Chapter 57: Searching for Mother
As the Celestial Palace was gradually restored, the number of fish in the Wishing Pool began to increase, as if the signal had grown stronger, so much so that even faint, feeble wishes could now be received.
There was someone named Bei Mo who hoped to do well in the midterm exams.
Someone called Pang Pang wished their favorite author could write ten thousand words a day.
Qian Ling wished to become fabulously wealthy.
Si Si not only wished for riches, but also to become slim and stunningly beautiful!
Though these wishes were simple and plain, Shi Xianyu admitted she was powerless to help.
"You have to work hard yourselves!" she thought.
“If the wisher’s resolve is weak and their heart lazy, then the power of their wish is faint, and the wishing fish formed will be small and thin,” the attendant deity remarked, gazing at the group of goldfish in the pool, each no bigger than a tadpole. “Even if the Celestial Lord were to help them, it would be of little benefit.”
Shi Xianyu nodded in deep agreement. “It seems, even as a deity, one must understand the ways of the world.”
The attendant deity looked at her in puzzlement. “...?”
Shi Xianyu explained, “For example, I never used to believe in gods or buddhas. But if something important came up, I’d rush to the temple, burn incense, make a wish to the Bodhisattva—hoping to pass my exams, live a long life, or strike it rich. Looking back, the Bodhisattva must have found me quite troublesome, right?”
She sighed softly and continued, “The Bodhisattva must have thought, ‘Who is this person?’ Clearly, those who only turn to the gods when desperate are unlikely to receive their favor. At least get familiar with the Bodhisattva before making wishes, don’t you think?”
Though the attendant deity found her metaphor odd, he couldn’t help but agree. He nodded. “You are absolutely right, Celestial Lord.”
Shi Xianyu said, “I remember there was a fish that wished for longevity. Once the Spirit Tree bears fruit, I could send him a few. Spirit Fruit can cleanse impurities from the body. As long as one remains healthy, maybe he really could live to a hundred.”
Hands tucked into his sleeves, the attendant deity replied, “That wisher has already passed away. The fish is no longer in the pool.”
Shi Xianyu fell silent.
...I was one step too late!
She closed her eyes and pressed her hand to her forehead, feeling a tightness in her chest. “...Then, which of the big fish are left?”
The attendant deity thoughtfully gathered the largest goldfish in the pool for her.
The goldfish wishing for a son was still there, and compared to before, had grown even rounder—startlingly plump and brilliantly red! Shi Xianyu suspected that if it swelled any further, it might burst like a balloon.
Such a fierce obsession with having a son!
She gave up at once and turned her attention to the other three fat goldfish.
One of them looked familiar. She gently placed her hand on the fish’s soft head, and immediately, a wishful voice echoed in her mind:
—Who killed her? Who killed her?!
Shi Xianyu resisted the urge to pull her hand away.
She remembered now—this was the fish whose wish was to find the murderer.
She closed her eyes and listened more intently. Gradually, a vision formed before her.
A group of students were gathered around a round table, surrounded by darkness. Only the lamp above the table cast a harsh, pale light. The students wore varied expressions, each with a hand resting on a coin at the table’s center. As their questions filled the air, the coin slowly moved across the surface...
They were playing Spirit of the Coin.
Shi Xianyu inhaled sharply, feeling she couldn’t handle this.
Better try a different fish...
She lifted her hand and placed it on the next fish’s head. At once, a roar of fury surged through her mind!
—I want to summon the Bloodthirsty Demon King! I’ll avenge my parents!!!
Shi Xianyu nearly had a heart attack from fright!
She didn’t even see the wisher’s face before she snatched her hand back, clutching her chest and trying to steady her breath, her complexion pale.
Heavens, these wishes—either being killed or seeking to kill—couldn’t there be something less bloody and violent?
Her gaze drifted to the last large fish. Its body was silver-white, and it seemed gentler than the previous two.
Clinging to her last hope, she placed her hand upon it.
Soon, she heard a small, delicate voice, like a fledgling calling: Mama, Mama...
Shi Xianyu listened more closely. Sure enough, before her eyes, a young child gradually appeared—five or six years old, hair in tangles, clad in clothes barely better than filthy rags. The child was so dirty that Shi Xianyu couldn’t tell if it was a boy or a girl.
The child clung to the security bars on a window, large dark eyes gazing at the sky. Their small body pressed on the rusted bars, suspended perilously high, swaying with the wind. The sight made Shi Xianyu’s heart clench.
There was no need to think further—Shi Xianyu resolved at once to help this child find their mother!
But the attendant deity looked hesitant. “Are you sure you want to choose this child, Celestial Lord? In my humble opinion, the red-and-black fish’s wish might be easier.”
He meant the fish wishing to uncover the murderer.
