Chapter 17 Gold Everywhere

The group explored the ancient city, which had been abandoned for countless years, frequently marveling at the magnificent buildings before them.

The majestic spires and high walls all possessed a faint golden luster, and the streets appeared as if cast from a single mold, continuous and smooth. Despite the extensive collapse and cracking of the city's structures, it was not difficult to imagine its splendor in its prime.

It was like one of those ancient heroic cities crafted by the gods from brass and gold in mythology. A glorious civilization once dwelled here, but now it was lifeless, leaving only these abandoned ruins.

The group found a collapsed large building that seemed to be a public gathering place, surrounded by roads radiating in all directions and a vast plaza. The building itself had been nearly split in two by a natural disaster resembling an earthquake. Half of its walls had collapsed, revealing the spacious interior and intricate aerial corridors. Lily nimbly jumped among the ruins, collecting some golden rubble and returning with it: "Landlord, landlord, look! Good stones! Good stones!"

"How long has this place been abandoned..." Hao Ren looked at the surrounding ruins. The building materials were clearly different from those on Earth, showing almost no signs of weathering. Except for the fragmentation caused by external forces, every piece was as clean as new. "Did the Nu Ling create this place?"

Anna was carefully protected in the middle of the group. She was the only one who could potentially unlock the secrets here, and she was well aware of this. Therefore, she had been frowning, trying to scour those twisted and chaotic memories from her mind. Looking at the dilapidated city, the phantoms that the Nu Ling had outlined in her brain gradually became clearer and overlapped with the scene before her: "Alamanda. The name of this city is Alamanda, one of the Three Cities of the End."

"Remember anything?" Hao Ren looked at Anna expectantly. He knew that the girl's memory had become the key to exploring this lost world.

"Alamanda was one of the last shelters of Tana Gusu. It was cast from metal, and the entire city was shrouded in a magnificent shield," Anna tapped her temple. "I can only roughly judge that we are in the city center based on the surrounding scenery. The images the evil spirit imprinted in my mind are not exactly the same as here. The Alamanda in my 'memory' is a complete city, the sky is covered with a lavender hue, every building is radiant, and the streets are full of... people."

"Obviously, that's the scene before the city was abandoned," Vivian said, stroking her chin. "The Nu Ling... a group of spiritual beings wouldn't build such a city. These buildings are clearly prepared for tangible beings. Look at those steps and handrails; their users should be closer to humans."

"And there are these two keys. The Nu Ling obviously doesn't have fingers either; they can't use these things..." Hao Ren muttered, taking out the two keys from his pocket. To his surprise, he found that these two small devices were gradually changing color, from gray-black to a faint gold, like the surrounding ruins. "Uh... what's going on?"

Becky immediately recalled the black stone pillars she had seen on the dark snowfield before—billboards, bus stops, message boards—the colors of those stone pillars were obviously mismatched with this city, but now, seeing the two keys turn golden, she finally understood what was happening: "This should be their original appearance. On Earth, they might have been oxidized."

Lily glanced at Becky: "Don't use these terms randomly if you don't understand them. Is that how oxidation and reduction are used?"

Becky put her hands on her hips: "It's already hard enough for an otherworlder like me to learn how to go online and curse at people after being on Earth for two months, okay? Can you not nitpick my modern chemistry knowledge!"

Anna and Nangong Sanba were immediately stunned. They didn't know what Becky meant by "otherworlder." However, Hao Ren didn't give them a chance to ask because he suddenly noticed that something seemed to be buried under the collapsed rubble ahead: "There's a statue over there!"

Lily was overjoyed at the prospect of digging again and jumped up, howling and running over. By the time Hao Ren and the others caught up, the girl had already used her hands and feet to dig away the layer of debris, revealing a golden statue underneath. Lily reached out and pulled the statue out, also letting out an exclamation: "Wow! This thing is so heavy!"

Hao Ren looked in astonishment at the life-size statue, which depicted a humanoid creature: the humanoid creature had a slender figure, but a flat and wide face. His eye sockets were deep, his nose bridge was high, his arms were long, and he wore a gorgeous and intricate garment. The statue's arms were crossed over its abdomen, an elegant and proper standing posture. It was probably placed here for decoration.

This was undoubtedly the image of the natives of this lost world.

And undoubtedly, he didn't look like the Nu Ling... well, he was completely different. Did the Nu Ling even have an appearance?

"This is a Tana," Anna stroked the statue's face, a sense of nostalgia welling up in her heart, but she knew that this nostalgia was not her own, but an emotion that the evil spirit had tampered with in her memory, perhaps the evil spirit was reminiscing about the body it once possessed, "The former appearance of the residents of Tana Gusu, but now this race is extinct."

"Tana Gusu," Nangong Wuyue blinked, "You mentioned this name again. Is it the planet beneath our feet?"

"Yeah," Anna nodded, "But I still can't remember much more. Maybe I can remember more after seeing more ruins."

Hao Ren waved his hand: "Alright, then let's continue to go deeper... Becky, what are you doing?"

Hao Ren turned his head and saw Becky standing still next to the statue, he couldn't help but ask curiously. The latter was standing there like an idiot. She reached out and touched the statue's arm, and after a long while, she suddenly let out a strange cry: "Aiya, gold ah ah ah!! Gold ah ah!!"

Hao Ren was startled by Becky's shout, and after reacting, he jumped up as well: "What did you say?!"

"This, this, this... this is gold!" Becky pinched her thigh hard, and then jumped onto the statue and began to pull and tug, using all her strength to drag the thing away. "Gold, gold, gold ah ah ah!"

Lily started yelling when she saw this: "Landlord, landlord, she's having another fit!"

Hao Ren rushed to the statue in two or three steps, patted the statue, and then patted the convulsing Becky: "Are you sure?"

"I can recognize gold even if I mistake myself in the mirror!" Becky was pulling the statue's leg outward with all her might, her face flushed red, "Gold grants me strength... damn it, mental power can't overcome physical laws ah, this thing weighs several tons. How did Lily drag it out!"

Lily stepped forward and casually carried the statue on her shoulder: "Because it's not too heavy."

Becky was still hugging the statue, looking like she was being picked up by Lily from afar: "Let's take this thing back! I won't have to worry for the rest of my life! Landlord, you can even buy the whole street!"

To be honest, Hao Ren and the people around him were a little dazed at this time. Vivian, the unlucky guy who had been poor all his life, even had a feeling of floating away. Nangong Sanba pinched his thigh: "What kind of local tyrants lived in this place back then..."

"Surprised?" The data terminal's annoying voice suddenly interrupted the excitement of the crowd. "Look around you."

Hao Ren looked around, and all he could see were the faint golden ruins of the buildings.

"Everything here contains a certain amount of gold, but the outer walls of the buildings contain less gold, only used for coloring, and this statue is pure gold. Gold is not a symbol of wealth on this planet—it is just a common material, and because of its excessive density, it is usually mixed with things like cement and light metals before use, just like sand."

Everyone: "..."

"If the conditions are right, you can even find diamond planets and gold planets in the universe. Of course, the probability of this is very low: the ratio of gold released after a supernova explosion is still very small compared to all the matter, but again, as long as it is coincidental enough, with the right conditions..." The data terminal flew around the crowd as it spoke, "It will be like this... gold everywhere."

At this time, Hao Ren suddenly recovered from his stunned state. He pinched his arm, then turned to look at Becky: "Cut off a small piece and take it as a souvenir, then let's continue working."

Becky was stunned: "Eh?"

The data terminal contentedly poked the back of Hao Ren's head: "Very good."