Blame the Villain – Chapter 201

Villainous Emperor (1)

This time-space travel wasn’t as bumpy as the previous small worlds. Song Xuyi felt incredibly comfortable, her body relaxed, as if lying on a cloud.

During this process, Song Xuyi recalled a forgotten memory that belonged to her:

Song Xuyi seemed to have drunk alcohol, mumbling with her eyes closed, in a state between drowsiness and sleep.

Someone carefully brushed aside the long hair on her cheek, gently touched her burning cheek, and restrained themselves from placing a kiss on her cheek—

“Xuyi, I’ve developed a device,” a low voice sounded near Song Xuyi’s ear. “I don’t know if I’ll die, but this is my only chance to survive. I have a bit of selfishness in leaving a name that belongs to you in every world. Meeting you is the happiest thing in my life. Perhaps you can bring me luck…”

That voice gradually faded away, and Song Xuyi woke up from the pitch-black space, her heart still lingering with the pain from the dream.

Who was that person?

Was this dream something that really happened?

Or… was it something that happened in the previous world?

Song Xuyi pursed her lips and unconsciously furrowed her brows.

The memories of the previous world had gradually become blurred. Song Xuyi had already forgotten whether she had been in a relationship in the previous world, but the memories belonging to Song Xuyi herself remained in her mind:

She still remembered that in real life, she deeply and cautiously liked someone.

That emotion was too distant to recall, and had become a turned page in her memories, causing melancholy but no longer sadness.

Perhaps everything should be attributed to these small worlds she had traversed.

In the first small world, although Song Xuyi was determined, she harbored fear in her heart, so she was always taut as a bowstring (idiomatic expression – extremely tense or nervous), wanting to prove herself through constant effort. After experiencing so many small worlds, Song Xuyi found that she had gradually become independent and confident, daring to pursue everything she wanted. While working hard, she learned to take time to appreciate the beauty of life, no longer as self-deprecating and timid as before…

“System, have you arrived?”

Realizing she had reached a new world, Song Xuyi opened her eyes.

There was no response in her mind.

Before her eyes was an ancient temple with a classical charm. The temple was spotlessly clean, with marble tiles on the ground. Four huge pillars were carved with ancient patterns. The vast dome occupied a large area, and from Song Xuyi’s perspective, one couldn’t see the top at a glance.

A faint fragrance lingered in the air. This scent was extremely strange, like sandalwood but with something else added. Surprisingly, it made one feel… hungry?

Song Xuyi was stunned for a moment, belatedly realizing the oddity of her perspective – she seemed to be looking down at everything before her.

With a certain guess in her heart, Song Xuyi lifted her leg, and sure enough, she wasn’t standing on the ground – Song Xuyi was floating…

She swayed and floated into the air. Looking back, she saw a lifelike statue of a goddess.

The facial features of this goddess statue were five parts similar to Song Xuyi’s. It was about the height of a person, placed on a stone pedestal, carved from white jade. The statue was pure white and solemn, with flowing robes around the body, vivid and lifelike, as if about to ascend to heaven.

Below the goddess statue was an offering table. In front of the offering table were several prayer mats. At this moment, several prayer mats were placed together, and a small girl was curled up sleeping on them.

The little girl hung her head, curled up into a small ball. Song Xuyi couldn’t see her face clearly. The night was deep and cold, and the little girl was wearing too little. She kept shivering on the prayer mat, not sleeping soundly.

Which child is so careless as to come to the temple to spend the night?

Just as Song Xuyi was thinking of a way to drape a piece of clothing over the little girl, the system’s cheerful voice transmitted in her mind: “Xuyi, good news, we finally didn’t encounter that unknown attack this time!”

“Although I still haven’t contacted the main god, I can sense that the entire main system has started self-repair and rejection! Xuyi, I’m so happy…”

Song Xuyi responded with a ‘hmm’, listening to the system happily expressing its joy. When the system calmed down a bit, Song Xuyi began to receive the plot summary of this world:

This is a mythological world.

