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

Chapter 316: Chapter 185: Wish

But seeing Zheng Xiu’s troubled expression, it seemed there was more to the story. It wasn’t that simple.

"Tonight is not the time for deep conversations."

Fan Yao seemed quite regretful and had long since abandoned any intention of fighting. He turned elegantly and walked toward the forest.

Just then, in the distance, not long after the signal flare was fired, battle cries shook the heavens. The urgent thundering of hooves charged up the mountain like an army of thousands. A dense volley of flaming arrows rained down, blanketing Hidden Sword Manor.

Soon after, Hidden Sword Manor was engulfed in a sea of fire. The towering flames silhouetted Fan Yao’s back, making him seem somewhat desolate.

"It’s on fire!"

Zheng Xiu’s pupils contracted as he watched Hidden Sword Manor fall into the sea of flames. Looking again at Fan Yao’s departing figure, he vaguely understood the reason behind it all. As expected, this man was no benevolent soul.

"I have one last question. How long have you been here?"

Fan Yao’s departing footsteps paused. He stood silent, his heart a swirl of complex emotions. After a moment, his laughter echoed back. "Since the day I was born. In the blink of an eye, forty years have passed. Like a grand, empty dream—it’s hard to tell what’s real and what’s not!"

Forty years!

Fan Yao had been here for forty years!

From a distance, Fan Yao called out, "I originally came here to force you to reveal the location of Nie Gong’s Treasure Vault. But now, there’s no need."

"Stop."

Xie Luohe, who had been eavesdropping the entire time, ever-present, spoke as Fan Yao was about to leave. Her long hair danced in the air, and a faint, shadowy figure materialized behind her.

Pitch-black markings emerged from beneath her clothes, spreading across her entire body.

At this moment, Xie Luohe’s face was twisted and ferocious, like that of a Demon Fiend.

"Do you know what’s in Nie Gong’s Treasure Vault?"

BOOM!

Xie Luohe’s arrow shot out like a cannonball. It stirred up sand and stone in its wake, throwing the world into chaos and carving a deep trench in the earth.

"Of course I know!"

Fan Yao smiled faintly. His two fingers darted out like lightning, pinching Xie Luohe’s arrow with perfect precision.

In an instant, the fierce wind stopped. The swirling sand and stone fell to the ground, settling in a fan-shaped pattern around Fan Yao.

"To become an ordinary Human again!"

Fan Yao exerted force with his two fingers, snapping Xie Luohe’s arrow. He tossed it at his feet, clasped his hands behind his back, and walked away, saying as he went:

"Nie Gong’s Treasure Vault has an ’exit.’ On the other side is the ’Common World’ we all live in! This Director spent forty years to uncover this monumental secret! Now, I give it to you all as a sign of my sincerity!"

"See you at Nie Gong’s Treasure Vault!"

Not until Fan Yao had departed with a faint smile...

...did Xiaotao, the only "normal person" present, seem to return to her body. Her eyes were vacant. Her knees buckled, and she collapsed to the ground.

In the distance, Hidden Sword Manor was a sea of fire.

Neither Xie Luohe nor Zheng Xiu gave chase.

Fan Yao’s appearance was like some kind of "signal."

A signal of a storm on the horizon.

"I don’t believe him."

That explained why she had shot an arrow at Fan Yao as he was leaving.

Xie Luohe, as if in a pique, turned her back to Zheng Xiu and walked far away. She didn’t bring up anything else with him.

She didn’t even ask what Zheng Xiu’s conversation with Fan Yao had meant.

「After daybreak.」

In the small town near Hidden Sword Manor, everyone was talking about last night’s great fire.

Some people packed their bags and hurriedly fled the area.

Clearly, the appearance of the Secret Factory was like a giant boulder thrown into a calm lake, causing massive waves in the vicinity.

After some brief inquiries, Zheng Xiu learned that the identity Fan Yao had lived under for forty years was "Lou Mengkong."

He was one of the most powerful and influential figures in the Court today.

Wherever he went, people felt endangered. They fled if they could, lest they invite a fatal disaster upon themselves.

Fan Yao appeared, and Hidden Sword Manor, with its century-old foundation, was reduced to ashes by a great fire.

While arranging for horses in town, Zheng Xiu stared at the charred ruins of Hidden Sword Manor from afar, lost in thought.

’What was supposed to happen here?’

’If I hadn’t come, if Xie Luohe hadn’t come, if I weren’t Zheng Xiu, if I were truly Gongsun Mo, would history still have taken this course?’

’If Lou Mengkong wasn’t Fan Yao, but the historical Director of the Secret Factory Lou Mengkong.’

’Would that fire still have been set last night, razing that place to the ground?’

Since Gongsun Mo’s influence had faded, Fan Yao’s appearance made Zheng Xiu begin to doubt whether what he was experiencing was truly as simple as "Gongsun Mo’s memories."

’What if... what if, like the experience in Baili Village, this completely changes the reality I’m familiar with?’

