Chapter 419: Sights at Sea

The vast sea stretched endlessly, and the shoreline had nearly disappeared from view.

The world was now composed solely of various shades of blue—above and below—blurring together with the misty haze at the horizon. In that haze, even the boundary between the sea and sky became indistinct, leaving their small boat drifting alone in the great expanse.

The ocean's surface rose and fell in constant motion.

From a distance, the waves seemed like nothing more than tiny ripples—insignificant blemishes on the great mirror of the sea. But up close, the crest and trough of each wave created enough of a difference to make the little boat rock unsteadily, rising and dipping with the undulating waters.

A little girl, wearing a straw hat, sat at the edge of the boat, looking every bit like a tiny fisher. In her hands was a fishing rod—a gift from Magistrate Lu—with the line trailing deep into the water.

A swallow perched motionlessly on the boat’s railing.

Both little demons were listening intently.

“You have the Water-Splitting Blade—as long as you hold it, you will never be harmed by water. Even in the depths of the ocean, you will be able to breathe and move as easily as on land,” Song You explained.

He was lying inside the cabin, resting with his arms folded behind his head. His straw hat covered most of his face, and only his voice drifted out.

“Additionally, by practicing water-based spells, such as Water Repellant Technique, one can prevent drowning. With more advanced mastery, one can even travel through the water like a fish, swiftly and freely.”

“But what about the swallow?” Lady Calico asked, her eyes still fixed on the water, hands gripping the fishing rod tightly. “The swallow doesn’t have the blade. And he doesn’t know water spells. What should he do?”

The swallow tilted his head slightly, looking over with evident concern.

“In that case, we must use a convenient Daoist method.” Song You’s voice came from beneath the straw hat.

“Then we'll have to rely on the convenient Daoist magic,” the Daoist's voice emerged from beneath the bamboo hat.

He added, “The Wood Rat[1] God is named Gong Long. If a Daoist with cultivation skills who worships him wishes to enter the water without drowning, they only need to respectfully call upon his name and ask for his assistance. Once in the water, they won’t be at risk of drowning.

𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

“Although Yan An is neither a Daoist nor a worshiper of Gong Long, Yan An is a descendant of the Swallow Immortal. If, during the invocation, the name of the old Swallow Immortal is included, perhaps Gong Long will grant some favor out of respect.”

She asked, “Like how I light lamps?”

“Yes, just like when you first started lighting lamps—only this time, you are calling a different god.” Song You paused briefly before adding, “Since that’s the case, why don’t you teach Yan An these techniques yourself?”

“Alright...”

Just as the little girl responded, she suddenly felt a strong tug on her fishing line. A surge of immense force shot through the fishing rod—something huge had taken the bait!

If she had been caught off guard, the fishing rod would have ripped straight out of her hands. But Lady Calico's reflexes were lightning-fast.

In an instant, she tightened her grip on the rod, both feet swiftly bracing against the side of the small boat.

“Mm!”

The strength of this catch was immense. The drifting boat visibly shifted direction, being dragged by sheer force through the water.

Lady Calico clung onto the fishing rod with all her might. Even in her human form, all ten toes had splayed open, gripping down instinctively. Every muscle in her small body was tense, locked in a fierce struggle.

Whoosh

—

A flicker of light flew from the Daoist’s hand, landing softly on the fishing rod.

“To keep your rod and line from snapping,” Song You’s voice floated over, relaxed as ever. “After all, this was a gift from Magistrate Lu. Lady Calico, keep going—it’s a big one.”

“Ugh—!” Lady Calico gritted her teeth and pulled with all her strength.

The swallow, with its glossy black eyes, watched her intently.

The struggle felt endless.

Song You, meanwhile, lay back leisurely. At one point, he removed his straw hat, lazily glancing up at the sky—still cloudless.

Lady Calico was still locked in a tug-of-war with the fish. Except now, she was no longer just gripping the rod.

Somehow, the fishing line had wrapped around her arms several times. Satisfied, Song You tilted his hat back down and dozed off.

Then—

A sudden splash broke the silence, followed by a loud thud. Something had landed inside the boat.

Only then did Song You push back his straw hat and sit up to see what had happened.

