Tower of Babel Has How Many Floors?

"~~"

Whistling, Old Li sat behind his desk, casually flipping through intelligence reports sent back from all over the Great Chu. Although there were people specifically responsible for reviewing them, he still liked to look through them himself whenever he had a spare moment.

"Boss! Boss!"

Suddenly, calls came from outside the door. Old Li frowned slightly, but still spoke:

"What's up?"

"There's a master outside who specifically requests to see you. He's mastered the Yellow Robe Eighteen Falls, already at the Gold Robe level, and says he's an old friend of yours!"

The young man, dressed in coarse cloth and with a towel draped over his shoulder, looking like a waiter, spoke up. Although he looked like just an ordinary waiter, if a real fight broke out, even three or five grandmasters might not be able to defeat him.

"An old friend?" Old Li raised an eyebrow. Although he didn't think there were any old friends in this area, he still nodded and said:

"Take him to the Bamboo Forest Pavilion, I'll be there right away."

"Alright!" The young man turned and left, while Old Li stood up, stretched his body slightly, and then, holding a small red clay teapot, slowly walked towards the Bamboo Forest Pavilion.

A one-minute walk took him almost ten minutes, but as soon as the door to the Bamboo Forest Pavilion opened, he darted inside, slammed the Room Door shut, and then exclaimed in surprise:

"Didn't you already go back to Infinite City? I thought you had locked the door!"

"The door is closed, but there are Descent Rule!" Feng Xue shrugged, calmly sipped her tea, and Old Li then pretended to slap his forehead, as if suddenly realizing something.

"Look at me, I'd completely forgotten that your Xuanjun is already Weird Tale. What brings you back this time?"

"It's nothing serious, just a few things I wanted to ask you." Feng Xue crossed her legs, and seeing his posture, Old Li relaxed as well. He took a sip of the yellow wine from the teapot and sat down opposite Feng Xue, saying:

"Ask me? What is it? If you want to know something right now, you can just go to the tavern and buy it, right? Or is it about the Hundred Tales?"

"The Hundred Tales no longer exist in this world," Feng Xue said calmly. Old Li didn't react for a moment, and after a long pause, he finally processed Feng Xue's words and stared wide-eyed.

What did you say?

"I said there's no more Hundred Tales. Aoyagi Lantern swallowed Hundred Tales Weird Tale from Hyakumonogatari, leaving only Great Tengu, Tamamo-no-Mae, and a few others." Feng Xue was also afraid of upsetting Old Li too much, so she didn't tell him that she was the one who destroyed Hundred Tales.

But as Old Fossils from the same era as Hundred Tales, even this result was an unimaginable shock to Old Li. He muttered things like "How could this be?" and "Impossible!" as if he were possessed. Feng Xue clapped her hands hard to wake him up.

"In short, I just want to ask you what's on top of the Tower of Babylon?"

Upon hearing Feng Xue's question, Old Li snapped out of his daze and frowned, saying:

Why would you ask that?

Looking at Old Li's appearance, Feng Xue couldn't help but twitch his eye. Judging from this posture, he suspected that Old Li's previous delirious behavior was all an act.

However, there seemed to be no point in arguing about it. He didn't give a direct answer, but calmly replied:

"It's just curiosity. After all, the Tower of Babylon is so tall, and it's the center of the Infinite City. Anyone would be curious about it, right?"

"I'll just assume you're just curious." Old Li didn't dwell on the question, just as Feng Xue didn't question whether he was pretending. He simply pondered for a moment, then, as Feng Xue always did when she asked him questions, he first posed a counter-question—

Do you know how many floors the Tower of Tower of Babel has?

"Who knows? A thousand floors or two thousand floors? Anyway, from the outside, it looks at least several thousand meters high, right?" It has to be said that this question really touched on Feng Xue's blind spot. After all, the exterior and interior of the Tower of Babel are completely different structures. From the outside, it has no concept of floors at all. If you have to say, only that ten-meter-high door can indicate the height of the first floor.

However, internally, each level of the Tower of Babel is more like an independent space, with a sky and a sun and moon. Even if these are just fake domes like Landfill Area, each level is at least tens of meters high. After all, there is a department store that is over twenty meters tall on each level.

Hearing Feng Xue's words, Old Li gave a strange smile, shook his head, and gave Feng Xue a number that surprised her somewhat—

120 floors.

"Only 120 floors? Does that mean even if all the floors are occupied, there will only be 6,000 Weird Tale?" Feng Xue looked surprised at this unexpectedly small number, while Old Li nodded and said:

"To be precise, even if the place is full, there are only 5021 Weird Tale."

"5021..." Upon hearing this suggestive number, Feng Xue pondered for a moment and then guessed, immediately saying, "Fifty on each of the first hundred floors, one on each of the last twenty floors, and finally, a Tower Master?"

"That's it." Old Li didn't seem surprised that Feng Xue could guess it, and said in a calm tone:

"Actually, what I told you was just something I heard from someone else. As for whether it's true or not, I don't know. After all, I've only climbed to the 67th floor at most. The person who told me that the Tower of Babel has 120 floors was a resident on the 66th floor. Hmm, I think his name was... Sugawara..."

"Sugawara no Michizane?" Upon hearing the surname "Sugawara," Feng Xue immediately thought of this legendary one of the three great Evil Spirit of the East. Old Li also immediately slapped his hand and said:

"That's right, it's him!"

"But Sugawara no Michizane should have lived over a thousand years ago. If he became Acquired Supernatural Tale back then, how could he be on the Tower of Babel? If he stole the power of Weird Tale in modern times, how did he obtain the position of such a great god right under the noses of the Hundred Tales? And such a great god shouldn't be so easily usurped, right?"

Based on just one name, Feng Xue had many doubts. Old Li listened to her questions but didn't offer much explanation, simply shaking his head and saying:

"I don't know the specific reason, but I can tell you that Sugawara no Michizane is Acquired Supernatural Tale that originated a thousand years ago. As for whether he has survived to this day because his incense has never been cut off, or whether he has been resurrected from the legend for some reason, I don't know. But I can tell you that there are quite a few such Old Fossils on the 50th floor and above."

"So, many ancient Weird Tale that were once revered as gods didn't actually disappear completely, but instead hid in the Tower of Babel? That doesn't make sense, does it? The Infinite City is less than fifty years old, isn't it?"

Feng Xue was completely confused, but Old Li simply shook his head calmly and said:

"That's not something I can know. After all, I'm only in my thirties as Weird Tale. I don't know the answers to these questions that involve old people. If you want to know, you'll have to ask yourself. Of course, you need to lay a solid foundation first, otherwise, like me, you'll end up climbing the tower only to have your home stolen halfway through. That would be a real tragedy."