Chapter 1

Sui Xiong groaned and opened his eyes.

A headache, a splitting headache!

"It was just a bit of drinking, why does my head hurt so much!" he groaned, wanting to roll over and sit up.

And so, he saw the blue sky and clear water meeting at the horizon, the vast sea stretching out endlessly, white seabirds flying through the air, a salty sea breeze blowing gently, and the waves rippling slightly.

What a beautiful view.

However... why was he lying on the sea?

Sui Xiong began to recall.

Last night, he was playing an online game with friends. After finally clearing a high-difficulty dungeon and getting the top-tier gear he had dreamed of, he lost the roll for it because everyone wanted it.

He was so frustrated! He nearly smashed his mouse. So, he couldn't be bothered to play anymore, logged off, shut down the computer, and went straight downstairs to a street food stall, where he ordered three dishes and a bottle of liquor.

And then?

And then... he didn't remember.

That was only natural; who remembers anything when they're drunk?

But he lived in an inland city; there wasn't a sea nearby, not even a lake. Just from getting drunk, how did he end up on the ocean? And there wasn't a speck of land in sight.

Wait! Not a speck of land... then where was he sitting right now? On the surface of the water?!

Sui Xiong, suddenly realizing this, didn't sink into the water like in a cartoon; he remained floating on the surface, which made him feel a little more at ease.

Regardless, it seemed he didn't need to worry about drowning, and he didn't know how to swim anyway.

But then, he suddenly felt something was wrong.

Where are my legs! Where is my body!

According to common sense, a person sitting down who looks down should naturally see their legs and torso, yet he saw nothing.

Strictly speaking, it wasn't that he saw nothing; he vaguely saw a translucent outline, seemingly somewhat human-shaped, while below it was the clear seawater, with fish and shrimp swimming underneath.

But what did that have to do with him? Where were his legs and torso? Was this outline all that was left?

Sui Xiong blankly raised his hand, only to find that it, too, was just a translucent outline.

Perhaps, probably, most likely... his entire body had turned into this translucent outline?

Or perhaps, this translucent outline wasn't a body at all, but... a soul?

"Alright, now I know two things. First, I've arrived at the sea; second, my body is gone, and I'm likely in a soul state."

At this moment, he suddenly realized that the splitting headache he had when he first woke up had completely vanished.

This was probably to be expected; without a body, how could he have a headache?

Yet, strangely, without a body, he could still see, hear, smell the saltiness of the sea, and if he pressed his head against the water to lick it, he could even taste the seawater.

He thought about it: if he didn't have a body, he didn't have to worry about drowning, and if his soul still had senses, he didn't have to worry about being blind or deaf—thinking about it this way, the current situation didn't seem so bad...

"Indeed, every piece of bad news is accompanied by good news. No wonder comedies always have that bit: 'I have two pieces of news for you, one bad and one good.'"

Sui Xiong muttered to himself. Having encountered such a massive change, he was unexpectedly calm; even he hadn't thought that in such a situation, he would not only avoid panicking but could actually think so rationally.

"Perhaps it's because without a body, there is no pain, and no things like adrenaline to affect my thinking?"

He muttered to himself, trying to move.

He stood up, looked at the sea and his surroundings, and noticed his height had indeed changed slightly.

Then he lay down again and found his height had changed once more.

"Fine, I'm now certain that a soul does have a specific shape; it's neither a puff of gas as some myths say, nor a ball... this is definitely Nobel Prize material."

He muttered, trying to walk a few steps to see if this body—if it should be called a soul—could move.

If he couldn't even move, that would be a disaster.

Fortunately, he could still act normally, walking, running, and jumping without issue. Although his speed didn't seem any faster than when he was alive, at least he didn't have to worry about being trapped on this vast ocean as a wandering ghost or a land-bound spirit for eternity.

"A stroke of luck amidst misfortune!" Sui Xiong sighed, stopping his steps to consider what to do next.

As for the question of "why this happened," he had already given up on pursuing it.

Such an unimaginable event was definitely not something an ordinary office worker could figure out. Wasting time and energy on it was like those ancient scholars who spent generations racking their brains trying to link the stars in the sky to the fortunes of emperors and generals.

The idea was nice, but it was meaningless.

The first problem Sui Xiong considered was getting to land.

He was a human, or rather, a human soul; he wasn't an aquatic animal, he was terrestrial.

So, he first had to find land and get ashore.

Once ashore, he would have to look for signs of people to determine exactly where he was.

He couldn't be sure if he was still on Earth, nor could he be sure if he was still at the beginning of the new century, because he suspected he might have transmigrated, just not knowing where.

If he had transmigrated to ancient times, that would be fine; a soul didn't seem to have the concept of aging or death, so he could slowly wait it out and eventually return to the modern era. But if he had transmigrated to some alien planet or another world, that would be terrible; he feared he would never be able to go back.

"No, that actually isn't important."

