I jolted awake, unsure of what I had just experienced. Water bubbled around me as I sat up, and I couldn't see much. My glasses were floating beside me, and I put them back on. Despite the lenses being wet, being underwater, there weren't droplets and smudges on them, much like goggles.
For a second, I panicked when I realized I was still underwater, but I realized that I could breathe. How?
Not only that, the place I was in resembled an underwater hospital. Despite the aquatic atmosphere, the bed was comfortable despite not being made of any fabric I had heard of. Sleek machinery and holograms flashed in the room, and the walls and ceiling were a silvery white. Sterile, clean but otherwise almost identical to the hospitals on land. Clearly, it was a medical facility designed for humans.
Humans who could live and breathe underwater.
"Good, you're awake."
I looked up in astonishment when the blue-haired girl who saved me before I blacked out drifted in, accompanied by an entourage of servants. She smiled, a dazzling expression that took my breath away.
"Um…your highness?"
"Oh, you heard that." The princess laughed, embarrassed. She scratched her head before doing a curtsy, which was an odd maneuver underwater now that I thought about it. Hell, why was she wearing a dress underwater? "I'm Myria. Um, as you probably heard from what the others called me, I'm the princess of Atlantis."
"A…Atlantis?!"
I wasn't sure if I had misheard her. Atlantis was supposed to be a myth, even from before the times of spirit beasts and cultivation. An entire ancient civilization that disappeared overnight, supposedly wiped out by the wrath of gods and plunged into the ocean, its citizens destroyed.
Of course, there were plenty of popular culture references that depicted Atlantis as a divergent human civilization where its inhabitants had learned to dwell underwater. I didn't think that would actually be the reality as well.
"Yeah." Myria nodded with a smile. "I believe your people on the surface has legends of us. We developed technology and techniques to allow us to live in the depths of the ocean, as well as build a city here."
"Amazing…" I stared at her in awe. Then I blinked and looked around. "Uh, wait, how am I able to breathe underwater?"
"I taught you the technique earlier." Myria looked a little embarrassed again. "I apologize for the uh, physical contact, but it was the only way I can impart the breathing technique to you. That said, it only worked because I detected that you have an affinity with the water element."
"I see. Yeah, that's the kind of cultivation technique I practiced." Azure Rain Celestial Arrow and Flowing River Clear Sword. They were both water-based cultivation techniques, and my choice to practice them probably saved my life. If I had been a fire-based practitioner like Xiao Yan, I would have drowned back then, and failed to battle through the heavens.
"That's great!" Myria held my hands in delight. "It is an honor to hear that our savior uses the same techniques as we of Atlantis do."
"Huh? Savior?"
"Oh, you saved us from the Large Liopleurodon," the princess explained, her cerulean hair spreading out behind her like a halo as she drifted. "My scouting party was under attack from the creature and we would have been massacred if you hadn't cut your way out when you did. Could I have your name, dear savior?"
"Um, I'm Song Jun Wen," I replied, feeling a little uneasy. "And I'm not a savior. That was a coincidence. I didn't even know that you guys were being attacked. I was only trying to save myself."
"That might be true, but that doesn't change the fact that you saved us." Myria giggled and let go of my hands, particularly when she caught sight of a disapproving glare from one of her maids.
"I don't think so…anyway, I didn't expect to end up in Atlantis of all places."
"Yes, you land dwellers rarely come down to these depths."
For good reason, though I didn't say that out loud. Most humans, even cultivators, would be hard-pressed to survive the extreme temperatures and pressure this far down. I could already feel the currents crushing down on me, and I was surprised to see that the structures held. They must have adapted their construction technology to their surroundings.
"Well, once you've gotten used to the environment, you'll be discharged." Myria looked me over. "There doesn't seem to be any issues with your body, and your water type cultivation base allowed you to adapt fairly quickly. Otherwise, you would have been crushed by the tremendous pressure long ago."
I felt my neck to see if I had sprouted gills or something, but Myria simply giggled.
"Oh, don't worry about that. It's not a mutation. We Atlanteans aren't so different from you surface people – we are all humans. The only difference is that we've developed water-based cultivation techniques to survive in the ocean."
