I am Villain Cultivator
Chapter 66: Amelia’s Doubt

Chapter 66: Chapter 66: Amelia’s Doubt

Kaal crouched in the shadows, eyes fixed on the two Rank 3 warriors barking orders near Amelia.

His mind churned.

"I can’t fight them. Not with this body. Not without Qi."

He scanned the environment, cracked stone walls glowing faintly with embedded fire crystals, rusted mining tools discarded along the tunnel edge, barrels of ore, and crates used for storage. He memorized every inch, calculating, measuring.

Then his eyes fell on a small ventilation tunnel carved into the rock wall above. Just wide enough for a child. A spark lit in his gaze.

"That’s my path."

He moved quickly, careful not to draw attention. Each step he took was measured, ghostlike; his Ghost Gale steps can’t be used without Qi, but he can use this technique as footsteps without needing Qi so that he can make minimal noise.

A broken ladder, half-hidden behind mining crates, led up toward the shaft. He climbed it with effort. His muscles screamed from overexertion, but he didn’t stop. Reaching the opening, he slipped in and crawled through the narrow passage, the jagged rock scraping his elbows and knees.

Finally, he reached an outcropping directly above the guards and the miner line.

He peered down through a vent grate.

Two guards can be seen from there.

One fat, sluggish, yawning with every third breath.

The other lean, sharp-eyed, but distracted.

A plan began to form.

Beneath him were three crates, marked with a crude symbol.

Fire crystal ore.

"Perfect."

Kaal reached into his ragged sleeve, pulling out the last fire crystal sliver he had kept. It was unstable and broken during mining and discarded. Dangerous even in small amounts.

He wedged the crystal carefully into a loose stone at the edge of the vent and began carving runes into the surrounding surface with a broken nail, primitive, but enough to form a micro-trigger formation.

Sweat dripped from his brow.

"If I mess this up, I blow myself apart."

He whispered ancient words under his breath, tracing the final rune.

The array glowed faintly.

Then silence.

Below, the guards had begun ordering miners back inside, preparing to evacuate the shaft in case the fire from above spread.

It was now or never.

Kaal slammed his palm into the final rune.

BOOM!

The stone above the crates exploded with a deafening roar. Fire and shrapnel burst outward, throwing both guards off their feet. Smoke filled the shaft, choking the air, and screams of terror echoed down the tunnels.

In the chaos, Kaal dropped from the vent like a shadow.

His legs buckled on landing, but he rolled with the momentum and sprinted toward Amelia.

She had fallen in the confusion but was already on her feet, eyes wide.

"Arthur?!" she gasped.

Kaal didn’t answer. He grabbed her wrist. "Run!"

The two fled down the tunnel as the smoke thickened behind them. One of the guards, bloodied and half-burnt, howled in rage and gave chase, but the explosion had slowed him.

Kaal and Amelia darted into an unused shaft. The map in Kaal’s memory guided them. he had spent the last week memorizing tunnel structures from overheard guard talk and stolen glances at scribbled maps.

"This way!" he barked.

"Arthur, how are you !?" Amelia tries to ask, but is interrupted by kaal

"No time for talk now!"

The passage narrowed, then widened again as they burst into a forgotten chamber one used in the past for temporary storage.

Kaal slid the makeshift door shut behind them and wedged a beam across it.

They collapsed against the wall, panting. But Amelia was confused. He looked at her brother, Arthur, who had clear eyes, not like always dull eyes he always had.

Kaal stood motionless in the hidden chamber, the distant echoes of collapsing tunnels still rumbling through stone. Beside him, Amelia gasped for breath, her hands shaking, her eyes wide with the aftermath of fire and flight. Questions trembled on her lips, but he did not grant her the mercy of his gaze.

His attention was fixed on the wall before him, where a single crack split the rock like a scar.

Then, without preamble, he turned around and said

"I’m leaving."

Amelia stiffened. "What? You can’t just"

"Stay here." His voice was a blade stripped of its sheath, cold, bare, unrecognizable. The dull-eyed boy named Arthur was gone. In his place stood something sharper. Something older.

"Do not follow me," said Kaal without looking at Amelia.

He moved toward the passageway, footsteps echoing like a funeral drum.

"Arthur!" Amelia’s scream tore through the chamber, raw and fractured.

Kaal did not look back.

The sound of her knees hitting stone followed him into the dark. He silently goes back to the mine one. But the scene he saw in the mine can’t be described in words.

The mine had become a tomb., Many corpses of slaves are seen on the floor.

Kaal stepped over the dead without ceremony. The torches had long burned out, but the carnage needed no illumination. Bodies lay where they had fallen, some blackened by flame, others split open by steel. A child’s hand, small and stiff, curled around nothing. A woman’s face, frozen mid-scream.

He walked past them all, his expression carved from ice.

