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

Chapter 209: Chapter 145: Sky Burial

In any case.

Zheng Xiu and Ruchen followed the guidance of the "Cotton Silk," making their way out of Jingtang Town.

Further to the southwest, a small hill rose from the landscape.

Twisted, grotesque trees grew in contorted shapes on the hill, and a flock of vultures circled overhead, as if searching for a meal.

The moment Zheng Xiu saw the winged creatures, he nearly pulled out his trump card to annihilate the entire flock.

However, vultures and Ravens, while in the same biological class, belong to different orders. Their appearances were vastly different, and he could tell them apart at a glance.

At the foot of the hill stood a series of short, ancient stone pillars connected by ropes as thick as a bowl’s rim. Strings of weathered bone ornaments dangled from the ropes, making the whole thing look like a fence.

"What is this place?"

Ruchen asked curiously, rubbing his head.

Between his amnesia and the fact that he’d never left Shuzhou, Ruchen was intrigued by a place so steeped in local custom and character.

Zheng Xiu’s eyes were sharp, yet their inner light was veiled.

He watched the vultures circling in the sky and, after a moment of silence, answered:

"I’ve heard that in some remote regions, there’s an ancient custom called ’celestial burial.’ The locals believe the physical body is merely a vessel. After death, if the vessel isn’t discarded, the Human Soul can’t find its way home and can’t be reincarnated. So they choose a specific place and let vultures and other carnivorous creatures devour the corpse. The purpose is to free the Human Soul, allowing it to reach... what they believe to be paradise."

Zheng Xiu paused mid-sentence because he recalled the theory of the four-part Human Soul. The "directional" aspect of the Human Soul, once the physical body was gone, would guide it toward the Darkness.

’If this vulture-filled forest is Jingtang Town’s "celestial burial pit," then logically... the probability of a Ghostly Realm forming here should be extremely high.’

After hearing this, Ruchen fell silent for a moment. But instead of agreeing with Zheng Xiu, he shook his head in disagreement. "Brother Zheng, what you said isn’t quite right."

Zheng Xiu looked at Ruchen.

"Although Buddhist teachings from the Western Regions were expelled from the Central Earth by the Imperial Family many years ago, many of their customs have been quietly passed down. Celestial burial is one of them. Everything you said before was correct, Brother Zheng, but I cannot agree with your last point. They believe the human body is just a set of clothes for bearing suffering, and when a person dies, these clothes can be cast aside at any time. The reason they choose celestial burial is to perform one final ’offering’—an offering of their own flesh. It is not to reach paradise. In fact, Western Region Buddhism never believed one could ascend to paradise after death. They hope that through this great act of compassion, they can achieve Buddhahood on the spot."

Zheng Xiu gave Ruchen a strange look. "Don’t you have amnesia? How do you know all this?"

"Huh?" Ruchen froze, scratching his bald head in confusion. "That’s right! How *do* I know this?"

Zheng Xiu looked into Ruchen’s eyes.

Ruchen’s eyes were clear, showing no sign of deception.

Zheng Xiu decided to drop it, stepping over the fence and heading straight into the forest.

Ruchen pointed to a nearby sign that read "No Entry." He was about to ask Brother Zheng if he hadn’t seen it, but then he watched as the Mighty Man, having already entered, pulled the sign out of the ground and tossed it aside. Ruchen snapped his mouth shut and nodded to himself.

’Makes sense,’ he thought. ’Now no one can see it.’

Ruchen shook his head, internally marveling at Brother Zheng’s decisiveness and quick thinking.

In the blink of an eye, Zheng Xiu had stepped into the gloomy Celestial Burial Forest, and Ruchen hurried to follow.

"There’s no Dark Curtain."

In other words, a Ghostly Realm hadn’t formed.

Zheng Xiu was secretly disappointed but also breathed a sigh of relief.

The Cotton Shedding was hidden in this forest, which had made Zheng Xiu worry that another Ghostly Realm had appeared.

He already had two "dungeons" on his plate: one was the scroll painting that had trapped Feng Bei, and the second was Ruchen’s own head.

He hadn’t had time to clear either of those two Ghostly Realms yet. If another one showed up, Zheng Xiu felt he’d be overwhelmed.

Ghostly Realms were truly a source of both pain and pleasure.

In truth, places like this with so much death, bordering the Darkness, were indeed prone to spawning Ghostly Realms.