"Hmm…" I studied her and the other people in the room. Yeah, they appeared as human as I did, a far cry from the inhuman merfolk I had battled before I was swallowed by the damned Large Liopleurodon. Now that I really looked at them, I could detect the dense qi that surrounded them like an aquatic aura. That explained why Myria was wearing a dress, and how such clothing remained unencumbered in the ocean.
The qi aura that they had developed to protect them from the crushing pressure of the ocean depths helped to keep their clothing dry (as dry as they could be underwater, anyway), and I sensed it layering a lot of the structures. Spirit stones or spirit ores were probably used in their construction too.
"Anyway, it's good to see that you're all right. We owe you for saving us from the Large Liopleurodon, after all." Myria beamed. "How did you do that? Cut your way out, I mean. I didn't think anyone could survive after being eaten by a spirit beast."
She probably should read about Jonah in the Bible, but I guess the people of Atlantis didn't get much access to surface world literature.
"I got lucky…and I had a sword."
"Speaking of sword, we placed your belongings there," Myria said, gesturing to a cabinet by the far wall. I nodded.
"Thanks."
"No problem. It was the least we can do." Myria lowered her head slightly. "We'll leave you to rest. I'll come back tomorrow when you're discharged and show you around Atlantis."
"Um, thanks. I appreciate it." I wanted to return to the surface and assure my parents that I wasn't dead, but I wasn't sure how she would react if I said that. Fortunately, I didn't raise the issue, especially when I heard the conversation between Myria and her entourage when they stepped out of the room.
"Your highness," one of the maids whispered urgently into her ear. "Are you sure about this? Showing the surface dweller around our city? You know the old laws of our kingdom. Atlantis does not permit outsiders into its territory. By right, this surface dweller should be executed. You should never have brought him in here."
"Our laws also state that we must repay our debts," Myria said firmly. "How can we hold our heads up high as Atlanteans if we leave the person who saved our lives to his death?"
"That…"
Any rebuttal the maid could muster faded into the distance as the group left. I sighed and closed my eyes, wondering just what on earth I had gotten myself into. It wasn't everyday I woke up and discovered that an ancient myth was actually real.
Still, cultivation techniques that allowed an entire kingdom of people to live underwater, huh? If the surface world found out about this, they would go insane. I understood why the laws of Atlantis forbade contact with the outside world.
But it wasn't as if I could stay here forever…
Getting out of bed, I swam toward the cabinet and checked if my possessions were there. They were still intact, all the supplies that Jun Hai had packed for me, my bow, my sword and even my smartphone. The Atlanteans were kind enough to protect them with qi. Surprisingly enough, I still received a signal underwater. Using my own qi to envelop my phone in a protective screen, I sent a text message to my parents, reassuring them that I was fine.
I didn't tell them that I was in Atlantis, just some island cut off from the rest of the world, and I was receiving their hospitality. I didn't know when I would be back, but I would figure a way out. They just didn't have to worry.
My parents, as expected, responded, and my mom's reply was nearly hysterical. I grimaced and sent another message while snapping a picture of my hospital room. Aside from the bubbles, it didn't look too different from the ones in the surface. And it was hard to see all the water from a photo, given how clear it was and how brightly lit the room was.
Sighing in relief, I returned to my bed and went back to sleep.
"Rise and shine!"
As she promised, Myria came back for me the next morning. An Atlantean doctor, also wearing the same cliché white lab coat as surface ones, marked off a checklist on his electronic tablet (I assumed it ran on a battery, but it could be powered by qi and spirit stones). The only difference was that he was floating and swimming around the hospital instead of walking in the corridor. Most of his surgical tools and machinery were drifting as well, tethered to the walls by seaweed-like wires that also functioned to supply them with power. Or qi.
"Let's go! Let me show you around!"
"Um, okay. Sure."
I wasn't sure how to respond, but I decided to entertain her for now. She was still accompanied by an entourage, but it wasn't maids today. This time, a group of bodyguards waded a good distance behind us, dressed in suits and black tinted goggles.
The Atlanteans' fashion sense was the same as ours on the surface. How bewildering.
But the similarities between Atlantis and the surface world only extended to their fashion. The moment I swam out of the hospital, I was blown away by what I saw.
Atlantis was a hi-tech city full of glowing lights that kept away the dark shadows of the ocean depths, with sleek, silvery buildings underneath a shimmering dome. Atlanteans swam alongside schools of fishes and other marine life, forming streams of underwater traffic from dome-shaped buildings to similarly patterned constructs.
