As that name resurfaced, the last ember of An Youyu’s consciousness sank into darkness.
The whirlpool had yet to stop.
Carrying An Youyu’s head, it tumbled continuously through swift dark currents in a sunless ocean trench.
No one knew where this head would ultimately be carried.
Nor did anyone see that by the time the whirlpool delivered him out of the trench, what tumbled in the water was no longer just a head.
...
When daylight fell upon An Youyu’s face once more, he was already in another sea area.
A salvage boat was hauling in its net.
Several boatfolk worked together to pull the heavy fishing net onto the deck.
Rotted seaweed, splintered wood, and several dead fish floating belly-up tumbled out of the net one after another.
Rolling out from the very bottom of the net was a completely naked young man.
“A corpse?”
A boatfolk poked his shoulder with a boat hook.
The person on the deck showed no reaction whatsoever.
His skin was soaked ghastly white by the seawater, and his chest showed not the slightest rise or fall.
“Throw him back.”
Just as another man yanked up the net to push him back into the sea, the cold body suddenly twitched.
Immediately after, he gagged up a huge mouthful of seawater.
“He’s alive!”
The boat hook was instantly pulled back.
Someone squatted down to check his breathing, while another grabbed a piece of tattered canvas and wrapped him from head to toe.
After choking up that single mouthful of water, the young man went still once more.
Fortunately, a faint rise and fall finally appeared on his chest.
When the salvage boat headed back, it brought this young man of unknown origin along with it.
...
Clown Float-Commune
Upon the surface of the sea, a high wall built from scrap hulls, thick timber, steel frames, and buoyancy drums rolled up and down in the wind and waves.
The salvage boat sailed through the anchorage gate set into the ring wall.
Beyond the high wall, a clown head dozens of meters high revealed itself in the center.
It had once been a welcoming doll for a sea amusement park in the old era.
A rusty red pointed hat, a mottled white face, two hollow black sockets where eyes used to be, and beneath a faded red nose, a mouth that still grinned all the way to its ears.
After the continent submerged, the first generation of boatfolk dragged it back from the sea, hollowed out its interior, and converted it into a massive buoyancy chamber.
Later, rows of living cabins, storage sheds, and workshops were built around it, linked to one another by crisscrossing trestle bridges.
Fewer than a hundred households settled upon the sea like this, surrounding a clown head that grinned forever in an eternal laugh.
This was the Clown Float-Commune.
When the salvage boat docked at the pier inside the wall, a good number of people had already gathered on the shore.
“Was he really hauled out of the net?”
“Who knows how long he’s been soaked underwater? How is he still alive?”
“Give us some room, don’t crowd so tightly.”
The crowd parted to both sides.
A white-haired old man wearing an old fish-skin coat stepped forward, squatted down to peel open the young man’s eyelids, and placed two fingers against the side of his neck.
After a moment, the old man frowned.
“His face is ash-grey like this, yet he’s somehow hanging onto a breath...”
“Looks rather like the Blackwater Sickness.”
The speaker was the commune chief of the Clown Float-Commune, Lu Guizhou.
The moment he spoke, the people who had been crowding in front instantly took several steps back.
“Blackwater Sickness?”
“Then why bring him back to the commune?”
The crowd immediately fell into commotion.
Deep black currents lurked beneath the seabed year-round; anyone swept away by them, even if they managed to float back to the surface by luck, might bring back the Blackwater Sickness.
At first, the patient’s body would merely turn grey, but once black spots surfaced beneath the skin, the condition would rapidly deteriorate.
Once the black spots climbed up to the head and face, the person would completely lose their sanity, lunging forward to bite and tear at any living creature they saw.
By that point, their teeth, claws, and black blood could all spread the disease.
Although no spots had appeared on this young man before them yet, who could guarantee they wouldn't break out in the next moment?
Some on the shore were already shouting to throw him back into the open sea.
Just then, a tall, broad-shouldered middle-aged man squeezed through the crowd.
He squatted beside the young man and used his sleeve to wipe away the sea mud from the corner of the youth's brow.
As he wiped, his hand suddenly froze.
“Ning Cang, do you recognize him?”
Someone nearby asked.
Ning Cang wiped the face a bit cleaner.
“Look, everyone...”
“Doesn’t he look a bit like A'Man?”
The surroundings fell quiet.
“His brow and eyes do look a bit like him.”
“If A'Man were still around, he’d be about this age too.”
Ning Cang took off his fish-skin coat and wrapped An Youyu tightly from head to toe.
“Carry him to A'Man’s cabin.”
“Ning Cang!” someone grew anxious. “What if this really is Blackwater Sickness? Once the spots break out and it flares up, he’ll be biting people! Think carefully!”
“A'Man’s cabin opens onto the outer gallery; it isn’t connected to the main building.”
Ning Cang tucked the lapels beneath the young man’s body.
“I’ll keep watch. If black spots really do break out, I’ll deal with him myself.”
With that, he looked up at Lu Guizhou.
“Uncle Lu, please make the call.”
Lu Guizhou looked at the young man’s complexion again.
“Before black spots break out, no one can say for sure. Right now it won't spread to others, so let’s isolate him and watch him for two days first.”
He nodded to Ning Cang.
“We make a living by salvaging the sea. There’s no reason to throw a living soul brought up in the net back into the water.”
“Send him to A'Man’s cabin and do as you said.”
...
The first time An Youyu woke up was late that night.
His blurred vision gradually grew clear.
An IV needle was stuck into the back of his hand, a thin tube looping past the bed frame and connecting to a yellowed, soft bag above.
His right hand was still there.
His arm was still there too.
An Youyu’s gaze shifted downward with great difficulty.
Shoulder, chest, waist, abdomen...
Beneath the old blanket, he could even see the outline of two legs.
An Youyu was stunned.
Is this not a dream?!
White Eel had severed his neck, used a bone fin to shatter the fish aperture in the back of his head, and later the whirlpool had swept his head into the deep sea.
After that, his memory broke off into darkness.
Logically speaking, once the fish aperture was destroyed, the 【Fish Aspect】 was gone as well, making him an ordinary human. How could he still have the regeneration ability of a Body-Abandoning Salamander?
Yet now...
His entire body, which should have been left behind in the interrogation cabin, had actually grown back!
What in the world had happened?
Just then, a drop of medicinal liquid flowed down the tube into his veins.
A bitter, salty chill trickled up along his arm, and the tightness in his chest eased immediately.
An Youyu took a sharp gasp of air.
The thoughts he had just gathered were blown apart by this single breath.
It wasn't a dream!
This body had truly come back to life!
Regaining his breath, he looked up again at the medicine bag above his head.
Scarcely any liquid remained in the bag, with a small amount of off-white medicine dregs settled at the bottom.
This was...
Black-Suppressing Saline?
The medicine dregs at the bottom of the bag were far coarser than what the patrol scouts used, but the bitter, salty chill was identical.
Someone must have imitated the formula using whatever medicinal ingredients they could find on hand.
Though the efficacy was slightly worse, it was indeed Black-Suppressing Saline.
Someone had saved him and mistaken him for a patient with Blackwater Sickness?!
Yet An Youyu did not dare conclude they were mistaken.
He did not know how long he had drifted in the whirlpool.
He did not know what places he had passed along the way.
And even less did he know...
Why he still had a body.
...
Rate on N.U.
