I'm Trapped in the Block

Everything that happened next was exactly as the previous ghost had described.

The war spreading through the Thorn Stone Forest began to affect the World Pillar, and during one battle, its stone wall was shattered.

A huge hole extended from the outside into the Great Rift, causing many of the clueless Natural Gas Race to drift out.

Most of the Natural Gas Race had no desire to explore the world and instead continued to loaf around in the Great Rift. This meant that when the crisis arrived, they lacked the knowledge to escape.

Who would have thought that the once-forbidden knowledge could have actually saved them when the World Pillar was breached?

Only those of the Natural Gas Race who were knowledgeable enough to hide in concealed crevices, or who had communicated enough with the outside world to understand that turning into a liquid state would keep them from floating away, survived.

This incident left the entire Natural Gas Race severely weakened, and their numbers plummeted.

And so, they called this the "Great Extinction Event."

It was from the Great Extinction Event onward that the Natural Gas Race began to seek ways to protect their World Pillar.

But soon after, the world-burning fire that would destroy the World Pillar descended.

Just as the previous ghost had said, the incident began with a simple skirmish. Two members of the Mineral Race from different factions started fighting at the base of the World Pillar.

Then a stone blade plunged into a crevice, and sparks flew everywhere.

As he spoke of this, the peculiar ghost was clearly terrified by the memory.

That great fire didn’t engulf the entire World Pillar at once. Instead, it started from the ignition point and gradually spread through all the crevices.

The crevices at the bottom were quickly filled with flames, which then burned upward, consuming the space within the World Pillar.

Although the Natural Gas Race were slackers, the fear of fire was etched into their hearts.

But they had never experienced a major fire before, let alone carried out an orderly evacuation.

The Great Rift became a pillar of fire rising from below, which then spread outward and incinerated the entire World Pillar.

The Natural Gas Race. Not a single one was spared.

However, when the world-burning fire died down and the temperature of the World Pillar dropped, they were shocked to find that they were somehow still alive.

But by then, they were no longer the Natural Gas Race. They now existed in the form of carbon dioxide.

It took them a long time to adapt to their new bodies and begin living again as carbon dioxide.

By this point, the World Pillar was no longer habitable, so these former members of the Natural Gas Race began to leave it in search of new stone pillars.

Thus, they scattered and made their homes in different stone pillars.

At this point, his story began to differ from what the previous ghost had said.

’Did that ghost lie?’ Mo Ling couldn’t make sense of it and could only continue to listen.

These ghosts, who had already died once, continued to hole up inside the suitable stone pillars they found. This was why what had happened to their race was never discovered by the outside world.

Of course, the Mineral Race, busy fighting to the death outside, couldn’t be bothered with the affairs of ghosts.

Then, the red cloth was rediscovered within the World Pillar. It was placed on someone’s head, and a pair of donkey ears grew out from the wearer’s head.

After the red cloth was used, the donkey ears would disappear, and the cloth would fall off.

At first, they didn’t notice anything unusual. Then one day, they discovered that a ghost who had used the red cloth had developed a false perception.

"He believed he was one of the Natural Gas Race. Even his memory of being burned in the great fire was completely distorted," the peculiar ghost said fearfully.

As the Abnormal Vein disease spread, the ghosts discovered that any of their kin who used the red cloth would come to believe they were still part of the Natural Gas Race.

Nothing could change this belief.

They would maintain the habits they had as natural gas, instinctively fear fire, and remain in a liquid state when in open areas.

They were unaware that they had become carbon dioxide. Even if they turned into a gaseous state now, they would only sink to the bottom of the air.

The physical properties of their new bodies, which they had already adapted to, were forgotten one by one. All that remained was a single, unshakable conviction: I am one of the Natural Gas Race.

When this was discovered, some of them were too afraid to use the red cloth, but these voices were quickly silenced.

Their fear of war and the lingering terror of the world-burning fire outweighed their reverence for the red cloth.

The Abnormal Vein disease continued to spread. With the continued use of the red cloth, more and more ghosts developed this false perception.

The distorted history began to prevail, sometimes even confusing the ghosts who were still clear-headed.

The ghosts who had used the red cloth began to form the vast majority, and slowly, the true history was buried.

The ghosts who had not yet used the red cloth had no interest in arguing over these facts, and they were completely unable to win an argument against their distorted kin anyway. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

Once the red cloth was used, this false sense of identity would be etched into their minds, completely impossible to change.

Even if you told them they had used the red cloth at the cost of their self-awareness, they wouldn’t listen, treating it as if it were just wind blowing past their ears.

This was also why the previous ghost claimed he didn’t know the price of the red cloth.

Because to admit the price was to admit that he was no longer one of the Natural Gas Race.

And so, as more and more ghosts used the red cloth, this fanatical self-perception gradually changed the entire race’s view of history.

Only those ghosts who had never used the red cloth still retained the true history.

At this point, the peculiar ghost grew agitated.

"There are only a few of us left. Our history will soon be completely rewritten, and the entire race will descend into cognitive chaos."

The more he spoke, the more frightened he became.

Li Luo was confused. "If you clearly knew the price of this red cloth was so terrible, why did you keep using it?"

The ghost explained tremblingly:

"At first, we didn’t care. That price was nothing compared to the crisis of war that could befall us at any moment. Nothing is more terrifying than losing your life."

"Later on, those who were unaware of the price became the majority. They began to coerce the rest of us into using the red cloth, and we had to obey their commands."

"In their eyes, the red cloth has no price. And since the spread of the Abnormal Vein disease did indeed halt the war, they believe it must be used continuously."

"We have no choice at all."

The peculiar ghost looked terrified in retrospect.

He said that when he attacked Shibeng just now, he had been forced by his companions to use the red cloth.

He only started begging for mercy once Mo Ling stripped the red cloth from him.

As the truth was revealed, Li Luo and Shibeng fell silent. The shock of it all was simply too great for them.

Mo Ling was also astonished by the fate of the Natural Gas Race.

He hadn’t expected that an entire race could be so twisted by a single relic that they would even forget their original identity.

"This red cloth... why does it make those Abnormal Vein Patients develop emotions? Do you know?" Li Luo pressed.

The ghost replied that he didn’t know either. They had only used the red cloth’s abilities superficially and had never studied it in depth.

"How absurd. To use it so recklessly without even understanding its effects."

Mo Ling suddenly felt that these ghosts were so naive it defied all reason.