Fan Li went immediately to the Bureau of Maritime Departure to register her records, having the staff "swipe" her departure permit. This was the only way she could return to the Light Sea dimension through the designated channels after coming back from land. Although she felt she wouldn't need this step, she went through the process just in case.
Seeing that she was still a student, the registrar cautioned her repeatedly, "Remember, do not expose your identity as a member of the sea-race, or you will be permanently exiled to the alien dimension."
She remembered Dangdang once saying that after going ashore, everything became a blur.
From an optical perspective, this was likely because vision depends on the quality of the image formed by the lens on the retina. The refractive index of water is greater than that of air, meaning the light-bending effect when a creature absorbs light into its eyes on land is greater than it is in the sea. In the ocean, light has already been diffused once, unlike in the air where light rays refract directly through the lens onto the retina. Essentially, the sea-race grew up wearing the ocean as a pair of "nearsighted glasses." Once they went ashore and "removed" those glasses, even those with normal vision would become severely myopic.
Since no one knew exactly how many diopters of nearsightedness this caused, she went to a department store and bought a pair of universal land-sighting glasses for 89 De.
Seeing that it was almost time, she took a public transport whale to the Maritime Expo for her appointment.
She arrived at the pearl shop where she had met Su Shiye the previous day, only to find his group already waiting. Had she not checked the time, she would have thought she was late. Seeing her arrival, Su Shiye dismissed his secretaries and attendants, signaling for Fan Li to follow him out and swim toward the heights of the building.
On a towering seamount not far away, many pale-skinned sea-race maidens flicked their tails and swam slowly, looking like frolicking wood nymphs. The early autumn sunlight brought a multicolored tranquility to Luoya; this high-rise caught the light and waves like a ladder to heaven. Looking down from the heights, the scenery of Luoya unfolded like a demonized jungle.
"I have a villa outside Luoya. Let’s go there to talk," Su Shiye said, turning around. "Unless it’s a formal occasion, I don’t much like having a large crowd following me—besides, they are too slow. Do you mind if I take you there?"
"Of course not."
She answered reflexively, not expecting him to hold out his hand. Only then did she understand the nature of his request. Although he was wearing gloves, she couldn't help but feel bashful. It took a moment of mental preparation before she placed her hand in his palm. His hand looked long and slender, yet it was unexpectedly large; with a gentle squeeze, it covered more than half of her hand.
"Tell me if it’s too fast or if you feel uncomfortable." He turned toward the east, the caudal fin radiating Holy Spirit Light beginning to beat slowly.
"Okay."
His grip tightened slightly. In the blink of an eye, the two of them had surged two hundred meters away, leaving behind a dense trail of bubbles. Her hat slipped to her shoulders, and her stray hairs danced in the water like early snow. He looked back to check on Fan Li’s condition. She wasn't moving at all, simply being dragged along, clearly dazed. He slowed down slightly, seemingly letting her adjust to his speed, before surging forward several hundred meters again.
If the universal speed limit was the speed of massless particles, then the limit for life beneath the sea must be Su Shiye’s movement speed. This was like riding a power-boosted, teleporting roller coaster! With every blink, the surrounding environment transformed into a completely different scene.
When they slowed down again, Fan Li’s heart nearly stopped. She pounded her chest desperately, but not wanting to cause him trouble, she didn't speak of her discomfort. After that, he didn't stop again, pulling her forward in a rapid dash. She felt as if her arm was about to be dislocated. He seemed to realize this as well, so he gripped her hand with one hand and supported her waist with the other, accelerating once more. She couldn't see what was happening around them; by the time she realized there were large creatures or seamount rocks ahead, he had already pulled her into a turn, leaving the obstacles hundreds of meters behind.
Later, she heard the sound of snapping and explosions near her ears, but she was so stimulated by this extreme sport that she didn't dare look at what was happening...
Thirty-nine seconds later, they stopped, and he released his hand.
Fan Li was numb from her spine to the tip of her tail, nearly flipping over to float like a dead fish. A faint blue light faded from her body. She looked down at the last of the light dissipating from her wrist, then looked up at Su Shiye in confusion. "This is..."
"Anti-Explosion Art."
"Anti-explosion?"
"Yes. Moving too fast in water causes friction that turns the water into steam, which can cause localized explosions."
Fan Li had initially thought the explosions she heard were caused by the speed itself, but upon learning they had already traveled fifty or sixty kilometers, she realized the Anti-Explosion Art likely reduced friction with the water, though it couldn't entirely eliminate the sonic boom.
A sonic boom is the massive noise created by a shockwave when an object exceeds the speed of sound.
The speed of sound on land is 340 meters per second; in water, it is 1,500 meters per second...
And looking at Su Shiye, he was perfectly fine, and she hadn't been blown into stardust.
Why was she encountering such anti-human phenomena...
