Pale blue jellyfish with long tentacles pulsed with faint bioelectricity as they spiraled along the currents.
Schools of silver fish swirled around aquatic eddies, a few manta rays glided slowly by, and amidst the coral reefs, a family of clownfish playfully darted about.
Seagrass swayed, and sea creatures swam freely.
Countless lives inhabited this azure ocean.
The sea was the planet’s womb.
She had nurtured its past, giving birth to life and watching it crawl onto the land.
Even if the earth abandoned life and cast it back to the seabed, the ocean would continue to nurture the planet’s future in her own enduring way.
A woman’s silhouette floated among a school of fish.
A faint luster flickered on her chest, blinking intermittently like a firefly.
Though her face looked slightly weary, it was pure and flawless.
She floated peacefully, perfectly integrated with the ocean—just like a Daughter of the Sea.
Slowly, she opened her eyes.
A trace of bewilderment filled her gaze as she looked around, then glanced at her own body.
She was unharmed.
A moment later, she slowly swam toward the surface.
SPLASH!
The woman broke the surface of the water.
An island immediately caught her eye.
Despite the distance, she could clearly see the palm trees and sandy beaches on its shores.
“The tropics?
Did I pass through the Abyssal Vortex?” she wondered.
Filled with curiosity and doubt, she slowly swam to the shore.
The sight before her was one she would never forget for the rest of her life.
Stretching out before her was a beach of fine, soft sand, as silvery-white as snow and completely devoid of pebbles or broken shells.
When she scooped up a handful, it flowed through her fingers like water.
Ahead stood a lush, flourishing forest that felt entirely welcoming rather than eerie or foreboding.
Sunlight filtered through the trees, and as a gentle breeze blew, the swaying canopy formed a sea of green.
Looking back, the ocean was as soft as gelatin and as clear as glass.
From the shallows to the horizon, its azure hue gradually transitioned into a starry, abyssal depth.
The sea breeze blew gently, carrying the seawater away with the wind as tears welled up in Ling Shuying’s eyes.
She swore she had never seen such a beautiful place.
The coastlines she used to see were all industrial ports, forever reeking of an unpleasant fishy stench and lined with rough, jagged reefs.
The beaches were perpetually buried under countless piles of garbage and rubble, and the churning seawater was choked with endless debris.
Unless her experiments required it, she almost never visited the sea.
Ling Shuying marveled from the bottom of her heart at how beautiful the ocean could truly be.
The sun was beating down fiercely.
She slowly made her way to the shade of a palm grove, peeled off her soaked outerwear, and sat down to gaze at the endless azure ocean before her, beginning to recall what had happened.
She remembered being near the Abyssal Vortex when the Sea Hunters launched a fierce attack on her.
Lasers.
Impacts.
The final blow had knocked her unconscious.
“Lasers?”
She looked down at her shoulder.
Her clothes were still torn, and the skin beneath was slightly charred, but otherwise completely intact.
“Impacts?”
She felt her ribs, then hopped around and stretched her limbs a few times.
Not only was she completely unscathed, but her body even felt more agile.
The lumbar strain she had suffered from years of prolonged sitting in the laboratory seemed to have been completely cured.
“What’s going on…”
Even with her brilliant scientific mind, she couldn’t immediately figure out the cause and effect of the situation.
Having soaked in the sea for so long and now baking under the sun, she began to feel thirsty.
Under a nearby coconut tree lay two plump green coconuts, perfectly ripe.
She casually picked one up, wondering what tool she could find to pry it open, only to be shocked by what happened next.
Like gripping a bowling ball, her four fingers pierced straight through the tough outer shell, embedding deeply into the coconut.
Her hand followed her intent, sinking in a fraction deeper.
With a forceful tug, she tore off the top of the shell, revealing the crystal-clear coconut water inside, which emanated a faint, refreshing fragrance.
Dumbfounded, Ling Shuying manipulated her own hand as if she were operating a foreign tool—or observing someone else’s limb entirely.
“This is much better than an exoskeleton mech,” she thought.
“I’m thirsty.”
Ling Shuying carefully cupped the coconut, gazed at the brimful water, and drank it down.
GLUG, GLUG.
The pure, fully ripe coconut water was nothing like the artificial, additive-filled imitations back home.
It possessed a natural sweetness that was far more delicious and thirst-quenching than regular water.
More importantly, it left her craving more.
After draining the entire coconut in one breath, she still felt unsatisfied.
She grabbed the second one and, using the exact same method, tore open its shell.
GLUG, GLUG.
It was refreshing, sweet, and immensely satisfying!
Having finished the water of two coconuts, Ling Shuying felt completely rejuvenated.
A wave of indescribable refreshment washed through her internal organs, and her mind seemed significantly sharper.
“Mental clarity?” she pondered.
Ling Shuying looked at the two drained coconuts in bewilderment.
“These coconuts can’t possibly be some kind of magic elixir.”
The location of the coconut trees, their potential nutritional composition, the shape of the coconuts, the species of the tree…
Based on the observable indicators in front of her and applying fundamental logic, a stream of data flashed through her mind at lightning speed, compiling into a comprehensive model.
The conclusion was simple: they were just two ordinary coconuts.
A stray thought drifted by, and Ling Shuying keenly caught it.
“Qing Ling!”
She snatched up her outerwear from the side and frantically searched the inner pockets.
The pocket had a hole in it; all that remained was a shattered test tube.
She looked stiffly at her shoulder as a hypothesis formed in her mind.
“Did I fuse with Qing Ling?”
She sifted through her memories regarding Qing Ling: gene editing, superconducting nano-lattices, bio-information anchoring abilities, symbiotic traits, fighting in the sea, getting injured, being near the Abyssal Vortex, her body strengthening…
Various pieces of information were retrieved and synthesized into a model.
The model indicated the probability of fusion with Qing Ling: one hundred percent.
It was Qing Ling that had fused with her body and brought her through the Abyssal Vortex to this place.
An unexpected fusion, resulting in an unexpected ability.
Perhaps during the gene editing process, she had accidentally triggered some vital life node, allowing Qing Ling to develop this specific trait.
Healing her injured body, enhancing her physical constitution, and providing this incredible modeling and computational ability—all of these were likely brought about by Qing Ling.
She touched her face.
Inside her body now resided a peculiar life form, coexisting symbiotically with her, sharing life and death.
The life she had nurtured herself had fused with her in an extraordinary way.
The conclusion derived from the calculations in her mind told her that, at the very least, this was not a bad thing.
Ling Shuying slowly stood up, picked up the coconut shells beside her, and casually strolled into the forest, dangling one in each hand.
Based on the topography, plant species, and surrounding environment, she deduced that this was likely a small island on the edge of the Wave Ruins—the graveyard of civilization.
The Wave Ruins were composed of countless fragmented islands.
Due to the lack of resources and the frequent occurrence of Abyssal Vortexes, people refused to live here.
Consequently, it had become a fringe territory far from the City States and main human civilization, inhabited only by exiles and outcasts abandoned by the City States.
However, the Wave Ruins covered a massive area, meaning one generally wouldn’t run into anyone else.
And now, far away from the harassment of the patrol squads, the interference of the Law Enforcement Bureau, and endless official assignments, she could finally do whatever she wanted to her heart’s content.
“Hmm, hmm, hmm~”
Humming a light and cheerful tune, Ling Shuying ventured forward.
Here, she possessed infinite time and space that belonged solely to her.
The beautiful ocean, the pristine beaches, and endless possibilities were all waiting for her.