The Undersea Adventures of the Little Jellyfish (JELLYFISH)
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” The little jellyfish curled into a ball while clutching Shen Jixiao’s finger. “My mental energy… is my own. A thousand years? Nonsense. Don’t speculate about my age.”
“Age is easy to verify—just check your bone growth.”
The little jellyfish peeked out, smugly defiant. “I don’t have bones.”
Black Mermaid: “……”
He seemed about to say more as he leaned in for a closer look, but Shen Jixiao blocked him. “Enough.”
The little jellyfish was clearly afraid of this black mermaid.
“I have no interest in your knowledge,” Shen Jixiao said. “Please leave us alone.”
The black mermaid’s fins drooped in disappointment, his sharp tail fins hanging like thin bat wings. “My name is Sangluo Yifuximei. You’re the most curse-gifted merman I’ve ever met. If you change your mind, come find me anytime.”
“I live at the Tasang Playhouse.”
An unfamiliar place name—Shen Jixiao nodded perfunctorily, indifferent to the thoughts of the unfamiliar merman.
Once the black-scaled merman had left, he lowered his hands from behind his back and looked at the little jellyfish curled up in a ball, his voice tinged with concern. "Were you scared?"
"It felt so eerie..." Tang You hugged his tentacles tightly. "Shen Jixiao, tell me, can I really live for a thousand years? That can't be... I don't remember anything."
Shen Jixiao wasn’t sure either.
The little jellyfish had a poor memory, and he didn’t know enough to say for certain. The only thing he could confirm was that the jellyfish had lived for over two hundred years. As for determining his age through psychic energy, Shen Jixiao thought that might be too hasty.
What if the little jellyfish was one of those rare geniuses, where one year of his life was equivalent to ten for others?
"I never knew there were black-scaled mermaids, and that they could cast curses," the little jellyfish murmured, his sensitivity to psychic energy making him uneasy. "He wasn’t joking—he really has the power to enact curses. I’ve heard that when this kind of magic is mastered to its peak, even words can carry power, shaping the fate of others just by speaking. How terrifying."
After circling back to the topic, he couldn’t help but worry about Shen Jixiao. "Are you interested in this kind of thing?"
Shen Jixiao was somewhat intrigued, but only out of curiosity toward the unknown. He had no intention of actively pursuing it.
He shook his head.
"I’m not trying to interfere with your magical studies," the little jellyfish fretted, "but your psychic energy hasn’t stabilized yet. If you learn the wrong things, there’s no going back. Your scales are so beautiful now—what if practicing dark magic turns them black? Wouldn’t that be awful?"
A merman’s scales didn’t change color. They were determined at birth and fully manifested by the age of three. At twenty, they underwent a molting phase, but after that, they remained unchanged.
But Shen Jixiao had transformed directly into an adult merman, skipping both childhood and the molting phase.
He tapped the little jellyfish’s head lightly. "Don’t worry. As much as I want to resolve my psychic energy issues, I won’t recklessly grasp at any solution."
"Mm."
……
Unnoticed, the Awakening Ceremony had already begun.
After the earlier rites, the protective energy drawn forth now filled the ancestral hall.
Several mermaid pups sat at the center—the same little ones who had received blessings from all the guests the day before.
Huddled together, their translucent fins and tails looked incredibly soft, like delicate gelatin. Their chubby little faces were dominated by large, round eyes.
Finding the ceremony dull, the young mermaids babbled and chirped, their mouths still missing most of their teeth, revealing pink gums as they nibbled harmlessly on each other’s fingers.
Watching them, Shen Jixiao was reminded of a small creature. "They really look like kittens."
Tang You tilted his head. "Huh? What’s a cat?"
Only then did Shen Jixiao remember they were deep underwater—sea creatures might never see a cat in their lifetime. "They’re land animals."
"Do they have tails?"
"Yes," Shen Jixiao said. "But they don’t move with them. They have four legs, are covered in fur, and their bodies are soft and agile, with big eyes."
Tang You had never seen a cat before. "I’d love to see one. I’ve heard the land is full of strange creatures—they don’t have scales but fur instead. I wonder what it feels like to touch soft down or feathers."
The little hatchlings were still snuggling up to each other.
When Qingbo tried to pick one up, she almost couldn’t lift it—the tiny merchild clung to its companions like sticky glutinous rice balls, nearly stretching into strings, which was utterly amusing.
So Tang You couldn’t help but wonder: Was Shen Jixiao also this kind of clingy, stretchy little hatchling when he was young? It didn’t seem like it…
The power of protection gathered, leaving a gentle glow on the forehead of the merchild. The elder mermaids chanted hymns, exactly the same as the one Qingbo had sung in the ancestral hall that day when Shen Jixiao heard it.
Crack, crack.
Something’s shell shattered.
