I'm Already the Richest Man, Why Did My System Just Arrive?

Chapter 400: Chapter 215: Return

A painting bobbed on the black tide, a savage face emerging upon its surface.

The scroll sprang to life, standing upright before Zheng Xiu. Its savage, twisted face stared back at him.

A look of realization dawned on Zheng Xiu’s face. ”We’re different, you and I. You’re still in the painting, and you actually painted yourself into it.”

”Not her!”

The ghostly figure in the painting roared.

”Not your her, but mine.”

Zheng Xiu smiled faintly.

His jet-black hair danced as Zheng Xiu exerted his strength once more, pulling a slender, pale hand from the mire. Immediately after, a lovely figure, one he hadn’t seen in a century, dazedly emerged from the tide.

She was dressed in black, her long hair tied back. In her right eye, the characters for ”Ding Wei” slowly spun... It was Feng Bei!

The moment she saw Zheng Xiu, her vacant gaze softened with dazed recognition. Her red lips parted as she murmured, ”Husband...”

”Welcome back.”

”Mm.”

The world was collapsing.

All the scenery disappeared, leaving only a boundless black sea.

”Not her! Not her! Not her!”

The ghostly figure in the painting was still roaring. He was impossible to communicate with, repeating only that one phrase over and over.

Feng Bei nestled quietly in Zheng Xiu’s arms, savoring the warmth of their long-awaited reunion. The cacophony from the ghostly figure in the painting made her frown. Just as she was about to raise her other hand, Zheng Xiu, knowing her intentions after a decade of marriage, secretly tickled her palm. ”Don’t bother,” he said. ”He spent a hundred years painting himself into it, leaving behind nothing but a wisp of a remnant soul. Now that I’ve broken his gambit, it will all turn to smoke. He’ll disappear soon enough. He’s just a pitiable man, in the end.”

Zheng Xiu squeezed, tickled, and teased her palm. A faint blush crept onto Feng Bei’s cheeks, a flirtatious air blooming between them. Unwilling to concede, she tickled him back. Right there in front of Gongsun Mo’s remnant soul, their fingers intertwined, weaving through a dozen different poses, each laden with hidden meaning. Feng Bei understood instantly, and her face flushed so red it could have steamed. But then, as their fingers danced together, she froze. She completely forgot about destroying the wretched painting. With her other hand, she dazedly pinched Zheng Xiu’s cheek, holding it for a long moment before finally asking, ”Why am I able to...”

Zheng Xiu knew what she was thinking.

’She was wondering why she could touch her beloved so freely when she was clearly afflicted by a curse.’

Zheng Xiu shook his head. ”I don’t know.” After a moment of silence, he added, ”Maybe my level is higher.”

Feng Bei froze, not understanding what he meant.

The roars from the scroll gradually weakened. In the bobbing black sea, a wave suddenly rose like a high wall. Two figures burst from the tide, covered in a layer of filth like asphalt.

The two identical men were none other than Fan Yao and the Monk. They were fighting to the death in the churning tide—a true, vicious struggle. Fan Yao, his face a mask of savagery, grabbed the Monk and sank his teeth into him. RIP! He tore off the Monk’s ear in one bite, sending flesh and blood flying.

The Monk bit back. His cavernous maw clamped onto Fan Yao’s face, and he tore out Fan Yao’s eye, leaving a bloody, empty socket.

The expressions on Zheng Xiu and Feng Bei’s faces changed. Forgetting their tender moment, they started to move. Suddenly, a severed arm shot out from beneath Zheng Xiu’s feet. Its ghastly white fingers, little more than shriveled skin on bone, hooked like claws, wrapping around Zheng Xiu’s arm and digging deep into his flesh.

”Go help the Monk!”

Zheng Xiu’s face tightened as he urged Feng Bei to help the Monk.

Feng Bei looked back and met Zheng Xiu’s gaze. In that instant, she understood his thoughts. Without a hint of hesitation, she nodded. ”Alright!”

With that, Feng Bei stepped onto the black sea and drifted toward where the Monk and Fan Yao were fighting.

With each step, her long hair fluttered. Black, thorn-like markings crept silently up her pale neck, converging at her right eye to form a dark, beautiful rose. A towering, mountain-like shadow materialized behind her. Feng Bei made a grasping motion with her right hand and slashed it toward Fan Yao.

