“My priest, this is just part of the stars above us. Is there any problem calling it the star atlas?” Lin Luoran blinks her eyes, pretending to be innocent.
The priest stares at her with his experienced eyes. Lin Luoran knows it comes to the vital point, so she just stares back at his wrinkled eyes innocently. This is a battle of stamina and calmness, and she cannot afford to reveal the secret of the jade stairs, nor the fact that she is a woman coming from the future. So, the only solution is to keep pretending.
Huaxia people’s facial organs are flatter than the Babylonians and Lin Luoran looks like in her twenties with low personal ability. The priest stares for a long time and chooses to believe her words. It is not because of Lin Luoran’s behavior is so excellent that he is fooled, but deep in his heart he doesn’t believe an eastern girl like her with low personal ability have any connection with the abstract star atlas.
However, Lin Luoran doesn’t feel relieved. She has prepared for the worst situation since the priest became silent. If she had known the star atlas were just carved on the dome of the Tower of Babel, she would not follow to enter even though she desperately wanted to accomplish the mission. Astronomy is always the religion’s best tool in every country, either east or west. It will only be held by a small group of people, not to mention the tar atlas in the middle of the interstellar transmission circle carved in the Tower of Babel. This must be the secret that outsiders shall never know. It is even possible that it’s the key for the woman surnamed Ji to enter the tower… Knowing too much can lead one to be killed.
Lin Luoran thinks about a sentence in the novels and TV plays,” Only dead men are trustworthy.” Now she believes she digs herself a trap and jumps right into it.
When Lin Luoran is panicking, this old man, whose wrinkles are so deep that cannot disappear no matter how he laughs, forces a smile and says, “The Tower of Babel will guide one’s spirit to the kingdom of god. You are not qualified to die in here. Calm down.”
Lin Luoran has a loath smile. If Baojia was here, she might respond “screw it”. The priest means she is too humble to die in the tower. So how the priest will deal with her?
“My priest, the oracle wants to see you.” The monk’s voice comes from outside the tower. Hearing that, Lin Luoran is more nervous, not knowing whether the sudden interrupt will save her or quicken her death.
The priest seems to dislike this oracle, and Lin Luoran can clearly see the loathed expression on his face. In a few seconds, her fate will be destined. There is no time to waste and she tries to contact the fire phoenix for help.
“I, the emperor, am so powerful that there’s no need to use this interstellar transmission circle. So I have nothing to tell.” The proud voice of the phoenix replies.
All Lin Luoran wants to say is “Shit!”
“Maybe you can talk to him about astronomy.” The silver fish suggests in a soft voice. Lin Luoran suddenly has hope and wants to hug and kiss it.
“My priest, I come from a long distance to your country only because I admire the level of astronomy here. I’ve heard a lot about your astronomy achievements. Can I discuss and learn from you?” Lin Luoran almost gets overwhelmed when she tries to use Babylonian to convey the genteel sentences in Huaxia.
The priest finally seems interested.
“Since you know the star atlas, come with me and meet the oracle together.”
Lin Luoran finds out she is safe for now and almost cries. Had she known it would be so smooth, she would have told the priest she knew the star atlas in the very beginning without telling him that she came from the future. She could explain all with the reason that she was doing research on astronomy.
The stone gate opens again. Lin Luoran feels relieved and finds the sunshine especially wonderful, after she just successfully avoids being killed.
The priest heads to the shrine. The monks become devout and serious when he passes by. Even the most restless man will calm down in such a solemn atmosphere. The monks pay extra attention to her when she follows the priest with eyes looking straight.
Slim, tall, and quiet as water though, she does not believe these characters can attract these monks. These monks are far from the head of the religion who lives in clover, but they look like ascetic monks. She does not have the mood to observe the priest until she just struggles and manages to survive. He is simply dressed and looks like an outsider if you compare him to the magnificent Babylon citizen. These monks are the same as the priest. Lin Luoran can sense their faith to the temple and priest.
She soon understands why the monks pay special attention to her after she follows the priest into the temple.
There is definitely no chair in the temple, but an ottoman lies here. It is said Marduk prefers to have food when lying, just the same as Babylon’s other gods.
On the ottoman leans an astoundingly marvelous woman from Huaxia.
White Fairy is the most gorgeous girl Lin Luoran has ever met. The image of her looking like a traditional Chinese beauty leaves Lin Luoran a deep impression. However, if Lin Luoran compares White Fairy to this woman, the difference is as big as the difference between wildflowers by the roadside and peony in the royal courtyard.
Her facial feature is not the most stunning character, but it is the condescending look that attracts people the most. In her eyes, it seems that men are no better than animals and she is the only dominance in the world. At one time, Lin Luoran believes she meets the real god. She somehow feels familiar with the woman’s expression.
Lin Luoran lowers her head unnoticedly. She believes it’s impossible to meet “the queen” from 2,000 years ago, so she must misremember.
