I'm Trapped in the Block

Old Xu thought for a long while before shaking his head. He had never encountered a situation like this; it was as if his ability had simply stopped working.

It was like his intuitive gauge bypassed the Block entirely, pointing instead to the area around it.

It felt as if some kind of magnetic field was repelling his perception.

"Even the air has a danger level, but this relic has none. How fascinating," Old Xu said, marveling at the fact.

"This is the first time I’ve ever seen a relic like this. The Abyss truly contains everything imaginable."

After observing it for a long while, he finally sat back down to discuss the recent strange occurrences in Oasis City with Li Luo and Mo Ling.

According to Old Xu’s intuition, the danger level of the entire Oasis City was rising sharply. Only certain things consistently registered a negative value, which made him think his intuition was malfunctioning.

Conversely, the danger levels of the fountain and certain relics had begun to drop, their negative values growing ever larger.

"Could it be that Oasis City is about to face some kind of danger?" Li Xiangyi asked with concern.

At this, Old Xu’s expression grew even more grave. "We should start making preparations."

He looked at his teacup and muttered, "Even this teacup’s danger level has reached 11. If there’s really nothing wrong with my intuition, we could be facing a massive crisis that will engulf all of Oasis City."

As he spoke, Old Xu’s eyes suddenly flew open.

"Twelve."

"Thirteen..."

"..."

"One hundred and nine!"

Old Xu shot to his feet and scanned his surroundings, his eyes wide with shock.

’What’s wrong?’

Just as they were wondering, Old Xu suddenly yelled at Li Luo and Mo Ling, "Get out of here, now!"

At the same time, he was muttering incessantly, "It’s past 1,000! How could it possibly reach 1,000 here?"

Li Luo and Mo Ling instantly understood what he meant. The danger level in their immediate area was skyrocketing.

’Something terrible is about to happen!’

The group scrambled to run out of the courtyard, but they had barely taken a few steps when they heard a tremendous sound.

A massive fissure appeared between the tall buildings, instantly racing toward them.

’An earthquake?’

Not only that, but the horrifying fissure continued to spread, covering the entire courtyard in seconds, as if the very soil were bursting apart.

The soft earth shattered like a sheet of ice, and the violently shaking ground instantly knocked the fleeing group off their feet.

The fissure widened rapidly, swallowing the group as they lay on the ground.

’This is bad!’

Mo Ling quickly sent the Block flying down into the fissure, but it was too dark to see where the others had fallen.

The ground continued to shake, and all sorts of objects rained down chaotically from the fissure above.

With vision restricted, Mo Ling could only continue descending until finally spotting the others in a pool of water below.

They were lucky. Other than being a bit shaken up, no one was injured.

The tremors continued. Above them, the massive fissure shifted and then began to slowly close, sealing the group inside a dim waterway.

’It’s too dark.’

Just as Mo Ling was beginning to worry, a yellow light shot up into the air. A glowing shuttle tumbled about, leaving a yellow ribbon of light in its wake.

This ribbon of light stretched down to where the group was, brightly illuminating the pool.

The group quickly used the light to swim to the shore and regroup.

"It’s my relic, the Golden Silk. It can produce sunlight." Seeing everyone staring curiously at the ribbon of light, Li Xiangyi explained, a little embarrassed.

"A fine relic," Old Xu praised.

Soon enough, however, the light from the ribbon revealed the scene above the pool.

The fissure had sealed shut completely, leaving no trace. It was as if the earthquake had been a mere illusion.

"Where are we?" Li Xiangyi asked, looking around.

Old Xu surveyed their surroundings and answered with certainty, "This is the underground waterway. I never thought the earthquakes from down here would actually spread to Oasis City itself."

"Where does all this water come from?" Li Xiangyi asked, puzzled.

"Nobody knows. Oasis City has been around for a long time, but no one’s ever figured it out."

As he used a special sponge to soak the water from his clothes, Old Xu began to recount the history of Oasis City’s underground waterways.

...

When the first survey teams arrived at the Oasis, they had no idea these underground waterways existed. After all, no matter how lush an oasis, it’s still in the middle of a desert. It shouldn’t have such abundant water resources.

It wasn’t until some team members, chasing after the native creatures of the Oasis, stumbled into the depths that the existence of the waterways became widely known.

The waterways formed a vast, labyrinthine network. Initially, the survey team tried to map their layout using detection instruments.

But they soon gave up.

Because the waterways here are constantly shifting.

Periodically, small-scale earthquakes occur down here. These quakes reconfigure parts of the network, sometimes even creating all sorts of strange new geological formations.

There was no point in trying to understand a constantly changing network, and since the earthquakes didn’t affect the Oasis Monitoring Station, research into the waterways was soon abandoned.

To the people of Oasis City, the waterways also spell danger. Many terrifying creatures of the Oasis live down here, the Shell People being one of them.

To this day, the Shell People still hide in the waterways, launching periodic attacks against Oasis City. Their schemes are endless, which is why the city built its high walls.

Thus, the Shell People resort to destroying the farmland, greenhouses, and machinery outside the high walls, encasing everything in shells until it’s unusable. The people of Oasis City can do nothing about it.

What’s more, thanks to the shifting waterways, these Shell People can also sneak into the city through certain drainage systems.

They’re also incredibly clever. They avoid direct confrontation and don’t reveal their presence right away, choosing instead to hide in the city’s dark corners.

Once their numbers are great enough, they begin their covert sabotage, encasing all sorts of facilities in their carapaces. By the time people notice, the damage is already done.

But the Shell People are impossible to eradicate. The waterways are a sprawling labyrinth that stretches beneath the entire Oasis, and no one knows how deep they go. The motives of these Shell People are a complete mystery as well.

"I wonder if this earthquake was their doing."

As he said this, Old Xu sounded utterly resigned. He strongly suspected that this earthquake, one powerful enough to reach Oasis City, was a plot by the Shell People.

"They’ve pulled this kind of thing many times!"

The great Shell Dome was just one example.

The Shell People have done many other outrageous things:

They’ve dug tunnels to the foundations of the high walls, replacing the interiors with shells to corrode them from the inside out.

They’ve destroyed the Great Oasis Bridge in an attempt to sever Oasis City’s connection to the outside world.

They even used some kind of bird to create a rain of shells that covered the entire Oasis, blanketing Oasis City under a thick layer of them.

These acts have caused the people of Oasis City endless suffering.

"It has to be them!" Old Xu said, growing angrier as he spoke.