I am Villain Cultivator
Chapter 69: A World Built on a Corpse

Chapter 69: Chapter 69: A World Built on a Corpse

Then, softly, almost like a sigh to himself, the old man murmured, "So this... this is another way I could have saved Amelia."

Kaal stiffened.

’ That name Amelia. Did he just...? ’

But before he could finish the thought, the Founder’s gaze lifted and locked with his.

It was not the look of a cultivator evaluating a junior.

It was the look of a man staring at his younger self, and wondering what he would have done differently.

"Child," Arthur said, his voice gentle but unflinching. "Do you not feel guilt for the lives you sacrificed? The miners. The children. The innocents. All crushed beneath your goal."

The words were not accusing. They were not cruel.

They were real.

And somehow, that made them hit harder than a sword to the chest.

Kaal’s thoughts spun. This wasn’t a normal projection. Not a relic of Qi programmed to speak pre-written lines.

’ No, this was real. The founder is Alive. Impossible. The founder lived over twenty thousand years ago. He had died at the age of ten thousand. How could he... ’

Kaal cut off his thoughts.

He steadied his breath. He raised his chin and met the Founder’s gaze.

’ Is the Founder really alive? No. That doesn’t matter now. ’

His voice was calm, proud.

"Guilt?" he said, his tone unwavering. "For what? For surviving? For achieving my goal?"

The Founder didn’t move.

But his silence weighed heavily in the space between them.

Then, he nodded once, slowly.

"A firm heart," Arthur said. "At such a young age."

He took a step forward. The pale void darkened around them, just slightly like a cloud passing before a sun.

"You saw the message I left in the Second Trial," he said. "That you must reach the Divine Realm before your hundredth year."

Kaal nodded.

"I remember every word."

The Founder’s tone grew graver, colder. He was no longer speaking just to a descendant. He was speaking to an inheritor of a truth too terrifying for the unworthy.

"Then I will tell you why."

He raised his hand.

The space around them rippled and twisted colors bleeding into the light like ink into water. From the emptiness, a world formed.

A planet Elysian, Beautiful and Vast.

Qi rivers shimmered over towering mountains. Beasts of legend soared through radiant skies. Great forests pulsed with life, cities nestled between glowing veins of spiritual energy.

It was breathtaking.

And then something changed.

The light faded. The spiritual veins flickered, dimmed. The Qi rivers thinned, their flow sluggish. A shadow pulsed beneath the crust of the world, slow but steady.

The image zoomed outward.

What Kaal saw next made his breath catch in his throat.

Beneath the illusion of continents and oceans, bones.

A skull the size of a continent. A spinal cord that wrapped around the planet’s core. Bones are massive, ancient, and alien.

Elysian was not a planet.

It was a corpse.

"A True Immortal died here," the Founder said, voice steady as a blade. "Their body became our world. Their bones formed our lands. Their Qi gave birth to our cultivation system."

Kaal stood frozen.

His mind raced.

"Then..."

Arthur nodded. "Yes. Everything we know about our bloodlines, our arts, our Divine Realms, was not earned. It was inherited. Stolen from a body that no longer lives."

His voice dropped lower.

"And now... the corpse is rotting. The Qi is fading. This world... will not last another ten thousand years."

He turned to Kaal, eyes burning with truth.

"Perhaps not even five."

The void returned. The vision faded.

But the weight of what Kaal had seen remained, pressing into his bones like gravity itself.

Kilvish Arthur continued his explanation with clarity and grave seriousness.

"But not all hope is lost," he said. "There exists a plane above this one, an Upper Realm. Its top powerhouses have begun to take an interest in our world."

He paused, allowing the weight of that statement to settle.

"They are after the planet’s Origin Core, an ancient and powerful construct located at the very heart of the Elysian world. However, this core can only be accessed by the ’Inhibitor,’ a unique inheritor tied to the fate and spiritual foundation of the planet itself."

He clarified further, "Due to this limitation, and the planet’s deteriorating state, the Upper Realm made an exception. They have started recruiting disciples from the Lower Realm, bypassing traditional restrictions."

The Founder extended his palm. A three-dimensional projection of the Elysian planet appeared, displaying its territorial divisions. He continued:

"This world is divided into four major continents, each separated by the Death Forest, a boundary of wild, corrupted land nearly impassable by conventional means.

He pointed as each region came into view.

"The White Cloud Continent, ruled by the Demon Clans, has already made contact with the upper realm and pledged themselves to a greater power."

The glowing region dimmed, and the next flared.

"The Phoenix Rain Continent, home of the Elves, has followed suit. They, too, have aligned with forces beyond our understanding."

