At the end of your journey, what awaits you is the night,
You have been walking toward that direction all along;
In a sense, you have been dead for a long time. (From 《One Person, Another Person》)
It was a clear morning. Weather at sea seemed to have only two states: storms or brilliant sunshine. Light poured down from a clean sky, seeping through the gaps in the deck. Even in the dimmest corners, one could see speckles of sunlight. If it weren't for the fact that the month of approaching winter had already arrived, Li Yue might have fallen into the illusion that it was still the height of summer.
She arrived at the restaurant early and took a simple meal of fried small fish with rice for breakfast. She looked to be in high spirits, just as she had been when joking with Sharon long ago.
Mende had originally gone straight to Li Yue’s bedroom. Finding no answer, he was surprised to discover her sitting in a corner of the restaurant as if nothing had happened. Although seeing her safe made him feel relieved, he also felt a wave of eeriness, as if the attack from the previous night had been nothing but a dream.
It felt as if everyone except the young lady before him had shared a ten-minute phantom dream.
“Is the problem resolved?” Mende took a piece of bread. He wasn't used to eating rice in the morning. Li Yue didn't usually have that habit either, but it seemed she no longer cared.
“Problem?” Li Yue arched an eyebrow. “There is no problem... Isn't everything perfectly normal?”
“Ah...” Mende blinked, involuntarily starting to question himself.
Since she felt there was no problem... was the problem with him? Perhaps in her eyes, it really was just a magical mishap. After all, the more powerful the God's remains, the more one had to be careful of rejection while controlling it. It was normal to have an error from using too much force—perhaps she simply failed to suppress it for a moment, or...
Mende fell into silent thought. Li Yue didn't elaborate; she was hungry and continued eating. She was never a picky eater.
She finished quickly. To her, the chewy dried fish was no different from tofu. There was only a slight difference in texture on her tongue, and chewing required very little effort.
She didn't wait for Mende, who was still eating, and walked onto the deck alone. She felt strangely odd. The sensations from last night were indeed special. To recreate the scene from last night felt both simple and impossible at the same time. It was a strange perception; she felt as if she had recently been surrounded by contradictory thoughts.
Fortunately, these contradictory thoughts eventually converged into unity. The clashing feelings lessened as time progressed. This seemed like a good thing, or at least Li Yue felt so now, even though she had been somewhat afraid of the feeling at first.
She didn't quite understand the version of herself that had produced those thoughts, but upon reflection, it was perhaps understandable. After all, it was natural for a creature with independent thought to feel bouts of unease when facing change.
However, rather than calling it a change, it was more accurate to say that a dormant self was beginning to awaken. At least, that was how Li Yue felt, though she didn't know why she felt that way.
She stood on the deck for a while, basking in the sun. The world in the distance was hazy, but she didn't pay it much mind. She simply felt the warmth of the sunlight on her body. The sensation reminded her of every morning in Parvati, where her day always seemed to begin amidst warm rays of light.
The memories in her mind were like fragments; many were impossible to capture or perceive. But at least, she remembered everything that had happened since she transmigrated here.
Inexplicably, she thought of Clo. Just thinking of her made Li Yue’s contradictory mood soften significantly, replaced by a strange sense of ease and joy. She wanted to see her soon; she didn't want to care about much else.
Also, last night, the gathering invitation in her ring had been glowing. However, because she was too exhausted, she hadn't participated. Thinking back now, she wondered if she had missed anything.
In the far distance, a massive whale leaped from beneath the sea. It hung in the air for a moment before falling heavily, the resulting splash creating ten seconds of light rain over their small patch of ocean.
People who heard the commotion rushed to the deck. They watched the massive silhouette swimming away, letting out long breaths, while some lamented missing the spectacular sight of the whale breach.
Li Yue also felt some regret. If that creature hadn't sensed death so quickly, the hunger in her belly could have been greatly alleviated.
She puffed out her cheeks and retracted the Death Abyss that had spread to the far distance. She sighed softly. Today's weather and climate seemed excellent. The sea surface shimmered, with some areas even glowing with iridescent colors.
Truly beautiful. Such a wonderful scene was rare in the world. Yet, in the dreams of sailors, these kinds of scenes often appeared. Although humans cannot imagine things they have never seen, they nonetheless dreamed of such beauty.
It was as if the dream didn't belong to them at all, as if they had merely stumbled upon it by chance, connecting their own meager dreams to this unimaginably beautiful one.
Not far away, a massive narwhal leaped from the water, churning the ocean waves and displaying its magnificent form to the crowd. The spray it kicked up formed a rainbow bridge in the sky. It was a breathtaking scene, yet the people watching never felt a single spark of fear from beginning to end.
It was just like being in a dream. They wanted to see a whale breach, and so a whale breach appeared. It was as if the dream had responded to them, though it only happened once. It seemed even a dream wasn't entirely generous.
Because, after all, it wasn't their own...
Li Yue, who had grown a bit drowsy while leaning there, opened her eyes. She re-examined everything. She took out a map and discovered they had already sailed into a sea that even Cook had never reached.
However, according to her perception, this didn't feel like a sea. It felt more like a vast dream. They had sailed into a dream—the dream of a god who had died long ago, a dream that had lasted for thousands of years and had truly interfered with reality.
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