A long silence settled behind Qian Yu.
She moved experimentally, only for A-Ling to press her down again.
“Have you seen my senior sister?” A-Ling asked.
“No.”
“Then why do you look exactly like her?”
“I don’t know.” Qian Yu had used the same face in both lives. Not to brag, but no one had called her ugly from childhood to adulthood. The odds of someone looking exactly like her were probably low, but anything was possible. “Maybe I just resemble your senior sister by eighty or ninety percent. Look carefully. Really look at me.”
Qian Yu raised her head and insisted on being examined.
Lost in thought, A-Ling pulled open Qian Yu’s collar and murmured, “Impossible. How could both of you have the same red mole on the left side of your neck?”
What the hell?
Qian Yu had no energy left for commentary. She had somehow landed in a melodramatic replacement-body plot.
But wait. Maybe I really am your senior sister, little girl. I just have a different soul inside. Don’t take it personally.
“Are you truly not a spirit creature?”
“Absolutely not.”
“True. Like my senior sister, you have no trace of qi in your body. But you are definitely not her! Could this be a soul-exchange spell?”
Why didn’t you say so earlier?
“Yes. Maybe. That could be it.”
A-Ling hesitantly released Qian Yu.
She crouched wearily and covered her face with both hands. “No… how could this happen? Whatever you are, my senior sister is gone…”
Once this little girl started crying, she seemed incapable of stopping. Rubbing her aching back, Qian Yu slowly climbed to her feet.
She stood facing A-Ling in silence for a moment, then felt something wriggling continuously inside her clothes.
“Aah! What is that?”
It felt far too much like an enormous caterpillar. Something furry even crawled upward along her neck. Qian Yu shuddered and yanked it from inside her robe.
By terrible coincidence, A-Ling was directly in front of her. The girl had just wiped away her tears and lifted her head when a black unidentified object flew at her face.
The object spun through a full circle in midair, limbs spreading. Qian Yu finally recognized the kitten she had tucked inside her clothes to keep warm.
For some reason, it seemed an entire size larger.
A-Ling reacted instantly. She raised the Thousand Devices Umbrella and snapped it open.
The kitten stopped flying and hung in front of the umbrella’s tip as though an invisible hand had seized the scruff of its neck.
Qian Yu sighed with relief. Thank goodness. Throwing a kitten into someone’s face would have been terribly rude. She rose to retrieve it.
The black cat abruptly swelled again.
Its four limbs expanded in alternating pulses, then its entire body began to distort. Boneless flesh twisted together and continued swelling like a bubble in a filthy drain, bloating until it burst.
Qian Yu fell backward in terror.
“What… what’s happening?” she asked A-Ling nervously.
A-Ling sensed danger. She recited an incantation, and the talismans attached to her umbrella lit one after another. Energy gathered at the tip and shot toward the black cat.
With a muffled pop, the attack sank into the “cat” and disappeared.
Silence held for several breaths.
Then the black mass opened into an enormous mouth. It doubled in size, becoming as large as an adult.
Qian Yu’s instincts screamed. She shouted at A-Ling, “Run!”
Too late.
The abyssal mouth lunged at A-Ling. Before the poor girl could take a step, it wrapped around and swallowed her whole.
“Mmph…”
“A-Ling!”
Qian Yu sprang from the ground and rushed forward. She caught the one hand still protruding from the creature and pulled with all her strength.
The enormous mouth did not move. Its suction dragged Qian Yu several inches forward.
As the two sides struggled, a voice sounded above the forest.
“Let go.”
The voice was ethereal, as though it had spoken directly inside Qian Yu’s mind. Her eyes widened, and she released A-Ling’s hand.
It did no good. At some point, A-Ling’s arm had bent backward at an impossible angle and seized Qian Yu’s wrist. The unnatural posture blanked Qian Yu’s mind.
A yellow talisman drifted down before her eyes and landed precisely at the boundary between A-Ling and the unknown substance.
Boom!
Cloth and human tissue burst outward. The explosion was small, but Qian Yu stood too close. Warm blood inevitably splashed across her face.
Momentum sent her staggering backward before she fell heavily onto the ground. A-Ling’s severed hand remained clamped around her wrist. Still stunned, Qian Yu let it hang there.
An immortal master in flowing white robes descended from the sky. She held a stack of yellow talismans, and her white hair was arranged elegantly behind her head.
If Qian Yu had not been frightened out of her mind, her appreciation for beautiful faces would have compelled her to admire the woman’s cool, unearthly beauty.
After swallowing A-Ling, the unknown mass remained in place, expanding and shrinking without showing any urge to attack.
The immortal master landed and studied the black thing for a moment. Then she tossed what were probably offensive talismans into empty air. They vanished like wind.
She turned back. Her cool face showed no emotion.
“Are you all right? Can you stand and walk?”
“I…” Qian Yu opened her mouth.
Could she admit that she had nearly peed herself?
The immortal master approached without hurry, bent down, and gently removed A-Ling’s hand from Qian Yu’s wrist. Then she casually tossed it aside.
Considerately, she helped Qian Yu to her feet.
From close by, Qian Yu caught the woman’s crisp scent, like the first snow of winter. It cleared her mind slightly.
She swallowed and struggled to form the words. “Is… is A-Ling all right?”
“She appears to be dead.”
The immortal master’s cold mouth delivered the cold answer.
Qian Yu’s legs still felt weak.
Perhaps she should sit down again.