Paintings of Terror

Chapter 140: Corgi Fights the Tiger

An earth-shaking roar chased after him, followed by the stench of fishy rotten meat. Ke Xun instinctively dodged to the side, narrowly avoiding the tiger’s pounce. He continued to charge toward the tree without stopping.

Whether he was a human or a cat, how could he outrun a tiger? The second tiger pounce came in an instant, and Ke Xun almost couldn’t escape in time.

He didn’t expect that, one day, he would have to compete with a real tiger. When a blood-red maw suddenly yawned wide in front of him, he understood, at last, the true fear of impending death.

His arms instinctively snapped up, hands gripping the tiger’s throat to hold the maw back. There was only one instinct left in his mind, and that was to do anything possible to prevent the tiger from biting his throat. This was the most common way for beasts to hunt and bring down their prey.

While holding the tiger’s throat with one hand, he clenched his other hand into a fist and ferociously slammed it down with all his strength into the tiger’s eyes and nose. He didn’t know where the tiger’s weakness was, so he made a guess and punched these two places.

Perhaps, it was because he was in the process of transforming into a cat, but Ke Xun not only retained the strength of a human but also had the flexibility and speed of a cat. His punches were amazingly fast, and so the tiger could not avoid them in time. When a punch landed fiercely into the tiger’s open eye, the sudden flash of pain made it turn its head to the side.

This flash of pain gave Ke Xun the chance he needed to escape from the tiger’s claw. Even so, he still could not completely avoid being scratched bloody by those sharp claws.

But at that moment, Ke Xun did not care about anything else. He scrabbled quickly along the ground and rushed into the tree. The tiger let out its terrifying nature and leaped after him with a roar, trying to catch him with its paws as he scrambled up the tree.

When Ke Xun saw this, he adjusted his path at random. He jumped onto the branches in front of him, hands gripping the branch so that his body swung upward in mid-air. The tiger followed his body and leaped up. Having missed, it sailed toward the sky and then dropped into the river with a loud splash.

Ke Xun climbed toward the tree trunk, panting heavily. The struggle of escaping death had left his mind completely blank and his body in a cold sweat. Lingering fear shuddered through him for over ten minutes.

Finally, other sensations slowly crawled back, and Ke Xun let out a trembling meow. “From now on, I’ve also beaten a tiger, meow…”

When the tiger fell into the river, there were no more movements. Ke Xun waited for a while in the tree, but the forest was quiet as usual and there was no new clue to be had.

He got down from the tree and decided to walk deeper into the mountain forest to see if he could locate a hidden world. He was very worried about Mi Yiran and was eager to find Hailibu’s world as soon as possible.

Although the battle with the tiger just moments ago had made him really weak, Ke Xun still gritted his teeth and ran onward, swiftly shuttling through the forest.

The sky gradually darkened and various birds and beasts hurried back to their nests.

Ke Xun raised his head unintentionally and saw the monkey prancing quickly among the overhead branches. He suddenly remembered what the monkey had said to him.

He also had a kitten named Kitty…

Why hadn’t he seen this kitten since entering this world up to now?

Ke Xun’s heart lurched. As he ran, he yelled “Kitty” loudly. Seeing the crow flying in the sky, Ke Xun called out to it, “I just cleaned up Awu and took revenge for you. Now you have to help me look for my child!”

He remembered the tiger in the cartoon had once bullied the crow.

“Oh! I’ll go search, I’ll go search!” The crow called this line from the cartoon and flew quickly into the sky.

“Ah! Over there, over there!” The crow’s cry echoed out.

Ke Xun followed the direction the crow was pointing to. He saw a small cat squatting in the distance. He couldn’t help but yell out, “Cat–Cough, kid…”

…Suddenly having a child made him feel a bit complicated…

The kitten turned its head and glanced at him. But instead of waiting for him to catch up, it raised its paws and ran deeper into the forest.

Ke Xun chased after it wildly, but the moment he was about to catch up to the kitten, the kitten rose into the sky and transformed into a light. When the light fell, a round door appeared in the void. At exactly the same time, another door appeared in the wall of the initial room.

“A hidden world, meow!” Ke Xun shouted. “Good!”

Right after speaking, he pushed open the door and stepped in without hesitation.

Once he had completely walked through the door, he found himself in an old-fashioned brick house. Next to the window was a large brick bed, and there were all kinds of old furniture pushed up against the wall. The house was neat and clean.

The most striking thing was that there was a beautiful black and white cat nestling on the bed stove by the window, sleeping soundly.

Ke Xun was startled. Why were there cats everywhere?

Then he had a sudden realization–This was the world of Good Kitty!

He had an impression of the carp cat litter. When he was a child, he had cats at home for several years. At that time, he made such a ruckus about it that his mother finally gave in and bought him a cat litter of the same style.

This was the world that corresponded to Zhu Haowen’s prop. Ke Xun didn’t say anything and immediately returned to the door, rushing back to the initial room.

He had to find Zhu Haowen as soon as possible so that he could enter the world of Good Kitty, which would not only allow him to temporarily stop mutating into a mouse but also give him the chance to unlock more hidden worlds.

When he returned to the initial room, he found only Wei Dong and Li Yaqing in the room. Li Yaqing had remained in the room at all times, but Wei Dong had just returned from the world of Ma Liang’s Divine Brush.

“Fuck, why are you hurt like this?” Wei Dong saw the wound on Ke Xun and asked in shock.

“It’s nothing. Don’t worry about me.” Ke Xun waved his hand. “How are you?”

