Chapter 193: The Legend of the White Tower

During this chaos, the caravan leader Qing Li was very lucky. He did not die, nor was he injured. He had just suffered two severe mental shocks in a short period of time, so now he could not quite snap out of it.

It was only when the sound of Krama hooves stepping outside the caravan reached Qing Li’s ears that he slightly came back to his senses. He turned his head numbly and saw that black-haired man coming toward the caravan. His expression was calm, and there was not a trace of fatigue from the great battle in his movements, as if the dozens of people he had just killed were nothing more than grass.

When the Krama he was riding reached the outer perimeter of the caravan, its front legs suddenly went soft, and it collapsed to the ground. Black blood began to gush out from its mouth and nose, clearly indicating it was dead. At the same time, Lin Lei jumped down from the horse’s back.

He had liked this horse very much originally, but it just wouldn’t listen. Lin Lei, in a fit of anger, delivered a slap aimed right at the Krama’s cheek.

At that time, they were in the midst of battle, so every movement Lin Lei made was delivered with full force. This single slap dazed the fierce horse and severed its will to live. The series of actions that followed were more like a final flash of vitality before death.

Lin Lei walked over to where Qing Li was sitting by the wheel and stared blankly up at him. “Blood Wing, right? The people they sent out this time are all finished. You should get up and clean up, and we’ll continue our journey.”

“Oh? Oh!” Qing Li answered instinctively. The sense of powerlessness that had just filled his body mysteriously faded away. He crawled up using both his hands and feet, began to count the caravan’s losses, and seemed to have completely regained his vitality.

However, his occasional blank stares and dazed expressions still showed the huge impact that this narrow escape had on him.

The caravan’s cargo was basically undamaged. At most, a few carts had broken wooden frames, but these carts were originally tall and large, with strong resistance to collisions. Therefore, these slight damages could be easily repaired.

The most troublesome part was the cart drivers. Originally, there were fifteen large carts, and Qing Li had brought more than forty people. Now, over twenty had been killed, reducing the number by half.

Fortunately, the carts could still move. At worst, the survivors would just have to work a bit harder.

The condition of these survivors was also very poor, much worse than Qing Li’s. After realizing they had been saved, there was no expression of joy on their faces. They only silently got up, dragged their comrades’ and enemies’ corpses out of the caravan to bury them, and then did their work in silence like robots without saying a word.

However, these trivial matters had nothing to do with Lin Lei. With so many people missing from the caravan, there was plenty of clean water left for him to wash the blood off his body. He did not care much about this personally, but he had to consider the feelings of his wife and daughter.

Since his return from the great battle, Lin Xin had not dared to talk back to him. If she accidentally met his gaze, she would immediately pull her eyes away like a frightened small animal, not even daring to raise her head.

Lin Lei, Lenna, and Blood Wing’s battle had terrified this delicate young woman. The impact of such a brutal scene on her could only be washed away by time.

Fuweili, however, did not show any abnormalities. She had long known what kind of person Lin Lei was, and she loved him for it. Although she had been somewhat shocked at the time, she recovered quickly and instead concerned herself with whether Lin Lei was injured.

“Don’t worry, the blood on me belongs to others. I am completely fine.” Lin Lei said with a smile to Fuweili.

His smile reassured Fuweili, but made Lin Xin feel as if a chilling coldness had drifted around her again. Even her father’s smile looked fierce and bloody in her eyes. Could this killing god really be her father?

Although Qing Li was not in the best state, he quickly restored order to the chaotic caravan. Except for the slightly fishy smell in the air and the dark stains on the ground and carts, there were no traces of the great battle left to be seen.

To be honest, this disaster was brought by Lin Lei and the other three. Lin Lei understood this, Lenna understood this, and Qing Li, this shrewd caravan leader, also understood this.

Therefore, Qing Li did not feel much gratitude for Lin Lei and Lenna’s intervention. Instead, he harbored resentment toward the four people who had hitched a ride in the middle of the night.

But he did not dare to openly show this dissatisfaction. He had seen Lin Lei and Lenna’s peerless combat skills with his own eyes. In the eyes of this merchant, whether in Tang Kingdom or in Royce, such methods as ghosts and gods existed only in legendary novels.

They only circulated in people’s imaginations.

Seeing such a living situation right before his eyes now, Qing Li did not feel lucky at all; he was terrified. Because there is an old saying in Tang Kingdom: “When heaven undergoes a great change, extraordinary people must appear!”

These four people, especially the man and woman who fought just now, if they were not extraordinary people, then what were they?

Qing Li became increasingly respectful toward Lin Lei, fulfilling every request and answering every question Lin Lei had.

