Lily Bai glanced at the entranced Kieran Xiao and asked, "So what happened to Kieran's legs? How did the Crown Prince and his wife end up in a car accident?"
"After Xavier Xiao cut down the tree and learned the truth, he went completely mad. He was determined to find out who killed his wife and wipe out their entire family. Nathan Xiao somehow found out it was linked to the Ames family, so he secretly confronted Mabel An. "The fish said. "When Mabel found out, she just silenced them—classic!"
"Was that you again?"
"She's actually pretty frugal with me. This time she didn't ask for my help—she did it herself," said the fish. "But the tragic part is, Kieran somehow snuck into their car to go play and got caught up in the accident too!"
"You're lying!" Kieran Xiao shouted, agitated. "No way! You're lying!"
"I'm a fish—I don't lie," said the fish.
"How could you possibly know everything so clearly? How could you know what my mom did?"
"I know everything. Your low-dimensional world is totally transparent to me!"
"You're lying! No way!" Kieran protested. His legs—how could his own mom be the reason he's crippled?
"When the accident happened, it was your uncle Nathan Xiao who shielded your upper body with his own. That's why you survived, right? Aside from you, nobody else knows this, do they? Well, I know it too."
Kieran opened his mouth, but couldn't shout anymore.
"Kieran, whether you're human, god, or even one of us fiends, you have to show some respect," Lily Bai said. "Respect nature, respect the heavenly Dao. No matter how high you climb, you need to stay humble. Otherwise... you'll pay the price. You and your mom ended up like this because of your own choices. That's what they call karma!"
Kieran lay on the ground, staring blankly, completely still.
Lily Bai looked at the painting. "Eternal Wishfish, keep going."
The fish continued, "Later, my master Mabel An made a seventh wish to me—the only one I still haven't fulfilled—to heal your legs."
"Wait, aren't you supposed to be all-powerful? Why did you need to sacrifice Evan Lan to heal him?" Lily Bai asked.
"My energy system is different from the living beings of your Lotus Realm. I couldn't heal him. So my master asked how she could do it, and I told her: she needed the life energy of a First Spirit Tree.
She told me to find her a First Spirit Tree. I said, 'You already chopped it down,' and the little one had disappeared! Hearing that, she freaked out and demanded I find the small First Spirit Tree."
"So you started bargaining, calling it a new task, and made it the eighth wish?"
Fish: "It was a new task, wasn't it? Don't you think so?"
Lily Bai: "..."
Fish: "So I found Evan Lan for her, but Evan was way too powerful then—I couldn't get him to just sit still and let me drain his spirit energy! So I said, he'd have to get weaker, turn back into a tree."
Lily Bai: "Mabel An didn't smack you?"
Fish, smug: "She worships me like a god—why would she hit me?"
Lily Bai: "And then?"
Fish: "After that, she realized she'd nearly run out of wishes, so she started saving them. She and Kieran tried to solve things themselves, using their prophetic powers to intimidate terrorists. They even rallied all the world's terror groups to go after Evan Lan."
Lily Bai: "You mean the Godslayer Syndicate."