Inside the boat lay a massive fish—nearly as long as half a grown man. At its widest and thickest point, its body was as broad as a human waist. And yet, it now rested perfectly still in the boat’s cabin, as if it had resigned itself to its fate.

Even though Song You had expected it to be large, he still paused in surprise. As for the little girl—she was completely stunned.

“...Pfft.”

Exhausted from the struggle, Lady Calico collapsed onto the deck, still staring blankly at the fish. It was far larger than her human form. And who knew how many times bigger than her cat form?

Even standing as a human, she looked tiny next to this fish. If she were to return to her true form, she would be practically minuscule in comparison.

Her mind only managed to process two thoughts—

How many meals would this take to finish?

...Could this fish eat her instead?

Slowly, she turned her head, still dazed, and stared at the Daoist.

“...”

But before anyone could speak—

Boom

!

A deafening splash echoed across the ocean. Something massive, resembling a fish, burst out of the sea.

Its enormous body arched through the air, stretching to its full length before flipping over—revealing a white-striped belly covered in barnacles. Forget humans and cats, even their boat was dwarfed in comparison.

For a moment, Lady Calico felt that if the creature swung its fin even once, it could capsize—or even shatter—the boat she had spent a fortune on. So all she could do was tilt her head back and stare.

Boom

!

The massive beast crashed back into the ocean. Water exploded into the air, rising to an immeasurable height.

“Welcome to the ocean, Lady Calico,” the Daoist’s voice drifted over.

“...”

Lady Calico remained frozen, eyes still locked on the water.

Because after that massive creature disappeared beneath the waves, the sea seemed to trigger a chain reaction. One after another, more gigantic creatures leaped from the depths, each as enormous as the first.

They breached the surface, twisting and diving back into the sea from different angles, sending towering sprays of water into the air. It was as if they were showing off—proudly displaying their size and strength to Lady Calico. Countless splashes of water were sent flying.

She was both dazed and terrified, her round eyes stretched even wider than usual.

A giant fish even swam right beneath the small boat, its massive body faintly visible through the water, as if it could swallow them whole in a single bite. The sight made her feel immensely pressured.

“That’s not a fish,” Song You said calmly. “It’s an animal that looks like a fish—called a whale. Some whales are smaller, some are larger, but even the smallest ones are huge. They usually don’t eat people.”

“Is it a demon?”

“No. They’re just naturally this big.” Song You’s tone was steady. “One whale would be enough to feed you for a lifetime.”

“They’re naturally this big?”

“If you want, you can go down and swim with them.”

“...!” The little girl furiously shook her head.

Then, as she lowered her gaze back to the big fish in the boat’s cabin, she suddenly found it... much more acceptable in comparison.

“...”

Song You chuckled slightly and resumed rowing.

For the next few days, the sea remained calm—no storms, no rough waves. But the sights Song You had promised began unfolding before Lady Calico’s eyes, one after another, and even more than she had imagined.

At one point, she tossed some leftover fish overboard—only to accidentally attract a swarm of sharks.

Their sharp dorsal fins cut through the water like blades, circling the boat in hungry, restless spirals. The sharks fought over the scraps, thrashing the water into a foamy chaos of white waves and snapping jaws.

Whenever they passed a reef island or a shallow stretch, Song You would take the two little demons into the water. There, in the glass-clear sea, they swam freely.

They walked the ocean floor, drifted alongside whales, and encountered countless species of fish, each more unique than the last.

They danced amidst swirling schools of fish, feeling the strange sensation of being completely enveloped by a mass of shimmering, darting bodies.

Lady Calico even learned to catch scalloped spiny lobster and all sorts of rare sea creatures. She collected sea urchins—and delighted in throwing them to the fish as food.

Lady Calico had found a whole new world.

However, wary of the giant whales and ferocious sharks she had previously seen, she refused to go into the ocean alone.

Even when she did swim, she only dog-paddled right next to the boat—and only when the Daoist was with her.

At night, they drifted with the waves and unknowingly entered a realm of glowing plankton. The entire ocean surface radiated an eerie blue light, making the boat shimmer in the shifting reflections.

