The group ventured through the desolate city . No one knew how long it had been abandoned, but all were astounded by the wondrous buildings before them .
Great spires and high walls all had a faint glint of gold . The streets also seemed to be coated in a smooth layer of molten gold . Despite the scenes of desolation, destruction and ruination, it was not hard to imagine what the city looked like in its heyday .
It was a city from the mythologies, a heroic city made out of bronze and gold . A glorious civilization once stood there, yet today it was silent, a remnant of an age long lost .
The group arrived at a collapsed, monumental building . It appeared to be a public building for huge gatherings . There were many roads leading to it, and a rather large plaza before it . The building itself was split in two, possibly by a disaster similar to an earthquake . Half of its walls had already turned to rubble, along with its wide interior and intricate floating corridor structure . Lily was in her element as she leaped from wall to wall, collecting some golden pebbles as she went . "Mr . Landlord, look! Good pebbles! Good pebbles, I tell you!"
"How long has this place been abandoned . . . " Hao Ren looked around the large, wrecked area . The building materials were clearly different from the ones on Earth, and they had no signs of weathering . Aside from the destruction caused by an external force, everything including the rubble, looked as good as new . "Did the vengeful spirit create this place?"
Anna was carefully flanked on all sides by the party . She was the only one who could unveil the secrets there, and she was aware of the fact too . Hence, she had been frowning hard, trying to recall something from her jumbled memories . Using the desolate city before her as a base, and comparing it to the images the spirit had left in her head, she finally spoke, "Alamanda . This city is called Alamanda, one of the last three cities . "
"What do you remember?" Hao Ren looked at Anna in anticipation . He knew that the girl's memory was key to their investigation of this lost world .
"Alamanda was one of Tannagost' last refuge . It was made out of metal casting, and the city was protected by a great barrier . " Anna gave her temple a little knock . "Guessing from the scene around us, we're probably in the city center . The image left in my mind looks different . In my memories, Alamanda was the perfect city . Its skies were eternally painted purple, every building shimmered in gold, and there were many . . . people . "
"Seems like the scene before the city's destruction . " Vivian rubbed her chin . "The vengeful spirits . . . a group of spirits wouldn't create such a city . These buildings were clearly meant for a race with physical bodies . Look at those steps and handrails; their users were probably humanoids . "
"Then there's the two keys as well . The spirits obviously don't have fingers, they couldn't have been using them . . . " Hao Ren pulled the keys out from his pockets . He was surprised to see that the two devices slowly changed color, from black to the faint gold of the buildings around them . "Ugh . . . how did this . . . "
Becky recalled the stone pillars in the snow field . The advertisement board, the public transport signage, the notice boards . . . The color of the pillars did not match the colors of the city, but after seeing the keys slowly turning to gold, she thought she understood what was happening . "So, this is their original form . They probably oxidized on Earth . "
Lily gave Becky a weird look . "Don't just throw out terms that you don't fully understand . Oxidization and deoxidization don't work like this, right?"
Becky placed her arms on her hips . "For an otherworlder like me to pick up enough vocabulary to start a flame war online isn't easy you know! Don't start throwing the dictionary at me!"
Anna and Nangong Sanba were stunned for a moment . They did not understand what the "otherworlder" meant . But Hao Ren too did not give them the chance to ask, as he spotted something beneath the rubble in front of them . "Looks like a statue!"
Lily immediately pounced at the opportunity to dig a hole and went forth, howling with excitement . By the time Hao Ren and the rest caught up to her, she was already half way through the rubble . There was indeed a golden statue beneath it . Lily tried to pull the statue out, and as she exerted her strength, she said, "Waaaa! This thing is heavy!"
Hao Ren looked at the human-sized statue in awe . It was a humanoid statue with a lithe figure . Its face was flat but wide, its eye sockets were deep, the ridge of its nose was high, and its arms were long . The figure was clad in a complex and gorgeous dressing . The statue's arms were overlapping on its abdomen in a very elegant standing posture . The statue was probably a decoration of some sort .
This was unquestionably how the citizens of the lost world looked like .
