Dao of Money

The Watcher looked at Chen Ren with a grin on his face. It was always fun to watch someone try their best to do something and then fail.

Chen Ren had already given him plenty of entertainment during the supposed years he had spent on the final floor. The Watcher had particularly enjoyed seeing how he adapted to the environment. He had watched him salvage what he could, turn useless things into useful ones, and slowly grow stronger in a place that should have crushed most cultivators long ago.

By now, Chen Ren was strong enough to face any disciple from the Guardian sects head-on.

At least, he would be once he ascended to the peak of the foundation establishment realm.

That much progress would have been impressive anywhere in the world, much less here. But the Watcher could also see why it had happened. Several things had lined up perfectly for Chen Ren.

Being trapped here meant he had almost nothing else to do except train, study, and endure. The recent loss of Princess Yanyue had only pushed him harder, even if Chen Ren himself might not want to admit it. More than that, he had a former domain manifestation realm cultivator as his mentor, and techniques most cultivators would never get to touch in their entire lives.

With all of that, improvement was expected. Rapid improvement, even.

But even the Watcher didn’t believe Chen Ren would be able to break through the barrier of the foundation establishment realm and escape the pagoda that way.

That was nearly impossible.

The only people who had even a small chance of doing such a thing were cultivators who had already reached a higher realm and were merely suppressing their cultivation. Chen Ren was definitely not doing that.

And he was not a genius either. Interesting, yes, and certainly resourceful. Without a question, he was lucky to a ridiculous degree. But not a genius.

That made the Watcher grin even wider as he observed him drawing more and more qi into his body.

Chen Ren was going to try anyway.

It was far more likely that Chen Ren would reach the peak of the realm and then fail to move beyond it.

Either way, the time for the final trial was approaching.

Just a little longer, and if Chen Ren passed, he would be able to leave this place properly. That made the whole situation even more amusing to the Watcher. The man was so close to the actual path forward, yet here he was trying to force open another one with sheer stubbornness.

Even Wang Jun seemed affected.

The severed head sat in Chen Ren’s lap while the man cultivated, glancing up at his face from time to time. He was clearly trying his best not to shake too much from nervousness, but the Watcher could see it. He was tense with worry. He doubted Wang Jun had ever made such an expression before.

Still, he understood why the head was reacting that way. If this failed, Wang Jun would almost certainly be left here to die.

Though perhaps dying was the wrong word for it. In his current state, Wang Jun might actually survive even if Chen Ren died. But survival was not always mercy. The pagoda would most likely absorb him, trap him, and keep him here for who knew how long.

That was a fate worse than death. For a moment, the Watcher almost wished he could help.

There was so much he wanted to ask Wang Jun. So much he wanted to know about what had happened in the past, and about the things the severed head clearly understood but refused to say. But the rules remained, and no matter how much the Watcher wanted to interfere, he could only watch.

So he did. And as he watched, Chen Ren’s expression grew more strained with every passing second.

It looked as if someone had placed a mountain on his back. His shoulders tightened. His jaw clenched. His breath came rougher than before, and slowly, even his body began to tremble as waves of qi burst out of him.

Wang Jun nearly fell into the sand because of it. Somehow, the head managed to grab onto the hem of Chen Ren’s robes with his teeth.

The sight was ridiculous, but the Watcher barely laughed.

The qi coming from Chen Ren was too intense. It pushed the sand around him aside at first in small ripples, clearing only a thin circle around his body. Then the pressure grew stronger. More sand began to move, dragged away by the force of the qi bursting out of him.

The circle widened, then it widened again.

Soon, the sand around Chen Ren was being cleared in waves, exposing the harder ground beneath it for the first time in who knew how long.

The Watcher leaned forward, his grin slowly fading into something closer to surprise. He had seen many things inside the pagoda.

But as Chen Ren continued to cultivate, forcing his body toward a barrier that should not break, the Watcher doubted he had ever seen anything quite like this before.

Breaking through several small stages at once was not unheard of.

It was uncommon, but not impossible.

What was truly uncommon was reaching the peak of a realm when one had been nowhere near it before. That kind of leap required a ridiculous amount of qi, a strong foundation, and enough control to keep the body from tearing itself apart under the pressure.

The waves of qi bursting out of Chen Ren were proof of that. The Watcher guessed this was the power of the Dao of Money.

He had rarely seen a dao like it. It was not completely unknown, but Chen Ren’s connection to it was different. The way he controlled it, the way his businesses fed into him, and the way that qi gathered in his star space all made the whole thing feel far stranger than it should have.

And right now, that strangeness was on full display.

The Watcher truly wondered how much qi Chen Ren had accumulated through his businesses inside the pagoda. He knew the businesses had worked well. Anyone watching the lower floors could see that. But knowing they were successful and seeing the result of that success were two very different things.

As he watched, the Watcher’s eyes slowly widened. The qi coming out of Chen Ren didn’t stop.

It only increased.

