DA chapter 84

Lin Jia quickly brought the cat back to where the giant dragon was.

The battery dropped to 5%, which made the cat panic.

Then, the cat heard something from Lin Jia that made it even more uneasy. Lin Jia said, “The dragon has no eyes.”

The cat looked up at the dragon’s head. Its head was hundreds of times bigger than the cat’s. The cat swallowed nervously. “Then what?”

“You’ve heard the story ‘Painting the Dragon by Dotting the Eyes,’ right?” Lin Jia gently nudged the cat. His voice was as gentle as a bedtime story.¹“Painting the Dragon by Dotting the Eyes” originates from a story about the Tang dynasty painter Zhang Sengji. He painted four dragons on the walls of Anle Temple but deliberately left out their eyes, believing that the eyes were where the soul resided. When he finally added the eyes, the dragons came to life and flew into the clouds, astonishing everyone present.

“In ancient times, there was a painter named Zhang Sengyao,” Lin Jia continued, speaking slowly. “His painting skills were superb, and he was especially good at painting dragons. But the dragons he painted had no eyes.”

The cat had heard the story before, but it didn’t interrupt Lin Jia. Perhaps because it was rare to hear Lin Jia be so gentle, the cat felt as if he was using the story to ease its anxiety.

“The curious onlookers asked Zhang Sengyao why he didn’t paint the dragon’s eyes.” Lin Jia raised his head and looked at the giant dragon before him. He continued, “Zhang Sengyao explained, ‘Dotting the eyes is easy, but once I do, the dragon will fly away.’”

The cat’s heart skipped a beat. If the dragon flew away, it would come alive.

So Lin Jia’s method to make the dragon come alive was to dot its eyes.

But why make it do it?

The cat hadn’t inherited the original person’s courage. It was just a small, helpless creature. Even something as simple as finding its original self required Lin Jia’s help. What could it do?

In any case, it definitely couldn’t do something like dotting the dragon’s eyes.

Lin Jia glanced down at the cat. He could almost hear the “thump, thump” of its retreating thoughts. He lowered his voice again and said, “The people didn’t believe Zhang Sengyao. With no other choice, he painted the dragon’s eyes in front of them. Then, before their eyes, the two dragons broke free and soared into the clouds.”

As a master of backing out at the last moment, the cat already felt like running away. “But I’m not Zhang Sengyao.”

Lin Jia said, “You are Yan Xu.”

The cat froze. Lin Jia’s tone returned to its usual calm, but the cat heard a faint hint of encouragement and praise in it. After a while, the cat pushed aside the strange feeling in its heart and found its voice again. “What do I need to do? Even if I dot the eyes, we’d still need paint. We don’t have anything we can use.”

Because the dragon was so huge, its head was high above the ground. Compared to Lin Jia, the cat was more agile, so the task of climbing up the dragon’s body to dot its eyes could only be given to the cat.

Even if the dragon came alive, the cat would seem tiny in comparison. Often, it was precisely these small things that left massive creatures helpless. If the dragon attacked, the cat would have an easier time escaping.

Lin Jia raised his hand.

The cat saw the blood on the back of Lin Jia’s hand.

The cat pressed its lips tightly. Lin Jia wanted the cat to use the blood to dot the eyes.

Lin Jia glanced at the battery level. While he was telling the story, it had already dropped to 3%.

There was no time to delay. Lin Jia refused to die in an unknown place.

He told the cat what to do: “Run as soon as you finish drawing the eyes.”

The cat swallowed. “Where do I run?”

Lin Jia: “The coffin.”

Nine Dragons Pulling a Coffin—once the dragon is revived, it will continue pulling the coffin. Only by returning to the coffin could they leave through the opening in the barrier broken when the dragon leapt.

Lin Jia picked up the cat. The cat watched as Lin Jia held one of its paw pads with one hand and pressed out the hidden claws with the other.

Shhk—

By the time the cat came to its senses, it had added new wounds to the back of Lin Jia’s hand with its claws, and blood stained the gaps between its claws.

Lin Jia didn’t even flinch. He gently patted the cat’s head.

In an instant, it felt as if a surge of reckless courage filled the cat’s chest. Before the blood could dry, the cat leapt toward the base of the dragon.

