I'm Trapped in the Block

"Let me try."

Just as Mo Ling thought the "means of escape" Old Xu mentioned was to have Block fight their way out, Li Xiangyi spoke up.

"I’m not sure if this will work." She looked very uncertain.

She reached for the shuttles on her back. One of them lit up and shot into the air, then began to circle her. White silk threads shot out from the shuttle at high speed, wrapping around her body.

As the shuttle spun, the silk threads rapidly cocooned her, turning her into a "chrysalis."

When the shuttle stopped spinning, the silk wrapped around Li Xiangyi began to shrink and harden before suddenly bursting open.

Standing inside was a Shell person!

But the Shell person still had many shuttles stuck to its back, with different colored threads wound around them.

This Shell person was making CLACK-CLACK sounds, like shells knocking together.

Mo Ling didn’t know what Li Xiangyi was trying to do, but he was surprised to find he could actually understand the Shell people’s language.

The noisy clatter of shells automatically resolved into a language he could understand.

Li Xiangyi’s meaning was for Li Luo and Old Xu not to resist.

After she conveyed this, the shuttle with the white silk thread wound its way toward the two men, turning them into chrysalises as well.

When the two new chrysalises burst open, two more Shell people appeared, staring at each other in bewilderment.

The Shell person that was Li Xiangyi reached out and retracted the ribbon of light from mid-air.

"It worked! I’ve turned you all into Shell people. You should be able to see things in the dark now, right?" Li Xiangyi asked.

Old Xu nodded. "What in the world is this ability?"

He looked at his own shell-covered hands, somewhat surprised.

"The white silk thread can turn people into other creatures, but they have to be creatures I’ve seen before. I’d only seen phantasmal images of Shell people previously, but it seems to have passed the check," Li Xiangyi said, pleasantly surprised.

"So you’re saying we’re now completely indistinguishable from normal Shell people? We can even understand their language?" Old Xu was deeply shocked.

"Yes." Li Xiangyi nodded. "In fact, we’re speaking the Shell people’s language right now."

"If we’d known about an ability like this sooner, Oasis City wouldn’t have had to go to all the trouble of researching the Shell people." Old Xu inspected his new body, sighing with emotion.

Li Xiangyi felt a little embarrassed by the praise.

"Now that we can blend in with the Shell people, we should be able to get out."

Although they had become Shell people, these three were very peculiar. They were wearing clothes, carrying backpacks, and had their relics with them.

The group looked around. Their transformed visual organs could indeed see in the darkness.

The graveyard was packed with a dense crowd of Shell people. However, they seemed to be confused about why the light had suddenly vanished and hadn’t noticed the small group.

"Let’s go now, while we can," Old Xu urged.

But the moment they moved, they saw the newborn Shell people begin to turn their heads and look at them.

But the Shell people soon stopped staring at the group. They didn’t seem to understand the significance of the clothes and backpacks the three were wearing.

It was a false alarm.

These Shell people seemed not to have fully processed the information from the mirage qi. Their intelligence was still low, and they didn’t suspect their three unusual "companions."

The group continued toward the edge, only to discover that the entire graveyard was filled with dazed Shell people. After running out of the light, they just stood motionless in the darkness.

Just as they thought they could get out smoothly, a shout captured the attention of all the Shell people, startling the group who had been sneaking toward the exit.

"Go! Let’s go immobilize the outsiders!"

Hearing this shout, all the Shell people instantly surged into a tight mass, pressing the three who were trying to leave together.

A Shell person standing on a high pile of shells began to command its companions.

"This time, we won’t go to the outsiders’ fortress first. We’ll start by seizing their food transport vehicles, hiding in the food to get into the warehouse, and then immobilizing all the food in the warehouse."

"Their food warehouse is near the cafeteria. We can place time-delayed diffusion shells in the food. After they eat it, they’ll be immobilized after a while."

"This time, we need to disperse as quickly as possible so the humans don’t discover us. Avoid the core areas where there are more outsiders. We can hide in the residential buildings. If we immobilize the outsiders in one room, we can hide in that room for a long time..."

This Shell person leader patiently explained various infiltration strategies. Even though it was also a newborn, it spoke with perfect clarity and logic, suggesting a great variance in intelligence among the Shell people.

Most of the Shell people below were dazed and unresponsive; only the leader up above seemed animated.

Hearing the plan to poison the cafeteria and invade the residential buildings, Old Xu grew extremely anxious. He wanted to push his way out and hurry back to Oasis City to report.

But the dazed Shell people were packed as tight as stones, trapping the group in the middle with no way to push through.

The leader’s infiltration methods grew more and more insidious. It even planned to have some Shell people go outside the city to destroy roads and crops, which was something Old Xu found even more unacceptable.

He finally couldn’t take it anymore. He raised his hand and shouted, "We can’t do that!"

With that shout, all the Shell people parted to make way for him, suddenly turning to look at him.

Even the leader on the pile of shells jumped down, came over to Old Xu, and pushed him up onto the pile. Then, the leader itself instantly became dazed, standing foolishly below.

In an instant, all the Shell people were staring at Old Xu in unison. He had suddenly become the center of attention.

He hadn’t expected his shout to lead to this outcome. He stood frozen on the pile of shells.

Below, Li Luo and Li Xiangyi were also shocked by Old Xu’s actions, not understanding what he was trying to do. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Fortunately, Old Xu quickly calmed down and got into character.

"My compatriots, we cannot do this!"

"Our ancestors, for generations, have done much for our god. They have always been trying to immobilize the outsiders. But will doing so truly save our god?"

He first threw a question to the Shell people below.

The question indeed bought a lot of time. The Shell people were instantly lost in thought. It seemed they had never once questioned the purpose or feasibility of their ancestors’ constant attacks on the humans.

Finally, one Shell person answered, "But our ancestors have always attacked the outsiders, so we must do so as well."

Old Xu looked at it and questioned, "Why must we do what our ancestors did? Is there any meaning in what we do? Even if we immobilize all the outsiders, will our god be saved?"

Old Xu continued to throw out questions relentlessly.

The Shell people would seriously ponder each question, but their limited thinking would cause them to freeze up, unable to answer.

However, after thinking for a long time, that Shell person finally gave its answer:

"I don’t know."

"We’ll know once we do it."