Impossible pair of riddles, been working on it for several hours

These are some things I've noticed about the number sequence

The only time a 9 appears, it is preceded by a 2 (29 possibly).
14, 17, and 24 seem to occur rather frequently in the sequence.
There are 54 numbers overall (excluding the exclamation point). 54 can be broken into 6 sets of 9.

Clearly the numbers are codes for letters/words but simple A-1, B-2 doesn't work, even when you rot 9, or -9. And it's not clear where one letter codes starts and the next stops.

The encoded message says:
What color is it up here? (not white)

Each pair of digits represents a letter (subtract 9).

Wow, thank you!

I didn't think it would be important, but there was a prologue to the riddles and it was:

As you grow up you learn that to accomplish everything in life you will need to be immortal. You therefore seek the knowledge of the wise one on the steepest of mountains. Past dangerous mountains and vicious beasts you finally made it! You greet the wise one as you kneel before him. You tell him you seek the knowledge of immortality. The wise one requires you to answer 2 riddles to be granted the knowledge of how to become immortal. He gives you the instructions as follows: I will tell you three riddles, the first riddle must be solved first as it will give you a very important clue to the next riddle, the second riddle is not a clue to the third riddle.

Again, I'm stumped. What color is it up there?

Turns out it was blue. Riddle's over

would you mind explaining what sparked your theory?

What colore is up there? (Not white)
White, the sun when you take a pic from down on earth is always white, and the clouds are white. So it's not those.
Blue, the sky is blue and that is what else is up there.
So turns out it was blue.