I’m Trapped in a Cube - Chapter 252

The fog greatly hindered Bai Zhou’s navigation, but he still reached shore without major incident.

“How could there be such thick fog?”

Bai Zhou found it very strange. He had lived on the Chali Tribe island for a long time, and such situations were very rare.

Moreover, this fog was also very strange, carrying a rotten odor that was even somewhat pungent.

With doubts, Bai Zhou went onto the island and followed familiar paths back to the Chali Tribe village.

The island was still filled with fog, making even the roads somewhat muddy.

In the fog, the flickering figures of Chali Tribe members made Bai Zhou breathe a sigh of relief.

After experiencing what happened on the human island, Bai Zhou was extremely sensitive to any abnormal phenomena, even somewhat fearful.

Seeing the Chali Tribe members all living normally, Bai Zhou finally relaxed a little.

“It might just be extreme weather.”

After seeing that the Chali Tribe members were still the same as before, the last bit of doubt in Bai Zhou’s heart finally settled.

The Chali Tribe members, upon seeing Bai Zhou, all enthusiastically greeted him, pestering him with questions, exactly the same as before, with no changes at all.

“Teacher, you finally came back! When will you continue classes?”

“Could there be hallucinations again?”

Bai Zhou shook his head, looking at the root-carved figurine in his hands.

“Master?” Seeing Bai Zhou, his disciple was very surprised. “I didn’t expect you to come back so quickly!”

Bai Zhou nodded and took out the root-carved figurine. “Yes, I’m back. You should put this away properly.”

But the disciple didn’t immediately accept it. Instead, he looked at Bai Zhou with confusion, his gaze full of worry.

“Master, what’s wrong with you?”

“Some things happened on the island.”

Hearing his disciple’s question, Bai Zhou knew he must have sensed his emotions again.

Bai Zhou shook his head. He didn’t know how to explain either.

The disciple could see Bai Zhou’s disappointment and didn’t continue asking. Instead, he said mysteriously, “Teacher, let me secretly tell you—, I learned it.”

“I have so many things I don’t understand to ask…”

After exchanging pleasantries, Bai Zhou went to find his disciple.

“Learned what?” Bai Zhou was stunned.

“Learned it?”

Bai Zhou subconsciously thought he had misheard.

“Yes, I learned it,” the disciple said with an excited face. “I learned immortality!”

Immortality?

But everything in front of him was incredibly real. His disciple was looking at him hopefully, as if waiting for praise.

“Did you really learn it?” Bai Zhou asked incredulously. “Tell me about it, how did you learn it?”

The disciple nodded. Probably thinking Bai Zhou was testing him, he began explaining earnestly.

“That day, Master, you asked me to think about what was eternal. I thought for a long time and remembered that you told me the secret of immortality was already hidden in the knowledge you taught us.”

“After excluding many things, I thought of divination signs, there’s positive and negative, where there’s life there’s death. I suddenly had a breakthrough!”

“Isn’t death eternal!”

“When we consume medicine, we’re not consuming lifespan, but using medicine as a cost to enhance lifespan. But medicine itself isn’t eternal, so the life we gain in exchange can only have time limits. This is related to the age of the medicinal materials.”

“If we want immortality, this path won’t work.”

“So we can only use death as the cost to exchange for life. Death is eternal, so the life we gain in exchange would also be eternal. This is immortality!”

The disciple explained excitedly.

Seeing his disciple’s incredibly confident appearance, Bai Zhou was also stunned. He hadn’t expected that his casually made-up words could actually let his disciple comprehend something.

However, anyone could spout nonsense theories. Until immortality was actually achieved, it was all wishful thinking.

Looking at such an engrossed disciple, Bai Zhou couldn’t bear to tell him the truth.

Bai Zhou himself had once been very obsessed with immortality, but only through constant research and hitting walls would one realize it was all bubbles.

However, the process of summarizing knowledge and achieving thorough understanding wasn’t bubbles.

Maintaining curiosity about the unknown and constantly exploring was always good.

If not for alchemy, he wouldn’t know so many medicinal materials.

Without making immortal artifacts, he wouldn’t have created so many ingenious tools.

Thinking of this, Bai Zhou decided to give his disciple some guidance and encouragement, helping him avoid detours as much as possible.

Pretending to nod with relief, Bai Zhou affirmed, “Your thinking isn’t wrong, but have you thought about how to practice it?”

“I’ve practiced it!”

Practiced it?

Now Bai Zhou could no longer pretend to be profound and mysterious.

“How did you practice it?”

Bai Zhou wasn’t really curious, just concerned about whether his disciple had acted recklessly.

Among humans, cases of alchemists poisoning themselves to death by testing their own medicines weren’t few. He worried his disciple had really gone astray, which would make him as the master truly culpable.

Thinking of this, Bai Zhou was already somewhat regretting using immortality to fool his disciple.

“Master, come out, let me show you.”

Under Bai Zhou’s worried gaze, the disciple led him to the open space outside.

“Watch carefully!”

As soon as the words fell, the disciple’s body suddenly stiffened, then fell straight to the ground.

Seeing this scene, Bai Zhou immediately rushed over.

Immediately, something transparent like a water drop floated out from the body, slowly drifting toward the sky.

“This is a soul?”

A weak voice came from within the tree roots, “Master, I’ve achieved immortality…”

Realizing something was wrong, Bai Zhou directly grabbed the tree roots that had originally been coiled around him and swung them toward the soul that kept floating upward.

After the tree roots swung over, the soul in the air disappeared.

Before long, the disciple lying on the ground also slowly awakened.

“Master, I’m back.”

As soon as he spoke, Bai Zhou slapped him on the forehead.

“You call that immortality?”

“Going to heaven is immortality?”

The disciple lowered his head, not daring to speak loudly, “But it really can achieve immortality, as long as I maintain that state continuously…”

“How is that different from being dead?”

“Dead people don’t float to the sky.”

“…”

Bai Zhou was speechless.

After calming his emotions, Bai Zhou earnestly advised, “Don’t do this again next time. Humans haven’t achieved immortality either. Those are all vain pursuits. Your master doesn’t know how either, I was just fooling you.”

Looking at his disciple, Bai Zhou asked with concern, “When you were floating in the sky, what did you feel?”

“No feeling, just very free.”

“Without the constraints of a physical body, it’s normal for souls to be free. Besides that, was there nothing else? Did you feel uncomfortable anywhere? And now that you’ve returned to your body, do you feel anything wrong anywhere?”

Bai Zhou looked at his dizzy disciple with great worry.

The disciple felt around for a moment, shook his head, but seeing Bai Zhou’s scrutinizing gaze, nodded again.

“What’s wrong exactly?” Bai Zhou asked anxiously.

“I’m a bit hungry.”