This Is What a Villain Is Like

But no matter which scene flashed through her mind, they all ended just as she remembered: under a blood-soaked maple tree, a young man in white, his chest stained red and impaled by a Long Sword, staring at her with wide, uncomprehending eyes...

Atop the cliff, the rain fell in a torrent. In that moment, the world seemed to hold nothing but the downpour and the rumbling thunder.

Jiang Lan was also dressed in snow-white robes, utterly spotless. His ink-black hair was damp with mist from the splashing rain.

He just stood there, quietly watching Jiang Ruxian approach, choosing neither to retreat nor to leave.

Jiang Ruxian watched him as well, her pace unhurried. After a moment, she came to a stop before Jiang Lan.

A hazy mist rose from the rain, swirling around the two of them.

Although the world was filled with the sounds of the pouring rain and muffled rumbles of thunder, it seemed as if all sound had suddenly vanished for the two of them.

Jiang Lan’s expression was placid, but he now gave an imperceptible frown and lowered the hand resting on his chest.

’He’d thought the memories of this body’s previous owner had little to do with him, that he could remain detached and simply browse through them like an outsider.’

But now, an indescribable pain was spreading from his chest. The wound where Jiang Ruxian had pierced him inexplicably began to split open. Blood slowly seeped out, staining the front of his robes red...

Through the wound, the Immortal Dawn Radiance began to seep out. His Seven-Aperture Exquisite Immortal Heart started to pound violently, beyond his control.

Although he was trying to control his Life Force to repair the wound, it would soon split open again.

A flood of emotions—anguish, helplessness, sorrow, grief, bewilderment, and emptiness—inexplicably surged into his mind along with the pain from the wound.

It seemed this had already become a persistent emotion that had seeped into his very bones, an obsession engraved upon this body.

Although the wound had healed, the scar it left behind had always remained on that Seven-Aperture Exquisite Immortal Heart.

’So, it wasn’t that he truly didn’t care...’

’He had simply fallen into such utter despair that nothing mattered anymore.’

Jiang Lan scoffed internally, but his face remained perfectly calm. Not a ripple of emotion showed in his expression, and his eyes were as deep as a bottomless ancient well.

"It’s been a long time, Jiang Ruxian..."

He was the first to speak, his tone as casual and natural as if greeting an old friend he hadn’t seen in ages, yet it was laced with a cool detachment.

Jiang Ruxian stood a short distance before him, staring blankly at the blood that was steadily seeping from his chest. Beneath the crimson-stained white robes, she could faintly make out the Immortal Dawn Radiance emanating from within the wound.

Her pupils trembled violently, and her eyelashes quivered ceaselessly.

She placed a hand over her heart, feeling a chill, an anguish, a despair... and an utter hopelessness that seemed to travel to her as if through a bond of blood.

"L... Lan..."

At the sound of his familiar voice, the color drained from her lips as they trembled.

That name, which she hadn’t spoken in so long, sounded incredibly pale and weak now, her voice utterly hoarse.

In that instant, an indescribable, piercing pain, as if countless thorns were stabbing into her heart, was so agonizing she could hardly breathe.

Jiang Ruxian finally understood what Jiang Lan must have felt back then in the courtyard when she ran him through with her sword—the coldness, the anguish, the bewilderment, the incomprehension... and the final despair as his life faded away.

All the excuses and words she had prepared on her journey to the Celestial Central Province utterly crumbled in that instant, like a bursting dam.

She was rendered speechless. Her lips trembled softly, and it seemed that even uttering that name had drained all of her strength.

Upon hearing the name he hadn’t heard in so long, Jiang Lan also fell silent.

But the next moment, waves of suffocating, stabbing pain suddenly surged from his Seven-Aperture Exquisite Immortal Heart, making him subconsciously furrow his brow and reach up to touch his chest.

’This feeling... it’s really unpleasant.’

’Still, I haven’t heard that name in a long time. It’s almost nostalgic.’

"But hearing it from you... it sounds a bit too grating," Jiang Lan said, shaking his head gently.

Color drained from Jiang Ruxian’s picture-perfect, flawless face once again, and she clenched her delicate hands.

"I’m sorry..."

Her pupils trembled lightly, and her pale, bloodless lips parted as she did her utmost to keep her voice calm and composed.

The unparalleled mental fortitude she had cultivated in her past life seemed to have completely crumbled at this moment.

She was no longer the former Number One Immortal of the Nine Provinces, but seemingly just a helpless, fragile woman at a complete loss...

"I’m sorry?"

"Why are you apologizing to me?"

A mocking smile curved Jiang Lan’s lips. He shook his head gently again and said, "I can’t possibly accept an apology from you."

"If anyone should be apologizing, it should be me. The Jiang Family should be apologizing to you..."

At this point, Jiang Lan’s tone became even more mocking. He looked at her and said, "Besides, I’m about to send people to ambush and kill you. And yet you’re here apologizing to me, Jiang Ruxian? Are you out of your mind?"

"I’m sorry..."

"I’m the one who wronged you..."

"You’ve never... never wronged me..."

"It was my fault. I’m the one who made you this way..."

As she heard his words, Jiang Ruxian could only stare at him blankly, her eyelashes trembling, weakly repeating herself.