Chapter 39 Don't you want to taste my flavor? ...
“Of course there are, there are too many.” Li Shoumo smiled. “But those people suffered a lot, and over time, no one dared to try it anymore.”
Bai's curiosity was completely piqued, and he pressed, "What happened?"
"Hmm, little guy, if you're interested, why don't you try it yourself and pry off a piece of jade?" Liu Xianyue encouraged with a mischievous smile.
Seeing this, Zhong Jiuli shook her head and promptly spoke up: "Don't listen to their nonsense. That Tower of Babel has its own spirit. If anyone dares to damage it, they will be punished immediately. More importantly, they will never be able to enter the tower to cultivate again. Are you sure you want to do something that is not worth the loss?"
"Zhong Jiuli, don't worry, I know they're lying to me."
As they talked, the nine giant towers came into view, their imposing forms casting huge shadows that enveloped them.
Li Shoumo's gaze swept over everyone, finally landing on Bai Ye. He smiled and invited, "Young Master Bai, hearing about it is never enough. Why not experience it for yourself? Would you like to come inside the tower and take a look?"
Bai didn't answer immediately, but instead habitually looked at Zhong Jiuli, his amber eyes filled with inquiry.
Seeing this, Zhong Jiuli smiled and nodded in agreement, "Since you're here, it's good to go and see for yourself. There's no rush, we can set off tomorrow."
"Then please follow me!" Li Shoumo raised his hand in invitation.
The four people and the tortoise disembarked from the spirit boat. The moment their feet touched the ground, Bai held his breath. Standing at the bottom of the tower and looking up, he truly felt the awe-inspiring nature of the building. The tower reached straight into the clouds, and the top could not be seen when looking up, as if it truly connected heaven and earth.
Li Shoumo led the way, explaining, "The Tower of Babel is spiritual; it records the time taken by each challenger, and each tower corresponds to a cultivator of a different rank."
"This one is specifically for Foundation Establishment stage cultivators. Young Master Bai, why don't you give it a try and see if you can break the record left by your predecessors?"
Bai followed her guidance to the jade tablet in front of the tower. His gaze was involuntarily drawn to the name at the very top, which belonged to a sage from more than 20,000 years ago who had passed through ninety-nine levels in just three hours.
This record stands at the top of the list, and after tens of thousands of years, no one has been able to break it to this day.
Continuing to look at the records, the top few were almost all held by ancient cultivators from ten thousand years ago.
Only when they were nearing the end did they see a familiar name: Li Shoumo. It took twelve hours, and the record was made six years ago.
Bai also looked up at Li Shoumo. The other party looked to be only seventeen or eighteen years old. Could it be that she was already this amazing when she was twelve?
"A small achievement, nothing to brag about." Li Shoumo waved his hand with a smile. "It can't compare to your cultivation speed. In terms of talent, I'm afraid only that once-in-a-century genius from the Sanqing Sect can rival you."
"Sanqing Sect?" Bai also murmured the name. Wasn't that Zhong Jiuli's sect?
Zhong Jiuli smiled and urged, lightly changing the subject, "Let's talk about this later, let's go inside quickly."
"Okay, then I'll go in." Bai said, and stepped into the Tower of Babel.
The moment I stepped across the threshold, a sense of ancient desolation washed over me. The light inside the tower was not as bright as it appeared from the outside. An elderly woman with white hair sat cross-legged on a futon. Hearing footsteps entering, she opened her eyes and looked over.
"Young man, state your name." The old woman's hoarse voice echoed in the empty tower.
Bai Ye bowed respectfully, "Junior, Bai Ye."
"Hmm." The old woman responded faintly, raising her withered hand to point to the light screen on the side, "Go in."
"Thank you, senior!" Bai turned and stepped into the light curtain. The moment he passed through, the surrounding scenery changed abruptly.
The originally dimly lit environment had transformed into a square white jade chamber. Bai looked around and noticed that Jiao Jiao, who had been perched on her shoulder, was gone. She wondered if Jiao Jiao, like her, had also begun her trials.
Feeling the increased gravity on his body, Bai suddenly realized that it was a gravity test, which was rather child's play.
With almost no effort, Bai passed the first ten levels. These tests were not too difficult; they mainly tested the physical strength of Foundation Establishment cultivators and their mastery of spiritual power.