Su Shiye’s villa style was different from the typical Red Moon Sea aesthetic; rather than a villa, it was more like a palace. It was a domed stone structure built upon an undersea mountain. The front featured a portico as high as the roofline, supported by eight stone-carved pillars with square bases. Above were bas-reliefs of sea-race deities—some reaching toward the heavens, others clutching their chests in prayer—their forms graceful and lifelike, leading guests beneath the twenty-meter-high dome.
Once inside, a long coral carpet stretched into the hall, where twelve slaves stood in two rows to welcome their master. The building was constructed around a central courtyard—a peristyle atrium. Although there were many people inside the villa and the courtyard, they went about their business in an orderly fashion, so quiet it felt as if no one was there.
The living room was hung with handmade mosaic paintings, a style particularly favored by high-ranking sea-race members, with each tessera made of stone or shell. The mosaics varied in style: fishermen hunting with tridents near the Wind-Sea Forest in ancient times; a deep blue mosaic themed "The Doom of the Ocean Sovereign"; an Eastern sea-race member whose tears had formed a mountain of pearls in the Bodhi Sea; street musicians in the undersea forests of the Starry Sea; abyss-race opera actors wearing masks...
In front of the largest mosaic sat a couch, much like a sofa but without a back, featuring only exquisitely crafted armrests. It was covered with food.
Upon arriving home, Su Shiye immediately reverted to his land-dwelling form. He pulled out a chair for Fan Li, and after she sat, he sat beside her. He ordered a few more dishes from a slave and then spoke plainly. "Do you know why there is currently a sea departure ban?"
"I don't know..."
"Right, you’re still a student, aren't you?"
"Yes, I study at the Luoya University Arcane Academy."
"Then you must know Su Yi."
Hearing that name, Fan Li’s heart jolted, but she maintained a surface-level calm. "Mhm, of course I know her. What happened to her?"
"Beyond being an arcanist, she is an Academician of the Holy Yejiana Arcane Academy, a recipient of the Erguo Linge Arcane Research Award, and the Deputy Inspector and Chief Potioneer of the Holy Light Sea Military Research Department. Now, she has fled with the Holy City’s military secrets. It was to catch her that we implemented this departure ban." Su Shiye leaned back against his chair, the knuckle of his right index finger resting lightly against his jaw. His gaze was like the surface of the sea before a storm—utterly devoid of ripples.
*Holy crap. Academician, Chief... Mom is a badass,* Fan Li marveled internally, though she remained timid on the outside. "Did she... join the Storm Party?"
"Aside from a few small neutral tribes, the entire Light Sea is currently split into two factions. If she wanted to oppose the Holy City, where do you think she would go? Yet, none of the evidence before us can confirm she has done so. What I can confirm is that she betrayed the Holy City Party and has always wanted to flee and rebel. We have caught her and brought her back to Holy Yejiana eight times. Of course, that wasn't because she wasn't smart enough, but because she is merely an Ocean-race member and lacks the ability to hide her own trail. No matter how well she disguises herself, she cannot defeat the genes given to the Hunter-race by natural selection."
Fan Li thought about it and understood.
Take a shark, for example. When the ratio of meat to water is 1:1,000,000, a shark can still instantly and precisely locate that meat; they are even more sensitive to blood. Without chemical interference, even if a tablespoon of blood were poured into an Olympic-sized swimming pool, it could instantly find the source. At the same time, a shark’s olfactory organs possess many electroreceptors; the minute electrical currents emitted by a prey’s nervous system cannot escape their grasp. Sea-race members carrying shark genes had abilities that were even more potent. Therefore, it was essentially impossible for an Ocean-race member to escape a military-scale search by the Hunter-race.
"This time, she has been missing the longest and has fled the furthest. During this period, someone told me that the rarest diamond in the Storm Sea had been ordered. At the same time, in the citizen registration information of the Bogia City Police Station in Harijin County of the Storm Sea, an Ocean-race woman suddenly appeared. Her arcane grades were exceptionally high; at a young age, she achieved Double-S marks that many senior professors could never reach."
Hearing this, Fan Li froze. "What do you mean?"
Su Shiye stared at her like a predator staring at the prey that had scratched him. He raised an eyebrow. "Have you performed enough, Academician Su Yi?"
Fan Li was stunned. She looked around to confirm no one else was nearby, then pointed at herself. She wanted to say, "Is it really me?" but saying that would be no different from admitting to the crime of soul exchange.
At this moment, she was utterly confused. Her current appearance looked nothing like Su Yi. Moreover, Su Yi was her mother—how could she be the original owner of this body?!
Now she finally understood. Why the original owner had fled without looking back, despite getting into such a good university and being engaged to a wealthy man. It wasn't because she was poor, but because she was a traitor to the Holy City Party. She was an enemy of Su Shiye, and since her body couldn't hide, she let only her soul escape.
