Facing Lin Feng's slightly questioning inquiry, Shen Yue sighed softly and stepped forward to draw the curtains of the study room.
Without the "moonlight" illumination, the room full of bookshelves plunged into darkness.
Lin Feng's pupils instantly dilated; lacking experience living in darkness, even though he had evolved to Mid-Tier One, he still couldn't adapt to the extremely low-light environment in a short time.
But at this moment, the subtle, needle-pricking-like abnormal feeling that had been lingering in the back of Lin Feng's mind suddenly disappeared.
Evidently, it was related to the moonlight coming in from outside.
Called moonlight, but in reality, it was the afterglow of the Scorching Sun.
Lin Feng vaguely saw a blurry shadow in front of the window, slowly walking towards him.
When Shen Yue approached, she took out a kerosene lighter from her pocket, slid the flint, and lit an oil lamp placed on the study desk.
The bright incandescent flame dispelled the darkness.
A gradient halo formed between the two, resisting the thick shadows nearby.
Shen Yue sat down on the chair beside the desk and said:
"There's still some time before the ceremony begins. I guess you're not very interested in those boring prayers. Have a seat first."
Lin Feng nodded, sat next to the oil lamp, and asked again:
"Is the ceremony really some kind of sacrificial ceremony?"
Shen Yue stared at the flickering flame, not directly answering Lin Feng's question, but instead asked him:
"What do you think about the life in the Oasis Upper District?"
Lin Feng was stunned for a moment, then blurted out his true feelings:
"It's like heaven on earth, but built on the countless corpses of the wasteland's hell..."
Shen Yue nodded, giving a slight smile:
"A vividly expressive metaphor, but a heaven built from hell can never be true heaven."
"Such high-quality living, even going to great lengths every day to arrange the alternation of day and night to ensure the Upper Class can have optimal physical and mental health..."
"But can you guess why you haven't seen any elderly people on the streets?"
"You should know the Oasis Upper District has a development history of over six hundred years. The Evolvers living here are not like the Deserters on the wasteland, starving and exhausted, with their lifespans sharply reduced, unable to live to old age."
After listening to Shen Yue, Lin Feng furrowed his brow slightly, quickly realizing the hidden problems in the Upper District.
During his few hours of exploration before, he had seen hundreds and thousands of the Upper Class, groups of children, vibrant teenagers, and handsome young men and women.
But they were not as good-looking as himself.
Yet, as Shen Yue said, he hadn't seen any elderly among the Upper Class, even middle-aged ones were scarce.
And being Evolvers with a minimum Early Tier One strength, their lifespans could easily exceed two hundred years, coupled with the pampered living environment, living to the anticipated four to five hundred years wasn't impossible either.
So why haven't any elderly appeared among this Upper Class, in a normal hundred wasteland years, and six hundred years, there should be countless three to four-hundred-year-olds accumulated.
Unless the Upper District, to ensure overall living quality, has been secretly executing those elderly members who no longer possess vitality.
"So this so-called Moonlit Ceremony is about dealing with the elderly in the Oasis Upper Class?"
Lin Feng asked in return, then continued:
"But what's the connection with creating night alternation and crafting a spotlight fake moon, is this some special ceremony towards death formed by the Upper District?"
Humans have always taken death very seriously, especially during the Old Earth Era in Southeast Asia, where the custom was that death was of paramount importance.
And funerals were often the highest honor a person could receive in their lifetime.
Although the person is no longer around at the end, not a single ceremonial detail would be missing.
If the Upper District, in its hundreds of years of development, has developed such a cumbersome farewell ceremony to maintain population stability within limited living space, it isn't incomprehensible...
After all, the departing elderly are those who are meant to die.
Also, Lin Feng estimated that there would be very few who volunteered.
So this somewhat dark-tinged ceremony carries a touch of the sacrificial.
Hearing Lin Feng's analytical conclusion, Shen Yue smiled and nodded:
"You can think of it that way. The population of the Upper District has a limit of no more than two thousand; any more, and the Oasis wouldn't sustain their high-quality living, and it would start to decline drastically."
"So to ensure overall comfort, a set mandatory elimination is indeed necessary."
"In the end, either exile the younger generation or deal with the older generation above."
"Obviously, the latter benefits most and can also reduce the disturbance in order."
Lin Feng narrowed his eyes slightly, staring at the woman in front of him.
With the flickering oil light, the shadows on Shen Yue's face fluctuated up and down, shifting unpredictably.
Just like her speaking such cruel and unfathomable words with a calm and indifferent expression.
But this woman wasn't telling the truth.
Lin Feng recalled the "moonlight" refracted by the convex mirror, certain this so-called ceremony was related to it.
And Shen Yue had been avoiding the matter throughout, deliberately steering the conversation towards the ceremony itself, yet finally could only offer an unconvincing reason.
The lack of logic quickly aroused Lin Feng's vigilance.
He shifted his gaze to the flickering flame.
In the darkness, without that uneasy feeling like a thorn in his throat, Lin Feng's mind grew ever clearer:
"You've been guiding me to speak..."
"Father Su An once mentioned the real reason why Oasis Town stopped in front of the Scorching Sun Forbidden Area. I didn't join the Oasis to become an Upper Class, so I wasn't qualified to know."
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