I…I have been born to be the main antagonist…in many stories.
It’s quite annoying.
The moment I was born, my parents took a rare medicine that was supposed to be my cousin’s…
That there is a “Becoming a villain 101” right on the bat.
I had the luck that I am a year older than my cousin, and by playing and teaching her a lot, I became really close with her, thus avoiding a death flag.
Albeit, our parents are still at loggerheads.
Then, obviously, as in any cultivation novel, the arranged marriage story came in.
My fiancé lost their power, thus my family was all huffy puffy and wanted to annul the engagement.
Thankfully, I was talented enough to grasp the laws of Karma, and managed to convince my family that if they annul the engagement, I will fail mastering this esoteric set of laws.
Obviously, they instantly forgot everything about annulment and simply focused on nurturing me.
Despite being quite villainous of a family, they truly wanted me to raise to the peak. (mostly for their own selfish reasons, but still, they tried to “help” me.)
And then it was quite good.
I cultivated, I travelled (well, I met the cliché of “MC making fun/angering/nor respecting the villain, but I trained my bodyguards well, and they never acted on it, and I’ve even made a few friends like this.), and overall it was all good.
Then sadly, it came to the “sect” part.
I’ve been chosen to go to a Holy Land of cultivation, and instantly became the personal disciple of one of the eccentrics…
Early years were good, but when I actually managed to get an overall good reputation, and I learnt really a lot, then the MCs started to pop up like mushrooms after a rain, in an ancient forest…
Oh, a lass leaving her boyfriend because she’s trying to hug my thigh? Punished by me for playing with the state of mind of a fellow disciple.
Oh, a stupid subordinate trying to steal a treasure from a disciple for me? Expelled and forbidden from ever revealing their ties to the sect.
Oh, a junior disciple of mine who is rising too fast, and people start to compare them to me? Reward them, hoping they would actually surpass me.
I dealt with each situation as well as I could.
Of course, there were times I was seen as the villain nonetheless…
Especially with the “I leave you!” tropes…
But I grew up to become the Sect Master…and that’s when it got worse…
Other sects finding treasures, mines, new worlds in our territory, clearly a perfect scenario for me to act as a villain? I nicely give them most of the rights, and ask for a fee of 10%. (I have to save face.)
Other sects competing with ours and winning? Commend them and reward them.
And like this, I strived to not be the villain of the story…
But then the plot evolved, and I ascended to a higher realm…
There, the cycle started anew…
It’s tiring, but I shall do my best…
For the main villains of cultivation stories are the luckiest yet unluckiest characters to ever exist…