Dao of Money

It had been a while since Anji had been this worried.

There was no way for her to calm herself down, not after everything that had happened over the past few weeks.

Her work itself was going well. In fact, it was going better than she had ever expected. She was earning a lot of tokens simply by managing the Divine Coin Pavilion, and the business was booming so quickly that they had started employing more climbers to act as vendors on different floors.

They couldn’t set up proper shops in those places yet. There were too many safety concerns for that. Some floors were too dangerous, some had unstable rules, and some simply did not have enough protection for a fixed business to survive. But sending vendors out with limited stock was a good start.

It allowed them to spread their reach without risking too much.

When Anji came up with that strategy, she had been certain Sect Leader Chen Ren would be happy with it. He was always looking for ways to expand their influence, and this was exactly the kind of thing he liked. Small risks, steady profit, and a way to make people rely on them more with every passing day.

But then, out of nowhere, she noticed something strange. The rankings had changed.

She had gotten into the habit of checking them every single day. At first, it had only been for business reasons. Knowing who was rising, who was earning tokens, and which cultivators were becoming important helped her make better decisions for the pavilion. But over time, she had also started checking because it made her happy to see her sect members and allies in the top fifty.

That was why she noticed the change immediately.

Other than Sect Leader Chen and Princess Yanyue, none of them were there anymore.

At first, she thought she had missed their names. So she checked again, and again.

Li Xuan, Zi Wen, Yalan, the twins, and the others had all been rankers. Even if they had dropped a few spots, they should have still been visible somewhere. But when Anji scrolled further down, she still could not find them.

Her worry grew worse.

She checked the entire ranking list, going through more than a thousand cultivators.

There was still no mention of them. That was when the worst possibility entered her mind. Maybe they were dead.

The thought made her stomach twist.

They had disappeared from the rankings all at once, even though they had been earning tokens every day. People didn’t simply vanish from the rankings like that without a reason. Either they had died, left the pagoda, or something stranger had happened.

Anji tried to tell herself that they might have used return tickets. She knew Sect Leader Chen Ren had bought some.

Maybe he had given them to the others. Maybe something dangerous had happened, and they had escaped in time. Maybe they were already outside the pagoda, safe in the Corpse Lands, waiting for Sect Leader Chen Ren and Princess Yanyue to return.

It was possible.

But even Anji knew that was only the optimistic explanation her mind had created so she would not fall apart.

Moreover, Sect Leader Chen and Princess Yanyue had not disappeared with the others.

That only made Anji worry more.

In the end, the two of them suddenly gained millions of tokens out of nowhere, rising to first and second place in the overall rankings. The change created conversations everywhere climbers gathered. People spoke about it in shops, inns, streets, lifts, and everywhere else. No one knew what the two of them had done, but everyone agreed that it had to be something unbelievable.

The fact that both of them were still alive and doing well was the only reason Anji managed to keep herself sane.

Then, one day, Princess Yanyue disappeared from the rankings too.

Anji’s heart fell.

More conversations erupted across the pagoda. Princess Yanyue was the only royal currently inside, and she had been doing far better than even the disciples from the Guardian sects. Because of that, she had become extremely famous. Some admired her. Some envied her. Some watched her ranking only because they wanted to see when she would finally fall.

When her name vanished, everyone started talking.

Some climbers even began preparing a memorial for her.

The royal guards who had been helping with the shop became uneasy as well. At first, they only whispered among themselves, but soon their worry grew too large to hide. They made a huge scene, bought return tickets, and left the pagoda not long after.

Their departure did not hurt the Divine Coin Pavilion much anymore.

The business had grown too large for that. They had other workers, other vendors, and more people willing to work for tokens than Anji could properly use. But even then, seeing them leave made her wonder if she should do the same.

After all, most of the people she knew had already left the pagoda.

Li Xuan, Zi Wen, Yalan, the twins, the royal guards, Princess Yanyue, and everyone else who had once felt close were gone. Only Sect Leader Chen Ren’s name still remained on the rankings, standing at the very top like proof that he was alive somewhere.