Wave after wave poured from his body, pushing more sand away and making the air around him tremble. The pressure should have started weakening by now, but it showed no sign of doing so. If anything, Chen Ren seemed to be releasing even more qi with every passing second.

Then the Watcher noticed something else. Chen Ren was breathing too much qi too.

During advancement, a cultivator normally drew qi in. They gathered it, refined it, and forced it into the body to push themselves higher. But Chen Ren’s qi was already gathered inside his star space, which meant the usual process did not apply in the same way.

Even then, there was no reason for him to exhale so much of it. Not unless he was doing it deliberately.

The Watcher stared more carefully to see if that was the case, and he realised it wasn’t accidental. Chen Ren was letting qi escape with every breath.

At first, the Watcher could not understand why he would do something so wasteful. During advancement, every drop mattered. Letting qi spill out like this made no sense unless there was a reason behind it.

Then the answer struck him. Chen Ren had too much qi, his body couldn’t handle all of it.

The moment that thought appeared, a bad premonition followed.

The Watcher leaned forward, his earlier amusement fading almost entirely. He had assumed the man would fail. He had believed the man would reach the peak of the foundation establishment realm, hit the barrier, and be forced to stop there.

But now, for the first time, the Watcher wondered if Chen Ren might actually break through. If that happened, then the pagoda would have to react.

And if the pagoda reacted, the Watcher might miss something he had been looking forward to for a very long time. With every second that passed, that possibility became more real.

Slowly, Chen Ren seemed to advance. Larger waves of qi burst out of him, each one stronger than the last, and the Watcher could tell what was happening. The man was not moving through the small stages one by one in any normal sense. He was skipping through them, forcing himself forward with the absurd amount of qi he had gathered until he stood right at the edge of the peak.

Another wave burst out. This one was different.

The force of it spread across the desert and struck a boulder several hundred metres away from where Chen Ren sat. The stone cracked and broke apart under the pressure.

The Watcher’s expression tightened. That was it.

Chen Ren had reached the peak of the foundation establishment realm.

For a moment, the Watcher hoped the man would stop there. It was already an achievement beyond what most cultivators could dream of in this place. He had advanced in a qi-less desert, using nothing but the power he had gathered through his own dao and the businesses he had built inside the pagoda.

But Chen Ren didn’t stop. He continued cultivating.

More qi gathered around him. If this continued, he might truly be able to push into the next realm and force his way out of the pagoda.

The Watcher knew the place would not let him go so easily.

Although Chen Ren didn’t understand it yet, he was the only person left on the final floor. Princess Yanyue had already left after being separated from him in the sandstorm. The floor had placed her inside a mirage, one she could only escape by burning her return ticket.

That had not been the Watcher’s doing.

It was simply one of the fifteenth floor’s trials for the two of them. In the end, one of them had taken the easier way out, whether she wanted to or not.

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Now, as the Watcher saw Chen Ren trying to force himself beyond the pagoda’s limits, he knew another trial was about to begin.

What kind of trial it would be, he had no idea.

He was not allowed to know everything. The final floor had its own rules, and even he was not always privy to what it would create. But as he watched, waves of qi began to move through the desert.

This time, they were not coming from Chen Ren.

They rolled across the sand like the beginning of a storm, gathering slowly at first before growing stronger with every breath. Even Wang Jun noticed it. The head, still clinging to Chen Ren’s robes, turned his eyes toward the shifting desert, and for once, he looked genuinely surprised.

Especially since the waves did not look as if they were going to calm down any time soon.

Despite that, Chen Ren continued cultivating.

He kept his eyes closed. He didn’t react to the movement in the desert, the growing pressure in the air, or even Wang Jun’s sudden stiffness. He simply kept moving in qi, forcing it through his body as he tried to push past the barrier in front of him.

Then the sky darkened.

Clouds appeared out of nowhere, spreading across the artificial sky until they covered everything above him. The false sun vanished behind them, and the desert fell into a heavy gloom.

Wang Jun immediately looked alarmed, as if whatever soul remained inside his severed head was about to flee.

“Chen Ren!” he shouted. “Chen Ren, you need to open your eyes!”

Chen Ren didn’t.

He kept cultivating even as the heavenly tribulation formed above him.

Thunder cracked in the clouds, loud enough to shake the sand below. It sounded almost like a warning, as if the heavens themselves were telling him to stop what he was trying to do. But Chen Ren didn’t stop. His eyes remained closed, his body trembling under the weight of the qi gathering inside him.

The Watcher and Wang Jun both stared as the first bolt finally fell.

It came down too fast to properly follow.

One moment, the clouds flashed. The next, thunder struck directly where Chen Ren sat. Wang Jun threw himself off Chen Ren’s lap just before it landed, rolling through the sand with a curse.

Any other time, the sight might have been funny. Right now, the Watcher barely noticed.

His attention stayed fixed on Chen Ren.

