Dao of Money

After the short incident with Yun Zhaotian, everything went smoothly for Chen Ren’s shop.

Just as he had expected, rumors spread quickly through Goldspire City, but Chen Ren made sure they spread in the right direction. A few well-placed tokens, a few carefully chosen tongues, and the story shifted before it could ever harm him.

Instead of Yun Zhaotian causing trouble because he felt wronged, the rumors claimed something far more believable.

They said the Thunder Blade Sect’s proud disciple had been so taken by the shop’s artifacts and pills that he had tried to buy everything in sight. When his tokens ran dry, he allegedly attempted to seize the goods instead—offering vague promises of “future favors” from the Thunder Blade Sect in the outside world. When Chen Ren, the one managing the shop, refused outright, Yun Zhaotian lost his temper and caused a scene.

The story caught fire.

It spread even faster than the truth ever could have, largely because it fit Yun Zhaotian far too well. Cultivators from major clans and Established sects had already heard plenty about his temper, and when asked, they were more than happy to confirm it. Others filled in the gaps with their own embellishments, and before long, the incident had transformed into proof of the shop’s value.

After all, if even a Guardian Sect disciple had been willing to embarrass himself over these goods, then how could they be ordinary?

With that, Chen Ren achieved exactly what he wanted.

Word spread that his items were so valuable that even Guardian Sects coveted them, and day by day, more cultivators began pouring into the shop. Some only browsed, some hesitated, but many left lighter in tokens and heavier in power. Even a handful of city residents took notice and came to purchase select items, curious about what had stirred such commotion.

Among all the goods, the pills sold the fastest.

Healing pills moved steadily thanks to their fair pricing, while the offensive pills became indispensable for cultivators venturing outside the city. From what Chen Ren heard, many groups had begun assaulting monster nests to farm beasts for tokens, and the pills that supported those hunts vanished from his shelves almost as soon as they were stocked.

Yet while the pills sold often, it was the artifacts that brought in the real flood of wealth.

The blueprints he had taken from the mountain peak turned out to be some of the simplest—and most brutally effective—weapons Chen Ren had ever seen.

They weren’t flashy. They weren’t elegant. But they worked. And they worked well.

The first and most popular item was a plain-looking rod known simply as the qi stick. At a glance, it looked no different from an ordinary baton, but its function was anything but ordinary. A cultivator could imprint a single ranged technique onto it, and as long as a small spirit stone was slotted into its core, the stick would fire that technique repeatedly.

The brilliance of it lay in its flexibility.

Any attack up to the foundation establishment realm could be imprinted onto the qi stick. Chen Ren immediately had Princess Yanyue’s royal guards inscribe their own combat techniques into batches of them. With that alone, the qi sticks transformed into premium-grade weapons, each selling for over a thousand tokens without hesitation.

And cultivators bought them eagerly.

Beyond the sticks were the cloudburst bows, artifacts that generated condensed qi projectiles without requiring arrows at all. They lacked the refinement of sect heirloom weapons, but they made up for it with consistency and ease of use. Even a mediocre cultivator could rain attacks from afar without worrying about ammunition or complex activation sequences till they have qi.

Then there were the items that truly made people’s eyes light up.

The thundercrack orbs.

Small, palm-sized spheres filled with a chaotic mixture of compressed qi, sealed within a stabilizing shell. As long as the shell remained intact, the qi inside stayed dormant. But once thrown—and shattered—the balance collapsed instantly, releasing a violent explosion that tore through anything nearby.

They sold out almost as soon as they hit the shelves.

At first glance, these artifacts looked complex, even dangerous to manufacture. But the truth hidden within the blueprints was the exact opposite. The designs were stripped down to their core principles, with every rune simplified, every step clearly laid out. Even local forges—places that normally produced nothing more than farming tools and low-tier weapons—were able to replicate the shells and frames.

The royal guards handled the inscriptions.

The runes themselves were written so cleanly, so intuitively, that even cultivators with minimal artificing experience could follow them without error. Seeing this, Chen Ren finally understood why such creations had been guarded by a puppet of that level.

These blueprints were extremely valuable.

Later, when Chen Ren asked Wang Jun about the reason behind the blueprints being so simple, he simply said casually, “Xuan Mo believed artificing shouldn’t belong only to geniuses. He thought even common cultivators deserved weapons that could protect them. So he made his own rune system—simple, modular, impossible to misunderstand.”

That explanation lingered in Chen Ren’s mind long after.

If this was only the surface of Xuan Mo’s legacy, then whatever inheritance he had hidden deeper within the pagoda would be far more terrifying, and far more valuable.

Hong Yi and Feity would benefit immensely from something like that. So, he made his decision. No matter what it took, he would find that inheritance.

With the shop performing far better than even his most optimistic expectations, it took less than a week for Chen Ren to accumulate enough tokens—not only to pay for his own passage to the sixth floor, but also for Zi Wen, Anji, Yalan, and the twins.

