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

Chapter 368: Chapter 204: Odd People

They were clearly afraid of something.

Or perhaps, they had seen something terrifying.

”Master, Mistress.”

As the couple entered, a shy young girl carrying a water basin walked out, a panicked expression on her face. When she saw Xie Luohe, her hands trembled and the basin crashed to the floor.

The dropped basin seemed to be the last straw. She scrambled to pick up the basin and towel, but in the middle of her frantic efforts, she fell to her knees, covered her face, and burst into tears.

”What’s wrong?”

Nearly all of the Sun Tribe’s younger generation were her disciples. Xie Luohe stepped forward and helped the young girl up. ”Luo, what’s wrong?”

”Ri Ding... Ri Ding’s feet, they’re sick!”

The young girl, Ri Luo, was crying her heart out.

Leaving Xie Luohe to comfort Ri Luo, Zheng Xiu went inside.

The clean room was filled with a strange smell. Zheng Xiu frowned and walked over to the bed.

The young man’s feet were wrapped in thick layers of gauze.

Zheng Xiu had seen those feet before; they had cracked from walking in the Great Desert for so long. But it hadn’t been bad enough to warrant wrapping them up like a mummy.

Unlike everyone else, Ri Ding’s gaze was still clear. He appeared very calm, with no trace of pain on his face. He didn’t look sick at all.

”What happened?”

Zheng Xiu asked, looking at the tightly wrapped feet.

”I’m not sick!” Ri Ding’s tone was resolute. ”I am not sick! Tell the Clan Leader that I don’t need a Ceremony to drive out sickness!”

”A Ceremony?”

Zheng Xiu raised an eyebrow. He had heard about this. The Sun Tribe had an ancient tradition passed down from the era of the Sun Chasers. When in doubt, they would pray. Whenever the tribe’s Witch Doctor encountered an illness they couldn’t cure, they would slaughter pigs and sheep in sacrifice to the ”Scorching Sun,” praying for safety.

It was probably similar to what Zheng Xiu knew as an ”exorcism.”

For it to be elevated to the level of a ”Ceremony,” Ri Di must think this is a serious matter.

”Easy now, let me take a look.”

After Ri Ding agreed, Zheng Xiu carefully unwrapped the thick gauze from his feet.

Layer after layer of gauze came off. It was clean, with no signs of blood from an injury.

When he peeled off the final layer and saw Ri Ding’s feet clearly, Zheng Xiu was startled.

Xie Luohe had come up behind Zheng Xiu at some point. She let out a soft sigh. ”Just as I thought.”

Ri Ding’s feet were still covered in cracks. But from within the fissures, where blood should have been welling, writhing tendrils of flesh were instead growing outward like plant ”roots.” The sight was deeply unsettling.

”A Mystic?”

Zheng Xiu asked in surprise.

”No,” Xie Luohe said, glancing at them. She lightly touched her right eye through her long hair, her voice certain. ”Odd People.”

Zheng Xiu thought for a moment. ”Wandering?”

Xie Luohe pondered for a moment, then shook her head. Her tone held a hint of uncertainty. ”An Ascetic Monk?”

The two exchanged a look and fell silent.

A moment later, Zheng Xiu quickly asked Ri Ding what had happened when he was walking through the Great Desert.

Only then did Ri Ding, in a voice filled with fear and dread, recount his experience on the return journey.

On his way back, just after leaving the oasis, he was hit by a sudden sandstorm.

The sandstorm, swirling like an angry dragon, nearly swept him up into the sky. He forcefully plunged both his feet into the sand to steady himself. Just then, he heard a SPLASH, everything went black, and he fell into ”water.”

In the darkness, he saw a door.

He dazedly pushed it open.

His feet then grew roots, planting him firmly in the desert and allowing him to endure the sandstorm.

Ri Ding’s story made Zheng Xiu even more certain. His two journeys across the Great Desert had inadvertently allowed him to glimpse the Path of the ”Ascetic Monk.” Through Asceticism, he had cultivated a strange Miracle Technique.

However, Ri Ding didn’t know how to control his Miracle Technique, causing the ”roots” on his feet to grow uncontrollably.

Zheng Xiu didn’t tell Ri Di about his and Xie Luohe’s speculation.

In fact, he wasn’t sure how to explain it himself.

The commotion within the tribe caused by the strange condition of Ri Ding’s body had yet to be resolved.

「A few days later.」

Another incident completely shattered the peace in Richan Town.

Ri Di had tied a shifty-looking tribesman to a pillar.

Countless tribe members were splashing the man on the pillar with the foul-smelling ”blood of pigs and sheep.”

”Traitor!”

”Traitor!”

”Traitor!”

They were going to execute the traitor by ”burning him at the stake,” to make him return to the Scorching Sun.

Zheng Xiu soon learned that this ”traitor,” tied to the execution stake, had given in to temptation and sold the route to the ”Green River” to Arturo.