He pondered for a moment, then withdrew a brush and sketched a cat in the air. As the brush lifted and fell, a black cat suddenly appeared and quickly sprang agilely onto the stone steps.
The black cat calmly and sweetly licked its paws and pads, then scraped its whiskers and rubbed its face. Suddenly, it stood up, walked a few steps, and ascended several stone steps. Sitting with its back to Lin Suqing, it then turned its head peacefully to lick its shiny black fur on its back.
All was calm, with no changes occurring, yet intuitively, he felt something sinister, fearing it was no ordinary formation. Lin Suqing, harboring suspicions, raised his left foot above the first step and hesitated to set it down.
The lingering fright from a close call he had just experienced had not yet subsided, and he had expended much of his energy. If something unpredictable occurred on these nine hundred and ninety-nine steps, he feared he might not handle it.
