Isaac sighed; there were quite a few suspicious points surrounding this ring.
First, what exactly is its function? Isaac's speculation makes sense, but it's just speculation; the actual situation may be more complex.
It may be true that it draws life force from corpses to power the wearer, but the conditions and speed of the backlash, as well as any other side effects, are currently unclear. After all, according to Baker's memory of his father-in-law's description, his mother-in-law wore it for three days and remained in a state of high spirits for those three days before suddenly dying that night, without any transitional period of decline.
Secondly, why did the person who pawned the ring to Baker sell it?
He knew the origin and use of the ring, yet he went to a pawnshop and sold it at a low price, as if he only needed to hand the ring over to an ordinary person, the kind of ordinary person who wouldn't delve into its origins and was afraid of getting into trouble due to an official investigation.
Isaac found this method somewhat familiar; it was exactly the same as the incident at the clothing store, where clothes were deliberately tainted with a curse and then returned. Both methods involved using ordinary merchants to spread contaminated or potentially harmful items, suspected of being related to the Ghoul Cult.
The person who pawned the ring and the person who returned the clothes at the clothing store might be the same group of people, or even the same person. As for their purpose, whether it's the Ghoul Cult's usual practice of using ordinary people to transfer dangerous contamination, or if they have other motives, it's not clear at the moment.
The third point of doubt, which Isaac had previously realized, is that Morzul, a god generally believed to have vanished, seems to have become active again.
Jacob Hamil apparently died suddenly after performing a ritual pointing to Him, which led Li Jiehao to travel through time. At the same time, the walking corpse also stated that it was assigned by Morzul to send Li Jiehao to retrieve the ring.
Isaac collected his thoughts and saw that Carlo had already taken out a magnifying glass and was examining the ring.
Carlo looked at it for a while, then put down the magnifying glass.
"What did you see?"
"This pattern is so ugly."
"Boss, you've been studying this for so long, just to see if the pattern looks good?"
"Of course not." Carlo tapped on the ring. "Ugly as it may be, we can analyze it from the symbolism of the patterns. After all, it's Holy Relic of Morzul. A major difference between Holy Relic and other types of Wonder is that the appearance of Holy Relic is often intentionally designed and carries a strong symbolic meaning. For example, what do these patterns look like?"
"... Blood vessel?"
This was Isaac's first impression; the lines had main trunks, branches, and the ends dispersed into finer lines, much like the distribution of blood vessels.
"That's right. Blood vessels are the body's tissues that transport blood, and blood is often linked to life in mysticism, and yes, in medicine as well," Carlo said. "So the symbolism of this ring is quite obvious: it represents the transport of life."
"Therefore, based on this, and also from a symbolic perspective, the design of this ring does differ somewhat from its claimed efficacy."
"From a design perspective, if this ring were to have the function of storing life force, it should be set with a gemstone, preferably a ruby, to symbolize that the life force absorbed will be temporarily stored there. If there is no gemstone, a prominent decoration will be added during the making process."
"But this ring is a plain band with only veins on it, meaning that, symbolically, life force only flows on it, but there is no core where it resides and is stored."
"So the core function of this ring isn't to store life force and feed it back to the wearer, but rather to transmit it?" Isaac followed up.
"Possibly. In addition, besides blood vessels, these patterns could also be interpreted as plant roots. Blood vessels and roots are somewhat similar in shape, and besides transportation, roots have an even more important function—absorbing nutrients."
"If we consider the patterns on this ring as roots, then its symbolic meaning also includes actively drawing life force from the corpse, which also aligns with the description of the ring's function..."
"But, and I must say, but..."
Carlo held up the ring. "I just looked at it with a magnifying glass, not just whether the pattern is pretty or not, but also whether there are any small engravings inside the pattern, and where the veins ultimately lead. Look here."
Isaac leaned closer, Carlo pointed to the inner ring, where there was a faint seam left from when the metal was joined.
The lines meander down from the ring face and extend into the inner circle, but they stop at this joint.
"On the surface, it's just a trace of craftsmanship, but with Holy Relic, details often have symbolic meaning. A ring that claims to draw life force has its patterns ultimately pointing to a break—what does that mean?"
Isaac: "Does this mean that the true connection of this ring lies neither with the wearer nor with the ring itself? Could it be seen as a kind of... 'boundary'?"
"The object that these blood vessels or roots truly lead to is not in this world; they extend to a certain boundary and then break off, because that object is on the other side of that boundary."
"Your imagination is quite good; it certainly has that kind of meaning." Carlo nodded.
Isaac exhaled. If this ring was connected to something on the "other side of the boundary," then its purpose was far more than simply "absorbing the life force of corpses and storing feedback." It was more like a conduit that transported life force from this side to the other side.
And what lies on the other side of the boundary... Morzul? That's the only thing that comes to mind.
However, if the ring itself might not be a symbol of storing life force, and the veins lead to the other end... Isaac looked at the ring on the table and suddenly thought of something.
"Boss, there seems to be another explanation for Baker's mother-in-law's apparent vitality after wearing the ring, followed by her sudden death shortly afterward."
"Uh-huh."
"Following the previous line of thought, the rejuvenation after wearing the ring is because the life force stored within the ring is nourishing her. But if this nourishment itself is a deception, and the ring is continuously draining her life force and transferring it to some other being on the other side..."
"The so-called eternal youth and vitality are more like a kind of stimulation given without making people aware that their life force is being drained."
"Furthermore, if one hears that a ring's effect is to draw life force from the wearer and then nourish it back, allowing them to maintain their youth, and if they do indeed feel more energetic after wearing the ring, it's easy to imagine that the ring's residual life force is nourishing them, thus leading them to wear it for an even longer period of time."
Isaac said, his brow furrowing.
Therefore, the design of this ring is certainly not intended to bring happiness to the wearer; rather, it is more like a sacrifice.
The so-called eternal youth is just a lure to entice the wearer to wear it, while in reality, the wearer himself is the one whose life force is being drained.
Even if the wearer suddenly dies, other people in the know will easily make the same judgment they made earlier: has the life force stored in the ring run out and needs to be replenished? So, in order to maintain the effect, they will go to find corpses to nourish the ring.
Once they feel the ring has been properly nourished, they put it on and are pleasantly surprised to find that it really works.