The Undersea Adventures of the Little Jellyfish (JELLYFISH)
Before Sangluo could say anything, the water in the darkness stirred, and a gray shadow rushed toward them.
Shen Jixiao dodged. With his newfound psychic abilities, his instincts had sharpened immeasurably—perhaps because his psychic traits leaned toward perception, analysis, and foresight. He could now sense impending attacks and quickly discern the intent behind an opponent’s movements.
But the moment he moved, he lost control of Sangluo in the water. The black mermaid broke free, only to be caught by the gray shadow.
The little jellyfish and the mermaid exchanged glances:
They both recognized this gray, mermaid-like yet not-quite-mermaid creature—it was the siren.
And sirens and mermaids were mortal enemies.
Yet here was this siren, clinging to the black mermaid, her wavy gray hair covering her slender shoulders and glimpses of pale scales peeking through. Her posture was one of utter dependence, and when she turned to glare at Shen Jixiao, she looked like a wounded cub, ready to bite to protect what was hers.
She was indeed a siren—her scales diamond-shaped, her tail slender with a small caudal fin and no lateral fins, her skin gray. When she glared, her eyes were like peach blossoms brimming with emotion, framed by long lashes, her cheeks plump as ripe peaches and her lips full with a rounded cupid's bow. Only when she opened her mouth could one see the rows of sharp, needle-like teeth hidden within those soft lips.
A pure carnivore.
"Ha—" She let out a threatening hiss.
No further explanation seemed necessary.
Sangluo and the siren definitely knew each other. As a mermaid, this was a blatant violation of clan laws—in any other settlement, it would be enough to land Sangluo in the dungeon for decades.
Shen Jixiao narrowed his eyes, his expression growing even more dangerous.
He hadn’t forgotten how this siren had swum toward them earlier, attempting an attack. Though the charm had failed, the intent was clear—who could say whether the siren’s aggression had been at Sangluo’s behest? Especially since the moment the siren fled, Sangluo had emerged to divert their attention, offering to lead them away.
It was all too deliberate.
"Y-you… why did you come out?" Sangluo was flustered. "I told you to stay hidden!"
"Ah…" The siren seemed only capable of making incoherent sounds for now.
Shen Jixiao frowned.
Originally, he had been confident in taking down either Sangluo or the siren, but given the current situation, he doubted he could end the fight quickly. Sangluo, after all, possessed formidable psychic strength and specialized in curse magic. Shen Jixiao himself had little magical resistance—if he got cursed, he wouldn’t even know where to seek help.
Moreover, opponents who lacked strong fighting instincts usually had something holding them back. Once that restraint was removed—or if what they were protecting came under threat—they could easily snap, turning reckless and desperate.
He suspected Sangluo was exactly that type.
After a moment’s consideration, Shen Jixiao silently communicated with the little jellyfish for a few seconds. Once he confirmed the state of its psychic energy, he fashioned a spear from condensed mental power.
With a weapon in hand, he felt much steadier.
Perhaps the crisis had triggered a surge in his own psychic abilities—Shen Jixiao faintly perceived more than before. He saw the massive void in the siren’s mental energy, saw Sangluo gathering power, saw…
Another presence lurking in the shadows.
Without hesitation, Shen Jixiao hurled the spear into the darkness.
Moments later, a gray figure burst forth. His arm had been grazed—had he dodged a second later, the spear might have impaled him outright. This was another siren, an exceedingly rare male, his face twisted in fury, looking ready to tear Shen Jixiao apart with his teeth.
"Sang Li, stop." Sangluo swam forward before wrapping his arms around the male siren’s arm. "Calm down."
Compared to the thin and small siren, this one named Sang Li was clearly much stronger. He was a rare male among the sirens and was evidently well-trained—his naturally slender tail had been honed to the thickness of a merman’s.
Unlike the female siren with their bewitching faces, a quarter of his face was covered in scars, making him look fierce and menacing. Fish scales covered his torso, and his arms were dotted with gray scales. His teeth were sharper and densely packed like a shark’s. As he stared unwaveringly at Shen Jixiao, his eyes seemingly categorizing the world into only two types:
Allies.
Enemies.
Clearly, the little jellyfish and the others fell into the latter category.
Shen Jixiao tightened his grip on his new spear.
"Brother..." The female siren let out a weak whimper. "I'm scared."
"It's alright, it's alright." Sangluo patted her back. "A’Guo, nothing will happen."
Brother? Both Tang You and Shen Jixiao exchanged a puzzled glance.
Blood-related? Could it be... Sangluo was a hybrid of a merman and a siren?
For some reason, Shen Jixiao’s hostility lessened slightly, though he remained wary. "What’s going on with you two?"
