I’m Trapped in a Cube - Chapter 73

Mo Ling was a little startled by Shi Beng’s words and quickly checked the cube, finding it was the same as always.

“Where has it been replaced? Isn’t it just the same as before?”

But Shi Beng still looked terrified.

Thinking of Shi Beng’s earlier description of Vein Mutation Disease, Mo Ling came up with a way to prove he wasn’t infected.

While Li Luo and Shi Beng were talking, he slowly descended, and when Shi Beng’s mood had stabilized and his guard was down, he suddenly accelerated and rushed over.

By the time Shi Beng noticed the cube and tried to run, the cube had already reached him, bumping right into him before he could react.

Pressing Shi Beng tightly against the metal wall, Mo Ling even rubbed the cube against him, then quickly flew far away.

After being rubbed like that, Shi Beng began trembling all over, the ripples on his body oscillating faster than ever.

He stared blankly at his body, standing there like an immobile stone, not knowing what to do.

His expression froze in a dazed state, arms spread in shock.

He seemed to want to separate the part that had been touched, as before, and his joints started to tremble again, but this time was different-Mo Ling had rubbed him all over.

He didn’t know what to do.

Mo Ling watched Shi Beng with a bit of mischief, his goal already achieved.

Shi Beng’s hoarse, rough voice was mixed with the roar of the sound of metal and stone, as if he wanted to say something.

But he stammered and froze, too scared to speak.

“He won’t be scared into a real problem, will he?” Mo Ling was a little worried.

But after a while, Shi Beng’s stiff body finally began to move.

He cautiously touched the places he’d been rubbed, then quickly drew his hand away as if pricked by a needle.

After repeating this many times, he stood still, carefully observing his body.

No abnormalities appeared; he was still black basalt.

No multicolored mineral veins appeared, nor any hidden spots.

Apart from the fear-induced ripples surging through him, everything was normal.

Shi Beng stayed stiff for a long time before the trembling gradually subsided, and he began to thoroughly check himself, as if he wanted to crack himself open.

After a while, the ripples finally stabilized and the fear faded.

Shi Beng returned to his calm state, showing no sign of his earlier panic.

“Friend, please don’t scare people like that again,” he said flatly, looking mature and composed.

Watching his quick change of face, Mo Ling was secretly delighted.

“Now he should believe I’m not infected, right?”

Sometimes you just have to use drastic measures.

Once calm, Shi Beng no longer stuttered and didn’t mind Mo Ling’s earlier scare at all.

It was as if nothing had happened.

“Such a good temperament,” Mo Ling thought. These mineral tribes don’t get angry or hold grudges; once the fear is over, it’s all in the past.

After a while, the atmosphere completely relaxed.

Seeing Shi Beng finally stop panicking, Li Luo took the opportunity to ask him about the route out of the Needle Stone Forest.

Even if the road was blocked, they could just fly over.

“We’re still far from the exit. We have to go through a cavern first to get closer,” Shi Beng replied.

Hearing this, Mo Ling became interested in the caverns beneath the Needle Stone Forest.

Driven by curiosity, he wanted to see what was really happening among the mineral tribes.

Coincidentally, Li Luo glanced at the cube as if to ask for its opinion.

Mo Ling gave a slight tremor in response.

The two were already in sync.

Shi Beng seemed quite happy to show them around, though his expression showed no emotion.

He led Li Luo to a hidden spot behind some stone pillars, where several pillar roots naturally formed a cluster.

In the center of several disc-shaped pillar roots was a hidden entrance, invisible unless you squeezed into the middle of the pillars.

But that wasn’t all. Following the entrance down, there was a slanting stone fissure, with only faint sunlight shining down, making it very dim.

The fissure was like an ordinary crack in the rock, extending downward with no end in sight.

But as they went deeper, the fissure widened, becoming very spacious, like walking down a grand avenue.

Going down, passing through the entrance, a huge space opened up before them.

Li Luo was about to take out a light, but was interrupted by the sight before her.

There were many light holes in the ceiling, beams of light illuminating the cavern.

Not only that, but the cave walls were studded with colorful minerals, which reflected the sunlight throughout the cave like rivers of color.

These stones gleamed like glass in the sunlight, their colors ever-changing, making the once-dark cave dazzling and dreamlike.

It was like a band of colored lights, fantastical.

“That’s fluorite,” Shi Beng explained when he saw Li Luo’s interest. “These stones fill the caverns, everywhere you look.”

Li Luo murmured, “Fluorite.”

“That’s right,” Shi Beng nodded.

“The Fluorite Tribe are born in these veins. They’re a common mineral tribe, and because they provide light, the rare minerals don’t destroy their veins.”

So that’s why, Mo Ling thought, glancing at Shi Beng.

It seemed these mineral tribes needed light to survive.

Mo Ling floated to the cave wall to examine the fluorite veins.

He found the fluorite was extremely pure, brightly colored and transparent, so the sunlight produced a very strong fluorescence.

What a strange environment.

On the surface, Mo Ling had occasionally glimpsed flashes beneath the ground, thinking they were just cracks between stones. He hadn’t expected such a hidden world below.

The space was enormous; Mo Ling’s vision couldn’t cover it all, so he had to move around to observe everything.

The ground was flat and wide, with many paths leading off in all directions, showing signs of frequent travel. The cave walls also bore marks of human excavation, as if the passages had been expanded.

Every so often, there was a fork in the passage, each leading to a huge cavern whose destination was unknown.

“If you didn’t have a guide, you’d definitely get lost in here,” Mo Ling thought.

Shi Beng was very familiar with the area and began introducing it.

This cavern had once been a battlefield, but as the war died down, it became desolate and empty.

When there was no war, most mineral tribes stayed in their own veins, which were very hidden and close to the upper parts of the pillars, hard to find.

Those wandering outside were mostly deserters like Shi Beng, or exiled Vein Mutation Disease mineral tribes.

But these were rare, so there were hardly any mineral tribes moving about in these tunnels now.

As he spoke, Shi Beng led Li Luo deeper into the winding passage.