I’m Trapped in a Cube - Chapter 188

Laying eggs?

The moment Mo Ling heard the strange turtle’s words, he suddenly understood.

No wonder this strange turtle looked so weak.

At this time, Mo Ling no longer worried about whether his communication with the strange turtle would affect history. He asked in confusion, “Why do you come here to lay eggs?”

Mo Ling looked at this endless, harsh desert environment and was very puzzled.

Moreover, this was the location of the future oasis. What connection did its egg-laying have with the oasis?

The strange turtle was still using its clawed hind limbs to dig a pit, wanting to bury its rear half in it.

While digging, it answered Mo Ling’s question, “Because we must lay eggs on land.”

Land?

Did this strange turtle come from the sea? No wonder the cracks on its body were filled with seawater.

But where was there any sea in these endless sand dunes?

“Were you in the sea before?” Mo Ling asked.

“Yes.”

The strange turtle’s voice was very tired, but it still tried its best to tell Mo Ling the story of their race.

They were generally called Spiral Turtles by other intelligent races.

They would be born in sand pits of the Abyss Second Layer, break out of their eggshells, crawl out of the deep sand pits, and slowly crawl toward the deep sea of the Abyss Third Layer.

When they first crawled out of the sand dunes, their shells were even still soft, without any protective ability, and their minds were muddled.

At this time, they were still very weak, with no Shell People on their shells.

These newborn Spiral Turtles would not resist predators or avoid danger, they would just crawl toward the ocean with single-minded determination.

In this process, they would encounter many dangers:

Giant birds circling in the sky…

Predators churning in the scorching hot sand…

Sandstorms that devoured everything in the Disorderly Dunes…

Accompanied by death all the way, these newborn Spiral Turtles would have their shells ground harder and harder in the sand dunes. Very few lucky ones could avoid all dangers and reach the Abyss Third Layer.

Predation, escape, growth…

After entering the sea, the real beginning of a Spiral Turtle’s life started.

Shell People were originally a race floating in the Abyss Third Layer. Compared to many creatures, they were very weak.

Their traces could be found throughout the entire Abyss Third Layer, but their numbers were particularly sparse, basically no companions could be seen.

They were also unwilling to drift with the current and wanted to find a relatively stable habitat.

So after Shell People discovered Spiral Turtles, they would create barnacles on the Spiral Turtles’ backs as their homes, and they would also protect the Spiral Turtles’ survival.

When they grew to a certain size, they would receive the attachment of Shell People.

When the Spiral Turtles gradually became powerful, they would in turn shelter the Shell People, and each Spiral Turtle would slowly possess many Shell People.

The Shell People’s lifespans were too short. In the endless cycles of generations, as the Spiral Turtles’ bodies grew larger and larger, they would also forget their origins and consider the turtle shell their entire world.

Finally, they would regard the Spiral Turtle as their deity, gradually becoming the Spiral Turtle’s dependent clan.

This was the inevitable destiny between every Spiral Turtle and the Shell People race.

When their bodies gradually matured, the Spiral Turtles were already very enormous. At this time, they would begin searching for companions to reproduce with.

Subsequently, they would crawl ashore, come to the Abyss Second Layer, walk the path they had once walked, and come to a suitable place.

To lay eggs.

At this time, the Shell People clan that already regarded the Spiral Turtle as a god would fight to the death to protect them, until they finished laying eggs and returned to the ocean again.

And these Spiral Turtle eggs buried in the sand dunes would face the same predicament after birth, until after experiencing endless hardships, they returned to the sea.

This was the life cycle belonging to the Spiral Turtle clan…

This Spiral Turtle calmly recounted everything about its race, as if this could help it shift its attention and relieve its pain.

Its tone no longer held the initial hostility.

The pit was also dug about right. The Spiral Turtle kicked away the sand and sunk its entire body down, burying half of itself in the sand dune.

Although this Spiral Turtle had already let down its guard against Mo Ling, those Shell People were still vigilantly looking around.

“God! Where is the enemy?”

They were very anxious, still reinforcing the shell defensive fortifications on the Spiral Turtle’s back.

The Shell People also used the barnacles to fire white spherical cannonballs at the surrounding sand dunes.

After those white cannonballs hit the ground, they would instantly create large amounts of shells, fixing everything around them in place.

However, these Shell People couldn’t see Mo Ling and were just firing randomly.

Under the Shell People’s “efforts,” the surrounding sand dunes were all covered by white shells, solidifying and forming a large fixed area.

The Spiral Turtle seemed to be in great pain at this time, having no mind to manage the Shell People’s behavior, and completely ignored Mo Ling before it.

But its condition made the Shell People even more panicked, and they intensified their release of shell cannonballs, bombarding the surroundings indiscriminately.

Seeing this situation, Mo Ling didn’t know what to do.

The Spiral Turtle’s current condition reminded Mo Ling of sea turtles giving birth on Earth.

Sea turtles would crawl onto beaches when laying eggs. The time on shore was their weakest period, with many predators taking advantage of their vulnerability.

But sea turtles didn’t have these Shell People protecting them, nor were they as powerful as Spiral Turtles.

This desolate desert also didn’t seem to have any predators that could threaten the Spiral Turtle.

However, just as Mo Ling was thinking, a pleasant voice suddenly rang in his ears.

“About time.”

Startled by this suddenly appearing voice, Mo Ling quickly looked and saw a purple light orb appear in the air beside him.

The light orb was constantly pulling out purple gauze nets. Thin, gauze-like light curled outward in bursts, spreading bit by bit. In the blink of an eye, the purple gauze had covered the sky and earth.

The purple gauze seemed to be woven from some kind of hard material, yet also like transparent and smooth light, translucent and bright. This purple sky net covered the heavens but didn’t feel oppressive, only light and elegant.

Beautiful and melodious sounds came from within the purple gauze, the voice ethereal and illusory, seeming to move back and forth between the interwoven silk nets, now here, now there.

The windstorm kicked up by the Spiral Turtle also instantly stopped. The swirling sand fell like raindrops, as if knocked down grain by grain by this purple gauze.

“This is the Purple Gauze Creature that the Ancient Mineral Tribe mentioned!”

Mo Ling recognized it instantly.

He knew he wouldn’t be mistaken, because the Purple Gauze Creature’s appearance was far too distinctive.

After the Ancient Mineral Tribe had mentioned this creature, Mo Ling had also imagined its appearance in his mind.

He had thought the Ancient Mineral Tribe’s description was somewhat exaggerated, but seeing it with his own eyes, it truly was like a strange piece of gauze.

But Mo Ling had never imagined that this gauze would cover the sky and earth, with even the windstorm stopping for it, and the yellowish sand dunes all being dyed purple.

After the gauze spread out, the ethereal voice began echoing in the sky again.

“About time.”