After the final soft sound—
All was silent.
That once-deep, boundless "Inner Ocean," filled with song and laughter, had vanished.
The wonderful, fulfilled sensation in Hysilens's abdomen—the feeling of being intimately connected to the one she loved—emptied along with it.
All that remained was a strange hollowness, along with a faint, phantom-like afterglow of Chen Li's body warmth lingering at the tips of her nerves.
Hysilens lay blankly on the bed, still curled up, one hand unconsciously resting on her lower abdomen.
It was still transparent, but inside... it was empty.
Just as Hysilens's mind went completely blank, leaving her at a loss in the face of this sudden, utterly incomprehensible change—
"Knock, knock."
Two crisp, rhythmic taps came from her abdomen.
It felt as though someone were politely knocking on her... belly with their knuckles.
Then, a familiar voice sounded directly in her mind, as calm as ever, even carrying a trace of faint satisfaction, as though he had just finished tasting a fine meal.
"Not bad. Sweet and refreshing, with a slight briny taste of sea salt and... a certain unique 'sentiment.' But every feast must come to an end, Hysilens. Could I trouble you to... 'open the door' and let me out?"
Chen Li spoke so naturally, as though he had merely gone for a swim in Hysilens's home pool and now wanted to come out.
Hysilens's body instantly stiffened, her expression freezing somewhere between shock and bewilderment.
Open the door? Let him out?
Right... Chen Li was still inside.
Although the ocean and all of its sea avatars had been "drunk dry" by Chen Li, theoretically, he was still within the residual framework of the "domain" or "space" Hysilens had constructed with her own divine power.
The "exit" of that framework was still linked to Hysilens's