Shui Hua plunged into the icy seawater.
For that instant, she had thought she would choke.
That she would sink.
That she would struggle.
That the tide would wrap around her and drag her toward somewhere deeper and darker.
Yet the moment she truly fell into the sea, she instead felt a strange, uncanny quiet.
All sound receded.
Everything seemed to be separated from another world by a thick veil of seawater.
The ocean enclosed her from all sides.
It was not cold.
Nor did it hurt.
It was like countless gentle yet unfamiliar hands, supporting her body as it continued to fall.
Shui Hua kept her eyes open.
The sword in her hand glimmered faintly underwater, a wisp of violet light reflecting across her pale face.
Only then did she realize that the water around her was no ordinary seawater.
It was a vast, deep blue that seemed almost endless.
There were no reefs, no seaweed, and none of the fish that could be seen everywhere in the shallow waters beyond Sunset Village.
It was as if she had fallen into a dream that had slumbered for countless years.
At the same time, the sound of the tide vanished from the shore.
The entire stretch of sea beyond Sunset Village seemed to stop breathing in that instant.
Old Jiang rushed to the water’s edge, his face deathly pale. Without a moment’s hesitation, he tried to jump in and save her.
But the tide suddenly spread outward.
An invisible wall of water rose from nowhere, blocking him firmly on the shore.
Old Jiang slammed into the watery barrier, his fingers clenched so tightly that his knuckles turned white.
“Huahua!”
He cried out hoarsely.
But there was no reply from beneath the water.
Only an increasingly deep blue radiance slowly began to shine from the place where Shui Hua had fallen.
Tantai Jingyue stood at the water’s edge, her grip tightening slightly around her sword.
She watched the spot where Shui Hua had disappeared beneath the sea. The stabbing pain in her chest had not faded. Instead, it had grown heavier and heavier.
Zhu Changli suddenly turned toward the sea, his expression changing in an instant.
Upon the waters beyond Sunset Village, circles of ghostly blue ripples began to appear.
Those ripples were not coming in from the open sea.
They were spreading outward from the place where Shui Hua had fallen, in every direction.
One circle.
Two circles.
Hundreds upon hundreds of circles.
It was as though all the nearby currents were answering the girl beneath the sea.
Zhu Changli murmured,
“This presence…”
His voice was hoarse.
“It really is Hairuo.”
Old Jiang whipped around to look at him, his eyes seeming capable of murder.
But at that moment, he could no longer spare any thought for Zhu Changli.
For from the depths of the sea came the first cry of a whale.
Woo—
Low, distant, and ancient.
It sounded as though it had come from the deepest reaches of the Eastern Sea.
…
Shui Hua sank beneath the ocean floor.
She heard that whale’s cry as well.
The sound was both far away and close.
It seemed to come from the depths of the sea, yet it also seemed to resonate from within her own body.
The ghostly blue radiance before her gradually dispersed.
She saw two little girls.
The image was hazy, like a dream that had been soaked in seawater and left to fade.
She saw a small courtyard.
Fishing nets hung in the yard to dry, and a fish basket dangled beside the door. Old Jiang was younger then, though he already wore the same sour expression. He stood at the entrance with a fish basket in hand, shouting angrily.
“Shui Hua!”
“You put my fish back into the sea again, didn’t you?”
Her younger self hugged a wooden basin and ran as fast as she could.
Another little girl followed behind her.
That girl was much quieter than Shui Hua. She did not run quickly, but she never let go of her hand.
“Run, Sister!”
Young Shui Hua shouted as she ran.
“Old Jiang is going to hit someone!”
The girl behind her stumbled when Shui Hua tugged at her, but she did not release her hand.
Old Jiang was so angry that his beard bristled and his eyes bulged.
“Don’t drag your sister into your mischief!”
The scene shifted.
Shui Hua saw a small bed at night.
She refused to sleep and insisted on squeezing in beside her sister.
The young Tantai Jingyue was pushed so close to the edge that she was nearly falling off, yet she merely opened her eyes and glanced quietly at Shui Hua.
“Aren’t you hot?”
Young Shui Hua buried her face in her sister’s arms.
“No.”
“I want to sleep with you, Sister.”
Her sister clearly found her noisy, but she still raised a hand and pulled the blanket over her.
Shui Hua stared blankly at the scenes.
She did not understand why she was seeing them.
But the pain in her chest grew stronger and stronger.
It was as if something she had forgotten long ago—so long ago—was slowly rising from the depths of the sea.
The images continued to shatter.
This time, she saw fog.
Dense sea fog.
A woman stood before their door.
She wore white robes that flowed like ocean waves. Her expression was gentle, yet her presence made the entire village of Sunset seem as though it had been pressed beneath the depths of the sea.
Old Jiang knelt on the ground, his forehead pressed against the cold, damp flagstones, his voice trembling.
“Lord Hai Ruo.”
Young Shui Hua did not understand what “Lord Hai Ruo” meant.
She only knew that whenever this woman came, Old Jiang became very afraid.
Her sister also grew quiet.
The woman in white looked at the two of them.
Her gaze first fell upon the elder sister, then shifted to Shui Hua.
Young Tantai Jingyue stepped forward.
She knelt before the woman.
