Villain Rankings: Tenth to Fourth Place-Douluo Continent's Greatest Backstabbers!

[Douluo Continent's Hypocrite Rankings concluded.]

[The second core ranking is about to begin—Douluo Continent's Top Ten True Villains Ranking.]

[We haven't even digested the hypocrites, and now there's a Villain Rankings?? Heaven's Will, are you trying to turn the entire continent upside down today?]

[Hypocrites stab people in the back while pretending to be good. What about villains? Do they stab people openly?]

[Criteria for the True Villains Ranking: those who betray trust and loyalty, repay kindness with hatred, harm their closest kin, and are sinister, vicious, and arrogantly self-important. Rankings are in reverse order according to the severity of their deeds and the harm they cause to the continent's balance of power.]

[Note: Hypocrites hurt people invisibly; true villains destroy people in plain sight. Hypocrites are poison, while villains are blades. Where the blade falls, the bones bear witness.]

Someone in the comment section panicked.

[Heaven Dou Empire · Steward of a certain marquis's estate: It's over, it's over, it's over! That thing my master did thirty years ago isn't going to make the list, is it??]

[Star Luo Empire · A certain Earl: Men! Tie up that Li-surnamed retainer in the east courtyard! If the Sky Screen exposes the rotten things he did in Linzi City back then, my entire estate will be buried with him!]

Comments from the Lower Four Sects appeared almost simultaneously.

[King of Destruction · Sect Master: Investigate! Any elder with a record of betrayal must surrender their martial soul token and leave the sect voluntarily before tonight!]

[Killing Capital · King of Slaughter: Ha. Investigate? Do you think you can investigate them all? If we're talking villains, eight or nine out of ten upper echelons of those so-called righteous sects qualify. My Killing Capital is safer instead—we never pretend to be good people. Killing is killing, robbing is robbing. There's no betrayal to speak of.]

The Sky Screen's image began to change. Ten pitch-black emblems rose from the bottom and lined up in a row. Each bore the silhouette of an upside-down human figure. The tenth through fourth emblems lit up around their edges at once, glowing with a dim crimson light.

The first through third remained utterly black.

The emotional fluctuations in the comment section surged, and a layer of pale golden mist began to seep out along the edges of the Sky Screen.

[Heavenly Dao System Notice: Total emotional fluctuations across the continent have exceeded the critical threshold. Sky Screen evolution—materialized Divine Punishment Blade has received authorization for physical intervention. Those listed will receive tangible punishment from Heaven's Will.]

Suotuo City. The townspeople who had been breaking apart Shrek's wooden plaque all looked up.

The golden blade hanging in the sky was no longer an illusion...

The Sky Screen's tenth dark emblem lit up.

The image zoomed into the territory of the Star Luo Empire, passing through two mountain ranges...

[True Villains Ranking · Tenth Place]

[Star Luo Empire · Nether Duke's Estate Grand Elder—Han Kun]

An original, yellowed contract was projected onto the Sky Screen. The handwriting was clear, and the seals were intact.

Contract contents: Han Kun provided Dai Weisi with Zhu Zhuqing's escape route, the number of accompanying guards, and the guard rotation schedule, in exchange for Dai Weisi's promise that, once the matter was done, thirty percent of the Nether Duke's Estate's assets would be transferred under Han Kun's name.

Date of signing—three days before Zhu Zhuqing fled the Duke's Estate.

Before the fury in the comment section could fully build, the Sky Screen directly switched to a recorded image.

In the image, an eleven- or twelve-year-old girl ran desperately through the night, followed by two guards. Seven or eight black-clad men suddenly rushed out from the mouth of an alley. A flash of steel, and one of the two guards fell. The girl was forced into a dead end, her back against the wall, her eyes bright and cold.

It was Zhu Zhuqing.

On Shrek's training field, Zhu Zhuqing stopped walking.

She had been supporting Xiao Wu toward the girls' dormitory. The scene on the Sky Screen was reflected across her face, but she did not turn to look at it.

Ning Rongrong felt the hand Zhu Zhuqing used to support Xiao Wu trembling. It was not trembling with fear, but something else.

"Zhuqing..."

"Don't speak." Zhu Zhuqing's voice was soft, so soft it seemed she was holding something back. "Walk."

