I Really Am A Villain
Ch. 428 - Relic of Supreme-Yang Solar-Illumination

In the center of the river, a faintly swirling vortex appeared.

The vortex spun clockwise.

“No wonder no one could find your Sea Serpent Race. Your entrance is well hidden,” Xu Zimo said with a light laugh.

That tree just now, if he wasn’t mistaken, had a special bloodline-detecting function.

Only Sea Serpent Race members could open this gate. If others tried, it would trigger an alert.

Following Liu Changfeng, Xu Zimo jumped into the vortex.

He felt a spinning sensation as everything turned upside down.

When his feet landed, he began observing his surroundings.

It was a tunnel sealed off from the river water.

The tunnel was lined with luminous night pearls.

On both sides, reflected in the blue water, colorful fish occasionally swam by, making the view quite beautiful.

Following Liu Changfeng through the tunnel, a palace appeared in the distance.

It was fairly large but simply decorated.

Xu Zimo’s vision opened up. All around, various sea serpents of different colors and sizes swam freely.

Some were in their original forms, some had transformed into humanoid shapes.

A black palace sat in the center of these buildings.

As Liu Changfeng walked by, many clan members greeted him respectfully.

As the two approached the palace gates, a large group rushed over from the distance.

“My king, are you alright?”

The leaders of this group were three elders.

All three had gray-white beards and wore black robes.

Their outfits looked quite unusual.

“Three clan elders,” Liu Changfeng greeted them respectfully.

“I heard you were trapped in Brightsky City. We were about to send someone to rescue you,” the First Elder said quickly.

“Why did you return alone? Where are the others?” the Second Elder asked.

“They… they’re all dead,” Liu Changfeng paused, then said sadly.

“How could this be? Is Brightsky City really that powerful?”

“Elders, we can talk about that later. Let me introduce someone first,” Liu Changfeng pointed to Xu Zimo.

“This is Brother Xu. If it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t have made it back.”

The three elders looked at Xu Zimo in surprise, then gave a brief greeting.

Their attitude was rather cold. In their minds, Xu Zimo was just a young man who happened to be lucky enough to save Liu Changfeng.

Not worth paying much attention to.

Seeing their attitude, Liu Changfeng felt uneasy but said nothing more.

The Third Elder suddenly spoke, “My king, what should we do now? If there’s no other option, we might as well surrender to the Celestial Tiger Empire and have them protect our land.”

“You think the Celestial Tiger Empire will care about us?” Liu Changfeng shot back.

“Enough. You can deal with your internal matters later. Settle my issue first,” Xu Zimo said calmly from the side.

The three elders glanced at Xu Zimo, visibly displeased.

“Brother Xu, come with me. I’ll take you to retrieve it now,” Liu Changfeng quickly responded.

“My king, what did you promise him?” the First Elder asked curiously.

“He saved me. I’ll give him the treasure cloth from the hidden vault as a reward,” Liu Changfeng replied.

“That won’t do. That treasure cloth is a relic left by our ancestors. It contains great secrets. We can’t just give it away to an outsider,” the Second Elder said quickly.

“This is my decision. It’s not for you to interfere,” Liu Changfeng said, glancing at Xu Zimo.

Seeing that Xu Zimo didn’t get angry, he let out a sigh of relief.

The Third Elder frowned, his face stern as he looked at Xu Zimo.

With a sharp voice, he said, “Young Master Xu, perhaps we could exchange it for something else. We are truly grateful for saving our king, but the treasure cloth is an ancestral relic. We cannot hand it over so easily.”

Xu Zimo raised his head and looked at the Third Elder coldly.

Before anyone could react, he moved at a speed faster than the eye could see.

He grabbed the elder by the neck and lifted him off the ground.

“What are you doing?” the First Elder shouted.

Crack!

Before he finished speaking, the Third Elder’s head was twisted off like a ball and rolled to the floor.

Everyone around was shocked, frozen in fear, cold sweat covering their foreheads.

“Do you all want your race to be wiped out?” Xu Zimo asked calmly, sweeping his gaze across the crowd.

Liu Changfeng quickly stepped forward and said, “Brother Xu, this is all a misunderstanding. Please don’t be angry. I’ll take you to the vault right now.”

Watching Xu Zimo and Liu Changfeng walk away, the other two elders took a deep breath and tried to calm themselves.

They looked at the Third Elder’s corpse, he was truly dead.

And Xu Zimo’s speed just now was far beyond what they could perceive.

...

“Looks like your authority as ‘king’ isn’t quite there yet,” Xu Zimo said casually as they walked.

“The three elders are highly respected and have many loyal followers in the clan. When my father was alive, he could still suppress them. But after his death, and with me just taking over, many don’t accept my leadership,” Liu Changfeng replied with a bitter smile.

“Tell me about the treasure cloth,” Xu Zimo said.

“I don’t know much. It’s mostly from stories passed down in the clan,” Liu Changfeng replied.

“Our Sea Serpent Race has lived here for generations. It’s said that in ancient times, our ancestors witnessed a great change in the world. One day, the sun split into two, and the weather became scorching hot. Many creatures died from the drought during that time. Then one day, one of the suns suddenly fell from the sky. Our ancestor tried to chase it, but it fell too fast and disappeared in just a few breaths. Luckily, he found a piece of treasure cloth that had fallen from the sun.”

“Treasure cloth,” Xu Zimo muttered.

“Yes. Later, our ancestor did a lot of research and read countless ancient records. He began to suspect that the sun was actually the legendary Supreme-Yang Solar-Illumination,” Liu Changfeng said.

“Our ancestor spent the rest of his life obsessed with the treasure cloth. He studied it endlessly but never discovered anything. Before he died, he left a final message, whoever can understand the treasure cloth’s secret will lead the Sea Serpent Race to greatness. Because of this, many generations after him spent their lives studying the cloth. But all of them failed. Eventually, we had no choice but to seal it away.”