“Waaah—” The little merchild whimpered as it was set back down, tiny pearls rolling out that were quickly picked up by the caretakers to prevent the hatchlings from swallowing them.
Another little merchild was scooped up.
“This year’s ceremony is going so smoothly,” a merperson remarked with a smile. “The protective energy seems even stronger.”
The little jellyfish heard this and was overjoyed, stretching out happily and bouncing in the water, wiggling his tiny tentacles.
He wouldn’t tell anyone that the stronger protective energy was because he had modified the magic set up in the ancestral hall, making the old spells more suitable for the present.
Though Qingbo had asked him not to tell the others, the little jellyfish was still thrilled to be praised.
“What’s up?” Shen Jixiao immediately noticed the little jellyfish’s excitement.
Just moments ago, he had been almost lying down, but now he was suddenly bouncing around.
The little jellyfish was terrible at lying. He hemmed and hawed for a while until he saw the merchild nearby wailing and had a sudden inspiration: “I was wondering if you were like this when you were little—crying and wailing in a heap.”
Shen Jixiao: “…”
“No,” he turned his head away. “I don’t remember either.”
“What about you?” he asked the little jellyfish.
“Me? When I was little, I was in the polyp stage. Hmm… you can think of me as a tiny sea anemone. All I did every day was happily catch food, rest when full, nothing special.” Tang You flipped himself upside down. “Like this—catch, eat—and then one day, I detached from the polyp and became a jellyfish.”
A life cycle he’d never heard of. Shen Jixiao regretted not paying more attention in general studies class.
A young little jellyfish… was a tiny flower growing on a rock wall?
Tang You wasn’t sure how to explain his life cycle either: “It’s like you’re born, grow up, then your head flies off upside down and grows brand-new feet?”
Shen Jixiao: “…”
He couldn’t help but twist his neck.
—The little jellyfish was truly an excellent general studies teacher.
……
By the time the ceremony ended, it was already late at night.
The little jellyfish had played games all day and was exhausted, he was practically being carried into the cave by Shen Jixiao.
As soon as they entered, they spotted a familiar merperson lighting a night pearl with their eyes closed and still muttering something. Listening closely, it seemed to be about some medicinal formula.
“You’re back?” The physician opened her tired eyes. “I’m here for a follow-up check.”
Mermaid caves don't have doors, appearing accessible to anyone. Yet most fish weave psychic nets around their dwellings, allowing entry only to those they approve.
The chamber Tang You and the others were sleeping in was a guest room—Shen Jixiao wouldn't set up such barriers, and jellyfish lack such defensive instincts, leaving it perpetually open. Not that there was any real danger.
"Haa..."
Seeing the little jellyfish had already entered its vacant resting state, Shen Jixiao placed it in a bubble nest woven from psychic energy. Exchanging a glance with the physician, the two mermaids swam out to talk.
The physician didn't object.
They emerged from the cave and leaned against the rocky outcrop outside to converse.
"Good, your psychic energy has stabilized considerably. Today's ceremonial blessings affected you too, healing many hidden injuries." The physician casually listed several items. "These can all soothe your psychic energy. The only current restriction is avoiding complete depletion of your reserves. The seal's function essentially uses your excess psychic energy to restrain itself—a precarious but balanced equilibrium. Exhausting your reserves could trigger another outbreak."
Shen Jixiao nodded. "Understood."
"Can psychic energy be transferred or gifted?" Remembering the black merman's words, Shen Jixiao posed another question.
The physician froze. "What are you talking about?"
Her expression turned grave as she scrutinized Shen Jixiao, as if trying to peer past his scales into his soul.
Shen Jixiao remained impassive. "A merman mentioned it to me earlier today."
"That's forbidden magic." The physician's long tail trailed behind her like a silken ribbon as she circled, its graceful undulations belying the faint aggression Shen Jixiao detected.
"Curiosity is natural, but not about this. Psychic energy belongs solely to its owner. Dark magic can forcibly seize another's energy, but the thief bears wounds too."
"Psychic energy isn't currency—it's intrinsically tied to its host. Like grafting another's scales onto yourself, both parties suffer."
Shen Jixiao considered this. "Because each has unique properties?"
"Precisely. Even if many fish never manifest distinctive traits, the potential remains."
"And voluntary gifts?" The physician had explained theft but not donation.
"Equally damaging." The physician said, "Even if the donor purges all identifying markers from their energy and even with purest intent, the recipient still suffers harm. No mermaids would do this—not even for their own offspring. Mismatched energy causes physical degeneration, sometimes fatal."
"Forcing growth destroys the sapling."
"Whether you contemplate taking or giving, abandon such thoughts. These prohibitions occupy our laws' foremost commandments. Violators face imprisonment in any colony's dungeons." The physician sighed heavily. "This is why I dislike teaching juveniles—someone always asks about forbidden arts."
"Which mermaid told you this?"