’If Xie Luohe really finds Nie Gong’s Treasure Vault, finds the way to ’become an ordinary Human again,’ what will happen then?’

A vague sense of dread lingered in Zheng Xiu’s heart.

He felt lost and uncertain about everything that was about to happen.

"Bookworm, what are you spacing out for?"

"SLURP~"

A warm, wet tongue scraped heavily across Zheng Xiu’s face, leaving it covered in drool.

Zheng Xiu jumped, startled out of his thoughts. He turned his head and saw that it wasn’t Xie Luohe who had licked him.

Grinning, Xie Luohe was pinching a horse’s head and had dragged it over to Zheng Xiu. The horse, having submitted to Xie Luohe’s aura of feminine dominance, had been forced to give Zheng Xiu’s face a thorough licking.

Zheng Xiu felt as if he could read strange emotions like "aggrieved," "helpless," and "humiliated" on the horse’s face. He shoved the horse’s head away with a slap. At his side, Xiaotao quickly pulled a silk handkerchief, still warm and fragrant from being tucked against her body, and thoughtfully wiped the horse slobber from his face.

Xiaotao was like a warm little jacket.

"Nothing."

"Then let’s go."

Xie Luohe vaulted onto her horse and rode out of the city.

The three of them traveled together toward Ba Mountain.

On the road, it was as if Zheng Xiu had returned to the old days.

Every day, he would paint a portrait of Xie Luohe’s back.

It was still the same old rule: he wouldn’t paint her from the front, and she wouldn’t ask why he didn’t paint her face. Every time he finished a painting, Zheng Xiu always felt he was just a little bit closer to pushing open the next door. And yet, that "little bit" was like a chasm, impossible to cross.

’Something was missing.’

Each time, Xie Luohe would carefully take Zheng Xiu’s ink paintings, let them dry, and fold them away. She said that if there was a chance in the future, when Zheng Xiu became famous, she would have all of Gongsun Mo’s ink works mounted on expensive sandalwood, sell them all, and they would never have to worry about food or clothing again.

「The third day of the third month.」

Spring was warm, the flowers were in bloom, and all of life was returning.

Along the way, the ice and snow melted, flowers blossomed by the roadside, and the scenery was pleasant.

Whenever they stopped to rest, flocks of spring swallows and butterflies gathering nectar would invariably swerve to avoid passing over Xie Luohe’s head, as if she were a natural predator at the top of the food chain.

「One day.」

After Zheng Xiu had completed his daily task of painting a picture for Xie Luohe.

Xie Luohe put the painting away and suddenly smiled.

"You know, I’m just like her. Spurned by Heaven. The flowers I raise never survive a season. Wild bees and butterflies never linger around me, Xie Luohe. It’s the same for her."

Xie Luohe looked at a small, nameless flower beside her—a pale blue bud, stubbornly trying to bloom.

When they had sat down, the flower’s color was vibrant.

But as they were about to leave, the flower had wilted. Xie Luohe went over and touched it lightly, and the bud silently broke off and fell.

Zheng Xiu watched, stunned.

Not far away, Xiaotao was fetching water from a stream, filling a pot.

"Do you know what I’m looking for in Nie Gong’s Treasure Vault?"

This was the first time Xie Luohe had spoken to Zheng Xiu about her reasons for pursuing Nie Gong’s Treasure Vault.

At first, Zheng Xiu shook his head.

Pretending not to know.

But when his gaze met Xie Luohe’s eyes, which were as calm as a lake, his shaking head paused, and he nodded.

"Legend has it that Nie Gong’s Treasure Vault holds the secret to becoming an ordinary Human again."

Xie Luohe said softly, "You may not say it, but I, Xie Luohe, know that you’ve never seen me as Xie Luohe. You only see her—that person named Feng Bei."

"You’re always thinking about saving her, saving her, saving her."

Xie Luohe wore a smile.

Zheng Xiu was speechless, unable to argue.

"But you,"

"have you ever considered that what you’re doing isn’t what she wants?"

While Xiaotao was away.

Xie Luohe walked toward Zheng Xiu, step by step.

She stretched out her arms and gently hugged Zheng Xiu.

Her hands rested gently on his back.

"She... she just wants to be like me, to be able to gently touch someone with her own hands."

"Something so simple for an ordinary Human is, for her, like wishing to ascend to Heaven."

"Utterly unattainable."

Xie Luohe’s embrace was brief, lasting only a moment.

She hadn’t been trying to do anything to Zheng Xiu.

The faint fragrance receded, and Zheng Xiu looked at Xie Luohe in surprise.

He suddenly understood. Xie Luohe’s action was just her way of showing him that she, Xie Luohe, could do what Feng Bei could not.

"Do you remember the bet we made back in the dead of winter?"

Xie Luohe asked.

With a heavy heart, Zheng Xiu nodded.

"In that case," Xie Luohe said with a calm smile, "when we find Nie Gong’s Treasure Vault, I will return Feng Bei to you."

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