The woman surnamed Ji is now wearing Shenyi and standing beside “the queen” as a servant with several other cultivators who dress the same. Lin Luoran finally knows where the impression on her face comes from. It turns out she learns from her master. She is one hundred sure that these people are all cultivators and “the queen” is their head.
These are the oracles in the eyes of monks and they often appear in Babylon? No wonder she and Yang Lisha are misrecognized as oracles by the Agebel family because they look the same as these oracles.
The woman on the ottoman says leisurely, “My priest, we haven’t met for a long time, I am surprised you still look good.”
Lin Luoran is sure that she sees the eyebrow of the priest quivers because of anger. The priest replies, “We have a 100-year appointment and it is not time yet. You people from Huaxia cannot wait, huh?”
The woman covers her mouth and laughs, “It’s impossible for you to figure out the distance between Mars and Earth even after another 100 years. As is said in our appointment, we will have the right to take charge of the Tower of Babel.”
The priest seems speechless, but he is still angry and sneers, “You interfere with the internal affairs of Babylon when the time is not still due. You really think there are no qualified people here?”
Who is the woman and why does she ask the priest to figure out the distance between Mars and Earth? Even in the 21st century, few people can answer the question in a second because the distance between the two stars is constantly changing in a 15-year circle. Even though the astronomy in Babylon is well developed and the priest can know the trace of the star movement, Lin Luoran believes he cannot answer that question.
The nearest distance between Mars and Earth is 55 million kilometers, while the farthest is 400 million kilometers. So the question the woman raised is a total trap. Had it not been the day that Mars is nearest to Earth in recent 60 thousand years and Baojia had dragged her to stay up on the balcony to see Mars, Lin Luoran would not remember these numbers.
In that case, Lin Luoran senses some conspiracy in that question. The Huaxia woman who is called oracle by the priest, does she want to take charge of the Tower of Babel for the interstellar transmission circle or something else? Lin Luoran doesn’t want to help the priest answer it and she pretends to be innocent.
The priest seems unhappy, but Lin Luoran believes he cannot beat these people so he had to suppress his anger. Shall she tell these people she comes Huaxia and go to their team? She stops this idea when she finds the woman surnamed Ji looks at her in an unkind way.
She has to make sure who has the advantage.
Now it comes to an impasse. The priest cannot answer the question, but he clearly doesn’t want to break with these Huaxia cultivators. At that time, Lin Luoran hears the giggle from outside. “What is wrong with you guys?”
A man wearing colorful dresses comes through the wall, and enters the place. His eyebrows look like willow leaves, making people feel provoked and want to kick his ass.
“Who makes our saintess angry? Calm down, calm down.” This sissy man comes through the wall and heads right to the golden couch. The Huaxia cultivators summon their flying sword, and stand in front of him to stop him.
The man says with his pinky fingers up, “Ayy, you human has no sense of humor. I just make jokes.”
“Only different races will call cultivators human.” Lin Luoran hides behind the priest and speaks to herself in her heart. She has no idea who the man is and why he so arrogant facing the saintess.
Wait, saintess?!
Suddenly this word strikes her mind. Lin Luoran clenches her fist. No wonder this woman looks familiar. It is because her temperament never changes though she has various appearances! The supercilious look, regarding all other people as inferior creatures, only belongs to one person who wants to use the jade stair to leave Earth by occupying Baojia’s body. She is the saintess of the Jiuli tribe!
Since she is the most important figure among the people who have evil intentions to the world of cultivation on Earth, something must be done to prevent the saintess from getting access to the Tower of Babel.
Lin Luoran takes a small step aside, and whispers in a low voice, “My priest, we just discussed the distance from Mars to Earth in the Tower of Babel, please tell that to the saintess.”
She pretends to just speak to herself. But as she expects, everyone else in the temple hears her words.
The man comes by, looking around her for a while and says, “It’s you. There is a little girl outside looking for you.”
Which girl will look for me who comes from 2000 years from now? Does this sissy man know Amytis and the ceremony is over?
The sissy man stretches his fist, and Lin Luoran widens her eyes. There is a petal in his smooth palm, and a minimized figure is sleeping in it. This figure is not Thumbelina, but in fact is Yang Lisha!
Lin Luoran never thinks it’s great to see Yang Lisha again although they are separated for only one day. Finding Lin Luoran is happy, the sissy man blows to his palm and the petal drifts down. Yang Lisha opens her eyes and arrives on the floor. She grows with wind and becomes as tall as a normal adult.
What is that? Theurgy? Lin Luoran is confused, because this seems totally different from Spells of the Five Elements. It looks more like Mini World in the Robe by Fairy Zhenyuan from Journey to the West. She has a lot of questions but Yang Lisha slightly shakes her head. The monster is much calmer than her, and it is surely not a good time to raise questions because the woman surnamed Ji has told the saintess where Lin Luoran comes from when Lin Luoran and Yang Lisha meet each other again.
