Xiao Lan's Change

"Let's explore my new abilities later when we get back," Zhang Chen said, dripping wet as he stood on the edge of the pool, watching Jia Xin approach him step by step.

"Well done. That Drowning Ghost tasted pretty good, didn't it?" Jia Xin said with a smile.

Zhang Chen didn't smile. He recalled facing the incredibly powerful Drowning Ghost alone earlier, its long tongue wrapping around his neck, the suffocation and despair he felt. He grabbed Jia Xin's collar and demanded, "You said this Drowning Ghost wouldn't be very strong if it wasn't in the water, but just now, I almost became a hanged ghost. Explain what's going on."

Jia Xin brushed off Zhang Chen's hand from his collar and said apologetically, "I didn't have time to explain clearly due to the tight schedule. I had the four girls stand in the four corners of the room to accelerate the generation of yin energy, and I also let the yang energy in the room dissipate. Places with abundant yin energy and dispersed yang energy greatly boost the strength of ghosts. This is also why ghosts often appear at night."

"Then why did you do that?"

"Because I wanted to give it confidence. Do you know Gong Yuanwu stayed in the swimming pool from morning until afternoon before the incident? It shows that this Drowning Ghost's guard is too high. Also, it must know that we killed the female ghost in the mirror last night. So, only by giving it enough confidence and letting it have the advantage of time and place will it come out."

"You planned this all along?"

"Every step must be meticulously planned to pave the path to success. From the beginning, in such an extremely yin place, no matter how strong you are, you wouldn't be the Drowning Ghost's opponent. My initial intention was for you to hold it back while I searched for its true form. After all, your close-combat strength is superior to mine."

"No matter what you say, after this, you must tell me all your plans in advance. If I find out you've been hiding anything from me, I won't go easy on you."

Jia Xin nodded repeatedly with an apologetic expression. The two walked out of the swimming complex and returned to their bedroom.

Zhang Chen didn't disturb anyone. After all, he was soaking wet and needed to take a shower and change his clothes first.

Standing under the showerhead, thin streams of water sprayed onto Zhang Chen's body. He stared at his right palm, and slowly, his entire right palm dissolved into a pool of water, falling into the drain below along with the shower water. Then, using ordinary water, he reformed a new right palm.

"It's exactly the same as my old right hand. But it takes time to assimilate the water molecules. It took about a minute and a half to condense my right palm to the point where I could control it proficiently," Zhang Chen looked at his right hand in disbelief.

"I wonder if I can use ordinary water to construct a brain."

Zhang Chen thought about it and decided against trying. After all, a palm is just simple bones, muscles, blood vessels, and nerves. But when it comes to the brain, the structure is far too complex. Primitive organisms already possess the structure of a human arm, but the brain has evolved over hundreds of millions of years.

"Let's try shape-shifting again."

After turning off the faucet, Zhang Chen's entire body began to dissolve into a pool of water starting from his head. It slowly slithered into his bedroom and, by the bedside, gradually reformed into his human shape.

"This... is incredible!" Zhang Chen became excited.

"Let's try the control ability again."

Zhang Chen used telekinesis to turn on the faucet in the bathroom sink and stared at the flowing liquid. This time, without using telekinesis, the flowing water flew directly towards Zhang Chen, as if controlled by Zhang Chen himself.

It felt completely different from controlling it with telekinesis. Using telekinesis was like using a controller to operate a remote-controlled car, but controlling this water was like being that remote-controlled car.

The water in front of Zhang Chen could be manipulated and transformed by Zhang Chen's will upon touch. It could even evolve into a long blade for Zhang Chen's use.

"Right, can I create a water clone?"

With this idea, Zhang Chen began to concentrate, adjusting the water in front of him to resemble his own form. Ten minutes passed, and Zhang Chen was sweating profusely, but a figure that looked remarkably like Zhang Chen stood there.

"It seems to have succeeded," Zhang Chen said, looking at the 'self' in front of him. He could still feel that 'self' was made of water and was connected to him.

"Completely under my control, no self-awareness." After reaching this conclusion, Zhang Chen breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, he hadn't dissolved his head into water to reconstruct it earlier, otherwise, he would have turned into a walking corpse.

Zhang Chen tried to make his 'self' walk, but after only two steps, its form became unstable, and it fell to the ground, splashing water and turning into a large pool of clear water.

"It seems I need more practice. If I can stabilize it, it will be very useful in the future."

Zhang Chen changed his clothes and sat on the bed, suddenly remembering a question.

"Indeed, I can transform between two forms, but I don't know if my human form has the weaknesses of water, such as evaporation or freezing. If that's the case, am I still human?"

Thinking of this, Zhang Chen found a lighter in his room's drawer, lit it, and burned his palm.

"Damn, that burns!" To Zhang Chen's surprise, what he expected didn't happen. He thought a cloud of steam would rise from his hand.

"Fortunately, it seems that as long as I'm in human form, I'm just like a normal person. I guess I was overthinking it. Alright, I should go share the good news with everyone, so Yizhi and the others don't worry."

