Waves battered the reefs, throwing up countless sprays of snow-white foam.
Yin San faced the sea, his smile like spring warmth and blooming flowers.
His presence was still just as warm and engaging, giving a sense of sunny cheerfulness, as though he had nothing troubling him.
The Profound Yin Ancestor stood behind him, looking at his profile with considerable sympathy. He sighed, took a bone from his sleeve, raised it to his mouth, and gnawed on it twice.
The bone was long and slender. Whether it was a sea beast's rib or a human cultivator's arm bone was unclear, but it looked rather frightening.
For some reason, the Ancestor found it tasteless and put the bone away again.
Without turning around, Yin San asked, "You used to love eating those. Why have your tastes changed?"
"Perhaps I'm old," the Ancestor said sadly. "Nothing tastes good anymore."
"I still love hotpot. My appetite is as good as a young man's. I'm still full of interest in this world, and I still think it isn't too late to strive."
Looking at the sea, Yin San smiled and said, "So I need to live at least another five hundred years."
"How could five hundred years possibly be enough?" the Ancestor said earnestly. "The Human Race needs you to live another fifty thousand years."
"I'm not that tortoise on Heavenly Light Peak Summit."
Yin San looked at his right hand and suddenly asked, "Is the sword really there?"
The back of his hand had darkened in places, giving off a faint aura of death. It looked like withered wood.
More horrifying still, his fingertips were like limestone, shedding dust whenever the sea breeze brushed them.
"Su Ziye said it was on Shaoming Island," the Ancestor said, "but Heaven Near Person didn't know, so there's