“Accepted!”
“Let him in!”
“An Youyu is a lucky name—safe coming and going, with fish every year!”
“If the public warehouse runs out of fish later, just recite his name three times first!”
The shouting across the footbridges mingled with the cheers of people gathering fish, though no one knew who started it first.
Lu Guizhou listened for a moment, then laughed and waved his hand.
“Alright.”
“Since everyone accepts, we'll make an exception this once.”
He immediately had someone fetch the commune registry from the public warehouse.
The ink brush descended.
The three characters for “An Youyu” were officially added to Clown Float-Commune's registry.
Afterward, an old iron token carved with a smiling clown face was handed to An Youyu.
“Keep it safe.”
“From today on, water tickets, work credits, and fish shares will all be recorded under this token.”
An Youyu looked down at the commune token.
The iron token was not large, bearing a smiling face in its center.
That name wiped from the sea registries by the Yan Clan for years was now written back into a register of living souls.
He tightened his fingers, gripping the commune token in his palm.
On the other side, the public warehouse workers had already set up large scales.
Baskets upon baskets of catches were hauled up to be weighed. Those that could be kept alive were sent to the breeding holds, while the rest were gutted and washed on the spot, prepared to be salted into the warehouse.
Lu Guizhou closed the commune registry.
“Let's go, I'll take you to recognize the commune monument.”
“Your name is written in the register, so you can't be ignorant of where your own fish register is carved.”
He led An Youyu along the footbridges toward the center of the float-commune.
Several children waiting for water followed behind as well. Even after adults called out twice, they couldn't get them to come back.
The circular platform beneath the clown head faced the public warehouse across the water.
A dark green stone stele taller than a man was embedded into the edge of the platform, its base firmly locked into a steel frame by several thick chains.
The float-commune had limited weight capacity and would not keep useless heavy objects around on ordinary days.
Yet this piece of land-stone had been preserved by generations of boatfolk down to this day.
Sea winds and salt fog had long worn down the stele's corners, but the carvings on both front and back had been polished bright by countless hands touching them.
“This is Clown Float-Commune's monument.”
Lu Guizhou pressed his palm against the face of the stele.
“Fish-skin paper doesn't last long at sea—it rots from moisture and won't survive a hold fire. Our ancestors feared this fish register might be lost in someone's hands one day, so they found this stone and carved the entire register onto it.”
“The commune monument is only shown to those whose residency has been registered. When children in the commune enter the schoolhouse, they must follow the teacher here to recognize the monument and read the register.”
“Anyone can learn the fish register, but whether you can gather the fish materials and open an aperture depends on yourself.”
An Youyu looked up along the face of the stele.
At the very top of the stone stele were eight distinct fish patterns carved side by side.
【Salamander Swim】, 【Shark Maiden】, 【Dragon Gallop】, 【Sky Ray】, 【Nine Chapters】, 【Ghost Mirage】, 【Gluttonous Whale】, 【Turtle Bearer】.
Beneath the eight fish patterns, an old saying was carved horizontally.
【Eight Delicacies crossing the sea, each showing their divine talents.】
“This is the Eight Delicacies Path, eight roads leading to the Sea Kings.”
“Only when you complete the journey are you called a King; if you fail, you're merely a Delicacy.”
Lu Guizhou's finger finally stopped on 【Sky Ray】.
“The only path handed down in Clown Float-Commune is this one.”
“This register can only fix the Sky Ray Path. Before opening an aperture, no one can say for sure which fish aspect will grow out of it. At sea, this kind of fish register is called a broad-aspect register.”
A layer of faded light blue lingered within the Sky Ray fish pattern.
Beneath the fish pattern lay the full contents of the 《Floating Spring Ray Register》.
【Fish Register: 《Floating Spring Ray Register》】
【Affiliation: Sky Ray Path · First-Transformation · Broad Aspect】
【Fish Aspect: Indefinite】
【Fish Recipe: Floating Spring Aspect-Fixing Recipe】
【Fish Materials: Three liang of gray-winged ray wing membrane, one liang of floating-bladder fish bladder glue, two liang of tide-following shuttle lateral line meat, five qian of floating spring jellyfish umbrella glue.】
【Consumption: Dry and grind the four fish materials into powder, boil with initial surging Floating Spring water into fish glue, and consume all at once when the spring surge tide begins.】
【Tide Timing: Once every three years, the Sea-Calming Stone spews marrow in vast quantities alongside local tide breath, causing the Floating Spring to surge abundantly, known as the 'Spring Surge Tide.'】
【Heavenly Timing: The Spring Surge Tide begins at dawn, lasting one ke from the moment the sea-sky pales until the sun's disk shows.】
【Aperture Opening: The practitioner submerges their lower body into the Floating Spring above the Sea-Calming Stone, using the spring's water momentum to support chest and abdomen, guiding the fish materials' medicinal properties into heart and lungs to condense into a fish aperture, nurturing Floating Spring Breath.】
【Aperture Breath: Floating Spring Breath.】
【Fish-Swimming Method: Floating Spring Ray Swimming Method; see back of stele for breath circulation routes and swimming postures.】
Seeing the final line, An Youyu walked around to the side of the stele.
