I'm Trapped in the Block

A few Fake Fishmen approached the bait box, summoned a current of water, and gave it a hard push from a distance. The bait box, which had been surrounded by the white eels, tipped over the edge.

The dense swarm of white eels followed the bait box, plummeting toward the sea’s surface.

Soon, with everyone working together, the remaining white eels in the sky were dealt with.

Once the last white eel was trapped inside an Immortal Wood Ball, everyone present finally breathed a sigh of relief. Many of the Fake Fishmen leaned against the crates, collapsing from exhaustion.

They looked up at the Block and the thin veil in the sky, their faces filled with relief.

After calling Xiaozhi back, Li Luo walked to the edge of the platform, which was now covered in the small balls. She picked one up and observed it curiously.

But she couldn’t seem to make sense of it.

"What is this, exactly?" she asked Jeff, who was beside her, his gills still flapping incessantly.

Hearing this, Mo Ling perked up their ears.

"It’s a cage. A cage for catching Shijiu."

"Shijiu?" Li Luo asked, confused.

"Right. Those fish from just now, they’re called Shijiu," Jeff explained, leaning against a crate in his exhaustion.

He then began to slowly explain it all to Li Luo.

...

As the name implies, a Shijiu—an "Eater of Old"—is a creature that eats what is "old."

The Fishmen noticed these creatures long ago, because Shijiu always lingered in schools around Fishman Island.

Shijiu are very docile creatures by nature. They don’t attack ships, nor do they hunt other beings.

They just drift endlessly through the sea, eating rotten animal carcasses and debris floating on the surface.

There are many creatures like this in the sea, and the Fishmen didn’t bother to categorize them all. At first, they just thought it was an ordinary type of fish.

That was until they discovered that the rotten animal carcasses they ate came "back to life."

Their once-rotten flesh became fresh again, even capable of conditioned reflexes, but they were like soulless husks, unresponsive to the outside world.

The debris eaten by the Shijiu would also revert to its original appearance, as if time itself had been reversed.

After discovering this, the Fishmen realized just how miraculous these "ordinary" fish lingering around Fishman Island truly were.

It was also then that they found records of the Shijiu in the ancient Fishman texts, though they had never connected the descriptions to the actual creatures before.

The reason these Shijiu lingered near Fishman Island was because of the peculiar fog on the island.

Shijiu prefer food that has rotted to the extreme, and the island’s fog could do just that.

Any food brought to Fishman Island would quickly spoil and rot, so the Fishmen themselves didn’t dare to store any.

The Shijiu roamed in schools along the edges of Fishman Island, devouring the rotten plants and animal carcasses washed down by the waves.

After discovering the Shijiu, the Fishmen began to use these creatures to make old, rotten things new again. That’s why they were always trading with humans for various secondhand goods.

Then they’d go to the Shijiu for an "exchange of old for new."

The Shijiu were not picky and would eat anything, but their favorite was still all kinds of rotten food.

It was during this process of gradually utilizing the Shijiu that the Fishmen discovered the creatures could leave the sea.

But why didn’t they come onto the island to forage?

There were clearly more resources on land.

The Fishmen were also puzzled at first.

Until they discovered that the Shijiu seemed to be terrified of Fishman Island and didn’t dare set foot on it.

"Because of the Immortal Wood on the island," Jeff explained.

Life finds a way. The creatures of Fishman Island, under the long-term corrosion of the fog, had more or less evolved some ability to resist decay, with certain plants being particularly outstanding.

This even led to the emergence of a unique species—Immortal Wood.

It was a type of tree completely unaffected by the fog. Its appearance was unremarkable, but it could survive without a care on the decay-filled Fishman Island.

Its wood was very hard. Even after being cut down, it wouldn’t rot, but would remain in its original state indefinitely.

Immortal Wood was plentiful, grew quickly, and had extremely vigorous life force. It was everywhere in certain areas of Fishman Island.

They were like banyan trees, with aerial roots spreading everywhere, making it impossible to know where they originated. If left unchecked for a while, they would grow all over the place.

Because it was common and effective, the ancient Fishman texts were made from this material.

As for the Shijiu, what they feared wasn’t anything else but the Immortal Wood that was all over the island.

This Immortal Wood grew in the mountains, in the crevices of rocks, and by the sea. It was extremely tenacious.

When a Shijiu got close to Immortal Wood, it would be sucked into it, unable to get out.

The Fishmen were also very surprised by this phenomenon at first.

But they found the reason in the ancient texts:

The Shijiu’s feeding action doesn’t occur the moment it enters a prey’s body, but the moment it leaves.

The ancient texts recorded that the Shijiu stole something akin to the "trace of time" from their prey’s body, which is what caused the decay to disappear.

This is a passive ability; the Shijiu can’t control its actions, which is why they appear to be so indiscriminate.

They eat anything. They have no choice.

As long as a Shijiu enters and then exits, it will inevitably complete its feeding process.

But with Immortal Wood, the Shijiu met their match.

Because Immortal Wood has no "trace of time."

Its method of resisting decay is to simply eliminate the concept of time itself. No backward, no forward. It makes no distinction.

But it is precisely this simple, crude ability that traps any Shijiu that enters it, never to escape.

The trace of time is like a magnetic pole; it has a positive and a negative.

A Shijiu is like a living magnet that can switch its own polarity. It uses attraction to enter its prey’s body, steals the "magnetism," and then uses repulsion to leave.

After losing its magnetism and being affected by the repulsion, the prey experiences a "reversal."

Every object has a trace of time, just as every magnet has poles.

But Immortal Wood is different.

It’s just a piece of iron.

Once it sticks, it can never get off.

So, after learning this lesson the hard way, the Shijiu don’t dare to come onto the island casually. They only dare to hide around Fishman Island, eating scraps.

Unless the prey is right on the shore, and the temptation is great enough, they’ll risk their lives.

"That’s why these little balls can be used as ’cages,’" Jeff explained.

After hearing Jeff’s explanation, realization dawned on Mo Ling.

’So even though they’re called "cages," the balls don’t have any real capturing function. They just exploit the counter-relationship between the two. A magnet can attract iron, and conversely, iron can trap a magnet. It’s too clever.’

Li Luo was also stunned after listening. "How did you guys figure all this out?"

Jeff scratched his fish-like head. "Actually, the ancient texts record the traits of all sorts of creatures. It’s just that some descriptions are brief, and others don’t quite match reality. We just made use of that knowledge."

’The ancient Fishman texts truly are a treasure trove.’