3 Land of the Rising Sun

Black.

Everything around me is pure black.

Drifting along, I feel as if everything is meaningless.

I do not know where I am.

What I do know is that I died.

This endless space must be the place where the souls of the dead go to stay before returning to the karmic cycle of Reincarnation. I read about it before.

Even though I had many regrets, once I arrived here I felt that all of them had vanished. This strange phenomenon was something I was curious about.

Never mind, there's nothing I can do about it anyway. Better to just keep drifting along until I find a way to get back. Even if I come back as a beast without my memories, I'm sure that this fiery rage inside me will not disappear.

Yes, all I can do now is wait.

.

.

.

What, what is this?

It hurts.

It's hard to breathe.

I feel like my body is being filled with liquid.

Heavy, the feeling of being crushed by something.

Wait.

I'm supposed to be a dead, aren't I?

But why would I feel as if I had a body being filled with something or even being crushed.

I open my eyelids.

Blue.

A deep blue with a tinge of darkness around it.

Everything is murky and I cannot see clearly but, I can see that creatures are swimming past me with slow fluid motions. They might be fish, or something else entirely. This can only mean one thing.

This, was indeed the ocean.

And I, with this small body, was drowning.

Judging by the size of my hands, my own soul seems to have taken over a child's body. Judging by the injuries on this body's forehead and chest, a projectile weapon akin to an arrow pierced through both brain and heart. It would be a miracle to not die with these organs missing as a normal person.

Fortunately, I am anything but normal.

This body may not have cultivation, but my soul is far too strong to die from it. I can at least last for a few hours until I consume a 'Divine Rejuvenation Pill' from my 'Spacial Ring' to get rid of this pain.

For now, let's find a way to get to the surface before my lungs disintegrate due to the pressure here.

I force these small limbs to move despite the pain and slowly move in an erratic swimming motion heading above. Gritting my teeth, I hold my breath and try to use a spell in order to improve my eyesight in this dark blue deep waters.

But, nothing happens.

This can't be right. I still only see deep blue darkness. Even though this spell was useful, it didn't even use that large amount of 'Spiritual Energy'.

Such that even little mortal kids could learn it.

There was no need to have it within my body for I could use the energy in my surroundings to cast it.

Even though that should be the case, I still cannot sense the spell working. Could it be, that there was no 'Spiritual Energy' around here?

Impossible.

The Immortal Realm is filled with this energy, almost even overflowing with it.

There was no reason why the area below the ocean would be lacking it. Unless...no, it's useless to think about these things now. I will just have to bear without any vision. Hopefully I'm not too far deep.

Comforting myself, I continue to swim upwards.

Time felt like an eternity.

I started to think that maybe I won't make it.

Without air, I could not live much longer. Especially when here, no Spiritual Energy could be sensed.

I can't even use spells to breathe underwater.

Damn it.

Am I going to die again without even getting a chance to cultivate once more?

Just as I was running out of breath, a beam of light hit me from above. Like a spear piercing through the darkness, it revealed a path towards me.

It seems my luck isn't too bad after all.

"Ah! *Cough* *Cough*"

Resurfacing, I take my first deep breaths until my breathing became more stable and uncontrollably cough out water and dark reddish substances, which I can guess would be dried blood.

Only the sound of coughing and vomiting was heard as I floated there above the water. The pain and coldness that was numbed by the pressure before, all came at once and it was torture.

A child's body was not meant to withstand this amount of pain. I hurriedly dive my consciousness into my 'Spacial Ring' but no matter how long I waited, I could not feel anything.

It was a bit of time until I realised I did not wear anything on my fingers. I was right, this body was indeed not my own. The ring I got from my master was gone. I could only turn my head to find land before I completely die of low body temperature.

Swimming east, I find a silhouette of mountains and land ahead. I only went in this direction because the golden light from before came from here.

About an hour later, I collapse on the shore filled with golden white sand. My body was sore, cold and in immense pain. I couldn't lift a finger at this moment. But I could still move my eyes around to inspect my surroundings.

There were no other people judging from what I could see. But that was only from my limited vision, which was slowly getting darker by the second.

"Huh?"

I started thinking that this was a deserted island when I heard a small voice from somewhere.

I try to turn my head towards it but to no avail.

The only thing I remember before closing my eyes was a shade of bright red and a soft feeling on my cheek. In the next moment, everything faded.