Dao of Money

Chen Ren honestly had no idea how his time on the fifteenth floor was going to end.

Some nights, he and Princess Yanyue talked about it. He would wonder aloud what it would be like to die here, buried under endless sand in a place no one could ever find, and she would immediately shut him down. According to her, they were going to find a way out. There was no other ending worth discussing.

Chen Ren wanted to believe her. More than that, he was grateful she was still standing beside him.

She could’ve left long ago. Her return ticket still worked, and there was nothing truly forcing her to remain in a qi-less desert with him. Yet every time Chen Ren brought it up, she gave him the same excuses. She wanted to train, experience and learn how to control and preserve her qi in a place where the world offered none back. She claimed the desert was helping her refine herself in a way no normal training ground could.

Chen Ren knew those were excuses.

Maybe not complete lies, but excuses all the same. She simply didn’t want to leave him here alone to die, and that knowledge sat heavily in his chest every time he looked at her.

But time was moving faster than he wanted to believe. Sooner or later, she would have to leave.

The outside world was still moving. A few months, or maybe even more than a year, was a long time. Although Yanyue had not told him everything about her brothers, she had told him enough for Chen Ren to understand the danger. If any of them believed she was dead, or even missing for too long, they would begin chipping away at the influence she had worked so hard to build.

She couldn’t allow that to happen. No matter what she said, no matter how stubbornly she stayed, Chen Ren knew there would come a point where leaving was the right choice for her.

So he had prepared himself for it.

If nothing else, she could return to the others and tell them he was still alive. She could tell Yalan, Li Xuan, the twins, and everyone else that he had not died on the master lift. At least then, they would know the truth.

Though Chen Ren didn’t know how long that truth would last. After that, he honestly had no idea what he would do.

Princess Yanyue had become a good companion. They had shared far more than he expected to share with anyone in a place like this. They trained together, studied together, talked about sects, politics, cultivation, and the lives waiting for them outside the pagoda. In a strange way, the desert had made them closer than any normal journey could have.

Wang Jun was still there, of course.

But if Yanyue left, Chen Ren wanted her to take the head with her.

Wang Jun would complain. He would insult him. He would probably call him sentimental, stupid, and a dozen other things.

Still, Chen Ren had already made up his mind. If Princess Yanyue escaped, then Wang Jun should escape with her.

After all, just because he had a bad fate didn’t mean Chen Ren was going to let Wang Jun die with him.

The head had survived for hundreds of years. After everything, Chen Ren would rather he live a little longer, especially now that he had finally found a technique he could practise in his current state. It would be cruel for Wang Jun to regain even a small piece of power, only to be buried in the desert with him.

Of course, no matter what Wang Jun said, Chen Ren had a feeling the head would refuse to leave him behind. They had faced too much together for it to be that simple.

Still, Chen Ren had thought they would have that conversation when the time came.

One day, Princess Yanyue would look at him and tell him she needed to leave. He would nod, try not to make it harder than it already was, and they would have a short final conversation before she used the return ticket.

That was his plan.

But fate was cruel. He never got the chance.

One second, he was sitting on the sand and staring up at the night sky, wondering what Yalan, Tang Xiulan, and Qing He were doing. The next, he noticed something in the distance that made him doubt his own eyes.

A sandstorm was coming toward them. And it was growing larger every second.

Chen Ren stared at it for a while, unable to believe what he was seeing. The storm swallowed more and more of the horizon, turning the distant desert into a wall of moving darkness. Sand rose like a wave, thick enough to hide the sky behind it.

He snapped out of looking at it, then stared at Wang Jun, who was in the middle of meditation, and picked him up.

The head’s eyes opened at once. “What the fuck is going on?”

“There is a sandstorm coming,” Chen Ren said.

“Are you crazy? There is nothing in this desert. Much less a—”

He stopped. His gaze fixed on the distance. For once, Wang Jun didn’t finish his insult.

They had spent so much time on this floor, yet nothing like this had ever happened before. No beasts, no people, no wind strong enough to matter, and certainly no storm large enough to swallow the world.

Chen Ren held the head tighter and stood. “We should get out of here.”

Wang Jun nodded. “Then do it fast. We have no more than a minute before that storm reaches us, and I do not want more sand in my eyes.”

Chen Ren nodded and moved immediately.

Everything around them went into his spatial ring. The books, the manuals, the small items they had taken out, and the few things they used to make this place feel less empty all vanished one after another. Once that was done, he hurried toward Princess Yanyue.

She had only gone to sleep two hours ago.

When Chen Ren woke her, confusion crossed her face at once. It was understandable. In all the time they had spent on this floor, nothing had attacked them. There had been no beasts, no people, and no sudden dangers. Waking up in a panic made little sense in a desert that had been dead silent for months.

But when she saw the storm, the confusion disappeared. Princess Yanyue got to her feet immediately and started running.

