So I’m the Villainess After All

Where is this place? Didn’t I… die already?

Drip… drop…

Lian opened her eyes and looked around. Clumps of weeds and dead branches were piled in the corners of the walls. Bloodstains and the charred remains of corpses on the ground were stark evidence of a recent battle.

“Hiss—”

She tried to rise, only to find her arm and calf dislocated and fractured. Dragging her broken body toward the corner, she half-reclined on a bed of dried grass. This body was clearly not her own; even these simple actions left her forehead beaded with sweat.

“Could it be that the Divine Tribulation split my soul?”

[This is the northern region of the Xuanming Continent, in the Dark Moon Forest. You are in the lair of the Xuan Serpent.]

A cold, mechanical voice echoed in her mind.

“Who’s there! Who’s speaking? Don’t play tricks—come out and show yourself!”

[Master, my name is Zero. I was created by the gods, residing within your sea of consciousness. I know all things and mean you no harm.]

“Gods? Which one?” Lian had cultivated for a hundred years in her past life. Had it not been for that final tribulation, even the world would have called her Goddess.

Suddenly, a voice far more human—and far cheekier—chimed in:

[Master, that was the system speaking just now. You are now automatically bound to Number Zero. From this moment on, we shall travel through countless worlds, stirring up trouble!]

“Stir up trouble? Is that what I think it means?” Lian frowned, then relaxed. Stirring up trouble—she was no stranger to that. If no