Dao of Money

Chen Ren had watched his fair share of zombie movies back on Earth, but actually being surrounded by undead was a very different experience.

Strangely, no one around him panicked unlike the movies.

There was no reason to. Everyone present was a cultivator. Even Anji merely stared calmly at the three dozen zombies closing in on them.

At the center of the undead group stood a larger figure—a zombie warrior holding a massive axe. From its armor and stance, Chen Ren guessed it had once been a scavenger or mercenary who had died in the Corpse Lands and risen as an undead.

As the zombie drew closer, Little Yuze let out a low growl. The royal guards immediately took their positions, weapons ready.

Just then, Chen Ren glanced at Princess Yanyue. “Do you mind if I handle this?”

She raised an eyebrow. “I don’t. But why?”

He smiled slightly. “I haven’t tested myself since breaking through. And they look like good targets.”

Princess Yanyue shrugged. “Go ahead. My guards won’t interfere.”

“Thank you.”

Chen Ren then turned to the twins traveling with them. “You two are coming with me. I want to see how you fight.”

Both siblings nodded. After briefly glancing at the princess, Li Qingxue drew her bow, while Li Qingfeng rolled his shoulders, stretching his body as if warming up.

At that moment, the zombies reached them.

Chen Ren moved first.

Lightning roared through his body, surging into his limbs, and for the first time since his breakthrough, he felt it clearly—He was wielding a completely different kind of power now.

He activated his movement technique and burst past the royal guards, charging straight into the swarm of zombies.

As he threw a punch, lightning exploded from his palm. A sharp blast ripped through the air and burned ten zombies instantly, their bodies collapsing into smoking heaps.

Chen Ren twisted around just as a massive axe swung toward him. He ducked under the strike, feeling the wind rush over his head, and drove his palm upward toward the zombie warrior.

This time, he concentrated the lightning at the very surface of his strike.

The moment his palm hit the creature’s head, it burst apart, flesh and blood raining down as the axe slipped from its grasp and crashed to the ground.

Chen Ren froze for a heartbeat and his eyes widened. He hadn’t expected it to die so easily.

Then he looked around. The battlefield was already silent.

All the zombies were dead.

He had taken down more than a dozen himself, including the zombie warrior, while the rest had been scorched apart by the lightning moving around his body. Only two corpses lay pierced cleanly by arrows.

The entire fight had lasted less than ten seconds.

He only snapped out of his gaze when Yalan’s voice sounded inside his mind and he turned towards her. “You need to learn how to control your newfound strength.” She smirked at him as she continued, “With soul and body cultivation combined with your breakthrough, you’re already as strong as a mid star foundation establishment cultivator.”

Before he could reply to that, he saw everyone staring at him.

The royal guards looked as if they had seen a ghost. Princess Yanyue’s eyes were filled with clear shock, quickly hidden the moment he glanced at her. Zi Wen and Anji looked openly impressed.

Little Yuze simply growled at the undead and Whiskey padded over to sniff at the scorched zombie corpses, then quickly lost interest when he realized there was nothing left worth chewing on.

When Chen Ren glanced to the side, he saw the siblings whispering to each other. Qingfeng clicked his tongue and muttered, “I didn’t even get to kill one.”

Qingxue looked Chen Ren up and down. “I didn’t believe you when you said you were a sect leader,” she said honestly. “But I’ve never seen anyone wipe out a swarm of zombies in ten seconds.”

Chen Ren shrugged. “They were just weaker than usual.”

It was clear she didn’t believe him, but Chen Ren didn’t care enough to correct her.

He stepped back toward the group and said calmly, “We should move on. If the zombies are at this level, I can handle them myself.”

Princess Yanyue nodded. “That works for me. But honestly, it almost sounds like you wanted them to be stronger.” She paused, then added, “Should we just head back to the main road to the pagoda?”

Right on cue, a distant scream echoed through the Corpse Lands, followed by a deep, monstrous screech.

Chen Ren didn’t even flinch.

Instead, he silently hoped that the cultivators traveling the main road would realize quickly what was happening—that the path was filled with traps and zombie hordes that shouldn’t have been anywhere near this part of the Corpse Lands.

Both he and Princess Yanyue had predicted this on their very first day here.

