“The Babel Tower was first built by the Neo-Babylonian Empire. The city of Babylon was the most prosperous and magnificent one in the region of the Two Rivers. The most spectacular buildings in the city were the Nebuchadnezzar Palace, the famous Hanging Gardens, and the Babel Tower that was said to enrage God. The Babel Tower was built in 600 BC when Huaxia was in the Spring and Autumn Period of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. If the Babel Tower really exists and is the interstellar transmission circle that can only be used by cultivators, what are the Hanging Gardens?”
The Tower of Heaven in the legends appears in front of Lin Luoran. Historical records show that it was never completed.
The reign of the Neo-Babylonian Empire only lasted for hundreds of years. It was too short to complete the Tower. At the same time, Huaxia entered the Spring and Autumn Period, and the wars of the Warring States Period were just around the corner. Why did wars break out in two ancient civilizations during the same period?
Is it a coincidence or did someone secretly manipulate the course of history?
The Saintess of Jiuli Tribe always shows up at the turning point in history. Is she alone or there are many people like her?
What did you do to the earth? Lin Luoran looks up at this light-yellow stone tower. The more she knows, the more anxious and angrier she gets. She feels that she is getting closer to the truth of history that has been deliberately hidden up. She has been deceived by the altered history since she was born. There are so many mysteries such as why cultivators of Gathering Vitality disappeared, the vague history of the War of Deification, the unfinished Road of Heaven in Kalahari Desert, and the real interstellar transmission circle built at the bank of the Euphrates River which is said to have never been completed.
Lin Luoran feels that a hand is pushing her to link these dots of mysteries into a line. She feels a chill up her spine. She is afraid that she will be too weak to fight against the oncoming wave of truth when the mysteries are revealed.
The light-yellow stone tower emits a soft light that is as fascinating as the starlight in Babylon.
Thousands of years ago, someone was under the same starlight and built the interstellar transmission circle here. Lin Luoran is slightly lost. Yuan Ye pulls her back without being noticed, “Grandmaster……?”
“I’m okay.” She stays focused again and continues to send Reiki into the crystal ball.
Lin Luoran sees from the corner of her eye that Yang Lisha is distracted too. She seems to be nostalgic, but Lin Luoran doesn’t know what she is thinking about.
Lin Luoran notices that Yang Lisha doesn’t send Reiki into the crystal ball. Had it not been for this female monster ‘s eagerness to get the soul wood, Lin Luoran would suspect that this was some magical camouflage that would help her kill them after taking away all of their Reiki.
The largest stone gate of the tall tower floating in the sky opens. The tower casts a light that looks like the light of spaceships in American popular movies when they take away people from the earth.
The scene is so similar to what only happens in sci-fi movies and novels. Lin Luoran hears someone in the crowd hissing, “What the ……”
Mr. Lin is dazzled by what he sees. He is just an honest farmer who is going to be buried in a graveyard in the mountains of Li’s Village like everyone else did.
However, he now stands on the bank of the Euphrates River near the ancient Babylon and witnesses all these stories in the legends come into life. This is enough for him to find cultivation worthwhile.
There are a lot of stone gates on the tower. The light of the crystal ball gradually dims. No matter whether these cultivators have their own agenda, their Reiki is all absorbed into the crystal ball. It is also strange that the crystal ball stops on its own as if it were full after having a meal.
“There are different tests behind each gate. You can find one randomly. The crystal ball has already assigned the difficulty of the test according to your personal abilities. You can form a group of at most two people. The test will be chosen according to the person with stronger abilities, so I suggest you not to think you can pass the test without making full efforts. There is no difference in which gate you choose. No one knows how difficult it will be before you trigger the test. As for the rewards, someone was lucky and only chatted with the spirits of former cultivators in the tower. Someone found eggs of spirit animals now and then and got out. And the others……I don’t want to weaken your confidence. Except for those who pretend to be more powerful than they really are, these tests are very safe for you. If you fail, you will be transmitted to a platform and be able to get out after everyone finishes their test. People who abandon their teammates will be automatically given the lowest score by the Tower of Heaven. Both you and your teammate may be obliterated. So, if you don’t want to hinder others, you’d better choose teammates who have similar abilities as you. You can go in now.”
Yang Lisha says without any facial expressions and stands silently on the yellow sand.
Be obliterated? Everyone trembles after hearing it.
The rule of getting in pairs and choosing the difficulty of tests according to the strongest abilities the two have disrupts Lin Luoran’s original plan of taking Mr. Lin and Yuan Ye together.
Taking them with her will harm them. Yuan Ye has to pair up with Mr. Lin.
Lin Luoran takes a deep breath. Except Yang Lisha, she is the most powerful one among all these people. Only she can be Yang Lisha’s teammate. What about Goldie and the cyan little fox? Does she have to leave them outside the Tower of Heaven?