"No matter how you see it, this is my family," the black-scaled merman said stubbornly. "We have no intention of fighting. A'Guo was just frightened by you. We hope you leave immediately. That’s my stance as well—please get out of our territory."
The little jellyfish chimed in, "But we’re lost."
"I’ll guide you out."
"I’m a little curious about you," the little jellyfish said. His tone carried no ulterior motives—just pure curiosity, devoid of the disgust and disdain others might feel upon learning such things. "Can we talk while we walk?"
Few could refuse him, even temporary enemies.
...
"A long time ago, there were two settlements here. One was called Yifuximei, a merman settlement, and the other was Tasang, a siren settlement. Originally, one lived on this side of the island, and the other in the deep waters, never interfering with each other."
"But friction was inevitable. The hatred between mermen and sirens runs deep. My parents probably died in such conflicts. The merman tribe raises the offspring of their kin, so I was born safely and had a relatively normal childhood."
"Until I started growing scales." Sangluo looked at his own scales, his gaze distant. "Pure black—ominous."
"Maybe I’m a harbinger of disaster, maybe I’m a cursed child, maybe my mother bore me with an evil siren..." He recounted the insults he had endured with a detached tone, as if all the resentment his tribe harbored toward sirens had been transferred onto him—a discarded black merman. "Later, the tribe decided to relocate. And I... wasn’t part of the migration."
"I was left behind."
"Perhaps you know—thirty years ago, there was an earthquake here. The sirens lived in caves, and the quake collapsed their homes, forcing them to leave too. With nothing to do, I wandered into the sirens’ lair."
Shen Jixiao understood immediately. "You wanted to know if you had siren blood in you."
Sangluo neither confirmed nor denied it. "Maybe."
"I found two unhatched eggs in the ruins," he said, turning to the siren siblings. "Unlike mermaids, sirens prefer to let their offspring fend for themselves and don’t meticulously care for their eggs."
Sangluo's voice was low: "I was an abandoned mermaid and they were forsaken sirens. What does our ancestors' feud have to do with us? All we want is to huddle together and survive in this cold, desolate sea."
"But due to poor incubation conditions in their early years, both A'Guo and A'Li developed chronic health issues. A'Guo still only has the intellect of a seven or eight-year-old, and A'Li bears scars on his face that will never heal."
"We are a cursed race," Sang Li suddenly interjected. "We can only consume fresh blood and flesh. If we go too long without feeding, the agony becomes unbearable—we even turn on our own kin in madness. I can still control myself, but A'Guo is just a child. To keep her fed, my brother often offers his own flesh and blood."
"We’ve never hunted humans or mermaids. Our brother treats us as his true siblings, so naturally, we live by his ways."
The little jellyfish asked, "Cursed?"
"Yes, cursed," Sangluo replied. "That’s why I study curses. I want to uncover the origins of the siren race. I used to think their hunting was merely for sustenance, but if you’d ever seen them driven to madness by starvation, you’d know it’s far more than hunger."
"I know I may never find the answers, but I’ll keep searching."
His attendance at the banquet and newborn ceremony in the Stival settlement was purely for the faint protective energy the rituals provided. He needed that power to heal his body, as well as the Stival clan’s unique restorative magic.
"If not for A'Guo, I would never set foot in a mermaid settlement in my life."
He seemed full of resentment.
It was clear the scars of childhood neglect and abandonment had never faded. As the eldest, he’d had to care for two young sirens despite his own struggles.
His hatred was justified.
Shen Jixiao remained silent. He, too, had once harbored hatred.
But he hadn’t learned of his mixed blood until adulthood, when his mind was more mature. And though his wretched father was indeed wretched, he had kept Shen Jixiao’s identity a secret from everyone. Even when others questioned who his mother was, the man never spoke. The other noble-born children had looked down on him—bastards, in their eyes, were lower even than servants’ offspring. All were human, yet divided into ranks.
Shen Jixiao hated it too.
He understood Sangluo’s feelings well. This kind of hatred was nebulous—should he hate the mother who never appeared, the father who stayed silent, or the gossiping neighbors and peers who scorned him openly?
He hated them all.
But most of all, he hated himself for being too weak to change anything.
"Leave now," he said. "Swim straight up from here. Don’t return, or we’ll attack without hesitation."
"Alright," the little jellyfish replied obediently. "We’ll leave in a moment."
"What are you planning?" the mermaid and two sirens asked warily. Even Shen Jixiao turned to the jellyfish in confusion.
The little jellyfish used its psychic power to lift a semi-transparent stone, examining it against the light filtering down from above.
