I’m Trapped in a Cube - Chapter 29

“Is what I’m doing really right?”

The chieftain sat on the ground, muttering to himself.

“I lied to everyone, created a totem, fabricated a faith, used everyone, just to satisfy my own goals, right?”

Mo Ling listened to the chieftain’s fragmented confession, gradually piecing together the life of this Transforming Tree.

……

The chieftain was different from the others.

From birth, he wasn’t in the same dazed state as the other Transforming Trees.

While the others wandered mindlessly toward the Great Hollow Tree, he already knew how to avoid wild beasts.

The price of awareness was bearing the pain it brought.

He watched his people get devoured defenselessly by beasts, feeling only anger and helplessness.

Many Transforming Trees are born, and even if most are eaten, some still reach the Great Hollow Tree safely.

It was a delicate balance.

But the chieftain couldn’t stand it anymore. He woke up a clueless companion and told them their mission was to save the suffering Transforming Trees.

Two weren’t enough, so the chieftain kept growing his team.

He found a safe place by the birth forest and built a tribe.

He randomly created a square totem, wanting the Transforming Trees to become sharp-edged, to know how to resist.

Slowly, the Qifang Tribe was formed.

The Transforming Trees began waking new companions, telling them of their people’s plight.

Gathered together, they finally had the strength to resist.

They used traps and tools to kill some weaker enemies, which encouraged the chieftain.

But it didn’t last. The difference in strength meant every battle brought heavy losses.

Watching his people die, the chieftain grew afraid, regretting the path he’d chosen.

He didn’t know if it was better for more to die resisting, or more to die wandering aimlessly.

Resistance had a price.

He found his simple-minded companions never doubted him, believing everything he said.

If he told them to fight the enemies to the death, they would.

If he told them to form a wall with their bodies, they would.

Simple-minded, but pure.

The Transforming Trees originally just wanted to reach the Great Hollow Tree, but the chieftain told them what they were doing was for future generations.

Hearing the vision that newborns could reach the Great Hollow Tree safely, the tribe gave up their own longing and followed him without hesitation.

The chieftain often questioned whether he was right, doubting his actions.

“Holy Relic, did you really come?”

He turned and stroked the cube.

He hadn’t expected the cube to really save the tribe-he thought it was just a similar-looking object to boost morale.

But it actually could save them!

Hearing the chieftain’s confession, Mo Ling finally understood why everything felt so coincidental.

It was all a lie-the totem, the Holy Relic, just a fabrication, and he’d been using the cube to keep up the lie.

Mo Ling felt the chieftain’s helplessness.

To lie to your own people for so long-it must be agony.

“Holy Relic, why did you come so late?”

The chieftain took out a strange spine from his pack.

He held it in his hands, muttering, “I thought I’d have to use this.”

Mo Ling looked at the spine, full of questions.

What was this?

“Must change.”

The chieftain suddenly spoke those three words.

Mo Ling was shocked, unable to believe what he’d heard.

God’s Voice?

Though Mo Ling had never heard it, he remembered clearly what Li Luo had said.

She’d heard those exact words in the Great Hollow Tree.

Was the chieftain the source of God’s Voice?

Could it be another coincidence? Mo Ling found it hard to connect that terrifying voice to the weak Transforming Tree before him.

The chieftain muttered, “Holy Relic, the abilities of Transforming Trees are too weak. From my short life, I’ve learned that the more you resist, the more you find the limits of our power-unless you become another species.”

He raised the spine, eyes shining, then looked at the cube and slowly let go.

“But compared to the Holy Relic, that’s just a crooked path.”

He carefully placed the spine on the offering table in front of the cube.

“No matter where you come from, to me, you are the Holy Relic of the Qifang Tribe.”

He kowtowed a few times to the cube, then stood up, his fighting spirit restored.

He slowly walked down from the altar, disappearing from Mo Ling’s sight.

The guards surrounded the cube again, as if nothing had happened.

Mo Ling’s mind kept echoing with the chieftain’s words.

But no matter how much he thought, he couldn’t find an answer.

“I still know too little.”

The altar’s fire flickered, the cube lay in the center, unmoving.

“I’d better worry about myself.”

He still didn’t even understand his own situation.

“I wonder how Li Luo is now.”

Mo Ling felt stifled. At least with Li Luo, he could communicate-now he truly had no one to talk to.

He teleported the spine from the offering table inside and studied it for a while, but found nothing special.

But judging by the chieftain’s behavior, it seemed to be a relic?

He wondered if it was related to God’s Voice.

The day’s battles had left Mo Ling exhausted. He set the spine aside and drifted off to sleep to the crackling of the flames.

……

Early the next morning, Mo Ling awoke to find himself being carried by a group of Transforming Trees to the tribe’s podium.

The chieftain was rallying the tribe for battle.

“As long as we eliminate our last enemy, our mission will be complete!”

“The Cave Demon is our greatest threat, lurking in the Great Hollow Tree, constantly hunting our newborns.”

“It has defiled our sacred Great Hollow Tree!”

“The arrival of the Holy Relic is a sign-it’s time to destroy it!”

The chieftain looked confidently at the cube, and the Transforming Trees cheered.

After the speech, the tribe prepared for battle, carrying the cube toward the Great Hollow Tree.

With all the enemies along the way already eliminated by Mo Ling, the road from the tribe to the Great Hollow Tree was clear.

The Transforming Trees still habitually kept watch, but soon realized there was no longer any need to be cautious.

“Praise the Holy Relic!”

When they reached the edge of the Great Hollow Tree, every Transforming Tree’s face was filled with yearning.

But a roar startled them all.

Hearing that familiar howl, Mo Ling was shocked.

It was the creature that had sent him plunging into the depths of the Great Hollow Tree!