If she admitted she wasn't the person inside the shell: execution.
If she admitted she was the person inside the shell: treason.
Either way, it was death. The fate the original owner had arranged for her was truly intoxicating. She was unwilling to believe this was her mother.
Finally, she said only one thing: "I am not Su Yi."
"Then who are you?"
"I am Fan Li. I’m just an ordinary, poor student."
Su Shiye waved his hand toward her. An ice sword flew from his palm and struck Fan Li. The nausea she had felt when first arriving on the seabed returned; Fan Li clutched her stomach, her body swaying.
Normally, the transformation spell Su Shiye used, "Memnon’s Aspect," would involve the ice sword turning into countless starlit rivers that rapidly surrounded the target before energy conversion and arcane transformation occurred. However, Su Shiye’s arcane casting was so fast and powerful that the naked eye couldn't see these processes—it was just a flash. Consequently, Fan Li’s nausea also dissipated quickly.
"Did you think drinking a bit of transformation potion could hide the truth?" Su Shiye smiled slightly. He looked beautiful, yet cold. "Why doesn't Miss Fan Li look in the mirror?"
Following the prompt of his gaze, Fan Li looked at the full-length mirror in the room.
The person in the mirror was no longer Fan Li’s original appearance.
Her ear fins and her entire tail had turned sea-blue. Her rose-colored curls were thick and voluminous. A mid-winter fur shawl covered her thin shoulders, matching the hairstyle Ye Jia had manifested for her.
This face was one Fan Li knew very well. It looked very similar to Fan Li, but the features were more dignified and grand, the aura more mature and elegant. However, her gaze shared nothing in common with Su Yi; because her expression was innocent and soft, even her deep blue eyes appeared a bit lighter.
Whether it was because she had turned into a sea-race member, Fan Li felt she had never been this beautiful in her life. At this moment, even the four purple jellyfish Su Shiye kept as pets stopped jumping around. They turned their ten-centimeter-wide bells, trailing ten-meter-long "ballet ribbons," and swam over gracefully, circling her with blinking bioluminescence.
She was startled by them and turned around, her wave-like long curls dancing lightly, her vivid, beautiful eyes happening to turn toward Su Shiye.
Su Shiye had been observing her calmly, expressionless, but when she turned back, his eyes widened slightly, and he took a sharp breath.
Fan Li desperately wanted to ask what was happening, but she didn't dare, fearing that a single wrong word would lead to her head rolling like one of the abyss-race. She could only look at him helplessly.
Clearly, this was not a look Su Yi would ever give. A sense of irritation invaded Su Shiye’s body. He walked slowly toward her, looked down at her, and gripped her throat with one hand.
She coughed, looking back at him in shock.
"You had better not play with me, Su Yi," Su Shiye said through gritted teeth, his eyes narrowing. "If I find out that everything today is an act, you will die a very miserable death, do you understand?"
"I..." As his fingers tightened, she coughed twice more, speaking with difficulty. "I... am not Su Yi..."
"You know full well how I once treated you. You know how many resources the Holy Yejiana government used to cultivate you. And you—how do you repay me, how do you repay the Holy City Party?"
"Lord Dictator... I am not..." Fan Li struggled even to speak.
Seeing the defenseless look in Fan Li’s eyes, Su Shiye finally abandoned his last attempt at testing her.
At the same time, he recalled something Su Yi had once said to him offhandedly:
"I am currently researching a soul exchange technique that none of you have thought of. It can transcend time and space, transcend race and medium, and bring anyone’s soul into the body of the person being exchanged."
"And have you researched it successfully?"
"Not yet, but I will succeed." She always spoke like that—full of confidence amidst her playfulness, as if nothing in the world could stump her.
"Do you want the truth? I don't believe you."
Now, she really had succeeded.
The evidence was sufficient: Fan Li was not Su Yi. Su Yi was smart, but her acting wasn't so perfect that it could reach this level. She couldn't possibly imitate a human’s mannerisms so flawlessly, without a single loophole.
"Lord Su Shiye, please... please let go..."
Fan Li could guarantee that if he had waited a moment longer to let go, she would have been strangled to death.
When he finally released her, she propped herself up against the back of the sofa, coughing so hard her gills flared wide. Pounding her chest, she said, "Don't do that... if I really were Su Yi, would I still be sitting here waiting for you to deal with me..."
"Fine, I believe you." Su Shiye sighed. "Now, can you tell the truth? Who are you?"
Fan Li said pitifully, "Lord Su Shiye, I don't want to die."
"Tell the truth, and I won't kill you."
"I seem to have committed a capital offense for no reason... can you really just say you won't kill me?"
"I am the Dictator of the Light Sea. As long as you guarantee your identity won't be discovered before coming to the Holy City, I can guarantee you won't die."
"I am actually a human. At the very least, in my past eighteen years of life, I don't remember having any connection to the sea-race..."
