Chapter 1043 Zhongyuan River Lantern

Qi Yingxuan's playful expression vanished instantly, replaced by a fierce glare, as if to say, "You scumbag, you dare to betray your junior sister, you're dead!"

Feng Tianyu: "..." In just a few seconds, what have you guys come up with?

Feng Tianyu didn't think there was anything to talk about at first, but when he saw Ye Wanxi standing not far away, looking at him with a half-smile, he thought for a moment and simply explained what had happened not long ago.

After listening, the group remained silent for a long time. Even Qi Yingxuan, who had originally planned to take this opportunity to give Feng Tianyu a good scolding, put down his temper and finally managed to utter a sentence: "The other girl really... is dead."

"Um."

Upon hearing this, Xiang Yueqi subconsciously looked at Ye Wanxi: "The thing I was most worried about has finally happened."

Ye Wanxi sighed: "People in this world are all different, and Xiao Jihui and the others have already tried their best."

This is also why people are often worried about the spread of panic; once panic spreads, the world will descend into chaos.

Once the world descends into chaos, it may unleash the beasts hidden within some people's hearts.

When the world is peaceful and there are laws to follow in all actions, people's behavior will be restrained.

But when the world is in chaos, in order to survive and to live a better life, morality and etiquette will lose their restraining effect, releasing the malice in some people's hearts and giving birth to demons.

Similar things have been happening frequently in many places for a long time, and it is already quite remarkable that this trend has only just emerged in China.

However, even if it is just a sign, for the sake of future stability, it must be nipped in the bud. Otherwise, once this door is opened, it will not be easy to close it again.

Therefore, this woman, burdened with "blood debts," is destined to pay the price for her actions and become the scapegoat.

"They have done their best, and we can't let them down too much."

"Third Brother is right." Xiang Yueqi nodded in agreement. "My former disciples are quite well-informed. Knowing that we're here today on a special mission, they specifically came to remind me to be careful. After all, we're master and disciples; we can't let these juniors look down on us, can we?"

Jun Wuduan couldn't help but laugh when he heard him say that: "How come I never noticed before that Second Senior Brother was so fond of giving advice?"

Xiang Yueqi touched his nose and said with an awkward laugh, "Isn't it different now than before?"

It should be noted that the original leader of their sect was their senior uncle, and the successor to the leadership was not Xiang Yueqi.

Their master preferred a life of leisure and didn't care much about the affairs of the sect. He was also incredibly lazy when it came to taking on disciples, and he only ever accepted six disciples in his entire life.

Xiang Yueqi never intended to become the sect leader, but in that battle, not only Ye Wanxi, but also many pillars and young talents of the sect were killed, and several senior uncles and elders were also seriously injured, leaving them with no heart for sect affairs.

Finally, after looking around, Xiang Yueqi was forced into the role of sect leader and, together with Yun Ke, took in many disciples, supporting the crumbling sect.

At that time, Xiang Yueqi would take in a large number of disciples every few years, and most of them were raised from childhood. He played the role of both teacher and father.

Those people nowadays... not to mention they're new to the profession, let alone fathers, some are even older than him.

Fortunately, the others only gave him a half-smile before turning their attention back to the important matters of the day.

"Are you sure this is the place?" Qi Yingxuan looked at the somewhat desolate place in front of him, quite doubtful.

"Junior Sister calculated it herself, so it's highly likely to be correct."

After Jun Wuduan finished speaking, he glanced around, but suddenly remembered some things he had found out before.

They were currently in F City, a thousand miles away from City A. Before the climate change, F City was one of the few coastal cities in the country where snow could still be seen.

Generally speaking, coastal cities have a higher specific heat capacity, and their winter temperatures are relatively higher, so they don't experience snowfall.

In other words, being near the sea and snowfall are almost incompatible conditions and cannot be met at the same time.

This place was an exception, and it was precisely because of this exception that F City suffered more and was more severely affected by the sudden climate change than other cities.

Long before the climate change, this place had experienced a massive typhoon that caused severe damage. Then, before they even had time to do any relief work, the climate change brought a once-in-decades blizzard.

Other places that experienced heavy snowfall still had the strength to struggle until snow melters appeared.

F City was not so lucky. The higher-ups knew that the disaster was severe there and had done everything they could to prioritize relief efforts, but in the end, they still couldn't withstand the natural disaster.

Many people died in F City due to these two natural disasters, but this is not the end.

After the blizzard, the snow in F City melted with the help of snow melters and flowed into the sea where they lived.

Of course, this little bit of water is nothing compared to the vast ocean.

However, contrary to everyone's expectations, the unusual rise in temperatures at the poles caused the icebergs there to melt rapidly, raising sea levels in a short period of time.

The sea that F City borders happens to be one of the areas affected.

Thus, after experiencing a powerful typhoon and a blizzard, this coastal city once again faced a catastrophe in every sense of the word.

Three days ago, most of the low-lying areas here were flooded, but the water level continued to rise.

The local authorities had to activate an emergency evacuation plan, relocating all the surviving residents of the city.

Therefore, this place has now become a dilapidated and deserted city.

"Recently, this area was hit by both a typhoon and heavy snow, causing considerable casualties. Perhaps that's why it was chosen as a location considered a 'ghost town'?"

After hearing Jun's unprovoked explanation, the group nodded in sudden understanding: "With such large-scale casualties, there must be many dead here. If things were to turn out this way..."

Xiang Yueqi had barely finished speaking when Qi Yingxuan exclaimed, "What's that on the river? Something's floating by!"

The group was startled and turned to look at the scene. They saw clusters of tiny lights that had appeared on the previously empty water surface.

From a distance, it looks like starlight reflected in the vast universe.

But upon closer inspection, one will find that the light emitted by these things is completely different from starlight.

The objects carrying the light drifted very fast; in just a few seconds, the one closest to them floated right up to them.

"Is this... a river lantern?"

(End of this chapter)