Of course, he didn’t take all the tokens for himself.

If he had, his ranking would have shot straight toward the top, drawing far more attention than he wanted. Instead, Chen Ren had Du Rensheng—now officially the shop’s manager alongside Anji—retain most of the earnings in the shop’s account. When the time came to ascend, he would simply draw from it then. Until that moment, the tokens were safer where they were, quietly piling up without painting a target on his back.

The influx of tokens also resolved one of Chen Ren’s lingering concerns.

He was growing stronger.

At first, the change had been so faint that he almost dismissed it as wishful thinking. But as days passed and the shop continued to bring in steady profits, he could clearly feel it—wisps of qi flowing into him whenever large transactions were completed, subtle but undeniable. The sensation built gradually, layer by layer, until Chen Ren became certain of it.

Another breakthrough was close.

Still, he had no intention of rushing it. Experience had taught him that strength gained without balance was a liability, not an advantage. This time, he wanted to prepare properly. He had already decided that before advancing again, he needed a mind cultivation manual—something to stabilize his thoughts, sharpen his perception, and keep his body from breaking.

He suspected such a manual existed somewhere within the tower.

When he asked Du Rensheng about it, the man had only shaken his head and told him that items of that nature usually appeared on the upper floors. But Chen Ren didn’t want to charge blindly to the upper floors.

There were two reasons he wasn’t in a hurry.

First, information about the higher floors was scarce. Even Princess Yanyue had little concrete knowledge beyond vague rumors and half-confirmed reports. Ascending without preparation would be reckless, especially now that the pagoda was clearly entering a more dangerous phase.

Second—and perhaps more importantly—Chen Ren saw an opportunity.

With the shop thriving and no real competitors in sight, the excess tokens they were earning could be used for more than just climbing the tower. They could be exchanged for information, manuals, techniques, and knowledge that would remain valuable even outside the pagoda.

And Chen Ren intended to leave the pagoda with far more than just a higher cultivation realm.

One of the things Chen Ren had his eyes on were the rickshaws and the tram-lines that ran through Goldspire City.

Cultivators were already fascinated by them. Vehicles that moved without beasts, gliding smoothly through the streets as if the ground itself carried them forward—it was impossible not to stare since such things were high grade artifacts that only the Guardian sects had. Yet, despite the curiosity, none of the cultivators truly understood how they worked. Even after asking around, Chen Ren learned that no one really had answers.

The city guards were the same.

All they could tell him was that the vehicles ran on qi and that maintaining them was part of their patrol duties. As for the engines, the internal mechanisms, or the way the qi was converted into motion—they had no idea. Every single rickshaw and tram was produced directly by the city lord’s office, sealed off from public inspection.

There was no way to study them up close.

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And that only made Chen Ren more interested.

Not for a new business idea—at least, not yet—but for Feiyu. If Feiyu could get his hands on even fragments of those designs, Chen Ren was certain it would push his understanding of mechanisms and formations forward by leaps and bounds. Unfortunately, that brought him back to the same obstacle every time.

The city lord.

Even Princess Yanyue had shaken her head when he brought it up. The lord almost never left his castle, and meetings were reserved for only the most important figures in the city. According to the information she had gathered, there were rumors of one or two climbers managing to meet him in the past—but even those accounts were vague and unconfirmed.

Normally, that would have been the end of it.

But for Chen Ren, it was enough.

If there was a way to meet the city lord—even a slim one—then it meant a path existed. And if a path existed, Chen Ren would eventually find it.

In the end, he decided that for at least the next two weeks, he wouldn’t be moving up the pagoda. Goldspire City was massive, and with tokens finally in his hands, there was far too much to explore and prepare. Still, he wasn’t foolish enough to plan everything alone.

So that night, after closing the shop, Chen Ren invited Anji, Zi Wen, and Yalan to sit down and talk about their future goals in the pagoda.

Wang Jun joined them as well at the table with Whiskey beside him. The lunari was happily munching on what looked like cookies, but were, in fact, a local city delicacy known as tekua.

Princess Yanyue wasn’t present. This meeting was centered more on his sect, and anything involving her could always be discussed later.

They sat around a small table in the inn. For a few moments, no one spoke.

Wang Jun was the first to break the silence, grumbling. “Why are you so quiet, kid? Just speak already so we don’t waste more time.”

Chen Ren frowned and glanced at him. “What do you even have to do?”

Wang Jun snorted. “Anji got me some new books from the city. They’re interesting.”

Chen Ren shook his head lightly before exhaling. “I was just getting my thoughts in order.” He straightened slightly. “But before I talk about my own goals, I want to know if the three of you found anything worth noting.”

Anji shook her head first. “Nothing much. I’ve been stuck at the shop most of the time.”

