The Undersea Adventures of the Little Jellyfish (JELLYFISH)
Tang You didn’t need light, but he asked Shen Jixiao for a light orb from a basic illumination spell.
"This is a very simple spell. Want me to teach you?" Shen Jixiao asked.
"Yes, yes, yes!"
Teaching was often harder than learning. After explaining verbally for a while, Shen Jixiao realized he wasn’t cut out for it and resorted to a slow-motion demonstration.
A soft orb of light appeared in the depths of the sea: "Just maintain the flow of magic like this... Never mind, I’ll just cast two illumination spells."
But the next second, an even larger and brighter orb appeared in front of the little jellyfish.
"Great! I got it!" Tang You happily patted his tentacles.
Shen Jixiao: "..."
Damn. How long had it taken him to learn this spell?
Tang You conjured three orbs in a row, each glowing steadily underwater and bobbing slightly with his movements—a sight that felt incredibly reassuring.
Unaware that Shen Jixiao was once again questioning his life choices, the little jellyfish circled around and deliberately left the largest orb for Brother Kuai: "This one’s for you."
"Good buddy!" Brother Kuai waved his tentacles tearfully. "I’ll wait here for you to come back."
The main entrance to the ship’s cabin had been crushed and warped, making it impassable, but there were plenty of gaps and holes left behind. Most of the windows had lost their glass panes, allowing easy entry.
Tang You tethered his psychic energy to Shen Jixiao’s wrist and chose the least cluttered window, pulling the mermaid inside with him.
The interior was pitch black, save for the gentle white glow of their illumination spells that cast a light about five meters ahead.
The first room was relatively empty—or perhaps most of its contents had drifted away when the ship sank. The moment Tang You slipped inside, shadowy figures slithered past in the unlit corners, sending a chill down his spine.
Tang You shuddered.
Thankfully, they were just moray eels.
Before knowing about the monster, Tang You hadn’t been afraid at all. But after Brother Kuai’s warning, his courage had melted away like a jellyfish stranded on shore. He didn’t even dare extend his psychic energy too far, terrified of detecting something unnatural lurking in the dark.
The interior was now sparsely populated with seaweed and anemones, replaced by an abundance of fish. Occasionally, a few larger fish darted through the broken windows in search of food.
Even if there were monsters, it didn’t stop fishes from settling and living here.
“Sharks?” Shen Jixiao spotted the fish weaving through the ship’s wreckage, their shapes familiar.
“Mm,” Tang You replied. “They’re lemon sharks and blacktip ghost sharks. There are plenty of them in this area, but it’s fine—neither jellyfish nor mermaids are on their menu.”
In terms of sheer size, these sharks were actually smaller than mermaids. However, they possessed dagger-like teeth, powerful streamlined bodies built for swift hunting, and an unnervingly sharp sense of smell capable of tracking prey for miles.
“Lemon sharks rarely attack creatures larger than themselves. As long as you don’t provoke them, you’re safe.”
Tang You and Shen Jixiao had already passed through the first room and entered the corridor.
The ship, battered by currents and storms, had warped significantly.
The once-straight hallway was now twisted, cluttered with debris, and blocked in the middle by several stray logs, obscuring the path ahead. Small fish occasionally darted through, lending the place an eerie, otherworldly atmosphere, like a tunnel to another dimension.
“Watch out for the ghost sharks. Though smaller than lemon sharks, they usually travel in packs. If you’re injured, they’ll swarm and tear into your flesh until you can’t struggle anymore. So be careful when moving through here—don’t let any sharp metal cut you.” Tang You tossed a glowing orb into the corridor, its light diverting some of the fish. “Most of the time, they won’t attack you…”
“Are you planning to explore room by room?”
The mermaid’s tail was proving cumbersome, making it difficult to squeeze through narrow spaces. “When I was rescued, I was trapped in the engine room at the very bottom. I want to search there.”
Recalling Tang You’s earlier advice, Shen Jixiao added, “If you’re looking for treasures like pearls, you should check the rooms on the second-to-last level. That’s where the guest quarters and storage rooms are.”
“But maybe we should deal with that monster first…”
“Eek!” Tang You let out a disapproving sound. “Curiosity kills the fish, you know!”
Hearing the jellyfish’s vehement protest, Shen Jixiao silently swallowed the rest of his thought:
Only after eliminating the monster can we explore in peace.
The ship had broken in half, tilting and corroding into a labyrinth.
Shen Jixiao had been only six or seven when he boarded it, touring the vessel under the guidance of nobles, but he no longer remembered the details. Fortunately, before diving, he had studied numerous reports and even pulled some strings to obtain the Tarlik’s internal blueprints.
He was determined to explore the deepest parts.
Tang You trailed behind Shen Jixiao, not daring to drift too far away.
Though he appeared calm enough to explain marine life to the mermaid, he was actually so nervous that he had started counting scales one by one. Shen Jixiao’s large tail shimmered beneath him, reflecting dazzling blue-purple iridescence under the illumination spell. The scales came in two shades—darker on the back and pure silver on the belly.
Some of the larger scales were as big as the little jellyfish himself.
So Tang You hovered above them, silently counting.
One, two, three…
When he counted to sixty-seven, the merman suddenly stopped, and the little jellyfish bumped right into his scales.
"There's a hole here that leads directly to the lower deck. It’ll save us a lot of time." Shen Jixiao had long memorized the map by heart.
In the faint light, the little jellyfish couldn’t brake in time and tumbled past him in a flurry.
Shen Jixiao reached out and scooped the jellyfish back.
"Why did you turn off your illumination spell?"