Chen Ren followed after her, pushing himself as fast as he could. He was glad they had recovered a decent amount of qi after training earlier, but he had no idea whether it would be enough. The sand under his feet shifted with every step, dragging at his speed, while the wind behind them grew louder and louder.

He looked back. The sandstorm was not slowing down. If anything, it seemed to be chasing them.

“Why is there a sandstorm all of a sudden? This has never happened before,” the princess muttered.

“If I knew, I would have prepared for it,” Chen Ren said. “Maybe it is some kind of yearly event.”

Princess Yanyue scoffed. “Then let us find a cave or a hole before this yearly event buries us.”

Chen Ren nodded.

He had been thinking the same thing. They needed shelter, anything that could block the worst of the storm until it passed. A cave, a pit, a stone formation, even a hollow in the ground would be better than running endlessly across open sand.

But before he could choose a direction, something made his heart sink. In the distance ahead of them, another storm began to form.

At first, it was only wind.

Sand lifted from the ground in thin streams, twisting in the air like smoke. Within seconds, those streams thickened, joined together, and rose higher and higher until another wall of sand began growing across the horizon.

Wang Jun cursed. “What the fuck is going on?”

Chen Ren wished he had an answer. But at the moment, they could only change the direction again.

He simply turned toward the dunes he could see in the distance, hoping the uneven ground might offer some kind of shelter. Princess Yanyue followed without question, and together they pushed forward as fast as they could.

They had only been running for around two minutes when another sandstorm erupted in front of them. More appeared on both sides.

They rose out of nowhere, one after another, until the desert around them was surrounded by moving walls of sand. Chen Ren stopped, breath catching slightly as he looked around.

There was nowhere left to run.

For a moment, he wondered if there were beasts hidden deep beneath the ground, trying to herd them into a trap. Because, the sandstorms looked artificial. They had formed too suddenly and too perfectly. But knowing that didn’t give him a way out.

Princess Yanyue looked at the storms closing in. “I don’t think there is anywhere to run.”

“No,” Chen Ren said. “There is not.”

“Do you think we can make it through the storm?”

Chen Ren looked at her, then back at the wall of sand. “It probably depends on whether there is anything dangerous inside it. I think we might have finally found the beasts on this floor.”

Princess Yanyue nodded slowly. “Until we can fly, this is the only way.”

Chen Ren agreed.

Despite Wang Jun’s grumbling, he pushed qi around both himself and the head, wrapping them in a thick layer to protect them from the sand. Princess Yanyue did the same, her own qi spreading over her body as she prepared herself, then they both held hands to not get lost.

Visibility would be terrible, but that hardly mattered. There was nothing to see for thousands of miles except sand anyway.

The storm hit them soon after. The one behind them arrived first. It struck like a blow from a massive hammer.

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Even with his qi protecting him, Chen Ren staggered forward. His hand tightened around Princess Yanyue’s, and for a moment, he truly felt as if the wind was going to tear them apart and sweep him away into the storm. Sand battered against his body shield, scraping and hissing as it tried to force its way through.

The wind crashed into their backs, pushing them in different directions, but it was still manageable. Chen Ren lowered his body, planted his feet as best as he could, and kept moving with Yanyue beside him.

For a short while, he thought they might be able to endure it. Unfortunately, it didn’t stay that way for long.

Suddenly, the wind grew stronger.

The sand began striking the qi layer around Chen Ren like bullets, each grain hitting hard enough to make the barrier tremble. He guessed that another storm had joined the first one, and now both were tearing into them together.

Before long, more would probably follow.

Chen Ren tightened his grip on Princess Yanyue’s hand and started moving.

One step at a time.

They had to get through the storm and reach open space, or at least somewhere the wind was not crushing them from every side. For a while, they made decent progress but it wasn’t easy.

Every step felt like pushing against a wall, and Chen Ren had to keep his qi focused around his body so the barrier did not get chipped away in one spot.

The sand was bad enough. The boulders were worse.

He saw shapes flying through the storm, spinning past them in the wall of sand. If not for the qi layer protecting him, even one hit would have sent him flying. Princess Yanyue was struck by one a moment later. The force nearly knocked her off her feet, but she managed to hold on.

Chen Ren pulled her closer immediately.

“Do not let go,” he said.

She nodded, jaw tight as she forced herself to keep moving.

Chen Ren tried to look around for more boulders, but there was almost no point. The storm had turned everything into darkness. Sand filled the air so thickly that he could barely see a few steps ahead. Any shape he noticed was already too close by the time he saw it.

Dodging was nearly impossible. Destroying the boulders was no better.

He tried to clear his vision with qi, pushing the sand away from his face, but the storm filled the space again almost instantly. He could use his qi sense, but that would drain him too quickly, and qi had become their most important resource. He had no idea how much longer they would have to walk.

So in the end, they could only shoulder through it.

