A low and drawn-out sound came from the lower reaches of the river. It echoed in a low octave, as though a gigantic beast was using its nose to blow air. I had never heard such a sound before, but Sakina's face instantly lit up with joy. "Ah, we really made it in time. The ship has arrived so quickly!" It seemed like that was the whistle of a ship in this world.
A humongous figure appeared in the distance along with the whistle. It was moving very fast, and it didn't take long for it to completely appear in our sight. It was a two-story or three-story metal ship. The ship's body was engraved with strange, colorful patterns. We didn't see any sails, but we could see white waves rising from the stern of the ship. From afar, I could sense that there was a stable energy source releasing energy within the ship. This might explain why we didn't see any sails on this wooden ship: it seemed to be powered by magic.
A product of alchemy … Alright, I was already used to the various ingenious civilian machines that popped up in this magical world. Who said that magic couldn't be used for civilian purposes just like science and technology? After the fully automatic anti-gravity magic elevator, we saw a steel freighter with a magic shield that could travel at a speed of 35 knots. Not only that, this freighter's surface was enchanted to solve the problem of water resistance. This last point was discovered by Alaya, who was stretching her back in my mind. That sleepyhead's Mysticism knowledge was at the peak. In terms of knowledge, even a True God like Icetis, who lived by fighting for a living, couldn't compare to her. No matter what rules the current world followed, as long as she analyzed the energy activity values and certain "frequencies" in the surrounding space, Alaya would be able to determine more than 80% of the magic forms in this world.
I had to admit that this was a terrifying ability. However, it seemed that the only use of this terrifying ability was to doze off and babysit in my mind. Oh, right, she would come out every few days to ask me to comb her hair. Alaya had really fallen into a complete piglet now.
(After Lin's direct "blessing", the two Dracon girls now had their own personal dimensional space. Although they weren't used to using it yet, it was still much more convenient than their original large backpacks.) She took out a small yellowish-brown square object and played with it in her hand. After a short while, the steel freighter that was gradually approaching us let out three short whistles, as though it was responding to something. Sakina smiled and raised the small square object in her hand. "This is a distress signal. Explorers always bring one with them when they go out. Many large teams that work in the wilderness have equipment to receive distress signals. Because of the existence of the lost world, all kinds of outdoor rescue technology has developed the fastest here. This can be considered as the last necessary benefit of this world for the high-risk job of explorers. " Sakina might have learned the word 'benefit' from Liliana, and now, she was able to put it to good use.
Me: "…" Meow, even the people of Earth don't have such technology — — of course, it could be said that they do, but it's not as complete as this magical world. They have already set up a worldwide network for instant help. As expected, there are rules everywhere.
The ship was still a few hundred meters away from the shore, and only a small boat was lowered. The small boat was driven by three strong, dark-skinned sailors wearing coarse shirts. "Hey! Was it you who sent the distress signal? "
"Ah, we are explorers … travelers," Sakina replied as she took out some money from her pocket. "We want to go to the Sky Tower, and we hope to hitch a ride on the ship. Of course, we will pay the travel fee according to the rules."
"Going to the Sky Tower?" The dark-skinned, middle-aged man who was leading the group glanced at us. "There are quite a lot of people … Err, I say, did you guys come from the teleportation point here?" The middle-aged man seemed to have suddenly recalled something. He raised his head and looked at the fog on the far side of the river. That was the teleportation point from the Mother Continent. As a sailor who traveled on this river all year round, he obviously knew that it was the opening day of the teleportation point.
"Well, there is a special reason." Sakina smiled noncommittally. "Can we get on the ship now?"
The dark-skinned sailor looked at us with an uncertain expression. In the end, he felt that even the most daring privateers wouldn't bring their wives and children to rob a ship on the floating river. So, he nodded and said in a low, muffled voice, "Come on, but don't move around. Also, remember the rules of the floating river. Children are not allowed to go to the rear deck."
A large group of people boarded a small boat and boarded the gigantic steel freighter. The freighter let out a long whistle as it braved the wind and waves to embark on its voyage. Qian Qian led a group of dolls and happily ran around on the spacious deck. She held a camera and kept taking pictures. I guessed that she was planning to post this on Weibo when she returned. I would have to think of a way to stop her. The elder sister leaned on the side of the boat, enjoying the gentle breeze on the floating river. Her black hair swayed slightly in the air. She tilted her head and looked at me. "If we teleport upstream directly, it won't be as fun as it is now. Look below, we can vaguely see the clouds at the bottom of the river. "
I agreed with her sister's opinion. Riding on the magic-powered ship and sailing on the floating river, what we could see wasn't the river's surface or the riverbank, but a boundless sea of clouds. The river below was so clear that we could see the bottom, and we could even vaguely see the clouds under the water. This fairytale-like scenery was indeed rare. Even though we had been to many strange worlds and seen all kinds of magical sights, including the wonders of the universe, the void was so vast that there were still many things that we had never seen before. For example, this place.
With such a magical scenery, it was no wonder that Shallow Shallow was so happy.
