What happened in that instant was unexpected for everyone. A long silence fell over the air, and even Li Yue herself was uncharacteristically quiet. The sea remained calm, and the moon remained mysterious and gentle; the entire interlude felt like a sudden dream.
After a few rocks, the ship gradually regained its balance, as if that gargantuan entity had never existed in the sea but had appeared out of thin air.
“A black wall?” Sharon recalled the strange scene, her voice trembling slightly. Just the memory of that deep, deathly darkness made her feel a distinct sense of unease.
Through her perception of the Death Abyss, Li Yue knew clearly that the massive black wall was a projection of that deity—a mental projection from within the Death Abyss. As for why this projection appeared, she did not know; it was beyond her control.
“Probably...” Li Yue gave a dismissive answer. She felt a faint chill of cold sweat on her back, but since she wasn't wearing her divine raiment, her back wasn't exposed, and no one noticed this detail.
“Did your God's remains... go out of control?” Mende asked cautiously, having keenly caught the flashes of panic on Li Yue’s face.
“God's remains?” Sharon was stunned.
“Yes, that was indeed the power of my God's remains.” Li Yue let out a breath. “The power increased, and I couldn't quite contain it. It was a bit too taxing.”
Her small face was slightly pale. It was unclear whether it was from excessive magic consumption or some other reason. She coughed twice and hurried away, leaving behind a frail-looking silhouette.
“I’ll go calm everyone down.” Mende walked over to Sharon. He casually made up a few convincing excuses, such as Miss Li Yue finally promoting to a Great Mage and that the previous display was her full-strength strike.
However, as someone who had encountered a Great Mage before, he knew clearly that many of them did not possess such overwhelming power. Moreover, that black wall didn't seem like what one would call magic; it felt like something else entirely.
Inside a small compartment in the cabin, Li Yue locked the door. She sat in a chair, looking quite weak. She felt waves of mental exhaustion, yet she didn't seem to plan on sleeping immediately. She fetched a basin of cold water, placed her fair feet inside, and then picked up a mithril dagger.
Magic books once said that water is the medium of communication between the human world and hell. Li Yue guessed that hell was the other side of death, and she suspected that beneath the Death Abyss lay that very place.
This ritual required a creature with extremely sharp perception, like a cat. However, in the middle of the vast ocean, there were no cats to be found. So, Li Yue decided to take a more aggressive—or rather, more effective—measure.
Since she wanted to reach the other side of death, the simplest way was to die once.
She fiercely plunged the mithril dagger into her own heart. In an instant, the object—which held power against blood demons—pierced through her beating heart. Blood sprayed out, and her body trembled. She actively suppressed her rapid self-healing; her consciousness grew hazy, her body hovering between death and life.
She dreamed once again of that boundless black tide. She stood on a small boat with a lantern hanging from the bow, drifting slowly through the sea of death like a night watchman of death.
She walked to the bow, took a deep "breath," and leaped off. There was no longer the sensation of solid ground beneath her feet; instead, it felt like sinking into quicksand. Her body slowly submerged.
She saw countless spirits kneeling in mid-air, their bodies curled into balls. Aside from the infinite darkness, Li Yue could see nothing else.
She looked around, feeling a faint sense of rejection. She knew that in reality, her body was gradually beginning to "come alive." Her goal for this exploration was to see what that giant snake—which was her yet not her—truly was.
Inexplicably, her field of vision seemed to expand. Through her "eyes," she saw a floating girl with flowing snow-white hair. She was somewhat surprised; that figure was unmistakably familiar. That was her.
A chill ran through her. She controlled her body and forced her head to turn. The sight before her made her breath hitch for a moment.
It was a pair of colossal, dark gold eyes with black vertical pupils. Those massive eyes came from the bottom of the abyss, covering its entire expanse. Li Yue didn't dare imagine how gargantuan the true body could be.
This was... the legendary giant snake whose body could coil around the world...
Li Yue felt shock, yet in the same instant, she wondered why she should be shocked. She felt fear, yet fear could not take root in her heart. She felt awe, yet felt as if everything was exactly as it should be. While her mind was a tempest of crashing waves, it was simultaneously as still as a mirror. It was as if she were experiencing two conflicting emotions at once.
Li Yue couldn't describe the feeling. She could only be forced to accept it. In an instant, she accepted the fact that the giant snake could exist beneath the Death Abyss, just as she had felt no sense of displacement when she first transmigrated here.
It felt as if I was born this way, and have always been this way; there was nothing to be surprised about... Would you suddenly feel doubt about your own existence?
Before she could fully adapt to the feeling, her body was rapidly pulled out of the sea. In reality, her slumped body in the chair gave a violent jerk. The dagger in her chest was forced out by the regrowing flesh created by her powerful self-healing. Her body twitched, and her eyes slowly opened.
She took a dry towel from the table, wiped her wet feet, and put on her slippers. She stood up and looked at herself in the mirror, a sudden wave of confusion washing over her.
“Why did I perform that ritual just now?” She scratched her hair and shifted her posture, carefully studying herself in the mirror. She looked exactly like her usual demigod self.
“How strange. If I wanted to see what I looked like, I could just look in the mirror. Why go through all that trouble?”
She let out a yawn, feeling inexplicably drowsy. The people on the deck seemed to have returned to their festive atmosphere. Everything seemed fine. Every problem... seemed to be no problem at all.
Rate on N.U.
