Chapter 1: Waiting to Die Part 1

Dark clouds blotted out the sun. Black mist rolled through the valley, turning daylight into night.

Thunderclaps crashed one after another, as if trying to tear open the sky.

A storm was about to break.

A group of people stood encircling the valley. They wore different robes and held assorted magical implements, but every face was grim.

In the wide clearing at the center stood a youth.

Amid a flash of lightning and a crack of thunder, the youth slowly lifted his head, revealing a pale face. The corners of his mouth curved into a smile as his gaze swept over the crowd one by one, as though admiring a collection of playthings.

When their eyes met his, a chill seemed to surge up from the soles of their feet. The hands gripping their implements trembled.

Though it looked like one against many, it was obvious at a glance who was weak and who was strong.

“We will never let you leave this place to harm anyone again!”

“Driving Ghostly Entities to slaughter the innocent violates the Heavenly Dao. Heaven will surely punish you!”

“You’re cornered. Surrender now!”

“Don’t be afraid, everyone! Attack! He’s already injured—we cannot let him escape!”

“Evil Ghost, even if we die here today, we will destroy you!”

The youth’s posture was relaxed, his smile careless. “Then die here.”

Such arrogance clearly enraged everyone present. Their fury boiled over; without another word, they launched their attacks.

The youth closed his eyes briefly. When he opened them, his pupils were instantly flooded with blood-red. He slammed a palm against the ground. The earth cracked around him and spread rapidly outward. Countless strands of black ghost Qi surged up from the fissures, jostling one another. The whole valley erupted with the wails of ghosts and howls of wolves. Every time the black mist struck a person, that person coughed up blood, as though countless Vengeful Ghosts were hidden within it, choosing their prey to devour…

The cold, lonely valley became a Purgatory on earth.

Drip. Drip.

Rain finally fell, gathering on the ground into streams of blood.

The youth’s body swayed slightly. He straightened and licked the blood from the corner of his mouth.

So much for the Hundred Xuanmen Sects.

He was about to turn and leave when his eyes narrowed. A man was walking toward him over the blood.

The man carried a long sword and walked with unhurried composure, as if entering an unguarded land.

The frenzied black mist howled as if scorched the moment it drew near him. Wherever the man passed, darkness had nowhere to hide; it scattered like clouds before the wind.

The people struggling to hold out saw him. Their eyes were surprised and complicated—awe, joy, wariness, fear…

They longed for him to save them, yet seemed unwilling to get too close.

Who is he?

The youth’s expression turned intrigued. Claws extended from his fingertips. He left only an afterimage behind and reached the man in the blink of an eye.

The man abruptly raised his hand and held his sword across his chest. The pitch-black blade clashed with the youth’s claws with the ringing of metal. Yet he did not retreat a single step. His thin lips pressed together, and with a wave of his hand he sent the youth flying.

The fierce wind left a cut on the youth’s face.

The next instant.

The black long sword pierced the youth’s chest. The youth blinked, lashes trembling slightly, as if unable to believe it, as if lost and helpless. He looked down at his chest.

He saw his body dissolving bit by bit from where the sword had struck.

How could this be? Such incredible, unbelievable power…

It should belong to him!

In the last second before his consciousness faded, the youth looked up at the man. It was an indifferent face.

I was so close to succeeding.

I can’t accept this.

……………

Xu Deng’s eyes snapped open. He pressed a hand to his chest. His chest heaved; his breathing was ragged.

The searing pain of his body being burned had felt so real a second ago, but now it faded, as if it had only been his imagination.

Xu Deng slowly steadied his breathing. The soft warm-white glow of a desk lamp fell across the desk. Before him lay a math test he had finished most of. After a moment of silence, Xu Deng picked up the ballpoint pen that had rolled onto the floor at some point and let out a quiet breath.

So it had only been a dream.

Vivid as the dream had been, now that he was awake, only blurry fragments remained when he tried to recall it.

He could not even remember a single face from it.

School started tomorrow. Xu Deng smoothed out the test paper. Better keep doing his homework.

【Host, Host, you’re finally awake!】

Xu Deng frowned slightly.

He seemed to have heard a strange voice.

【Host! I’m your System!】

As a high school senior buried under coursework, he had no time to let his imagination run wild. He shouldn’t be hearing things.

Xu Deng lowered his eyes. This problem in front of him, however, was rather difficult.

【Everything just now wasn’t a dream! It’s something that will happen in the future!】

Xu Deng’s expression stilled. He finally stopped what he was doing. Perhaps because he had just had such a long, bizarre dream, he found himself unusually patient. He wanted to see what this so-called System had to say.

Seeing that its host was finally willing to listen, the System was moved beyond words and fired off its explanation like a string of firecrackers.

【System: The world you live in is actually a book, and you are its greatest villain. On your eighteenth birthday, you will transform into a Vengeful Ghost, lead a horde of ghosts against the Hundred Xuanmen Sects, commit every evil imaginable, and finally be killed by the combined forces of Xuanmen. Everything in that dream was your future!】

Xu Deng: “Why aren’t I the protagonist?”

System: ??? Is that the point?

Xu Deng spoke slowly, thoughtfully: “An ordinary high school student wakes up one day to find he’s the protagonist, entrusted with the mission of saving the world. Isn’t that more uplifting? More mainstream?”

