Chapter 24: The Heavenly Tower

  He is not quite a person, as he has two snake tails, just like Wang Shengjun said, really one on each side, coiled down, looking like two legs. The upper body is human in shape, the face is pitch black and cannot be seen clearly because it is shaded by the top of the sky. His arms are stretched out to support the left and right sides of the sky. There seems to be a vertical line in the middle of the statue, straight down.

  I pointed at the thing on the median and asked Wen Long: "Take a closer look, what is that?"

  Wen Long took the telescope and looked carefully for half a day, then exclaimed in surprise: "That's a ladder, no way, could someone have been here? That's a direct ladder that can climb to the top."

  That's right. I thought to myself: The Heaven and Earth Tower, it's easy to ascend from the earth to heaven, but difficult to descend from heaven to earth. This was the first sentence in my book describing the Heaven and Earth Tower, which I had previously thought was incorrect. Now it seems that I was the one who was wrong all along. I pointed at the ladder and said: "That's where we need to go, the entrance to the Heaven and Earth Tower. We'll have to ascend to heaven first, then descend to earth."

  "Alright, let's get ready. We few soldiers will take the outer perimeter, Wu Feng you lead the other men to take the second route, Old Man and Su Yi in the middle. Remember, advance on my command only, no rash advances, no hasty retreats. This place is very treacherous, even more so than that broken place last time."

  These people should have all cooperated before, so they don't look flustered at all. They quickly formed a line, and I was arranged at the back, basically just a backup role. Looking at this formation, I estimate that I won't be needed either. Everyone took out their electric batons, which should be the best weapon in this situation, because according to intelligence, those monsters should be afraid of electricity.

  The team marched forward at a steady pace, with Wén Lóng, who was leading the way, occasionally giving one or two commands to adjust the state of the entire team. This guy is a born commander, I feel that as long as he's in command, this broken place isn't a problem at all.

  We had advanced about fifty meters, and danger was approaching. I was standing at the back, clearly seeing a shadow quickly moving towards the left wing position. It's not an exaggeration to say it was swimming, that thing's way of moving on land was completely unlike other terrestrial animals. If I had to compare it to something familiar, I'd say it was more like a fish.

  Wen Long also sensed the situation and shouted loudly: "Be careful with the left wing."

  The front row of the left wing was Wu Wen, and right in the middle was Wu Feng and another team member's defense zone. I saw them immediately half-squat down, holding up their riot shields in front of them, with their electric batons at the ready, waiting for the final blow. That thing suddenly sprang up and flew straight towards Wu Feng. The speed was too fast, almost like a flash of light. Wu Feng's reaction was also super-fast, raising his riot shield to meet the monster, just blocking its line of attack. With a "thud", that monster didn't bounce back as we had imagined when it hit the riot shield, but instead changed direction and quickly attacked the person next to Wu Feng.

  It happened too fast, and none of us had time to react. All we heard was a "ya" sound, followed by something flying off the person's body and landing on my face. I wiped it with my hand, and it was blood - someone was hurt.

  That monster attacked successfully, but did not stop in the crowd. Instead, it kept pacing back and forth about five or six meters away from us. Judging from its previous movements, this position was exactly where it could strike best.

  "Wen Long shouted: 'Don't be in a hurry, it's looking for an opportunity. How is the situation at the back?' Because he was facing away from us, so we couldn't see what had just happened."

  "Wu Feng also replied loudly: 'The situation is not good, someone has been injured.'"

  Wen Long said with a scowl: "This broken thing is really sinister. It should be waiting for someone to get injured and fall behind, then it will attack."

  I stood at the back, now with my back to the entire team, to prevent that guy from attacking from behind, which would have caused even greater losses. Su Yi behind me had already taken off her backpack and bandaged the injured person, saying: "The right arm is injured, the wound is deep, it's bleeding, needs medical treatment."

  Wen Long sighed and said: "The battle has not been won yet. Niu Dong, Li Xiang, you two send him back."

