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

"Tsk. Always the show-off."

Xie Luohe scoffed quietly. She leaped into the air, her toes tapping against the cliff face. After a few bounds, Xie Luohe caught up, landing on the bird's back. She lazily draped her arms around Zheng Xiu's neck and breathed into his ear, "You'd better not let me fall."

Zheng Xiu retorted gruffly, "Don't worry. With your power, you wouldn't die even if you fell."

Xie Luohe was suddenly at a loss for words, unable to retort.

'What Zheng Xiu said... was actually true.'

The two of them stood on the bird Zheng Xiu had drawn. A cold wind rushed to meet them, sweeping their hair back.

Xie Luohe held quietly onto Zheng Xiu's neck and murmured, "If only we could stay like this forever..."

Zheng Xiu didn't answer. The bird flew faster, circling the mountaintop.

Many crow-like creatures circled the peak of Sunset Mountain. A full size larger than ordinary crows, they were undoubtedly the Vulture Crows Xie Luohe had spoken of. The flock of Vulture Crows nested on the mountainside. When the "Exotic Large Bird" trespassed into their territory, the Vulture Crows let out sharp, ear-piercing cries, attempting to intimidate the intruder and drive it away.

The Painted Bird, using Zheng Xiu's blood as a medium, was connected to his will. Zheng Xiu had the Painted Bird circle a few times overhead and discovered that there had once been a small path leading to the summit, but it had been intentionally destroyed.

The only ways to reach the summit were to either free-climb or, like Zheng Xiu, cheat and fly directly up.

The summit was nothing more than a small, bare platform, upon which sat a conspicuous stone coffin.

There was no telling how long the stone coffin had rested there. Battered by wind, sun, and rain, its surface was covered in a dense web of fine cracks. A faint, reddish, unidentifiable moss-like plant grew in the crevices.

The two of them landed on the summit.

Zheng Xiu walked a circle around the stone coffin. At a glance, it showed no obvious signs of having been opened.

"I once asked the Grand Elder of the Sun Tribe. He said that the one buried in the stone coffin is Zhu, who became one with the Scorching Sun back in the day."

Xie Luohe stood to one side, hands clasped behind her back. A faint smile played on her lips as she volunteered the information.

"And you believe that?"

Zheng Xiu retorted, rolling up his sleeves to open the coffin.

"I don't," Xie Luohe said, shaking her head with a smile.

Zheng Xiu paused, frowning. "But then why, a few years ago, did you..."

Xie Luohe knocked on the stone coffin, producing a solid THUD. "It doesn't matter whose skeleton is in the coffin or what I might see. I don't believe it, and that's that. So for me, opening it would be meaningless."

Zheng Xiu asked again, "So, you came all the way up here, and then you just left?"

Xie Luohe answered calmly, "Yes."

The simple exchange helped Zheng Xiu understand what Xie Luohe was thinking.

Years ago, Xie Luohe had been following the trail of Zhu.

Just like Zheng Xiu today, she had come to Richan Valley.

She had seen the murals.

She had snuck to the summit and faced this seemingly ordinary stone coffin.

She knew there was a skeleton inside.

And so, Xie Luohe left.

She never opened the coffin.

It wasn't that Xie Luohe didn't want to find the "answer." It was because she firmly believed that Zhu was still alive. And if Zhu was still alive, it meant he had not "returned to being a normal person." Therefore, the answer she sought was not here.

No matter who lay inside—whether it was Zhu or not—as long as Xie Luohe refused to believe it, it was all meaningless.

She didn't care about Zhu's life story or his whereabouts; her only concern was "returning to being a normal person." She just wanted to become an ordinary woman who could marry, have a family, be surrounded by children and grandchildren, live out her days in peace, and sleep soundly through the night. Nothing more.

When she saw the murals, Xie Luohe knew in her heart that this place did not hold what she was looking for. Dejected, the Xie Luohe of a few years ago left Richan Valley and returned to Yunhe Village, resigning herself to her role as the "Great Evil Person."

However, Zheng Xiu was not Xie Luohe.

The purpose of his journey was completely different from hers.

He was searching not just for the answer to the mystery, but for a way to break the deadlock.

Zheng Xiu, however, needed to see things through to the end.

The two fell silent. Zheng Xiu summoned all his strength and pushed at the coffin lid... It didn't budge.

"Fool."

Seeing Zheng Xiu straining with all his might, Xie Luohe couldn't help but chuckle. She smacked the coffin lid with her palm, sending it flying open.

The lid, sealed for who knows how many years, could no longer contain its secrets under the sheer feminine force of Termagant Xie's palm. It finally saw the light of day once more.

Just as Zheng Xiu was about to lean in for a closer look, he glanced back at Xie Luohe with a smile. "You're really not curious?"

"It's uninteresting."

Xie Luohe pouted and averted her gaze.

Two heads peered into the coffin.

After a moment of dead silence.

The two exclaimed in unison, "What is that!"

As Xie Luohe and Zheng Xiu got a clear look at the skeleton in the stone coffin, they couldn't help but simultaneously look up at each other, each seeing utter disbelief in the other's eyes.

It wasn't absurdity, shock, or disbelief.

At that moment, a single word surfaced in both their minds: Strange.

'Too strange.'

Inside the stone coffin, there was indeed a long-weathered skeleton.

The stark white bones reflected a faint glimmer under the pale moonlight.

The skeleton lay there quietly. Its skull was long and narrow with a pointed face. The eye sockets were set on the sides and were smaller than a normal Human's. The skeleton's rib cage was exceptionally broad, and its lower limbs were bizarrely bent backward in a reverse arc. But what the two found most peculiar was that the skeleton's arms and fingers were extraordinarily long—more than twice the length of a normal person's.

This skeleton was not Human in shape.

This was why, upon seeing the true form of the skeleton in the coffin, their first reaction was to ask, "What is that?" instead of exclaiming, "That's impossible!"

"CAW! CAW! CAW!"

The fierce Vulture Crows circled high above. The moment the coffin was opened, they descended in a swarm, diving to attack the pair.

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