This Fish Is So Lively

Lucia Lu glanced over them; they were all books she’d never seen before.

Some of the writing on them, she couldn’t even recognize.

“You have so many books here.” Lucia Lu shook her head. “Don’t you get enough reading at the Instruction Hall? You still read when you get home?”

Sean Shaw replied, “I’m used to it.”

Lucia Lu shook her head. “So, what do you need me to help with?”

Sean Shaw took out a scroll from his Storage Pouch and said, “Could you open this and hold it for me?”

Lucia Lu, full of questions, opened the scroll.

At first glance, the painting didn’t look special—just a few lotus leaves and a vividly colored red fish, a classic fish-playing-among-lotus-leaves scene.

“This was left to me by my mother,” Sean Shaw said. “This fish is actually a being from another world, sealed inside the painting by her.”

“Oh?” Lucia Lu stared at the fish in surprise.

Suddenly, the fish blinked at her, swiveled its eyes toward Sean Shaw, and shouted, “You little punk, you actually brought a woman here! Is she your woman? Hey, not bad taste!”

Lucia Lu’s grip loosened and the scroll dropped to the floor. “The fish can actually talk!”

Sean Shaw picked up the painting, set it on the table, and smiled, “Yep.”

“That’s amazing!” Lucia Lu exclaimed in wonder.

Sean Shaw gave a small smile, placed the Storage Pouch containing the Yin Core in front of the fish, and asked, “Eternal Wishfish, can you help me fix this Yin Core?”

“First tell me, is she your woman?” the fish demanded.

“Do you really want me to add something to the painting?” Sean raised a finger, threatening to draw a talisman.

“Hey, hey, hey! You little punk! Be nice!” The fish flicked its tail and darted into the depths of the pond.

“Wow!” Lucia Lu gasped again. “It can do that too!”

It looked simple, but was actually a manipulation of Spatial Laws they couldn’t touch.

Sean Shaw barked, a bit fierce, “Eternal Wishfish, where do you think you can hide? Get out here and get to work!”

The Eternal Wishfish surfaced and snickered, “I get it! You keep dodging the question and changing the subject—must be you secretly have a crush on her and are too shy to admit it. Ha! Ha!”

Lucia Lu: "..."

This fish is seriously lively.

Sean Shaw: “Get to work!”

The fish, clearly reluctant, spat out a bubble from the water.

The bubble was perfectly round. It slipped out of the painting and floated right into the Storage Pouch holding the Yin Core.

After a short while, the once-refined Yin Core re-formed, radiating powerful Underworld Yin energy.

Sean Shaw patted the fish’s head. “Alright! That’s another job done!”

“I still owe your mom’s dead salamander fish a hundred wishes! Hurry up and use them, so I can finally die! I don’t want to live even one minute longer!”

Sean Shaw flicked the fish with his finger.

A flash of red light—then a character sigil stamped onto its head.

It yelped, "Ouch!" and dove back into the water, vanishing from sight.

Sean Shaw rolled up the painting and put it away in his Storage Pouch.

“That was really fun,” Lucia Lu said, laughing.

Sean Shaw smiled.

He’d known she’d react just like that.

Suddenly, Lucia Lu remembered, “Wait, I didn’t really help you with anything…”

Sean Shaw replied, “Not true. Lately, this fish has been super disobedient—every time I ask it to do something, it nags forever. I brought you here to distract it, and it worked obediently.”

Lucia Lu: “Really… Can it do anything for you?”

“Not exactly. Only things within its power,” Sean Shaw said. “Like restoring items, healing, or stealing something out of a barrier. But there’s a lot it can’t do.”

Lucia Lu said with a touch of envy, “Having a Magical Artifact like that is amazing.”