I am Villain Cultivator
Chapter 65: The Villain Behind the Riot

Chapter 65: Chapter 65: The Villain Behind the Riot

The morning air was unusually thick.

Kaal stirred from sleep, his body sluggish, his breath shallow. The aftereffects of borrowing Qi through the fire crystal array had left his mortal vessel drained. Without a proper cultivation base, even the smallest manipulation of energy left him utterly exhausted.

But it wasn’t just fatigue that pulled him from sleep.

It was the sound of shouts, gasps, and the buzz of anxious murmuring.

He blinked his eyes open and rubbed the crust from his lashes. Outside his tent, shadows passed in a hurry. Many Footsteps and Voices can be heard.

Something had happened. Kaal knows that this chaos must be his doing.

Kaal sat up groggily, instinctively reaching for the corner of the tent’s flap. He forced his expression to remain blank, vacuous, as Arthur was known to be. Then he pushed himself up and stepped outside, weaving into the growing crowd with slow, deliberate steps.

A sea of faces gathered in front of the guard barracks. Dirty slaves, ash-streaked miners, even some elder workers all stood whispering in fearful awe, forming a half-circle around something hidden by the tight ring of bodies.

Kaal blinked dumbly, playing the part, but perked his ears.

Words spilled from hushed conversations.

"This is God’s wrath! The Silversong Tribe must’ve angered the heavens!"

"I saw it with my own eyes... his body was rotting. A red mark on his neck, and pus leaking out like slime. I swear on my soul!"

"Not just him... all the guards. Dead. Every last one of ’em. Some still had meat missing from their faces like a devil had chewed through their flesh!"

A chill ran through the crowd.

Kaal’s eyes narrowed slightly as he stepped forward just enough to catch a glimpse between two trembling slaves.

What he saw was a gruesome, dead body.

Supervisor David’s corpse lay sprawled beneath a ripped tarp, his skin blistered and purple, eyes bulged open in a frozen scream. A red mark wound around his throat like a noose, crusted with yellow pus. His lips were black. His tongue... missing.

But what confirmed it for Kaal was the discoloration at the base of the neck, where threads of purple-green lines snaked across the skin like veins.

"Qi corruption..." Kaal thought silently, recognizing the pattern immediately. Which means his plan worked.

A slow-acting poison, crafted in the future by a notorious poison cultivator, one whose work hadn’t even existed ten thousand years ago.

’ This means the system is truly crafting this trial from the perspective of my knowledge... not just the Founder’s past,’ thought Kaal.

The poison Kaal had added to the food wasn’t intended to kill mortals; he had tested it carefully. It only worked on cultivators or those with Qi circulating through their bodies.

"So it didn’t harm the slaves," Kaal thought. "But for the guards who used Qi for daily strength, it was lethal."

He allowed himself a flicker of satisfaction behind his blank facade.

The plan had worked.

All guards are dead. The power structure of the mine has shattered overnight.

But this chaos was only the beginning.

A gaunt slave, perhaps in his fifties, stumbled forward and fell to his knees before the corpse.

"This is judgment! The gods have sent their wrath! Free us from this cursed mine!"

"The Silversong devils are dead! We can escape!" another miner yelled, eyes wild with hope.

And then someone screamed, "WE’RE FREE!"

Shouts erupted. Some wept. Others laughed in disbelief. A few even danced in place, tears running down their soot-smeared cheeks.

But Kaal remained quiet.

No... not yet. Freedom doesn’t come from the fall of a few guards. This mine has watchers. Messengers. There’s still someone stronger behind this place.

He turned away, mind already racing with possibilities. The chaos he sowed had bought them time.

Kaal stepped back from the crowd, vanishing into the alley of sagging tents and makeshift shelters, his expression calm even as chaos erupted behind him.

Then, he cupped his hands around his mouth, changed his tone to a higher pitch, and yelled into the growing din,

"Let’s burn the mine! Burn the fire crystals! The gods have given us a sign!"

