I’m Trapped in a Cube - Chapter 127

Mo Ling was absolutely certain that it was a sentence.

But he couldn’t understand it.

That string of text writhed, slowly burrowing into the robed figure’s brain, as if it were being tattooed there.

Yet the robed figure showed no reaction, still excitedly sharing with his companions, until the black script sank deep inside.

The smile on his face vanished abruptly, as if he’d suddenly realized something. His expression turned solemn, and he looked around.

The way he looked at his companions even carried a faint trace of pity.

He stopped sharing his excitement, closed his mouth, and slowly began to walk.

He reached out and grasped at the air, as if feeling everything around him, then took a deep breath.

“What is he doing?”

Under Mo Ling’s puzzled gaze, the robed figure crouched down, pressing his palm tightly to the ground, as if sensing something.

After a while, the robed figure went to the side and stroked the crooked houses, his eyes full of confusion.

He was like a newborn in this world, curiously touching everything around him.

After he finished, he looked back at his former companions, sighed helplessly, and then walked higher up the Black Tower.

Bai Zhou and Li Luo also noticed the strange change in this robed figure. They quickly hid in a concealed spot and recorded his actions.

“Did the blood exchange succeed?” Li Luo whispered.

Bai Zhou nodded, unable to believe it.

The robed figure walked along the upward tunnels, leaving the village behind. Many villagers watched him from afar, their eyes full of longing.

“This might be the next stage of distortion,” Bai Zhou thought after a moment, making a guess.

It seemed the bizarre ritual of the robed figures was a necessary means to enter the next stage.

But who wrote those books?

Could it have been the first person to discover this ‘ascension’ method?

The robed figure disappeared from Mo Ling’s sight. He left so decisively, without preparing anything, which made it even more unsettling.

Maybe as he kept going up, his distortion would only intensify.

Something seemed to be guiding them ever upward, toward the Black Tower’s highest point.

Mo Ling felt a chill run down his spine. The black characters burrowing into the brain kept replaying before his eyes, as if they had a strange, seductive power.

After the successful ascension of that robed figure, the others by the blood sphere became even more frenzied. Their chanting grew louder, and they desperately threw rotten black scraps into the blood sphere.

Not only that, but the market also erupted in a scramble for those rotten black scraps, which sold out in no time.

Those who managed to buy scraps rushed to the blood sphere, joining the ritual and beginning to chant that brainwashing sacred song.

Yet, there was no more luck like that previous robed figure.

After recording all of this, Bai Zhou called Li Luo and quietly left the village, following in the direction the robed figure had gone.

“Let’s follow and see.”

The two quickened their pace and soon caught up behind the robed figure.

He seemed to know the way perfectly, winding through the complex tunnels.

These tunnels interlaced and connected, and the path the robed figure took spiraled upward, always leading higher.

Along the way, they passed some tunnels connected to the outside. Fierce winds blew in from the Black Tower’s exterior, and birds kept flying by.

Although the ground was out of sight, Mo Ling could tell from Li Luo’s cautious movements that they were very high up.

A flock of birds perched at the tunnel’s edge, the kind Mo Ling had seen in pictures before. Only now did he realize how big these birds were.

Their wingspans were nearly three meters, their pure white feathers reflecting the sunlight, and six symmetrical, giant eyes stared fixedly at the robed figure.

Yet these giant seagull-like birds seemed to have no hostility, even appearing timid.

Startled by the approaching robed figure, they took flight, circling outside the tunnel and letting out strange cries, like fingernails scraping a blackboard, shrill and piercing.

The robed figure, bracing against the gale from outside the tunnel, let out a shout. Suddenly, a pair of black wings burst from his back.

He leaped from the tunnel’s edge, plummeting off the cliff, then swooped upward in a surge, his massive black wings flapping as he charged at a circling white giant bird.

With another shout, a web-like black shadow appeared in the sky, blocking the giant bird’s escape.

A huge hand instantly grabbed the giant bird’s neck and tore off its head.

The headless bird’s corpse spun and bled as it fell from the sky, like a scrap of paper tossed aside.

The robed figure, holding the giant bird’s head, slowly flew back to the cliff’s edge. He ignored the blood covering his face, tied the head to his waist with a grass rope, and continued climbing.

The bloody scene happened so fast that Bai Zhou and Li Luo were left frozen in shock.

Fortunately, Bai Zhou quickly recovered and urged Li Luo to keep following.

After a while, the tunnels narrowed sharply, allowing only one person through at a time, and strange tremors became constant.

The robed figure became noticeably more cautious here, as if on guard.

Sure enough, as the vibrations intensified, a strange creature appeared in Mo Ling’s view.

It was an armored nematode, its shell the same color as the tunnel, hidden in the darkness. The vibrations came from within its body.

After each tremor, it paused, seeming to sense the echoes, and soon it located the robed figure.

Apparently, the vibration was a way of pinpointing prey.

The robed figure was unhurried. With a shout, that familiar black pointer shot from his mouth, looking even darker and thicker than before.

The pointer aimed straight at the nematode. As it crawled toward him, the robed figure struck first.

With a low growl, a long blade appeared in his hand, stabbing deep into the nematode’s shell and prying it open.

The nematode tried to flee, but a huge rock suddenly appeared above it, crashing down and pinning it.

The robed figure struck again, slicing off the nematode’s head along the gap in its shell.

He reached into the nematode’s flesh and pulled out a constantly vibrating bead, apparently the source of the tremors.

He put the bead in his pocket and continued upward…

Along the way, the robed figure kept hunting all sorts of bizarre creatures in the Black Tower.

After each hunt, he would take a part of the prey as a trophy and keep it on his person.

After killing ten creatures, the robed figure was covered in trophies.

At last, he emerged from the tunnel, arriving at a massive stone gate.

He took off all his trophies and placed them on the tray before the door, their blood soaking the tray.

With each item placed, the tray sank a little, until all ten trophies were set down. Instantly, the trophies glowed purple.

With a click, the stone gate slowly opened.