After clearing ten levels, the Tower of Babel rewarded her with a small jade tablet, which was engraved with her name and records of the year and month she cleared the levels.
"It's quite exquisite." Bai played with the small jade pendant for a couple of moments before putting it into his storage ring and stepping onto the next level without looking back.
The scene on the eleventh floor was different; the soft, wet feeling underfoot made Bai frown. She had found herself in a swamp, sinking slightly into the mud.
Before she could even steady herself, a foul-smelling gust of wind swept over her. A massive, armored crocodile, several meters long, stood with its jaws wide open, and bits of rotting flesh could be vaguely seen between its sharp teeth.
"You have a foul mouth!" Bai wrinkled his nose in disgust and casually threw a punch with his right hand.
The seemingly casual punch carried the sound of wind and thunder, directly blasting the armored crocodile away, its gaping maw now twisted and crooked.
"Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to hit you." Bai shrugged apologetically.
Sure enough, when the next seven or eight armored crocodiles pounced out, Bai stopped hitting their mouths and started hitting their heads instead. Each armored crocodile's head was smashed so hard that it was dented and beyond dead.
Ironhide Crocodile: Why don't you just slap its mouth?
As the swamp returned to calm, the dead armored crocodiles vanished as specks of light.
For the next dozens of floors, Bai Ye seemed to be flipping through a monster encyclopedia. On each floor, he encountered different monsters, including the Azure Winged Wolf that won by speed, the Iron-skinned Ox with thick hide, and the Earth Demon Bear that loved to eat honey. These monsters hardly posed any difficulties for Bai Ye.
Only the swarms of fire ants caused Bai some psychological trauma.
As soon as she stepped onto the fiftieth floor, she fell into the nest of fire ants. Almost instantly, thousands upon thousands of fire ants, each the size of a fist, surged in like a tide, densely covering her entire body.
Bai immediately shuddered, his hair standing on end, goosebumps instantly covering his entire body. Not from pain, but purely from disgust.
She almost instinctively let out a clear shout, and the spiritual power within her body exploded like a volcano, blasting away all the ants on her body.
"They actually resorted to dirty tricks, this is terrifying." Bai Ye swatted the ants off his body while gritting his teeth and speeding up his progress.
In the end, they rushed towards the entrance to the next level at breakneck speed, fearing that they would be entangled by these ants again.
While she was frantically trying to overcome the challenges inside the tower, the record markers outside were also updating in sync.
Zhong Jiuli's gaze fell on the name that had been frantically climbing, a hint of barely perceptible pride flashing in her eyes.
"It's only been an hour, and he's already reached the sixty-eighth floor. It seems this little guy might actually break the record," Liu Xianyue said, looking at the names still climbing up the record tablet.
“Yes, Young Master Bai is indeed incredibly talented.” Li Shoumo nodded in agreement.
Having conquered the Tower of Babel at the Foundation Establishment stage, she naturally knew that the higher one went, the more difficult the challenges became. Especially those above the fiftieth level; even now, thinking back on them, she still felt a chill run down her spine.
Those extreme trials and tribulations, along with the behemoths composed of elements, could annihilate a group of Foundation Establishment cultivators with a mere wave of their hand.
Inside the Tower of Babel, Bai had already reached the seventy-fifth floor. At this moment, a giant formed from pure flames stood before her, the intense heat distorting the surrounding air.
She wiped the sweat from her forehead, her eyes burning with excitement. "Playing with fire again? I once bathed in a volcano crater. Come on, everyone!"
"Roar!" The fire giant pounded its chest with both fists, unleashing a deafening roar. Instantly, dozens of fire snakes shot out from its body, weaving into a fire net that swept across the sky.
"You've got quite a temper, huh? I'll yell back!" Bai Ye roared, a glint of gold flashing in his eyes.
Under the Eye of Insight, the fire giant became ethereal in her eyes, its fire spirit meridians operating in full view. Deep within the giant's body, a palm-sized crimson crystal shimmered with dazzling light.
"Fire Spirit Crystal? It seems this is your energy core. Well, I'll gladly accept it." Bai Ye grinned, revealing his white teeth, and stomped his toes on the scorching ground, shooting out like an arrow.
It crashed through the fiery net and landed in front of the fire giant.
The fire giant roared and swung its giant paw down. Bai nimbly turned around in mid-air, and while still in mid-air, he reached into the fire giant's body with his bare hand and grabbed the fire spirit crystal.
