The common people were still "alive," allowing him to use his Miracle Technique to secretly extract their Human Souls and gather Painting Power. But they were already dead, and the man didn't know how to paint them with enough life and spirit to let them live on in an alternate form within his art.
This was a realization that still eluded him.
Realizing the Monk and Xiaotao were the only people he knew left in the world, the man was suddenly overcome with the desire to see her.
「Six months later.」
After a stop-and-go journey, the two men and one cat arrived at the Imperial City.
Along the way, the Monk studied Xiaomiao, who hadn't changed a bit in almost ten years. "Brother," he asked, puzzled, "this Mao'er of yours... isn't its life a bit on the long side?"
"For a cat that made it back from the Great Desert alive, a long life isn't so strange."
Little Feng Miao smugly bared its teeth at the Monk.
