Chapter 295 The Prisoner and the Wedding of the King
“How did I fall asleep?”
Lin Luoran touches the cold stone bed and sits up immediately. She is in a palace decorated with a lot of gold foil. It is as bright as daytime inside. The Babylonian architectural features make Lin Luoran realizes that she is in the palace and does not wake up after pa.s.sing the test of the Tower of Babel and get back to the twenty-first century.
However, she clearly remembers that she sneaked into a group of maids and went somewhere similar to the side hall of a palace. Why does she sleep on a bed here? Most of the ordinary people in Babylon wear linen clothes while what is put on the stone bed is authentic silk.
“What did the textbook say when I was in school?” Lin Luoran thinks. Didn’t the Silk Road arise in the Western Han Dynasty? Why are there silk sheets here? Lin Luoran is resentful, but she then feels that she is too childish and hilarious. The original history of this world shatters little by little after she becomes a cultivator, doesn’t it?
Calm down. Lin Luoran bites her tongue and looks at the empty palace. There is no one. Gold and jewellery cannot bring her warmth. Rather, they make the palace even colder. She remembers some vulgar novels of being sent to the past such as The Pharaoh’s Favourite Concubine. The heroine always wakes up in the king’s bed after pa.s.sing through time, like what happens to Lin Luoran now!
Lin Luoran shudders and touches her pocket. The two pieces of figure paper that should have been there are gone.
This is totally unsettling. Lin Luoran rolls over and sits up. She pulls the silk sheet off the bed and shakes it for a few times. There is some grey dirt on the sheet. It seems like what she smeared on her face and arms, but there isn’t any clue of the figure papers.
“Are you looking for these?” A clear and melodious female voice comes from the gate of the palace. Lin Luoran suddenly stands up straight and sees that it is a woman in silk Shenyi. Thanks to the days when Lin Luoran studied at the University of Chuan in order to find the soul wood, she is pretty sure that it is Shenyi once she sees it. The sleeves are very wide and about to reach the ground. In fact, common people also see clothes like this frequently. Most of the statues of Confucius feature this kind of clothes. Does it mean that the Asian woman in front of Lin Luoran comes from the Spring and Autumn period of Huaxia?
It is supposed to be such a moving moment when two people with the same hometown meet each other. However they are not separated by the time of two thousand years, but two pieces of figure paper in this woman’s hand. Lin Luoran suddenly realizes that only senior cultivators can come to Babylon in this era.
What did this senior cultivator just say? It sounded a bit familiar, much like a dialect. Lin Luoran is confused. The woman wearing Shenyi is obviously defeated by the stupidity Lin Luoran shows on her face. A beam of light enters Lin Luoran’s forehead. A stream of information flows in her brain, just like how White Fairy’s memory bead worked. Lin Luoran immediately gains the ability to understand all kinds of languages as if she were given a plug-in.
She can understand the dialect of the woman in Shenyi now.
“I should give you my regards, master.” It definitely is a plug-in! Lin Luoran shouts silently in her heart. She just opened her mouth and the same accent flowed out automatically.
The woman in Shenyi holds the figure papers in hand and says in despise, “Your personal abilities are so low. How dare you come into a scene like this!”
Those two pieces of figure paper are masterpieces of the Qingcheng Taoist Temple. Seeing they are belittled like that, Lin Luoran feels a bit angry. However, she is not a close friend of the Qingcheng Taoist Temple and doesn’t need to defend the temple by arguing with the woman. Speaking of it, the world of cultivation has seriously declined in two thousand years. Maybe, the figure papers and herself do look useless in the eyes of the woman. Sigh!
Nevertheless, how does she answer this woman? In terms of schools that existed thousands of years ago, Lin Luoran vaguely remembers that White Fairy mentioned she was from the Misty Peaks. There is also the Joy School. Zu Mountain may also exist. The problem is no one knows the woman in front of her belongs to which school. What if the woman comes from one of these? Thinking of it, Lin Luoran chooses to be honest.
“I am an individual cultivator who pa.s.ses by. I heard the interstellar transmission circle is here and want to take a look at it.”
The woman in Shenyi snorts coldly, “You don’t tell all the truth and talks vulgarly. If you were an individual cultivator, why are your abilities inhibited? The Tower of Babel is a secret. How can an ordinary individual cultivator know about it? How dare you sneak into your highness’s guard of honor after offending other grandmasters! You stay in this palace. I’ll interrogate you the day after tomorrow.”
Does Lin Luoran become a prisoner to some extent? Unarmed Lin Luoran feels very insecure.
