"Let's slowly explore the new ability after we get back." Soaked from head to toe, Zhang Chen stood at the edge of the pool and watched Jia Xin walk toward him step by step.
"Not bad. That Drowning Ghost tasted pretty good, didn't it?" Jia Xin said with a smile.
Zhang Chen did not smile. He recalled facing the terrifyingly powerful Drowning Ghost alone earlier, its long tongue wrapped around his neck, the suffocation and despair he had felt. He grabbed Jia Xin by the collar and asked:
"Didn't you say that the Drowning Ghost wouldn't be very powerful outside the water? But just now, I nearly became a hanging ghost. Explain what that was about."
Jia Xin brushed Zhang Chen's hand off his collar and said apologetically,
"There wasn't enough time earlier for me to explain properly. I had the four girls stand at the corners of the room to accelerate the buildup of yin energy, while I also let the yang energy in the room dissipate. A place rich in yin energy and devoid of yang energy greatly enhances a ghost's strength. That is also why ghosts often appear at night."
"Then why did you do that?"
"Because I wanted to give it confidence. Do you know that Gong Yuanwu had been staying in the swimming pool since the morning and nothing happened until the afternoon? That showed how wary this Drowning Ghost was. Besides, it must have known that we killed the female ghost in the mirror last night. Only by giving it enough confidence, letting it possess every advantage of time and place, would it come out."
"You planned all of this from the start?"
"Every step has to be carefully planned if you want to walk the path to success. In a place of extreme yin like this, no matter how strong you are, you could never have been a match for that Drowning Ghost. My original plan was for you to hold it off while I searched for its true body. After all, your close-combat ability is better than mine."
"No matter what you say, after this, you have to tell me every plan in advance. If I find out you've kept anything from me, I won't go easy on you."
Jia Xin nodded repeatedly in apology. The two left the swimming facility and returned to their bedrooms.
Zhang Chen did not go disturb the others. After all, he was soaked through and needed to shower and change first.
Standing beneath the showerhead, with thin streams of water spraying over his body, Zhang Chen stared at his right palm. Slowly, his entire right hand turned into a puddle of water and flowed with the shower water into the drain beneath his feet. Then, using ordinary water, he condensed a new right hand.
It's completely identical to my old right hand. But it takes time to assimilate the water molecules. Just now, it took about a minute and a half to condense my hand to the point where I could control it naturally. Zhang Chen stared at his right hand in disbelief.
I wonder if I can use ordinary water to construct a brain.
After thinking it over, Zhang Chen gave up on trying. A hand was merely bones, muscles, blood vessels, and nerves. But a brain was far too complex. Primitive organisms had possessed structures similar to human arms, but the brain had taken hundreds of millions of years of evolution to form.
Let's try transforming again.
After turning off the water, Zhang Chen's entire body dissolved into a puddle of water, starting from his head. He then slowly wriggled into his bedroom and gradually reconstructed his human form beside the bed.
"This... is simply unbelievable!" Zhang Chen began to grow excited.
Now let's test my control over water.
Using Telekinesis, Zhang Chen turned on the faucet above the bathroom sink. He stared at the flowing water. This time, without using Telekinesis, the stream of water flew directly toward him, as though Zhang Chen himself were controlling it.
The feeling was completely different from manipulating it with Telekinesis. Using Telekinesis was like controlling a remote-control car with a controller, while controlling water felt as though he himself were the remote-control car.
Once the water before him was touched, Zhang Chen could control it and alter its shape with his thoughts. He could even turn it into a long blade for his own use.
Right, can I make a Water Clone?
With that thought, Zhang Chen concentrated and began shaping the water before him into his own likeness. Ten minutes passed, and sweat covered his forehead, but a person who looked extremely similar to Zhang Chen stood before him.
"It seems to have worked." Looking at the "himself" before him, Zhang Chen could still sense that the other "himself" was made of water and connected to him.
It's entirely under my control and has no self-awareness. Having reached that conclusion, Zhang Chen breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, he had not turned his head into water and reconstructed it earlier, or he would have become a mindless walking corpse.
Zhang Chen tried making the "himself" walk, but after only two steps, its body became unstable. It fell to the ground, splashing water everywhere and turning into a large puddle.
"It looks like I need much more practice. If I can stabilize it, it'll be incredibly useful in the future."
After changing clothes, Zhang Chen sat on the bed and suddenly thought of a question.
I can indeed switch between two forms, but does my human form have water's weaknesses? Could I evaporate or freeze? If that's the case, am I still human?
With that thought, Zhang Chen found a lighter in a drawer. After lighting it, he held the flame against his palm.
"Damn, that burns!" To Zhang Chen's surprise, nothing he had imagined happened. He had thought a cloud of steam would rise from his hand.
"Thank goodness. It seems that as long as I'm in human form, I'm completely the same as a normal person. I was overthinking it. All right, I should go share the good news with everyone so Yi Zhi and the others won't worry."
