Paintings of Terror

Chapter 147: Mi Lun’s Signature

When Qin Ci and Mu Yiran returned to the initial room, Ke Xun looked at Mu Yiran as if he was looking at his savior. He rushed at Mu Yiran, wishing that his entire body could cling to him.

He meowed, and Mu Yiran stretched out his hand to squeeze the back of his neck to soothe him as he translated to everyone, “Ke Xun said that Qi Qiang’s corresponding cartoon was Meijian Chi.”

“Meijian Chi?” Qin Ci’s eyebrows drew together but found nothing in his memory about the cartoon. “I’ve never heard of or seen this cartoon before.”

“I remember that Mr. Lu Xun wrote a novel called Forging the Swords, which seemed to have a story about Meijian Chi.” From last night to now, Wei Miao did not dare to touch the pool of blood and Qi Qiang’s corpse. Right now, as she said this, her face was covered with her hands and her trembling body was facing the wall.

“Meijian Chi is said to be the son of General Mo Xie,” Mu Yiran said thoughtfully. “This capable person forged a sword for the King of Chu and was later killed by the King of Chu. Before he died, the general told his wife to have his son avenge him in the future. When Meijian Chi grew up and learned about this, he took another sword that the general had forged to find the King of Chu with the intent of beheading him. He delivered the sword to a brave hero and asked him to kill the King of Chu on his behalf. The reason why his name was Meijain Chi was because his eyebrows were set wide apart.”

“Meow wuwu meow meow wu.”

“Ke Xun said that artistic licenses were often taken with the cartoon, but that this general outline is correct,” Mu Yiran translated.

“Then Qi Qiang corresponded to the cartoon Meijian Chi.” Qin Chi nodded.

Wei Dong was speechless. “Is it really good for cartoons to show children such horrible materials?”

“Meow ao ao wu wu meow meow meow.”

“Ke Xun said that because the cartoon is too dark and strange, and the content is more appropriate for an adult audience, it caused a lot of controversy.” Mu Yiran glanced at Ke Xun and added, “He even had nightmares about it after watching it once as a child, and so it had left an impression on him.”

“So now, out of 13 worlds, we’ve determined the titles for 12. Only the world where Zhao Haicui died is left, and we still have no clues about that world,” Zhu Haowen summarized.

“The hidden worlds that we were only able to trigger was Good Kitty and Hailibu,” Luo Wei said.

“There’s also Fire Boy.” Mu Yiran glanced at him. “When I was in Hailibu’s world, I used his bow and arrow to trigger the hidden world of Fire Boy. You can enter it now.”

“Yes,” Qin Ci suddenly said. “The Fire Boy’s bow and arrows are very important props.”

Luo Wei did not delay. He only stopped long enough to instruct Li Yaqing to stay in the initial room since her pot was already so large that two people were needed to carry it. Then he strode through the door and raced against time to find the Fire Boy world.

Everyone else was also in a hurry. Mu Yiran glanced at Qi Qiang lying amidst the pool of blood. “Since it’s determined that his world is Meijian Chi, then I think another sword in one of the cartoons is the key to triggering his hidden world.”

The general in Meijian Chi had forged two swords in total.

“Oh lu lu lu!” Ke Xun made a gesture of raising a sword to slay himself.

Everyone: “…”

“Ke Xun said that Nezha had cut his own throat with a sword,” Mu Yiran translated.

Wei Dong quickly looked at Wei Miao. “Young lady, hurry up. Go back to Nezha Roils the Sea and get that sword!”

Wei Miao ran through the door, trembling.

“Then I’ll go into the world of Black Cat Sheriff to find a hidden world,” Mu Yiran said.

“Ao wu!” Ke Xun’s hair suddenly bristled.

“You stay as his interpreter.” Zhu Haowen pointed at Ke Xun expressionlessly. “I’ll go to the world of Black Cat Sheriff.”

“I’ll go. After all, Haowen, you…” The more you stay in other worlds, the more you’ll look like a mouse…Qin Ci finished in his heart.

“Then I’ll go into the world of Zhao Haicui,” Wei Dong volunteered.

Who would have imagined that the moment he walked through the door, the taciturn Huang Pi, who had been sitting against the wall, would stand up and follow after him.

Ke Xun, Mu Yiran, Zhu Haowen, and Li Yaqing were left in the room. They didn’t wait idly and continued to analyze the clues at hand.

“We now know that several worlds are connected in this way,” Zhu Haowen said as he drew on a piece of paper, “Tiger Learns a Skill→ Good Kitty→ Black Cat Sheriff.”

“Ma Liang’s Divine Brush→ Hailibu → Fire Boy.”

“The Fish Child → Zhao Haicui’s corresponding world.”

“There seems to be no rules to how these are linked together. From the perspective of cartoon style or the nature of the story itself, some seem to have things in common and some seem to have none at all.”

“Perhaps,” Mu Yiran thought out loud, “each world could trigger a hidden world, and it can also be triggered by another world at the same time. The trigger is one-way. In short, each world has two points of connection, where it can trigger and can be triggered.”

“So, if we use a line to connect the worlds, these 13 worlds are actually very tightly strung together, and with this room as the center, they form together as a whole,” Zhu Haowen said.

“Meow ao meow meow–”

“Ke Xun said that maybe the shape of the worlds connected by these lines is Mi Lun’s signature,” Mu Yiran translated. Then he added, “The process of finding hidden worlds and triggering them one by one is probably each stroke of the signature. When all the worlds are triggered, it’s like a line of words connected by electric lights, and with the lights connected, the word will light up.”

“Mi Lun’s signature…perhaps there’s only one “Mi (米)” character?” Zhu Haowen suddenly raised his eyes to look at Mu Yiran and Ke Xun.