  Niu Dong and Li Xiang were two other former soldiers, they quickly retreated to the back, one of them helped a wounded general up, another asked: "After we send him out, how do we find you guys to regroup."

  "Wen Long said, 'Don't come in, looking at the situation, a large troop advancing would be even more dangerous. You guys guard that exit and ensure our retreat route. Remember, unless absolutely necessary, do not fire.'"

  "Yes." They slowly backed away, one supporting the wounded and the other keeping watch, as they retreated along their original route. The creature was clearly intelligent and didn't give chase, it seemed to be picking on the weak ones. I'm getting a bit worried, among these people, the weakest is probably not the old man but me. Now that the old man is surrounded by us, he should be safe, but what about me? If we move forward again, I'll become the direct target of that creature's pursuit. What have I gotten myself into?

  The wounded slowly walked away, we saw they were almost near the exit. I reported to Wen Long, and he said: "Change formation, I'll take the lead alone, Wu Wen, Wu Bin, you're in charge of the left and right wings, Wu Feng, you cover the rear, the rest of you form pairs, back-to-back defense, this guy will make a turn, be careful. Advance."

  We changed formation again, and I was paired with Su Yi. To be honest, I felt very secure at the back, but whether she felt the same way about me is unknown.

  As soon as the team started moving, we clearly felt that the monster had also changed. We heard it let out a sharp cry, a sound like a small child screaming desperately, piercing and shrill. Wen Long immediately stopped and said: "Be careful around us, I don't know what kind of demon is coming this time."

  We immediately crouched down again, and the situation did indeed change. Apart from the one circling around us, another of these strange creatures was swimming quickly towards us from a distance.

  I heard Su Yu behind me say: "It's calling for reinforcements."

  Later, this one also came close, but did not rush to attack, and was circling around at a distance of five or six meters. It seemed that they were looking for our weaknesses. We crouched again for a while, and found that no other monsters had come, so we slightly let down our guard.

  The old man said: "It seems like there are only two of these things, which is still good."

  Wen Long said: "I don't think so, such a large area with only two, even if I say it out loud, no one will believe it."

  Su Yi said: "Why are there only these two circling around us? Why don't the others come out?"

  I sighed and said: "Although I'm not a biologist, but I agree with Wen Long's statement. Such a large area, even if it's just security guards, there should be at least ten or twenty of them."

  I feel that Su Yi is obviously angry with me for topping her words, if the situation didn't allow it, I reckon her kick would have flown out already. Su Yi retorted: "Then why did only two come?"

  I thought for a moment and said: "Territory, it's possible that each of these guys has their own area."

  Wen Long said: "Thinking so much is useless, if you don't move forward, you won't get anything. Everyone, get ready."

  We all raised our vigilance and slowly moved forward. Those two monsters just circled around us, seemingly unable to find any gaps for a while, so they didn't rush to attack either. Like this, we moved forward another 50-60 meters, when the two monsters suddenly stopped circling and stayed behind us instead.

  I heard Wu Feng loudly cursed: "Damn it, it's He Bo."

  At this time, Wen Long also shouted: "Stop."

  Everyone stopped and maintained a half-squatting posture. I turned my head to look at Wu Feng, and indeed found that the two strange creatures had stopped about five or six meters away from him. They stood upright, about as tall as my knee, with the lower half of their body being fish-like and the upper half being humanoid, but these two creatures were covered in scales all over their bodies. Their heads were slightly small, and I saw that their eyes almost took up half of their face, while the remaining half was basically just a mouth. Their arms weren't long, but below each arm were three fingers, or rather, fingernails. In this light, I felt that being touched by those fingernails wouldn't be a pleasant experience at all.

  "What's the situation like in the back?"

  Wu Feng said: "They didn't chase after us, they stopped at a distance of about five or six meters."

  Wen Long coldly smiled and said: "It's not that we didn't pursue them, it's just that these guys really have territory, and there are two more ahead."