That wasn’t surprising. Yalan and Zi Wen, on the other hand, had spent most of their time outside the city or exploring its deeper corners.

Zi Wen spoke first. “There’s a good variety of beasts around the city, and some ruins as well, but they’re empty. I think the residents have already picked them clean.” He paused, then added, “But I’ve been working with the book you gave me. I’ve managed to fill in quite a bit. Little Yuze and even Whiskey have started enjoying hunting beasts.”

Whiskey nodded enthusiastically, crumbs still clinging to his mouth as he finished his snack.

Chen Ren felt a quiet sense of satisfaction. Giving Zi Wen the monster encyclopedia had been the right call. The faster it filled, the more it benefited all of them.

He then turned to Yalan.

“Nothing major. It’s hard to snoop around Guardian sects without being noticed, but I did manage to mark a few demonic sects that are active here.”

That alone made Chen Ren’s gaze sharpen slightly.

Zi Wen frowned slightly. “Are there a lot of them?”

Yalan shrugged. “Some. They’re hiding their qi well, but they’re definitely here. For now, they’re only targeting Established sects and larger clans. I don’t think we’re on their radar yet, but it’s only a matter of time, especially once we try to move up the floors. Unless you plan on climbing with Princess Yanyue and her guards.”

“That’s not going to happen,” Chen Ren said immediately. He then turned to Yalan. “Did you find something about City Lord Xiangrui?”

“No. Nothing useful. Other than the fact that his ego is as inflated as his palace. He doesn’t even meet his own subordinates unless it’s absolutely necessary. He’s not unjust, but he has… quirks.”

Wang Jun snorted. “Sounds like an unreasonable man.”

Yalan’s whiskers twitched. “That’s rich, coming from you.”

Wang Jun scoffed. “I may be rude, but I’m not unreasonable. I’ve helped you all far too much for you to say that about me.”

Before the argument could escalate, Chen Ren raised a hand. “You two can argue later.”

They both fell silent.

“For now,” Chen Ren continued, “we need to find a way to meet City Lord Xiangrui. If we can do that, we won’t just gain information about the upper floors. We might also get a chance to look into buying the city’s technology.”

Anji blinked. “Can’t we get that information from somewhere else?”

“I’ve tried,” Chen Ren replied. “Most residents have only ever traveled down, not up. Some of them don’t even know what’s above this floor. The only people who can go up freely—or know anything concrete—are connected to the lord’s office.”

He leaned back slightly, eyes narrowing in thought. “And that’s exactly the problem.”

Silence stretched across the small room, heavy enough that even Whiskey stopped chewing for a moment. Only one question hung in the air, refusing to fall.

How were they supposed to meet the city lord?

Chen Ren tapped two fingers lightly against the table. The question felt like it should have a dozen answers, but every answer he imagined cracked the moment he looked at it properly. If Lord Xiangrui truly saw climbers as nothing more than temporary noise, then it was possible none of the usual routes would work at all.

Five minutes passed. No one spoke.

Finally, Wang Jun broke the quiet with a scoff. “Can’t you just barge right in? If I had to meet someone, I would always do that.”

Chen Ren exhaled through his nose. “That worked because you were strong. Even if I’m at the peak of the foundation establishment realm, City Lord Xiangrui has enough forces to capture me. That won’t work.”

Yalan leaned back in her chair, expression blank in the way that usually meant she had already tried the idea in her head and killed it. “Sneaking in won’t work either. There will be arrays. A lot of them.”

Chen Ren nodded once. Sneaking in sounded worse than barging in. Barging in at least gave you a chance to talk before you got dragged away. Sneaking in would get you turned into ash by a hidden formation before you even found the right door.

So that left only one option.

The lord had to agree to meet him.

Chen Ren stared down at the grain of the wooden table as if the answer was written into it. People did not meet without a reason. Not in the real world, not in the pagoda, and definitely not in a city built on tokens and control.

So what reason could he offer?

What could Xiangrui possibly gain from him?

As he followed that thought, something sharp clicked into place. Chen Ren’s gaze lifted, sweeping across the table.

“What’s Lord Xiangrui’s personality like?” he asked.

They all looked at him.

Anji was the first to answer, almost too quickly. “Isn’t he insecure and narcissistic? No one who lives in a gold house isn’t.”

Zi Wen gave a small nod. “He also seems strong. And he knows how to crush competition. He rules the entire city alone. There’s no opposition.”

Yalan’s mouth curved faintly, like she was bored of the question and the man it was about. “Yes. He’s like any other asshole who gained power.” Her eyes narrowed on Chen Ren. “But why are you asking?”

Chen Ren didn’t answer immediately. He stayed still, thinking hard enough that his face strained. Then he looked straight at Yalan.

“Because if we’re going to reach him,” Chen Ren said quietly, “then his personality is the key.”

He let the words settle, then added, “Let me explain…”

***

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