THE VILLAIN'S POV - Chapter 245: What the Shadows Remember

On the brink of destruction, I regained consciousness and found myself back in the past, 20 years ago. In order to have a peaceful retirement, I must prevent the impending doom.

Anton is a great-grandfather. He is living quite a happy life, despite his advanced age and declining health… until a group of cultivator bandits moves into the area. The nearby guardians of the area, the Order of Ninety-Nine Stars, are unable to track them down as they continue to ravage nearby towns. During one desperate winter Anton is out on a hunt when his family- his entire village- is killed or taken as slaves by the bandits. He lacks the strength to fight them, and he wasn’t even present for their arrival to die with his loved ones. At the pit of his despair, he wonders if he ever had any chance to change things. What could he even do? He cannot even pull his best bow, and his eyesight is failing. If he had been a cultivator… perhaps there might have been a chance, but he was decades- perhaps even most of his life- too late.Participant in the Royal Road Writathon challenge (2022)Notes on cultivation levels:There are five general stages of cultivation, though the fifth is extremely rare. Each cultivation style might have their own name for the stages.1. Body Tempering2. Spirit Building/ occasionally System Creation (Ninety-Nine Stars)3. Constellation Formation (Ninety-Nine Stars)4. Life Transformation/Galaxy Construction (Ninety-Nine Stars)5. Ascension

In an alternate world, the year is 1947, and as India steps into the dawn of its hard-won independence, an extraordinary twist of fate unfolds. A soul from the future, unexpectedly transported back in time, finds himself thrust into the highest office of the land, Prime Minister of a nation on the cusp of rebirth.What follows is a journey through the corridors of power, where betrayal lurks at every corner, and internal strife threatens to tear the fledgling nation apart. Faced with impossible choices, this modern mind must navigate a country marked by political intrigue, international pressures, and the weight of a people’s hopes.But beneath the surface lies a larger ambition, the vision of an Akhand Bharat, a united and unshakable India that rises from the ashes of its tragic past to forge a bold new future.As history begins to unravel and destiny is rewritten, the stakes grow ever higher. What will it take to unify a divided land and bring forth a nation powerful enough to redefine its place on the global stage? In a tale of courage, sacrifice, and the power of leadership, witness the birth of “A New India” unlike any before, a force to be reckoned with, ready to stand among the world’s greats.