The water vapor produced after the lake surface boils is extremely hot, and the water and water vapor at the same temperature are more serious than the water after they come into contact with the human body, because the water vapor must first liquefy and release heat, liquefy into water of the same temperature and then scald people, so the water vapor is more serious to people.

In order to avoid the billowing water vapor, we climbed frantically up the stone stairs that spiraled upward, but the vigorous exercise was so physically exhausting that after about ten minutes, I felt that my legs no longer belonged to me, and I even started to cramp a little.

Not only me, but each of us was exhausted, our legs were as heavy as if they had been filled with lead, and the so-called "stepping" had become like slow motion.

"No, I can't do it......"

Hyde gasped like a bellows and stopped.

I hurriedly pushed him on the back: "I can't stop now, come on!" ”

Hyde shook his hand and said, "I really can't do it anymore, I give up, you can continue......"

"You ......"

I can't wait to slap him directly to sober him up, because stopping at this time is tantamount to looking for death!

As I passed through the window of the previous tower, I noticed that the steam was still extremely hot - I don't know how long the crater lake below would have been boiling, and if the "36 hours" rule meant that the crater lake would continue to erupt for that long, we would be in a desperate situation right now!

Don't say stop now, just keep climbing up, we may not be able to get out of danger!

Shen Tangzhi also said anxiously: "Ace, if you give up now, it is equivalent to giving up your life!" If you just climb, you have to climb for me! ”

At this time, I remembered that Hyde had encountered several accidents along the way, especially the possession of evil spirits sealed in the "snow pith", which may have greatly affected his body, causing his physical strength to weaken significantly.

"Yoshimitsu, leave it to us." A voice rang out behind me, it was Tenzin Kava.

Tenzing Kawa and Poche, who followed us, were the last two Sherpas in our ranks, and their physical strength was noticeably much better than that of us "urbanites", and they both seemed a little more relaxed now.

Poche first unloaded the backpack on Hyde's back and carried it on his shoulder, and then supported Hyde with Tenzin Kava left and right, and walked up with him, the speed was still faster than us and Shen Tangzhi.

Shen Tangzhi and I glanced at each other: these Sherpas are worthy of being "porters in the Himalayas", and their physical fitness is really too strong!

They walked to the front, and Shen Tangzhi and I hung the back of the car, and the two of us could barely move our legs, but we couldn't stop, so we could only lean down, use our hands and feet together, and continue to climb up in a very unsightly posture.

Neither of us had time to make fun of each other, and now we're running for our lives!

Dignity is something that only those who survive can enjoy, and in a desperate situation, saving one's life is the first priority.

"Stopped! The eruption of the crater lake has stopped, stopped! ”

There was a cheer from the old knife in front of him, and he continued: "Yes, it should be fine, you can rest......"

Lao Dao's words, listening to our ears, are like hearing fairy music!

All of us sat down on the stone stairs as if we had been pardoned, and at this time we did not care about any of our manners, all of us were panting like dead dogs, and our faces were covered with sweat.

Tenzin Kawa only rested for more than ten seconds and stood up again: "Everyone take off their mountaineering clothes and only wear close-fitting warm clothes, if the sweat can't be discharged, we will get frostbitten." ”

As he spoke, he and Poche had begun to take off their heavy mountaineering suits.

"Yoshimitsu, did you notice anything wrong when you climbed all the way up just now?" Shen Tangzhi also took off his mountaineering clothes.

Of course, even if she took off her mountaineering clothes, she still wore several layers of warm clothes inside, but the clothes inside were all tight-fitting designs, which immediately revealed Shen Tangzhi's graceful female curves, and I quickly turned my head.

"What's wrong?"

"When is it, don't pay attention to these. Besides, I'm not wearing several layers of clothes. Shen Tangzhi saw me turn his head and smiled lightly, "Look at the ground." ”

As soon as I looked at the ground under my feet, my eyes widened: "On the ground...... How is there no dust? ”

I distinctly remember that when I first entered the Tower of Babel, there was a thick layer of dust on the stone floor of the tower, but now, the ground is spotless.