That was the reason Anji stayed.

Leaving the Divine Coin Pavilion and all their businesses behind while Sect Leader Chen was still inside felt wrong. It would be like running away from her responsibility, and Anji didn’t want to do that. He had trusted her with the pavilion, and she would not abandon it just because fear was making her hands shake.

So she stayed and she worked.

She managed the vendors, checked the accounts, handled supplies, and answered questions from climbers who came to the pavilion hoping to learn what had happened. At the same time, she quietly searched for more information, asking around, watching the rankings, and listening to every rumour that might explain where the others had gone.

But no matter how much she looked, she found nothing certain. Only more questions.

And every day Sect Leader Chen Ren remained alone at the top of the rankings, Anji felt the weight in her chest grow heavier.

She even went to meet Han Qingshi of the Frostpeak Sect when he returned to the fifth floor.

Anji asked him what had happened, hoping he would know something useful. But Han Qingshi had not met Sect Leader Chen Ren or the others after the siege they had taken part in on the eighth floor. He only knew that the master lift they had taken from there had never been returned.

That made Anji even more confused.

So she spent her days hoping Sect Leader Chen would return, if only so she could ask him what was going on. Until then, all she could do was keep the Divine Coin Pavilion running and pretend she was not checking the rankings far more often than she needed to.

Then, one day, something unexpected happened.

It began like any other normal day.

Anji was sitting in her office, going through documents about their sales reports and thinking about how they could expand further. The numbers were good, but good numbers always brought new questions. More vendors meant more supply routes. More supply routes meant more risk. More risk meant more people, more tokens, and more systems to manage.

She was halfway through a report when a strange energy washed over her. Anji paused.

For a moment, she simply sat there, wondering what had just happened. It was not an attack, at least not one she recognised. It didn’t feel like killing intent or the pressure of a powerful cultivator. It was more like the entire pagoda itself had taken a breath.

Before she could think further, the door to her office opened. One of her assistants, a native of the pagoda, stepped inside with a tense expression.

“Manager Anji,” he said, “you need to come out. Something strange is happening.”

Anji immediately looked at him. “What happened?”

The man shook his head, clearly unsure how to explain it. “There is something up there in the sky. You need to see it.”

Something in the sky?

For a second, she wondered if they were being attacked. But if that were true, there would already be screams, guards rushing through the streets, and shopkeepers slamming their doors shut. Instead, the pavilion felt strangely quiet.

Anji didn’t ask anything else. She stood up and followed him out of the office.

When she entered the main shop, she noticed at once that most of it was empty. The customers, workers, and vendors were all gathered near the doors and windows, staring outside. Through the gaps between them, she could see that the street beyond was full too.

Everyone had stopped where they were.

Anji pushed her way through the crowd, her worry growing with every step. People moved aside when they noticed her, and after a little effort, she finally reached the street.

Then she looked up.

What she saw made her doubt her own eyes.

Out in the sky, a huge screen floated above the city.

On it sat a man dressed in dark robes and a dark mask. The mask covered his entire face, with the faint pattern of a dragon worked into its surface. Anji could only tell he was a man because of his frame, and even that felt uncertain with how thoroughly the robes hid him.

Everyone around her kept their eyes on him.

Whispers moved through the street as the masked man looked down from the screen. He didn’t speak immediately. It was almost as if he was waiting, giving more people across the pagoda time to gather and look up.

Two minutes passed like that.

Then he finally spoke. “Residents of the pagoda, and climbers trying to change their destinies through it,” the man said, “I am Eternal, Lord of the Pagoda of Eternity.”

Everyone froze. Anji’s breath caught in her throat.

Until now, none of them had even known that the pagoda had a lord. Everyone knew the Azure Immortal Sect had created the Pagoda of Eternity centuries ago, but that was different. A lord was someone present and someone who could act.

Still, after the first shock passed, Anji realised it made a strange kind of sense.

If every floor had its own lord, then why would the pagoda itself not have one? But she didn’t understand why he had chosen to reveal himself now.

Especially like this.

As it turned out, Eternal spoke about that next.