The giant's massive form froze instantly, then slowly dissipated like a bubble, transforming into dense fire elemental energy that returned to the tower.
Bai glanced at the spoils in his hand, then cupped his hands in the direction where the fire giant had disappeared. "Thanks, everyone, see you later!"
After saying that, she stepped into the next floor without looking back.
The next challenge is another elemental giant. Bai first fought the water element, then the earth element, then the wood element, and finally the metal element.
Upon reaching this layer of gold element, it was no longer an elemental giant, but a small, snow-white tiger. The tiger lay lazily on the ground, its movements agile and almost identical to hers, also capable of using the Instant Step Sky Claw.
As soon as the two tigers met, the white tiger cub mocked, "Little tiger, do you dare to transform into your true form and fight me?"
"Provocation? Do you think I'm the kind of person who's easily provoked?" Bai scoffed. "You guessed it, I am!"
As soon as she finished speaking, she transformed into her true form, leaped forward, and engaged the elemental white tiger in battle.
She didn't use any magic, only the most primitive tiger clan combat techniques to fight back. Every pounce was an absolute clash of power.
Sharp claws, strong waist, and explosively powerful limbs—these innate weapons were used to their fullest potential at this moment.
Bai fought with increasing ferocity, and in a daze, she truly felt as if she had become a tiger. Having grown up in the forest, hunting was her instinct, and the ferocity hidden deep in her blood was being released to its fullest extent at this moment.
When she shattered the elemental white tiger's head with a single claw, the little tiger could still grin and say, "Not bad, little guy, remember this feeling of battle; it's your innate talent."
As soon as she finished speaking, she transformed into a golden spirit crystal in Bai Ye's eyes.
Bai also transformed back into human form, closed his eyes, and focused his mind, carefully recalling the battle just now.
This encounter proved to be very beneficial to her. For a long time, she had subconsciously resisted her innate animalistic instincts with her human body. Little did she know that as a White Tiger, her combat talent, imprinted in her bloodline, was already incomparably powerful.
To insist on abandoning this nature would be tantamount to tying one's own hands and feet. Moreover, the wild instincts of the white tiger and its human form are not incompatible; on the contrary, they can complement each other. If used properly, the two can be combined to unleash even greater combat power.
Bai opened her eyes, a hint of a smile flashing in them. She hadn't made a mistake in venturing into the Tower of Babel. She cupped her hands in greeting, "Thank you for your guidance!"
There was no further response from the empty stone chamber. Bai Ye's smile remained unchanged as he bent down, picked up the spirit crystal, and put it into his storage ring.
Along the way, I have collected all five elemental spirit crystals. Although I don't need them myself, I can use them to pay off Liu Xianyue's debt.
Upon reaching the 80th floor, the scene changed once again.
Bai stared blankly at the familiar living room and her mother in a floral apron. Even knowing that everything before her was an illusion, her eyes still stung with tears.
"What are you standing there for, you brat? Come and help me with the chores!" The woman in the floral apron laughed and scolded as she grabbed a bag of edamame and put it on the coffee table.
Bai mechanically sat down next to the woman, reached out and grabbed a handful of edamame. The edamame in her hand felt incredibly real, with the fine fuzz on the pods and even the slightly yellowed and blackened fingernails on her mother's hands from years of hard work. Everything was so real, just like she remembered.
"You love this edamame stir-fried with pork that's so hard to peel. I must have owed you something in my past life to be your maid in this one," the woman complained as she worked.
"Mom..." Bai called out, her voice choked with emotion, "You must wait for me, I will come back."
The woman put down what she was doing, raised her hand to touch her forehead, and said with a suspicious look, "I knew it, your brain must have been ruined by playing on your phone and computer too much. Now you're starting to talk nonsense."
"Mom!" Bai suddenly pulled the woman into his arms. The fresh scent of old-fashioned laundry detergent and the lingering smell of cooking oil in her hair filled his nostrils. This was the smell of his mother.
"What are you doing? Stop being so affectionate. I know you just don't like peeling these beans." The woman verbally resisted her embrace, but her body remained motionless.
Even the tone of her voice was exactly the same as her mother's, meaning she didn't mean what she said.
“I will come back, but not now!” Bai said, crying. “I know you are not her, and I cannot be fooled by this illusion, but thank you anyway, thank you for letting me see her again.”