Then he saw him,

The Silversong cultivator, a man who had once sneered down at slaves like a god among insects, was pinned to the cavern wall by a spear of jagged fire crystal. His corpse was stiff with rigor mortis, but not before he’d taken his final revenge. The ground around him was littered with butchered innocents.

Kaal’s gaze drifted.

There, beside a collapsed tent, lay an old man. His beard was singed. His gnarled fingers stretched toward a small, lifeless form.

Uncle Bai.

The man who had pressed weathered fingers to Kaal’s wrist and checked him when he whipped by the supervisor, David. Who had grumbled about foolish children but shared his meager rations anyway.

Kaal stared down at him, silent.

The air was thick with the stench of blood and burning.

"This is an illusion," Kaal murmured at last. "A trial crafted by the Founder."

His fists clenched. And ignored the old man bai dead body. And at last he arrived at his tent, where Amelia and Kaal had lived for the past week.

His tent yielded a frayed blanket, a dented waterskin, and a handful of mold-speckled bread hidden beneath a loose stone. From the supply tents, he took what little remained: a sack of rice, a bundle of dried mushrooms, and a length of rope.

It was enough supply for him and Amelia to survive for two weeks. This trial was not about escape; it’s about surviving and being free from the Silversong tribe.

Most of the Rebellion had already ended by the Silversong tribe cultivator guard. It was done by slaughtering the slaves, and right now, most of them are investigating the cause of the guard’s mysterious death at mine one.

Kaal said in a low voice, "Do they think they have dealt with the problem by stopping the rebellion? Slow-acting Qi corruption is a poison that acts like a virus for the cultivator; it will spread from the dead body of Guards, real game starts when the real reinforcement of Silversong tribe come here, and when the come here they will be infected by this poison and once they go back to there tribe all of their tribe member will be infected and slowly dies. I just have to wait ".

After collecting all the necessary items, he returned to mine second and went to the hidden chamber where Amelia is hiding. Seeing Kaal’s arrival, Amelia sprinted toward Kaal and stared at Kaal, her brows furrowed, her expression filled with uncertainty.

"Arthur," she whispered, "how did you... change? You were..." Her words trailed off, the doubt heavy in her voice. "You were always so quiet, so slow. And now... You move like someone else. You talk like someone else."

Kaal met her gaze calmly. He could see the fear beginning to spark behind her wide eyes. Fear that her brother, her only family, wasn’t truly her brother anymore.

If he didn’t answer carefully now... if he said one wrong thing... She’d think he was possessed. Or worse, a devil in disguise.

So he dropped to one knee and placed the bundle of supplies, cloth, water, food, rope, carefully on the ground between them. His movements were slow, deliberate. Comforting.

"Big sister," he said, his voice soft and slightly dazed. "While you were gone, I had a dream."

Amelia blinked.

Kaal continued, weaving truth and lie into a careful illusion.

"There was a man in white robes... glowing like the moon. He said he was a Sage. He told me the cruelty of the Silversong Tribe had reached the ears of Heaven, and that Heaven had finally sent punishment."

He paused, gauging her reaction.

Amelia was listening. Still kneeling. Still unsure.

"He said," Kaal whispered, "that I... was chosen."

Amelia’s mouth opened slightly.

"The Sage told me the time of suffering was ending," Kaal pressed on. "He placed his hand on my head... and suddenly, I could think clearly. My mind stopped being... cloudy. It was like... light filled my brain."

He touched the side of his head with a small smile of practiced wonder. "And when I woke up, I knew mysterious things. Plans. Ideas. How to escape. How to survive."

He tilted his head toward her and added reverently, "The Sage even told me you were a good sister. That you always protected me. And that I must now protect you."

Silence followed.

Kaal kept his face perfectly sincere.

Amelia stared at him. She wanted to doubt it.

But... the death of the guard that died mysteriously. The rebellion and the fact that her brother suddenly spoke in full sentences and had gone out to get food and supplies without being caught...

And more than that, the hope in her heart that desperate, clinging hope that maybe someone out there had heard her prayers...

It overwhelmed her.

She dropped to her knees and pressed her forehead to the cold stone floor.

"O mighty Sage," she whispered, tears forming in her eyes. "Thank you... Thank you for curing my brother..."

She turned to Kaal, her face flushed with emotion.

"Kneel, Arthur!" she said quickly, pulling his arm.

Kaal lowered himself next to her, hiding the smirk twitching at the corner of his lips. he thought,

’Even Amelia acts mature for her age; she is still a thirteen-year-old girl, and all of her life has been spent in this mine. A mortal girl without knowledge of the outside world, she can be easily manipulated. ’

Kaal then looked at Amelia and said, "Big sister, sage has told me to hide in this chamber for two weeks, that the only way we can survive and be free".

Amelia nodded at her brother’s words, fully believing in them.