I Really Am A Villain
Ch. 243 - Fate-Reversing Pearl

The moment the giant blood tiger appeared, its immense beastly aura swept across the entire cave.

It lowered its massive head slightly, its huge pupils locking coldly onto everyone present.

“How can there be another one?” Lin Bao’s expression changed drastically. Feeling the pressure radiating from the giant tiger, his face grew grim.

“Imperial Meridian Realm,” Tianshi muttered calmly beside him as he stared at the beast.

“I’ll hold it off. You all run,” Lin Bao took a deep breath and slowly stepped toward the giant tiger.

As the beast roared, its aura as a creature in the Imperial Meridian Realm weighed down heavily. Some people on the scene were already trembling at the knees.

“Uncle Lin, we’ll go back and get the Demon-Subduing Arhat. Just hang on!” a townsman shouted.

“There’s no time. Go now, don’t worry about me,” Lin Bao shook his head. His expression was solemn as waves of blue spiritual energy enveloped his body.

“Uncle Lin, how about I give it a try?”

Just then, a calm voice rang out nearby.

Everyone turned to look and saw Tianshi slowly step forward.

“This guy stole my line,” Xu Zimo chuckled lightly from the side.

He had been about to step in himself, but Tianshi beat him to it.

“Little Tian, this has nothing to do with you,” Lin Bao said, shaking his head urgently.

Just then, the giant tiger seemed to lose its patience. It roared and lunged at Lin Bao, mouth wide open.

Lin Bao’s face changed dramatically, he prepared to dodge.

But at that moment, the spiritforce around them surged violently. A shout burst from Tianshi’s mouth:

“Time Acceleration!”

In that instant, the law of time flowed. Tianshi’s figure appeared above Lin Bao in the blink of an eye.

Because of his sheer speed, several afterimages trailed behind him.

BOOM!

A massive shockwave exploded in midair.

Tianshi’s body swayed slightly, but the giant tiger was directly blasted backward.

Chunks of stone and dirt fell from the ceiling.

“These Legendary Era monsters really aren’t ordinary,” Tianshi laughed as he shook his slightly numb right hand.

The blood-colored giant tiger stood up from the ground, eyed Tianshi cautiously for a moment, then let out another furious roar.

“You all handle the mutated female tiger. This one’s mine.”

With that, Tianshi charged at the giant tiger.

“Is he a celestial being?” a townsman muttered in awe, watching Tianshi’s silhouette.

At this point, the giant tiger was almost completely suppressed.

“Kill the blood tiger!” Lin Bao roared as he led the townspeople in a full assault.

Their weapons were mostly blades and swords.

As dozens of weapons hacked into the blood tiger, the beast let out a furious roar.

Its massive paw swept down and sent several townspeople flying.

Xu Zimo frowned slightly. He raised his right hand, channeling the Power of Creation, and formed a small knife out of spiritforce.

He silently flung it.

The tiny blade sliced through layers of space and landed precisely on the blood tiger’s belly.

The beast let out a howl of pain. Its aura weakened significantly.

“Aim for its belly!” Lin Bao shouted. All attacks immediately concentrated on that spot.

At that moment, the protective barrier around the hunting team timed out and disappeared.

Realizing it would not survive, the blood tiger let out one final roar. With a death wish, it charged directly at the now-defenseless hunting team.

They were all wounded, unable to fight back.

As the beast lunged, panic froze everyone in place.

Lin Qing’s face turned pale. Her instincts screamed at her to run.

But in this moment of life and death, her legs felt like they were filled with lead, numb and immobile.

She could even smell the blood in the tiger’s breath as its jaws opened wide.

Its claws glinted coldly.

Just as it was about to strike, a pair of strong arms suddenly wrapped around her waist.

Startled, Lin Qing turned her head, Tianshi’s face was right beside hers.

BOOM!

A flood of spiritual energy erupted. The massive blood tiger was blown away in an instant.

“You okay?” Tianshi asked with a smile.

Lin Qing, who had been frozen with fear, suddenly felt her body relax. She went limp and collapsed into Tianshi’s arms.

Their faces flushed. Both lowered their heads, too shy to look at each other.

“Ugh, so cheesy. I’m getting a sugar rush,” Xu Zimo muttered, shaking his head as he walked out of the cave.

He didn’t stick around for the happy reunion.

Outside, he looked across the vast land.

The Legendary Era was a strange time, monsters ran rampant, and people struggled just to survive.

Perhaps it was also the most honest age of all, where scheming was simple and survival was everything.

…

Acting was a tough job. Xu Zimo had always believed that.

But sometimes, you had no choice but to play your role, then bow out with style.

After exiting the cave, the group brought back the two blood tiger corpses.

For the townspeople of Greensky Town, those were treasures, massive nutritional boosts.

They returned in triumph. Life gradually went back to normal.

Except, feelings had quietly blossomed between Lin Qing and Tianshi.

Though they hadn’t confessed to each other yet, the two were already falling deeper and deeper in love.

One day, Xu Zimo approached Tianshi.

“If you’ve got something to say, hurry up. I’ve got a date with Qing,” Tianshi said, looking anxious.

“It’s about you two,” Xu Zimo replied calmly.

“What about us?” Tianshi looked puzzled, then said in disbelief, “Wait, you don’t mean…”

“Mean what?” Xu Zimo raised an eyebrow.

“You like Qing too? You want to compete with me fair and square?” Tianshi asked suspiciously.

“Oh, shut up,” Xu Zimo rolled his eyes.

“Have you ever thought about this, you're not even from this era?”

Tianshi fell silent.

“Like you said before, once the timeline resets, we’ll return to the Imperial Era. What happens to Lin Qing then?”

Tianshi said nothing for a while. Then he looked up slowly and said, “I’ve never forgotten that. So while I’m still here, I just want to spend as much time with her as I can. Make her happy.”

“The brightness we once had… we must repay it with loneliness in the end,” Xu Zimo said softly. “Don’t you think she’ll suffer even more after you leave?”

“To be honest,” Tianshi replied, “I’ve been studying a secret method that could change fate.”

“The Fate-Reversing Pearl, huh?” Xu Zimo chuckled inwardly. So the main plot piece finally shows up.

“Did it work?”

Tianshi shook his head. “It’s still just a theory. I only ended up in the Legendary Era because my experiment failed.”