Chapter 369


    Pain!


    Excruciating pain!!


    It felt as if his entire body was being slowly sliced apart. The agony surged from every part of him, rushing towards his brain, threatening to burst it open. This intense pain jolted Qin Ran awake from his unconscious state.


    As awareness returned to his mind, the first thing he experienced was confusion and chaos—aplete void. Then, in the next moment, his mind was assaulted by blinding white light, shattered spaces, raging whirlwinds, turbulent ocean waves, and an endless void, all dancing wildly in his consciousness.


    Following that, he felt the sensation of being helplessly tossed about in the chaotic currents of space.


    Fighting through the pain, he opened his eyes to find himself face-down in muddy sand. He could see water flowing past his face, while his mouth and nose were filled with grit.


    "Where am I?" This question bubbled up in his mind.


    Then...


    "Who am I?""What am I doing?"


    After posing these questions, it took a while for his memories to drift back from the distant chaos.


    He finally remembered: his name was Qin Ran, he was a Divine Soul Avatar, and he had been transported here through an extremely long-distance teleportation array. His purpose was to scout this location for safety on behalf of his main body and to establish a potential escape route.


    His mind gradually transitioned fromplete emptiness to recalling his past lives and present existence, understanding who he was and why he hade here.


    Now, only one question remained: where exactly was "here"?


    Where had the teleportation array sent him... what was the destination of that one-way transport?


    Qin Ran attempted to control his limbs and stand up, but found himself unable to do so. It was as if he were paralyzed, his bodypletely unresponsive to his mentalmands.


    "So..." he thought, looking at the muddy sand beneath his face and enduring the pain coursing through his body, "Am I destined to die such a pitiful death, drowning right here?"


    But soon, the pain throughout his body made him realize that he wasn''t actually paralyzed. His brain was still receiving pain signals from his body.


    Then it dawned on him. He was a Divine Soul Avatar, essentiallyposed of a divine soul and a Water Avatar. He didn''t have a physical human body in the traditional sense, so concepts like nerves and paralysis didn''t apply to him.


    "My thinking is so slow..." he gradually understood, "It seems my divine soul was also damaged during the teleportation process!"


    "The divine soul is essentially my brain, and since it''s damaged, I''m basically brain-damaged right now."


    "If a Water Avatar drowns in water, would that be an unsolved mystery in the world of cultivation? It could certainly be added to a collection of jokes."


    "Hmm, during the teleportation, my brain was damaged and my memories are problematic. So, am I really Qin Ran? Or am I someone who transmigrated from the modern world? Is it possible that I''m actually the main body, but was somehow usurped by an avatar?"


    "The memories in my mind could all be false, perhaps imnted by someone with ulterior motives..."


    As these random thoughts flitted through his mind, Qin Ran felt his brain gradually bing more agile, and the pain in his body began to subside. When he tried to control his limbs again, he finally got a response.


    It seemed his divine soul was slowly healing.


    "Is there a possibility that this is a multiverse setting, and I''m just a minor viin who got stranded in a cultivation world?"


    "Or perhaps I''m the eighteenth reincarnation of some unfortunate soul, destined to die a miserable death by drowning in this life?"


    "Or maybe this is just a part of my memory, and I''m actually in a vegetative state?"


    "I might even be insane..."


    His limbs slowly began to move, progressing fromplete immobility to slight movement, from utter weakness to gradually gaining strength.


    After an indeterminate amount of time, Qin Ran finally managed to use both his arms and legs to turn himself over, transitioning from lying face-down in the muddy sand to lying on his back in the wet sand.


    "The salted fish has turned over... from face-down to face-up..."


    He looked up at the sky. It was a brilliant blue, with a few streaks of pure white clouds stretched across the azure backdrop, drifting like the flowing sleeves of celestial maidens.


    "Oh, it''s broad daylight, nice weather."


    "But I''m still a salted fish."


    After another long while, Qin Ran finally managed to sit up in the sand.


    It was then that he realized he hadn''t fallen into some small muddy pit, but rather...


    He hadnded in an immense, immeasurable ocean!!


    His current position was on a beach.


    Looking ahead, he saw grass, lush green forests, and... an ind.


    Struggling to turn around, he confirmed that behind him was indeed a vast, boundless sea.


    The howling of the sea breeze, the crashing of ocean waves, and the cries of seabirds flying overhead reached his ears, convincing him that all of this was real.


    "Is this a game?" he wondered again, "When I hadn''t realized this was an ind, I couldn''t hear any sounds or get any clues. But as soon as I understood where I was, I suddenly received a flood of information."


    Now, he could taste as well, detecting the saltiness of seawater in his mouth. His sense of smell had also returned, allowing him to catch the briny scent carried by the sea breeze.


    "So..." he pondered, "Am I an NPC or a yer?"


    Sitting on the edge of the beach where the wavespped at the shore, Qin Ran rested for a while longer, gathering strength before struggling to his feet and out of the water.


    However, his divine soul was still injured, causing him to walk as if he had a damaged cerebellum or was suffering from a severe hangover. He staggered about, his legs constantly failing to find purchase.


    He tried his best to move towards drynd, but the waves behind him repeatedly knocked him down. It took him a long time to cover the mere ten meters or so to reach the dry part of the shore.


    Sitting cross-legged on the beach, facing the vast ocean but feeling far from serene, Qin Ran wondered, "Where is this ce?"


    This clearly wasn''t the Lingnan Region, as there was no sea there.


    He sat there nkly for a while before remembering to look for his map. Before the teleportation, all these things had been prepared.


    But when he looked down, he realized he waspletely naked. Forget about his Universe Bag, even his clothes were gone, all lost in the spatial turbulence.


    Even his nakedness wasn''t perfect, as his body was covered in numerous wounds, some still raw and unhealed.


    "Ah! Perfect!!" hemented inwardly, "A ''heaven-forsaken'' start, without even a bowl or clothes. I can''t even be a beggar."


    This beginning was so dire that even the great Emperor Hongwu would exim, "What the hell!"


    As these mncholic thoughts ran through his mind, he suddenly noticed something glinting in the seawater, reflecting the sunlight and catching his eye several times.


    He couldn''t help but stand up: "Damn it, even dogs will bully a tiger that''s fallen from its mountain!" For a Golden Core Cultivator to be stranded on a deserted ind and then taunted by some sea creature—who could tolerate such a thing?


    Qin Ran, fuming, stumbled back into the seawater and reached out to grab the shiny object...


    "Hey! At least I have a bowl!"


    The object was none other than the protective magical artifact his main body had prepared for him before the teleportation—the Water Flower Pearl. It was a water-based magical tool crafted ording to the standards of the Water Flower Heart Sutra, a top-grade artifact bordering on a magical treasure.


    Standing on the beach, Qin Ran held up the Water Flower Pearl, looking through it at the azure sky and dazzling sunlight...


    "Brother Zhuba,e back quickly, there''s still hope!"