Only when he heard Shen Jixiao speak did Tang You unfurl his tightly curled tentacles and reply weakly, "I thought you ran into a monster... If I scrunch up like a piece of ocean trash, monsters won’t come to eat me... You know, many deep-sea fish are drawn to light."
"..."
Shen Jixiao did not know that.
He conjured a small glowing orb and tossed it further down the corridor. Sure enough, a cluster of previously unnoticed fish lurking in the corners darted after the light.
A new piece of common knowledge had been acquired.
Tang You cautiously looked around, confirming there were no monsters, before summoning three glowing orbs to float ahead of him. Together with Shen Jixiao, he descended to the lower deck.
This level was the guest quarters.
The floor was already blanketed in a thick layer of silt. Shen Jixiao brushed it aside with his hand, revealing a dazzling layer of gold beneath.
The little jellyfish gasped in awe. "Is the floor paved with gold?"
Shen Jixiao: "No, it’s just gold-plated over another metal and maintained with magic, so it hasn’t faded even after all this time."
"Still, that’s incredibly luxurious." The jellyfish moved his illumination spell closer to the floor, causing a shimmering golden reflection. "I’ve heard that on land, a tiny piece of gold can buy thousands of fish."
"No, it’s just a frivolous preference of the nobility."
Gold plating didn’t make the ship any sturdier, nor did it serve any other purpose—much like the chandelier in the grand hall, strung with 188 pearls, which was nothing more than a display of national wealth.
Shen Jixiao wiped away the grime from a fallen cabin door, revealing the room number at its center: 1029.
"Our current location is roughly the midsection of the ship’s second deck."
The second deck had fewer large debris, mostly small items that had drifted out of the rooms—shredded fabric, picture frames, tiny chairs and tables, wine bottles. Perhaps they had once been exquisite, priceless luxuries, but sadly, the seawater had corroded them beyond recognition.
The little jellyfish was endlessly fascinated by it all as he occasionally brushed his psychic senses over the objects to observe their original forms.
Suddenly, he found a pearl.
Tang You perked up as he scooped the pearl from the silt and dusting it off.
It was a pink pearl that was perfectly round, its luster was dimmed by years of neglect but still breathtakingly beautiful. He turned it over, only to sigh in disappointment when he noticed a hole drilled through it—likely for threading into a necklace.
To him, such a pearl was already damaged.
Shen Jixiao noticed the jellyfish’s actions.
"I’m collecting pearls. Though they’re not the ones I’m searching for, I still like them." As Tang You spoke, he discovered more pearls, similar in size to the first, all with holes—clearly part of a strand.
They were scattered across the corridor.
Tang You picked them up one by one, finding a total of eleven—enough to string half a bracelet.
He spotted a half-open door.
The little jellyfish froze in place.
“Shen Jixiao, come look at this…”
Under the glow of the illumination spell, two skeletons lay entwined in the room, their faded fabric binding them together. Their flesh had long since vanished, devoured by fish many years ago. The bones were slightly scattered, and as the light touched them, a few finger-sized fish darted out from the skulls before disappearing.
“They must be victims from that time,” Shen Jixiao swam into the room.
“Were they trapped by the fabric and couldn’t escape?” the little jellyfish asked.
“No, this knot looks like they tied it themselves—it’s very secure. This skeleton…” Shen Jixiao studied it for a moment and spotted a silver candlestick among the bones. An idea formed. “The ribcage is badly shattered. He must have suffered a fatal piercing wound while alive. Perhaps during the storm, when the ship capsized, the candlestick impaled his chest. He was already dead before the ship fully sank.”
“Oh…” Tang You felt a pang of sorrow. “What about the other one?”
Shen Jixiao was silent for a long while.
“I don’t know.”
The little jellyfish extended his psychic senses, sifting through the tattered fabric beside one skeleton until he uncovered a metal pocket watch. Its inner workings had rusted completely, but the casing was pure gold.
The front was engraved with Love Forever, the back with M & F. When opened, the photo inside was so fragile it crumbled at the slightest touch, leaving no trace of the image.
The skeletons’ arms were intertwined and their hand bones shattered together. Among the fragments, Tang You found the largest, most perfectly round pearl. It had never been pierced, likely once the pendant of a piece of jewelry. The combined value of the dozen or so pearls he had just gathered might not even match this single one.
Perhaps it had once been part of a complete pearl necklace, but now only this one remained, clutched in the skeletons’ grasp.
Tang You picked up the pearl.
Shen Jixiao glanced over, then picked up the pocket watch himself. He instinctively tried to tuck it into a pocket, only to remember he had none—just a handful of scales. So he wrapped it around his arm instead. He would take this item back to shore. As for the little jellyfish, he couldn’t impose human morals on him. If he liked collecting pearls, so be it.
But Tang You gently set the pearl back down.
Shen Jixiao sensed a ripple of magic—some kind of spell being cast. And as for the dozen pearls, Tang You placed each one carefully beside the skeletons, wrapping them in the tattered fabric and securing them with a wineglass to keep them from rolling away.
They swam out of the room.
……
“What was that spell just now?”
The little jellyfish was already searching for more pearls. “A minor spell—it imprints memories onto pearls. My memory isn’t great, so I like using pearls to record moments from different times. That way, if I ever come across them again, I can infuse them with psychic energy and relive those feelings.”
“The memory won’t fade until the pearl is destroyed.”
Tang You floated, pulsing softly.
The merman’s expression remained unreadable, but Tang You caught sight of the golden pocket watch wrapped around his arm, now cleaned of sand and silt.
Their feelings, perhaps, were the same.
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