Carved into the back of the stele were various postures of ray swimming.
The tide paths chiseled within the human silhouette connected with one another, marking the direction of every surge and ebb of Floating Spring Breath.
Together, the carvings on both front and back formed a complete First-Transformation fish register.
Lu Guizhou's voice came from the other side of the stele.
“Even if you gather all the fish materials and match the tide timing, it doesn't mean you'll definitely succeed.”
“The Spring Surge Tide lasts only one ke. After consuming the recipe, whether you can accurately discern the surge and ebb of Floating Spring Breath and guide the medicinal properties into heart and lungs depends on comprehension.”
“This register has been carved here for so many years, yet very few have actually opened a fish aperture with it.”
“If I hadn't succeeded in opening one myself, and A'Man hadn't completed the path later, the young people would have long regarded it as an expired, useless old register.”
An Youyu believed those words.
In the Northern Jurisdiction's fish-transformation camp, the youths permitted by the instructor to consume recipes had already gone through a round of selection, lacking no fish materials. Yet out of a hundred entering the tide grounds, usually only one or two emerged with a fish aperture.
The rest could only watch as the medicinal properties dissipated, waiting for the next opportunity.
An Youyu walked back around to the front of the stele.
Lu Guizhou's knuckles rested against that layer of faded light blue.
“After A'Man drowned and went missing, I became the only fish-transformed left in the commune.”
“This layer of blue was painted by A'Man with his own hands on the day he opened his aperture. I originally thought I'd guide him for a few more years, and once he was familiar with undercurrents, I'd hand over the three tide-viewing towers in the west and the rescue vessel to him.”
Ning Cang's hand hanging at his side clenched tight.
The old man looked at An Youyu, staring at his brow and eyes for quite a while.
“The day you were first dragged back, Ning Cang said you looked like A'Man, and I stared at your face for a long time as well.”
“It would be a lie to say I didn't hold a single sliver of hope in my heart.”
“However, the name written into the commune registry just now was An Youyu. From now on, everyone should address you as such.”
An Youyu did not respond, merely raising his hand to touch the light blue fish pattern.
The familiar lingering sound of old objects immediately resounded.
“Chief Grandpa, I opened my aperture!”
“Brother, look!”
A few laughs mingled with ocean waves swept past in a flash.
After the laughter faded, a deeper echo surfaced from deep within the stone.
That voice did not belong to A'Man, nor did it resemble any single person. Low tide reverberations wrapped around countless blurred whispers, as if pressed layer by layer into the depths of the stone long before this piece of land-stone was dragged onto the sea's surface.
An Youyu listened for only a moment before his thoughts began to scatter, and the Sky Ray fish pattern before his eyes twisted with it.
Those echoes were eroding his consciousness.
Lu Guizhou, Ning Cang, and several children were standing nearby. If he lost his composure now, it would inevitably draw questions. The commune monument was right here; he could return alone to listen later.
An Youyu immediately pulled his hand back.
The whispers and tide reverberations inside the stele vanished simultaneously.
Passing through that wave of dizziness, An Youyu spoke up: “Chief, I opened a fish aperture before, and I've also fixed an aspect.”
Lu Guizhou's expression changed.
“You are a fish-transformed?”
“Mm.”
An Youyu did not deny it.
The identity of a fish-transformed would not expose his past origin.
“But the day you were hauled back, I probed you with my own hands. There was no aperture breath on your body, nor could I see any fish aspect.”
“My fish aperture suffered severe damage in a whirlpool tide,” An Youyu had long thought of an explanation. “It didn't respond before, and only began generating aperture breath again last night.”
Lu Guizhou immediately asked, “Which path?”
“Salamander Swim.”
Ning Cang and Zheng Azhu were both stunned.
Lu Guizhou pressed further: “What salamander aspect?”
In An Youyu's mind, 【Body-Abandoning Salamander】 surfaced first.
Yet that name could no longer be used.
The 《Tide-Calming Salamander Register》 had circulated for so many years, yet only a single Body-Abandoning Salamander had ever emerged. Once this name was spoken, he could never separate himself from 'Seventeen.'
As for 【Nirvana Body-Abandoning Salamander】...
That was even less of a name that should be heard by others.
Fortunately, the names of fish aspects were not innately carved onto one's body. For a new aspect with no old register to consult, it was not unusual for the formulator to name it themselves.
An Youyu looked past the commune monument toward the center of the float-commune.
The mottled clown head was still grinning, standing amidst layers of footbridges.
The commune token belonged to Clown.
His name had also just been added to the commune registry.
Since that was the case—
“【Clown Salamander】.”
...
Rate on N.U.
