Ke Xun crouched down and tried to write the character for "cow" on the ground. Fortunately, this character had few strokes, making it difficult to write anything else. However, due to the anomaly, the character he wrote was still crooked and almost unrecognizable.
Luckily, Wei Dong understood and rushed to Ma Liang's dwelling to lead the cow out. He then whipped the cow's rump, trying to make it run so he could follow it to find the hidden world.
But the cow completely ignored Wei Dong's efforts, swaying and digging for grass on the ground.
Wei Dong became anxious, whipping the cow and kicking it, but he couldn't make the cow run. Instead, the cow gored him to the ground with its horns.
"No way!" Wei Dong looked at Ke Xun in a panic. "You fucking shouldn't stay in this world, go back to your starting room!"
Ke Xun ignored what he said, his eyes wide and his brows furrowed in thought. Wei Dong watched helplessly as a few cat whiskers peeked out from around his mouth, almost bringing tears to his eyes. In desperation, he remembered how Boss Mu dealt with him and was about to step forward to grab Ke Xun by the back of the neck.
Ke Xun jumped aside to dodge, glaring at him: "You think meowing is all it takes? Just meowing and whimpering."
Although this guy spoke in cat language, Wei Dong could guess what he was talking about based on his understanding of him. Basically, he was saying that Wei Dong was looking down on him and that he was far from being able to handle him like Boss Mu.
Wei Dong frantically pulled at his hair: "Just leave already, I beg you, I'll help you find Hailibu's hidden world, okay?!"
Even if Ke Xun didn't say it, Wei Dong knew who he came to this world for and what his purpose was.
Ke Xun, his cat-like face resolute, shook his head slightly and ran off again towards the county government office.
Wei Dong had no choice but to desperately follow behind. Just as they reached the village entrance, they heard a child's cries coming from the other side: "My sheep! My sheep! My sheep! My sheep!"
This was the scene where the officials snatched the child's sheep, and later Ma Liang drew a new sheep for the child, making him happy again.
Hearing the cries, Ke Xun suddenly stopped, his pointed cat ears perking up as if pondering something. He then pointed in the direction of the cries and meowed loudly at Wei Dong.
Wei Dong didn't have time to think about what Ke Xun wanted to say; he simply grabbed his paintbrush and rushed over. The officials had just taken the child's sheep, and Wei Dong, forgetting all about his lines, picked up his brush and drew a sheep on the wall. The little
lamb hopped and skipped down the wall and was happily hugged by the child.
Wei Dong turned to Ke Xun in confusion, "This didn't trigger anything, did it?"
Ke Xun's cat ears perked up again, his now round eyes fixed on the child and sheep in front of him. Suddenly, he turned and charged at the official who had snatched the sheep. Wei Dong watched helplessly as his tall, strong childhood friend leaped into the air like a cat, then stretched out his claws...and slashed out fiercely, scratching the official's face until it bled profusely.
The official cried out in pain, the sheep he was holding slipping from his grasp. The sheep jumped to the ground and ran wildly forward. Ke Xun gave chase, watching as the sheep transformed into a beam of light. When the light faded, a round door appeared before them.
"Meow, meow, meow!" Ke Xun exclaimed. He had hated that official to death when he watched this cartoon as a child, and the NPC in the picture had clearly hinted at it—"My sheep, my sheep, my sheep!" The sheep belonging to the NPC with the quest was, of course, an important sheep.
Rushing through the round gate, a vast grassland appeared before them, dotted with flocks of white sheep. A group of men dressed in Mongolian attire were dancing and singing in the distance.
"Meow meow! Meow meow meow ha! Meow, found him!" Ke Xun's cat-like eyes curved into crescents.
He brought Wei Dong back to the starting room. Mu Yiran was also there. Ke Xun rushed over and pinched his legs and arms, finding them even stiffer than yesterday. He meowed softly, feeling a pang of heartache, and carried him towards Ma Liang's world.
This time, Mu Yiran didn't refuse Ke Xun's help. He quietly nestled on his back and spoke softly, "Ge Lei is so frightened he's gone insane. I knocked him unconscious and placed him inside the gate of Black Cat Sheriff's world. I'll bring him back to the starting room before 11 PM."
"Meow," Ke Xun said.
"After you put me in Hailibu's world, you go back to the starting room," Mu Yiran said in a deep voice, looking at his sideburns that were becoming like cat fur.
"Meow—meow."
"Don't worry, I'll be careful."
"Meow, woof, meow?"
"Yes, I need to try to trigger the hidden worlds. Perhaps only after triggering all the hidden worlds will the artist's signature appear, so this is something I have to do. I'll be back before eleven o'clock. Even if I don't get back on time for unforeseen reasons, don't look for me, understand?" "
Meow."
"Don't argue."
"Woof..."
"Be good."
"Meow."
Ke Xun had no choice but to return to the initial room. Qin Ci and the others had also returned by then. Seeing Ke Xun's half-cat, half-human appearance, they were all startled.
"This bastard is running around everywhere!" Wei Dong complained to everyone with red eyes.
"Little Ke, you can't go to other worlds anymore," Qin Ci frowned. "You can leave things to me. My body hasn't changed. Even if I go to other worlds occasionally, there should be a relatively long transition process. I have more time than you."
"Meow." Ke Xun drooped his ears listlessly.
"Hurry up." Zhu Haowen's gaze shifted from his fluffy cat ears, and he said in a deep voice, "Let me tell you about my discovery first. I tracked down a mouse in 'Good Cat Mimi,' which triggered a hidden world. This mouse is indeed connected to One-Ear from 'Black Cat Detective.'"
"Meow?" Ke Xun looked at him with slight surprise.
