Sea of Consciousness

Pitch-black darkness.

Complete silence.

So this was what death was like?

A sudden burst of light flared up, as though the sun had exploded, and the darkness vanished completely in an instant!

Wang De raised a hand toward the explosion, shielding his face. Even with his eyes closed, he could still see the bones in his fingers, like an X-ray hanging on a hospital wall, every joint clearly visible!

The light gradually dimmed, and a cool sensation spread through him. Wang De opened his eyes and froze.

An endless sea.

Beneath a blue sky dotted with white clouds, Wang De stood knee-deep in seawater, golden sand beneath his feet. The water stretched endlessly into the distance, all the way to where sea met sky. It was as if he stood in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

But the Pacific had waves and surging tides. This sea had nothing at all, still as water in a washbasin. By rights, a sea this vast should have tides under the moon's gravitational pull.

Wang De slowly lifted a leg, splashing up a little water. Amid the soft sound of rippling water, waves spread outward in every direction, reaching far into the distance.

He was bewildered. This definitely was not a natural landscape. Every detail looked real, yet this world was far too lonely. It was a completely dead world.

Where was this?

The Returning Abyss?

The Liezi: Questions of Tang said that east of the Bohai Sea was a place called the Returning Abyss, where all the waters of the world flowed. The Returning Abyss was the end of the world.

Wang De stood in the water for a long time, staring blankly ahead, his mind utterly empty.

Then the sound of water came from behind him. Something was approaching.

Wang De