Dao of Money

Although he had been occupied with things, Chen Ren had wondered more than once how Yalan and the others would react when they finally saw him again.

According to the Watcher, four years had not passed for them, but still, enough time had gone by. The pagoda was dangerous, and with how suddenly everyone had been forced to use their return tickets, he knew they must have been worried.

Still, not even in his wildest dreams had he imagined that he would be welcomed with an attack.

Before he could respond to the words aimed at him, a large fireball came streaming through the air.

Chen Ren immediately grabbed Anji and jumped to the side. The fireball smashed into the trees behind them, and flames spread through the branches in seconds. Before the fire could grow further, an arrow struck the burning area and burst into a cold mist, freezing everything around it before the flames could turn into a forest fire.

Chen Ren let out a breath of relief. Then he looked back.

Yalan stood in the shade of the wall, glaring at him.

Behind her were Princess Yanyue, Zi Wen, Li Xuan, and the twins, all standing on flying swords. For a while, Chen Ren simply looked at them. Seeing them alive and well made something in his chest ease, even if one of them had just tried to burn him.

Then Yalan’s voice pulled his attention back. “Where have you been for so long?” she asked. “Do you know how hard it was to wait for you every day here in the Corpse Lands?”

Chen Ren smiled at her.

That angry expression was only a cover for her concern. He could see that clearly enough. So he walked toward her and said, “It is not like I had a return ticket to come back here whenever I wanted. It took time to find a way out.”

Princess Yanyue looked at him closely. “How did you even do that? Did you find the common lift?”

Chen Ren shook his head. “No. It is a long story. I do not think any of you know what is happening inside the pagoda right now either.”

“Then you should tell us,” Li Xuan said.

“I am here to do exactly that,” Chen Ren replied. “But first, I think we should go somewhere with no prying eyes.”

Even as he said that, he noticed more than a few cultivators looking down at their group. The fireball earlier had made a loud enough sound to attract attention, and the Watcher had already told him there were many cultivators on the wall now.

When they moved up the stairs and reached the top, that turned out to be true.

The wall was crowded.

Cultivators stood everywhere, some watching the pagoda, some speaking with their groups, and some staring out into the Corpse Lands. Hundreds of flying swords moved through the air as well, making it difficult to fly at any decent speed without risking a collision.

At the very least, Chen Ren and the others did not attract too much attention. Princess Yanyue had pulled a robe over her head, and the others kept close as they moved through the crowd. After a short while, they found their way into a room large enough for all of them.

Once they were inside, some of them took seats.

Princess Yanyue remained standing and turned to him. Her hands were on hips and she narrowed her eyes. “Now tell us what happened in the pagoda, Sect Leader Chen.”

Chen Ren nodded. But before he began the long explanation, he needed to confirm one thing.

“You all already know what happened on the final floor of the pagoda, right?”

Everyone nodded.

Princess Yanyue had clearly told them, but when Chen Ren asked that, she fidgeted slightly. She cleared her throat loudly. “I’m really sorry I left you there alone. I really am. I tried to find you everywhere, I couldn’t. So I had to—”

Chen Ren lifted a hand and shook his head before she could fall deeper into self-blame.

“I already know what happened with you,” he said. “You do not have to apologise. In the first place, I told you to leave multiple times. And honestly, if you had not left, I might not be standing here right now.”

Yalan frowned. “What do you mean?”

Chen Ren took that question as the opening he needed.

He started explaining what had happened after he found himself alone on the final floor. As usual, he left out any mention of Wang Jun. He spoke about the desert, the lack of qi, the time difference, the trial, and how he had eventually found a way to clear it. He also told them about the Watcher, Sect Leader Yuren’s inheritance, and how he became Lord Eternal.

The more he spoke, the more the expressions around him changed.

Li Xuan looked as if he wanted to go back into the pagoda just to confirm whether any of this was real. Zi Wen stared at him without blinking for a while. The twins exchanged looks more than once, clearly struggling to accept that he had conquered the pagoda.

Yalan was the only one who seemed to accept it without much difficulty. Then again, she was the one person who had known from the start how strange Chen Ren’s fate and luck could be.

Once he explained how he gained Sect Leader Yuren’s inheritance and became Lord Eternal, Chen Ren stopped.

There was not much more they needed to know right now. For several minutes, no one said anything.

He looked around, noticing how they were all contemplating.

Yalan was the one to finally break the silence.

“You get into the strangest situations,” she said. “And you didn’t even want to climb to the top of the pagoda.”

“It is not my fault this happened,” Chen Ren said. “And it is a big positive for me and the sect anyway.”

Princess Yanyue let out a slow breath. “I cannot even imagine how much wealth there must be inside the pagoda.”

Her gaze returned to Chen Ren.

“Aren’t you now as rich as the Guardian sects, Sect Leader Chen?” she asked. “I am sure you are.”

Chen Ren pursed his lips. In truth, he had no idea how rich the Guardian sects were. But from what he had seen inside the pagoda, it made sense that he might be close.

He wasn’t about to go on a tangent and boast about it. Even his allies needed to underestimate certain things for now.

“I’m not really sure,” he said. “In the first place, a lot of wealth is controlled by the lords, so it is not all mine. And since the pagoda was made for foundation establishment realm cultivators, many of the inheritances are also basic. They’re good enough to give someone an extremely strong foundation, but they are not all world-shaking treasures.”

Li Xuan hummed at the statement. “But you have all the inheritance now, don’t you?”

Chen Ren went quiet for a moment.

Technically, he could get his hands on them, or at least copies of the manuals inside them.

But getting more than that was impossible in many, many cases. A lot of the inheritances had been designed for a single cultivator, and once someone claimed the main reward, it couldn’t simply be taken again.