It stands to reason that this ancient tower may be as old as the land of heaven and sea, but when we climbed up the ancient tower, we didn't smell the rotten smell of old buildings, and not only that, but I didn't see any wooden structures used in this giant tower—or that those wooden structures had completely decayed and disappeared into dust.

The only way up is a staircase made of huge square strips, like a gray-white giant serpent, coiled on a huge solid stone pillar along the inner edge of the Tower of Babel, spiraling upward, as if endless.

Each step was wide, slightly higher than normal—we had had enough of the hard climb we had just had......

However, if we want to reach the "Polar Sea" that hangs high in the sky that day, we need to continue to climb the steps, which may reach 100,000 steps.

That's a pretty scary number, and it's not possible for us to do it in a day, so even in the extreme exhaustion of the moment, none of us have left behind our backpacks, which are an important resource to keep us alive.

In addition to the absence of dust on the ground, we noticed that the content of the murals on the walls inside the tower has also changed dramatically.

In the beginning, we saw carvings on the walls that we couldn't even call them murals – because they were just simple geometric shapes or lines of unknown significance.

According to my personal understanding, I think it is possible that the carvings are not "frescoes" at all, but rather the numbering of the building materials of the Babel Tower, the huge stones.

There is a precedent for this.

During the excavation of the Egyptian pyramids, archaeologists found that the stone walls of the pyramids often saw traces of carving with simple lines or geometric figures, and finally verified that it was the number of the huge stones used by the ancients to build the pyramids, in order to identify where the stone should be stacked.

The markings we found inside the Tower of Babel may have served the same purpose.

Now, however, the engravings we see have changed: in addition to simple geometric patterns and curves, there are also some strange symbols that resemble cuneiform script.

It should also be noted that all the carvings we see have large frames, such as those cuneiform symbols, each of which is close to the size of a normal person's head.

Shen Tangzhi pointed to the symbols on the wall and said, "These symbols may be an ancient script, very similar in appearance to cuneiform, but they are still different in nature - I am more inclined to think that this is a kind of writing based on geometric figures, which is why they look so similar to cuneiform." You see, for example, this symbol, the lower half of it is three hollow acute triangles, and the upper half is a solid circle with a square superimposed on it......"

I took a closer look, and sure enough.

Other symbols can also be decomposed into different amounts of basic geometric figures using Shen Tangzhi's method.

While talking, Shen Tang took out his mobile phone and asked me to shine it with a flashlight, and then took pictures of the symbols that appeared on the wall.

Hyde sat on the ground for a long time, and finally regained his breath, he looked up at the symbols on the wall, and said, "You are right, I agree that this is a geometric-based text - this is a unique discovery, and there is no similar ancient writing in the world. ”

Shen Tangzhi asked him: "Ace, do you think this could be the text of the ancestors of Somol?" Or is it the text of the land of heaven and sea? ”

"Well......" Hyde thought for a moment, "we've seen the murals left by the Somol ancestors, and they seem to have stayed in the age of graphic memorization, rather than evolving a more concise text. These symbols are completely different, they are a complete writing system that we haven't seen before. ”

Hyde's meaning was clear, he felt that it was the text of the land of heaven and sea.

But at this moment, the voice of the old knife came: "Aji, come quickly!" I found a room on it! ”

At this time, the sweat on our bodies was almost gone, and everyone put on their mountaineering clothes again, turned a flight of stairs upward, and sure enough, they came to a very smooth stone platform.

In the center of this stone platform, there is still a large round stone column, but the surrounding area is flat ground, and here, there is a large window.

The old knife stood in front of the window, looking down, and was still muttering: "Come and see, the scenery below is really shocking......

Looking down from the window, you can already get a panoramic view of most of the crater lake.

Although the eruption of the crater lake has gradually stopped, the water vapor evaporating from the surface of the lake is still very thick, and from our perspective, it feels as if we are in the clouds.

