Book 5, Chapter 80: Chaos Tower
Chapter 80: Chaos Tower
A massive tower appeared before their eyes.
The Cloud-Piercing Shuttle just so happened to be flying at a height roughly equal to that of the middle of the tower. The tower seemed to pierce the sky like a giant sword, and anyone who was flying through the air needed to look up to see the top of the sky. People standing on the ground probably wouldn’t even be able to see the very top of the tower even if there were no clouds obscuring it from view.
Su Chen and his group discovered from the Harpies that the tower had twenty-eight faces in total, each roughly a thousand feet in size. The tower itself was roughly 32,000 feet tall, with 160 levels in total. The higher up the tower, the taller the ceiling. Most of the Harpies in the entire Chaos Region lived in this tower.
Origin Qi Scholars could see through clouds. As such, the party saw a massive Prehistoric Beast walking along the ground, carrying the tower on its back.
This fierce turtle was roughly seventy thousand feet long, and the tower was stuck right onto its back. The two were physically connected. Every step that the turtle took caused the ground beneath it to tremble violently.
So the massive rumblings they had started to hear earlier were coming from this beast’s footsteps.
This was the Chaos Tower.
In comparison to the Origin Light Castle, the Chaos Tower was even more striking and majestic. After all, it was being carried on the back of a Prehistoric Beast that was somehow still alive.
The humans had been able to seize some territory for themselves after obtaining the power of a bloodline. The Harpies, on the other hand, had managed to control a living Prehistoric Beast!
Thankfully, this Prehistoric Beast was an addled one. Its brain was not in good condition, so all it did was walk around in a large circle. As a result, it would always remain in roughly the same place.
Over long periods of time, the ground had been compacted to become incredibly hard. Even if Su Chen were to strike the ground as hard as he could with his Mountain-Beheading Blade, he would probably leave behind no mark.
If a fight were to break out here, no one would need to worry about damaging anything.
Instead of landing, the shuttles directly docked on the 78th floor of the Chaos Tower.
Based on the way the Harpies had set up the tower, the 70th to 90th floors were all used for arrivals and departures of large-scale Cloud-Piercing Shuttles. As a result, these floors were exceptionally spacious, each floor roughly 380 feet tall.
The Cloud-Piercing Shuttles entered the tower and touched down on an elevated platform. Because the Prehistoric Beast was constantly trundling around, pilots needed to be careful when landing the shuttles. This was, in some sense, a test of their skills. Perhaps because the Zhu Clan’s pilot was skilled, they were able to successfully land the first time.
“Wow! How exciting!” Zhu Xianyao said as she jumped off of the Cloud-Piercing Shuttle.
As she stood on the edge of the platform and gazed down, she could see the massive turtle’s head. Its eyes were closed, and it waggled its head incessantly. Even though they were thousands of feet away, the sight was still incredibly clear. It was even possible to identify the sharp rows of spikes on the back of its head from here.
“How spectacular!” Zhu Xianyao sighed.
“It is truly spectacular. I never would have expected to see a Prehistoric Beast in my lifetime,” Zhu Xianyao said as well.
Su Chen didn’t say anything to that effect, instead glancing towards Patelocke. “What do you think? Patelocke.”
Patelocke shook his mechanical head. “It’s hard to imagine and even harder to understand. Prehistoric Beasts had mostly gone into hibernation even when the Arcanists were still in power. Why is it still able to remain alive even though so much time has gone by? I can’t imagine why.”
It was obvious by his repetition how big of a shock this was to him.
Zhu Xianyao suddenly thought of something and whispered to Su Chen, “Do you want to go down there and take a look at this Prehistoric Beast’s secrets?”
Unfortunately, Zhu Yunyan heard her and almost jumped out of fright. She hurriedly covered Zhu Xianyao’s mouth and said, “Don’t spout such nonsense.”
She glared at Su Chen. “You’re not allowed to answer either.”
Su Chen could only nod.
Zhu Xianyao felt stifled, but when she snuck a furtive glance at Su Chen and saw the lingering smile on his face, she knew what he was thinking.
Both of them were extremely courageous individuals who dared to do anything. They both were interested in taking a look at the secrets of this Prehistoric Beast.
The Chaos Tower’s 160 floors were split into five major regions. The center area was the visitor’s area, responsible for handling admissions into and departures from the Chaos Tower. Some small shops and free horse posts were also placed here.
Above the visitor’s area was the living areas. Most of the Harpies lived in this place. Above them lived the nobles and the Harpies with high status and cultivation bases. Below the visitor’s area was where the Harpies’ living necessities were produced, and below that was the shipping and receiving center. All of the Chaos Tower’s import and export took place there. As a result, the Chaos Tower’s defenses were primarily at either end of the tower and not at the center. Outsiders, especially foreigners, were only allowed to live near the visitor’s area. They were neither allowed to go up nor down. If Su Chen and Zhu Xianyao wanted to better understand the secrets of the Chaos Tower, they would first need to reach the shipping and receiving area, and get through the living necessity production area as well.
It was basically impossible for anyone to cross these dozens of barriers without getting caught.
Even the current information they possessed had probably come at the cost of countless lives.
This was why Zhu Yunyan was forbidding them from taking this risk.
However, Zhu Xianyao and Su Chen obviously had their own thoughts on the matter.
