Laoshan Taoist – Immortals, Books, Moon, Chang'e, Dog.
After organizing these, Qin Ci had everyone copy a document and carry it with them. Then he said, "Wei Dong, Wei Miao, each of you will enter your corresponding world and try out the people or things listed on the paper one by one to see if you can trigger the hidden world. Those of you corresponding to the hidden world who are willing to enter the worlds behind these doors to find the trigger point for your own world can also try. Remember, you must be back before 11 PM."
The last sentence was an instruction to the newcomers. After saying that, he didn't linger any longer and called Wei Dong into their respective worlds.
Ke Xun stared at the contents listed on the paper in his hand, carefully scrutinizing the string of words after Hailibu.
Many animals appeared in the animated film Hailibu because the focus of the story was that Hailibu could understand animal speech. Therefore, he felt that if there was anything that was the key to triggering Hailibu's hidden world, it must be related to animals.
But with so many animals, which one was the key?
There wasn't enough time for him to try them one by one. Mu Yiran's movements this morning were clearly not very agile anymore, and the changes in his body were still ongoing. He needed to find the most crucial trigger point as quickly and decisively as possible.
Calm down, stay calm, and carefully think about the details of Hailibu's story.
He remembered that at the beginning of the cartoon, Hailibu rescued a squirrel from a wolf's jaws. This squirrel was the daughter of a mountain god or some other god, and the god decided to give Hailibu a gift in return for saving his daughter.
So, was the squirrel the key? Then,
which cartoon in the known world featured squirrels?
After carefully considering the worlds behind these six doors, it seemed that only the world of "Tiger Learns Skills" had squirrels. But the world of "Tiger Learns Skills" had already triggered the hidden world of "Good Cat Mimi." Could it be that one world could trigger multiple hidden worlds? Thinking
this, Ke Xun stepped into the world of "Tiger Learns Skills" without much hesitation.
"Hello, Auntie Cat!" A group of animals, big and small, greeted him in unison.
Ke Xun: "..." This cat hates rigid NPCs. Couldn't they be more flexible and call him Uncle Cat? Ke
Xun spotted a squirrel among the animals and was about to call it when he suddenly saw a large, striped tiger mixed in.
What was going on? Hadn't this tiger already fallen into the river? Why was it here again? And judging from its appearance, it didn't seem to have had any trouble with the cat; it was just watching the commotion with a憨厚 (honest and simple) expression.
—The plot has reset again?!
Ke Xun thought for a moment and then understood. The story of this afterlife resets every night, essentially like having players repeatedly run a dungeon in a game. Each run might reveal new equipment or a hidden boss.
So, pushing the story to the ending might not necessarily complete the game, but by repeatedly running the story, you could obtain the key to victory.
The ending wasn't important; the process was.
Having figured this out, Ke Xun ignored the tiger. Since the ending wasn't important, there was no need to put the guy in the river again.
Ke Xun pointed at the squirrel: "Meow, can you lead me to the door to a new world?"
The squirrel looked at him blankly, confused.
Ke Xun persisted, questioning every animal present, but to no avail.
Ke Xun decisively left, returning to the starting room through the door.
Since this path was temporarily blocked, he would try another; he couldn't waste time on a head-on struggle.
Only Yellow Skin remained in the starting room. Ke Xun looked at him with slight surprise: "Meow? Where did everyone else go? Why don't you go into your own world, meow?"
Yellow Skin ignored him, simply sitting against the wall, seemingly unprepared to do anything, as if he had given up and resigned himself to fate. However, his expression showed no trace of pessimism, despair, or collapse.
Ke Xun had intended to enter another world to search for clues about Hailibu, but after taking a step, he hesitated and turned back. He walked up to Huang Pi, squatted down, wagged his tail behind him, and looked up at him: "Brother Pi, we've known each other for the time it takes to fill two paintings. Although we still don't have much of a relationship, as long as we don't die in the paintings, we might be able to live together in them forever.
"Meow, no one can fight alone forever in this situation. Even if you're in the underworld, you have your own brothers. Am I right
, meow? "So you see, we're all going to die anyway. We might not live to see tomorrow, so why worry about getting along? Just say what you think, meow. It's so painful to die with your thoughts bottled up, don't you think?"
Huang Pi finally looked at him and said in a hoarse voice, "I heard your intuition is very accurate."
"Not always. You saw it yourself, meow. I didn't guess correctly for Qi Qiang yesterday," Ke Xun said.
"Then guess what I do in this world?" Huang Pi looked at Ke Xun with a sinister gaze.
"You seem like someone who takes money from me and does things for me. The money you take isn't small, and the things you do aren't small either. You must have more than one or two lives on your hands." Ke Xun smiled faintly, looking at him with confidence and composure.
Unable to intimidate Ke Xun, Huang Pi's facial muscles twitched, it was hard to tell whether he was smiling or making some other expression.
"What exactly do you want to talk to me about?" Huang Pi asked him.
"I think you might know some clues that we don't know," Ke Xun said bluntly.
"Which eye of yours saw that?" Huang Pi remained noncommittal.