The tribulation thunder hit him like a falling meteor, carrying enough force to scorch away his body in an instant. For a brief moment, the Watcher truly thought it might kill him. But surprisingly, the first thing that protected Chen Ren was the qi he had been breathing out.

It had grown thick around him, almost like a dense shell, and when the thunder struck, that qi took the first part of the impact. It did not block the bolt completely, but it softened it enough that Chen Ren’s body could survive the rest.

The remaining thunder entered him.

His lightning aspect pulled at it instinctively, while his body cultivation helped keep his flesh from tearing apart under the force. Even then, the pain was clearly unbearable.

Chen Ren’s scream tore through the storm and echoed across the desert. It was as if Chen Ren’s whole body had suddenly turned to flame.

The scream that left him was the kind of sound that could give even his enemies nightmares for life. But despite the pain, despite the way his body shook under the force of it, the heavenly thunder was absorbed into him.

He survived. Unfortunately, that was not the end.

The clouds above crackled again. Another bolt of lightning fell.

This time, Chen Ren opened his eyes.

He raised both hands at once and released his own lightning to meet it. For a brief moment, his lightning managed to hold the heavenly thunder back. The two forces crashed against each other in the air, bright enough to light up the darkened desert.

But in the end, it was heavenly thunder. Ordinary lightning could not put it out.

The bolt tore through Chen Ren’s lightning and continued downward. Just before it struck, he managed to form an air shield above himself, but that only gave him a little relief. The heavenly thunder still broke through and hit him.

The pain was unimaginable.

Chen Ren couldn’t remain seated. His body jerked under the force, and he tumbled onto the sand, lightning still crawling across his skin. Even with his affinity, the power hurt him. It dug into his flesh, his meridians, and his bones as if trying to burn away anything that had allowed him to reach this point.

The Watcher doubted he would survive another bolt.

Even now, Chen Ren’s condition did not look good. His breathing was rough, his body was trembling, and patches of his robes had already been scorched away. The qi around him was still thick, but it had weakened after taking two strikes.

Wang Jun seemed to reach the same conclusion.

“Chen Ren!” the head shouted. “We need to get out of here, or we are going to die!”

Chen Ren was clearly disoriented, but he still looked around.

Then thunder cracked above him again. That sound was enough.

He forced himself up from the sand, stumbling once before regaining his balance. His hand shot down, grabbed Wang Jun, and pulled the head close against him. A moment later, Chen Ren started running across the desert, moving away from the dark clouds as fast as his injured body allowed.

But the pagoda wasn’t going to let him escape so easily.

Although the Watcher knew almost everything about the pagoda, even he had never seen it try to impose its rules in this way.

Chen Ren had no choice but to run.

He pushed himself across the sand as fast as he could, Wang Jun held against him while thunder kept striking the ground around them. Each bolt fell with terrifying force, exploding against the desert and sending sand flying into the air. The pagoda was trying to bring him down.

But Chen Ren kept moving.

He was fast, faster than he had any right to be after taking two heavenly strikes. The Watcher guessed he was using his lightning aspect to sense where the energy was gathering in the air, letting him move away just before the thunder fell. Even then, it was barely enough. Each strike came close enough to burn the sand near his feet.

And it didn’t stop.

The clouds followed him. The thunder followed him.

It was as if the pagoda had decided that if Chen Ren tried to leave by force, then he would simply die here instead.

At this rate, he might.

No matter how fast Chen Ren was, he could not run forever. His body was injured, his qi was unstable, and every step took him closer to collapse. The Watcher could see it clearly, and for the first time in a very long while, he did not want to simply stand there and see what happened.

Chen Ren had done too much inside the pagoda. He had survived too much.

He had turned floors upside down, created businesses where others only fought, dragged secrets out of places no one should have found them, and reached the final floor through a mixture of cleverness, greed, luck, and stubbornness. A man like that should not end by being struck down while running across an empty desert.

So, in the end, the Watcher made a choice.

For the first time since his existence began, he involved himself beyond watching.

He did have some power, despite what he usually claimed. He was the Watcher of the pagoda for a reason. He could not change an outcome completely, and he could not break the rules. But he could hasten something that was already meant to happen.

That was what he did. As Chen Ren ran from the heavenly strikes, the Watcher pushed out his ability.

The next second, the dark clouds vanished. The heavenly thunder ceased.

Chen Ren stopped so suddenly that sand slid around his feet. He looked up at the clear artificial sky, breathing hard, still holding Wang Jun close to his side.

“What is going on?” he asked.

Wang Jun did not answer. Before the head could say anything, something else began moving in the desert.

Wind erupted around them.

It came from every direction at once, pulling sand into the air and twisting it into violent streams. Chen Ren’s eyes widened as the desert began to change again. Another sandstorm was forming, larger and stronger than the one that had separated him from Princess Yanyue.

The Watcher looked down at him quietly. This was the beginning of the final trial.

The pagoda had stopped trying to punish Chen Ren for breaking its rules.

Now, it would test whether he was worthy to leave.

***

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