“For centuries, the Pagoda of Eternity has been in slumber,” he said. “But recently, all of you came here. Climbers from the outside world, seeking to challenge the floors, take its treasures, and conquer what had been left untouched for ages.”

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His masked face remained still, but his voice carried enough weight that no one dared to speak over him.

“I appreciate that,” Eternal continued. “Your presence helped awaken me from my sleep, and I am pleased to see so many of you trying to climb higher and reach me.”

Anji swallowed. Around her, even the natives of the pagoda looked shaken.

“But I have not projected myself before you merely to show a glimpse of my majesty,” Eternal said. “I have done this so you understand what you are aiming for. And also to tell you that now that I have awakened, and since I intend to keep the pagoda open for a long period, I will be adding a few new rules moving forward.”

“I will not be telling you the new rules right now,” Eternal continued. “The lords of the different floors will do that for you.”

The masked figure leaned back slightly on his throne.

“But I will tell you to prepare for change.”

Anji stood frozen in the street, her eyes fixed on the enormous screen in the sky. Around her, no one spoke. Even the busiest parts of the city had gone quiet, as if every person on the fifth floor was afraid of missing a single word.

“Until now, more than a few people have entered my eyes as climbers who might one day reach me,” Eternal continued. “Climbers who could challenge me for my position.”

The dragon pattern on his mask caught the light strangely.

“But none of you have come close.”

A murmur moved through the crowd.

“One person did,” Eternal said. “But she is now out of the pagoda.”

Anji’s heart tightened. Princess Yanyue. It had to be Princess Yanyue.

“So try your best, and make sure you do not die early. I will be waiting for the day a climber can finally take my throne, even if it takes an eternity.”

After he said that, the screen blinked. Then it disappeared.

For a moment, the sky looked completely normal again, as if nothing had ever been there in the first place.

Then the streets erupted.

Conversations broke out everywhere at once. Climbers shouted questions at each other. Natives looked shaken. Merchants abandoned their stalls to argue. Some people wondered what new rules would be added. Others wanted to know who Eternal truly was. A few immediately began claiming that Princess Yanyue must have reached him and failed to defeat him, since she had been the strongest female cultivator in the pagoda before her name disappeared.

The voices overlapped so much that Anji could not keep track of anything. But one thought would not leave her.

Eternal’s appearance had to be related to Sect Leader Chen.

She did not know how. She did not know why. But the timing was too strange, and the mention of the one person who had come close only made her feel more certain that something had happened on the higher floors.

Anji immediately checked the rankings. Sect Leader Chen was gone. Her heart fell.

For one terrible second, she thought his name had vanished like the others. But she forced herself to keep looking, scrolling down the rankings with shaking fingers until she finally found him.

[Rank - 57].Out of nowhere, Sect Leader Chen had dropped from first place to fifty-seventh. Most of his tokens had been spent.

Anji stared at the number, completely unable to understand what it meant. Had he bought something? Had he lost tokens because of some hidden rule? Was this connected to Eternal’s announcement? Or had something happened that she couldn’t even begin to guess?

She didn’t know. Every new answer only created more confusion.

Anji truly wanted to send Sect Leader Chen a message and ask him what was going on. She wanted to know whether he was safe, whether the others were alive, whether Princess Yanyue had really left, and whether this Eternal had anything to do with him.

But for now, all she could do was stand alone in the street while every corner of the city filled with frantic conversations.

And somehow, Anji knew this was not just another strange event inside the pagoda.

This was the beginning of a huge change.

***

Jun stared at the sky for a long while, even after the screen disappeared.

He was on the sixth floor, looking out from a window inside Zombie Queen Vesrya’s castle. Honestly, he was surprised the castle was still standing. Before he had been interrupted, he had been close to destroying enough of it to make his displeasure clear.

But before he could truly get to that point, the sky had changed.

A massive screen had appeared above the floor, and someone calling himself Eternal had introduced himself as the Lord of the Pagoda of Eternity.

Jun had many thoughts about what that could mean. But one thing was very clear. Whatever this Eternal had said was a load of dragonshit.

There was nothing else it could be.

He looked toward Zombie Queen Vesrya, who stood beside him with a thoughtful expression. She had firmly rejected his request to use her master lift only a short while ago, and Jun had been trying very hard not to let his anger guide his hands after that.

Now, however, this new problem had appeared.

Jun kept his voice controlled as he asked, “Is Eternal someone you know?”

Vesrya paused and then she shook her head. “No. I have never heard of him.”

Jun’s eyes narrowed.

“I doubt the other lords have heard of him either,” she continued. “We all know there is a lord of the last floor, but it is not Eternal. I am sure of that. The one we know is someone we simply call the Watcher.”

Jun looked back toward the empty sky. “Yet that man was able to broadcast his message. Probably to the entire pagoda. What does that mean?”

The Zombie Queen remained silent for a moment longer. Then her face grew slightly pale.

“Honestly, I cannot say for certain,” she said. “But my best conclusion is that someone has gained ownership of the pagoda.”

Jun slowly turned back to her.

“I do not know how Eternal did it,” Vesrya continued. “But that is the only explanation that makes sense. There should be no other way to broadcast across every floor like that.” She looked up at the sky as if expecting the screen to return. “And the pagoda itself would punish him if he made such a false claim.”

Jun’s expression darkened. “So he actually conquered it.”

Vesrya nodded slowly. “Yes. There is no other way.”

For a moment, neither of them spoke.

Then, the Zombie Queen’s eyes sharpened with curiosity. “I wonder who it is.”

“Can you kill him for me?” Jun asked immediately.

Vesrya laughed. “Only if I want to be obliterated by the pagoda,” she said. “I cannot harm him even if I want to. At best, I can refuse to listen to him, but even that will be difficult if the other floor lords support him.”

Jun listened to every word. Then he turned away from the window. “My job here is done, then.”

One of his disciples, Shuyi, immediately looked at him. “What do you mean, Master?”

“We are leaving the pagoda,” Jun said.

His other disciple, Wenji, stiffened. “But what about the medallion?”

Jun turned sharply toward him. “It is gone,” he said. “Chen Ren has taken it.”

Both of their faces changed.

“Whatever we do now, it does not matter,” Jun continued. “We are getting out of here. There will be other chances to get our hands on it, but Chen Ren has suddenly become a much bigger and harder bug to crush.”

Jun was not an idiot. He knew who Eternal was.

There was only one person inside the pagoda who could have done something like this. After escaping from Jun’s hands, Chen Ren had vanished from every floor. Jun had searched and found nothing. At the time, he had thought the man was hiding somewhere with some strange method or had been trapped in a place he could not easily reach.

But no.

The bastard had been conquering the pagoda.

Other than Chen Ren, there was no one else who could have reached the final floors. Princess Yanyue might have been with him at some point, but she was no longer in the pagoda. Either she had left or died. Only Chen Ren remained, and now this Eternal had appeared, claiming to be the lord of the entire pagoda.

Jun didn’t like it one bit.

Because if Chen Ren had truly become the owner of the Pagoda of Eternity, then there was a good chance he had also obtained the medallion.

And Jun could not fight the owner of the pagoda while his cultivation was restricted inside it. Not when the pagoda itself might turn against him.

So he walked through Zombie Queen Vesrya’s castle with his disciples following behind him. None of them spoke. Even Shuyi and Wenji seemed to understand that their master’s mood was not something to test right now.

Once they reached a quiet hall, Jun took out return tickets and handed them to his disciples.

“Use them,” he said.

Shuyi hesitated for only a second before obeying. Wenji did the same.

Jun held his own ticket in his hand and looked once more toward the ceiling, as if he could see through it and reach the sky where Eternal’s image had appeared.

No. not Eternal, but Chen Ren.

Jun’s fingers tightened around the ticket. The paper began to burn.

As the light of the return ticket wrapped around him and pulled him out of the pagoda, Jun made a silent vow.

He was going to kill Chen Ren soon. Owner of the pagoda or not.

***

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