"Go on."
Then, Fan Li confessed everything: how she woke up to find herself turned into a member of the sea-race, how she learned that soul exchange was punishable by beheading and thus pretended to be the original owner, how she tried to go to sea to find her father but ran into the departure ban... she even told Su Shiye about the little episode with the transfer student during her school days.
"Which country were you in, in the human world?"
"China."
"What methods do you use for long-distance communication?"
"Uh, mobile phones. Or instant messaging services like WeChat or QQ on smart terminals. We don't have arcane arts; our civilization’s development is built on technology... Lord Su Shiye should know all this, right?"
"Let me confirm one more thing: you mean to say that in your middle school class, there was once a shark-race transfer student, similar in age to you, and his father accompanied him, appearing together on land?"
"Shark-race?"
Fan Li was stunned for a moment, then remembered. At the time, she only thought the transfer student looked like Xinghai, but she had forgotten that the transfer student’s pupils could change into slits. Combined with his vision, sense of smell, insight, and personality, he was very much like a purebred shark-race member, not a hybrid. Furthermore, he could even smell...
Thinking of this, Fan Li smiled awkwardly. This was too disgusting and ridiculous.
"Yes," Fan Li mused, "that boy did indeed expose shark-race traits and transferred schools very quickly."
"What else did he say to you? Did he ever mention Su Yi?"
Fan Li shook her head. But mentioning Su Yi reminded Fan Li of the handwritten poem in the room. So, that poem was actually written by Su Yi herself. And Su Yi didn't want her to know she was Su Yi, so the name left on the note was "The person whose name you do not need to know." Thinking of it this way, everything made sense.
Recalling the contents of that note again, Fan Li said cautiously, "Lord Su Shiye, did Su Yi only betray you, or... did she ever try to kill you?"
"What do you think?" Su Shiye smiled.
"The owner of this body told me: 'Tell that man, in 2,271 years, he will be killed once more.' Was the person she was talking about you?"
"2,271 years?" Su Shiye looked at her in confusion. He pondered for a long time, and suddenly his voice became much softer. "I truly did not predict incorrectly."
He closed his eyes and didn't say a word for a long time. Suddenly, he slammed the table hard, knocking over the seaweed bottles. "In 2,271 years! How dare she even think of that!"
Fan Li leaned down to set the seaweed bottles upright again. "Please... please calm your anger..."
Su Shiye propped his temple with his knuckles. He hadn't been this emotionally agitated in a very long time.
Human civilization progressed so quickly; what would happen in 2,271 years was completely outside his control. Su Yi had played this move well—since she couldn't beat him now, she declared war for 2,271 years later. Fine. Very well.
He remained silent, and Fan Li didn't dare make a sound. It wasn't until four long minutes had passed that he finally recovered his previous calm state. He called a slave to bring pen and paper to Fan Li. "Give me your human citizen information."
"You..." Fan Li was so scared she started using formal honorifics. "Are you planning to kill my human body?"
"If the soul cannot be switched back, that is one way to handle it."
Fan Li shuddered violently again. "Then can I apply to give you that information a bit later? Just give me a year—no, a few months. I will find a way to go back. If I can go back, I won't have to trouble you to act personally..."
"Fine."
He agreed so quickly that Fan Li was somewhat overwhelmed by the favor. "Thank you, Lord Dictator!"
Seeing his ruthlessness toward her mother, claiming kinship was impossible. But that didn't stop her from acknowledging his tolerance and magnanimity.
Meanwhile, Su Shiye looked at the girl before him, thinking that a person’s aura was truly peculiar. It was clearly the same body, yet she could smile so brightly, as clear as the bottom of a pool.
Only then did he realize he had been a bit excessive just now. This was an innocent girl; he shouldn't take out his hostility toward Su Yi on her. His pale gold eyes swept over her again, much softer now. "Now the questions I wanted to ask have answers. Do you have any requests or questions?"
"Su Yi left some medicine in the room and said I would die if I didn't drink it. Is it because, as the rumors say, she has a serious illness?"
"No. Saying she had a serious illness was just to prevent the Holy City Party’s territories from knowing she had defected and causing panic. As for the medicine she left," Su Shiye chuckled, "transformation potion, likely."
"Medicine to change appearance? To delay the time before you discovered her?"
"Mhm."
It took Fan Li a long time to accept the facts she had heard.
So, the original owner wasn't some poor slum girl at all, and it wasn't strange that she scored Double-S. This wasn't a story of an inspirational struggle against peers; it was the story of an Academician of the Holy Yejiana Arcane Academy taking a middle school exam. And the reason her current brain was so powerful wasn't because of luck, but because it was the brain of an Erguo Linge Arcane Research Award winner.
And this Academician was her mom. And a traitorous rebel.
*I’m out.*
***
Glossary:
