Chapter 1785: Vanishing Population

"It's very simple." Chen Ling smiled.

"The Lord of Ruoshui is different from the other eight Lords. He controls quantum mechanics. Even if he falls into a deep sleep, he is simultaneously in a superposition state of 'life' and 'death', unable to be Observed. Even the most formidable Path of Divination practitioner fundamentally cannot predict his awakening and death time too far in advance."

"Two hours, is probably the limit time that Wei Chen can foresee in advance. Therefore, only by relying on regular repeated precognition can they know the Lord of Ruoshui's state as early as possible."

"So that's how it is..."

A look of understanding surfaced in Liu Qingyan's eyes.

"So that means, whether it's us, Ying Fu, or these Prophets of the Ruoshui Bastion, we don't know exactly when the Lord of Ruoshui's life will come to an end... Everyone can only wait for him to awaken on his own?"

"That's right." Chen Ling unhurriedly placed down a black Go piece. "However, this Wei Chen actually has some capability... Being able to foresee the Lord of Ruoshui's state two hours in advance, I'm afraid his attainments in divination make him the number one person in the past several centuries."

"He is Ying Fu's person, doesn't that mean Ying Fu also possesses the same Path of Divination attainments as him?"

"Having such an ability, and being able to display it, are two different things... Activating the power of the Path of Divination will more or less consume oneself. To Ying Fu, lifespan is the most important thing, he won't use it easily."

"He is waiting for me."

Chen Ling answered calmly.

Liu Qingyan wasn't surprised by this answer. She paused for a moment before asking, "Then are you going?"

Chen Ling's eyelids drooped, casually placing a piece on the Go board, then faintly replying with two words:

"Not going."

The figure in the Theatrical Robe stood up, his gaze sweeping the Go board one last time, an imperceptible smile hooking up the corner of his mouth... He didn't linger any longer, but flicked his sleeves, turning and leaving dashingly.

At this moment,

On the other side of the Go board,

Ghost Heart 10 hugged her large dog, looking blankly at the five black pieces connected on the Go board... Only recovering her senses after a long time.

This red-haired young girl seemed to be Emotionally Broken. Looking at Chen Ling's departing back figure, she stomped her feet and said angrily:

"Isn't it just winning a game of Gomoku?!"

"Do you have to act so pretentious!"

"Hateful! Just you wait! Next time I'll definitely win it back!!"

...

Chengtian Domain.

Imperial Palace.

Pure white snow silently fell from the air, applying a layer of white borders to the cinnabar-like palace walls. On the tranquil and deep snow-covered ground, a figure hunched over, hurriedly wading through.

At the entrance of the Imperial Study, Eunuch Zuo looked at that series of footprints on the snow that were about to be covered by the heavy snow, and calculated the time in his heart...

"It should be time."

He muttered to himself.

Sure enough, at the end of the snow-covered ground, a figure hurried over.

"Eunuch Zuo." That person panted and stopped in front of Eunuch Zuo. "Two hours have arrived, the Ruoshui Bastion still has no movement..."

"En, thank you for your hard work... Report again after two hours."

"Yes!"

That person wiped the sweat from his forehead and responded respectfully.

Reporting the Ruoshui Bastion's situation once every two hours, this was His Majesty's decree... For so many years, they had never heard of His Majesty paying so much attention to any matter. Therefore, not only the Imperial Palace, but the powerful and noble families of the entire Chengtian Domain were tensely paying attention to the Ruoshui Bastion's situation at this moment.

These noble families didn't know what would happen in the Ruoshui Bastion, they only knew that Calamity attacks had appeared frequently there recently, and some smart people faintly guessed something through these clues...

If the facts were truly as they thought, then I'm afraid something major was really going to happen next.

The pure white snow enveloped the Chengtian Domain, making everything look tranquil and peaceful. But only a very small number of people could feel the undercurrents surging beneath this calm. Even though the weather was this cold, some people still sweated from their palms out of tension.

"Wait a moment." Seeing that person preparing to turn and leave, Eunuch Zuo opened his mouth and called him to a stop. "Take this out, it's personally written by His Majesty... You should know what to do."

That person lowered his head to look. What Eunuch Zuo handed over was a name list. Seeing that line of obvious large characters, his heart trembled.

"His Majesty wants to... change the guards of the Ruoshui Bastion's Inner Wall at this time?"

"Just go proclaim the decree, don't ask about anything else."

Eunuch Zuo's voice became serious.

"Yes!"

More cold sweat appeared on that person's back. Tightly grasping that name list, he once again turned around and rushed outside the palace walls in the heavy snow.

Eunuch Zuo turned his eyes to look at the quiet Imperial Study behind him, and then his gaze landed on the palace amidst the heavy snow again. With his hands behind his back, looking in the direction of the Ruoshui Bastion, he let out a faint long sigh...

"Sigh..."

...

"Zuo zuo zuo."

Sitting on a park bench, Li Shangfeng made sounds while sprinkling the corn kernels in his hand towards the white doves in the distance.

As the corn kernels landed, a large flock of white doves flapped their wings and flew forward, like a piece of white silk fluttering down. The clattering sound caused the surrounding children to cry out in pleasant surprise.

"Those are doves, not dogs, 'zuo zuo zuo' is useless." Lin Xi on the other side of the bench couldn't help but retort.

"Sigh, why be so serious? It's all the same."

Li Shangfeng waved his hand. After personally watching the doves finish eating his feed, he lazily leaned against the back of the chair, looking at the few white clouds leisurely floating overhead, sighing.

"It's already been three days... There's still not a single bit of movement, just when do we have to lie dormant until?"

"Be patient, it's only been three days." Lin Xi flipped through the newspaper in his hand, answering calmly. "Moreover... during these three days, haven't you felt that something isn't right?"

Li Shangfeng abruptly turned his head. "What isn't right?"

Lin Xi: "..."

"Don't look at me with that kind of gaze... You're smart, kid. Staying with you, I'm too lazy to use my brain." Li Shangfeng nudged him. "Hurry and speak, stop keeping me in suspense."

Lin Xi opened his mouth helplessly, "Haven't you noticed, the people in the Ruoshui Bastion have decreased?"

"...What?"

Li Shangfeng turned his head to look at the plaza. In this park at the very center of the Ruoshui Bastion, looking around, there were only a sparse few residents taking a walk. The streets in the distance were also quiet, having an unspeakable tranquility.

"It seems a bit less indeed... But when we came, there weren't many people either, right?" Li Shangfeng asked doubtfully. "Could it be that the Ruoshui Bastion didn't have much of a population to begin with?"

"A bastion always has a population of several million. The day we came I found it somewhat strange... Compared to other places, the population here is simply too small." Lin Xi paused for a moment,

"And during these three days, the speed of population loss has become faster and faster..."

For some unknown reason, hearing this sentence, Li Shangfeng suddenly had a hair-raising feeling:

"Then... where... did the people go??"