I'm Trapped in the Block

The elder of the Transparent Race leaned against a stone pillar, his face filled with dejection.

"I can’t believe we were saved by this weird thing," a soldier said, looking down at the Sheep-headed Man with a helpless expression.

From everyone’s perspective, it was this Sheep-headed Man who had worn down and killed the Prophet of a Hundred Phases.

The Sheep-headed Man was still fiddling with its rack and bleating nonstop. No one had any idea what it was doing.

"You will be punished by the Goddess!" the chief wailed in agony from his place on the rack.

The Sheep-headed Man ignored him, simply lifting the rack and starting to wander randomly around the Temple.

It carried the rack and circled the Block floating in the air. Every few steps, it would jam the rack into the ground.

It was as if it were performing some kind of ritual.

Having escaped the grafting of the Prophet of a Hundred Phases, the Sheep-headed Man was more energetic than ever.

The radius of its circling grew larger and larger until it reached the area behind the deity statue.

When the huge, cross-like rack was jammed into the floor tiles, a hollow sound echoed throughout the Temple.

’What is that sound?’

Mo Ling quickly maneuvered the Block forward, his vision passing through the floor tiles.

The Prophet of a Hundred Phases had previously burst out from underground, so the area beneath the floor was already riddled with a chaotic network of tunnels.

But now, beneath the tiles behind the statue, there was a man-made tunnel.

The Sheep-headed Man stomped on the floor tiles, shattering them and revealing a downward staircase to everyone.

Seeing this, the chief hurriedly shouted, "You can’t go down there! This is blasphemy against the Goddess! You’ll face retribution!"

Judging by his reaction, there had to be something important hidden down there.

"What’s down there?" Captain Su asked the elder.

The elder’s expression was also one of surprise, as if he had no idea such a passage existed in the Temple.

So, Captain Su cautiously led his squad to the front of the staircase, keeping a distance from the Sheep-headed Man.

The Sheep-headed Man paid the squad no mind, instead bleating something at the Block.

Li Luo, however, was quite bold. She walked up to the Sheep-headed Man and asked the chief on the rack, "Is there something hidden down there?"

The chief didn’t answer directly. Instead, like a riddler, he just kept repeating phrases like "Blasphemers of the Goddess will be punished."

His consciousness was fading, and it looked like he wouldn’t last much longer.

The Sheep-headed Man took the lead, hoisting the rack and heading down.

The soldiers looked at each other, unsure of what to do.

"Let’s go down and take a look," Captain Su said to his soldiers.

As expected, no one could resist the curiosity of a hidden passage.

Mo Ling followed the Sheep-headed Man downward with the Block, while the others trailed behind.

The passage wasn’t long. Before they knew it, the space opened up dramatically.

A subterranean Divine Hall, even grander and more vast than the Temple on the surface, appeared before them.

Tall, cylindrical stone pillars supported the underground space.

Exquisitely carved stone torches illuminated the entire Divine Hall brightly. There was no dust on the floor; it looked like it was cleaned regularly.

The Divine Hall was also filled with the same conical piles of pebbles they had seen before, but these piles were immense, like small hills.

Mo Ling flew the Block to one of the pebble hills and looked inside.

Many objects made of some imperishable material were buried under the hill, and they all looked ancient.

"Those who disrespect the ancestors shall suffer the punishment of falling rocks," the dying chief suddenly said.

’Ancestors?’

’Are these stone piles the ancestors’ tombs?’

Just then, Mo Ling saw that there seemed to be some characters engraved on the floor tiles beneath the stone pile, obscured by the heap of pebbles.

"Hundred Phases Team..."

’These are the tombs of the Hundred Phases Team!’

’No wonder the chief said this was related to the ancestors.’

’Why would the Hundred Phases Team be buried at the entrance of the Divine Hall?’

As Mo Ling was thinking this, he felt the ground tremble. The stones at the top of the pile suddenly collapsed as if under some control.

The stones rained down toward the Block and the Sheep-headed Man in front.

Mo Ling quickly dodged, but the Sheep-headed Man was buried by the stones rolling down from both sides.

The rack with the chief tied to it was thrown clear, landing on the ground ahead.

At that moment, the runes on the chief’s body began to glow again.

"Those who disrespect the ancestors shall suffer the punishment of falling rocks!"

’It seems he’s behind this again.’

A chainsaw sliced through the stones, and the Sheep-headed Man emerged as if nothing had happened. It picked up the rack and continued forward.

The stone pile had completely collapsed. The group behind them carefully followed, stepping over the fallen rocks.

What followed was a series of various traps, and the Sheep-headed Man triggered every single one.

But none of these traps could harm the Sheep-headed Man.

With the Sheep-headed Man clearing the way, the squad reached the center of the Divine Hall shaken but unharmed.

The sight before them left everyone stunned.

In the middle of the Divine Hall, there was a patch of lush vegetation.

The plants occupied a circular area of the Divine Hall, clearly distinct from the rest of the hall.

It was like a unique domain where these plants could only survive within its confines.

The plants also grew at an incredible speed. As soon as they sprouted from the cracks in the floor tiles, they grew rapidly, spreading outward.

Their color quickly changed from tender green to deep green, then immediately turned a withered yellow before falling to the ground and beginning to decay.

New plants would then grow from the decayed ones, starting a new cycle.

Some small flying insects also seemed trapped within this area, unable to fly past its edge.

Before long, they would die quickly, just like the plants, and new insects would emerge from among the vegetation.

The Sheep-headed Man walked straight into the area.

The chief on the rack, as if in a final burst of energy, shouted, "Don’t go in! The Goddess’s punishment will descend!"

The Sheep-headed Man paid him no mind and stepped into the area without looking back.

Its sheep-like hooves stepped onto the grassy ground within the area.

Mo Ling stopped the Block behind it, wanting to see what would happen.

’Is this another trap?’

However, the Sheep-headed Man was completely unaffected.

Instead, it was the chief on the rack whose mouth suddenly fell open.

He seemed to be screaming, but no sound came out.

He began to change.

Wrinkles appeared on his face, his skin slowly lost its elasticity, and faint spots began to appear on his body.

His silvery-white hair grew rapidly, then fell to the ground. On the arm that the Sheep-headed Man had cut, his fingernails grew at high speed, becoming curled and dry.

His muscles began to atrophy, his once-strong body instantly becoming gaunt and frail.

Slowly, he transformed from a middle-aged man into a withered old man.

But it wasn’t over. He slowly opened his eyes wide, let out a final breath from his open mouth, and the color drained completely from his face.

His body rapidly withered and decayed, the process even faster than the appearance of the transparent liquid.

Skin, muscle, organs—they all rotted away and disappeared in an instant.

In the end, only a skeleton remained.

The Sheep-headed Man, probably feeling its rack had become much lighter, stopped in its tracks and looked up, confused.

The skull on the rack stared emptily into the depths of the domain. The skeleton emitted a mournful, cracking sound as the bones continued to turn transparent.

A strange wind blew past, and the transparent skeleton could no longer hold itself together. It crumbled into dust and scattered.

A moment later, the dust settled.

The rack was empty...