The so-called saintess looks at her with her normal supercilious look. Because of that she didn’t recognize her in the Kalahari Desert even though they had met before? What happens first when different times cross with each other? Maybe it is the paradox of history…
“You said you knew the distance between these two planets?” the saintess asks in a soft but emotionless voice.
Gaining everybody’s attention, Lin Luoran replies, “Honored oracle, I know nothing. It is the priest who told me just now that he had worked that out.”
She can clearly sense the priest freezes when she says these words. “Come on!” she thinks, “It seems that we are on the same boat, please trust me once!”
Seeming the ancestors respond to Lin Luoran’s praying, the priest conceals his instinct hesitation. He doesn’t believe Lin Luoran’s moral quality, but the time she appears, and the fact that she knows the star atlas though she is young gives him confidence.
In a second, Lin Luoran sees his smiling face, replying “So will you please respond for me to the saintess?”
Yang Lisha looks at Lin Luoran worriedly. This human female cultivator needs her to teach even the basic space and time common sense, does she really remember the distance between Mars and Earth? At least, she doesn’t know that. Even the college students from the 21st century will stammer if their major is not about astronomy.
Lin Luoran takes a deep breath and answers, “The distance between the two planets is not fixed. In fact, it is constantly changing.”
The saintess raises her eyebrows and seems to be interested, “Oh?” she responds.
The priest is a little disappointed. By doing researches for many years, he knows the distance is changing, too. This is not the right answer.
However, in his disappointment, the little girl from Huaxia raises her voice, “However, this change follows a 15-year cycle, the nearest distance can be as near as 110 million li, whilst the farthest distance can be as far as 800 million li. Am I right, honored oracle?”
She uses li instead of kilometers because it is the unit of length. She speaks with a clear and melodious voice. Even the woman surnamed Ji looks at her in great surprise after she finishes speaking.
The arrogant saintess finally moves. She sits up and with her chin up, looks hesitated and quickly says one sentence.
The supercilious voice and the vague utterance make no one understands what language the woman uses.
Lin Luoran feels fainted. Time has a flashback and she sees the man in robe in her dream for the second time.
This time the background is not Earth anymore, but a celestial body that looks like an emerald. The man in robe stands in the void and the satellites go around him. However, there is no alarm setting off. He slowly descends and Lin Luoran finds out the planet does not cover with green plants, instead all the constructions are green. That is why the planet looks like an emerald.
The planet is covered by green and local people have greenish skin. Lin Luoran can conclude the technologies on that planet are more advanced than those on the Earth by several thousand years, or even ten thousand years.
The man in robe seems disappointed and is about to leave when sharp alarms ring. The airships float in the sky and countless light beams with high energy all target at him, ready to fire. He is regarded as an invader.
The electronic sound that has the same source with the language of the saintess echoes above the city.
Lin Luoran gets pale. What does the sound say? Does the sacred pearl record what the man has experienced?
It’s the fragment of the big universe era. Lin Luoran feels she suddenly understands the question the saintess asked before the saintess loses her patience.
Or in other words, the man in robe understands the warning.
It is the emotionless, repeated questioning: Warning, where do you come from? Warning, where do you come from?
“Ah!” Lin Luoran squats down in great pain. All in her mind is the electronic sound. The sound is deep and dull, and is similar to the noise when the tape is not running smoothly. It keeps asking Lin Luoran “Where do you come from?”
No one knows what happened, and Yang Lisha looks worried. The sissy man squats down and says to saintess, “Look what you have done to the little girl. She is pale because of the pain.” Green light comes out of the man’s hand and Lin Luoran’s pain is relieved. Still, there is a lot of sweat on her face and her lips are pale.
Saintess frowns. She stands from the golden ottoman and walks down with her bare feet.
Yang Lisha wants to protect Lin Luoran, but she is pulled away by the sissy man’s two fingers.
“Ancestor!” Yang Lisha seems annoyed. “Shh”, says the man, “Don’t disrupt. It is their family business.”
Yang Lisha is speechless. No one knows better than her because she comes with Lin Luoran. There will be no business between Lin Luoran and the saintess.
The saintess raises Lin Luoran’s face. The gloomy light shines in her eyes and a beam of light goes into Lin’s third eye area to find the truth. Lin Luoran’s ocean of consciousness is vulnerable, but another power protects here and hides the truth, so the saintess gets nothing.
“What?” The saintess is surprised because she has never seen an empty ocean of consciousness like that.
The pain in Lin Luoran’s brain fades away and her lips stop quivering. She suddenly opens her eyes when she feels something grips her chin.
She sees the light in the eyes of saintess and is very happy though tears are still around her eyes. The saintess is frightened.
“You want to know where I come from?”
She responds in a cold, arrogant voice. It is the most standard interstellar language.
The expression of the saintess changes. The woman surnamed Ji does implant an interpreter into Lin Luoran, but she is sure that the interpreter doesn’t have interstellar language.
Because she sets what language the interpreter has!
Lin Luoran laughs with tears, “Want to know who I am? You’d better tell me where you come from first!”