The Guardian sects and other major powers had deliberately made the road to the pagoda dangerous, forcing out smaller sects, clans, and rogue cultivators. Unlike the Guardian sects—who could afford to camp safely near the pagoda—other factions needed a place on the wall to not be swarmed by zombies overnight which opened up a lot of time to set traps.

When the pagoda appeared, scavengers had already cleared a straight path leading to it. That path had quickly turned into the main road. It was the fastest route, and also the easiest place to set traps.

Because of that, Chen Ren had avoided it entirely, following the twins’ guidance and walking through a different path instead.

He glanced at Princess Yanyue and said, “Let’s keep going this way. Dawn is only a few hours away. We need to reach it before then.”

She nodded without hesitation, and the group resumed moving.

They took a long, winding path toward the pagoda—one that curved through the Corpse Lands instead of cutting straight across. The area was too corrupted for horses. Roots coiled across the ground like living things, thick trees leaned at strange angles, and blackened soil spread in uneven patches. Walking was the only option.

As Chen Ren moved, he could clearly feel the demonic qi saturating the air. Some parts of the land were completely dead—soil blackened as if burned, tree bark cracked and hollow, roots stained dark and brittle. In a few places, the ground itself seemed sick, giving off a faint, poisonous haze.

He could still sense qi in the air, but it was mixed heavily with demonic energy. Absorbing it would only poison his meridians.

Because of that, everyone was forced to rely solely on the qi already in their dantian.

The sky was still dim, just barely bright enough to see clearly. By Chen Ren’s estimate, they had around two hours before dawn, and before the pagoda opened.

Thankfully, this path was quieter.

Only two zombie swarms appeared along the way, and both were dealt with almost instantly. Chen Ren wiped them out in seconds, lightning tearing through their bodies with ease. Tier-1 beasts like these were nothing more than fodder to him now.

The only moment that drew tension was when a group of zombies suddenly dropped from the trees above, bodies crashing down without warning.

For half a breath, everyone stiffened.

Then lightning surged, and the forest fell silent again.

Chen Ren had no idea how the zombies had even managed to get there, but one of them still slipped through and scratched a royal guard before Li Qingxue’s arrows pinned it to the ground and finished it off. After that brief incident, the rest of the journey was strangely calm.

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As they drew closer to the pagoda, Chen Ren felt something tighten in his chest.

From a distance, it had already looked massive. Up close, it felt unreal.

The pagoda rose from the Corpse Lands like something that did not belong to this world. A towering structure and its many floors stacked one above another, each level wider than the one above it. Even now, parts of it were still half-buried in the earth, as if it had forced itself upward after centuries underground. Some towers leaned slightly, cracked or broken, while others stood perfectly intact, their surfaces etched with ancient designs and runes worn down by time.

Dirt and debris clung to its lower sections. Stone had chipped away in places, and roots crawled along its sides. Whatever cleansing arrays once kept it pristine had clearly failed long ago. Yet despite that, the pagoda still carried an overwhelming presence.

It was beautiful.

Not in a clean or polished way, but in the sense that it felt important—like a place meant to shape legends. Chen Ren realised that everything matched what he had seen in the medallion’s hologram. The structure, the layout, even the slight tilt of some towers were the same.

Without meaning to, he slowed to a stop, simply staring.

The others did the same. And for the next few seconds, no one spoke.

Then, they moved again, and slowly, they reached the base of the pagoda. The outer walls encircled it, forcing everyone to walk along a wide circular path before finding the entrance. By the time they reached it, the area was already crowded.

Hundreds of people stood there. No, it was closer to a thousand.

More were still arriving, coming in groups or alone, wearing the robes of some sects Chen Ren recognised and others he did not. Different banners, different insignias, different auras filled the area, creating a heavy pressure in the air.

Sects. Noble families. Rogue cultivators. Mercenaries.

Everyone had come.

Chen Ren scanned the crowd and quickly spotted Li Xuan among a group wearing Soaring Sword Sect robes. Li Xuan noticed him too and gave a short nod, but didn’t move closer. He was listening to two other cultivators, his attention clearly split between them and the growing crowd.

A lot of cultivators glanced their way, but none moved to approach them. Not even Prince Yuelan, who stood at a distance with his group, openly glaring at Princess Yanyue. If Chen Ren had to guess, the prince was unhappy that the traps laid along the main road hadn’t done much to thin out their numbers, and they had avoided them completely.

