At this thought, everyone hurriedly ventured inside to search for Treasure Stoves, only to discover, to their disappointment, that the grand scene of a hundred or so Refining Furnaces described on the stele was nowhere to be found. There was only an empty expanse, telling of the desolation left by changing times.
"What exactly happened here? It looks as though everyone left the buildings empty and carried off every last treasure and asset."
The sight left everyone deeply disappointed. Even Fang Qianyuan could not help feeling reluctant to accept it.
Along the way, he had also tried casually searching the surrounding residences. Unfortunately, most had belonged to mortals. The occasional refined dwelling that had evidently housed a cultivator contained only crude, bulky objects such as furniture, which were of no use.
For Fang Qianyuan and the others, the best possible finds were undoubtedly Magic Treasures, followed by rare and precious heavenly treasures, and then various texts and confidential records.
Unfortunately, they found nothing at all.
"How infuriating! If those ancient people wanted to move, they could have moved, but they actually emptied everything out. Didn't they find it a bother?" Ren Hao and the others could not help cursing under their breath.
"It's not that simple. Apart from their departure, the mist permeating this place probably played a part as well. It seems to be a kind of killing intent containing corrosive power. Brief exposure does no harm, but anything steeped in it for long would have been destroyed and reduced to dust. Even ordinary magical artifacts and treasured materials would lose their power and become mundane objects. As for higher-grade items capable of resisting that damage, the ancients wouldn't have left them here for us. Naturally, they took them along," Zhang Yunfei conjectured.
"Possibly, but in a city this