It glanced back at Lin Jia. Unexpectedly, Lin Jia was still there. The cat had thought that Lin Jia would return to the coffin first. However, since Lin Jia had chosen to wait, the cat didn’t want to let him down.

Thanks to the occasional “horse stance” punishments Lin Jia had made it do before, the cat used both its front and hind legs to climb to the top of the dragon with ease.

Clinging to one of the dragon’s horns, the cat quickly smeared the blood onto the dragon’s eye. Without looking at Lin Jia, the cat immediately turned its body, grabbed the other horn, and pressed the nearly coagulated blood onto the other eye.

Only after finishing did the cat look down at Lin Jia from above.

It saw Lin Jia suddenly frown. “Run!”

The cat was startled. Its grip loosened, and its body dropped downward. Its survival instinct kicked in, and it wrapped its tail around the dragon’s horn. Its body slammed against the dragon’s eye.

A wet sensation. Its fur stood on end, sticking together.

The cat seemed to sense something. Its stiff gaze slowly shifted forward.

The dragon coiled its massive body. As it moved, its scales wriggled, and a cold aura rose from the ground. An eyeball larger than the cat’s entire body rolled within its socket, causing the membranes inside to squirm.

The cat clinging to the dragon’s eye was almost thrown off by the rolling eyeball. Its entire body was soaked in the viscous fluid inside.

Before it could grab the dragon’s horn, however, the eyeball suddenly froze.

The cat could clearly see its own reflection in the eyeball.

The dragon had come to life.

The cat’s heart nearly stopped too.

“Hiss—” The dragon suddenly raised its head, biting onto the chain that was about to slip from its mouth. The space was filled with the deafening sound of chains crashing against each other.

“Toast!”

Amid the violent clashing of chains and the writhing of dragon scales, Lin Jia’s voice sounded faint.

Stunned by fear, the cat forgot to grab the horn and was flung away by the dragon’s sudden movement.

It’s over. I’m going to die.

The cat shut its eyes in fear. Just as it thought it would be smashed to pieces, it unexpectedly fell into an embrace.

The cat seemed to hear the sound of breaking bones, followed by the jolting motion of running.

The cat opened its eyes and saw Lin Jia’s jawline.

It shrank into Lin Jia’s arms. “Lin Jia, that scared me to death!”

The slime on its body smeared onto Lin Jia. The cat whimpered and used its paws to wipe the dirt off Lin Jia, afraid that his obsession with cleanliness might suddenly cause him to throw it away.

It was so frightened that its whole body had gone stiff and was unable to move. If Lin Jia threw it down, death would be waiting for it.

“Stay still.” Lin Jia ran quickly towards the peach wood coffin. “I won’t leave you.”

The cat felt relieved.

When they reached the coffin, Lin Jia threw the cat in first and then climbed in after it.

Of the nine iron chains attached to the coffin, eight lay quietly on the ground. Only the one at the centre of the head was still shaking.

As the chain moved, the peach wood coffin faintly showed signs of being lifted, pulled by the other end.

Lin Jia gripped the edge of the coffin and told the cat, “Hold on tight.”

The cat clung tightly to the coffin, its claws almost embedding themselves in the wood.

Not far away, sparks flew as the chains scraped the ground, demonstrating the dragon’s strength. However, by the time this force reached the coffin, it could only manage to lift it slightly.

The cat found this strange. “Such a huge dragon—how can it not pull the coffin?”

The cat had been flung away by the dragon before and had felt its strength directly. Just lifting its head made an overwhelming difference in power. Yet, strangely, such immense strength couldn’t pull a single coffin.

Lin Jia said, “What it needs to pull isn’t just the coffin.”

It also needed to pull the other eight dragons that hadn’t awakened yet and were still petrified.

The cat said, “Then should we wake up the other eight dragons too?”

Lin Jia said, “There’s no ti—”

Before he could finish speaking, the flashlight suddenly went out.

You can read the full completed story here with instant full access. ✨

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  “Painting the Dragon by Dotting the Eyes” originates from a story about the Tang dynasty painter Zhang Sengji. He painted four dragons on the walls of Anle Temple but deliberately left out their eyes, believing that the eyes were where the soul resided. When he finally added the eyes, the dragons came to life and flew into the clouds, astonishing everyone present.