“I’ll go with you.”
“My sister is too foolish.”
“She cannot bear the responsibility.”
Shui Hua saw her younger self freeze.
In the next moment, she charged forward and stood in front of her sister, hands on her hips, shouting furiously:
“Where did this old hag come from?”
“How dare you bully my sister? Believe me, I’ll beat you up!”
Old Jiang’s face turned pale with fright.
“Shui Hua!”
But Hairuo did not become angry.
She merely looked at young Shui Hua.
She watched her for a long time.
At last, she said one word:
“Very well.”
When that “very well” fell, a tremendous fear suddenly surged through Shui Hua’s heart.
She saw her sister preparing to leave.
She saw the sea fog curling around her sister’s robes.
She cried and lunged forward, clutching her sister’s sleeve with all her strength.
“Sister, don’t go.”
“You promised you’d catch fish with me.”
“You promised you’d take me to see the seabirds tomorrow.”
“You can’t lie to me!”
Young Tantai Jingyue held her.
She was crying too.
But her tears were quiet.
Unlike Shui Hua, she did not wail loudly.
She simply held her little sister tightly—so tightly—and whispered softly into her ear:
“Don’t be afraid.”
“Your sister will come back.”
The moment those words fell, the seal within Shui Hua’s sea of consciousness finally cracked.
Boom—
The memories that had been sealed away surged back like a great tide.
She remembered.
She had not been ignorant of everything since childhood.
Nor had she always been a stranger to Old Jiang.
Old Jiang was her grandfather.
The Divine Maiden whom the Divine Palace called Tantai Jingyue was her elder sister.
They had grown up together.
They had slept together.
They had eaten together.
They had played and caused trouble together in the courtyard of Sunset Village.
Her sister had wiped her face for her.
She had tucked Shui Hua into bed.
Whenever Shui Hua got into trouble, she had pleaded with Old Jiang on her behalf.
Her sister was not a stranger.
Nor was she someone who had come to take anything away.
Shui Hua wanted to cry, but she could not make a sound beneath the sea.
She could only let the watery light before her eyes gradually blur.
As her memories returned, the seal that had lain dormant within her for so many years also began to loosen.
A sudden light flashed in Shui Hua’s chest.
It was extremely faint at first, like a blue spark buried deep within her flesh.
But in the next instant, the entire seabed fell silent.
The fish froze in the water.
The currents ceased to flow.
Even the tiny bubbles seemed to be held in place by an invisible hand, suspended motionless beside her.
Shui Hua kept her eyes open, staring blankly at her chest.
She saw that faint blue radiance spread outward from her heart, traveling inch by inch along her blood vessels toward every part of her body.
It was like something that had slept for countless years had finally heard a familiar call.
It was not spiritual energy.
Nor was it cultivation.
It was a power far deeper and more ancient.
It did not need to be learned by her.
She did not need to understand it.
It had always belonged to her.
The seawater began to draw toward her.
A single current.
Then two.
A thousand.
Ten thousand.
Countless streams of water came swimming from every direction, winding around her.
Like subjects kneeling in submission.
Like wanderers returning home.
Or like the entire sea of Cangzhou finally recognizing, in this very moment, its long-forgotten mistress.
Shui Hua’s long hair spread out beneath the water.
The ends of her hair were gradually dyed with a ghostly blue divine light.
The trace of panic belonging to an ordinary young girl had yet to fully fade from her eyes, but deep within her pupils, an exceedingly faint sea moon was already slowly taking shape.
The next moment, the whale’s cry rang out once more.
The entire stretch of sea beyond Luoxia Village suddenly sank.
The tide seemed to be bowing to her.
In the distance, the whale’s call grew clearer and clearer.
Shui Hua seemed to hear countless waves calling her name.
Hairuo...
Hairuo......
Hairuo.......
Yet she had not fully mastered this power.
She was merely being carried by it, pushed toward the surface by her memories and divine nature together.
Only one thought remained in her heart.
She had to get out.
She had to demand the truth.
…
On the shore.
When Old Jiang saw the strange phenomenon over the sea, his eyes reddened at once.
He knew that the seal had been broken.
Standing nearby, Zhu Changli’s face was pale.
He had witnessed the awakening of the Hairuo divine nature with his own eyes. The phenomenon she had caused was so immense that there was no way the Divine Palace would fail to notice it.
Tantai Jingyue stared blankly at the surface of the sea.
At last, she realized that Zhu Changli had not lied to her.
Shui Hua truly possessed the fragment of the Hairuo divine nature that she had lost.
But the pain in her heart was just as real.
Every time Shui Hua drew a little closer, the sealed door in her sea of consciousness trembled.
It seemed that someone within was crying out to her from a distant place.
But in the next instant, the surface of the sea suddenly sank.
All the waves collapsed toward the center in a single moment.
Then, a streak of ghostly blue light shot up from the depths of the sea and pierced the heavens.
Shui Hua burst through the waves, sword in hand.
She was drenched from head to toe, her long hair spilling loose around her.
The seawater supported her feet, as though it did not dare let her fall back into the mortal world.
Those eyes that were usually bright and full of mischief were terribly red now.
She lowered her head and looked toward the people on the shore.
“Sister.”
“Long time no see.”