  I turned my head to look ahead and indeed found that not far from Wén Lóng, there were also two such monsters stopped there. Wén Lóng said: "Old master, your initial guess has been confirmed, this thing is indeed real."

  The old man coughed and said, "At this time, it's really confirmed that there is no excitement at all. What to do now?"

  "Shall we move a few steps horizontally in parallel?"

  Su Yi said: "What are you kidding, move a few steps horizontally, what if a few more groups of such guys come out? This kind of thing, one-on-one is absolutely unbeatable, can't win, understand?"

  I chuckled and agreed with Su Yi's point of view. One on one against this monster, only a few special forces operatives might have a glimmer of hope. As for me, three words summed up my situation: I'm dead meat.

  Wen Long said at this time: "Your idea is not bad, can try."

  "Hey, hey." Su Ai shouted: "Your brain is rusty, how can you listen to such a ghostly idea?"

  Wen Long pointed with his electric rod at the two River Lords in front and said, "Look, they haven't taken an attacking stance. Why? Because this is a boundary. If a fight breaks out on the boundary line, it's not a normal situation. So neither of them dares to move. We'll take advantage of this situation, find their boundary line, and walk past from there. This situation where neither side dares to move will be beneficial for us."

  "Do you have a ticket?"

  Wen Long smiled bitterly and said: "Dealing with such a humanoid monster, you ask if I have any certainty or not, only after trying it out."

  "My god, following you guys who gamble with their lives is the unluckiest day of my life."

  Wen Long smiled and said, "Sister Su, if you think it's unlucky, after we go out, we can transfer you to the second team. I estimate that Comrade Lai Meng, who is not unlucky, will be very happy."

  "No way, no way." Su Yi immediately opposed: "I'd rather die than be transferred to the second team. I'll die with the first team."

  The old man also chuckled and said: "Then don't waste words, let's go."

  We moved the whole team horizontally, and indeed those river lords only followed at a certain distance, but none of them would actively attack. At first, they were still facing us head-on, but slowly they became diagonal followers. When Wén Lóng let us stop for a moment, we found that in the other two diagonals, four more river lords appeared, standing there just like the others.

  Wen Long snapped his fingers and said, "We've got them right where we want them. They don't dare attack first. Let's move forward."

  To be honest, this feeling of progress is not exciting at all, but rather frustrating. We are like a group of monkeys on display, walking among the crowd, with those river bosses who don't even need to buy tickets to watch us on either side. If they catch one or two of these guys and show them off in some kind of exhibit, I reckon they could sell tickets for millions. But now, it's clearly us who are on display.

  We were under the command of Wen Long, advancing and retreating in a zigzag pattern, covering a distance of over 500 meters for more than half an hour. Finally, we saw the ladder leading straight up to the sky and the square city below. As we got closer, it looked completely different from what we had seen from afar. First of all, the square city was not entirely square in shape, just like the position of this heavenly ladder, which was on a protruding surface of the square city. The height was about four meters or more, not low but not too high either. The entire square city was made of stone, integrated as a whole, reminding me of the kind of stone used in the Hundred Eyes Heavenly Formation. When I went up to touch it, even the texture felt the same. The heavenly ladder was also much larger than what we had seen from afar, and two people could climb up together without any problem.

  Wu Feng said from behind at this time: "That He Bo didn't follow."

  As we looked back, I don't know when those river gods had disappeared without a trace. Everyone let out a big sigh of relief and relaxed. Wen Long came over and patted me on the back, saying: "I successfully completed my breakthrough mission, now it's your turn."

  I looked up at the sky and from this angle, it really did look like a flying saucer hovering above my head, giving me the feeling that it was about to descend. I pointed to the ladder and said, "No choice now, let's go up."

  Wen Long raised his head and took a look, saying: "The road to immortality has begun, two people in a group, we are ready to ascend to heaven."

  I gaze up at the heavenly path, unsure if it's truly possible to become an immortal.