I Really Am A Villain
Ch. 159 - Essence of Life

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The old woman didn’t even have time to react, she was torn apart by the blade light. The snowstorm instantly vanished, and blood and pieces of her body rained from the sky.

The ice spear she had condensed struck heavily into the Titan’s chest, piercing his entire body.

“Lady Xueluo!” Chi Lei roared, his eyes wide with rage and panic as he witnessed the scene.

Little Gui seized the opportunity, slamming his staff hard into Chi Lei’s back and knocking him to the ground.

Chi Lei took a deep breath, trying to get up, only to have Little Gui stomp his head into the dirt.

As Xu Zimo walked forward, the woman beside him remained calm. Her expression was serious, but she showed no fear.

Chi Lei, on the other hand, yelled in fury, “You killed Lady Xueluo! The Chi Clan will never let you get away with this!”

“Shouldn’t you be more worried about your own life right now?” Xu Zimo said with a smile, holding the Shadow Tyrant as he slowly approached Chi Lei.

“What are you trying to do?” Chi Lei’s expression shifted, his voice trembling.

“Tell me your names, your background, and your purpose here,” Xu Zimo said casually.

“Never. Just wait for the Chi Clan’s revenge!”

No sooner had the words left Chi Lei’s mouth than a blade flashed in front of him. His right arm was severed, and blood sprayed into the air.

“Don’t kill me, I’ll talk! I’ll talk!” Chi Lei screamed in fear, barely enduring the pain in his arm.

“I thought you were tough,” Little Gui scoffed. “Turns out you’re just spineless.”

“We’re from the Chi Clan, one of the Imperial Lineages in the Eastern Continent,” Chi Lei said quickly. He pointed to the woman beside him. “She’s named Chi Qianxue, one of the top contenders to become this generation’s Saintess.

We came here to find a Titan and take the Essence of Life from his body.”

“What do you want the Essence of Life for?” Little Gui asked.

“I don’t know exactly. I just know that recently the family head issued an order: whoever finds a life-attribute treasure will be named the clan’s next Saint or Saintess,” Chi Lei explained anxiously.

“So you decided to target the Titans,” Xu Zimo said with a light laugh. “Do you even know that ever since the Imperial Era, it’s been strictly forbidden across the Primordial Heartlands to harm a member of the Titan Race?”

“I know. But everyone knows the unspoken rule, if you kill them in secret and don’t get caught, it doesn’t matter,” Chi Lei replied. “I’ve told you everything. Please let me go. I swear I’ll forget everything that happened today!”

The Titan Race was a unique race on the Primordial Heartlands. From Zhen Wu the Great onward, every generation of Grand Emperors had passed down a decree forbidding the killing of Titans.

No one knew why the Grand Emperors issued this order, or what made the Titans so special.

“I never said I’d let you go,” Xu Zimo said with a calm smile. He raised the Shadow Tyrant, and Chi Lei’s head exploded like a watermelon, blood spraying through the air.

…

Xu Zimo turned to the woman and said with a smile, “Chi Qianxue… not a bad name.”

“If you’re going to kill me, do it. I won’t tell you anything,” Chi Qianxue replied flatly.

“You don’t need to, I already know,” Xu Zimo said. “Your Chi Clan has a formation that requires a life-attribute treasure to operate. But life-attribute items are rare, and over the centuries, your clan has exhausted most of what it had. So the Chi Clan’s Patriarch came up with this desperate plan.”

Chi Qianxue’s eyes narrowed. “Who are you really?”

“That’s not important,” Xu Zimo said. “The real question is, what should I do with you?”

“Killing me would be pointless. You’d be better off trading me for something of value. Just tell me what you want. If I can do it, I’ll pay for my life with it,” Chi Qianxue said evenly.

…

The Chi Clan was an Imperial Lineage based in the core region of the Eastern Continent. Their ancestor was Grand Emperor Bing Xue.

One of the Ten Forbidden Grounds, known as the Elden Grounds, lay in the Eastern Continent’s core region.

Thousands of years ago, the God Emperor founded a sect called Divine Gate within the Elden Grounds.

No one knew his purpose, and few had ever seen anyone from the Divine Gate.

The God Emperor’s tale was legendary. After bearing the Heaven’s Will, he attempted to unify all of the Primordial Heartlands.

But with so many Imperial Lineages around, no one wanted to submit.

He destroyed seven of them in a row, but instead of creating fear, this only provoked outrage.

On that day, a loud boom echoed from the heavens. Three black holes opened in the sky.

From them descended three ancient Grand Emperors, long thought to exist only in myth.

No one knew what happened in that battle, but the God Emperor vanished after that day.

His Divine Gate never left the Elden Grounds again.

The Elden Grounds became one of Primordial Heartlands’ Ten Forbidden Grounds, located in a land forgotten by heaven and earth.

It was vast, its southeastern borders touching the surrounding ocean of the Eastern Continent.

Only the northwest borders met land, and those northern borders happened to adjoin territory ruled by the Chi Clan.

The Chi Clan feared that one day Divine Gate would re-emerge. If that happened, they would be the first target.

So, during the era of the Formation Emperor, when he bore the Heaven’s Will, the Chi Clan invited him to place a formation at the border between their land and the Elden Grounds.

With this formation in place, they wouldn’t have to worry about Divine Gate breaking through from the north.

However, the formation required life-attribute treasures to remain active. Over centuries of operation, it had consumed an enormous amount of them.

Now, those treasures were running out, and the Chi Clan could no longer find enough to keep the formation going.

…

Meanwhile, not far away, the titan, who had previously been impaled by the spear, was now slowly standing up.

The wound on his chest had completely disappeared.

A glow surrounded his body, and soon the titan began to shrink down to normal human size.

He transformed into a bald young man wearing an ancient and oddly styled long robe.

His muscles were thick and strong, his skin dark, with bold eyebrows and large eyes. When he smiled, he seemed simple and honest.

The young man walked over and smiled at Xu Zimo. “Thanks for helping me earlier.”

“So the Titan Race can shrink like that, huh?” Little Gui said, eyeing him curiously. “What’s your name?”