I woke up with a sudden jolt- Well, not really. Everything around me felt light while my body... I can't feel my body anymore.

I've been to places that offered ziplines before, I used to ride them with my coworkers back when I was around what? 19? 20? We stopped going after we spent 4 years into the hellhole we called our office but the memory is still there and would definitely stay until the day that they're forcefully forgotten. Those days were fun, and sometimes we would even go to beaches. In some cases, those beaches would have places that let you go scuba diving and I went ahead and did those too.

The feeling that I got from staying in this place is nothing like those two things. Ziplines, no matter how much gravity tries to pull me down at least had a way for me to stay upright and scuba diving, no matter how much I floated around weightlessly, still gave me the sense that I'm in something. Like something is wrapping around you, and that allowed you to float.

This is none of that, I'm floating, yes, but I don't have anything beneath me and that gave me the impression that I should fall but I just wouldn't. It's an odd feeling and it took me a while to get used to it.

And I inevitably did since there's nothing better to do here other than stare at a black void. I stared at it for a while, thinking, feeling regret about what I did to those two disciples because if what Li Ming yelled at me before I passed out is true then I might've just crippled two innocent people. Like you weren't killing people left and right before that. A part of me said and I like to think that it's right, I did kill people but... I don't know, doing that to what I think are my allies (in that situation, even when they didn't help me.) feels pretty fucked up.

I did move on from it eventually and floating there with nothing but my thoughts led me to think that it was either them or me. I saved myself. Obviously.

After that came the real questions- like if the place that I found myself in is real or I'm just hallucinating or what but I- I don't know, thinking about it gave me perspective about the entire situation. About how I stole someone's body. The part where I took over the original Yu Song... it feels a bit fucked up now that I've sat down and started to think. I mean, sure, he died but fuck I basically stole someone's body.

And what happened to my original body anyways? Who even is my original body? And why can't I remember myself when I can remember the experiences that I had as me just fine?

A panic attack struck me then and I don't know how long I spent in a delirious state before I stabilized again. I'd say I'm aware of what I was doing the entire time but then the experience feels like when you're walking and you suddenly got lost in your own thoughts that before you knew it, you're suddenly in front of where you wanted to go, standing idly like an idiot because you were lost in your own thoughts.

One moment I was panicking and the next, I wasn't. I became calm, moved on, and with nothing better to do, the next thing I did is think.

Different things slowly passed through my mind, some were relevant, like how I started to think about the situation as a whole rather than myself. I thought of Xie Wen then, I don't know what happened to her but I hoped that she's fine. Wherever she is right now. Other times, what I thought about was irrelevant, things like food, how to cook, and the different things I wanted to do if I go back to that world.

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I probably wouldn't. I thought sadly. Whatever this place is, it's probably the closest thing that I can have to a hell. Back then, back before everything actually- the thought of spending my time in a black void doing nothing had been scary, I didn't want to experience it, especially since I'd get bored with nothing to do and go insane or something.

It had been scary, all this had been scary.

Now though? Eh.

It's boring sure, but no matter how much I think about it, there's nothing else here other than boredom and even that can get tiring at some point. panicking, feeling helpless, things like that passed me by and the only real thing that I can do is, well- nothing.

It'd just pass. That eventually became my go to whenever I feel something bad, that no matter how much I cry and beg and whatever, that's it, I'm just crying because I'm feeling something but in the end, there's nothing I can do about it except let it pass. And pass they did, I didn't starve here, I didn't need to worry about anything.

I thought about things and I came to a conclusion: there's no point.

Well, guess I'm becoming a nihilist now, aren't I? As for how my current thought process affects me? Nothing. That's it. I can't do anything here so I think and I became nihilistic. But I can't do anything with it. Time did pass eventually and I came to another conclusion: Even if there's no point, I should probably feel satisfied.

I became greedy, I think, after that. I didn't really have any memories of doing anything other than wanting to get out of this place during my "Greedy Phase." and when I came to, I felt tired. So I topped.

Insanity gets boring after a while. How long have I been here? Who knows. I can't do anything here and there's nothing around me, so what's the point of worrying?

Or, at least there had been nothing until-

It started with a soft hum and I listened to it vibrate, in the emptiness of this place, the sound felt welcome and it might as well have been a concert to someone like me. The humming eventually grew, becoming a low whistle that became my sole company during my bouts of insanity, memories of times when I listened while insane to it came back to me in perfect clarity, as if the sound alone is enough to fix my brain.

It reminded me of Qi, and because of that, I felt a spark of hope.

The whistle grew louder, turning into a fine tap that rhythm like a heart, I listened to it beat, and each time, I felt a wave of calm wash over me. Then the tap turned into an actual beat, it's faster, better, louder, and rougher. It struck the void with its music, causing lightning and thunder to form in the far distance.

The beat got faster, slowly at first, but it sped up with time until I couldn't even recognize it as a beat anymore and instead, to me, it sounded like the howls of a strong wind. A sense of familiarity soon came over me every time I listened to the howls, they reminded me of a blizzard.

The sound felt cold.

As had been the pattern by now, the howls changed over time, the thrum becoming wilder with each passing second, it increased until it reached a climax, becoming a symphony that gave the void life before it erupted into a wave of ice that quickly melted and turned into an ocean- the black void became blue, then split into two parts that can be recognized as the sky and the sea.

The sky, the one up above, turned white while the sea, the one down below, gained a darker color. Water splashed as glaciers came to life, erupting out of the blue with a mighty roar. More and more of them popped up and populated the otherwise barren sea.

Even when I haven't seen it, I instinctively knew that the ocean in front of me is my Spirit Sea but that quickly made me wonder, if this is my spirit sea, then what's the frozen wasteland outside of the gym that takes me in? I know that I take Qi from it and even go as far as influencing it but the thing in front of me is my Spirit Sea, and this is supposed to be the one who has the wasteland's function.

I thought about it for a while before letting it go when I got no concrete results. I guess time will tell, huh?

For now, I had pressing matters, like, for example, learning how to control my Spirit Sea. Because I'm still alive, apparently.