“Ao!”

“It’s very likely.” Mu Yiran looked around the room. “If the room we are in is located in the center point of this Mi(米) character, then these six doors are equivalent to the intersection of all the strokes passing through the center point. One point is the wood(木) character in Mi(米), and the other two points are the left and right strokes that aren’t connected to the center point of this room.”

“So, in fact, we are in his signature.” Zhu Haowen’s eyes narrowed slightly.

“I think his signature is a certain type of swash font, and there are six points that are connected to the center.” Mu Yiran wrote several Mi(米) characters in different flourishing fonts. “Depending on the font, the place where the strokes of the Mi(米) character intersect is also different.”

“For example, if it’s an electronic version of boldface, the left and right points of the Mi(米) wouldn’t touch the center.”

“If it is the Yao font, the upper right point would be horizontally connected to the middle, and the lower right slash would have hardly any intersection with the main stroke.”

“In the semi-cursive script of the Xingkai font, the left and right points at the top would be connected to the vertical stroke.”

“If every intersection is a door, then Mi Lun’s signature should, in addition to the six points that meet at the center, also have seven other points where the strokes meet, creating a complex and gorgeous swash.”

“From this, it can be proven that as long as we trigger all the doors of the hidden worlds, it would be equivalent to connecting the strokes in his Mi(米) signature, thus allowing us to leave this painting.”

“Meow wu—meow wu—meow wu—”

“What you said is indeed a problem.” Mu Yiran looked at Ke Xun thoughtfully. “Zhao Haicui, Zhang Lifeng, and Qi Qiang, these three people are already dead. There seems to be no way to trigger the hidden worlds through them. But I think there must be a way. Otherwise as long as one of the 13 people dies, the others will have no way to survive, and the painting rules will not be set like this.”

“Even though these two people are dead, their props are still here.” Zhu Haowen pointed to the floor. “Although the rules stipulated that exchanging props are not allowed, now that the owners of the props are dead, these props could be considered ownerless. Can we use them?”

Mu Yiran walked over and picked up the sword that Qi Qiang had left behind. “I’ll try it.”

Ke Xun also walked over and picked up the two longan cores that were once Zhang Lifeng’s.

Meijian Chi and The Snow Child were both hidden worlds, and now they had to wait for news from Qin Ci.

When darkness descended, Qin Ci took the lead in returning from the world of Black Cat Sheriff. On the way back, he also brought Ge Lei, who had been knocked out by Mu Yiran and left behind the door.

“I thought about several episodes of Black Cat Sheriff.” Qin Ci frowned and shook his head. “There are so many characters and important items, and I tried them one by one, but I couldn’t find any hidden worlds.”

As he raised his leg, everyone heard the crinkle of paper coming from his body.

After staying in another person’s world for so long, his body had begun to change.

When Wei Dong and Huang Pi returned, it was close to 10:30 at night.

Holding a rabbit ears headband in his hand, Wei Dong shook his head at the group. “We couldn’t find the hidden world. The monkey that Qi Qiang had slaughtered is alive again, and I followed it everywhere, but there was no clue to be found. Huang Pi also followed an otter, but still couldn’t find a hidden world.”

Ke Xun looked at Huang Pi and said, “Meow meow meow?”

Mu Yiran translated, “Even you don’t know which cartoon Zhao Haicui corresponded to?”

Huang Pi’s two short and thin eyebrows furrowed. “I don’t know. I’ve never seen it before.”

Ke Xun felt that Huang Pi should be quite confident in his own familiarity with old cartoons, even…to the point of ridiculousness and arrogance. As a result, because he wasn’t familiar with this cartoon, it made him rather unhappy.

It was like looking back at the beautiful childhood that he’d cherished in the depths of his heart and suddenly discovering that there was a flaw. It made him feel that it was unbearable, that his only pure land was actually incomplete, so much so that he could no longer maintain his underworld character and had to take up this issue.

Everyone was thinking about the clues of this cartoon when they saw that Luo Wei had finally returned. He seemed to be tired of running around looking for clues. Even after having entered through the door, he was still panting, his face somewhat pale.

He, who had always been more sensible than anyone his own age, could hardly hide his anxiety at this moment. “I triggered a hidden world. Fire Boy has a magical gourd, and the triggered point was Nezha Roils the Sea, when a spiritual master used Nezha’s gourd to make a lotus incarnation–Excuse me, have any of you triggered Yaqing’s corresponding hidden world?”

Everyone was silent. Luo Wei frowned, turned his head, and tried to re-enter the world of Nezha. But Li Yaqing hugged him back, crying, “Don’t go. It’s already too late. It’ll be 11 soon. Just forget about me…”

Qin Ci and Wei Dong also hurried over to stop Luo Wei. They wanted to tell him, but couldn’t find a way to say it well–If Luo Wei didn’t come back before 11 o’clock, both he and Li Yaqing would die. But if he stayed here, the only one who might die…would just be Li Yaqing.

Although it was cruel to think so, it was good to have one more person survive.

“Yaqing–” Luo Wei’s glasses were fogging up as he firmly gripped Li Yaqing’s shoulders.

With a cry, Li Yaqing dropped to a sitting position on the ground, “I don’t want to die–I don’t want to die–Luo Wei–Luo Wei–I doomed you, I shouldn’t have allowed you to follow me–Don’t tell my parents–Just tell them–I eloped with some other boy–Wuuwuwu–I don’t want to die–”

Li Yaqing’s thinking was chaotic and disorganized, and she could hardly catch her breath from crying so hard.

Luo Wei turned around, pushed Qin Ci and Wei Dong away from him hard, and hurried into the world of Nezha Roils the Sea.