The cat lay on the boat’s edge, staring down at the surreal glow, but the source of the light remained elusive.

All she could see were jellyfish lazily drifting through the luminous waters, fish weaving through the glowing blue depths—but she could not find where the light truly came from.

The next morning, as soon as she woke up, there were countless flying fish. It was another type of fish Lady Calico had never seen before and never even imagined in her wildest dreams.

These fish swam in large schools, seemingly startled by something, and all of them leapt frantically out of the sea, soaring and gliding through the air. They were so densely packed, like a rainstorm, that the calico cat couldn’t help but shrink her neck and try to dodge them.

Thud, thud, thud...

The fish crashed onto the deck like raindrops, flopping and bouncing. Some tumbled back into the sea—others landed inside the boat, flailing helplessly.

For a brief moment, the great and mighty cat was so completely dumbfounded—

She just stood there, frozen.

It wasn’t until the second half of the flying fish rainstorm that she snapped back to reality. She sprinted to the bow of the boat, rose onto her hind legs, and stretched out her paws—catching fish mid-air.

When necessary, she even leapt up to intercept them.

This place...

This entire realm...

It was far too magical.

And in this dreamlike world, Lady Calico's restless heart gradually quieted. She stopped longing to rush forward and instead immersed herself in the wonders of the sea.

At times, she fished. At times, she swam. At times, she stood at the boat’s prow, gazing into the distance. At times, she practiced wielding the Water-Splitting Blade or cultivated.

Often, she simply lay beside the Daoist, asking questions, chatting with him. Or she would lean against the railing, staring into the water in a quiet trance.

She no longer wanted to hurry. At least, not for now.

Song You, too, had witnessed several sunrises and sunsets at sea. He drowned himself in the breathtaking stars and brilliant twilight skies.

Meanwhile, the swallow took to the sky once per day. It circled above the boundless ocean, searching for the legendary realms of the Little Kingdom, the Yaksha Kingdom, or any other strange lands. But so far, he had found nothing.

***

On the fifth morning at sea, the weather had clearly changed. The sky was no longer clear and vast. Instead, it had turned murky and overcast, casting a dull haze over the sea.

Even the temperature had dropped noticeably.

Whoosh

—

The swallow spread its wings, gliding with the wind before landing at the bow of the boat. The first thing it did was look toward the Daoist.

“Sir, I still haven’t found any strange islands.”

“Swallow, you look like a flying fish when you come in like that,” Lady Calico commented, smacking her lips slightly.

That day, there had been too many flying fish—they hadn’t been able to finish them all, so the extras had been tossed back into the sea.

“No rush,” Song You said. “It all depends on fate.”

“The weather at sea is changing.”

“It seems so.”

“Could we have gone in the wrong direction?”

“We shouldn’t have.” Song You smiled slightly, his tone full of certainty.

These past few days at sea, he had frequently attuned himself to the spiritual resonance of the world. In addition to cultivating, he was also searching for places with mystical spiritual resonance, and he had a general idea of the direction in his mind.

From what both Officer Wei and Magistrate Lu had said, the locations of these legendary sea kingdoms were never fixed.

The most recent sightings had been one to two hundred li offshore, but they could sometimes appear hundreds of li further out. The westernmost appearances reached near Xuzhou, while the easternmost had even been encountered by sailors departing from Yangzhou.

Ultimately, it depended on fate—but it was said that the waters off Langzhou’s Cang Commandery had the highest appearance rate.

However, Song You had a unique advantage.

Unlike ordinary people, who could only rely on luck and wait for these islands to reveal themselves, he possessed two other Five-Directions Soil, allowing him to actively search for them.

Even if he didn’t find one immediately, the journey itself had already been full of rewards.

That afternoon, they were visited by a sea turtle that had gained sentience. Song You and Lady Calico patiently conversed with it, asking for directions.

The turtle also confirmed that the Little Kingdom had no fixed location or schedule, but this region of the sea was where it most frequently appeared.

By evening, the weather changed drastically. A violent storm descended upon the sea.

1. Wood Rat is the first combination of the sexagenary cycle of the Chinese zodiac. A year of the Wood Rat occurs every 60 years, in a year that ends in 4. ☜