Above are the nine heavens of the celestial realm, below is the Avici hell, and in between is the prosperous human world.

The female protagonist, Lin Zhu, was originally the wick of the Huan Lamp, a divine artifact capable of turning the world upside down in the nine heavens. She cultivated for a thousand years to gain consciousness. Lin Zhu had a crush on Jiang Bai, the Fifth Original Saint Lord of the celestial court. Hearing that Jiang Bai was about to descend to the mortal world for ten lifetimes of cultivation, Lin Zhu also followed him to the mortal realm.

Lin Zhu was infatuated with Jiang Bai, but she didn’t know that Jiang Bai was cultivating the path of emotionlessness. Lin Zhu followed Jiang Bai for nine lifetimes, each time ending in heartbreak, until the tenth life.

In this life, Lin Zhu was reborn as the daughter of a prime minister, with an extremely noble status, known as a talented woman in the capital. Jiang Bai, however, was just a poor farmer born in the grasslands, with both parents deceased.

It happened that the Jiang country was in turmoil. Jiang Bai decisively joined the army and, relying on his bravery and fighting skills, rose to the rank of lieutenant. Lin Zhu was kidnapped by bandits during a spring outing and met Jiang Bai, who was undercover in the bandit’s lair.

Jiang Bai helped Lin Zhu escape.

During this process, Lin Zhu, as before, secretly fell in love with Jiang Bai. Perhaps due to the ten lifetimes of reincarnation, Jiang Bai’s subconscious was also moved by Lin Zhu, and in this tenth life, Jiang Bai also developed feelings for Lin Zhu.

But their identities were as far apart as heaven and earth. Jiang Bai could only continuously strive for military achievements, hoping that Lin Zhu’s prime minister father would agree to let Lin Zhu marry him.

Finally, Jiang Bai gained the crown prince’s favor with his outstanding performance and was taken under his wing. The prime minister finally relented, and the crown prince also promised to help Jiang Bai ask the emperor for an imperial edict to let Lin Zhu marry him.

At this point, they should have reached the happy ending set by the main god, with Jiang Bai and Lin Zhu getting married, growing old together in the mortal world, and their souls returning to the celestial realm after death.

But since Song Xuyi arrived here, things had changed—

On the second day after the crown prince said he would help Jiang Bai ask for the imperial edict, the crown prince entered the palace and never came out again. Blood stained every floor of the palace, and the emperor’s bloodline was almost completely wiped out in one night. The only one left was— Jiang Ruyu, the daughter born to the old emperor and a cold palace concubine, who had been ignored by everyone.

The imperial clan, noble families, and government ministers each had their own plans. On the surface, they established Jiang Ruyu as the emperor, but inwardly, they were planning to use the emperor to command the feudal lords (idiomatic expression – to use someone’s authority to control others) after Jiang Ruyu chose an imperial consort and gave birth to a child.

No one expected that the new emperor Jiang Ruyu was an outright lunatic, with intelligence bordering on the demonic. The rebellions throughout the Jiang country in recent years were all orchestrated by her. She privately nurtured a large number of rebel troops, supported the grassroots, and was cold-blooded and cruel. It didn’t take long for the noble families to suffer a heavy blow.

Lin Zhu’s father was extremely ambitious and was the leader of the government ministers. After encountering a few setbacks with Jiang Ruyu, Lin Zhu’s father simply united with the noble families and chose another child from the imperial clan, using the excuse of “a hen crowing like a rooster” (idiomatic expression – a woman usurping male authority) to attack Jiang Ruyu.

At the beginning, Jiang Ruyu did suffer a few defeats because the male protagonist Jiang Bai was previously the Fifth Original Saint Lord commanding one side. Although he had no memory when he underwent tribulation and reincarnation, the minor deities under him wanted to curry favor with him and provided many conveniences during the battles.

