An eerie chuckle escaped Er Ya's mouth.
The laugh was shrill and hoarse, like two rusty scraps of iron scraping together, as though she were imitating human laughter.
Then Er Ya's little body began twisting unnaturally. She slipped from Mo Yun's grasp like a loach and floated into the air in an instant.
Her spine cracked and snapped, as though something beneath her skin were forcing the shell of her body apart.
On her once sweet, pretty face, her features began shifting out of place. Her eyes slanted upward, and her mouth split all the way to her ears, revealing tightly packed rows of slender, pointed teeth.
"A... a demon!" The old village chief shook like grain in a sieve. His legs went limp as boiled noodles, and he collapsed onto the ground with a thud. His eyes rolled back, and he fainted on the spot.
Er Ya's body continued swelling and twisting.
Her little floral-patterned padded jacket, patched in several places, burst apart inch by inch, revealing black scales growing rapidly beneath it.
Her slender limbs became thick and hideous. Her legs fused into a long, heavy snake's tail, while two openings ripped across her back with a tearing hiss. A pair of dark red, fleshy wings unfolded from them.
At the same time, countless streams of black mist gathered from every direction, burrowing into her transforming body as though alive.
As the black mist churned, the surrounding air grew thick and oppressive, as though an invisible hand had clamped around everyone's throat.
Within a few breaths, the little girl who had held a crisp pear and called them "big brother" and "big sister" in her childish voice had become a monster covered in black scales, with a human head, a snake's body, and dark red, fleshy wings.
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