Moving forward, after passing through the jellyfish area and a few tanks with clownfish and other small fish, the group made their way together to the Undersea Tunnel.
As a staple attraction in nearly every aquarium, the design here was no different from a typical tunnel—rounded glass walls outside, allowing a clear view of rays, nurse sharks, and other sea creatures.
While these might seem ordinary in other people’s eyes, to Jiang Lingwei, the scene was a marvelously novel sight.
Beyond the glass of the aquarium’s undersea tunnel, there was even a partially constructed, artificially rusted sunken ship, tilted and lodged into the sandy floor. Faint green lights glimmered through the portholes, and along the ground beneath their feet were small, fish-shaped markers that lit up when stepped on. Hidden speakers emitted submarine sonar pings, creating a distinct deep-sea atmosphere.
Glancing back at Jiang Yao, who kept looking toward a certain spot, Jiang Lingwei hurriedly took out her phone to snap a photo.
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Unexpectedly, when she took the photo, something extra showed up in the shot.
“What’s this?”
Staring at the silvery little fish swimming in the water on her phone screen, Jiang Lingwei said in surprise, gripping her phone tightly as her gaze darted back and forth between that spot and the little school of fish in the photo.
“Those should be Invisibility Fish.”
Jiang Cheng leaned in to look at the photo, pointing to a small placard below:
“They’re even classified as magical creatures.”
“Huh?”
Jiang Lingwei stared at the photo album in shock, then glanced at the creatures outside the tunnel. For a split second, upon hearing the term “magical creature,” she almost reached for her transformation device to transform.
Magical creatures? Where would there be anything so mild as that? Weren’t those just magic beasts!
“Magical creatures…”
Casting a wary look around, Jiang Lingwei barely managed to accept this new term with patience. After hesitating, she said, “They can really be kept here?”
“They must be able to.”
Jiang Yao heard Jiang Lingwei’s doubt and also crouched down to look at the placard, reading aloud:
“Invisibility Fish—a species of fish generated by unknown magic, surviving in the oceans of Earth. Invisible to the naked eye, but their form can be captured through cameras or reflected in mirrors.”
As someone who always had magic within her body, being a Magical Girl, she could naturally always see them.
Yet, she still found it odd—why couldn’t Mom see them?
(Or maybe Mom was pretending not to see them?)
In the end, it was all just her speculation. Magic could accomplish far too many unbelievable things, and to this day, there was still no hard evidence to prove Mom was Aurora.
The main trait of these Invisibility Fish wasn’t just their invisibility to the human eye—it was that only beings with magical power could see them.
From the start, in the eyes of Xiao Bai, Jiang Cheng, and Jiang Yao, there was always a shimmering school of silver fish in that spot.
See? That’s why Jiang Lingwei was truly the most ordinary one in the whole family.
And it wasn’t just the Invisibility Fish. Carefully examining the placards below and the fish in the water, Jiang Lingwei discovered even more creatures she’d never heard of before—like Sonar Squid, Upstream Shark, and Waving Eel poking their heads out of the sand.
They were all small creatures, not much stronger than ordinary animals—some not even as strong as other animals—clearly forming their own little ecosystem.
“Isn’t there… a risk of something going wrong?”
Jiang Lingwei sounded worried.
Accepting the public revelation of magic to the masses was already her greatest concession to the times, but she hadn’t expected the era to come up with even more surprises for her.
Due to her grandfather’s teachings, she and her companions had always believed that too much integration between the magical world and the modern one wasn’t a good thing.
Even the laziest Sen Luo only got the little tree spirit to help with chores at home.
But now, aside from not having much to do with ordinary people, magic had become a true part of Earth’s biosphere.
This realization left her feeling uneasy.
“I don’t think there’s anything to worry about…”
Jiang Yao didn’t see the problem. Ever since Dad returned, her motivation to be a Magical Girl had dwindled—she only played the part and fought monsters as needed, and world-altering problems were really not her concern.
Besides, she truly didn’t see an issue. These magical little creatures were, at their core, still just animals—like the Invisibility Fish, who could easily be eaten by native big fish of Earth.
If not, magical creatures like Sonar Squid were also their main predators.
With their own self-sustaining ecosystem, they really were just animals.
Compared to the magic beasts that roamed around wreaking havoc with dark magic, these little creatures barely counted as anything.
“Sigh.”
Jiang Lingwei shook her head.
“What if Invisibility Mosquitoes appear that even Magical Girls can’t catch?”
“Mama.” At these words, the girl’s composed demeanor changed—she stepped back, looking at her mother in horror. “Don’t say such scary things!”
“And Invisibility Cockroaches, Invisibility Spiders…”
Jiang Lingwei gave an evil, mischievous grin. “What would Magical Girls do then?”
“Mama!”
“Alright, alright.”
She patted her daughter’s head and comforted her:
“It’s fine. Even if those really appeared, they’d have to bite your father first.”
“Just look at how tasty his meat looks.”
“No, please don’t.”
Jiang Cheng immediately waved his hands in protest and pointed at Xiao Bai in Jiang Lingwei’s arms. “Better to bite Xiao Bai instead.”
“Woof? Is that right?”
“Hahaha.”
The family laughed and chatted as they strolled onward, eventually emerging completely from the tunnel.
None of them noticed that, in a corner above the tunnel, behind a concealed camera, someone was capturing screenshots of Jiang Yao looking toward the Invisibility Fish and uploading them. After being relayed several times, the footage was eventually sent to the Magical Girl Administration Bureau.
At the same time, other footage of girls who looked to be in their teens, apparently gazing at magical creatures, followed the same chain, sent along and handed over to specialists for identification.
Soon, because she was registered, Jiang Yao’s identity popped up instantly.
“Magical Girl [Crystal], just here on vacation. Has nothing to do with [Zero Generation]. No need to pursue this lead.”
A bureau staffer glanced at the report, shook his head, and said,
“Analysis team, are there any other persons of interest?”
“No.”
A voice quickly followed: “At present, there’s no one else with obvious focus, or confirmed to be able to see the Invisibility Fish. None of the other site cameras have spotted similar Magical Girls.”
“All right, keep searching.”
Just as the staff member nodded, a sudden gust of wind stirred behind him.
A girl with her face covered by a red scarf appeared out of nowhere, materializing with a wisp of smoke behind him, her voice low as she said:
“I’ll do it.”
On the other side, Jiang Lingwei, having left the tunnel, was drawn to something.
It was a poster, stuck to a wooden stand outside a screening room. Showtimes were listed, with the next one just ten minutes away.
Normally, it was common for aquariums to have screening rooms showing documentaries or similar films.
However, the words on the poster were not about marine animals.
“That’s…”
Staring at the silhouette on the poster, Jiang Lingwei’s smile suddenly faded. She grabbed Jiang Cheng’s hand tightly.
“Chengzi, Yaoyao, can we go check it out?”
“Hmm? Of course.”
Jiang Cheng naturally had no reason to refuse. He also looked at the poster and read the title aloud:
“‘The First Generation Magical Girl and the Legend of the Sea’?”
Beneath the title was the image of a girl, wielding a blue spear and stirring the sea, her outline blurry and indistinct.