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

Chapter 399: Chapter 215: Return

The man stopped writing.

He hesitated, delaying the finishing touch.

At some point, a similarly stooped figure had appeared before him.

It sat opposite the man, a sheet of paper also laid out before it.

Both held the same pose.

At that moment, it was as if a mirror stood before the man. They were each other’s reflection, two shadows forming a pair.

The "reflection" raised its head. Its gaunt face, sunken eyes, and the blazing fire within them were unmistakably his own.

The face flickered and changed—one moment it was him, the next it was not.

The man stared, mouth agape, at the "reflection" that had materialized out of thin air. An inexplicable chill crept over him.

CRACK!

A bolt of lightning exploded in his mind.

His head throbbed with intense pain.

It felt as if something was trying to burst out from between his eyes, splitting his skull.

His head hurt. It hurt so, so much.

Innumerable, unfamiliar memories flooded his vision.

He was rapidly reliving the entire life of the true Gongsun Mo from a first-person perspective.

The story of Gongsun Mo and Xie Luohe from two hundred years ago was not identical to Zheng Xiu’s own experience.

But in the end, both had endured hardship, lost their beloved, and arrived at this very place.

"Ah..."

"I understand now..."

The man’s hand, gripping the brush, began to tremble violently.

"I learned everything about you,"

"I possess all your memories,"

"I have lived through your joys and sorrows,"

"I have walked the path you walked,"

"And finally, I have come here to ’bring her back’."

"To bring back Xie Luohe."

"So, who am I?"

"Am I Gongsun Mo?"

"Am I Zheng Xiu?"

"No! Gongsun Mo!"

"No! Zheng Xiu!"

"I am Zheng Xiu!"

"I am Zheng Xiu!"

"I am Zheng Xiu!"

"But..."

"Hahaha... HAHAHAHAHA..."

The man roared with laughter, tears streaming down his face as he laughed.

"So this was the real reason you created this painting!"

"You knew all along that at the end of the second century, you would become a Human Pillar! You knew you’d be deceived by Zhu, yet you willingly created the Cannibal Painting—a world rivaling the Ghostly Realm—and entered it! You knew you would be taken away..."

"But you still did it! You painted it!"

"Whether I admit it, whether I can hold onto my true self—none of it matters... It doesn’t matter... IT DOESN’T MATTER!"

"After experiencing all this, worn down by a century of time, even if I can still barely remember that I am Zheng Xiu..."

"But this is a Ceremony..."

"Following the rules... for a full century!"

"This finishing touch is your Final Work!"

"And it will become my Final Work!"

"Once this stroke is made..."

"I will... become you!"

Zheng Xiu was crying and laughing at once!

After a century of solitude, having reached this point, he finally understood everything.

He understood why the Cannibal Painting existed. He also understood why, two hundred years ago, Gongsun Mo—knowing full well that creating this painting would make him a Human Pillar and cast him into the Darkness—still threw himself into Zhu’s open conspiracy like a moth to a flame.

His sole purpose was to create a "second Gongsun Mo." Even if he died, left, and could never return, there would be another to walk his path, possess his memories, and carry his same love and hate, all to rescue Xie Luohe!

At first, Zheng Xiu had no choice but to follow Gongsun Mo’s memories. But due to the intervention of the Prisoner Path, ever since the incident with the Prisoner Transport Vehicle, Zheng Xiu was no longer bound by those memories and could act of his own free will.

He had lived in the painting for over a hundred years. His life might not have been identical to Gongsun Mo’s, but in the end, he still arrived here.

Had it been anyone else, Gongsun Mo’s plan would have succeeded.

The person to emerge from the Cannibal Painting would have undoubtedly been a second "Gongsun Mo"!

The Cannibal Painting... truly worthy of its name!

What it truly "devours" is not the human body, but the human mind!

It can erase a person’s true self and create a new Gongsun Mo!

If Zheng Xiu weren’t a Mystic, he almost certainly would have, under the influence of the Cannibal Painting and its indistinguishable memories, completely forgotten himself and become the new... Gongsun Mo!

Before Zheng Xiu’s eyes, the stooped, withered shade scattered like fine sand, only to gather behind him and silently "climb" onto his back.

"Huuuh..."

Zheng Xiu’s expression suddenly relaxed. The loneliness and weariness of a century vanished from his face in an instant, and his sunken eyes filled with tenderness.

"Come back."

The tip of the brush descended, lightly touching the blank face in the painting and forming a pair of vivid, soul-filled eyes.

"THAT’S NOT HER! THAT’S NOT HER! THAT’S NOT HER!"

The shadow behind Zheng Xiu let out a shrill roar. The surrounding space began to collapse, shattering like glass into a sky full of shimmering motes of light.

The underground cavern where he had sat for nearly a century began to twist and distort as if it were made of paper-mâché. Visible cracks started from a single point and spread out in all directions.

The void behind Zheng Xiu suddenly expanded, dyeing the surroundings pitch-black.

The moment the stroke was finished, he began to sink. As the space collapsed, his surroundings became a bizarre, dreamlike landscape. Zheng Xiu remained calm, watching as the ground beneath him turned into a pool of black mire. As he sank, he plunged his hand into it.

"In the end, you were still unable to paint a scene of the Darkness. Neither can I."

The surface of Zheng Xiu’s body began to crack, his shriveled skin plumping up again. Layers of old skin peeled and flaked away. His sparse white hair fell out completely, and lustrous black hair grew back at a frenzied, visible rate.

"THAT’S NOT HER! THAT’S NOT HER! THAT’S NOT HER!"

Amidst the hysterical roars, the black mire surged with violent waves. An immense force pulled Zheng Xiu’s newly rejuvenated body this way and that. As the pulling grew more intense, his flesh was stretched into strange shapes, like modeling clay.

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