The Undersea Adventures of the Little Jellyfish (JELLYFISH)
Etching pearls was second nature to Tang You. The merman spread out the scrolls, and it took the jellyfish only seconds to imprint them.
Handing the pearl to the merman, Tang You infused it with a trace of magic. The pristine pearl emitted a soft glow as it projected a small image in the pitch-black cabin—exactly replicating the scroll from earlier.
The little jellyfish spun in a circle. “Am I amazing or what?”
The merman smiled faintly, his expression relaxing. “Yes.”
He reached out and tapped the top of the jellyfish’s head—just as soft and bouncy as he’d imagined, cool to the touch. The jellyfish’s outer layer was translucent, with a hint of pink inside.
Tang You didn’t like having his head touched. “Bad merman.”
He was a tiny jellyfish, with short, delicate tentacles that looked as though they might snap at any moment. He shivered slightly, his translucent little tentacles brushing against Shen Jixiao’s fingers before wrapping around them. “Touch my head again, and I’ll eat you. Many of us jellyfish are poisonous, you know.”
Shen Jixiao asked, “Are you poisonous?”
Tang You huffed, “You’re the worst! I’m eating your finger right now!”
In reality, the little jellyfish couldn’t swallow anything substantial, nor did he secrete strong digestive fluids. He ate slowly, and ingesting something bad could easily make him sick—like Shen Jixiao’s finger. So Tang You spat it out with a series of disgusted noises and retreated from the merman, tossing the pearl at him in a huff and telling him to keep etching.
Etching an entire chest of magic scrolls didn’t take long.
Tang You was incredibly skilled with this magic, as if he had performed it thousands of times, barely needing any preparation. Shen Jixiao glanced sideways at the jellyfish—still annoyed yet continuing to help him—and suddenly asked, “The pearl you’re looking for… does it have something etched on it too?”
Tang You thought for a moment and decided to humor the bad merman: "Yes."
"I often engrave pearls. I can feel a faint connection with every pearl I've engraved myself—I can locate them." The little jellyfish placed the pearl, which held hundreds of scrolls, into the merman's palm. "See, I'm so small and my memory isn't great. Storing important memories in pearls is very convenient."
"Sometimes I also engrave memories of friends as tokens of friendship."
Shen Jixiao looked at the large white pearl in his palm and was momentarily stunned: "So... are we friends?"
Tang You: "Aren't we?"
"Friends! Friends!" The silver fishlings chirped excitedly in the room as they circled around a glowing pearl. "We're friends!"
"I engraved the fishlings' glowing appearance into this pearl, and they were thrilled." Tang You was quite pleased with his masterpiece and turned around. "This pearl is for you all!"
Fishlings: "Friends!"
Shen Jixiao: "..."
It seemed the little jellyfish had many friends, while he, the bad merman, didn't have many—practically none at all.
The pearl engraving continued for a while longer. Two chests of magic scrolls were condensed into three pearls. Though carrying the pearls was still a bit troublesome, it was far better than hauling around a large number of nearly ruined scrolls.
Meanwhile, the little jellyfish went to open a few other chests.
One was filled to the brim with pearls, but he only picked the most beautiful ones and used his psychic energy to carry them away.
As for the other treasures, he could only glance at them—there was no way to take them all.
Tang You was utterly absorbed in opening treasure chests.
It was like opening blind boxes—no one knew beforehand whether they contained decayed mud or precious jewels.
The fishlings swam around him, providing light.
"This chest is huge," Tang You murmured as he circled a large black iron chest. Suddenly, he remembered something. "Little fish, do you know about the monster in this ship?"
"Monster?"
"Yes, is there a monster in this ship that eats fish?"
"There is!" the fishlings chorused. "There's a monster!"
"Really? Where is it?"
Fishlings: "In this very room!"
The little jellyfish was horrified.
"Shen Jixiao! Shen Jixiao!" Terrified, he swam toward the merman. "The fishlings say the monster is in this room."
The merman was busy prying open a large iron chest.
The mithril lock had already fallen off, but the lid seemed unusually stubborn—perhaps due to rust—and he hadn't managed to open it yet.
"The monster is in this room?" He turned around, frowning.
The storage room was eerily quiet.
Tang You and Shen Jixiao had been rummaging through the place, leading the fishlings around, yet nothing had come after them. His underwater hearing was sharp, but he detected nothing unusual. Tang You's psychic sweep hadn't found anything either.
If the monster was truly in this room, could it be hiding inside a treasure chest that could block detection?
Once this thought took root, it spread like ink in water, tainting the atmosphere.
Tang You didn't dare move recklessly anymore. He floated over before tightening the psychic tether around Shen Jixiao's wrist. "Stop opening chests. Let's leave, okay?"
"Are you sure the monster mentioned by those little fish and the sea anemones is the same one? Some ferocious big fish also prey on small fish, don't they?" The merman pried open the chest, revealing nothing monstrous inside. "Maybe it's just some large fish."
Even so, Shen Jixiao reminded himself to stay alert at all times while inside the sunken ship.
"Let's open one last chest," he said.
"Okay, the last one," Tang You silently swam a bit farther away.
A dull sound echoed through the water as another iron chest was opened, filled to the brim with gold.