"Ah Jun, Ah Jun! Look over there! " Shallow Shallow suddenly ran over and pulled my arm to point to the sky. Following the direction of her finger, I was instantly surprised. At the edge of the sea of clouds, I could vaguely see a pure white castle.
It was also floating in the sky, as though it was made out of clouds. The castle was pure white and majestic, and it shone brilliantly under the sunlight of an unknown source above the floating river.
"It really feels like a fairytale-like world!" Shallow Shallow swung my arm happily. "My childhood dream has finally come true!"
After trying to identify it for a long time, I finally recognized that the Cloud Castle in the sky was none other than my own frozen castle. If I looked closely, the huge hole in the castle's door was still there!
"I placed it there just now, and it's already frozen in the sky." Shallow Shallow had a proud look on her face, as though she was waiting for someone to praise her creativity. "Doesn't this make it even more like a fairytale-like world? I've been dreaming of this since I was nine years old. I would sit on a magic ship that could fly, and in the distance, there was a castle built out of clouds, and in the castle lived the beautiful Cloud Princess. Then, I would become a witch from the North, and I would steal the prince from the princess … "
Lin Xue was standing by the side. She was also intoxicated by the miraculous scenery here, and was even more attracted by Shallow Shallow's fairytale-like story. At least, it was like that for the first half of the story, but when she heard the second half, she choked on her words. "Cough cough … She became a witch to steal the prince from the princess? What kind of trauma did this girl go through when she was young? "
"There's a continuation to her story." I glanced at the missy. "Along the way, she met an Eastern witch, a Western witch, and a Southern witch. The four of them formed a party to hunt the princess, and in the end, they teamed up with the prince to tear down the Cloud Castle. She wrote a continuation to every fairytale-like book that Shallow Shallow read when she was young, and she still treasures them. Do you want to take a look? "
Lin Xue was stunned, and she muttered to herself, "… Until I was eleven, I still dreamed of being the princess of the Fairy Kingdom … Compared to this girl who was already planning to turn into a witch to hunt the princess and steal the prince when she was nine years old, I'm so weak …"
I smiled at Shallow Shallow beside me, and I suddenly felt that this might be the most adorable side of her. Putting aside all those messy thoughts, to be able to keep the fairytale-like story that she told when she was nine years old until now, and to really build a castle in the clouds in the sky, and even enjoy it so much that she didn't care about the impact of the passing of time on her heart, how else could a girl like this be described other than adorable?
Alright, I know that there's another way to describe her, 'silly' … I won't deny it, really.
"Ah Jun, look! There are fish in the river! " Shallow Shallow couldn't stay idle for even a moment longer. The moment I urged her to put away her ice castle (I was worried that it would frighten people, even though it looked no different from a mirage from here), she pointed to the bottom of the ship and shouted. It turned out that a large school of fish had gathered on the side of the freighter, and they were sticking closely to the side of the ship. Of course, they were called fish only because they were swimming in the water. These strange creatures were quite different from the fish on Earth. They had grayish-black shells on their backs, and their bodies were almost perpendicular to the surface of the water. They used their bellies to stick close to the high-speed freighter, and they gathered in groups. It seemed that they wanted to hang onto the ship. Occasionally, some of the weaker "fish" would be pushed back by the shockwaves, but most of them would stick close to the hull of the ship safely.
"That's the Grey-armored Swift Fish, a unique specialty of the Floating River," Shakina introduced. "This kind of fish lives near the broken banks of the middle reaches of the Floating River. Every month, they will swim upstream to lay their eggs. Because the young fish are physically weak, and they don't know how to hide from the turbulence, they will be washed out of the Floating River and float into the clouds when they are born downstream. They are very smart fellows. When they swim upstream, they will wait for passing freighter to catch a ride. Of course, if they can't find a spot, they will have to swim upstream by themselves. "
"Oh …" Sandora dragged out her voice and suddenly tugged on my arm. "Ah Jun, I want to eat them."
I facepalmed. "These are rare animals. You should be careful with your words."
"Ah Jun, Ah Jun." Shallow Shallow was standing on the highest point of the ship's bow. She opened her arms and greeted me. "Come, hug me from behind. Let's see if I look like Titanic. I can even sing that song, the Law of Conservation of Heart …"
My sister and I hurriedly pulled her down and scolded her, "That's unlucky!"
The days I spent with this girl were so much fun. Couldn't she do something normal people would think of?
The journey was smooth and fast. The freighter, which was powered by magic, relied on controlling the water elements at the back of the ship to generate propulsion. At the same time, the enchantments on the body of the ship negated 70% to 80% of the water resistance. Hence, the speed of the ship was astonishingly fast. Throughout the journey, the ship only slowed down once. That was when we approached a narrow section of the river. For safety's sake, the freighter had to slow down.