He quickly overturned his previous thoughts. For a transmigrator who had seemingly turned into a soul, the time, location, or even the world he had arrived in were not matters of great importance.

The most important thing right now was to survive!

In any mythology or legend, a soul is never a sturdy or resilient thing. Eastern mythology even suggests that a single ray of sunlight or a gust of wind could completely destroy a fragile soul. Although he didn't yet feel afraid of the sunlight or the sea breeze, leaving his soul in such an undefended state was absolutely unsafe.

Especially when he realized this, he began to feel the cold.

This cold wasn't bone-chilling, but it had a damp, clammy quality—like a rainy winter day, cold, humid, sticky, and sinister, making one feel a sense of revulsion from the very marrow of their bones.

So, what should he do?

Sui Xiong pondered.

The simplest method was to find a shell for his soul, or in other words, a physical body.

However, looking around and straining his eyes to the limit, he couldn't find a single human body.

Actually, finding a physical body wasn't necessarily a good idea. As someone who grew up in an inland city, Sui Xiong couldn't swim at all. In this vast, boundless ocean, even if he found a body to possess, he would likely end up drowning anyway.

So, settling for second best, he at least needed to find a shelter.

He thought, looking left and right, up and down.

But within the range of his naked eye, he couldn't find anything solid that could be used for concealment.

He tried to dive into the water to search there.

As he submerged, a sudden flash of inspiration struck him—he had felt a headache when he first woke up, which meant he likely had a body at that time. It was just that after waking up, because he couldn't swim, the body had sunk into the sea, leaving only his soul floating on the surface.

This meant that perhaps if he dove to the seabed, he might still have a chance to retrieve his body.

Thinking of this, his spirits lifted, and he tried his best to dive deep into the ocean.

But just a few seconds later, he discovered with frustration that he couldn't dive into deep water at all; his estimated maximum diving depth was no more than two meters.

Fortunately, as a soul, he wouldn't suffocate, so staying in the water was fine.

Alas, even if his body really was in the sea, there was no hope of getting it back now...

Forget it. He didn't even know if his body was truly in the sea, so there was no need to be depressed. The most important thing right now was to solve the safety issue.

Perhaps it was an illusion, or perhaps it really was safer in the water, but he felt an inexplicable sense of security while submerged, like someone who had been bare-chested and finally managed to put on a thin shirt.

The clothes weren't thick or warm, but at least he didn't have to rely on subcutaneous fat to fight against the cold wind.

"Mythology often mentions mountain spirits and water ghosts; maybe staying in the water really is safer," Sui Xiong muttered. He decided to live underwater from now on, and other than searching for land, he wouldn't leave the water.

"Food, clothing, housing, and transportation—the 'clothing' problem is temporarily solved. As for transportation, walking on my own two feet isn't impossible to manage. Next up are food and shelter."

Sui Xiong muttered, casting his gaze toward the surrounding aquatic animals.

He saw some fish, but they were a bit far away, and the only things nearby were a few jellyfish.

Jellyfish.

White, translucent bodies with thin, delicate tentacles—very ordinary jellyfish.

"I remember most jellyfish are edible. Although some have poisonous stingers on their tentacles, those stingers shouldn't be of any use against a soul," Sui Xiong said to himself. "However, it seems a soul can't eat food either..."

Yet, he felt that he truly needed to eat something.

Once the thought of "eating" arose, it gradually became intense, and he soon felt hunger.

So, he subconsciously reached out his hand, wanting to grab the jellyfish closest to him.

His hand, now only a transparent outline, easily grasped the jellyfish—or more accurately, it reached into the jellyfish's body and grabbed something.

He had caught it, and it was edible!

He brought the jellyfish over—or rather, he brought the edible thing he had caught over—and brought it to his mouth.

Looking closely, it was vaguely a point of light, faint and inconspicuous. It wasn't the shape of a transparent jellyfish as he had imagined. When he brought it to his mouth, he observed it carefully for a long time and confirmed that this thing was just a small speck of light.

He noticed that not a single tentacle was missing from the jellyfish. What he had caught was some kind of intangible object.

Could it be... the soul of the jellyfish?

The hunger intensified, so he ate that thing.

It wasn't much, just a tiny bit, enough to slightly fill his stomach.

He cast his gaze toward the jellyfish again and found that it had lost its vitality, floating in the seawater and drifting with the current.

"Sure enough, what I ate was its soul."

He pondered for a moment, then went to catch a few more jellyfish.

A moment later, in front of Sui Xiong, who still didn't feel full, were several jellyfish that had completely lost their vitality.

"Now I can proudly declare that I am no longer a mortal who would fall to the bottom of the food chain without a weapon, but a dangerous predator in this seawater—or rather, a water ghost."

Giving up on the study of those jellyfish corpses, Sui Xiong laughed three times and headed toward the fish in the distance.

His stomach was still hungry.

After dragging it out for nearly a year, I finally posted it before my next birthday. Now I can hold my head high and say that this hiatus was less than a year, much better than Kong Bu...