The comment section had already erupted in curses.

[Her own niece!!! Her own flesh and blood!!! She sold a child's escape route to someone who wanted her dead for thirty percent of the estate's assets!!]

[No wonder Zhu Zhuqing escaped in such a miserable state back then—she thought she'd just been unlucky and discovered, but the route had been sold by her own grand elder!!]

From the direction of the Star Luo Empire, a comment appeared.

[Star Luo Empire · Dai Mubai: Han Kun. By the time I return, you'd better already be gone from the Duke's Estate.]

The Sky Screen gave Han Kun no time to defend himself.

The ninth emblem lit up.

[True Villains Ranking · Ninth Place]

[Strength Clan · Tai Nuo]

The image switched through four segments in rapid succession.

First segment: At a soul master exchange gathering, Tai Nuo publicly broke the arm of an independent level-thirty soul master because the man "hadn't moved aside."

Second segment: A young soul master from another clan got into an argument with a Strength Clan disciple at a town market. Tai Nuo stepped in and, without a word, sealed three of the young man's meridians. That young soul master never stood up again.

Third segment: When Spirit Hall sent someone to deliver a message to the Strength Clan, Tai Nuo kept his back bent, his smile two heads lower than the messenger's. After the messenger left, he turned around and kicked over a young disciple of around ten at the entrance, cursing, "You're blocking my damn path."

The fourth segment was marked by the Sky Screen with a red frame—Tai Nuo slammed a hand on the table in the clan council hall and pointed at an elderly clansman's nose. "What the hell are you? Your son offended someone from Spirit Hall outside and dragged the entire Strength Clan down with him! I, Tai Nuo, am cleaning house for the clan. What's wrong with that?"

A line of small text was added beneath the image: The elderly man's son had refused to kneel before a Spirit Hall offering, and Tai Nuo personally crippled his martial soul.

The comment section's assessment was succinct.

[Obsequious toward those above him, tyrannical toward those below. "Bullying the weak and fearing the strong" is carved into his bones.]

[Strength Clan · Clan Chief: ...Tai Nuo is expelled from the Strength Clan as of today. He will never be permitted to return.]

The eighth emblem lit up.

This time, the Sky Screen's image moved above the Heaven Dou Empire's imperial capital.

[True Villains Ranking · Eighth Place]

[Heaven Dou Empire · Prince Xue Beng]

The comment section was stunned at first.

[Xue Beng? That infamous wastrel prince? He can make the Villain Rankings?]

[Wasn't he just said to be a useless good-for-nothing who ate and waited to die? I thought he was a clever man deliberately playing dumb to survive.]

As though it had heard those comments, the Sky Screen directly tore away the facade of "pretending to be a wastrel to survive."

First segment: Xue Beng sat across from a trusted adviser in a secret chamber, his expression clear and sober, without the slightest hint of drunkenness in his eyes. He flipped an analysis report on the succession to the last page, pointed at the names on it, and crossed them out one by one.

"Playing crazy and acting foolish is a means, not the goal. Father wants to see who poses the least threat, so I'll perform that role for him."

Some people in the comment section changed their tune.

[Well, damn. So it really was an act. He's quite calculating.]

[But how does pretending to be a wastrel make him a villain? Isn't that just a survival strategy?]

The Sky Screen played the second segment.

The comment section instantly fell silent.

The image showed an official road in the southern outskirts of the Heaven Dou Empire. Xue Beng rode on horseback, followed by more than ten guards, galloping at full speed. A group of farmers' children were playing by the roadside, the oldest no more than seven or eight.

When the sound of hooves rang out, the children had no time to run.

A guard shouted, "Your Highness, there are people ahead."

Xue Beng did not rein in his horse.

His voice came from the Sky Screen, casual as though he were commenting on the pleasant weather.

"Trample them. Don't slow down, or I won't look like a wastrel."

The Sky Screen censored the image at that point. But the marks left on the ground after the hooves passed were not obscured.

Comments from across the continent flooded in within three seconds.

[To pretend to be a wastrel... he trampled children to death???????]

[You could pretend to be crazy by pretending to be drunk, lecherous, or wasteful—you had to trample living people?? And children!!!]

[This isn't pretending to be crazy. He's treating human lives as props for his act!! He doesn't care whether those children are alive or dead!!]