"Let's go verify it!"
Jiang Yuan grabbed the sea snail and pulled An Xiaoyu toward the Bund.
He needed an explanation, and the resentment on the Bund could provide that explanation.
"Jiang Yuan, are you all done?"
Upon seeing Jiang Yuan and the other person appear, Liu Zhaodi also stood up from beside the withered old man. She had already learned a lot about what happened in Haicheng in the early stages of the disaster.
"Zhaodi, take a look at this."
Jiang Yuan handed the Sea Spirit Conch to Liu Zhaodi. She carried a mysterious and unknown inheritance, and her knowledge far surpassed that of An Xiaoyu. If anyone had more insights into the Sea Spirit Conch, it was undoubtedly her.
When the pure white sea snail was taken out, Liu Zhaodi's eyes showed a hint of surprise. Not only her, but the withered old man who had been picking up seashells also spoke up after he noticed Jiang Yuan touching his sea snail.
"Isn't this the conch I collected?" The gaunt old man didn't come up to take back the conch, but instead asked Jiang Yuan from the side.
"You take a look first."
Jiang Yuan gave the sea snail to Liu Zhaodi, then walked up to the withered old man and asked, "Uncle, where did you get this sea snail?"
"I might not be able to answer if you ask about other conch shells, but I really remember this one." The withered old man fell into recollection and said after a while, "I was living by the sea on the night of the cataclysm. At that time, the wind was howling and the waves were sweeping the sky. Everyone was frantically fleeing the city that was about to be swallowed by the waves. However, I was too old to fight against death, so I chose to die on the seashore where I was born and raised."
"When I made this decision and returned to my cabin, I heard a call from the deep sea. It was not the call of death, but the call of the sea god! He was calling me back to the embrace of the ocean, and I did not disappoint the sea god's expectations. I held the conch shell and went against the tide of life."
At this point, a glimmer of light appeared in the eyes of the withered old man; it was a devout faith, his paradise throughout his life.
Everything about him had aged, except for his eyes, which remained as blue as the sea, always cheerful and never dejected.
The old man said wistfully, "That time was the closest I ever got to the source. I saw the birth of life and the end of life. Perhaps life should be like this: born in the sea and die in the sea."
Looking at the old man who had no cultivation, Jiang Yuan felt a sense of emotion. The preciousness of life does not lie in strength or weakness, but in existence. Existence itself is meaning. Even the weakest ant has a meaning in existence that far exceeds life and death.
The old man before me is like Santiago, embodying the spirit of the ocean with his life.
“That time, the ocean took pity on me and didn’t take my life. I returned to the human world with the conch shell.” The withered old man’s gaze fell on the conch shell and he said slowly, “I know it’s not that the ocean didn’t take me, but that my mission was not completed.”
"mission!"
Jiang Yuan murmured two words.
"Something is definitely strange!"
Jiang Yuan was in a daze when Liu Zhaodi transmitted her voice in a serious tone.
“This sea snail is no ordinary object. It has divine patterns on it, so it is highly likely that this object was left by the gods.”
Liu Zhaodi took three minutes to determine the basic origin of the sea snail, and this determination solidified Jiang Yuan's belief that the deep-sea disaster might really be true.
"Uncle, could you sell us your conch shell? We can offer you a price that will satisfy you," Jiang Yuan asked.
He might be seen as a robber who kills and steals treasures in the eyes of other races, a fact he himself has never denied, but he would not bully the weak, much less rob an old man who is powerless to even kill a chicken.
"Not for sale!"
However, the old man's answer disappointed Jiang Yuan. The old man shook his head and said, "This item was entrusted to me by the Sea God. I cannot sell it."
"I can let you live for a thousand years, and I can give you wealth that you can never use up in a lifetime." Jiang Yuan didn't give up and wanted to use conditions to exchange for the Sea Spirit Conch.
“Young man, I know you are no ordinary people, but I really won’t sell this conch.” The old man had lived for six years in the Apocalypse Era and had long seen people in the world who could fly and escape into the earth, so he did not doubt Jiang Yuan’s terms.
Upon seeing this, An Xiaoyu immediately stepped forward and said aggrievedly, "Uncle, we don't mean to use external conditions to buy your conch, but this thing is a very important token to us. It may be related to the rise and fall of Haicheng, and we really can't let it fall here."
Upon hearing An Xiaoyu's words, the withered old man's eyes lit up, and he said, "You said this conch shell is a very important token for you, could it be that you..."
An Xiaoyu's expression froze. She had no idea what kind of tokens they were; she had made them up on the spot.
"Sir, could you lend me the conch shell for ten minutes? I need to verify something!"
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