I’m Trapped in a Cube - Chapter 281

Bai Zhou continued to smash the stone in his hand against the giant boulder.

The tremors grew more and more intense.

Not only that, Mo Ling suddenly noticed that, under Bai Zhou’s pounding, the previously immovable boulder was actually changing.

The boulder was slowly getting bigger!

At first, the change was slight, but soon the rate of expansion increased rapidly.

At the same time, the character for “immortal (仙)” that Mo Ling had carved also swelled along with the boulder, becoming unimaginably huge. The small indentations Mo Ling had once cut out now turned into terrifying chasms.

The once warm sunlight was instantly blocked by the boulder.

Very soon, everything Mo Ling could see was gradually enveloped in the boulder’s shadow.

Those things that had already broken apart were being rapidly swallowed by these bottomless chasms.

Mo Ling could no longer see the shape of the immortal character; he only felt that those enormous chasms were pressing down on the entire world.

The sky had lost all light, leaving only a web of intersecting cracks.

Mo Ling stared in disbelief for a long time before he slowly accepted it.

Mo Ling also fell into confusion, his senses thrown into chaos.

This place seems like that “sea” I saw before in the fish swarm’s memories.

Such an absurd thought suddenly appeared in Mo Ling’s mind.

“Did I become immortal too?”

Just as Mo Ling realized this, he was swallowed by the encroaching shadow, buried in the bottomless chasm.

Even though the outside world was being devoured by chasms and there was no more light, within this liquid everything was still a deep blue, pure and beautiful like sapphire.

Here, everything was so calm.

Mo Ling guessed he might have fallen into one of those things that had broken apart.

He could no longer tell if it was the chasm pressing down on him, or if he had fallen into endless darkness, he just felt surrounded by a void of darkness.

“Where is this?”

Shadows were being swept into the chasm called “immortal (仙).”

All around, there was only the sound of wind. Mo Ling vaguely felt many broken things whistling past him.

Mo Ling felt like he had seen this scene somewhere before.

Unconsciously, he was being led astray by Bai Zhou’s strange words.

The whole world was becoming part of the immortal character!

Bai Zhou wanted to make the whole world immortal!

That sea of characters.

He quickly remembered.

It wasn’t until Mo Ling suddenly fell into a soft liquid that he snapped out of the chaos.

As soon as he arrived, Mo Ling noticed something strange.

This was that sea!

Because that sea was so special, and Mo Ling had “personally” seen it, it wasn’t hard to recognize.

This seemed to be the sea from Bai Zhou’s memories, because as everything else broke apart, it too fell into the chasm.

As a memory, this sea was naturally pure—just like the one in the world of characters, without any impurities.

But why would the sea in Bai Zhou’s memory become the sea where the fish swarm was born?

Could it be that time was acting up again?

Since Bai Zhou’s world was already disconnected from reality, Mo Ling had no idea whether time here could correspond to time in reality.

Or maybe this wasn’t that sea, just something very similar?

While Mo Ling was still puzzled, he saw a figure appear in the distance.

That person was sitting in the water for no reason, fiddling with something.

Mo Ling hurried closer, only to realize it was Bai Zhou.

At this moment, Bai Zhou was muttering to himself:

“Disciple, do you know why I taught you ‘Free and Easy Wandering’ first?”

“Because, that is my dream, to roam freely between heaven and earth.”

“But, disciple, I don’t know if that Kunpeng who flies to the sky is truly free…”

“It’s so heavy. It has to ride the wind, bear up the blue sky, get wrapped up in the dust of the world, entangled by the breath of countless living things.”

“If the Kunpeng doesn’t bear these things, it will never be able to fly by riding the wind. This is its unavoidable price.”

“Would the Kunpeng, up in the sky, often see the suffering and corpses below? Would it, like me, often smell the scent of burning in the air?”

“Disciple, do you think the Kunpeng cares about these things? Would those souls also cling to it, locking up its heart, so it can never be free? What should it do then?”

Bai Zhou rambled on, his face full of confusion.

Mo Ling wanted to reach out and wake him, but his hand hovered in the air, never coming down.

Bai Zhou didn’t seem to want to wake up.

“Disciple, if one really became immortal, would anything still have meaning? Two thousand two hundred years or a single moment, it seems there’s no difference.”

After Bai Zhou asked this, he fell silent.

His hands alternated, as if kneading something. The confusion on his face gradually faded, becoming clear and calm.

“Disciple, you all keep asking me what the immortal in my heart is like.”

“To be honest, I don’t really know. I used to think the Kunpeng was immortal, that the Great Tree was immortal, but after the disaster in the clan, the immortal in my heart ceased to exist.”

“But now, I think I understand a little.”

“Disciple, you were right, the carefree little fish is the immortal. It isn’t troubled by anything, doesn’t fly high, and won’t be entangled by the souls below…”

“They were right. I just want to run away. I’ve always wanted to run away, to run far, far away. I even wanted to pretend I didn’t know anything, hadn’t seen anything, but I’ve already seen it.”

“I am that Kunpeng flying in the sky, seeing everything clearly…”

In Bai Zhou’s hands, something changed, he actually kneaded out a little fish.

“I’m going to run now. I want to become a little fish who knows nothing, carefree and free.”

Bai Zhou cradled that lively Little small fry in his hands—the freest thing in his memory, and the last thing he created for this world.

“Forgive me, disciple. I’m running away. I’m sorry.”

“I won’t be the Kunpeng anymore…”

With Bai Zhou’s trembling words, his figure began to blur, gradually merging with the deep blue sea.

Very soon, he vanished without a trace, and the Little small fry in his hands fell into the sea.

The Little small fry wiggled clumsily and began to swim.

It flicked its tail, seeming not to notice Mo Ling nearby. After a moment’s pause, it swam straight into the distance.

Seeing this familiar scene, Mo Ling was instantly jolted.

“This is the birth of the fish swarm!”

“Bai Zhou was actually the source of the fish swarm?”

Watching the Little small fry swim farther and farther away, a sudden impulse surged in Mo Ling’s heart, he wanted to kill it.

But, with the teleportation box aimed at the Little small fry, Mo Ling just couldn’t bring himself to do it.

He hesitated.

“Would killing it really be better?”

A question appeared in Mo Ling’s mind.

In an instant, everything that had happened on Merman Island began to replay rapidly in Mo Ling’s mind:

Two thousand two hundred years of half-dream, half-awake.

Two thousand two hundred years of hatred.

Two thousand two hundred years of civilization’s struggle.

…

The fish swarm trapped on the island, the Chali Tribe, the newly born mermen, the never-dispersing thick fog, and the moon that repeated over and over again.

All of this, like shackles, trapped Mo Ling.

His thoughts were in chaos.

In the silent sea, Mo Ling seemed to hear Bai Zhou’s rambling once more:

“I am that Kunpeng flying in the sky, seeing everything clearly…”