The Undersea Adventures of the Little Jellyfish (JELLYFISH)
"I'm awake…" Shen Jixiao said.
Tang You: "Huh?"
He spat out the merman's fingers while making a few disgusted noises. "I thought you were charmed, spacing out like that. And your expression is really weird."
The merman's expression was indeed strange—his brows furrowed, as if deeply unsettled, struggling to put his feelings into words.
After his spiritual energy awakened, many indescribable things seemed to emerge within him. He could feel himself becoming more physiologically aligned with the merman species.
Even though he still couldn’t sing.
"She sang with flaws."
The little jellyfish was puzzled: "It sounded quite nice, where were the flaws?"
"At the end of the second and fourth lines, and the beginning of the second verse." Shen Jixiao also found it strange—he had never studied music theory. "I can't pinpoint exactly what's wrong, but it just doesn't sound right."
Tang You: "..."
I don’t understand you mermaids.
The reason he wasn’t enchanted was because he thought the singing wasn’t good enough.
The singing continued for a while.
At first, the little jellyfish listened attentively, appreciating the voice from the other side and even considering whether to find a pearl later to record this moment—the cave, the starlight, the singing. He thought it was a scene he’d look back on fondly.
Meanwhile, Shen Jixiao was gauging the direction, planning to drag the siren out.
So they listened as the singing shifted from confident to slightly confused, and finally to a shrill, broken voice. Even the little jellyfish, who could find something to praise in anything, couldn’t bear it anymore.
"Ah—ah—cough cough..." Before the enchantment could take effect, the singing stopped.
From the darkness, the siren burst into a fit of coughing. Her voice turned hoarse, the melody fell apart, and the mesmerizing power was completely gone.
The little jellyfish tried to pat his own head again:
Hmm... a dumb siren?
He didn’t know much about sirens as a species, but if mermaids could produce a Shen Jixiao who couldn’t swim or sing, then it seemed perfectly reasonable for sirens to have one who wasn’t very good at enchanting.
A faint plop sounded in the distance, and the singing ceased entirely.
Sirens excelled at weaving beautiful illusions, yet their true forms were dull and muted, their skin bearing an ashen, grayish texture—rumored to be an adaptation for swift concealment when discovered.
Now that the siren had fled, and both Tang You and Shen Jixiao’s spiritual energy was injured, they quickly lost sight of her.
“Could this be the lair of the sirens…?” The little jellyfish gazed at the countless blue specks of light above.
The echoes in the vast cavern were eerie, and a faint breeze slipped through, thinning as it whistled through the narrow crevices, producing a low, mournful hum. “I’ve never been inside a siren’s lair before.”
“But sirens live in groups. If we’ve encountered one, we’ll likely meet more.”
The little jellyfish glanced at the merman.
Mermen and sirens were mortal enemies. He was a little worried that the siren from earlier might return with reinforcements, leading to a whole swarm attacking the merman—turning him into a skewered delicacy.
“Let’s hurry and find the exit,” Shen Jixiao decided swiftly.
“Oh, right.” He suddenly remembered. “You weren’t affected by the siren’s enchantment?”
In theory, the weaker one’s spiritual energy, the more susceptible they were to influence. The little jellyfish had plenty of spiritual energy, but in such a vulnerable, injured state, it should have been easy prey. Yet, he seemed entirely unaffected.
“Nope.” The little jellyfish answered naturally. “I’m rarely affected by mental magic like that. Merman, you know—I don’t have a brain.”
Most importantly, he had no regrets, no burning desires.
Unless the illusion transformed into a perfect pearl with a diameter of twenty-eight centimeters, Tang You wouldn’t be swayed in the slightest.
Shen Jixiao: “…”
Fair enough. He realized that, more often than not, there was no need to worry about the little jellyfish. The little jellyfish was always a bit stronger than he expected—both mentally and physically.
He let the little jellyfish cling to him again, took one last look at the strange, glowing cavern, and together, they submerged into the water.
……
Sometimes, sound travels more clearly underwater.
At this moment, only a few thin layers of rock separated them from the open ocean—so close, yet still missing an exit. Unfortunately, the water-eroded stone walls twisted like a maze, making it impossible to go straight. They had no choice but to circle around the rocks in search of a way out.
“Something’s approaching.” Shen Jixiao immediately established a mental link with the little jellyfish, allowing them to communicate silently.
“Is it the siren from earlier?” the little jellyfish asked.
“Not sure.” Shen Jixiao had considered asking the little jellyfish for a spiritual-energy spear but held back, mindful of his exhaustion.
For some reason, he always thought of the little jellyfish as fragile and pitiful—as if a single poke would melt him. But in reality, the little jellyfish possessed a reservoir of spiritual energy unlike anything Shen Jixiao had ever seen. Though he knew no magic and lacked the powerful “traits” mermen spoke of, he could learn and mimic the traits of others—something that should have been impossible. After all, traits were manifestations of the soul. How could they be so easily altered?
The little jellyfish seemed to be an exceptionally rare kind of powerhouse.
Shen Jixiao mused vaguely.
And yet, he was so cute, so soft, so tiny—clinging to him, sniffling and crying, pressing his little head against him for pets.
—The little jellyfish needed to be protected.