The artificial structures were built differently from the skyscrapers of the surface world, rounded and almost spherical, probably better to resist the tremendous pressures at these depths. Not only that, they weren't completely walled off – most of the buildings were open to the larger ocean. Along paths and roads, seaweed and coral reefs took the place of trees and gardens, a vibrant ecosystem teeming with life and color. Atlanteans and their accompanying pets would soar over these, some of them pausing to admire the scenery, while shoals of fishes broke off from the humans to dart into the openings of meticulously cultivated coral.
"Over here!"
Myria waved for me to follow her and sped ahead, leaving a stream of bubbles in her wake. She slowed to a stop and drifted over one of the biggest dome-shaped buildings near the center of Atlantis, a trendy structure filled with bright lights and holograms. Myria grinned when I approached and proudly presented it to me.
"This is our biggest mall in Atlantis! Aeon Flux!"
"Wow."
Unlike the completely enclosed structure of a surface mall, Aeon Flux was an open dome, reminding me of a broken egg somehow, but that didn't do justice to its sleek, clean design. We could swim straight into the mall from above, and at first glance there weren't any floors for the multiple levels that grew out of the rounded walls.
There was no need for escalators or elevators because the shoppers could make use of the water currents to swim toward whichever level they wanted, and thus floors were largely useless. That said, floors existed, but they were restricted to individual stores that encrusted the inner surface, almost like the corals outside. Each shop was an individual unit with its own floor, walls, ceilings, lights, displays and entrances, connected only to the wall, but they were all equally accessible to gliding customers who propelled themselves through the sea.
It was a design made possibly only because of the underwater environment. Though I wouldn't be surprised if future space stations would make use of the same concept, given the autonomy of movement granted by zero gravity.
Clearly, the Atlanteans were way ahead of us surface people.
"C'mon! Over here!" Myria waved me over to a fashion shop, doing a loop and drifting to a stop in front of the display window. She studied the dress, her expression filled with admiration. One of her bodyguards gracefully glided to her side.
"Would you like to place an order for that dress, your highness?"
"No, there's no need to." Annoyance flickered across Myria's face and she sighed. "I'm just window shopping."
"If there's anything you need, your highness, you could place a special order…"
"If that's what I wanted, I would have stayed at home. There wouldn't be any need for me to come out here." Myria threw her hands up and rolled her eyes. "You guys don't get it! I didn't come all the way here because I'm looking for something to buy! I just want to hang out and explore the city! I want to experience the fun of swimming around a mall, just like everyone else!"
She then leaned in and whispered mischievously to me.
"Thank you for giving me the chance to do it. If it weren't for you, I would never have an excuse to come out here on my own. They finally allowed me to do so when I argued that it's for diplomacy and entertainment of a foreign guest."
"N…no problem." I was taken aback by her candid nature. She didn't behave like how I would imagine a princess would. Even Long Fan Xue seemed more aloof and closer to that image than the Myria who was swimming happily in front of me.
"Over there!"
She tugged my hand and pulled me over to a much larger closed off store. As we approached, I saw that it was a cinema, which explained its size and why it seemed more enclosed than the other shops. Myria drifted to a stop and peered at the myriad of holographic advertisements that shone and flickered across the dark walls.
"Which movie should we watch?"
I didn't reply because I had no idea what movies were playing, though the titles seemed pretty cliché. Love at the Beach. The Hunt for Nautilus. Attack of the Killer Whale. While I raised my eyebrow, one of the bodyguards swam forward.
"Should we book the whole theater, your highness?"
"No! Stop ruining my fun! And you guys stay outside!"
"But it's our duty to protect you, your highness…"
"Then buy tickets and take your seats like everyone else!"
The bodyguards exchanged bemused glances, but they didn't object. Instead, they patiently waited for their mistress to choose a film, and Myria in turn looked to me for help.
"Which of these movies would you recommend?"
"Um…you're asking me?"
"Well…I heard that you surface dwellers have a lot of movies on the surface too. This cinema technology and industry came from you guys. I thought you'll have a better idea."
"Huh, if you ask me…" I swept my gaze over the various holographic posters before settling it on the one sporting a killer whale terrorizing screaming Atlanteans. You just couldn't go wrong with a B-movie. "Let's try this one."