I Really Am A Villain
Ch. 429 - Phoenix Perch Empire

“I don’t know what use this treasure cloth has either, so it’s up to you to explore,” Liu Changfeng said.

Xu Zimo nodded slightly.

As they talked, the two arrived at the entrance to the Sea Serpent Race’s vault.

The vault was also a simple and unadorned palace. Most of the race’s accumulated treasures over the years were likely stored inside.

Passing the guards at the entrance, the two walked in slowly.

The vault was large and had three levels.

The first level held various strange items, the second level contained books.

Liu Changfeng led Xu Zimo directly to the third level and retrieved a long-dusty purple box.

The moment Xu Zimo saw the box, for some reason, his heart began to beat faster.

He took the box and slowly opened it.

Inside was a piece of purple cloth.

He picked it up, it was unclear what material the cloth was made of.

It felt heavy in his hands and slightly warm to the touch.

The cloth wasn’t large, and it was covered in dense black lines, drawn both horizontally and vertically.

Xu Zimo couldn’t make out anything else from it.

“Any clues?” Liu Changfeng asked from the side.

Xu Zimo examined it for a long time, then shook his head.

He put the cloth away and said, “I’ll study it later when I have time.”

“I advise you not to get too obsessed with it,” Liu Changfeng added. “Many of my talented ancestors spent their whole lives on it and got nothing in the end.”

Xu Zimo nodded slightly and said, “For this cloth, I’ll do you a small favor. Want full control over the Sea Serpent Race? I can help you eliminate the remaining elders.”

“Thank you,” Liu Changfeng said sincerely. “But they still care about the race. Whatever conflicts exist, we’ll work them out.”

Xu Zimo didn’t say anything more.

Liu Changfeng originally wanted Xu Zimo to stay and explore the race for a few days, but Xu Zimo refused.

After leaving the Sea Serpent Race, he headed straight back to Brightsky City to see whether the teleportation array had been repaired.

Halfway there, Xu Zimo looked around and, seeing no one nearby, slowly took out the treasure cloth.

Then he retrieved a black-purple stone from his True Fate World.

The stone was glowing faintly, something Xu Zimo had never seen before.

This stone was one he had acquired in the city of Fireflow in the Holyflower Region, after a reaction from the Supreme-Yin Nether-Glow.

It had been dormant ever since, but now, with the treasure cloth, Xu Zimo sensed a connection between the two.

He had already noticed something strange when he was still at the Sea Serpent Race, but didn’t bring it out because Liu Changfeng was present.

Now, as he brought the stone and the cloth into contact,

the stone began to tremble, glowing intensely before transforming into a stream of light.

This light shot into the sky, dyeing the heavens above black-purple.

A vast, torrential light poured down like a waterfall and flowed entirely into the treasure cloth.

Next, the cloth began to shine with radiant brilliance.

To Xu Zimo’s surprise, the horizontal and vertical lines on the cloth started to rearrange themselves.

Eventually, they formed a map.

He looked at it closely, it was a miniature, simplified map of the Primordial Heartlands.

What shocked Xu Zimo was that the map only showed one landmass.

This meant the map was extremely ancient,

so old that when it was drawn, the continent hadn’t yet split into five regions as it had today.

The thought deeply unsettled him.

Red lines marked paths on the map, as if guiding him somewhere.

The red trail ended at a specific point.

“If this map is related to the Supreme-Yang Solar-Illumination, then that endpoint must be where it is,” Xu Zimo speculated.

He studied the map carefully. Since the layout was very different from the current continent, he had to compare it piece by piece.

Eventually, he realized the map’s endpoint wasn’t on any of the five regions.

Instead, it was located in a hidden area within the Endless Sky Sea.

Xu Zimo didn’t know if the location had shifted over time.

But once he finished his business in the Northern Continent, he would head there immediately.

He carefully stored the map in his True Fate World.

Then he arrived in Brightsky City.

In one night, so many people had died in Brightsky City that it caused a small uproar within the Celestial Tiger Empire.

The empire quickly sent people to take control of the now-chaotic city.

An investigation into the incident was also launched.

By the time Xu Zimo arrived, a new city lord had already taken over.

Order had been restored.

Xu Zimo guessed that the teleportation array must have been repaired.

The new city lord likely used it to arrive, otherwise, he couldn’t have gotten there so fast.

The Sea Serpent Race had destroyed the formation earlier to prevent interference from the Celestial Tiger Empire.

Now, things went smoothly as Xu Zimo entered the city.

He paid the required fee and used the teleportation array to head toward the Bright Moon Empire.

Among the Thirty-Six Empires, the Bright Moon Empire ranked near the top.

After another journey through space and time, Xu Zimo arrived in Violet Moon City of the Bright Moon Empire.

Violet Moon City was one of the more prosperous major cities in the empire.

The empire itself was ruled by the Shadow Moon Race.

Xu Zimo didn’t linger. He immediately used another teleportation array to head to the Phoenix Perch Empire.

...

As a human empire, the Phoenix Perch Empire had a strong reputation in the Northern Continent.

It was one of the most powerful empires.

To the east lay the Bright Moon Empire, to the west the Wild Ox Empire, Phoenix Perch stood as the undisputed overlord of the region.

Its territory and overall strength were both among the best.

More importantly, ever since Grand Emperor Zhen Wu ushered in the Imperial Era, humans had reached their golden era.

The consensus among all races was that the human race could not be provoked.

It was said that in the lands now ruled by the Phoenix Perch Empire, a great battle once took place.

A Divine Phoenix tore through the void and descended upon the land.

It underwent its tribulation here and ascended, its flames scorching the land for years.

No grass grew. It was desolate and lifeless.

When the empire was finally founded, people named it “Phoenix Perch”, Phoenix Perch.

Tranquil Heaven City was an obscure town under the Phoenix Perch Empire.

Among the many cities, it alone had an independent teleportation formation.

This puzzled many, and several other cities had opposed it before the empire.

But it was useless, the empire gave no explanation.