Shen Jixiao steeled himself, deciding to abandon his useless, not-yet-fully-accustomed-to spiritual energy. He trusted in the years of training he had undergone—as long as the opponent was a siren of similar size, he could definitely rely on physical strength to fight.
He had almost forgotten he was a warrior.
"Don't be nervous!" A voice came from the opposite side. "Do you remember me?"
"Who?"
Shen Jixiao remained on guard.
The moment he heard the voice, he had already recalled its owner. But with his vision completely obscured by darkness, he couldn’t guarantee that the voice truly belonged to the person in his memory—sirens had a natural talent for vocal manipulation, skilled in all kinds of mind-affecting magic, including ambiguous rhetoric and forged voices to deceive trust, paired with illusions that created familiar visions.
"How did you end up here?" The black-scaled merman—Sangluo—slowly emerged from the darkness.
He was naturally a black-scaled merman, blending seamlessly into the shadows, yet his face and skin were strikingly pale, almost translucent, giving him an eerie, ghostly appearance as if he were only half a specter.
The little jellyfish shuddered, curling into a ball and clinging to Shen Jixiao’s shoulder.
He had always been a little afraid of this black merman.
Sangluo carried no weapons, and his spiritual energy showed no signs of hostility. "I truly didn’t expect to meet you here. I suppose you’re looking for the exit? I happen to know the way—let me guide you out."
"Have you seen that siren?" Shen Jixiao asked.
"Siren…" Sangluo’s expression froze for a moment. His pitch-black eyes shifted downward ever so slightly. "You encountered her? Then we should leave quickly."
"Oh?" Shen Jixiao’s tone lifted slightly. "You’ve seen her too?"
Sangluo’s tail had already begun to flick restlessly, like a sheet of black silk. "Y-yes… I also ended up here by accident. I’ve been trying to find a way out and only just sensed the exit after wandering for a while. What luck to run into you…"
"Look…" He touched his tail, where a wound lay hidden in the dark scales and barely noticeable. "The siren did this."
"Oh no…" The little jellyfish saw the injury and immediately forgot his fear, his heart aching in sympathy. "That looks painful. Do you need it treated?"
"No, the priority is getting out of here, away from any possible sirens." The black merman turned as he spoke.
The moment he turned, Shen Jixiao moved.
Like a streak of silver-blue lightning, he shot forward, his movements precise and calculated. The force of his waist propelled his arm and his wrist following through with immense strength as he seized Sangluo’s throat. His other hand swiftly twisted both of the merman’s arms behind his back. His stance was perfectly angled—even if Sangluo struggled and thrashed his tail wildly, it wouldn’t land a hit.
The little jellyfish was visibly stunned, completely caught off guard. "Merman…"
"He’s lying." Shen Jixiao’s voice was firm. "We came here by accident, but when he mentioned how he got here, he used the word ‘also.’ How would he know how we entered? Not to mention the shift in his expression when the siren was mentioned, and this wound—it’s definitely not from a siren’s bite."
"Why are you lying to us?"
Tang You had almost forgotten how ruthless Shen Jixiao could be when provoked.
He didn't know what help he could offer either.
"Mermaid," he whispered through their mental link, "what are you going to do now?"
"Interrogation."
Shen Jixiao used a term unfamiliar to the little jellyfish.
"What's interrogation?"
"Using threats, violen—" The mermaid answered too smoothly, only realizing afterward that he shouldn't corrupt the little jellyfish's innocent mind. He shut his mouth. "Anyway, it's about making him speak the truth."
The little jellyfish: "Oh! Threats!"
Shen Jixiao wasn’t sure if the little jellyfish understood or not. He pressed down on the still-struggling Sangluo, fingers tightening, leaving just enough room for speech: "Talk. What’s your relationship with that siren? Why are you here? If you don’t speak, your fingers..."
Considering the little jellyfish’s presence, he didn’t say anything too extreme, but his gaze swept over, as if contemplating whether to break the fingers or simply sever them.
He was so close to Sangluo that the little jellyfish couldn’t see the cold-blooded cruelty instinctively flashing in his eyes. From the tremor in Sangluo’s gaze, he knew the black mermaid had understood the threat—perhaps sea creatures weren’t accustomed to such brutality. This mermaid was already terrified.
But then the little jellyfish chimed in from behind: "I’ll help too."
Before Shen Jixiao could stop him, Tang You had already floated over, perched on top of the mermaid’s head, mimicking his tone and shouting: "Talk!"
"Or else... you know what’ll happen!"
"I’ll eat your fingers!" the little jellyfish threatened, his voice soft and gentle, almost like a coquettish whine. "Then you’ll never be able to touch a jellyfish’s head with your fingers again!"
Sangluo: "..."
Shen Jixiao: "..."
After delivering what he thought was a fearsome threat, the little jellyfish laughed proudly through their mental link: "Hmph, mermaid, didn’t I learn super fast? Praise me, praise me—"
Shen Jixiao: "..." He couldn’t shake the feeling that this threat was aimed at him. Aside from him, what other fish liked touching the little jellyfish’s head?
He pressed his index finger and thumb together, unable to resist imagining the little jellyfish wrapping around his fingertip, trying to "eat" it. There was no lethality in that—on the contrary, it was cool, soft, and incredibly pleasant.
Against his better judgment, he replied: "Yes, very good... I mean, your threat was excellent."
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