Somehow, Jiang Ruyu learned that Lin Zhu was the wick of the Huan Lamp. Jiang Ruyu had people secretly capture Lin Zhu, confined her soul, and used evil methods to refine it, actually creating the first great killing weapon since the beginning of time – the Huan Sword!

The Huan Sword was immensely powerful, with even most deities being no match for it. Strangely, the Huan Sword recognized Jiang Ruyu, a mere mortal, as its master…

Relying on the Huan Sword, Jiang Ruyu ascended to heaven and descended to hell, committing countless killings and falling into demonhood.

In the end, even Jiang Bai, who wanted to avenge Lin Zhu and had regained his cultivation, was no match for Jiang Ruyu and died under her sword…

With both the male and female protagonists dead at Jiang Ruyu’s hands, the timeline collapsed. The main god rewound time, and so Song Xuyi came to this world.

The main god had always adhered to the principle that a high status makes things easier to accomplish, so the identity of Song Xuyi’s current body was equally high.

A thousand years ago, the Jiang family ancestor was kind-hearted and saved a white fox from an animal trap.

After the white fox cultivated into a deity, it was grateful for the Jiang family’s life-saving grace and sent its daughter down to the mortal world to protect the Jiang family for a thousand years, to repay the Jiang family’s kindness.

Song Xuyi’s current body was that daughter sent down by the white fox to guard and repay the Jiang family – the legendary guardian goddess of the Jiang country.

After receiving the plot summary, Song Xuyi also received the memories of the body itself.

This body was originally the daughter of the white fox, but she had a peculiar personality from a young age, not as fond of lively atmospheres as other fox clan members. The original soul’s favorite thing to do was cultivate. Fearing that this daughter would become ill from boredom, the white fox gave the original soul the task of coming to the mortal world to protect the Jiang family, hoping to let the original soul experience the prosperity of the human world and no longer be obsessed with cultivation all day.

However, the original soul was obsessed with cultivation and didn’t want to worry too much about the Jiang family’s affairs. She simply and crudely helped the Jiang family become the emperors of a country through scheming.

Once they became emperors, many people would come to serve the Jiang family, and the original soul could also be free.

After accomplishing this, the original soul was extremely self-satisfied and confidently continued her cultivation…

A thousand years passed, and under the original soul’s favoritism, the Jiang family continued for a thousand years, and the Jiang country became one of the largest countries.

The original soul was a high and mighty deity. A thousand years was just a snap of fingers in her long life, but for the human world, this was already an extremely long time. Under long-term rule, the descendants of the kind-hearted Jiang family ancestors gradually became morally corrupt and behaved outrageously…

Jiang Ruyu’s father was such a benighted ruler, lustful and selfish, causing widespread resentment among the people. Yet under the original soul’s protection, such a benighted ruler still lived a long life. The crown prince was already approaching the age of knowing one’s fate (cultural reference – around 50 years old), but the emperor was still in good health, harming countless women. The antagonist was the child born after the benighted ruler harmed a cold palace concubine…

After receiving the original soul’s memories, Song Xuyi couldn’t help but hold her head: Although the future chaos of the three realms was mainly caused by the antagonist, upon closer examination, it was also related to the original soul’s inaction.

Fortunately, there was still time to make amends.

Song Xuyi breathed a sigh of relief, her gaze falling once again on the little girl on the ground.

The little girl had now turned over, revealing a small face the size of a palm. Although she looked extremely small and thin at first glance, the little girl’s features were very delicate, and one could imagine that she would definitely be a great beauty in the future.

Who could have imagined that this pitiful, tiny-looking little girl would be the future great demon who would turn the three realms upside down – Jiang Ruyu?

The author has something to say:

Who could have imagined that Xuyi, as a goddess, would be dominated by this tiny little girl in the future?

Shrugs

LP: Re-translated on November 21, 2024