This was the exit—a vast, circular hall shaped like an inverted funnel. While the cave was filled with black rocks, the stones here had begun to take on a crystalline quality, growing more transparent and colorful toward the center, primarily in shades of white and purple. The little jellyfish picked one up and studied it for a long while, concluding that this must be a rare undersea crystal mine.
A hollowed-out crystal mine.
Parts of the hollowed space had been carved, and some areas had once held decorations. It was clear that this place had once been exquisitely designed.
"This place is beautiful. It’s such a shame to leave it in ruins. I think we should restore it."
Sangluo: "That’s impossible… I’ve been here for twenty or thirty years. There was an earthquake before, and the magic array that maintained the core’s operation was destroyed long ago. That was a spell circuit from centuries ago—I’ve scoured ancient texts but couldn’t find any way to restore it."
The little jellyfish tapped its head. "I think… it’s not that hard? The principle behind this array is pretty common."
Sangluo’s eyes widened. "Common?"
"Yeah, super common," the little jellyfish said. "I feel like everyone uses it. You must just not get out much and read too little. As the old saying goes, 'Reading ten thousand books is not as good as traveling ten thousand miles…'"
"I don’t believe it." Sangluo truly didn’t. "I’ve already investigated outside—other settlements, even the centuries-old Stival nearby—this type of spell circuit has been lost to time."
The little jellyfish glanced at Shen Jixiao.
Shen Jixiao: "…"
He looked back—on this topic, he was utterly illiterate. What could he even say?
"…" He cleared his throat. "I also recognize this array. Maybe you just haven’t traveled far enough. There are indeed people outside who still use it. Little jellyfish, you can fix it, right?"
"Yes!"
……
Sangluo and the two sirens remained skeptical.
But since things couldn’t get any worse, there was no harm in trying.
They helped out a bit, though they had to follow the little jellyfish’s instructions—sweeping away dust and debris, tossing junk outside, and sometimes being told to place specific crystal fragments in odd spots with pinpoint accuracy.
Sang Guo was a little fool—once she ate her fill, she just sat around happily singing off-key songs, incapable of delicate work. So the little jellyfish had her help glue shattered crystals back together with slug mucus before placing them one by one.
The array repairs were almost entirely handled by the little jellyfish. Shen Jixiao couldn’t make sense of it, but he could feel the water in the hall growing calmer, more soothing—almost the opposite of what a mermaid's presence should feel like.
"You’re doing it wrong," Sangluo said sternly. "Why are you altering the structure here?"
Tang You blinked and lied shamelessly: "Everyone outside modifies it this way. It’s better."
In truth, he had no idea what the original array looked like and was just filling in the gaps based on his own understanding.
After who knew how long, Sangluo and Sang Li finally moved the largest crystal into place.
The repairs were complete.
"Now we just need to inject a little magic…" Sangluo did as instructed.
His magic flowed into the crystal, and the highly conductive material immediately lit up, channeling the energy through the intricate patterns on the ground and into the massive magic circle.
It was a rather fascinating structure—the crystal was merely a tiny switch, controlling a magic circle the size of an entire room, which in turn was nested within another and spiraling outward like a set of Russian dolls. This allowed the smallest amount of power to manipulate the largest possible area.
The downside was that if a bug appeared, troubleshooting would require peeling back layer after layer to find the root cause.
But it was all worth it.
Sunlight streamed from above, piercing the water. The fading rays, which should have dimmed, were gathered by the transparent crystal and concentrated into a single point before scattering through its precisely cut facets, igniting the focal nodes of the various magic circles in the room.
Creak… creak…
The magic circle, dormant for decades, shuddered to life. The moment the magic began to flow, it initiated a self-cleaning process, eliminating any obstructions along its pathways.
Countless lights—sunlight, the glow of magic, refracted beams from the crystal—all intertwined, transforming the interior of the grand hall into what looked like an incomprehensible musical score. The crystals were the notes, and as magic coursed through them, a faint, ethereal melody began to resonate. There was no hint of enchantment, only solemnity and weight—
The weight of history and legacy.
Sangluo nearly wept. The two sirens were even more direct—they pressed themselves against the ground, silently listening to the melody that was both foreign and achingly familiar that were etched deep into their souls.
Only when the song ended did they stir.
"Whatever happened before," Sang Li lifted his head, still harboring some hostility toward Shen Jixiao, "I forgive you…"
He bowed deeply. "Thank you."
"No need for thanks," the little jellyfish chirped while spinning happily in place. "I just wanted to see the sight of it all restored, that’s all. Do you mind if I record this scene and take a copy with me?"
The two sirens exchanged glances, then nodded in unison. "Go ahead."
"Yay!"
Just as the jellyfish was celebrating, Sangluo swam over. The black-scaled mermaid avoided the two sirens. "Little jellyfish."