Sailing on the Hanging River was more dangerous than sailing on land. That was, you absolutely couldn't get too close to the shore. If you sailed on land, if you lost control of your course and got too close to the shore, the worst-case scenario would be that you would run aground. Even if the ship sank, it would be easy to rescue you. But in the Hanging River, if you were to rush out of the river … there was no shore in the surrounding 60-70% of the river. You would fly out of the water and into the clouds that were dozens of kilometers thick. After that, you wouldn't know where you would end up. It was said that there had been a similar incident in history. It happened in the early days of the Hanging River's navigation system. A magic-powered freighter lost control while passing through a bend and plunged into a nearby sea of clouds. Even now, the wrecked freighter was still floating in the clouds. It slowly drifted along the Hanging River. The crew members on the freighter were very lucky. Before they starved to death, the griffin knights found them and rescued them. However, the humans were unable to pull the gigantic freighter back into the river. Thus, it became a warning monument. If your eyesight was good and you were lucky, you could even occasionally see the high bow of the "Wandering Ship" peeking out from the distant clouds.
All these stories were told to me by Shakina. She was like an encyclopedia. Although she mocked herself for her low level of education, she did know a lot of strange legends and stories. All of them were accumulated over many years of adventuring.
"Duuuuuuuu — —" An even louder whistle interrupted our casual conversation. It turned out that the cargo ship had already started to slow down. In front of us, the river suddenly became abnormally wide. On both sides of the river was a vast expanse. If it wasn't for my enhanced vision, I probably wouldn't have been able to see the riverbank and the rows of buildings in the distance. I would have thought that I was on the surface of the sea. In front of us was an island covered in green vegetation. There was a concave area on the opposite side of the island. It was a natural harbor, and the freighter was about to dock.
"There are residential areas on both sides of the river, but there's nothing to see. It's crowded, and there are only two military towns with soldiers stationed there," Shakina said. "The Sky Tower's teleportation area is on the island. It's not far from the shore. Let's go. Get ready for a fight. There are guards at the back door of the Sky Tower. "
Sona went to greet the captain. Then, she helped her sister and Kuako gather up all the naughty kids and big naughty kids who were running around on the deck. The group of us got off the boat and set foot on the land of the largest island in the suspended river.
There weren't many people in the floating river area. After all, this was a lost world and not the mother continent. The people who were stationed here were basically stationed in a different dimension. Naturally, they couldn't form a large force. Except for the cargo port, where some soldiers and workers were stationed, the rest of the island was basically a barren land. No one planned to settle down in this place anyway. The teleportation point of the Sky Tower was located at the bottom of a cliff about a hundred meters away from the port. Behind it was a giant stone cliff, and in front of it was an open riverbank. The teleportation point was quite small. In fact, the only thing that stood out was a stone tile field about a hundred square meters on the riverbank. The stone tile field was projected on the sand and stones on the riverbank. That was the entrance to the Sky Tower.
However, as soon as we stood on the stone tile field, the scenery around us changed instantly.
The wide water surface of the floating river disappeared in front of us. What replaced it was a huge stone square.
Huge stone tiles that were a few meters long were laid on the ground in a smooth manner. Each stone tile had a simple yet beautiful mysterious line on it. These lines stretched out seamlessly and formed a complete pattern on the entire square. Of course, we couldn't tell what the pattern was from the ground. Other than the stone square, there was nothing in front of us. We could only see the edge of the square connected to the clouds.
"That's the Sky Tower." Sona turned around and pointed behind us. "It's spectacular, isn't it? No matter how many times I see it, it's a miracle. It's a pity that Sona and I have only been here once or twice. The Sky Tower is too dangerous for a weak team like us. "
"Damn!" I turned around and couldn't help but exclaim, "This … this is even bigger than the World Tree!"
What I saw wasn't a tower at all! Or rather, it was a tower, but I couldn't see the structure of the tower from this distance. This thing was too huge! What appeared in front of me was a wall with a slight curve. The wall extended to both sides until it reached the end of my sight. It was like a vertical horizon. How high was it?
I couldn't see the top. I looked up to the limit, but I could only see this towering wall disappearing at the end of the clear sky.
Of course, this wasn't the first time I saw such a huge thing. In fact, as long as you looked closely at the giant spaceships built by the Empire, each of them gave you the same feeling. It was similar to the illusion of "a vertical continent". I had seen many of these in the Empire's spaceport. No matter how big this Sky Tower was, it definitely couldn't defeat an Eternal-class mothership. In fact, it was only the size of a medium-sized Empire spaceship. But this place was different. This wasn't the Shadow City. This was another world, a world where even buildings were built with stones and wood!
This tower was definitely not built by any of the existing civilizations in this world. Of course, I already knew that every ruin in the lost world wasn't built by any of the existing civilizations in the mother continent. But the scale of this Sky Tower still exceeded my expectations.
There were no decorations on the outer wall of the Sky Tower. It was just a layer of smooth, pale yellow surface. There were no windows or brick cracks, and there were no signs of layers. The material was neither metal, wood, nor stone. Just this layer of the outer wall alone was enough to pique our interest.
"It's a complex synthetic material." Sandora scanned the composition of the tower wall with just a glance. But obviously, she wasn't thinking about what the tower was made of. "The tower's height is up to 35 kilometers. Its weight … is meaningless. It relies on anti-gravity and micro-adjustment of area vectors to maintain its own stability. The entire tower is changing its net mass at a fixed cycle. Also, the tower has an energy shield. "
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