Shi Xianyu replied with difficulty, “Solving a case demands intelligence. Better leave it to the police. Helping a child find their mother suits me just fine—and that poor child, if left alone, might not survive.”
The attendant deity nodded. “Since you have decided, let us choose this fish. Will you need to make any preparations?”
“Yes, I should,” Shi Xianyu replied seriously. “Let me take another look at the child’s situation, see if I can find any clues.”
She pressed both hands onto the goldfish’s head, closed her eyes, and focused all her senses on the source of the wish.
This time, the vision was much clearer.
She saw not only the window with the security bars, but also the room inside.
It was an ordinary two-bedroom apartment, not large, piled with boxes and clutter everywhere—so filthy it resembled a dump. The refrigerator door was wide open, revealing blackened, rotten food inside. Clearly, the child’s mother had been gone a long time.
Shi Xianyu couldn’t imagine how a child could survive in such harsh conditions. If the mother was gone, where was the rest of the family? Did no one care? And what about the neighbors—couldn’t they smell the rot?
She tried to expand her view outside the window, discovering that the child lived in an extremely old, dilapidated building. The exterior walls were yellowed and eroded by wind and sand, the lower floors hung with battered electronic signs that flickered as they swayed in the breeze.
A vague sense of dread rose in Shi Xianyu’s heart...
Her vision widened further.
She saw more abandoned high-rises, apartments, stores, banks, hospitals—all blanketed in dust and sand, utterly deserted. A few scraggly plants grew under wrecked cars, the only spots of green in this wasteland.
This was not a normal world.
The desolation and emptiness before her eyes were apocalyptic.
Shi Xianyu opened her eyes and exhaled a long breath, the sense of oppression still lingering.
Now she finally understood why the attendant deity had advised against this world—if the entire city was empty, how could she find the child’s mother?
This was harder than seeking Mount Ling! At least then, she’d had a navigation function; but helping a child find their mother in this world was like groping in total darkness!
Shi Xianyu felt troubled. “How strange... The city is uninhabited, all the trees are dead, as if some terrible calamity happened. But there are fresh tire tracks, and the signs still flicker—so the power grid isn’t completely down. Where did everyone go? How odd...”
The attendant deity waved his sleeve lightly, and above the Wishing Pool appeared the scene she had just witnessed.
His mastery of spiritual power clearly surpassed hers; his vision reached wider and farther.
As the scope expanded, Shi Xianyu noticed some animals in the abandoned city: mice, insects—and a massive, earth-brown python whose color was almost indistinguishable from the sand. If she hadn’t seen it moving, she would have mistaken it for a pile of dirt.
She thought perhaps the absence of humans had allowed animals to grow so large. But as a gray mouse hopped past, the python’s head suddenly split open—like six petals blooming—and swiftly enveloped the mouse, swallowing it whole!
It all happened in an instant. When Shi Xianyu recovered, the python had already coiled itself up, camouflaged as a sand mound, lying in wait for its next prey.
Shi Xianyu was dumbstruck, unable to utter a word.
No matter how inexperienced she might be, she could not believe that a python splitting its head into six was normal.
This was not normal at all.
That was a monster!
With a look of terror, she turned to the attendant deity. “Why are there monsters?!”
He frowned slightly, studied for a while, then answered, “There’s no demonic aura, no evil energy. It shouldn’t be a monster.”
“Then what else could it be?!” Shi Xianyu recoiled.
Yes, there had been monsters on the way to Mount Ling, but then she’d had Daoist Shen and Lin Yuan by her side. Now, she’d be dragging a child along to find their mother—challenging enough without facing such ferocious creatures!
Would chili water even work on this thing?!
“This python truly doesn’t belong to the demon kind,” the attendant deity concluded calmly after careful examination.
Shi Xianyu stared at him in horror. “I don’t care what it is. I just want to know how to keep myself alive if I run into it—do you understand?”
The attendant deity fell silent.
After a moment’s thought, he looked up at her. “Would you consider... choosing a different fish?”
Shi Xianyu was speechless.
So even the gods are helpless?
The attendant deity said, “This world’s soil is toxic, which killed off most life. The few survivors mutated in response to the environment. For you, Celestial Lord, it’s simply too dangerous. Perhaps another wish would be more suitable.”
“...Change it?” Shi Xianyu’s eye twitched. “What about the Spirit of the Coin one? What if I run into a ghost?”
The attendant deity replied, “There are still the wishes for a son and for vengeance.”
Shi Xianyu closed her eyes in despair. “You didn’t deny it...”
So there really is a chance of encountering a ghost...
The attendant deity fell silent.
He grew a little anxious, unsure how to comfort her.
Shi Xianyu bowed her head and pressed her hand to her brow, feeling unspeakably weary at that moment. Weakly, she said, “Let me think... let me think a little longer...”