As Chen Ren slowly scanned the gathering, he noticed disciples wearing the robes of Blazing Ember Sect and Emerald Sun Sect among the crowd. He didn’t recognise anyone in particular, but their presence alone was enough to confirm that he would have competition inside the pagoda. Both of these sects, especially the latter, would certainly try to sell pills.

“Look at that,” Zi Wen suddenly said.

Chen Ren followed his gaze and looked up at the pagoda’s outer wall. Fixed at its center, high above the entrance, was a massive hourglass.

It was enormous—easily taller than Little Yuze—formed from pale crystal and dark stone. Runes crawled along its frame, glowing faintly as grains of silver-grey sand flowed steadily from the top chamber into the bottom. The sand fell slowly, each grain clear and deliberate, as if time itself had weight here.

As Chen Ren watched, more and more sand settled below.

“The pagoda’s clock,” he murmured.

The hourglass was the reason everyone knew when the pagoda would open. Chen Ren estimated that less than an hour remained.

He shifted his gaze back to Princess Yanyue. “I think we should just sit and rest until it opens. Nothing will happen before that.”

She nodded. “That’s fine.”

She pointed toward a large tree off to the side, and the group moved there to sit. The royal guards stayed standing, alert, and the twins also remained on their feet, watching the surroundings without relaxing.

As they settled, Princess Yanyue began scanning the crowd again, quietly pointing people out. “You remember what I told you about the Guardian sects?”

Chen Ren nodded. “Yes.”

His eyes moved over the familiar banners and robes—Thunder Blade Sect, Emerald Sun Sect, Darkmoon Sect, and Frostpeak Sect. Other than the Soaring Sword Sect, he had no personal ties to any of them, but he remembered clearly the disciples Princess Yanyue had warned him about.

Then she continued, quietly naming people as her gaze shifted across the crowd.

“You already know Li Xuan,” Princess Yanyue said. “But those two—Li Kuangdao and Li Shijun—are from Soaring Sword Sect as well. Both are known to be ruthless.”

Chen Ren followed her line of sight, fixing those names into his memory.

“From Frostpeak Sect, that’s Han Qingshi,” she said next. “Emerald Sun Sect sent Ruan Minghe. And over there—Yun Zhaotian of Thunder Blade Sect. All of their names carry weight and are the geniuses of this generation. They will be our biggest obstacles.”

As Chen Ren observed them more closely, he could sense the restrained qi leaking from their bodies despite their attempts to hide it. Each one stood at the peak of the foundation establishment realm.

Even with his tricks and unusual cultivation paths, Chen Ren wasn’t confident he could defeat them head-on.

And the princess wasn’t done.

She continued pointing out others he’d missed—cultivators whose qi was tightly locked, whose breathing was calm and controlled, whose presence blended into the crowd almost too well. Without her artifacts, Chen Ren doubted he would’ve noticed half of them.

Zi Wen also listened seriously. Anji did too, her expression focused as she memorized faces.

When Princess Yanyue finally stopped, she said calmly, “Just be careful. I can’t tell you their martial skills. Meet me as soon as you can. My royal guards will find me first, so take your time if you come across something… interesting.”

Chen Ren nodded. “I will.”

The next half hour passed with more and more cultivators arriving, both in groups and alone. Some were injured, dried blood on their robes, but they simply popped pills and sat on the ground. Others carried bodies, placing them far from the others and began to burn them so they didn’t turn to undead.

Chen Ren didn’t spare them much attention despite feeling bad for them. Everyone knew even entering the pagoda was going to be hard. His eyes stayed fixed on the massive hourglass.

Grain by grain, the last of the glowing sand fell.

The moment the final grain hit the bottom, a massive wave of qi burst out from the pagoda. The air trembled suddenly. Every cultivator felt it, felt their instincts scream, and some took steps away from the massive structure.

Then the pagoda’s wall rippled.

Stone blurred like mist, folding inward as if it had never been solid to begin with. Space twisted, light bending into itself, and in the next breath a swirling purple vortex formed at the base of the tower.

It was wide enough to swallow dozens at once. Purple and black qi spiraled together, lightning-like threads snapping inside its depths. The air around it felt heavy, ancient, and absolute—like stepping forward meant placing your life into something that didn’t care whether you survived or not.

Princess Yanyue stood.

“It’s here,” she said. “The pagoda entrance.”

She glanced once at Chen Ren.

“Let’s go.”

***

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