Neither the merman nor the jellyfish had much interest in such worldly treasures. Shen Jixiao turned around, holding three inscribed pearls: "Let's go. It's time to continue exploring deeper."
"Shen Jixiao..."
The jellyfish's voice trembled.
"Behind you!"
The merman spun around abruptly.
The chest next to the one that was filled with gold and untouched moments ago, had cracked open slightly on its own. Something inky and twisted oozed out through the gap, winding its way along the chest's outer surface.
"Eek!!!"
Tang You extinguished all the illumination spells, and the surrounding small fish darted back into the crevices of nearby chests, too frightened to emerge.
The room darkened significantly in an instant, leaving only the merman floating in place, unmoving.
The little jellyfish was frantic: "Stupid merman, run away!"
But the merman took a step forward instead: "Wait..."
Tang You didn't dare to look.
"This seems to be just an octopus," the merman's voice remained calm as he observed two sucker-covered tentacles pushing open the lid from inside the large iron chest. Though he had never seen such a massive octopus before, he didn't consider it much of a monster. "It lives in this chest. We probably disturbed it."
"R-really?" The little jellyfish cautiously moved closer. With the help of the merman's illumination spell, it saw that the chest indeed contained an enormous octopus, nearly filling it entirely.
Under the light, the octopus appeared a peculiar dark red, its soft yet powerful tentacles propping up the lid, almost as if the treasure chest had come to life and transformed into a mimic.
Tang You gradually relaxed.
Octopuses were known for their love of squeezing into tight spaces—human bottles and jars, seashells on the ocean floor—anything could become their home. If the container required two parts to close, like a shell, they would even use their suckers to seal it shut, creating a protective casing.
However, Tang You had little experience with deep-sea giant octopuses and didn't realize such massive creatures also favored dark, cramped spaces.
Their primary diet consisted of shrimp and crabs, and octopuses were intelligent creatures that rarely attacked anything larger than themselves.
"Sorry," he apologized to the deep-sea octopus. "We didn't mean to disturb your rest. We'll leave soon."
The deep-sea octopus's eyes fixed on him.
Compared to other sea creatures, octopuses had remarkably large eyes. Even the faintest light was enough for them to discern their surroundings and locate prey. This deep-sea octopus was particularly enormous, its eyes larger than the little jellyfish, nearly the size of Shen Jixiao's clenched fist, and a deep crimson, matching its skin tone.
The deep-sea octopus remained silent, offering no response to the little jellyfish.
Tang You: "Shall we go then?"
The octopus extended another tentacle. Despite both being boneless creatures, it was worlds apart from the little jellyfish—brimming with strength and speed, most individuals were also highly intelligent, adept at using cunning strategies to hunt.
Their suckers were particularly powerful,l and capable of lifting objects much heavier than themselves once latched on. Perhaps that was how it managed to open the iron chest and squeeze inside.
Tang You retreated slightly as he compelled a shield to himself with psychic energy: "I'm not edible."
"Mermaid... Mr. Octopus might be angry and unwilling to communicate with me. Let's leave for now and not disturb it."
Shen Jixiao watched as the tentacle, instead of reaching for the jellyfish, stretched toward him.
...Something felt a little off.
Before he could react, the octopus's tentacle was already half a meter away from him and its massive body slightly emerging from the chest.
"Bang!"
The octopus violently flung the iron lid off itself—the same lid the mermaid had struggled to move.
Its coiled, muscular tentacles pressed forcefully against the bottom of the chest and used the recoil to propel itself forward in a rapid burst. Meanwhile, the tentacles already extended outside spread open with startling speed, poised to ensnare the mermaid.
The earlier slow, deliberate movements had all been to maximize its chances of a successful hunt.
The mermaid's pupils contracted sharply.
With a powerful flick of his tail, he propelled himself upward with all his strength, barely dodging the octopus's attack by crashing into the ceiling.
The movements of the two massive creatures churned the water inside the cabin, sending the nearly weightless jellyfish tumbling uncontrollably—fortunately, he wasn’t on the octopus’s menu, as he would never have been able to evade an attack at that speed.
"Ahhhh!" But he was deeply worried about the mermaid. "Mr. Octopus! Mr. Octopus! Can you hear me? Please don’t eat this fish, okay?"
Tang You extended his psychic energy, trying to establish a mental link with the deep-sea octopus. But for some reason, the other end of the connection remained chaotic, with no trace of a consciousness he could communicate with.
This shouldn’t be happening.
Octopuses were usually intelligent, and their mental seas were never like this.
Before him, the octopus had fully unfurled its body. Its eight tentacles, when fully extended, were far larger than the mermaid, spanning nearly seven or eight meters in diameter. The limbs tightened from all directions, nearly ensnaring Shen Jixiao’s tail.
From Shen Jixiao’s perspective, he could see the circular mouth at the center of the octopus’s tentacles already gaping open. He was almost certain that the creature’s hard, terrifying beak could easily sever his entire arm in one bite.
"Shen Jixiao!"
The little jellyfish sensed something through the psychic link and screamed.
"Run! There’s something wrong with this octopus—it’s impossible to communicate with! It’s gone mad!"
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