This was unquestionably how the citizens of the lost world looked like .
And they looked unquestionably dissimilar to the vengeful spirits . . . Umm, scratch that, totally different is the correct description . Say . . . did the spirits have a face to begin with?
"This is a Tannaean . " Anna touched the statue's face and a sudden nostalgia welled within her . However, she knew the emotion was not hers . It was a gush of emotion, which came from the memories that the spirit had imparted in her . Or perhaps, the spirit was reminiscing on the times when it had a body . "That was the look the people of Tannagost, but they all perished . "
"Tannagost . . . " Wuyue blinked . "You've mentioned it before . Is that the name of the planet we're on?"
"Mhmm . . . " Anna nodded . "But, I still can't remember many things . Maybe I'll be able to once I see more of the ruins . "
Waving his hand, Hao Ren smiled . "Sure, we'll head farther in . . . . What the heck are you doing, Becky?"
As he turned, Hao Ren saw Becky standing there, staring at the statue in a stupor . The latter seemed to be hypnotized as she stroked the statue's arm . It took her a while before she yelped, "Oh my God, gooopldddd! Gooooolddd!!!"
Hao Ren was caught by surprise by the volume of Becky's screech and jumped . "What you saying?!"
"Th-Thi-This is gooolddd!" Becky stomped the ground a couple of times before jumping onto the statue to try to drag it away with her . "Gold! Gold! Goooolddd!!"
Lily's rolled her eyes as she witnessed the situation . "Mr . Landlord! She's at it again!"
"Th-Thi-This is gooolddd!" Becky stomped the ground a couple of times before jumping onto the statue to try to drag it away with her . "Gold! Gold! Goooolddd!!"
Lily's rolled her eyes as she witnessed the situation . "Mr . Landlord! She's at it again!"
Hao Ren walked towards the statue, and after tapping the statue, he gave the frenzied mercenary a tap as well . "You sure?"
"I may not recognize myself in the mirror at times, but I never mistake gold!" Becky still tried to pull the statue with all her strength . Her face was red from the effort . "Gold give me strength . . . . Damn, the laws of physics trump willpower . This thing weighs a ton . How did you pull it out?!"
Lily stepped forward and lifted the statue onto her shoulder . "It's not that heavy . "
Becky was still hugging the statue as Lily lifted it . From a distance, it looked like the mercenary was picked up by the collar . "Let's bring this back! I don't have to worry about money forever! Mr . Landlord you can even buy a whole street with the money!"
To be honest, everyone around Hao Ren was rather confused . It was also too much to process for Vivian, the eternally poor vampire . Nangong Sanba pinched his thigh as he asked, "How ridiculously rich were these people . . . "
"You're surprised?" the MDT's smug voice broke everyone's excitement . "Look around you . "
Hao Ren turned his head from left to right, and all he saw were the faint golden buildings .
"Everything here has a certain amount of gold, but the walls have a lesser gold element . It's only used as a paint job, while the statue here is pure gold . Gold is not something that resembles wealth on this planet . It's a very common ore here . Because it's dense, it has to be used alongside cement or any other type of lighter ores, similar to sand .
Everyone was speechless .
Hao Ren turned his head from left to right, and all he saw were the faint golden buildings .
"Everything here has a certain amount of gold, but the walls have a lesser gold element . It's only used as a paint job, while the statue here is pure gold . Gold is not something that resembles wealth on this planet . It's a very common ore here . Because it's dense, it has to be used alongside cement or any other type of lighter ores, similar to sand .
Everyone was speechless .
"Under the right conditions, you may even run into a planet made out of diamonds or gold somewhere in the universe . Of course, the chances of this happening is miniscule . Gold isn't released in huge quantities in a supernova . But back to that, under the right conditions . . . . "—the MDT circled around the party—"you may find a place like this . . . Gold everywhere . "
Only then did Hao Ren snap out from his stupor . He massaged his arm and turned to Becky . "Just take a small piece as a momento . Time to get busy . "
Becky was stunned . "Huh?"
The MDT gave Hao Ren a satisfied bump at the back of his head . "Very good . "
Chapter end
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