【System: …You have a point, but you really are the villain, uh…】

Xu Deng sighed in disappointment. He propped his chin on his hand and thought for a moment, as if accepting reality. His lashes lowered. “So just now, I had a prophetic dream?”

【System, excitedly: Yes!】

Xu Deng: “But I forgot everything when I woke up. I can’t remember anything from the dream.”

【System: …That’s fine. I have the entire plot of the book. I’ll transmit it to you now!】

Xu Deng felt a brief dizziness in his head, as if he had read a novel of several hundred thousand words in an instant.

The protagonist was naturally not him, but a Xuanmen prodigy named Jiang Cheng. Jiang Cheng was not only born into a Xuanmen Clan but also studied under the legendary strongest cultivator in Xuanmen. The book told the story of a genius who burst onto the scene, cut down demons and exterminated evil along the way, leveled up by fighting monsters, and ultimately gained both a career and love.

Jiang Cheng had one greatest enemy, and also the ultimate villain of the book—the Ghost King.

No one knew the Ghost King’s origins or name. At first, no one even knew he existed.

As Jiang Cheng cut down demons and evil along the way, he encountered many supernatural incidents, and his opponents grew stronger and stronger. During one accident, Jiang Cheng injured one of the Ghost King’s subordinates while saving a friend. After that, he opposed the Ghost King several more times. Jiang Cheng’s actions enraged the Ghost King, who struck and gravely wounded him. Only then did the Hundred Xuanmen Sects learn that such a Vengeful Ghost existed—and that many previously unrelated events had in fact been connected to the Ghost King.

Xuanmen spent countless manpower and resources fighting the Ghost King, suffering heavy casualties. Finally, through Jiang Cheng’s investigation, they learned the Ghost King’s identity before death—Xu Deng.

The Ghost King’s past and schemes gradually surfaced.

The Ghost King’s crimes were too numerous to record. His slaughter was too great. Xuanmen would fight him to the death.

But no one was a match for the Ghost King. Even Jiang Cheng had lost to him several times. If not for his Protagonist Aura, he would likely have long since become another soul slain by the Ghost King.

Facing an enemy so powerful it was almost invincible, Xuanmen had no choice but to unite. At last, they devised a trap and gravely wounded the Ghost King. The Ghost King fled into a valley—the final scene of Xu Deng’s dream.

But that had actually been a trap. The valley was filled with ghost Qi and countless Yin Souls. The Ghost King had lured everyone there to sacrifice them all in a Blood Sacrifice, break the Seal, gain even greater power, and overturn the entire world of the living.

Even united, the Hundred Xuanmen Sects were still no match for the wounded Ghost King.

Just as all seemed lost, the legendary strongest of Xuanmen—Yin Xun—made his move.

Yin Xun killed the Ghost King with a single sword strike, ending it all.

The plot of the book ended there as well.

As for Yin Xun himself, the book gave him little space, only a few brief mentions, but it was clear that Xuanmen regarded him with deep wariness and immense awe.

He was acknowledged as the strongest, and he was the Male Lead Jiang Cheng’s master. Yet Yin Xun scarcely concerned himself with worldly affairs and remained in seclusion, existing in others’ mouths only as “That One.” His killing of the Ghost King was, in fact, Yin Xun’s only appearance in the entire book.

Xu Deng thought: So the person who killed me is called Yin Xun.

The System waited until Xu Deng had more or less digested the plot before speaking.

【System, introducing itself enthusiastically: I’m the Villain Salvation System. I’m here to help you!】

Xu Deng raised an eyebrow in surprise. “Salvation? Help?”

【System, swearing solemnly: Yes!】

Xu Deng’s tone was complicated. “What exactly do I need saving from?”

The entire book consisted of him oppressing others and crushing his opponents. He was the greatest mastermind behind the scenes, the villain BOSS. Even the favored son of heaven, the protagonist, had lost to him time and again.

Fearless, unmatched, his every appearance deepened others’ terror. His very existence was a nightmare for all of Xuanmen.

So where exactly did he need help?

【System, its tone equally complicated: But you were killed in the end. Did you forget? I can help you change the fate of being killed!】

Oh. So that was what the System meant.

Xu Deng paused, then said, “Now I know the course of every future event, and I know the only person who can kill me. So I can prepare in advance. I’ll have ample opportunity to reverse my fate, and I certainly won’t be caught off guard and killed at the last moment… Seen that way, you really are of some help to me.”

【System: …】 That’s really not what I meant!

Had it just accidentally pushed this world a little closer to destruction…? The System was very anxious. QAQ

【System, speaking cautiously: Um, Host, have you ever considered… that you don’t actually have to be the villain? You could be a good person! That way you won’t die, won’t become a Vengeful Ghost, and won’t be surrounded and destroyed by Xuanmen! There are thousands of paths in this world—we can take another one!】

Light dawned on Xu Deng.

So that was what the System meant.

Xu Deng listened quietly until the System finished, then said, “But you seem to have forgotten something. According to the book, I never did anything bad before I died, yet I still died. That’s why my resentment soared to the heavens and I became a Vengeful Ghost. So being a good person still leads to death and changes nothing. Your proposal contradicts itself and reverses cause and effect.”