In Xiao Lan's room on the second floor of Rodin Villa.

"Go Xiao Lan, go Xiao Lan, hold on, just a little longer," the repetitive voice came from the bathroom. In the dimly lit bedroom, the bed, the floor, and the walls were all stained with blood, which shone brilliantly under the lamplight. Scattered on the floor were also some shiny, flaky objects. Upon closer inspection, they were all fish scales, each about the size of a thumb.

Following the scattered fish scales on the floor, one arrived at the bathroom. A naked girl sat before the washbasin, holding a small knife and carefully cutting at a fish scale on her neck.

Finally, the woman successfully cut off a fish scale from her neck.

"Haha, I cut it off," the girl happily placed the removed scale into a large glass bottle on the side of the washbasin. The bottle was already half-full of scales.

The girl stood up. Her entire body was covered in cuts from the small knife, but most of them had already clotted and stopped bleeding. She slowly walked step by step into the bedroom. The girl was Xiao Lan.

"I haven't eaten all day, I'm so hungry. Miao Shuangshuang seemed to have left food for me at the door tonight."

Xiao Lan walked towards the door with great difficulty. She first pressed her ear to the door to listen, and after confirming no one was outside, she slowly opened the door, brought in the food from the doorway, and quickly closed the door.

She collapsed onto the floor, threw away her chopsticks, and started stuffing plain rice into her mouth with her hands. In less than two minutes, she had devoured the large bowl of white rice along with the vegetables.

"Okay, okay, I'll sleep and then I can play with everyone tomorrow."

Suddenly, all the wounds on Xiao Lan's body began to writhe, and more fish scales grew from the wounds. At the same time, gills began to grow on both of Xiao Lan's cheeks.

"Ah!" A heart-wrenching scream echoed from Xiao Lan's room throughout the entire second floor of the villa.

After Zhang Chen left, he knocked on Wang Yizhi's bedroom door. As soon as the door opened, all four of them were inside, seemingly waiting for his safe return.

When Wang Yizhi saw Zhang Chen return safely, she rushed up and hugged him tightly. Then, she suddenly realized everyone was watching and her face turned as red as a little apple. She let go of Zhang Chen and sat on the bed, not saying a word.

Er Wa and Tan Fei, however, excitedly crowded around, incessantly asking Zhang Chen how the battle went. Upon learning they could go swimming tomorrow, the two of them clung to Zhang Chen, refusing to let go until he explained the specific details of what happened.

Zhang Chen had no choice. He couldn't possibly describe his near-death experiences, especially with Wang Yizhi right there. So, he fully unleashed his imagination, greatly exaggerating and telling them a story about how he defeated a demon. However, halfway through the story, screams echoed into the bedroom.

"You all stay here. It's not safe in this house tonight. I'm going to check what's going on." Zhang Chen said, and then he left the bedroom alone, heading towards the right side of the second floor.

Inside the bedroom, Wang Yizhi and the other three sat on the bed, growing worried again.

"No way, I'm not going to be a coward every time. Didn't I kill a ghost last time? It didn't seem that strong. Fatty Tan, come on, let's go see what's happening."

Er Wa couldn't sit still. As a good brother, how could he always be the one hiding? He pulled out the Swiss Army knife he carried and prepared to support Zhang Chen.

Tan Fei hesitated a bit, but after glancing at Dai Xu beside him, he really stood up and followed his second brother out.

In front of Xiao Lan's room

"Xiao Lan, Xiao Lan!" By the time Zhang Chen arrived, the area was already surrounded by people from First High School, but the door was still closed. The girl named Miao Shuangshuang was pounding on the door with all her might, shouting Xiao Lan's name.

"It seems something really happened. I was going to come and take a look later, but it seems I'm too late."

Zhang Chen arrived at the door and noticed that Jia Xin was not among the crowd from First High School. He didn't think about it further; saving someone was the priority.

"I'll open the door." Zhang Chen approached the door, looked at the flustered Miao Shuangshuang, nodded at her, and Miao Shuangshuang took a step back.

With a thought, the door lock automatically opened. Before everyone's eyes was a bedroom covered in blood and scales, with a strong fishy smell wafting out. Seeing this scene and stimulated by the odor, everyone from First High School vomited.

Zhang Chen didn't sense any unusual aura within the house, so he strode in directly. Looking at the scales scattered on the floor, Zhang Chen himself couldn't imagine what had happened here.

"Xiao Lan!" Miao Shuangshuang, suppressing her nausea, followed him in and shouted at a black figure standing by the window.

Zhang Chen naturally noticed it too, his gaze locking onto the dark figure. However, he could still sense a human presence from it, though it was slightly different.

Suddenly, the dark figure moved. Instead of walking towards the door, it turned and jumped directly out the window.

The moment it leaped out the window, the moonlight shone on the dark figure. Zhang Chen saw clearly that it was a humanoid monster covered entirely in fish scales. Judging by its build, it was undoubtedly Xiao Lan.

It seemed like one problem was followed by another