In the pause between words, Bai gathered spiritual energy in his palm, closed his eyes, and slapped down at the woman in his arms.
The living room began to twist and disintegrate, and the mother's figure vanished like grains of sand.
The moment Bai opened her eyes, she seemed to see the woman in the apron smiling at her, her lips moving as if to say, "Take care of yourself."
This silent admonition, like a sharp blade, instantly pierced through Bai Ye's carefully constructed defenses. Her whole body trembled violently, her fingernails digging deeply into her palms, and scalding tears burst forth, large drops falling to the ground.
"Waaah..." Suppressed sobs echoed in the empty room. Bai curled up into a ball, breaking down in tears like a homeless child.
Those deep-seated obsessions, now transformed into scalding tears that surged forth.
"I really hate it..." Bai cried until her voice was hoarse, then slammed her fist into the ground, cracking the white jade brick floor.
"I know you didn't do it on purpose, but why did you transform into her to deceive me!"
Through her tear-blurred vision, Bai seemed to see her mother's last smile again, so real, so warm, just like countless evenings when she came home from school and the aroma of food wafted from the kitchen, her mother would always turn around and give her that smile.
A long sigh suddenly echoed in the empty trial room.
The sound seemed to have traveled through the ages, carrying the vastness of the beginning of time, and like the chanting of Brahma from the highest heavens, echoing softly between the white jade walls.
"Foolish child, the path to the Golden Core is inherently a journey of questioning one's true nature. Since you are destined to form your core, how can you escape this calamity?"
Bai Ye shuddered and abruptly stood up. Her eyes flashed with golden light as she warily scanned her surroundings: "Who? The Tower Spirit?"
Her voice still carried a lingering sob, yet it had gained a sharp edge. Clearly, the trials she had endured over the past few days had not been without her growth.
In the void, specks of golden light coalesced, transforming into a hazy figure. The figure seemed both real and illusory, with starlight flowing through its robes, its face shrouded in mist, making it indistinct.
"I am neither the tower spirit nor an illusion, but merely a lingering obsession." Although it was the person in front of him speaking, the voice seemed to come from all directions, and each word caused the surrounding spiritual energy to tremble slightly.
Bai narrowed his eyes and looked at the man, asking, "So you deliberately conjured up my mother's image?"
"No!" The illusory figure shook its head gently. "The illusions within the tower all originate from the deepest obsessions in the hearts of those who attempt to conquer them. What you see is nothing more than your own unresolved past."
"Obsessions can become inner demons, or they can become the seeds of the Dao. The key lies in why you seek the Dao."
After the illusory figure finished speaking, it vanished without a trace.
"Why seek the Dao?" Bai stood there, muttering to himself.
"Of course I know why I seek the Dao. From the very first day this world opened its eyes, I knew I wanted to become an immortal and go home!"
"I want to go home! I want this world to no longer confine me! I want my mother and the aunties in the tribe to never be bullied again!"
As she finished speaking, the barrier of the eighty-first level shattered, and the passage leading to the next level, which had never appeared before, materialized before her eyes.
Bai Ye stepped towards that passage, but stopped abruptly the moment she stepped inside. She turned back to look at the empty stone chamber, cupped her hands in a gesture of respect, and said, "Thank you for your guidance, senior!"
The Tower of Babel trembled slightly, as if in response! The array patterns on the tower, which had been dormant for thousands of years, lit up one by one, and the flowing golden light illuminated the entire sky, making it dazzling.
At the top of the tower, a pillar of light pierces the heavens.
Outside the tower, the onlookers all paled. Many cultivators who were also trying to enter the tower exclaimed, "It's the tower spirit! I've heard the legend that when the tower spirit manifests, a person of extraordinary talent will surely emerge!"
Li Shoumo's eyes widened in surprise and disbelief.
Liu Xianyue and Zhong Jiuli had also heard this legend; it was said that the tower spirit would occasionally appear. But the last time it appeared seemed to have been ten thousand years ago.
"Could it be that the tower spirit appeared because of our little tiger?" Liu Xianyue clapped her hands, making a bold guess.
"Watch your words!" Zhong Jiuli waved her sleeve, setting up a soundproof barrier to prevent the three of them from being overheard.
"A tree that stands out in the forest will be felled by the wind; some empty fame, if borne too early, will become a shackle."