The forest floor was littered with decaying bones.

He could distinguish them by the color of the skeletons. Some were centuries old and had long since weathered away, while others were recent, with pale maggots still writhing on them, raving on the bones.

Zheng Xiu even found a few fresh, charred corpses that couldn’t have been dead for more than a few days.

Judging by the skeletal structure of the charred bodies, they were likely women.

Zheng Xiu frowned. His middle finger was still raised, the "Cotton Silk" still stuck to his fingertip, not yet broken.

Without pausing, Zheng Xiu covertly cast one [Scouting] after another.

The results of the [Scouting] made him as familiar with his surroundings as if he were in his own home.

The vultures circling in the sky noticed strangers trespassing on their territory and were about to dive down to attack.

Zheng Xiu looked up, his eyes narrowing. His gaze turned sharp, and a murderous aura shot out.

[Intimidation].

Several vultures shrieked, foamed at the beak, and fell from the sky like crashing planes, landing in the forest.

Seeing this, Ruchen secretly stuck out his tongue. ’Brother Zheng,’ he thought, ’isn’t your Miracle Technique a bit over the top?’

As they walked, Ruchen grew a little bored. He suddenly thought of something, and the conversation returned to their earlier topic.

"Speaking of which, I’m quite curious. Could celestial burial be a kind of established Rule... I mean, a Rule that allows one to find the Path?"

Zheng Xiu, who was searching for the Cotton Shedding, heard Ruchen muttering behind him. He hadn’t planned on responding, but Ruchen’s words were so absurd that he couldn’t help but laugh. "The prerequisite for both establishing and executing a Rule is, at the very least, being a living person. Tell me, with so many people dying here in this celestial burial, even if the Rule were the same, who would end up becoming the Miracle Master? It can’t be a bunch of dead people, can it?"

Ruchen had a sudden realization. ’That’s true,’ he thought. He had only been musing aloud anyway and hadn’t given it much serious thought.

Just then, Zheng Xiu, who was walking ahead, stopped. "Found it."

There was a clearing in the middle of the forest.

The clearing was piled high with skeletons.

Skeletons in heaps, with vultures circling high above.

Under his Spiritual Vision, Zheng Xiu’s jaw dropped, a dazed look appearing in his eyes.

He saw a sky full of green specks of light, dense and countless, like a vast, starry sea.

The magnificent green lights would drift up and then sink down, and under his Spiritual Vision, the twisted, grotesque trees all around were bathed in a shimmering green glow.

In the center of the clearing, a giant cocoon hung suspended in midair. Countless fine threads extended from the textures of the Void, wrapping around the cocoon.

POP~

The Cotton Silk in Zheng Xiu’s hand snapped.

"What’s up ahead?"

Ruchen’s skin tingled. He could vaguely sense that there was "something" in the seemingly empty clearing ahead. The area faintly exuded an unsettling aura. But he wasn’t a Spirit Communicator, so he couldn’t see as clearly as Zheng Xiu. He could only widen his eyes and stare at the distorted light and shadows in the forest, wondering why even the sunlight seemed dimmer there. It was incredibly strange.

"Stay back."

Zheng Xiu’s chest pulsed as black patterns spread downwards across it.

The giant cocoon seemed to be filled with some kind of liquid, and an irregularly shaped shadow throbbed within it.

Yes, throbbed.

It throbbed rhythmically, just like a heartbeat.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Suddenly, the shadow inside the cocoon lunged against its edge. As the "contents" pressed closer, an oval-shaped silhouette was forcefully pushed out against the cocoon’s wall.

On the oval silhouette, one could vaguely make out eyes, ears, a mouth, and a nose.

This so-called "Centennial Worm" from the Darkness, which the ancients called the "Cotton Shedding"... was actually humanoid!

What shocked Zheng Xiu even more was that as his gaze shifted, he discovered that behind every strand of Cotton Silk extending from the Void, he could faintly see a small, mirror-smooth dot.

’A small dot.’

The tiny dot was only large enough for a single strand of Cotton Silk to emerge; nothing bigger could pass through.

When Zheng Xiu saw this, his scalp went numb with shock.

Because in that instant, he understood where the Cotton Silks were coming from.

The Darkness!

Behind each strand of Cotton Silk was a Passage so small it looked like just a single point!

—An entrance to the Darkness!