However, Lin Lei really did have some things to ask this well-traveled merchant, and it was about the White Tower within the territory of Royce.

The name “White Tower” was not just how Lin Lei called it. In fact, the native inhabitants of this world all called it that too.

This world is very vast. You can imagine how wide the surface of a huge celestial body is, with a radius only 4 Astronomical Units less than Uranus’s orbit.

Its radius is 234,000 times that of Earth, and its surface area is 55 billion times that of Earth. Not to mention the entire Earth, even the Sun, with a radius 109 times that of Earth, compared to this world would just be a small dot. Like that shining star in the sky that is always running, it cannot even illuminate half of the world’s surface!

The White Tower exists in the living areas of every intelligent race in this world. On the surface, the White Tower seems to exist only for the sake of existing.

No intelligent race knows the function of the White Tower. Its history seems to trace back to very, very long ago, recorded alongside the history of intelligent races.

Qing Li did not expect Lin Lei to ask about this. The White Tower had nothing to do with him. He was a native of Tang Kingdom and did not care about the White Tower located in Royce.

Moreover, no one knew why the White Tower existed. It had not brought disaster to people, nor had it brought blessings. In Royce, some religious sects’ belief systems mentioned the origin of the White Tower, but they were all vague, clearly looking like fictional things.

Qing Li racked his brains and finally had to helplessly shrug at Lin Lei: “My lord, the White Tower has little to do with my business, and I do not know much about it. I can only tell you that in Royce, there has always been a saying among the folk: ‘The White Tower is the path to the heavens, the salvation granted by the Deity to the mortal world!'”

Lin Lei pondered for a moment, clicked his tongue, and said to Qing Li, “That is quite profound words. Is there any specific legend associated with it?”

“There are some, but they are all vague things. For example, it is rumored that the original king of Royce received instructions from the heavenly god from the White Tower. Thus, he established a country on the ground. Also, the White Religion, which is spread throughout Royce, maintains the custom that ‘only those who can reach the top of the White Tower have the qualification to become the Pope.'”

Saying this, a mocking expression appeared on Qing Li’s face: “To become the Pope of the White Religion, one has to pay with their life. I wonder how many aspiring Popes have died by falling to their deaths in the thousands of years since the White Religion was founded. Haha, under the White Tower, corpses lie everywhere. Whether it connects to the heavens is unknown, but it definitely connects directly to hell.”

Qing Li rambled on for a long time, and later, most of what he said had nothing to do with the White Tower anymore, becoming anecdotes from his life.

Lin Lei did not interrupt Qing Li, who was speaking somewhat like he was venting his emotions, but listened patiently.

Until finally, Qing Li told another story related to the White Tower, which aroused a bit of interest in Lin Lei.

He said that a thousand years ago, a young man, young and ambitious, swore to climb the White Tower. As a result, he fell from the White Tower again and again. In the end, his hands and feet were all broken, but he still did not give up. Until he reached the age of sixty, he hard-climbed to the very peak of the White Tower.

After climbing to the top of the tower, he never came down. People thought he had starved to death at the top. For this useless old man, no one cared about his life or death. Unexpectedly, a year later, he came down from the top of the tower, and he had recovered his health and youth, becoming a young man again!

Lin Lei and Lenna looked at each other, catching a hint of something abnormal from each other’s eyes.

Xin’er, listening with great interest by the side, saw Qing Li stop and urged him, “And then? What happened to that young man?”

Daring not to look at Xin’er’s extraordinarily beautiful face, Qing Li only lowered his head and said, “There was no ‘and then.’ The story ends here.”

“But this story is strange. It has many loopholes. How did others determine that the young man under the tower was the same young man who had climbed to the top initially? Maybe he was just a passerby who happened to pass by the White Tower. Also, where the young man went at the end was not explained at all. This is obviously fabricated nonsense.” Xin’er persisted.

Qing Li had a bitter smile on his face. Once a legend meets someone who takes it seriously, it becomes impossible to explain clearly. He had heard the story from others himself and just listened to it as entertainment. He did not believe it at all. He did not expect that the youngest-looking girl in this carriage would treat it as history to be verified.

“That’s enough, Xin’er. Everyone knows this story is fake. Only you are smart.” Fuweili saw the embarrassment on Qing Li’s face and casually scolded Lin Xin a few times, thereby rescuing Qing Li from his predicament.

Qing Li took the opportunity to apologize to Lin Lei and exited the carriage. Once outside, he wiped the cold sweat from his forehead with his sleeve and let out a long sigh. Facing three stunningly beautiful women, the pressure on him was really immense.

Inside the carriage, Lin Lei sat cross-legged and looked at the three women, saying, “It seems the White Tower is our goal. The mystery of this strange world should be at the peak of the White Tower!”