The morning sun had barely crested over the far edge of Sea God Island when Bo Saixi found herself awake far earlier than usual. The sea breeze whispered of something unnatural—a tension lying just beneath the surface of the waters. It wasn't a storm. It wasn't spiritual beasts. It was something subtler.
Something... resonant.
Bo Saixi stepped out onto the high balcony of the Sea God Temple. Her long white robes fluttered gently in the sea breeze, her silver hair glinting under the dim dawn light. From her vantage point, she could see the waves stretching endlessly toward the horizon, but this morning, the water shimmered strangely—like the surface of a singing bowl after being struck. The rhythm of the ocean had changed.
She closed her eyes and reached out with her spiritual senses.
The pulse she felt beneath the sea was not one of danger. It was deep. Timeless. Resonant in a way that tugged at her chest and the edge of memory. Something was waking—or perhaps, someone was remembering.
That someone was Hai Shen Ling.
The boy had been quieter than usual since absorbing his second spirit ring. It was another thousand-year-old ring—strong, stable, and beautiful. It shimmered with aquatic blues and soft violet ripples when activated, a perfect match for his ethereal Siren Martial Soul. But ever since that moment, something had changed.
He didn't withdraw from others. He still trained. Still obeyed.
But when Bo Saixi looked into his eyes, she didn't see a child anymore.
She saw waves. Deep, still water. Water that did not yet know it would become a storm.
The sacred meditation cavern was hidden beneath layers of coral and stone, lit only by the bioluminescent moss that shimmered across the walls. Here, water pooled from the breath of the sea itself, warm and nurturing, a sanctuary for soul cultivation.
Hai Shen Ling knelt in the center of the circular basin, bare-chested and motionless, immersed in water up to his waist. His eyes were closed. His breath steady. And surrounding him—two spirit rings pulsed with growing rhythm.
The first ring, gifted to him at his awakening, danced in pale blue. It radiated a gentle energy, like the lull of a sea's surface beneath a full moon. The second ring, which he had hunted for, carried a deeper, richer glow—a thousand-year-old spirit beast had been absorbed into it, one born of the deep currents, with a song that could sink ships and stir emotion.
The Siren manifested behind him—not fully, but enough to shimmer across the walls like a reflection glimpsed in the ocean at night. Her eyes were closed, her mouth slightly open, as though she, too, were breathing the rhythm of the sea.
The Sea God's projection, however, lingered quietly within him. It never appeared fully. Unlike the Siren, it did not sing or shift. It simply was—a steady, immeasurable presence in the deepest reaches of his soul.
But something had begun to change.
As his soul rings pulsed, they began to harmonize. A resonance formed, slow at first—then unmistakable. The cavern itself began to hum.
And then Shenling heard it again.
The song.
A note, distant yet piercing. Not loud, not harsh, but clear. A tone that seemed to originate from nowhere, and everywhere. The same tone he'd heard in his dreams. The same tone he'd started to echo in his sleep.
He opened his eyes slowly, and the world around him fell away.
Shenling stood atop an endless black sea, the sky above a starless void. The water beneath him was like glass, but deeper than any abyss, its surface trembling beneath a hidden pulse.
Ahead, a figure emerged—his own reflection, but twisted. Silver-eyed, bare-footed, skin slightly translucent, as if made from moonlight and deep current.
"I am the song you buried," the reflection said, voice echoing in a chorus of tones—male and female, young and old.
Shenling frowned. "You're the Siren."
"I am the first voice. I am memory. I am depth. You knew me before you knew yourself."
Behind him, the air grew cold. The reflection turned into mist, and from behind, a weight heavier than gravity pressed into Shenling's spine. The Sea God.
Not a man. Not a statue. Just an awareness. A force.
"You are not ready," came the voice—not a judgment, but a truth.
"I don't want to be a god," Shenling whispered. "I just want to understand why I was born in the sea. Why I feel like I belong there more than on land."
The reflection stepped forward again, cupping Shenling's face gently.
"You don't have to choose. You don't have to carry the ocean. You are the ocean."
She sang.
It wasn't a song made of words. It was emotion. A melody composed of silence, grief, longing, and truth. It pierced through every wall he had ever built. It stripped away every illusion.
Shenling screamed—not in pain, but because his body could not contain the truth.
His spirit rings flared.
His blood ignited.
His mind shattered into starlight.
And back in the physical world—
The entire Sea God Island quaked.
Flocks of seabirds scattered across the skies. Tidal currents rose around the island's edges. Even the protective formation around the temple flickered for an instant.
Bo Saixi dropped the jade cup she had been holding. It shattered on the temple floor, but she didn't even notice.
"He's begun the resonance," she whispered.
She vanished.
The Seven Sea Douluo—Sea Dragon, Seahorse, Sea Spear, Sea Star, Sea Woman, Sea Ghost, and Sea Fantasy—all felt it. It was like someone had rung the Sea God's bell deep beneath the island. One by one, they turned toward the direction of the resonance and sprinted.
The sacred meditation cavern was bathed in blinding light.
Hai Shen Ling floated in the air, his body lifted by a swirl of dual energies. His eyes were shut tightly. His veins glowed with spirit energy. Behind him, the Siren now stood in full form—hair flowing like ribbons of water, her song sending ripples into the air.
But opposite her, something else had awakened. The Sea God's projection no longer slumbered.
It stood tall. Towering. A silhouette formed from divine light. A guardian and a test.
The two martial souls circled him—one a melody of seduction and freedom, the other a silence of divinity and discipline. The forces were incompatible. They began to clash.
"Shenling!" Bo Saixi called, her voice slicing through the chaos.
"His sea of consciousness is collapsing!" Sea Fantasy Douluo shouted.
"Don't let the Siren consume him!" Sea Dragon Douluo stepped forward.
"No," Bo Saixi said, raising a hand. "He's not being consumed. He's harmonizing them."
They watched as both spirits spiraled faster, then—stopped.
A singular tone echoed through the chamber.
Shenling opened his eyes. Tears fell—not from pain, but from a deep, unbearable clarity.
The Siren and the Sea God both bowed.
He descended slowly into the pool.