Chapter 40: Seven-story Black Pagoda, Seven-level Pagoda Skill
The distance from the mountain pass to the Jing Jue Ancient City was not too far, and Su Mo and the others soon arrived inside the shattered ancient city.
Ye Yi Xin was still in a coma, but she had regained some consciousness. Although Su Mo had used vital energy to transfer into her body, helping her escape danger, her forehead was still somewhat hot.
This dehydration was extremely dangerous and required clean drinking water.
Su Mo glanced at the ruined walls and broken structures in the shattered ancient city and said:
“Kingdoms in the desert are often built near underground rivers close to the ground, especially around the royal city where there must be abundant groundwater resources. Finding the royal city should lead to finding groundwater!”
Professor Chen nodded, then he and Hao Ai Guo used their archaeology knowledge to quickly identify the approximate location of the royal city.
Everyone headed along the ruins toward the central part of the ancient city, but there was nothing there except a tilting and dilapidated black tower, with no other buildings, not even proper civilian houses, only weathered earthen walls.
Professor Chen thought for a moment and said:
“The royal city here might be built underground. Let’s look down from the black tower to see if we can find the entrance to the underground palace!”
Su Mo glanced around the vicinity.
His Zi Wei Guan Xiang Fa could only locate underground palaces and tombs by meditating on the sun, moon, stars, or earth vein energy, but at this moment, the sun had just risen and was covered by a layer of hazy gray clouds. The ancient city was full of yellow sand and ruined walls, making it impossible to find any traces from these conditions.
If he stood at the top of the black tower, he might be able to use the Zi Wei Guan Xiang Fa to discern clues about the geographical energy veins.
So Su Mo nodded and then led Hu Ba Yi and Wang Pang Zi toward the black tower.
At this time, Ye Yi Xin finally awoke, though still somewhat weak, and Xue Li Yang immediately gave her some clean water.
After drinking the water, Ye Yi Xin’s condition improved greatly. Although her spirit was still very exhausted, there was no longer any danger to her life.
With proper rest and feeding her saltwater and other items, she would slowly recover.
Su Mo feared they might encounter accidents if left below, and Professor Chen and the others also wanted to enter the stone tower to take a look, so everyone entered the black stone tower together.
Inside the tower, the stone walls of the first layer were engraved with dense Ghost Cave script, and between each layer of text were carved stone sheep, looking extremely strange, even difficult for Professor Chen and the others to understand.
The second layer had a stone statue the size of an ordinary person, but with a high nose and deep eyes, bearing distinct Western Regions features. The third layer had a giant-pupiled stone statue like those in the Xi Ye Ancient City.
Sa Di Peng saw the third layer and couldn’t help but feel puzzled:
“Professor, what is this tower for? Why does every layer have stone statues?”
Professor Chen thought for a moment and said:
“This black tower should represent the status of the Ghost Cave clan, with each layer’s stone statue representing a different rank.”
“The text and stone sheep on the first layer represent livestock. If I’m not mistaken, there should be another layer underground representing slaves and local evil ghosts!”
“The high-nosed, deep-eyed stone statue on the second layer is an ordinary Hu person from the Western Regions, while the giant-pupiled stone statue on the third layer represents a worship of eyes!”
Wang Pang Zi laughed and said:
“Even I can guess that the fourth layer must be the queen’s statue!”
With that, he rushed ahead to the fourth layer.
However, the scene on the fourth layer exceeded everyone’s expectations.
The stone statue on this layer was extremely strange: snake body and human head, yet with sturdy four limbs. The hind legs were thick like those of a beast, the forelimbs human-like, holding a sharp sword and shield. The head was a ferocious and vicious male image, looking like the fierce-eyed guardians in Buddhist temples, with a black bun-like sphere behind the head, just like the fleshy crest on Jing Jian A Han’s head!
Professor Chen and the others came up and couldn’t help but marvel at these stone statues:
“It seems this layer represents the guardian god of the Jing Jue Ancient Kingdom. It closely resembles the black snake image in those corpses’ mouths, so it should be a snake god!”
Su Mo nodded.
Professor Chen was right; the strange stone statue on this layer was the Jing Jian A Han guarding the Jing Jue Ancient Kingdom, but here in the tower, it appeared in the form of a human-faced snake body.
Wang Pang Zi, hearing Professor Chen’s words, laughed and said:
“The fifth layer should be the queen’s statue!”
Everyone then arrived at the fifth layer, but were surprised to find it completely empty, with only dense Ghost Cave inscriptions carved on the walls.
Hu Ba Yi couldn’t help but be very surprised and asked Professor Chen:
“Was this layer looted by tomb raiders? Why is there nothing here?”
Professor Chen was also somewhat baffled and hesitated before saying:
“Let’s check the top layer first!”
Everyone then went to the top layer.
In the center of the top layer stood a black throne, upon which sat a statue of a woman. Her attire looked extremely ornate, but her face was also carved with a veil, making her appearance completely indiscernible.
However, this woman’s image was completely consistent with the Queen of Jing Jue from the murals in the Gumo Prince’s tomb.
Hu Ba Yi couldn’t help but look completely baffled:
“Why does this queen’s statue also wear a veil? Does she not dare to show her true face?”
Wang Pang Zi sneered:
“In my view, she’s just being mysterious. She’s probably ugly and doesn’t dare to show herself! But looking at the statue, her figure is still pretty good!”
Professor Chen carefully examined the statue, pondered deeply for a while, and then said:
“This seven-story black stone tower clearly represents the hierarchy of the Jing Jue Ancient Kingdom, with the queen at the topmost layer of the stone tower, symbolizing her supreme status in the Jing Jue Ancient Kingdom.”
Fatty couldn’t help but ask:
“Then why is the fifth layer empty?”
At this time, Su Mo, who had been silent, smiled faintly:
“It’s imaginary space!”
Hu Ba Yi and Wang Pang Zi looked baffled again upon hearing this.
Professor Chen, Hao Ai Guo, and Xue Li Yang had some research on Jing Jue Culture, and upon hearing Su Mo’s words, they couldn’t help but nod.
“Above the snake-bodied human-faced guardian god is imaginary space, and the queen’s status is above the imaginary space, indicating that she completely controls this mysterious power. The top of the tower also has an eye, showing that the queen’s power comes entirely from her eyes!”
Everyone felt a chill upon hearing this.
Could imaginary space really exist in this world, and could the Queen of Jing Jue control its opening and closing through her eyes?
Su Mo naturally knew of imaginary space’s existence; his shape-shifting came from enlightenment regarding imaginary space.
At this moment, looking at the scenes in the stone tower, new insights seemed to emerge in his mind.
This black tower, including the underground layer, had a full seven layers, extremely similar to the ancient seven-level pagoda skill.
Seven was an extremely mysterious number.
The rainbow has seven colors, the earth has seven continents, and the Yi Jin Jing in Buddhism also has seven major heavenly cycles!
And this black stone tower of the Jing Jue Ancient Kingdom was also seven layers!
As Su Mo looked at the scenes in the stone tower, sparks of inspiration gradually flashed in his mind.
“You viewed the seven-story black stone tower, gained new enlightenment, and achieved sudden understanding of the seven-level pagoda skill!”