The crater lake was shrouded in a white sea of fog, and only a vague outline could be seen, and the sea of fog churned with the mountain wind, which not only had a sense of the vastness of the sea, but also made people doubt that they were in the Taixu Wonderland, and the next second they were about to flutter and fly up with the wind.

However, my eyes with Shen Tangzhi and Hyde only briefly stopped at the beautiful scenery outside the window, and then we were attracted by the murals on the walls of the platform.

The composition and painting techniques of these murals are completely different from those we have seen in the caves of Borobudur or Dhaulagiri Peak, which also confirms Hyde's judgment that the builder of this ancient pagoda may have nothing to do with the ancestors of Somer, and it seems to be a fallacy for Tenzin Kava to call it the "Tower of Babel of Somol".

There are eight murals in total, and they cover just every wall of the octahedral Tower of Babel.

The first seven murals are quite simple, depicting huge stars hanging high in the sky that radiate brilliant light, while on the ground, countless humanoid creatures are kneeling in worship.

All the differences are in those "humanoids".

Two of the creatures depicted in the frescoes can be judged to be "humans": one of them is strong and savage, and naked**, much like the ancient apes; The other kind of human beings wore simple fur clothes decorated with feathers, exactly like the "tribal ancestors" depicted in the Somol murals we saw earlier, which should refer to the people of the ancient kingdom of Somer.

The humanoids on the other five murals make us wonder and even panic.

For example, one of the murals depicts humanoid creatures like lizards or snakes, with snake-like flattened heads and elongated bodies, with two thin forelimbs covered with thin scales that only reptiles can find beneath the head of the snake, and these creatures have no legs, and a thick tail replaces the function of the legs, as if they were snakes walking upright. Most of these "snake people" are naked, and only a few wear bizarre headdresses;

Another mural depicts a fantastical "Eye Demon" with a huge head, more than 70% of the surface of the head is occupied by eyes, which range in number from one to dozens, and their limbs are replaced by limbs that resemble octopus tentacles.

Other murals depict humanoids resembling pentagonal anemones, one of which is the head and the other four are limbs;

Other frescoes depict strange humanoids like these, all of which have a uniform movement – worshipping a shining star hanging high in the sky.

The content of the last mural is very difficult to understand.

On top of the entire wall, only a few spiral lines were depicted, like a huge vortex, and nothing else.

Shen Tang said: "Do those stars worshipped by humanoid creatures represent the faith of the country of heaven and sea?" Or is it an obscure expression of a god? ”

Tenzin Kawa interjected, "Our Sherpa ancestors had devout star worship, and these murals may be related to star worship. ”

Tenzin Kawa's concept of being a descendant of the Tangut royal family seems to have been deeply rooted, and it is undeniable that the murals on the wall may indeed be related to the worship of the stars, but even if the legend of the Tangut royal family taking refuge in the Himalayas is true, there is no reason why the Xingyao worship culture of the Tangut dynasty in turn influenced the more ancient and mysterious kingdom of heaven and sea.

Moreover, many of the humanoid creatures on the murals are still considered "fantasy creatures" and have never been actually discovered in the archaeological sense, which seems to indicate that the content of the murals may be related to an ancient era when humans were not yet born.

I was about to refute it, but the old knife made a new discovery.

"There's also a room up there, and there's a big door! In the gate...... ...... inside the gate"

He seemed to be a little speechless because he was too shocked.

After a few seconds, the voice of the old knife panting continued:

"A city! Wocao, I was not dazzled, it really is a city - just across the gate! ”

We rushed up, and after dozens of steps, there was indeed another identical platform, but the original position of the window became a stone door more than two meters wide.

It was clear that it was daytime outside the ancient tower, but inside the stone gate was darkness, as if it were in the middle of night.

A translucent passage shimmered with a faint blue light, extending from the stone gate in front of us, and at the end of the passage, there was a brightly lit city!