Seeing that he was in good spirits, Wei Dong settled his mind and waved the big brush in his hand. “Once I knew the plot, I opened it right away! After I went in, I found the county magistrate, and drew the sea and golden mountain on the wall without saying anything. The county magistrate and his men died directly in a boat on the sea. I know why I became fat. It’s because Ma Liang was chubby in the cartoon, remember?”

Ke Xun thought for a moment. “If you want me to remember what the specific character looks like, I don’t remember it. But I do remember that the picture was very dim, and because it’s a very old cartoon, the sound quality wasn’t very good either. Meow. It’s a bit like The Deer’s Bell and completely different from the style of the Nine-Color Deer cartoon. I remember that The Deer’s Bell is done in an ink painting style, while Nine-Color Deer is in an art fresco style, meow. Similar to Tiger Learns a Skill and Good Kitty, they’re all “painting.” However, the style in Ma Liang’s Devine Brush is a bit like puppetry.”

Wei Dong nodded, “Yes, like cartoon marionettes meow.

Ke Xun: “…..I’ll scratch you meow!”

Wei Dong said, “It’s all your fault. All your meows turned me a little crooked.”

Ke Xun said, “Stop talking nonsense. What happened after you dealt with the county magistrate? Did you get any clues or trigger the door to a hidden world?”

Wei Dong said, “The door to a hidden world? No, I searched around but couldn’t find a single clue, so I came back. Did you find a hidden world?”

Ke Xun’s mind was running quickly, and he suddenly clapped his hands. “Dongzi, meow! Do you remember that there’s a plot in Ma Liang’s Divine Brush where he was imprisoned by the county magistrate, meow? He painted a door on the prison wall, opened the door, and escaped, meow?”

Wei Dong clapped his hands excitedly. “Yes! I have a magic brush in my hand. If I draw a door on the wall, it might be the door to a hidden world! I’ll return to Ma Liang’s world and test it.”

“Remember, draw a round door, meow,” Ke Xun reminded him. “But regardless of whether a hidden world is triggered or not, you have to return to this room when you’re supposed to, just in case.”

“Got it!”

Ke Xun no longer delayed. The moment Wei Dong entered the world of Ma Liang’s Divine Brush, he also entered the snowy mountain and forest where Mu Yiran had gone.

Zhu Haowen and Mu Yiran left together, intending to not only locate the four missing newcomers but also to see if they could find a hidden world.

Ke Xun followed the marks Mu Yiran had left behind and trudged hard through the snow-covered mountain. Perhaps because cats are afraid of the cold, in this mountain covered in knee-deep snow, the thinly dressed Ke Xun felt as if he was near to frozen.

He wanted to run to speed up his blood circulation, but after running for a while, he still couldn’t resist the severe cold in the mountains.

His limbs and body became stiffer and stiffer, and he kept yawning. He repeatedly reminded himself that he must not fall asleep. Once he falls asleep, he will never wake up again. Even so, his eyelids became uncontrollably heavier and heavier.

In the end, Ke Xun collapsed stiffly into the snow, his eyes closed.

It was so cold…There was still a trace of consciousness in his mind, still shivering from the cold. In the final stage of life, this too would still shatter.

It was so cold…so cold…cold…Oh…Warm….A bit warmer….Comfortably warm….It felt good…A good deal warmer now…Hold me tight…Hold me tight…It’s so warm…

“Meow…” Ke Xun regained consciousness and slowly opened his eyes.

Above him was the face of the person he liked. At this moment, he was looking at Ke Xun with his head tilted slightly downward. Although his expression was still so cold it could be seen from a distance and wasn’t playful at all, it’s pair of perfectly shaped eyes contained perceptible concern.

Ke Xun stretched out his arms and hugged that person tightly, rubbing his head and face desperately against that person’s chest, his cat tail flicking coquettishly.

–Cat tail?!

Ke Xun rolled out of Mu Yiran’s arms and reached behind to touch his butt. He was instantly shocked–Fuck! It really was a tail!

–He had a long tail.

–Fuck!!

He had been unconscious for so long in that world that he didn’t belong to that he actually grew a tail!

Ke Xun wanted to cry without tears, and he looked at Mu Yiran, his two cat ears drooping.

“Don’t go to other worlds anymore.” Mu Yiran stretched out his hand and rubbed Ke Xun’s head. “How does your injury feel? Dr. Qin had already done a simple treatment on it.”

Ke Xun shook his head. No matter how painful his body was, his long tail was more concerning…

Mu Yiran changed the topic. “Wei Dong told me that you discovered a hidden world?”

Ke Xun noticed that he had already been taken to the initial room. Everyone was in the room, except for Zhao Haicui. Mu Yiran and Zhu Haowen must have found the other three newcomers, and they were on their way back when they discovered him half-dead. They all brought him back together.

Ke Xun recounted the process of discovering the hidden world, and then he asked Mu Yiran what happened to Zhao Haicui.

Mu Yiran glanced at the three newcomers, all of whom were still in shock, and said lightly, “They lost their way in the mountain last night. They saw a fire at the top of the mountain and followed its light into a cave. There was an old man dressed in ancient clothes who had created the fire to keep warm.”

Since the four newcomers were already near-frozen from the cold, when they saw the fire, they had no fear of the old man at all and sat around the fire to keep warm.

Unexpectedly, at about midnight, Zhao Haicui suddenly stood up without a word and, after looking at the old man, jumped into the fire.