"Senior Zhong is absolutely right," Li Shoumo replied softly, his voice carrying a bitterness that only he himself understood.
When Li Shoumo was born, a golden dragon coiled in the sky and its light shone throughout the capital. The whole country praised it, saying that this was a blessing from heaven for the Great Li.
Everyone says she was born extraordinary. But no one knows how much hardship she endured from childhood to adulthood for that claim of being born extraordinary.
She looked up at the Tower of Babel and, in a daze, saw her younger self standing atop the tower, covered in blood, just to prove that she deserved the title of "Great Princess".
“Some honors… require a great price to be paid,” Li Shoumo sighed softly.
The three women were speechless for a moment. They had all carried heavy burdens under the weight of fame and naturally understood the unspeakable weight of that burden.
Meanwhile, Bai Ye was undergoing an even more agonizing ordeal inside the tower.
"This Tower of Babel...it's too much! You can't do this, you're wearing too little." Bai muttered through gritted teeth, her ears turning bright red.
She kept her head down, her gaze fixed on the ground, yet she could still catch a glimpse of those approaching, fair feet out of the corner of her eye. The snow-white toes were adorned with bright red nail polish, and every step felt like it was treading on her heart.
"Why can't I dress like this?" A familiar, cool voice rang in my ears, but with a more alluring huskiness than usual.
Bai felt a warm breath brush against her earlobe. She suddenly stepped back, her back hitting the cold wall.
Zhong Jiuli before them was only draped in a thin, gossamer-thin veil, her graceful curves barely concealed beneath it—this garment was more suggestive than wearing nothing at all. Her long, black hair cascaded down her back, the ends still damp with moisture, as if she had just finished bathing.
What's most deadly is that pair of majestic eyes that always intimidate people, now slightly red at the corners, containing a shimmering light that Bai has never seen before.
"You...you're not her..." Bai's voice trembled, and his throat was extremely dry.
Reason told her it was just an illusion, but when Zhong Jiuli's slightly cool fingers touched her cheek, she couldn't help but tremble.
Zhong Jiuli chuckled softly, her laughter incredibly sweet and alluring.
His fingertips slid down Bai Ye's taut jawline, landing on her fair neck, and tightened slightly. "Then why don't you dare look at me?"
She leaned forward, her breath brushing against Bai's burning earlobe. "Or... do you actually want me to do this? To do this to you?"
A loud "boom" exploded in Bai Ye's mind, and all the blood in his body seemed to rush to his cheeks.
In her panic, she raised her hand to push the other person away, but her palm landed on something soft.
A soft, unbearable moan escaped from the woman before him. She tilted her head slightly, revealing her snow-white neck.
"Don't make that sound!" Bai shouted angrily.
What's wrong with this woman? How can she make such an expression on Zhong Jiuli's face? This is too disrespectful to her.
Zhong Jiuli raised the corners of her lips slightly, saying with a half-smile, "Oh? Then you'd better move your stinky hands away!"
Bai was shocked, only then realizing that his hand was still resting on the other person's chest.
She quickly withdrew her hands, her two paws hanging neatly at her sides, palms open and pressed tightly against her thighs, even more standard than when she was standing at attention in the military.
"Heh~ So cute!" Zhong Jiuli chuckled, her hand that was on Bai Ye's neck slowly moving down to his slightly heaving chest, where she gently pressed.
Bai also groaned softly, and she smiled triumphantly.
"You grabbed me much harder than I did just now, you little rascal!"
"Aaaaaah!" Bai roared, "I told you, you're not allowed to make that kind of expression with her face! And put your clothes back on, or I'll chop you up!"
Bai raised her hand and beckoned, and Dahei flew out of her storage ring and landed in her palm.
Zhong Jiuli ignored her threat and instead moved even closer. She breathed heavily, leaning against Bai Ye's chest as if boneless. "You shout so fiercely, but your heart is beating so fast? You little tiger who says one thing but means another."
Bai gripped his sword tighter and tighter, his lips trembling as he tried to say something but held it back.
Zhong Jiuli stood on tiptoe, her red lips almost touching her white and red ear tips, "Deep down you really want... really want... otherwise it wouldn't be me!"
"Don't you want to taste me? If you miss this chance, you'll never have another opportunity to enjoy my beauty!"
After Zhong Jiuli finished speaking, she took a step back and lightly touched her red lips with her fingertip, indicating that Bai should look here.
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