After reaching the public stables, Zhu Xianyao found an opportunity to talk to Su Chen when no one else was around. “How are you planning on getting in? Disguising yourself?”
Su Chen shook his head. “No way. This place is not like other places - the Chaos Tower is the most closely guarded secret of the Harpies. I don’t believe for a moment that no one here has techniques that let them see through illusion techniques. I imagine that Origin Formations, Origin Tools, or Origin Qi Scholars that can nullify disguises are probably stationed at the entrance of each floor. Even if you manage to get past one, there are still hundreds of other mechanisms in place behind that. The further you go, the harder it will be to advance.”
Zhu Xianyao felt stifled yet again. “Doesn’t that basically mean it’s impossible?”
“It is impossible!” Su Chen replied straightforwardly.
“But you just said you wanted to go take a look.”
Su Chen chuckled. “I did say that, but that doesn’t mean that we need to go in from the outside.”
“What else can we do?” Zhu Xianyao stared wide-eyed at him, her limpid gaze quite bewitching.
Su Chen was moved by her curious expression and embraced her as he whispered, “Simple. We’ll just go take a look from outside.”
From outside!?
The method Su Chen had chosen was both the simplest and most direct.
The Harpies could guard the inside, but could they guard the outside?
Zhu Xianyao was badly startled by Su Chen’s train of thought, and she actually trembled slightly. “Go…… go…… out…… outside? You…… you…… are you crazy? Face to face…… with a Prehistoric Beast?”
Going outside was indeed very simple. They would be able to land on top of the Desolate Beast just by jumping down.
But that was a Desolate Beast! In the face of a Desolate Beast, all humans were just ants!
Su Chen wanted to come into direct contact with it? Did he know what the outcome would be?
“I know, but it’s already lost it’s intellect,” Su Chen said.
“Even if it’s muddled, it’s still alive. It could probably kill you with a careless sneeze, alright?” Zhu Xianyao said.
“The prerequisite is that it knows how to sneeze.”
“How would you know if it could sneeze or not?”
“Because I saw some Harpies down there standing guard,” Su Chen replied.
There were Harpies down there!
Su Chen had saw seen them with his own eyes.
There weren’t many, but there were some.
Some was good enough for him!
This meant that he could get close to this Desolate Beast without too many dangers around him.
“Since there are Harpies there, then you will be discovered as soon as you go down.
“It’s fine. Those Harpies might not care if I get too close. If they only look at my external appearance, my secrets should stay safe with me…… Of course, they will not know I am an exception,” Su Chen said with a slight smile.
At this point, his microscopic eye had become a great deal more powerful. Even the Arcanists themselves might not have been able to achieve such success as he had. When you factored in his ability to perceive space, he would be able to see much more than the Harpies could just by getting close.
“What if they don’t agree?”
“There will most likely be some problems that we need to deal with, but it will be much easier than breaking through the restrictions on each floor that await us.”
“...... Fine. But I want to go too.” Zhu Xianyao finally relented.
“You? Maybe not this time.”
“So you still dare say everything will be fine?” Zhu Xianyao said as she pinched Su Chen’s nose.
Su Chen smiled bitterly. “I can use Whitetower Teleportation.”
“Hmph. Even though Whitetower Teleportation is good, it is mostly useful in successive uses. You can’t actually jump that far in a single leap,” Zhu Xianyao snorted as she crossed her arms.
That was true. Whitetower Teleportation was still limited in its teleportation distance, even when it was cultivated to its peak. This was why Su Chen often used it in rapid succession. Even though the effect was quite good, it also proved to be quite a physical burden. As such, Whitetower Teleportation’s true usefulness was still in battle and not for long-distance travel.
Desolate Beasts had a very wide attack range. It wasn’t very likely that Su Chen would be able to use Whitetower Teleportation to escape from it.
“That was before,” Su Chen said with a smile.
“Hm?” Zhu Xianyao was taken aback.
Su Chen’s figure suddenly flashed as he reappeared roughly a kilometer away.
Zhu Xianyao was taken aback when she saw him suddenly leap nearly three thousand feet away.
An instant later, Su Chen had teleported back. His face flushed for a moment before it passed.
Indeed, even though the teleportation distance had greatly increased, Su Chen could still use it repeatedly. However, the physical burden was still quite high.
Su Chen said, “This is the benefit of comprehending some of the truths behind space.”
After discovering some of the truths around space, Su Chen began to develop a deeper understanding of the framework of space. Now, when he used Whitetower Teleportation, he felt like a fish in water, and his efficiency had almost doubled. Even though the burden placed on his body had also increased somewhat, it was only one-tenth the increase in teleportation distance. That was an incredibly worthwhile tradeoff. Also, when it came to life-saving potential, the savings were even more drastic.
Su Chen’s jumping a kilometer was only the beginning. He had the feeling that, as time went on and his understanding of the fabric of space improved, his use of Whitetower Teleportation would also improve.
This was currently his biggest source of confidence.
“I can jump at most 5000 feet, but with you I will only be able to travel 1000 feet. That is too much of a decrease, so you tell me whether or not I should bring you along.”
When Zhu Xianyao heard this, she had no way of offering a rebuttal.
“Don’t worry. With Patelocke here, you will see everything I see as well,” Su Chen chuckled. “He is one of the most well-kept ancient transmission puppet. That’s exactly what he was built for.”