Chapter 119: The Secret of the District

Lin Yifan watched Keluositin once again frantically dropping the small pearls, and could also understand his emotions.

But he could do nothing now, only silently gathering those small pearls while offering dry comfort.

"Mr. Keluositin, please accept my condolences; some things that have happened cannot be changed, they're long past, and what should be let go must be let go."

"Exactly, what's done is done; even if I now regret it till my intestines turn green, what good would it do?"

Keluositin raised the comb in his hand, tears streaming down his face, and said:

"This comb was my teacher's favorite personal item when she was alive; as a child I would hold the comb to comb my teacher's hair, but I ended up causing her death!"

"Not only did I kill my teacher, I also killed all my relatives and friends— a full 300 lives! The youngest child was only one year old, and they all died!"

"I hate them so much; I swore to avenge myself by slaughtering the entire Magic Mage Alliance cleanly, but when I tried to leave the town, I discovered I was trapped in a formation!"

"Those beasts of the Magic Mage Alliance didn't just kill the people of our town; they actually used all the living beings in the entire district as sacrifices, laying down an apocalypse forbidden curse against me!"

"The entire district?" Lin Yifan sucked in a breath of cold air, his face full of disbelief, and said:

"You mean the entire district isn't 100,000 people, that kind of district, right?"

"Besides, isn't each district an independent existence? For example, our district has so far been unable to make contact with people from other districts."

"The concept of a district is indeed like that, but there aren't actually 100,000 people." Keluositin gave a bitter smile and sighed, saying:

"Back then, our Merfolk Tribe had only about one or two million people left, spread across twenty districts; our district had roughly sixty thousand, making it relatively populous."

"As for travel between districts, you indeed cannot yet; each district covers a vast area, making it hard for people within the same district to meet, and wanting to cross districts is even harder."

"When your life tier evolves higher and your strength grows, you will then be able to accomplish cross‑district travel, whether by relying on items or your own power."

"I see." Lin Yifan then nodded in realization.

"Actually, it's fine to stay in one's own district; once cross‑district travel becomes possible, chaos will follow!" Kelisiting sighed, said that, then stopped speaking further on the matter and changed the subject:

"As for why our district has a relatively larger population, it's because our district contains gold and silver veins and cast‑iron veins; you know about mythril and cast iron, right?"

Lin Yifan nodded: "Of course I know; cast iron is quite common, but mythril seems very precious—I've only obtained a dozen or so units so far."

"Ordinary cast iron is indeed common, but advanced cast iron still holds great value," Kelisiting said with a smile.

"Because advanced cast iron, after being hammered and refined a thousand times, can be forged into hundred‑forged refined iron, thousand‑forged refined iron, and ten‑thousand‑forged refined iron—these are all essential materials for crafting magic artifacts."

"As for mythril, it is a magic metal material with a conductive‑magic property; such material has always been precious, and therefore veins of this metal are fiercely contested by the powerful."

"Our district has a large population because everyone there is a mine slave, generation after generation digging veins for the Magic Mage Alliance."

"As a result, because of me, the blood, flesh, and souls of those sixty thousand innocent people became the sacrifice for the world‑ending great array; thinking of it fills me with guilt toward them."

Kelisiting let out a deep sigh; though he no longer felt much for others, he did not drop any small pearls.

After merely calming down for a moment, his emotions returned to tranquility, and he continued speaking:

"Even though I had already become an advanced mage, even then I could absolutely not oppose the great formation created by the blood sacrifice of sixty thousand people."

"And as the last person of our district, if I were to die, the entire district would cease to exist, and the sins caused by the Magic Mage Alliance would also vanish."

"Wait!" Lin Yifan abruptly interrupted Keluositin's words, shocked, and asked:

"What you just said means that if all the survivors in the entire district were to die, the district itself would also cease to exist, right?"

"But wasn't it said before that when a district's population falls below a certain number, it will merge?"

Keluositin heard this and nodded, saying:

"When a district's population drops below twenty thousand, the nearby district merge mechanism is indeed triggered, but triggering that mechanism also takes time—about three days."

"However, if everyone in the district dies within those three days, the district will collapse, but all its resources will be merged into the district it was supposed to merge with."

"That is also why, after powerful beings capable of cross‑district travel appeared, there have been several brutal massacres as they fought to seize nearby districts' resources—and that's why I earlier said that the emergence of cross‑district travel is not necessarily a good thing."

"I see." Lin Yifan's face turned grim.

He had already figured out Keluositin's meaning; in this Survival Realm, all resources can be contested.

"For example, if he fancied the resources of the neighboring district, he would only need to enter that district, reduce its population to under twenty thousand during the three‑day merger transition, and then slaughter the remaining people."

That way he could obtain all the resources of that district!

"Such a method is so cruel and brutal it takes one's breath away; one must admit, the temptation to monopolize resources is truly enormous!"

"Well, these matters are still far off for you!" Seeing Lin Yifan's somewhat grim expression, Keluositin comforted him:

"Besides, you humans are relatively united, so such massacres rarely occur; and the fact that you can enter this instance shows your strength is not weak, and of course your luck is better as well."

"At least among this batch of survivors, your strength and luck are top‑notch, so you needn't worry about these things."

"That's also true." Lin Yifan gave a wry smile and nodded.

But he did not think humans were inherently good; indeed, one could say that human evil, the evil of greed, is far more terrifying than people imagine.

But what Keluositin said is also correct; if he is strong enough, he can make himself the controller, and then naturally he need not worry about these matters.

But he did not want to say too much about these things to Keluositin, so he shifted the topic and asked:

"And then what happened? What occurred afterward?"