Shen Jixiao recalled the black merman's name: "Sangluo Yifuximei, if I remember correctly, Yifuximei represents the name of their settlement?"
"Yes..." The physician pondered, "Yifu... Yifuximei... seems like a very remote settlement. They're still maintaining it? How strange. Did we even invite them?"
"He told me today that his spiritual trait is perception, but he's studied many curse magics."
"What did you say?"
The physician stiffened abruptly: "Curses?"
"Yes."
"That's something only sirens would study. It's strictly forbidden among our mermaid kind. If discovered, not only would one be confined, but even the ancestral protective powers would forsake you." The physician seemed to have considered many implications. "Alright, this isn't something you should worry about. We'll handle it. You should go rest now."
She swam away hurriedly, heading in the direction where Qingbo might be.
Sirens, also known as sea witches, are a species notorious for their female members.
They sing by the reefs, luring sailors to fall in love with them, causing the crew to lose their senses and steer their ships toward unknown destinations—perhaps into an inescapable mist or onto jagged rocks, meeting a tragic end.
This was one of the rare marine species he knew about—back when investigating the sinking of the Tarlik, he had researched nearly all shipwreck-related incidents.
Sirens are purely carnivorous. Mermaids also eat meat, but they can supplement their diet with plants, making them omnivorous and generally peaceful. Sirens, however, are outright predators.
Shen Jixiao had seen photos of sirens—they often had gray skin, a pitiful demeanor, long, wet, curly hair draped over their bodies, with their upper halves completely bare.
Like mermaids, they possess long fishtails, but upon closer inspection, one would notice that siren scales are more diamond-shaped, whereas mermaid scales are fan-shaped. Their fins also differ. Mermaids have two asymmetrical fins along their waistlines to aid swimming, in addition to their long, ornate tail fins. Sirens, however, have smooth tails with smaller tail fins compared to mermaids.
Despite this, in human aesthetics, sirens are considered a beautiful species. Their gray isn't an ugly hue but rather a smooth, silky shade, like satin ribbons.
He had once seen a recording of a siren captured by a human mage. She was injured, her brow furrowed, eyes brimming with pitiful charm and her shapely lips pressed together like a cornered fawn, full of panic and pleas for help. When the footage was accidentally leaked, many people argued that the siren should be released.
Even though she had lured over fifty fishing boats of various sizes, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of fishermen.
Soon, the human mage who captured her faced public condemnation, and even the city lord who had ordered her execution began to feel pity—or perhaps some other emotion—toward the siren. Late one night, the city lord opened the siren's cage.
What followed was an outright tragedy.
The siren, imprisoned for half a month, was starving. She couldn't wait to seduce the city lord into releasing her back to the sea—she struck while still in her cell.
By the time the situation was discovered, the city lord's chest had already been hollowed out, while the siren lay sprawled over the corpse with her long tail dragging on the ground, leaving a trail of slime behind. Her eyes still held a pitiful charm, but her slender tongue flicked over her teeth with blood mixing with saliva as it dripped—she hadn’t had her fill yet.
She was executed on the spot.
Only afterward did people realize that the siren’s bewitching lips concealed rows of sharp teeth designed for tearing prey. Their tails lacked the strength to catch prey with speed, so they had learned a more effective method—luring their victims close through other means.
Considering recent events, it seemed the mermaids also harbored a strong dislike for sirens.
Shen Jixiao recalled the appearance of that black-scaled merman. He lacked the siren’s signature fangs, and his tail had fins along the sides, with fan-shaped scales.
His gender was likely male.
In the end, that black merman had calmly said something like, "May they be cursed with a lifetime of happiness."
Shen Jixiao was almost certain this fish wasn’t a siren. But whether he had any connection to the siren clan remained unknown. The physician was right—this wasn’t something he should concern himself with.
He lingered outside a while longer, inexplicably recalling the black merman’s remark about the little jellyfish’s fluctuating mental energy. So far, that merman was the only one Shen Jixiao had encountered whose trait was perception. He couldn’t discern it himself yet, nor could he find another merman to verify it.
Assuming his words were true, two things could be confirmed.
His mental energy trait was quite rare.
There were unnatural traces in the little jellyfish's psychic energy.
...He also realized that the fluctuations in the latter half of the jellyfish's psychic energy bore a striking resemblance to the person he was searching for.
"Mermaid...?"
He heard the little jellyfish's voice.
Tang You, still groggy and clearly not fully rested, swam in meandering curves before sinking downward after just a few weak pulses of movement, utterly exhausted.
Shen Jixiao swam over and caught him.
The little jellyfish tugged at his tentacles, wrapping seven or eight of them around the mermaid's index finger and giving a light pull, as if trying to drag him back into the cave.
"So sleepy... It's cold outside, let's sleep..."