She is one hundred percent sure who the woman is now. She is so unlucky to come across a cultivator beyond Gathering Vitality. Only they will call themselves “your highness”. “Did I speak vulgarly?”, Lin Luoran asks herself. She just didn’t speak completely in standard language. It shouldn’t have been the reason for the woman to treat her so rudely.
Lin Luoran finds a girl hiding outside the gate of the palace and peeking at them. She has blue eyes, a prominent nose and healthy blush on her light-toned cheek. She is as tall as Lin Luoran and taller than average people at this age. That’s the typical look of people from ethnic groups in the region of the Two Rivers.
This beautiful exotic girl is wearing a long silk dress. Her two braids are decorated with jewellery made of gems. They s.h.i.+ne brightly together with her long brown hair. Lin Luoran instantly knows that the girl is n.o.ble.
At this age of low productivity, it is so common that n.o.ble girls are more beautiful than ordinary girls. Only a n.o.ble family can provide enough food that the girl needs for growth. Only in this way, can she be this tall and charming. A reasonable diet structure gives her the healthy glow on her face. It also needs a lot of precious materials such as fruits to take good care of her hair and makes it as s.h.i.+ny as the gems put in her braids.
“Teacher, does she come from your nation?”
The girl rushes in like a little bird and stands next to the woman in Shenyi.
“Teacher”, what a warm word! The girl speaks in the same Arabic dialect Lin Luoran heard before, but she understands everything she said. Does that plug-in translate more than one language? Lin Luoran is delighted with surprise and doesn’t know how to express her excitement to the girl when she stares at the girl.
Language is the bridge of communication. Being able to understand the words of the locals is very helpful in solving Lin Luoran’s questions about the Tower of Babel. For this reason, she almost wants to thank the woman in Shenyi for holding her in custody.
“Amytis, why are you here? The bride who is going to have her wedding should take a good rest.” The coldness on the woman’s face disappears a lot. She says so, but she doesn’t really mean to blame the girl.
It seems as if Lin Luoran were transparent in front of them. She thinks resentfully that the woman neither speaks in standard ancient language nor in what everyone speaks nowadays. Who allows the woman to say she is vulgar?
Amytis puckers her mouth. At that moment, Lin Luoran feels as if she saw another Li Xi’er.
“Teacher, you haven’t told me yet. Does she come from the mysterious East, like you?”
The woman in Shenyi throws a warning look to Lin Luoran and nods, although she doesn’t want to admit. Amytis is attracted deeply by the mysterious East where her omnipotent teacher comes from.
“Amytis, are you coming to ask me something?”
Amytis pats her head and says, “The high priest wants to discuss tomorrow’s ceremony with you, teacher.”
The woman nods and leaves gracefully after asking Amytis not to wander randomly in the palace. Lin Luoran is relieved. She was too nervous to notice how the woman in Shenyi looked. The oppression the woman gave to her was too powerful.
“h.e.l.lo, I’m Amytis from Media.” The beautiful young girl greets Lin Luoran with a warm smile.
Lin Luoran is flattered. The girl doesn’t regard her as a stranger. “h.e.l.lo, I’m Lin Luoran from the distant East.” The girl is so welcoming. If they shook their hand, Lin Luoran would think that she returned to the 21st century. The language gap has disappeared. Lin Luoran can speak fluently in the local language. This is a good start.
Given that this local girl is obviously easier to deal with than the woman in Shenyi, Lin Luoran decides to find her first breakthrough on her. What did the woman in Shenyi just say? A wedding?
“Amytis, are you going to have a wedding soon?” The girl seems to be only fifteen or sixteen years old and is about to get married. It turns out that getting married at an early age is not a unique tradition of ancient Huaxia.
Amytis’s blue eyes are filled with smile, “With the help of my teacher, I’m going to marry a Babylonian hero. I’ll be too glad to fall asleep tonight.”
Does the woman also do things like matchmaking? Lin Luoran’s instinct tells her that cultivators won’t have a hobby like this. Why exactly did the woman come all the way here to be a matchmaker?
“Who is the Babylonian hero?”
Amytis blushes, “In Babylon and Mesopotamia, only Nebuchadnezzar can be called a hero. My teacher said that I would be a good queen, but in fact, I know nothing……”
Lin Luoran is touched by Amytis’s thoughts as a young girl and relates to her stress before getting married. She listens quietly while the name of the hero reminds her of something she remembers.
Wait, Nebuchadnezzar? Is he Nebuchadnezzar II?
Amytis of Media……Oh my G.o.d, she is the Babylonian version of Huaxia’s Daji. Is the little girl standing in front of her the future queen of Babylon who asks Nebuchadnezzar II to build the well-known Hanging Gardens for her?
Lin Luoran stares at Amytis with a complicated facial expression.