The black sea was split in two. In the distance, the sky was torn open by Feng Bei’s phantom slash, creating a huge rift. Fan Yao’s body was instantly split in half down the middle. The hatred in his eyes was like two sharp daggers, almost tangible. Vicious curses came from each half of his mouth:

”You’ll all die a horrible death!”

”You’ll all die a horrible death!”

”You’ll all die a horrible death!”

Hearing this, the Monk screamed and fell into the sea.

This was why Zheng Xiu had temporarily ignored his own safety and sent Feng Bei to help the Monk. As the Monk’s alternate personality, Fan Yao had somehow managed to gain the upper hand for so many years, completely suppressing the Playful Monk. This showed that among the multiple personalities, Fan Yao was a powerful existence that had usurped the host. In their current struggle for control, without external intervention, the Monk was very likely to be completely devoured by Fan Yao, even if he was the main personality.

It was unknown what Fan Yao had experienced after entering the Darkness. Now, as the World in the Painting was collapsing, he seized the opportunity to escape. His heart was already filled with resentment, and he was desperately trying to kill the Monk and take his place.

Fan Yao’s ”Rumors” were truly insidious. After the Monk fell, Feng Bei’s body trembled slightly, and the towering shadow behind her showed faint signs of collapsing.

”Huu...”

On Zheng Xiu’s side.

He had no time to worry about anything else. He had seen that hand a hundred years ago—it was the Deceitful Object of the Painter Path!

No wonder Zhu was so confident that a single Cannibal Painting could trap Feng Bei, and even drag her into the Darkness. It was because the Deceitful Object of the Painter Path, the very same one used to lure Gongsun Mo into the trap a hundred years ago, had been hidden deep within the Cannibal Painting all along!

The shriveled fingers ”bit” deep into Zheng Xiu’s flesh, and his eyes instantly turned blood-red, riddled with broken vessels.

’This is bad...’

Being possessed by a Deceitful Object from the Painter Path might seem like a good thing. But when the Deceitful Object truly bit down, Zheng Xiu realized it wasn’t so simple. Low whispers suddenly echoed in his ears. At first, Zheng Xiu couldn’t make out what they were saying, but gradually, he began to hear many voices, Gongsun Mo’s among them.

Zheng Xiu’s eyes glazed over as images flickered before him. Below him, the vast black sea sprouted ugly, twisted tentacles that grabbed him and, as the Deceitful Object forcibly merged with him, dragged him beneath the surface.

POP~

At that moment, a sharp pain shot through Zheng Xiu’s forehead, and something drilled its way out.

It was a die. A bloody die.

The twenty-sided die suddenly opened countless, densely packed eyes.

All the eyes ”fell” off the die.

The eyes seemed to be alive, linking themselves together into a chain.

SNAP!

The chain abruptly ”seized” the ”Painter” Deceitful Object that was ”biting” into Zheng Xiu.

The claw-like hand froze.

Zheng Xiu froze.

In the distance, Feng Bei and the Monk froze.

Fan Yao sank beneath the waves.

The churning black sea, the collapsing world, everything—in an instant, it all seemed to freeze, stopping completely before the three of them.

...

「On Celestial Yin Mountain.」

A giant white snake was curled up in its warm den, sleeping comfortably.

Suddenly, it opened its eyes and began to roll around frantically in its den, slamming its head against the cave wall again and again.

BOOM!

The cave wall was smashed open by the terrible force. The thrashing white snake writhed on the snowy mountain, its frenzy triggering a series of avalanches that made the very earth shake.

RIIIP!

The white snake’s eyes rolled back as it died in agony. A neat slit appeared out of nowhere, slicing open the snake’s belly from the inside. Three figures burst out from the opening in the snake’s abdomen.

One of them sent the bald man flying with a kick. The bald man spat out a mouthful of blood and fell into the snow, staining the white drifts red.

Feng Bei pursued, radiating killing intent.

In the end, Zheng Xiu’s fist and Feng Bei’s palm stopped right in front of the Monk.

The Monk put his palms together, his eyes clear. He smiled at them. ”I’m back.”

Feng Bei and Zheng Xiu exchanged a look, remaining silent.

The Monk blinked, then winked desperately at Zheng Xiu. ”Xiaotao’s gravestone...”

”Ahem, it’s the Monk.”

Feng Bei’s eyes narrowed warily. She asked suspiciously, ”What about Xiaotao’s gravestone?”

Zheng Xiu averted his gaze and pulled the Monk up from the snow.

A moment later, the three of them burst out laughing.

”We’re back.”