Without using his psychic energy, the little jellyfish had no hope of moving the mermaid. Unfortunately, he was in a low-energy state, too exhausted to think straight. After a couple of half-hearted tugs, he simply gave up, clinging to Shen Jixiao's finger and zoning out for a long, long time.
After a while, he finally lifted one tentacle again, rubbing it gently between the mermaid's fingers.
"I want you to sleep with me."
"..." The mermaid's tail stiffened. "Alright."
...
The little jellyfish wasn’t completely still while resting. Occasionally, he would twitch, suddenly floating upward a short distance before sinking back down at an almost imperceptible pace. Just before hitting the bottom, he’d jerk slightly and rise again.
He had even built himself a cozy little nest out of thin psychic energy shells—a place where he could stretch out comfortably or curl up inside to avoid being touched.
The glow of the luminous pearl was dim, casting an eerie blue light over the pink jellyfish, turning him a soft shade of purple. This little purple gummy bear bobbed up and down endlessly, with the surrounding psychic shells rolling along with him.
Shen Jixiao found that he could watch this mundane little routine all night without feeling the slightest bit tired.
His mind grew tranquil, free from the usual urge to investigate or the impulse to reach out and pat the jellyfish’s head. He simply watched, almost amused by his own boredom.
Who in their right mind would spend half the night staring at a jellyfish mindlessly floating up and down?
And yet, here he was.
"Mermaid..."
Shen Jixiao thought he’d been caught staring—the little jellyfish’s psychic senses were sharp, after all, and he might have felt discomfort under such scrutiny. The mermaid tensed slightly before opening his mouth, already preparing an apology.
But the jellyfish just flipped over, turning upside down, and continued resting.
Now inverted, his body still instinctively repeated the same motions—contracting, expelling water, propelling himself forward—
And, predictably, gravity took over. He shot downward too fast and thunked headfirst into the psychic shell below. Shen Jixiao could even see the jellyfish’s soft, transparent head dent inward from the impact, his whole body spinning in place from the collision.
But he still didn’t wake up.
The mermaid: "..."
The little jellyfish really slept like a log.
Now he understood the purpose of those psychic shells beneath him—clearly, they were there to cushion his inevitable upside-down crashes.
"Mmbl..." The sleeping jellyfish let out a meaningless sound. After spinning in place, he didn’t hit the floor again, but neither did he float upward steadily as before.
Instead, he began drifting aimlessly around the cave, as if taking a midnight stroll.
Shen Jixiao had never seen Tang You rest for such a long time before. If he had, it was only when the little jellyfish curled up in his tiny mental shell. Now, observing him, Shen realized the jellyfish’s sleeping posture was far from ideal.
In just this short while, the jellyfish—no larger than a fingernail—had already drifted over a meter away from his nest, lazily floating about like a lord surveying his territory and on the verge of bumping right into Shen.
Shen Jixiao reached out and stopped the jellyfish.
The little jellyfish’s head collided precisely with his fingertip, pressing down slightly and turning the strawberry candy-like dome into a slightly dented one. Quickly, Shen Jixiao switched to using the softer pad of his finger before increasing the contact area so the jellyfish’s impact felt gentler.
Just as he was pondering how to return the sleepwalking jellyfish to his nest, his eyes stung, and faint illusions appeared again.
This time, they were in the direction of the jellyfish.
He saw the little jellyfish bobbing in the shallows with the waves. It seemed to be a starry night but everything was clearly visible.
Was this… the jellyfish’s dream?
A thought suddenly struck Shen Jixiao, though he wasn’t sure. His eyes always seemed to see strange things.
The jellyfish clearly couldn’t resist the waves’ force and didn’t seem to enjoy swimming in the shallows, struggling harder and stretching out tiny tentacles as if trying to grab onto something.
Then, a finger appeared in the vision.
Slender, pale, with a rounded tip.
Like a lifeline, the jellyfish clung to it.
Shen Jixiao’s sharp eyes noticed thin webbing between the fingers. It was a mermaid’s hand—and most likely a female mermaid’s.
Was this a fabricated dream, or something that had truly happened? His mind wandered.
…No wonder the jellyfish was so practiced at hugging his fingers.
The image gradually sharpened. Beyond the beautiful hand, he saw a fish tail shimmering like a river of stars beneath the waves.
—Almost identical to the mermaid illusion he had seen during the ancestral rites.
Shen Jixiao’s heart trembled, but before he could examine it closely, the vision shattered.
Too absorbed, he hadn’t noticed the jellyfish had already slipped from his finger and bumped into the tip of his nose.
“…Ah.” Awake now.
“Why am I here?” The jellyfish rubbed his tentacles. “My head hurts…”
He glanced at his nest, then at the wide-awake mermaid and his outstretched finger.
Immediately, the jellyfish played the victim: “Bad mermaid! Did you sneakily poke my head while I was sleeping?”
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