Chen Ren focused on keeping the barrier stable, holding Yanyue’s hand, and forcing his body forward no matter how much the wind tried to push him back.

But before he knew it, everything went wrong.

Chen Ren was not sure what happened.

One second, he was gripping Princess Yanyue’s hand tightly, forcing himself forward through the storm. The next, a huge wave of wind and energy struck them like the flap of a dragon’s wings.

His feet left the ground.

Princess Yanyue’s hand slipped in his.

Chen Ren tried to tighten his grip, but the force was too much. The storm tore between them, and before he could do anything, they were thrown in different directions. Sand swallowed his vision, the world spun around him, and Wang Jun shouted curses somewhere against his side.

He hit the ground and rolled down a dune alone.

By the time he stopped, his whole body ached. He pushed himself up immediately, coughing sand out of his mouth as the wind continued to batter against his qi layer. His first instinct was to check Wang Jun, and when he saw that the head was still with him, he barely allowed himself a breath of relief before turning back toward the storm.

“Princess Yanyue!”

His voice vanished into the wind.

He shouted her name again and again, hoping she had landed nearby. She had to be nearby. The blast had thrown them apart, but it could not have sent her that far. At least, that was what Chen Ren wanted to believe.

No reply came. He doubted he could hear one even if she did answer.

He climbed out of the dune and began searching.

He pushed qi into his legs and forced himself through the storm, scanning every shape that appeared in the darkness. A rock. A rise in the sand. A broken piece of stone half-buried by the wind. Every time he thought he saw someone, he rushed toward it, only to find nothing.

Still, he kept looking.

He shouted until his throat hurt. He used qi to push through the storm whenever the wind became too strong. He tried moving in wider circles, then tighter ones, marking directions in his head as best as he could despite the shifting sand.

But no matter how much he searched, there was no sign of Princess Yanyue.

After an hour, Wang Jun finally shouted from his side, “You need to stop! Let the storm pass first. We can find her after that.”

Chen Ren knew the head was right.

It was the logical choice. Continuing like this would only waste qi and risk getting himself buried somewhere she would never find him either. Princess Yanyue was strong. The storm might injure her, but it was unlikely to kill her so easily.

And yet he knew exactly why he was searching so desperately. He was not truly afraid that the storm had killed her. He was afraid that if he lost her now, he might never see her again.

It was a pathetic thought, honestly.

Though, Chen Ren didn’t care if it was. He had never been someone who liked being without an actual person to talk to. Wang Jun could do many things, and he was glad the head was still with him right now, but it was not the same.

In the end, he listened to Wang Jun’s advice.

After another hour of pushing through the storm, Chen Ren found a rocky structure jutting out from the sand.

It was not large, but there was a narrow ridge carved into one side of it, just deep enough to give him some shelter from the worst of the wind. He squeezed himself inside, tucked Wang Jun close, and waited.

For several hours, the storm showed no sign of ending. If anything, it grew worse.

The wind battered against the rocks and struck him hard enough that he had to turn around and let it crash against his back instead of his face. Sand hissed around him, filling every gap it could find. Even with qi protecting him, he could feel the constant pressure of it, grinding against his barrier again and again.

But in the end, there was no real danger.

He used the time to think through what he needed to do once the storm stopped. He would have to find the place where they had been separated first. From there, he could search outward. Princess Yanyue would do the same if she was able. If they both kept moving carefully, there was still a chance they could find each other.

That was what he told himself.

And finally, after almost a full day, the storm began to slow.

Only when the wind had fully died and the sand stopped tearing through the air did Chen Ren climb out of the ridge. The desert around him had changed completely. Sand was piled everywhere, jammed between rocks, heaped over old dunes, and shaped into new ones.

The ground was no longer smooth, and every step sank deeper than it should have. Chen Ren started moving anyway.

He searched in every direction, trying to determine where he had been separated from Princess Yanyue. He looked for footprints, traces of qi, disturbed sand, broken stone, anything that might tell him where she had gone. But the storm had swallowed everything.

Still, he kept searching.

Hours passed. Then a day. Then another.

Before Chen Ren truly accepted how much time had gone by, he had been searching for more than three days. He widened the area again and again, moving farther than he thought the storm could have thrown her, then farther still when he found nothing.

Princess Yanyue was nowhere.

No matter how much he wanted to deny it, one possibility slowly became more and more likely.

She was gone.

Maybe the storm had thrown her too far away. Maybe she had found shelter somewhere else and was searching in the wrong direction. Maybe she had been forced to use her return ticket. Chen Ren did not know, and that was the worst part.

He could accept many things if he knew the truth. But the desert gave him nothing.

Wang Jun was quiet for a long time, which only made the silence heavier. Eventually, the head spoke from his side, his voice lower than usual.

“It seems like this is it, kid.” Chen Ren didn’t look at him, and Wang Jun sighed. “We two are really left alone now.”

***

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