Turns Out, I’m In A Villain Clan! Chapter 1 1: Death Flags Everywhere!
"F**K! I'm a dead man!"
The curse exploded from my lungs as a deluge of foreign memories tore through my mind, shattering my composure.
Just an hour ago, I was sitting in my chambers, deep in my usual Cultivation practice. Suddenly, a flash of realization struck me—not the typical enlightenment regarding Martial Arts, but something far more jarring. I was recovering the lost memories of a past life.
Earth!
My previous existence came flooding back: the monotonous nine-to-five grind, the endless nights spent gaming, and a massive mental library of cultivation webnovels.
And my current situation?
I scrambled off the silk-covered bed, my heart hammering against my ribs. My bare feet hit the cold jade floor while the thick aroma of expensive incense filled the air.
The room was packed with spirit lamps, gilded screens, and various treasures—the kind of opulence only a Young Master could enjoy.
This was my room.
And my name... was Bai Zihan!
I was arrogant, malicious, and useless. In short, I was a third-rate villain!
I had been the type of person who delighted in tormenting the weak, spending my days harassing other members of my own clan.
There was no grand motive; I did it simply because I had the power to do so.
With my parents serving as the Clan Master and Matriarch of one of the Empire's most formidable clans, almost no one dared to cross me.
Acting out was my way of venting the frustration and rage I felt from being labeled a 'waste'—a son whose talent was considered unworthy of the Bai Clan's legacy.
But my personality isn't the reason I am currently panicking.
As those Earth memories integrated, my extensive knowledge of cultivation tropes merged with my current reality.
The source of my terror was the realization that, based on every novel I had ever read...
My entire family is a villain clan destined for a brutal end!
Case in point: just one week ago, my older sister called off her engagement to her fiancé. His cultivation had been destroyed, making him the ultimate cliché—a crippled protagonist destined for a meteoric rise.
I didn't need a manual to know how this ends. He will inevitably grow stronger, humiliate his former fiancée, and likely wipe out her entire clan in the process.
My sister's ex-fiancé was definitely a main character, and I was squarely in his crosshairs.
"Why only now?" I groaned.
If these memories had returned just one week earlier, I might have stopped my sister from making an enemy out of the world's inevitable protagonist.
Actually, who was I kidding?
Deep down, I knew that even with foreknowledge, I couldn't have changed anything.
I was nothing but a disappointment to the Bai Clan, completely overshadowed by my brilliant sister.
My talent was pathetic, and my reputation was even worse. I was a common bully who made life miserable for branch family members and those weaker than me.
Our relationship was already ruined because of my constant misbehavior.
Furthermore, breaking that engagement was a move supported by both the Bai Clan and the Heaven Sword Sect—my sister's backing.
No one would have listened to a word I said. They would have just dismissed me as a fool trying to cause more trouble for the family.
"Sigh!"
And that was merely the first death flag my sister had planted.
As if that wasn't enough to seal my fate, my mother had raised the stakes even higher.
In a desperate attempt to fix my mediocre talent, she had forcibly extracted a Dao Bone from my cousin and transplanted it into me.
It provided a slight boost, but it wasn't nearly enough to make me a genius!
Now, I had a cousin who would eventually hunt me down to reclaim what was stolen and settle the blood debt.
There was a massive probability that she would become an unstoppable powerhouse and return to take back her Dao Bone.
So, even if I somehow managed to survive the revenge of my sister's ex-fiancé... my cousin would be waiting to finish me off.
These two catastrophes were just the beginning. My clan and family had committed countless other atrocities—the kind of things only true villains do.
Then there was me—constantly stirring the pot and making enemies wherever I went.
My mother and sister might be high-level villains who last for hundreds of chapters.
But what about me?
Given my track record, I was just cannon fodder—a third-rate antagonist who dies within three chapters of meeting the protagonist.
"Sigh..."
My hands balled into fists, my nails biting into my skin.
As I looked at my reflection and considered my family's path, only one thought remained:
"I am completely screwed!"
Any way I looked at it, death flags were popping up like weeds in a garden.
Between my family's crimes and my own idiocy, a perfect storm was brewing.
If even a single one of these plotlines followed the standard cultivation tropes...
I was already a walking corpse!
"What do I do... What can I possibly do..."
I paced the room frantically, trying to find a way to save my life.
Given the circumstances, it seemed like cutting ties with the Bai Clan was the only way to escape the protagonists' wrath.
However, the damage was already done; there was no way to fix the relationships with those destined for greatness.
My sister had publicly humiliated the Lin Clan—the family of her ex-fiancé—by breaking the engagement in front of all the major powers.
And there was no talking my way out of what happened to my cousin, whose Dao Bone was currently inside my body.
Not only had my mother committed that unspeakable act, but my cousin had been kicked out of the clan, and her parents had vanished under mysterious circumstances.
I was certain that if she ever saw me again, she would take my head off before I could even open my mouth.
To make matters worse, I hadn't exactly been kind to her when she lived here. She undoubtedly held a deep grudge against me personally.
"But leaving the clan might be even more suicidal!"
As I mentioned, I wasn't a good person. Relying on my family's status, I had insulted and provoked a vast number of people.
There were plenty of enemies who would be even more eager to kill me than the protagonists themselves.
The moment word got out that I no longer had the Bai Clan's protection, I would likely be murdered the second I stepped off our land.
Even without enemies, this world was far more lethal than Earth. With my current level of power, a single mistake would mean certain death.
I would probably die faster on my own than I would at the hands of a protagonist.
There was also the risk of running into a heaven-blessed hero even after leaving the clan, only to be killed anyway.
Without the Bai Clan, I would be an even easier target.
"Wait! I still have this!"
There was one potential glimmer of hope that might actually save me.
"It really is a System Screen!"
Floating before my eyes was an interface that refused to vanish—my very own golden finger.
It had been there since the day I was born, but I never understood what it was and had no way to deactivate it.
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[ Host Info ]
Host: Bai Zihan
Age: 16
Cultivation Realm: Core Formation (Early)
Constitution: None
Martial Arts: None
*************************
I scratched my head, feeling a surge of irritation rather than joy as I remembered how much I had suffered because of this thing.
"Why on earth is this in English?"
The reason I had been clueless about its function or how to dismiss it was simple...
The System had been displayed in English this entire time!
It was a language I didn't know at all—at least, not until I regained my memories from Earth.
"Why would a System I've had from birth use a language that doesn't even exist in this world?"
If those memories hadn't returned, I would have remained oblivious, blinded by the System's pop-ups for another sixteen years.
With a cheat like this, how could I have ever been considered a 'waste'?
But because I didn't know English or what a System was...
For sixteen years, this cheat had been nothing but a constant annoyance—obstructing my vision and ruining my life.