010 Getting back my body

"I wonder what the ancestor wrote in his first diary" Liam thought. "I can't wait to find out, when I become the king of Coralopolis after grandfather."

Liam was still inside his sea of soul, trapped inside it. He had been pondering about what he knew about the ancestor for quite some time now. Just as he was going to space out again and go into another thought, he heard a very familiar voice.

"Hey, kid! I am going to give your body back, prematurely. You are in a gate with your sister in your hands. You have to run, go find a current that will take you to the surface!" The man's voice was heard and his figure appeared in Liam's Sea of soul yet again.

"WHAT!" Liam almost stumbled on his words, but he was quickly sent out of his sea of soul and the situation was just as the man had said.

"Run, NOW! or they will catch you!" The man said to him again.

"Who will catch me!?" Liam was panicked by the urgency in the man's voice.

"I will tell you later! Go, now!" The man didn't explain and just told Liam to hurry.

The panic, urgency and not knowing what had happened in the time he was in the sea of soul, as well as his sister in his arms made him decide to head out. The gate was already opened and filled with water.

Liam found it a lot easier than the first time he entered the deep waters, but he had no time to figure out why that was. As soon as he let his guard down a strong current swept him to his sides. He had no control of his movement and he was moving rapidly.

"Kid, focus!" The man said to Liam.

"I can't, the current is too strong." Liam cried.

"You remember seeing those two spheres of liquid in your sea of soul? That is liquid qi, liquid energy. Use it!" The man said to Liam as he was still unable to stabilize himself and he was losing hold of his sister. If she drifted off, she would almost instantly die at this pressure while unconscious.

"How?!" Liam screamed at the man.

"Focus! Imagine taking a drop from the dark blue liquid, then imagine it spreading into thousands or even millions of particles that will spread around your whole body. The more particles the better you will be able to utilize the energy." The man explained to Liam.

"I can't think about that now!" Liam was panicking as he was almost separated from his sister.

"Focus! It's the only way to save her. If you can't both you and her will die here." The man reminded Liam of the harsh situation that he was currently in.

Liam didn't respond this time, but he followed the man's instructions. He imagined taking a single drop from the dark blue sphere and he tried to imagine it spreading into as many particles as he could. Then he spread the 30 or so particles around a few points in his body.

Liam was surprised by the amount of power he felt in those few places where the particles spread to. "Whoa, and he said that it's possible to imagine thousands, millions or even billions of particles. What strength will I gain then." Liam was greatly surprised.

He used his new found strength to pull his sister close to him, and swim out of the current.

"How do I find a current that goes upwards?" Liam tried asking the man.

"Take another drop from the dark blue sphere, divide it into two and cover your eyes with it. Then you should be able to see the qi traveling all around you. Find a stream that goes upwards and swim into it." The man explained to Liam, not knowing that Liam was already able to see the qi without that technique, but Liam didn't reveal that he could already see the qi, as he did not know what that meant.

"There's one" Liam said before he swam towards it.

The current didn't go straight up. Liam felt like he had to follow a winding path in very harsh conditions. Whether the current turned to the left right Liam had to follow it. After 2 hours of it, he was exhausted. "I don't think I can do this much more. I can feel my energy is almost out." Liam complained.

"Take another drop and focus all the particles in your heart and blood stream.' That way, your qi will rapidly regenerate." The man said. "This kid is quite amazing. I didn't know how deep underwater we we're. If I knew it would take this long to go out, I would never suggest that a fourth human realm cultivator could make it. But the sheer amount of energy that he has collected in those drops is amazing. I really need to find out how he does it." the man thought to himself.

"At the speed that we have been traveling, we should have just passed 10 000 meters. A whole hour has passed, I don't know how much more this kid can take, even with those drops. At the rate they are depleting they could just last another hour and a half or another 15 000 meters." The man continued in thought.

"I had heard legends that say the ocean is 50 000 meters deep at some parts. I really hope we aren't at one of those points." The man wished.

After another whole hour Liam experienced something that he had never experienced before, air. Even in Coralopolis, there was no air. The bubble in which Coralopolis was located was just made of dense qi, which allowed its citizens to live without air or food.

Liam took in a deep breath and coughed almost instantly.

"What is this? It feels like someone is trying to push an invisible pole down my nose and throat." Liam asked annoyed.

"That's just air, it's very normal, but I guess you aren't used to it." The man said.

"What do I do now?" Liam asked.

"Kid, you're getting too reliant on me. I am not your personal helper. I only helped you then because I would also die if you die. Now you're on your own." The man said.

"What, no way. Don't joke with me, you got me here. You have to tell me what to do next." Liam said, but there was no response of any kind.

"Damm him, I don't need him." Liam said but only now did he have the time to realize the severity of the situation.

He had trusted the man's words and got to this overwater world, but he had no idea what to do next. He had left everything he knew, his whole family and home. Only his dying sister was in his arms, she had a bit over a day left at most and he had no Idea if it was even possible to save her.

Needless to say, the hooded man in his sea of soul had greatly fucked up his life. As Liam floated about the water, he saw something in the horizon. Being the only thing that wasn't just sky and water, he decided to try and swim towards it.

When Liam got closer to the landmass that was in front of him, he could see small buildings and houses scattered about. Though their design was vastly different from what he was used to. Nonetheless he continued swimming towards it, getting closer bit by bit.

He was almost there when a man from a boat saw him.

"Hey, you there!" The man called out to him. "The one swimming with the girl in his arms."

Liam stopped swimming and turned around towards the man. "He looks exactly like us, even though he lives here." Was the first thing Liam thought when he saw the man. "I don't know why I imagined the residents here would look like creatures."

"You know that it's dangerous swimming here. A beast can come from bellow and eat you before you know it." The man said and then paused. When Liam didn't say anything and they just looked at each other for a few moments he decided to add. "Do you need a lift?"

"I could use help, yes." Liam accepted the man's offer, as he was glad that he finally had contact with another human being.

"Well hop on, I'll let you down a ladder." The man said before he got prepared to accept Liam on his boat.

"Where you from? And Where you going?" The man thru a few rapid questions at Liam.

"Well, first. My name is Liam and I would like to go to that place over there." Liam said to the man, ignoring the question about where he was from.

"You want to head back to Reagalshire. You're in luck, were heading back right now."

Reagalshire. Liam thought. I really hope there is someone there that can help me save Hayley. Liam thought to himself as he looked as his unconscious sister still laying in his arms.