The words, thrown like oil onto fire, ignited a frenzy. No one turned to see who had spoken.

They didn’t need to.

The crowd was already teetering at the edge of madness; Kaal had merely tipped them over.

Shouts of agreement erupted.

"Burn it down! The gods want us free!"

"We’ve suffered long enough!"

The slaves are malnourished, beaten, hopeless for years now, surged like a river bursting its dam. They stormed the guard barracks, seizing torches, makeshift weapons, and even fire crystals themselves, holding them high like sacred relics.

Kaal watched from the shadows, expression unreadable.

" In the world of cultivation, gods are not worshipped. They are cultivated into. Forged by will, strength, and fate. But these mortals," he exhaled slowly, "they still believe in God blindly,".

His lips curled into a cold smirk.

" I don’t believe in gods... but I’m not stupid enough not to use God, these mortal devotion toward god has become a weapon for destroying the Silver Song tribe in his hand".

Behind him, smoke began to rise. Screams mixed with laughter and prayer as flames spread across the mine entrance.

The crowd burned their own prison with reverence, believing they were answering divine justice.

"Fools,’ Kaal thought. ’ They’re heading straight toward death. Do they really think the Silversong Tribe won’t send reinforcements? They’ll all be slaughtered...But their chaos buys me time.’

He clenched his jaw. Kaal does not feel guilty sending innocent slave miners toward the mouth of death. If these mortals have uses, he uses them; why does he feel guilty doing this?.

He looked at the angered crowd and said, "Wow, I feel like I became one of the villains in those novels that Raven read on Blue Planet," but soon he threw these useless thoughts in the back of his mind.

Without wasting another second, Kaal turned and sprinted toward the lower mine tunnels toward Amelia.

The descent was long and brutal.

Without Qi, each step was painful. The makeshift shoes bit into his blistered feet. His knees ached. Stones dug into his soles. Once, he tripped on a sharp rock and skinned his shin; blood trickled down his leg, but he gritted his teeth and kept moving.

The deeper he went, the hotter it became. The tunnels pulsed with the energy of raw fire crystals embedded into the walls. The air was thick, stifling, tinged with sulfur and ash.

Two hours passed.

By the time he reached the second shaft, Kaal’s body screamed in protest.

But his mind remained sharp.

’ No cultivators guarding the upper shaft... good. That means they have gone to control the riot in the first mine.’

As he neared the final bend, he froze and crouched behind a jutting rock.

From that vantage point, he saw them:

Amelia stood among a long line of miners’ slaves, lined up outside the secondary crystal deposit. Their faces were tired, eyes blank. A few looked toward the distant tunnel above, where the glow of smoke could barely be seen.

Two Rank 3 warriors barked orders nearby, forcing the miners to remain in line with whips and cold eyes.

The rest of the cultivators, Kaal noted, had already left.

’ They sent most of their forces up to deal with the rebellion,’ he realized this, but he looked toward two cultivator guards. ’But left these two just enough to keep this group from joining the chaos,’ thought kaal.

He ducked lower behind the jutting rock.

" Smart move. Divide the slaves. Cut them off from each other. They know that if these miners join the rebellion above, the riot becomes an uprising."

Then Kaal’s gaze fell on Amelia.

She looked tired. Her braid was undone, and sweat clung to her brow. But she was alive. Alert. She watched the guards carefully from the corner of her eye.

’Good, she’s cautious and not confused by the situation. That means she’ll be ready to move when the moment comes,’ Kaal thought.

He narrowed his eyes, studying the two Rank 3 guards.

They weren’t expecting anyone to come from below. Their attention was focused entirely on keeping the miners obedient.

’ That’s your mistake, you’re guarding the wrong direction.’ Kaal whispered in his mind.

And in that moment, as flames consumed the upper mine, smoke curled into the sky, and slaves screamed of gods and justice, Kaal began to plan the second phase of his escape.

"Now... how do I reach her without getting caught?"