied. “There is actually one method, but its difficulty makes it no different from having no hope at all.”

Hearing this, Xu Zimo suddenly lifted his head.

“What method?”

As long as there was a way, it was better than certain death.

“Fuse with the sealed corpse and absorb all three corpses,” the Grand Sun Dao Lord said.

“At that point, it wouldn’t just save his life. He might even obtain supreme fortune and become an eternal powerhouse.”

“But you should understand,” he continued, “any one of the Three Corpses are already enough to leave us helpless. Absorbing all three is nearly impossible.”

“Then the first step is to find that corpse, isn’t it?” Xu Zimo asked.

“The corpse that can seal the Three Corpses.”

“Yes,” the Grand Sun Dao Lord nodded. “It was left behind by the Dominator. It is somewhere inside the Three Corpse Cave.”

Xu Zimo knew that the Grand Sun Dao Lord was hiding certain truths from him.

The so-called Master.

The origins of the Three Corpses.

The truth behind that corpse.

Perhaps the only one who still knew everything was the Grand Sun Dao Lord.

Xu Zimo raised his head and looked behind Lin Ruhu, into the roaring, annihilating sea of corpse mist.

The Grand Sun Dao Lord spoke first.

“Old friend, I’ve come. You still refuse to show yourself?”

As his words fell, the vast corpse mist began to surge.

Something seemed to be hiding within it.

“Grand Sun, you’re already a dying man. Why come meddling in this?” A voice echoed coldly.

“Do you intend to block my grand plan?”

“Where is that corpse?” the Grand Sun Dao Lord asked.

The presence within the corpse mist let out a cold laugh.

“Grand Sun, the times have changed. What use is clinging to that corpse now? Look at the Three Corpse Burial Ground of today. Apart from me, no one else remains. It can’t trap us anymore. Everything is just a matter of time.”

Hearing this, Xu Zimo narrowed his eyes.

“You’re the one who turned Lin Ruhu into this?”

“You should be thanking me,” the presence laughed sinisterly. “When he becomes me, he will be undying and immortal, eternal across all ages. This is his fortune and his honor. You shouldn’t be stopping me. You should be helping me instead.”

“When he wakes up, will he still be himself?” Xu Zimo asked calmly.

“Of course not,” the presence sneered.

“How could he be worthy of replacing me?”

“I see. In that case, why waste words?” Xu Zimo said coldly.

With Shadow Tyrant in hand, he stepped through the air and charged forward.