Chapter 13 | The Sea Swallows the Heavens

An Youyu had heard of the 【guarantor chain】 in that water bandit's confession.

Outsiders in the Salt-Bone Sea had no commune registry. If someone wanted to stay long-term in a float-commune, a local had to vouch for them. Once the guarantor chain was tied, the newcomer was listed under the guarantor's name; if they caused trouble later, the guarantor would be punished along with them.

Ning Cang did not hesitate.

“I brought him back. I'll vouch for him.”

Only then did Lu Guizhou look back at An Youyu.

“With the guarantor chain tied, you can stay.”

“However, it is only temporary residency.”

“If you want your name written into Clown's commune registry, you must deliver one thousand jin of fish you caught yourself to the public warehouse. Once you deliver the full amount, your registry will be finalized.”

As he spoke, Lu Guizhou gestured with his chin toward the public warehouse. “You've seen what conditions are like this year. Nearly a hundred households are staring at the meager supplies in the public warehouse. Sparing an extra mouth to feed right now means you'll have to carry your weight.”

“One thousand jin. Do you accept?”

“I accept.”

An Youyu did not hesitate for long.

Once his name entered Clown's commune registry, he would have an origin in the Salt-Bone Sea and no longer be treated as an outsider with a floating identity.

One thousand jin of fish in exchange for a new identity that allowed him to keep moving upward.

A good deal.

No sooner had the words left his mouth than a streak of silver light suddenly flashed before An Youyu's eyes.

Clang!

The empty bucket beside his feet jerked violently.

A silver-scaled fish as long as half an arm slammed into the bucket.

Where did that fish come from?

Before anyone could react—

Another dark shadow followed right after.

“Bang!”

A black fish smashed down from the air, startling several people into dodging away in a hurry.

The words of that sea diviner from last night suddenly flashed through An Youyu's mind.

【At the latest by tomorrow, heavenly fish shall fall.】

An Youyu snapped his head up.

The low-hanging clouds were slowly rotating, their center collapsing inward to reveal a vast, pitch-black vortex eye.

Dense, swarming shadows of fish rolled deep within the vortex eye, their scales catching and reflecting flashes of silver light as the clouds spun.

“Fish!”

Someone in the crowd was the first to shout out.

“Fish are falling from the sky!”

“Everyone, get under the sheds! Protect your heads first!”

Lu Guizhou bellowed out.

Swaths of dark shadows were already crashing down from the clouds.

“Splaaash...”

Sea fish large and small fell like rain.

Some slammed onto cabin roofs, some crashed against tarpaulins and footbridges, while even more plunged directly into the water inside the ring wall, kicking up plumes of white spray.

At first, the people cradled their heads and ducked beneath the sheds, but once they clearly saw that everything falling from the sky was fish, their cries of panic quickly turned to cheers.

On the sea, waterspouts occasionally swept schools of fish into the high clouds, carrying them hundreds of li wrapped in vapor before throwing them back onto the ocean surface like rain.

The boatfolk called this rare tidal phenomenon 【Fish Rain】.

Yet most fish that fell in ordinary fish rain were merely small fish from shallow waters.

The ones before their eyes were clearly different.

Many had natural tide markings on their bellies and ossified dorsal fins; these were by no means the scrawny fish commonly seen near the shore during the Wither Tide.

Some even came from deep sea regions that salvage ships could never reach on ordinary days.

“Thud.”

Beside the water distribution platform, a gray-winged ray with a wingspan of nearly a zhang crashed down with a heavy thud. Once this kind of fish got caught in a net, its wing bones easily sliced through the net ropes, and in its struggles, preserving its wing membranes intact was extremely difficult.

Yet this one had been jolted to the point of dying from the high-altitude fall, leaving the wing membranes on both sides completely intact.

“Haul the nets! Quick, block the ones in the water!”

“Don't step on it! That lantern-belly fish can be traded for three big baskets of algae cakes!”

The boatfolk pulled down their drying nets one after another to scoop up fish from the water.

Children ran wildly across the bridges carrying wooden buckets.

When their buckets were full, they lifted the hems of their shirts, scooping palm-sized small fish into their laps one by one.

The gloom that had weighed on everyone for days due to the Wither Tide, suspended navigation, and the black flag was smashed clean away by this sudden fish rain.

The fish rain came fast and left just as quickly.

By the time the last few dark shadows in the clouds plunged into the water, the floating platforms in front of the public warehouse were already covered in bright silver fish scales.

Lu Guizhou wiped a few fish scales off his shoulder, looked at the catch covering the ground, then looked back at An Youyu, suddenly bursting into laughter.

“You brat are named Youyu—'having fish'—and sure enough, fish really came.”

“You just agreed to one thousand jin, and they start falling right out of the sky.”

He raised his foot to nudge aside a silver-scaled fish that was still flopping around wildly.

“Could it be that this fish rain was actually summoned by you?”

People around them immediately burst out laughing.

“Sure looks like it!”

“If we knew naming someone Youyu worked this well, our entire commune should change their names!”

An Youyu felt a bit helpless at their ribbing.

“If I really summoned it, does this one thousand jin count directly toward my quota?”

Lu Guizhou let out a hearty laugh.

“In your dreams.”

“The fish weren't caught by you. Rules are rules—not a single jin counts.”