He observed the situation's development before making a decision, feeling it was still under control.
However, they didn't expect to suddenly lose grip of the situation and were caught off guard.
"Sir, should we continue heading over there?"
Cece pointed further north.
Yu Ziqing knew he was referring to the Evil Dao in the north.
Yu Ziqing shook his head.
"Forget it, there's actually nothing much about the Evil Dao there, most of them died last time.
There are only some ordinary believers left, simply ordinary people who have been brainwashed.
Nowadays, even the brainwashing scriptures are gone, there's no need to trouble them."
While he was there, he had witnessed those herdsmen.
They were very simple herdsmen, and they didn't even realize they were doing anything wrong, sincerely believing they were dispelling disasters.
Because it was getting colder and colder here.
In past years, though most places remained covered in ice and snow year-round, there would be a brief two to three months when it wouldn't be as cold.
That was their spring.
During that time, a small part of places, a few valleys, or rivers, would have some ice and snow melt, revealing the land.
Some special plants would pour all their energy into growing, maturing, and producing seeds during this period.
The seeds would fall to the ground, be covered by ice and snow, waiting for the next spring.
That was the short harvest season for the people here, allowing them to pick some special spiritual medicine and exchange it for other resources.
Food, medicine, salt, ironware, and so on.
But now, it was cold all year round, and the valleys that used to warm up and melt snow were perpetually covered in ice and snow.
For the people living here, this was a huge disaster.
The game they could hunt became scarcer, and the struggling vegetation dwindled, making it increasingly difficult to graze reindeer. Most of the fawns born this year had already died.
If this continued, they would have to migrate south, or they wouldn't be able to hold on.
And Liu Xin took advantage of these herdsmen's panic, telling them that the White Sun Holy Mother would lead them to overcome the natural disaster.
No matter what, Yu Ziqing couldn't bring himself to harm those herdsmen who were only seeking survival.
After some consideration, Yu Ziqing walked a short distance north. When he was near the village where the herdsmen were encamped, he dug up a stone and made a stele.
He carved a line on the stele with his finger.
"Migrate south to survive."
After placing the stele in the ground, Yu Ziqing turned to leave, taking Cece and Wu Shuangge with him.
That was all he could do.
In a way that they could believe, he told those still here waiting for the disaster to pass, they didn't need to wait any longer, the disaster wasn't going away anytime soon, and migrating south was the only chance they had for survival.
This wretched place was even colder than the current Wilderness; he truly didn't know how those herdsmen had managed to hold on.
As he turned to leave, passing by the Lonely Peak again, he faintly heard Liu Xin's screams.
Good, quite spirited, he could still manage to scream.
Yu Ziqing didn't glance at him again, continuing south.
With Wu Shuangge and Cece, there was no need to waste the Void Escape Scroll.
They traveled for over a thousand miles through desolate lands, the whole world covered in snow, with the cold wind as chilly as ever.
Occasionally along the way, they could still see traces of past herdsmen's activity, and in a few sheltered places, there were tattered yurts with firewood stored inside.
But looking at those traces, it seemed no one had been there in a year.
Continuing two thousand miles south, they occasionally saw wooden houses, now uninhabited, proving that people once lived here for long periods, but now it had been a long time since there was any activity.
Yu Ziqing could barely discern that many herdsmen had once been active here, chasing water and grass to graze livestock in warmer periods.
However, this year, it never warmed up, and the snow never melted.
Passing one village after another, he saw village after village of abandoned stone cities.
There were more and more signs of human activity, yet no one could be seen.
Yu Ziqing realized that the climate getting colder was much more severe than he had thought.
Not only had the Wilderness gotten colder.
The cold air had already crossed the Hengduan Mountains, which divided East and West Dazhen, invading the eastern part of Dazhen.
The people here were already forced to migrate south.
Yu Ziqing somewhat understood why Liu Xin, just by secretly fanning the flames, could incite conflict between the northern King Xiang Tribe and the southern Emperor Zhen, getting fiercer with no signs of stopping.
The main reason for the current situation in Dazhen wasn't King Xiang's ambition to rebel.
It was that the people in the north couldn't survive in this weather.
Almost everyone in Dazhen lived east of the Hengduan Mountains.
Now everyone in the north was migrating south in unison, seeking a way to survive.
But in the south, all the areas rich in water and grass, all the arable lands, even all the water channels convenient for irrigation, were already occupied.
This wasn't the migration of a single tribe or village, but of half a country's people moving south together.
How could the people in the south give up those pastures, lands, and rivers they depended on for survival?
But the people migrating from the north couldn't survive without them either.
The final result could only be conflict and battle.
Under such a backdrop, the fighting would only get more intense.