“I can tell you where they are located if you want,” Chen Ren said in the end. “From what I know, there is a sword cultivator inheritance on the seventh floor. But you will probably have to wait a year before you can go back.”

Li Xuan’s eyes widened. “You can go back? I tried before,” he said. “We all did. The pagoda would not let us enter again.”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Chen Ren smiled. “Yes. That is a new rule I made.”

Li Xuan stared at him for a second, still looking as if he was trying to accept that Chen Ren could now casually change the rules of the pagoda.

“But I cannot give you an exception, sadly,” Chen Ren added. “The lords will complain if I do that.”

Li Xuan slowly nodded. A smile appeared on his face soon after.

“That is fine,” he said. “I am just happy I will be able to give it another shot. I was depressed thinking I had let my sect down.”

“Well,” Chen Ren said, “some of them are still inside.”

Li Xuan’s face fell at those words.

Chen Ren noticed it and decided not to continue. He already knew Li Xuan had separated from his sect members inside the pagoda, and depending on what they say once they returned to the Soaring Sword Sect elders, there was a good chance he would be heavily punished.

Fortunately, Yalan changed the topic before the silence could grow worse.

“You seem to have gotten rather friendly with the lords,” she said. “One of them was trying to chase after us with flying swords, you know.”

Princess Yanyue nodded as well. “Yes. What happened to all the lords who wanted to kill us? Did they just accept your rule?”

She leaned slightly toward him, clearly interested. The others also perked up their ears.

Chen Ren only shrugged. “Well, we had our differences, but in the end, we were able to clear them up. Moreover, I—”

Before he could finish, the qi in the air suddenly changed.

A tear formed right in front of him.

Chen Ren took a step back, while everyone else immediately pushed qi out of their bodies, preparing for an enemy. Princess Yanyue’s hands created a bow, Li Xuan took out his sword, and Yalan’s flames began to gather around her fingers.

“Wait, wait,” Chen Ren said quickly. “It is nothing to fear.”

The very next second, the Watcher walked through the tear with two of the lords.

The first was Shrey, who looked around the room with curious eyes, studying everyone as if they were interesting goods laid out on a merchant’s table.

The second was Yorren, the lord of the Grand Library. He still held a great sword in his hands and looked angry enough to kill everyone in the room.

The Watcher came out after them, and the tear disappeared behind him. As soon as he walked in, his gaze turned towards Chen Ren.

“Sorry, Lord Eternal. It took a bit of time. Lord Shrey wanted to create an inventory of things he could sell in the outside world, while Lord Yorren could not decide what clothes he should wear.”

Chen Ren wanted to ask why Yorren cared about fashion in the first place, but he had more urgent things to handle.

He immediately moved between the lords and his allies.

Princess Yanyue and Yalan both looked as if they were one second away from using a technique. Li Xuan had also gone still, his hand near his sword, while the twins watched Yorren with tense expressions.

“There is no need to fight,” Chen Ren said quickly. “Yorren and I already solved our differences. He is not going to do anything that harms us.”

Yalan’s gaze stayed on the great sword in Yorren’s hand. “It does not look like that when he has his sword out.”

Yorren frowned. “I had no idea whether I would be attacked the moment I stepped into the outside world.” He grunted and turned toward Chen Ren. “And I do not remember us solving our differences.”

Chen Ren looked at him calmly. “Do you want to be sent back? Trust me, City Lord Xiangrui really wanted to come too.”

Yorren’s expression stiffened. A moment later, he deflated slightly. “I understand. I will not talk back.”

Chen Ren nodded. “Good that you understand.”

Then he looked at the others.

“I apologize, I did not get time to explain this part,” he said. “But I am going to let some of the lords explore the outside world with us. They have been cooped up inside the pagoda for too long, and I think it will be good for them to get accustomed to this world again, especially if the pagoda is going to remain standing for a long time.”

Yalan looked at him for a moment before narrowing her eyes. Her whiskers twitched at whatever she was about to say. “So you are going to use the pagoda as another form of business.”

Chen Ren smiled. “You always catch on to my intentions.”

Chen Ren had no intention of explaining everything here.

He was going to call a proper meeting with everyone in his sect and tell them exactly what had happened. They would also have to discuss Jun and how to deal with him, because there was no way that man would not come looking for him again.

That was one of the reasons Chen Ren had brought Yorren with him.

After talking with the Watcher, Chen Ren had learned that the librarian was actually one of the most dangerous puppets in the pagoda. Jun had managed to hold him back before, but he had not been able to kill him. And back then, Yorren had only just woken up from sleep.

If he was fully awake and prepared now, Chen Ren hoped he could act as a protector of sorts.

That made bringing Yorren out far more useful than bringing someone like City Lord Xiangrui, who had complained far too much about not being allowed to come outside when he and Chen Ren were supposedly so “close.”

As Chen Ren thought about that, the Watcher bowed to him.

“Well, I will be going now,” he said. “Please take care of the lords and yourself, Lord Eternal.”

After saying that, the Watcher stepped back into the tear and disappeared.

The room finally felt a little less cramped.

Yalan muttered, “Lord Eternal, seriously? A child could come up with a better name.”

Chen Ren immediately said, “I did not have much time to think.”

Shrey, who had been looking around the room with growing confusion, spoke next. “I did not know the outside world was just a room.”

Chen Ren looked at him. “It is just a room. That is why. We need to go outside if you want to see the rest.”

“Then why are we not going?” Shrey asked. “I was excited to see more outsiders.”

Chen Ren pressed his lips together for a moment before slowly saying, “Because first, I need to tell you where we are heading and how you need to behave.”

Shrey blinked at him.

Chen Ren looked between him and Yorren. “Have either of you ever been part of a sect?”

***

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