No wonder Shen Shi would have such concerns.
In the previous future line, he was able to trade modern society’s common books for the Cosmic Battleship, Planet Fortress, and even gained Gong Chu and the Collector as two subordinates, receiving their utmost obedience and support, largely because that future line’s human civilization had lost its own culture.
And the inheritance of culture and history is related to whether one can become a Master of Primordial Energy.
That’s why antiques have such value.
But if the cultural heritage hasn’t broken off, then it’s hard to say.
However, this was an expected situation.
After all, Shen Shi’s long-held goal is to change the fate of Blue Star’s downfall, to make the future of human civilization strong and prosperous; as long as he keeps moving towards this goal, this day will eventually come.
"Anyway, I’ll take a stroll first." Shen Shi overall was quite looking forward to it.
He wanted to see what the future he single-handedly shaped had become.
He glanced at the four districts and finally walked towards the East Country District.
And soon noticed that at the front of each district, a stone monument was placed.
It depicted detailed maps of the corresponding street!
"There are over a thousand shops in just one district."
Shen Shi continuously magnified and scanned, intending to remember all the shops’ locations clearly.
He was slightly relieved to find there were still "antique shops" among these stores, and not few in number.
This indicates that antiques still have a certain market in the future.
Even if this market is not as important as the Number One Future Line, since it exists, he can still have dominant strength within it.
But there are auctions here?
Shen Shi looked at those two or three places marked as auctions, feeling a bit strange.
Transactions in the black market are bartered; auctions are rather inconvenient.
After all, bidding means having a comparative value standard.
Going to see it will tell.
But as Shen Shi was preparing to leave the stone monument, a gentle voice suddenly came nearby.
"Hello, sir, is it your first time here too?"
Shen Shi turned around and couldn’t help but be impressed.
It was a woman with dark red hair and matching dark red eyes.
Her facial features had an exquisite Oriental feel, but more importantly was her attire.
A pale green long dress, embroidered with light blue peonies on the cuffs, with few cloud patterns at the waist, the hem a dense row of blue seawater cloud pattern, seemingly ready to lightly swirl and scatter at any moment, complemented by gold hairpin and green jade at the waist, standing gracefully before him, indeed presenting an ancient-style beauty.
Shen Shi could confirm this was not the traditional attire of any dynasty, rather more like the aesthetic dress from ancient TV dramas.
Apparently, human civilization on this future line has indeed maintained cultural heritage.
This level of charm isn’t achieved by merely preserving some books and pictures.
It’s truly appreciating the unique beauty in historical culture.
"That’s right, it’s my first time here." Shen Shi frankly admitted.
Presumably, he was noticed for standing too long in front of the map, given it’s easy for people of the Future World to remember such a map; if not new, there wouldn’t be a need to look for so long.
"Your ancient language is spoken very well." The woman with dark red hair took a slight step back and bowed, saying, "I am Peggy Bernice Lee Graston, the new Patriarch of the Graston Clan, and it’s my first time here too. You may call me Peggy, pleased to meet you."
These words she also spoke in the "ancient language" she mentioned.
Which is the Eastern Country Language.
The language she originally used differs from the Number One Future Line language, sounding like Eastern Country Language, some vocabulary similar, but with some unheard words, more like a slightly formally pronounced dialect.
Shen Shi found no oddity in the future language differing from modern times, even modern and ancient languages and vocabulary vary greatly; maintaining cultural heritage doesn’t mean clinging to everything, it’s normal to have variations.
At least, she appeared to be proficient in "ancient language" as well.
"You can call me Mr. Ze Ren." Shen Shi smiled simply.
While observing her, to see if not mentioning the clan’s origin was inappropriate.
Coming to this new black market, though not needing to be as cautious as when initially entering Number One Future Line’s black market, it never hurts to observe more due to unknown information.
"Mr. Ze Ren’s name, could it be taken from ’Ritual Records – Inviting Virtue,’ ’In ancient times, gentlemen likened virtues to jade, warm and gentle, like benevolence’?" Peggy suddenly recited a sentence in genuine ancient language.
Leaving Shen Shi momentarily stunned.
Then he smiled, saying, "Few know this."
This is indeed where the name comes from, it was indeed one of Shen Shi’s former names; back when his father named his brother "Ze Yuan," he increasingly felt "Shen Shi" was too simple, thus planned for a name change.