A World Within

Ye Yuan was in a very bad state. He discovered that he had appeared in an unknown space. Before his eyes stood an enormous reef.

The reef was about half a mu in size. It was surrounded by seawater.

The seawater covered roughly ten mu. Its outer edge was shrouded in a ring of purple mist. The sky was gray and hazy.

And he was floating above the reef. Yes, floating.

Ye Yuan felt as if his brain could no longer process anything. He tried to raise a hand and touch his body.

Then something bizarre happened: his palm passed right through his body.

What was going on? Had he died? Had he become a ghost?

After steadying his emotions slightly, he noticed a stone stele in the center of the reef. There seemed to be some writing on it.

Ye Yuan wanted to walk over for a closer look, only to find that he could not move at all. Yet as soon as the thought arose, he was suddenly right in front of the stele.

What the hell was this? Could this be the teleportation described in novels?

He would worry about that later. First, he should see what was written on the stele. People were always afraid of the unknown.

The writing on the stele looked like Small Seal Script.

But Ye Yuan could not read it! I studied marine science, not history.

The writing on the stele seemed to sense Ye Yuan's thoughts.

The stele gradually began to glow white, the light growing brighter and brighter. The characters on it moved slowly like living things, gathering the white light before shooting out of the stele and streaking toward Ye Yuan.

Ye Yuan had no time to react before the beam of white light struck his body.

What followed was a clear memory. It was a feeling impossible to describe with words, as though these things had always belonged to Ye Yuan, yet somehow had not.

The white light dispersed. Ye Yuan stared blankly at the now-empty stele for a long time without reacting. The writing that had covered it was gone.

If anyone had been there, they would have noticed a nearly imperceptible flash of light in Ye Yuan's eyes. It vanished in an instant.

"Water Control Art." That was what the beam of light had left Ye Yuan.

The passage seemed to have been branded into Ye Yuan's mind.

As time passed, Ye Yuan gradually calmed down from the string of unbelievable events that had just occurred.

The most urgent matter now was figuring out where he was, whether he had died, or whether he had entered the alternate space described in novels.

If it was an alternate space, how could he return to his own world?

The instant that thought crossed his mind, he saw a familiar scene. A vast blue sea and glaring sunlight.

He was back?

He looked at his hands again. They were empty, holding nothing.

The phones and metal bottles he had salvaged from the seabed were still in the net bag at his waist, and the oxygen tanks beside him were still there too. Had everything just been a dream?

But the Water Control Art in his mind was still perfectly clear.

Then what had that space been? And how had he entered it?

When he thought of that space, his vision darkened, and he found himself back in that bizarre place.

Could he enter and leave at will? Was the method simply to think about it in his mind?

After trying repeatedly, he finally confirmed that he had obtained an incredible treasure.

Not only could he enter that Reef Space himself, he could also store certain objects inside it.

However, inside that space, he did not have a physical body. He existed in a state similar to a soul.

Within Reef Space, he could be said to be a god. With a single thought, he could alter the terrain.

That meant he possessed a portable warehouse half a mu in size. What kind of concept was that?

Though he was incomparably excited, there was still one matter he had not figured out: the Water Control Art.

The Water Control Art had a total of five levels.

He could easily understand the first level, as if he had been born knowing it.

But although the remaining four levels were also in his mind, they were hazy and indistinct, as though separated by a veil.

The first level of the Water Control Art resembled folk qigong, consisting entirely of various circulation routes. Following the memories and understanding in his mind, he quickly completed a full cycle.

As Ye Yuan circulated the Water Control Art, certain gases too faint for the naked eye to see entered his body from the seawater around him. When he stopped circulating it, they disappeared as well.

Ye Yuan opened his eyes and felt his body. He felt very comfortable. Since this technique was called the Water Control Art, it must be related to water. He would head into the sea now and see exactly what had changed.

With a diving leap, Ye Yuan entered the sea.

He was already a decent swimmer. Under normal circumstances, without any diving equipment, he could dive to a depth of around fifteen to twenty meters.

After entering the sea, he found that he had gained a new understanding of the ocean. The seawater felt like a part of his body, as if he had turned into a fish.

He could breathe underwater. It was simply unbelievable.

As Ye Yuan descended deeper, reaching the seabed at around thirty meters, the water pressure that should have appeared did not affect him at all.

There was also his vision. Due to the lighting, underwater visibility was generally not very high. Yet Ye Yuan could now see objects dozens of meters away on the seabed thirty meters below. It was practically miraculous.

Ye Yuan swam freely through the seawater in excitement when a glint appeared thirty meters ahead of him. He quickly swam over.

He found a bit of metal sticking out from the sand. He casually pulled it out and discovered that it was most likely the bracelet the tourist had accidentally dropped yesterday.

After swimming around for a while longer, he returned to the speedboat. Looking at the watch on the boat, he saw that it was already noon. The salvage mission had been completed, and he had even gained an unexpected treasure.

The amusement park charged a fee for recovering items tourists had dropped.

When valuable items were recovered, tourists would give the salvage worker an additional red envelope to show their gratitude.

This was also an extra source of income for Ye Yuan, because the boss would not take any share of the red envelope.

After returning to shore, he called the tourist from yesterday. He told her that the item had been found and asked whether she had time to come confirm if it was the bracelet she had lost.

As it turned out, the tourist had not expected it to be found and had already left Blue Island City. Still, she thanked Ye Yuan over the phone.

After discussing it over the phone, they arranged for the amusement park to mail the item to her. The tourist added the amusement park's official WeChat account, and after confirming that it was her bracelet, she transferred a 10,000-yuan red envelope as a reward.

This red envelope was nearly equal to two months of Ye Yuan's salary. It was also the largest red envelope he had received since coming to work at the amusement park.

It was almost time to get off work, so Ye Yuan went to see the manager, intending to have a talk with him. After all, matters at home were waiting for him to return.

Before obtaining the Water Control Art and the mysterious Reef Space, Ye Yuan would have hesitated over how to bring it up with the manager. But now, even if there had been nothing waiting for him at home, he would not have planned to keep working here.

After all, now he could simply catch something in the sea and earn more than his salary, couldn't he?