Chapter 4273 — There Must Be Treasure

Now, however, Wei Zhao finally understood: this place truly had once belonged to the spirit beast clan. It was only after that incident that the clan had abandoned it, leaving it untended ever since, and that was how it had come to take the shape it held today.

Wei Zhao even suspected that, for some unknown reason, after the Beast King had put every living soul here to death, he might never have truly intended to abandon the place. Lufeng Forest, after all, was a treasure no power could afford to dismiss. It was only that afterward the Beast King vanished, the spirit beast clan fell into chaos from top to bottom, and no one had the leisure to bother with it.

That alone could explain the semi-open state of Lufeng Forest today. Were it not for the miasma, the human cultivators from all around the Southern Isle would surely have swarmed in. However rich in heavenly treasures the forest might be, if it were picked over year after year without pause, it could never have withstood the plunder; a fine primordial land would have been ruined for good.

Of course, had matters truly come to that, the spirit beast clan would likely not have stood by so indifferent. By then the picture would have been different altogether—Lufeng Forest might have been placed under strict lockdown, and human cultivators barred from setting foot in it ever again.

"So then, the ruins of Aoduo Cultivation City must be quite famous?" Wei Zhao asked thoughtfully.

"Naturally. You could call the ruins of Aoduo Cultivation City the very emblem of Lufeng Forest. What's more, every spirit beast that once remained within the city was powerful and of noble station; when creatures of that caliber leave anything behind, even a trifle, it is a treasure rarely seen in the outside world. So it is a recognized trove—spend a few days in these waters and you will hear of it." Brother Chang nodded.

"Famous as it is, people must have flocked there in droves. No matter how many treasures it held, after so much time they should long since have been picked clean…" Wei Zhao glanced at Brother Chang, somewhat lacking in interest. Unlike most who grew excited at the mention of treasure, he seemed rather doubtful, even scrutinizing.

"Haha, for a young fellow to have such composure is truly rare!" Brother Chang laughed at the remark, then went on: "By rights it should be so. But Lufeng Forest can only be entered at this time of year, and the ruins of Aoduo Cultivation City lie at the deepest core. With ordinary strength one cannot reach them at all. And though the ruins are famous, known to all as they are, the maps to get there have been driven to astronomical prices. So those who can truly make the journey are in fact far fewer than you imagine."

"Oh? But by common sense, even if few go, each who does will scrape up every treasure he can. In that case only the first few to arrive could truly have reaped the rewards; those who came later should hardly have found much left, no?" Wei Zhao remained somewhat unconvinced.

"What kind of attitude is that? For our Brother Chang to speak with a bumpkin like you is condescension itself, do you understand? One doubt after another—we offer you face and you throw it back! You—" The seductive woman beside Brother Chang curled her lip in disdain.

Before she could finish, Brother Chang turned and gave her a look, and at once she fell silent, head lowered in embarrassment, not daring to utter another word.

Watching this, Wei Zhao shook his head inwardly. Even his dual-cultivation partner feared him so; plainly this Brother Chang was no easygoing sort.

And yet a man like that was all smiles and warmth toward Wei Zhao, a total stranger—and one, moreover, of an early Golden Core caliber wholly beneath his own. It was truly incomprehensible. When something is this abnormal, there is sure to be a devil behind it. This man might well be another Chu Bubai!

"What the young fellow says is not without sense. But the ruins are larger than any ordinary human city, never smaller. A few scattered waves of human cultivators could never search them all in a short time, so the treasures buried within are not likely to be scraped entirely clean." Brother Chang turned to Wei Zhao and his companion, his expression restored to its earlier mildness.

"That may be so. But if that is the case, then even if there are stray pearls left in the deep, finding them would surely be arduous work?" Wei Zhao pinched his chin. Treasures, after all, were meant to be well hidden. Many had gone before; whatever was easily found must already have been carried off, and what remained, if any, would take no small effort to uncover.

"Of course—if one were after those stray pearls, it would indeed be arduous. But we are not bound for those treasures, so it hardly matters." Brother Chang smiled with a look of profound mystery.

"Oh?" Wei Zhao grew all the more astonished, and Huang Xiaotao beside him was equally baffled. To brave so many risks to reach the ruins of Aoduo Cultivation City and not be after treasure—could they be going sightseeing? Surely these people were not that deranged?

"You must understand, young fellow, that some treasures are gone once taken—but there are others that, even if carried off before, will still be there afterward, because they grow back of themselves." Brother Chang curled the corner of his mouth, half teasing, half explaining.

"What you mean, then, must be naturally growing heavenly treasures?" Wei Zhao's heart stirred. It was the same with the infant ginseng and the Wandu Golden Core Fruit: once taken, they might be gone for a time, but return after a while and you would find they had perhaps grown anew.

"The young fellow is indeed clever—one hint and he grasps it all." Brother Chang smiled faintly.

"Could it be infant ginseng? Or the Wandu Golden Core Fruit?" Wei Zhao could not help guessing. Given the other's stature, ordinary heavenly treasures would hardly catch his eye; even the Wandu Golden Core Fruit could not warrant such a grand expedition, for the golden core refined from it is useful only to Golden Core cultivators. Thinking it over, it could only be infant ginseng.

But the infant ginseng had already fallen into his own hands—could there be several growing in Lufeng Forest at once? Yet infant ginseng generally grows only in places thick with yin, such as spirit beast graveyards. How could there be any at the ruins?

Then again, on second thought, the ruins were ruins precisely because every spirit beast there had been put to death overnight all those years ago. One might well call it another spirit beast graveyard, so it seemed no wonder that a heavenly treasure like infant ginseng should grow there. (To be continued)