Lu PingAn's Exploration Team proceeded quite smoothly—at least, far more smoothly than those unlucky souls who had "died and returned."
The reason was simple: the embarrassed and enraged Sword Saint was an excellent excavator. Ahem. Zhi Xi and her guards easily handled most of the combat tasks.
Lu PingAn also tried making a move, but the results were rather delicate.
"Physical resistance maxed out, nearly immune to Flame Resistance... Tch, what a troublesome natural enemy."
Lu PingAn's strength, cutting power, and spatial abilities were not particularly strong at the same level. His Rule-level avatar could forcibly slaughter everything in its path, but its efficiency still could not compare to the female Sword Saint's outstanding specialty.
"You can tell this civilization was once glorious."
Lu PingAn's Exploration Team, packed with Rule-level powerhouses, proceeded quite smoothly in the upper layers at least. Especially Xia Qin, equipped with the Radiant Stone Longblade—she carved through those stone monsters like they were nothing.
Before long, they arrived at the first landmark mentioned in the preliminary records.
It was a colossal furnace. Magma flowing from deep within the volcano converged here, meeting within the enormous furnace. Even now, Lu PingAn could hear the slow, steady sound of mechanical gears turning within it.
It seemed that the flowing magma was driving components that could still operate, producing echoes that almost seemed to carry the scent of rust.
Beside the furnace, countless conveyor belts had come to a halt, with only fragments of stone monsters scattered across them.
A rough estimate put their number at several hundred giant conveyor belts. They might have used the furnace's power for further processing. Lu PingAn could even sense the supernatural power within them; the strange yet sacred patterns on their surfaces clearly carried unusual strength.
This sight alone made one instinctively