"Based on just two very vague clues—an ancient scholar's headscarf and a body undergoing a puppet-like transformation—you were able to guess that your corresponding world is Laoshan Taoist Cat. This gives me an intuition that might infuriate you," Ke Xun said, a mischievous expression suddenly appearing on his face. "Brother Pi, you must have been a cartoon addict when you were a kid, meow, right?"
"Meow, you son of a bitch." Huang Pi cursed hoarsely, his face still fierce, but he didn't intend to kill Ke Xun on the spot.
"Since you've already guessed your corresponding world, why don't you try to trigger it, meow?" Ke Xun asked.
The Laoshan Taoist world that Huang Pi corresponds to is a hidden world, which needs to be triggered from the world behind the Six Doors.
"None of your business." Huang Pi said fiercely.
"I guess you don't want to go back to the real world; you want to die here." Ke Xun looked into his eyes.
"Get the hell out of here, don't talk nonsense in front of me." Huang Pi looked at him coldly, expressionless.
Ke Xun, however, didn't back down. Instead, she plopped down in front of him, her tail gently curling around her rump and thighs.
"I'm very familiar with this state of yours, so stop pretending," Ke Xun said. "For the first few months after I became an orphan, I was exactly like you now, not eating or drinking, without desires, outwardly calm, but inwardly thinking only one thing: 'Just die like this, what's the point of living? Death is good,' she continued.
"The thing I did most during those months was look at old photos, pictures of myself with my family from childhood to adulthood, looking at each one countless times, or watching old cartoons and TV dramas online, because…"
"To put it more pretentiously, meow: old photos, old cartoons, old TV series—these are all filled with the most carefree and beautiful memories of my childhood with my family, meow.
"When meows are at their most painful, desperate, and life-or-death, they always think, 'Childhood was so much better, those days of happily watching cartoons every day, those days with my whole family around, how wonderful!'
"Your current state isn't much different from meow's back then. I guess you've lost interest in life. Life on the road gets boring easily, meow?
"So dying in the most beautiful memories of childhood isn't so bad, meow?" "
Huang Pi didn't utter a sound this time, only lowering his eyelids, which bore a shallow scar, and staring at his hands, which were covered in the dirtiest things in the world.
Many years ago, that little boy who sat on his small stool at home, happily watching cartoons on TV without blinking, could he have imagined that he would grow up to be a person like a tumor and scum?
But who could have imagined it?
Happy childhoods are always similar, but complicated and heavy lives are all different.
No wonder the artist of this painting chose such a theme.
Perhaps he also had a failed life, so he especially missed his carefree childhood.
"Brother Pi, in your opinion, which cartoon corresponding to the world behind these six doors is more likely to trigger the hidden world of Hailibu, meow?"
This shameless kid in front of him actually asked him this question without any regard for him being an outsider. How dare he think he would tell him?!
"Go try it in Ma Liang's Magic Paintbrush." "Yellow Skin frowned, throwing out a disgusted remark.
Yes, he must have been disgusted by this kid; how could a man want to sleep with another man? How utterly disgusting!
"Meow? Why is it Ma Liang and the Magic Brush?" This disgusting kid shamelessly continued to press.
—Why the hell should I tell you!
"Are you an idiot?" Yellow Skin glared at him fiercely, "Black Cat Detective, Tiger Learns Skills, Snow Child, these are all stories of animals living as humans. Nezha and the Fisherman's Boy are not mortals. Only Ma Liang's brush was given by a god, and Hailibu's fruit that allowed him to understand animal speech was also given by a god. These two stories have similarities!" "
..." Ke Xun's tail tip swayed slightly, "Big Brother, have your underlings ever seen you analyze cartoons so harshly and ruthlessly?"
"...You fucking want to die." "Yellow Skin gritted its teeth, about to get up and move.
Ke Xun jumped up from the ground, flicked its tail and rushed towards the door of Ma Liang's Magic Paintbrush World, meowing without turning its head: "Thanks! I'll keep your adorable performance a secret, meow!"
"...Damn." Yellow Skin cursed, its neck veins bulging.
Ke Xun ran around in Ma Liang's world, trying to figure out what things in the film were shared with Hailibu.
Cows, sheep, chickens, and there seemed to be a rabbit drawn on a stone in Ma Liang's animation.
Could it be a cow? Ma Liang was a cowherd, and didn't that clerk tell Ma Liang, who was watching him draw from outside the window, to go home and herd cows?
Ke Xun rushed towards the county government office and saw Wei Dong being mocked by the clerk at the window.
The plot of the animation would reset every night, and Wei Dong had to start the script again.
"Dongzi, ignore him, meow!" Ke Xun grabbed Wei Dong and ran.
Wei Dong was shocked: "What are you doing here! Aren't you afraid of mutating?!"
Ke Xun dragged him towards Ma Liang's residence: "Hurry back to your house and find Miao!"
"Find what Miao?" Wei Dong asked hurriedly.
"Just Miao, Miao!" Ke Xun shouted urgently.
"Damn it, all you're saying is 'Miao,' I can't understand what you're saying!" Wei Dong was also shocked and anxious. "
Miao—" Ke Xun tried to imitate a cow's moo, but what came out was still a cat's meow.
Oh no. Ke Xun thought, because he had entered another world, his mutation was intensifying, and he was almost... unable to speak human language anymore.