Zhu Haowen looked at him: "So I couldn't discover a new hidden world. 'Good Cat Mimi' triggered an existing world."
Qin Ci continued, "I thought through all the important plot points and details of the story of the Fisherman's Boy, and finally realized that the protagonist of this story, the white-haired old man, actually only wished to have a good boat to catch more fish. So I followed him onto the boat to go fishing, which triggered a hidden world. Unfortunately, it also triggered an existing world, the world where Zhao Haicui died."
Luo Wei and Li Yaqing entered the world of Nezha's Havoc in the Sea with Wei Miao.
Luo Wei's Fire Child World and Li Yaqing's Heavenly Book World are both hidden worlds. Luo Wei thought that Heavenly Book World was similar to the world of Nezha Conquers the Dragon King, so he decided to help his girlfriend find the hidden world first. In addition, Wei Miao was also afraid to go to her corresponding world alone, so the three of them went to the world of Nezha Conquers the Dragon King together.
"The plot of Nezha Conquers the Dragon King is very long," Luo Wei frowned slightly, "We barely managed to advance the story a little bit, but given that Nezha pulled out the tendons of the Dragon Prince in the story, and Wei Miao's prop is a dragon horn, we were worried that her role was the Dragon Prince, so we didn't dare to continue to advance the plot and had to come back for the time being. Therefore, we did not trigger the hidden world."
"This is indeed a problem..." Qin Ci pondered, "We can't advance the plot at the cost of our lives. Is there a point that we haven't thought of yet?"
"Awooooo meow meow is also fine meow!" Ke Xun said quickly.
Everyone looked at him with slightly stiff expressions.
Ke Xun was stunned: "I don't understand awooooo meow?"
"I don't understand..." Everyone shook their heads in unison.
"Damn it!" Ke Xun was furious.
"...I understand this one." Wei Dong said, then looked at him anxiously, "What should we do! Why don't you try writing it down?"
Ke Xun took the paper and pen that Luo Wei handed him and scribbled on the paper with great difficulty. Zhu Haowen took it and saw that it was full of messy lines.
"Probably only Mu Yiran can understand what you're saying," Zhu Haowen looked at him expressionlessly, "I'll go and bring him back."
Ke Xun grabbed his sleeve and shook his head: "Meow meow meow, so dangerous!"
"You mean it's too dangerous?" Qin Ci sniffed out a human word from the cat language, "Indeed, Haowen going to a world that isn't his own will accelerate his physical mutation. I'll go instead. I'm probably the one among us who is closest to a pure human form, and I still have a certain chance and space to freely go to other worlds."
Without further delay, he stepped into the world of Ma Liang's Magic Brush.
Seeing Ke Xun furiously biting his cat tail, Wei Dong quickly changed the subject to distract him: "Isn't it strange? We haven't eaten for almost two days, but we don't feel hungry at all."
"It's probably because this is a cartoon world," Zhu Haowen said. "Many cartoons deliberately blur the scenes of eating because it involves the food chain between animals. For example, in 'Good Cat Mimi,' the cat learns to jump from the tiger, and in 'The Tiger Learns Skills,' the tiger talks to a group of monkeys and squirrels. In such cases, if eating is involved, it becomes very contradictory and confusing."
"...Yeah, that's true. Does the tiger eat small animals or is it vegetarian? That's unclear." Wei Dong nodded. "So the issues that are blurred in cartoons are blurred for us too, so we don't even need to eat..."
Moreover, Wei Dong thought that with this room full of blood and Qi Qiang's decapitated corpse, probably no one could eat anything.
Thinking this, his gaze involuntarily drifted towards the direction of Qi Qiang's corpse, meeting his eyes directly in the direction of Qi Qiang's severed head. Wei Dong shuddered, a wave of nausea rising in his stomach. He quickly turned his head away, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath, but Qi Qiang's face, so distorted it was no longer human, remained etched onto his retina.
...Huh?
Wei Dong felt something was off. He wanted to open his eyes to take another look, but it was too disgusting. After a moment's thought, he opened his eyes and looked at Ke Xun: "Ke'er, can you still understand human speech?"
"..." Ke Xun spat out the tip of its tail, "Meow."
"Then look at Qi Qiang's face, is it any different from before he died?" Wei Dong showed no mercy when it came to framing his own sworn brother.
Ke Xun glanced at Qi Qiang as instructed, and was so disgusted that his hair stood on end. He lashed out at Wei Dong in a fit of rage: "Awooo meow meow your mother's 'Awooo!' Meow meow, don't you understand what I'm saying?!"
Wei Dong guessed that this guy was probably saying something like, "You're disgusting, why did you make me look at you? Even if I understood, you wouldn't understand what I'm saying, so what's the point of looking?" He pointed to his own face and said to him, "I'll say it, just nod. Don't you think Qi Qiang's eyebrows are particularly strange? I remember his eyebrows used to be very close together, making him look very sinister, but just now I glanced at them, and the distance between his eyebrows seems to have increased." Upon
hearing this, Ke Xun looked at Qi Qiang's face again, then nodded and gestured with his hands to indicate the distance: "Meow meow, wide."
"Right," Wei Dong said, "I noticed that the space between his eyebrows was different on the first night, and now that he's dead, it's even more obvious. The space between his eyebrows is too wide. Even in an animated film, this kind of face is too exaggerated and distorted, isn't it?"
"Meow?!" Ke Xun suddenly seemed to have thought of something, his eyes widened as he thought hard for a moment, then he shouted at everyone, "Meow! Awoo meow meow, meow meow meow!"
Everyone: "..."
Wei Dong: "...Uh, what did you say?"
Ke Xun shouted: "Meow Meow Meow!"
Wei Dong: ...Even quotation marks can't save you now...