Inside Xiao Lan's room on the right side of the second floor of Rodin Villa.
"Come on, Xiao Lan. Come on, Xiao Lan. Hold on, just hold on a little longer." The repeated voice came from the bathroom. In the dim bedroom, blood stained the bed, floor, and walls, glaringly bright beneath the lights. Shimmering fragments were also scattered across the floor. Looking closely, they were all fish scales the size of thumbnails.
Following the scales scattered across the floor into the bathroom, there was a naked young woman sitting before the sink. She held a small knife and carefully cut at a fish scale on her neck.
At last, the woman successfully cut the fish scale from her neck.
"Haha, I cut it off." The girl happily placed the removed scale into a large glass bottle beside the sink. The bottle was already half full of scales.
The girl stood up. Her entire body was covered in bloody holes cut by the knife, though most had already clotted and no longer bled. She slowly walked back into the bedroom step by step. The girl was Xiao Lan.
"I haven't eaten all day. I'm so hungry. Miao Shuangshuang seems to have left food outside my door tonight."
Xiao Lan struggled toward the door step by step. First, she pressed herself against it and listened. After confirming there was no one outside, she slowly opened the door, brought in the food left at the entrance, and quickly shut the door again.
She dropped to the floor, threw away the chopsticks, and used her hands to stuff rice into her mouth. In less than two minutes, she had devoured a large bowl of rice and the vegetables with it.
"All right, all right. After some sleep, I can play with everyone again tomorrow."
Suddenly, every wound on Xiao Lan's body began to writhe. More fish scales grew from the wounds, while gills also grew on both sides of her face.
"Ah!" Xiao Lan's heart-wrenching scream carried throughout the entire second floor of the villa.
After leaving his room, Zhang Chen knocked on Wang Yizhi's bedroom door. When it opened, all four of them were inside, seemingly waiting for him to return safely.
The moment Wang Yizhi saw that Zhang Chen had returned unharmed, she rushed over and hugged him tightly. Then she suddenly noticed everyone watching, and her face turned as red as a little apple. She let go of Zhang Chen, sat on the bed, and said nothing.
Er Wa and Tan Fei excitedly crowded around him, repeatedly asking how the battle had gone. When they learned they could swim tomorrow, the two still refused to let Zhang Chen go and insisted that he explain every detail.
Zhang Chen had no choice. He could not possibly tell them about the times he had nearly died, especially with Wang Yizhi beside him. So he fully exercised his imagination, wildly exaggerating as he told them a story of how he had utterly defeated a demon. But halfway through the tale, the scream reached the bedroom.
"You all stay here. This house isn't safe at night. I'll go check what's happening." With that, Zhang Chen left the bedroom alone and headed toward the right side of the second floor.
Inside the bedroom, Wang Yizhi and the other three sat on the bed and began worrying again.
"No. I can't keep hiding like a turtle every time. Didn't I kill a ghost last time? It didn't seem that powerful. Fatty Tan, come on. Let's go see what's going on."
Er Wa could not sit still any longer. Since Zhang Chen was his good brother, how could he hide every time? He pulled out the Swiss Army knife he carried with him and prepared to support Zhang Chen.
Tan Fei hesitated somewhat, but after glancing at Dai Xu beside him, he actually stood up and followed his second brother out.
Outside Xiao Lan's room.
"Xiao Lan! Xiao Lan!" By the time Zhang Chen arrived, the students from No. 1 High had already gathered outside. The door remained closed, while Miao Shuangshuang pounded on it and called Xiao Lan's name.
"Looks like something really happened. I should have come to check earlier. It seems I'm already too late."
Zhang Chen walked to the door and noticed that Jia Xin was nowhere among the students from No. 1 High. He did not dwell on it. Saving someone came first.
"I'll open the door." Zhang Chen stepped forward. After looking at the panicked Miao Shuangshuang and nodding to her, Miao Shuangshuang stepped back.
With a thought, the lock opened automatically. Before everyone was a bedroom covered in blood and scales, and a strong fishy stench drifted out. At the sight and smell, the group from No. 1 High all vomited.
Zhang Chen sensed no unusual aura within the room, so he strode inside. Looking at the scales covering the floor, even he could not imagine what had happened here.
"Xiao Lan!" Miao Shuangshuang forced herself to endure the nausea and followed him in, calling out to a black figure standing by the window.
Zhang Chen had naturally noticed it as well. His gaze locked onto the shadowy figure, but he could still sense a human aura from it, though it was somewhat different.
Suddenly, the shadow moved. Rather than walking toward the door, it turned around and jumped directly out the window.
At the instant it leaped through the window, moonlight shone upon it. Zhang Chen saw clearly: it was a humanoid monster covered from head to toe in fish scales. Judging from its figure, it was undoubtedly Xiao Lan.
One disaster after another...
Before you continue