He turned, and now his gaze sharpened as he gestured to two more glowing landmasses.

"But our Azure Continent, the domain of humanity... and the Heavenly Mountain Continent, ruled by Spirit Beasts, stand alone."

The map faded, the light withdrawing into his hand.

He looked directly at Kaal.

"Our position is precarious. The other continents have secured power and protection. If humanity and the spirit beasts do not act soon, they will be left behind or worse, consumed when the Upper Realm chooses sides."

"But our silver lining..." the Founder continued, his gaze distant, lost in the vast light of the white chamber, "...is that none of them, none of those so-called higher beings, have yet found the Origin Core of our world."

His voice dipped, quiet but heavy with memory.

"When I finally ascended to the upper realm, it was already too late. I reached the Divine Realm far too late in life at the very edge of my mortal limit. And up there... up there, I learned just how powerless even a Divine Realm cultivator could be."

Kaal listened in silence, his heart pounding.

"But I did not despair," the Founder said, his tone hardening. "Because long ago, before I was ever a cultivator, when I was nothing but a slave of the Silversong Tribe, beaten and mocked for being a little slow, a little dull compared to the other children... that’s when it happened."

He turned to Kaal, eyes burning with fire.

"I awakened the memories of my past life."

Kaal’s breath caught.

"My first life... was in a different world. A world called Earth. I was a gamer there. Just a normal boy obsessed with fantasy and strategy. And when those memories returned, so too did my instincts, my way of thinking. It was like waking from a dream and realizing I’d been born again in a game where I was the weakest player."

A thin smile touched the old man’s lips.

"Then came the lucky encounter, something beyond fate. I gained a System."

Kaal’s eyes widened.

"With its help, I rose. From a broken mortal slave with no talent, no Qi, no future... to one of the most powerful cultivators to ever walk the Elysian skies."

The air shivered faintly around the Founder as he spoke, his presence momentarily swelling with quiet pride and pain.

"I thought... I thought I could climb to the top once more in the upper realm. I had the System. I had the will. But up there... I was betrayed by my close one and was hunted and injured so gravely I knew I would never recover."

He looked down at his trembling hand, then clenched it into a fist.

"But my Dao is not ordinary. I cultivated the [Supreme Dao of Karma and Faith]. And with it... even amid my downfall, I escaped."

A silence passed.

He exhaled softly.

"My time was ending. My wounds were beyond healing. But just before the final breath left me, I saw something."

His voice trembled not with fear, but with belief.

"A vision. A prophecy. That my kin, my bloodline, would one day rise. That one among them would be the final hope of our dying world."

His gaze fixed on Kaal.

"So, I returned to the Elysian Planet before death took me. I hid my existence. I returned to the clan I created with my own hands... and I left behind this trial."

He stepped forward, raising one finger.

"And now... the final reward is yours."

Before Kaal could move, the Founder placed a glowing fingertip gently against Kaal’s forehead.

The world went white.

A sharp, splitting pain cleaved through Kaal’s soul. His knees buckled, and he screamed, but only silently, inside his mind. His consciousness fractured for a breathless second.

And then...

A familiar chime echoed within the vastness of his being.

{System recognized. Original Host: Kilvish Arthur. Authorization granted.}

{New Host Identified: Kaal Kilvish Ding. Binding complete.}

{Congratulations. You are now the sole inheritor of the Supreme System.}

Kaal’s eyes flew open.

And for the first time since arriving in this cruel world, he didn’t feel like a trapped player in someone else’s game.

He felt like the one holding the controller.

"I hope this becomes a source of strength on your path," the Founder said, his voice softer now, almost fatherly. "But beware the Upper Realm. They wear halos of divinity, but behind those halos are devil ones who seek to devour our world and billions of innocent lives, all for the sake of greed."

He looked at Kaal one final time, the weight of twenty thousand years in his eyes.

"My descendant... survive."

And with that, his projection flickered once, twice, and vanished into motes of fading light.

The white chamber trembled.

Then, it shattered like glass.

The infinite light receded, folding in on itself, and the world snapped back into form.

Kaal stumbled slightly as his feet touched solid ground.

The familiar heat, the dusty air, the silence of stone walls returned, and he found himself once again standing within the Seven-Statue Temple.

Alone.

Utterly still.

But changed.

A cold sweat clung to his back. His breath came slowly, unevenly. The enormity of what he had just witnessed refused to settle. His heart beat with the echoes of the Founder’s words.

Upper realm. Origin core. Betrayal. System. Destiny.

And the knowledge that Kilvish Arthur, the myth, the legend, was once just like him