Stop pretending, the fake heiress is actually a master of metaphysics.

The stark white light moved upwards little by little, and Lu Mengmeng opened her eyes wide, her whole body trembling and convulsing, on the verge of screaming uncontrollably.

Just before she was about to make a sound, a cold hand suddenly reached out from behind her and covered her mouth.

Lu Mengmeng: !

Viewers in the live stream: !!!

"Don't make a sound."

A cold female voice came through, and Lu Mengmeng recognized the owner of the voice, which finally calmed the goosebumps all over her body.

"Master Shen...?"

After removing her hand, Lu Mengmeng asked incredulously in a low voice.

What are you doing here?

"Not just me."

Shen Nian withdrew her hand and glanced at Lin Xiyue and Hu Die who were following behind her.

"You really aren't afraid of death, daring to sneak over here all by yourself."

[Holy crap. What's Master Shen doing here?]

What exactly happened? Can you explain it clearly?

[What exactly did you see?]

I don't know.

Why are even the masters here? Could it be that this ancestral hall really holds some secret?

Shen Nian reached out and pushed open the door.

The bright white light shone in again, illuminating everything inside in perfect detail.

In the very center of the room stood a gallows.

On the gallows, bound to a body...

A half-human, half-fish corpse.

Holy crap!!!

That bone...it must be a fish tail!

Mermaids really do exist?!

Is he dead?

[I feel like he's dead beyond dead.]

Besides the gallows, there were two oil drums in the hut, the grease inside gleaming with a strange luster, and carrying a peculiar allure.

Shen Nian slowly stepped forward and examined the merman's corpse.

Lu Mengmeng asked in a trembling voice, "She really is..."

"Um."

"So, how long has she been dead?"

Shen Nian said, "It's hard to say, but it should be several decades."

The merman's skeleton had lost all its tissues except for the bones after decades of exposure to the elements. The bones were not the usual pure white, but a strange, eerie blue.

Why leave it... here?

Hu Die was somewhat incredulous.

Even for a naturally born monster, having its corpse treated this way after death is an extreme insult.

Shen Nian then examined the ground near the body.

"There's a formation here, see it? This skeleton should be the core of the formation."

Lin Xiyue squatted down and swept away the dust on the ground, and sure enough, she saw a dark blue array.

Shen Nian said, "Before I came here, I investigated this small island and found that although it is far from the mainland and the surrounding sea is complicated, no disasters have occurred on this small island in the past few decades."

"The islands around here are all submerged at high tide, but this island is the only one that is always safe and sound."

"Guess why?"

Lu Mengmeng: "Perhaps it's because this island is located at a higher elevation?"

"Perhaps, but putting everything else aside, this formation is indeed designed to protect the entire island."

Shen Nian said, "People on this island tend to live long lives. Apart from Granny Fan, most of the elderly are over eighty-five years old, which is quite rare—on such an island where the environment isn't exactly ideal."

"Rumor has it that mermaid flesh has the effect of prolonging life. Where do you think all the mermaid flesh went after she died?"

Shen Nian then pointed to the two oil drums in the corner: "Mermaid oil also has the characteristic of burning eternally."

Lu Mengmeng seemed to have thought of something, and turned around to gag.

"But now that technology has advanced, we don't need to use oil lamps anymore, so the people on the island probably won't use these things as fuel."

"Perhaps they don't know how to deal with these things, or perhaps these things have become a kind of tribal treasure, only used in sacrifices or special occasions."

【vomit--】

[They have the nerve to call themselves descendants of mermaids? So they think they can claim to be their descendants just because they ate other people's flesh and blood? Bah!]

[Isn't this like someone killing you, dismembering you, and then claiming to be your son or friend?]

【vomit--】

That makes me even more worried. Is someone really going to try and catch this kind of creature?

It's hard to say. People will do anything for immortality.

It seems like people have been searching for mermaids for a long time, but it's all a mix of truth and fiction; I wonder if they've found them or not.

[Once found, the consequences will be either performing in a museum or aquarium, ending up in a laboratory, or being kept by a rich person, hmm.]

Lu Mengmeng said, "But Master, didn't you say that mermaids are very powerful creatures? Why would they...?"

Shen Nian said, "Do you see that portrait hanging outside?"

"Back then, a sorcerer must have come to the island and used magic to capture this merman... As for where he went afterward, or whether he died, we don't know."

"So... what should we do now?"

"The mermaids linger near this area, perhaps for this skeleton."

Shen Nian said, "We must return the remains. But if the remains are not recovered, the formation will be destroyed, and the island may no longer be habitable after the sea level rises. Notify the relevant departments to prepare for the evacuation of the islanders."

Lin Xiyue remained silent for a while, then nodded.

He turned and left the small room, preparing to call the Xuanmen Guild.

But... are the authorities really willing to relocate the entire population of an island just for a single skeleton?

That's what I'm worried about too.

the other side.

Grandma Fan stood on the shore, almost like a stone statue.

She seemed oblivious to fatigue or cold, standing there in the sea breeze on the island at night.

Suddenly, as if sensing something.

Granny Fan, who had been motionless, slightly opened her droopy eyelids, and a strange and gorgeous fish tail was reflected in her cloudy pupils.

"You've come..."

"You still came."

She spoke in a dry, hoarse voice, staring blankly at the inhuman monster in front of her.

Then, without moving, he let the seawater cover his shoulders, mouth, nose, and head.

He eventually drowned in the sea.

The ancestral hall is located on a low-lying area.

Therefore, seawater quickly flooded into the ancestral hall.

Lu Mengmeng was the first to notice something was wrong, exclaiming, "Oh dear! There's water here!"

Hu Die and Shen Nian exchanged a glance. Shen Nian walked out of the ancestral hall and returned after a while with a solemn expression.

"The sea level is rising."

"At this rate, the island will be completely submerged by the sea in less than one night."

They will be drowned alive on this island.

Wait, wasn't it said that the sea level would only rise once the formation was gone?

[Yes, there's nothing here that hasn't been done yet.]

[Oh my god, that's terrifying! Call for help!]

Now they have no choice but to move, whether they want to or not.