"Hmm?"
"Why did you help me?" Sangluo’s expression was puzzled. "I could tell you didn’t like me before. We have no ties, no shared interests. You know… I hate those—"
"But I don’t think so," the jellyfish said earnestly. He and Shen Jixiao held different views on this matter. "You don’t hate that much. Because you’re a really, really good mermaid. You learned curses only because you wanted to save your sister, and you cursed the children with a lifetime of happiness."
"I’m… a good mermaid?" Sangluo’s expression went blank. "You—you just mentioned my sister?"
So much information. No one had ever called him a good mermaid before—not when he studied forbidden curses, let alone acknowledged that he and the sirens’ children were a family. Neither of their races would ever accept such a union. No matter how many times they had clung to each other and told themselves that their bond needed no outside validation, hearing it from someone else was entirely different.
He felt like flipping belly-up and floating to the surface.
"What was that?"
Sangluo absentmindedly rolled onto his back, while the little jellyfish continued to admire the beauty of the hall, eager to memorize every detail of the scenery—ideally even committing the musical score to memory.
As the magical energy flowed continuously, he suddenly noticed a change in one of the central amethyst crystals. Originally a pale, misty lavender hue, it had now turned transparent and its color deepened until it nearly resembled black crystal.
The concentration of magic here was overwhelming, as if all power had gathered in this very spot.
"I know," Sangluo said, snapping out of his daze. "This is the Demon Mirror of the Siren Clan. I read about it in my research. It’s said to reflect the soul’s true form and reveal one’s deepest desires—so much so that it can easily ensnare the unwary. Sirens train to bewitch others with psychic powers, and the first step is building resistance against it."
"I always thought the Demon Mirror was a physical object that the sirens took with them when they left. Who knew it was actually a phenomenon created by the convergence of magical circuits in the array? Fascinating," Sangluo murmured. He truly loved studying this kind of knowledge.
"Reflecting the form of the soul? Easily bewitched..." The little jellyfish waved at Shen Jixiao. "Mermaid, do you want to give it a try? I'll keep an eye on you—I’ll definitely drag you away before you get enchanted. After you’re done, I’d like to try too."
Shen Jixiao: "..."
He sighed. Truthfully, he already knew what he would see—one hundred percent certain. After dreaming about it for so many years, he had long grown desensitized.
One glance wouldn’t hurt.
The dark, smooth crystal reflected his image.
Shen Jixiao froze.
In the mirror was a young man with black hair and blue eyes, his ears lacking fins and his neck devoid of gill slits. He raised his hand, and the reflection mirrored the motion—those hands bore no webbing. Unfamiliar yet familiar.
It had been nearly two weeks since he last touched his own legs, and even almost forgot what he looked like as a human.
The little jellyfish couldn’t see the details, only vaguely making out a humanoid shape. Assuming Shen Jixiao hadn’t been bewitched, it stayed put.
Shen Jixiao wanted to look again, but the figure in the reflection suddenly dissolved. Black mist swirled and reformed into a silhouette he knew all too well.
There he floated in the mirror, gazing at Shen Jixiao with eyes so tender they bordered on sorrow and his lips curled in a barely perceptible smile. His gaze was pure, unwavering, as he mouthed softly, "Stay with me, okay?"
Shen Jixiao abruptly lost all interest.
That person would never say such a thing.
The image shattered abruptly, replaced by a soft, bouncy little jellyfish pressed against the mirror’s surface, as if about to leap out and beg for pets: "Silly mermaid, can you pet me?"
"Of course." Shen Jixiao answered instinctively.
Then he turned and stroked the real jellyfish beside him, who was busy tinkering with adjustments.
The mirror’s illusion: "..."
The little jellyfish: "..."
After petting it, Shen Jixiao studied the mirror with amusement. He had expected to see only that person—never imagined the little jellyfish would appear too. But trying to tempt him with an illusion of the jellyfish was utterly pointless when the real one was swimming right beside him. How could he be enchanted by an untouchable phantom?
"Mermaid, stop your hand." Tang You nudged Shen Jixiao’s fingers away. "I want to see what my soul looks like too..."
The mermaid retreated.
The little jellyfish scooted up to the mirror, took one look, and let out a small gasp. "Huh? Why am I reflecting a human form too? Is the mirror broken?"
"Who knows?" Sangluo, still inspecting another area, called back from a distance. "Everything here has been lost to time for ages."
"Ah... how strange."
The little jellyfish looked so puzzled that Shen Jixiao couldn’t resist his curiosity and glanced at the mirror again.
A single glance struck him like lightning.
In the reflection before the little jellyfish was the upper half of a young man—so familiar and identical in every detail to the illusion that had just tried to enchant him.
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