Yang Lisha seems to know what she is worried about. She takes a look at Goldie and the cyan little fox, “You can take them. They don’t count as test-takers.”
Lin Luoran gives Mr. Lin and Yuan Ye some elixirs. She’s not a fool. For other people, one Circulation Bolus each is already very generous.
There is no doubt that Master Mu and Master Guo are on the same team. Their personal abilities are very close to each other. Xiao Xiaomu will go with Wen Runlan. Sixie Mu chooses Qu Yi. The most hilarious thing is Xi Heng has to pair up with Chen Yun, who he dislikes the most because they have similar abilities. The two are over 150 years old if you add up their age, but they still can’t cooperate well with each other. Lin Luoran feels more relaxed at this stressful moment after seeing what happened to them.
“Let’s go.” She called on everyone to join the trip to the interstellar transmission circle, so she definitely should go first. Holding the cyan little fox in arms with Goldie standing firmly on her shoulder, Lin Luoran and Yang Lisha step into the light cast by the tower.
The light looks like moonlight. Goldie is a little worried and howls. The cyan little fox raises her head curiously from Lin Luoran’s arms and quietly looks around.
After a soft light flashes, they find themself at the bottom of a spiral staircase outside the tower. Some of the stone gates are curved while the others are straight. They all look almost the same. Lin Luoran looks down at the tower. Cultivators standing on the bank of the river look not much larger than matchboxes. It turns out that this gorgeous Tower of Heaven is taller than she imagined, and they are only on the middle floor of the tower, not the top.
“Which gate we choose doesn’t matter, right?” Lin Luoran touches her pearl. She cheats. Fire phoenix and silver fish are in her space. She doesn’t know if the Tower of Heaven will give them a more difficult test because of this.
Yang Lisha answers Lin Luoran’s question with actions. She opens the closest stone gate nearby without making a choice.
A blast of wind blows away the white mist. A slightly muddy river appears in front of them. Wheat is grown all over the fertile soil of the plain next to the river. The wheat is shorter than that in Lin Luoran’s space. The ears of wheat are also smaller. It seems that the fertile soil doesn’t make it possible to reap a heavy corp of wheat.
The wave of wheat moves with the wind. Hot sunlight shines on Lin Luoran’s face. She turns over and sees Yang Lisha’s anxious face.
“What test do we get?” Looking at Yang Lisha’s face, Lin Luoran suddenly has a bad feeling.
She follows Yang Lisha’s sight and sees a city surrounded by grand walls on which hundreds of towers in different heights stand. They are standing on the opposite riverbank of the ancient city.
A bridge goes across the river. Ancient sailing boats travel in it. Boat trackers on the bank are pulling huge polished rocks while singing labor chants. Ropes leave deep marks on their backs. They use a piece of linen to wrap their lower bodies while not wearing any tops. They are slim with tan skin. Strong muscles on their arms show their strength. However, none of them is tall. They all look like typical West Asians.
Yang Lisha murmurs, “Damn! Why is it the restoration of real scenes again?”
The cyan little fox is too scared to see the scene. Lin Luoran consoles her and wonders what exactly is “the restoration of real scenes” while a convoy of carriages comes to them from the front.
Hundreds of half-naked people in all genders and ages are tied up by ropes and are staggering towards them. What kind of scene is this?
The master of the convoy stops and looks at Lin Luoran and Yang Lisha with fear in his eyes.
The man steps forward to say hello in a lot of honorific words that sound like Arabic but are not exactly the same. Lin Luoran only understands a few of them such as “Agebel Merchant” “slave” and “respect”. The man seems to be asking about their identities. Yang Lisha is reluctant to respond. After all, you can’t expect a monster to speak the West Asian dialect. Although Lin Luoran crammed for her Arabic before they came, it is still difficult for her to understand those words. She definitely can’t communicate with him in that Arabic dialect.
Those people become even more respectful to them after receiving no answer from Lin Luoran. They invite her and Yang Lisha to get onto the carriage.
Yang Lisha whispers, “Get in the carriage first and I’ll explain it to you.”
It is more like a sedan chair made of sturdy wood instead of a carriage. Lin Luoran gets into it with the cyan little fox in her arms. Yang Lisha follows her and gets in as well.
Someone drapes the white fine linen curtain down, covering Lin Luoran and Yang Lisha tightly. Then, the sedan chair is lifted steadily. The convoy goes forward again, heading for the bridge Lin Luoran saw just now.
The water of the Sand River flows quietly under the bridge. Lin Luoran sees the bronze city gate from afar. The gate is majestic and in sharp contrast to the slaves following behind.
Is this river the Euphrates River they saw on their way here?
