Dao of Money

Chen Ren had never truly killed a beast as massive as the golden dragon. And the way he did it was extremely gruesome.

Its own teeth became the end of it.

Once the eye gave way and the teeth plunged in, Chen Ren did not stop, even as the dragon screamed. The sound tore through the sky like thousands of spirits wailing at the same time. For a moment, every instinct in Chen Ren’s body told him to run as far away as he could.

He wanted to get away from that scream. But he couldn’t. He had to finish the dragon first.

So Chen Ren pushed his will into the teeth and forced them deeper. They sank further into the golden dragon’s eye, piercing through flesh, light, and whatever else held the illusion together. Blood poured out around them, and the dragon writhed harder, its huge body twisting through the lightning dome in agony.

It could no longer focus properly.

The pain had broken its rhythm.

Chen Ren didn’t waste that chance. The lightning dome kept throwing bolts toward the dragon, striking its body again and again. Each bolt cracked across its scales, and Chen Ren directed more of them toward its wings to make sure it could not recover and fly properly.

Before this, the wings had been as impenetrable as the rest of its body.

Now, that was no longer true.

As the lightning fell on them, holes began to appear. Small ones at first, then larger tears as more bolts struck the same places again and again. Golden blood and light scattered into the sky, and before Chen Ren fully realised what was happening, the dragon began to fall.

There was no visible ground beneath them. Only endless, open sky. Yet the dragon fell as if something below was pulling it down.

Chen Ren watched it go, his heart beating fast inside his chest. Part of him still expected the golden dragon to heal, spread its wings, and rise back into the sky. A heavenly beast should have been able to recover from terrible injuries. Even an illusion of one should not have died so easily.

But nothing like that happened. The dragon’s massive body continued to fall lower and lower.

Its silhouette grew smaller beneath him, swallowed by the endless distance, until Chen Ren could no longer see it at all.

Only then did he finally let out a breath.

For a long time, he had truly believed he would be trapped in this illusion forever, dying again and again until his mind broke. But Chen Ren had managed to kill a dragon of all things.

Illusion or not, that was a huge achievement.

Slowly, he released the thunder ape silhouette around him. The great lightning form faded from his body, its claws, shoulders, and massive frame breaking apart into sparks before disappearing into the empty sky. Chen Ren let out another breath of relief as the pressure around him eased.

Letting go of all that qi made him feel a little better. For a moment, it almost felt like he could relax.

But he was still floating in the sky.

Chen Ren looked around, waiting for the illusion to break. The golden dragon was gone, the screams had faded, and the endless space around him had become strangely quiet. Yet nothing happened.

A thought slowly entered his mind. What if killing the dragon was not the way to break the illusion?

Before he could follow that thought any further, the force holding him in the air suddenly vanished.

Chen Ren dropped.

His heart lurched as he fell through the sky, his body twisting uselessly in the air. He had no idea why it had happened so suddenly, but the mysterious power that had kept him floating was gone. For one terrible second, he was sure he was about to fall to his death.

Then, by some miracle, the world around him changed. The endless sky disappeared.

The next second, he flopped down onto the sand.

Pain spread through his body, but it was not nearly as bad as he had expected. He blinked, stunned, as warm grains pressed against his cheek and back. Had he never been that high in the sky? Or had something else happened when the illusion broke?

He didn’t know.

But the warmth of the sand beneath him and the complete lack of qi in the air told him one thing.

He was back in the desert. Even then, he didn’t want to get up. It was too much.

His head rang, his body felt heavy, and exhaustion dragged at him so strongly that all he wanted was to sleep right there on the sand. He didn’t care if it was uncomfortable. He did not care if the desert sun burned him. After everything he had just gone through, even the ground felt like a blessing.

Interrupting him, a grating voice shouted from beneath him.

“What the fuck are you doing, you bastard? Don’t you see that you are crushing me? Have you finally lost your mind?”

Chen Ren froze. That voice. It was Wang Jun.

He immediately rolled to the side.

Only then did he see the severed head lying on the sand beside him, glaring with all the fury a head without a body could show. Wang Jun had been beneath him the entire time, and Chen Ren had not even noticed.

Not knowing what else to do, Chen Ren muttered, “You are alive.”

Wang Jun growled at once. “Of course I am alive, you dunce. You were the one suddenly floating in the sky for so long. What the heck happened?”

Chen Ren immediately reached over and picked Wang Jun up, setting the severed head properly on the sand. He opened his mouth to explain, even though he knew it would take some time. There was no simple way to describe being trapped in an illusion, tortured by a golden dragon, and then somehow killing it with its own teeth.

But before he could say anything, another wave of qi struck them.

Chen Ren’s heart dropped.

For one terrible moment, he wondered if the pagoda had something else to throw at them. His body moved on instinct, lightning stirring inside him as he prepared to face whatever came next. If it was too strong, he would grab Wang Jun and run. He didn’t care if there was nowhere to go on this floor. Running was still better than waiting to be crushed.

But nothing appeared. Instead, the air in front of him tore open.

Chen Ren froze as a thin crack spread through empty space, widening into a dark tear. Qi moved around it in quiet ripples. A second later, a man stepped out from within.

He looked old, but not frail.

His hair was completely white, falling neatly around his face and shoulders, but he had no beard. His skin carried the faint lines of age, especially around his eyes, yet his posture was straight and calm. He wore plain blue robes with no insignia, crest, or symbol on them. There was nothing about his clothing that revealed a sect, kingdom, or faction.

But the way he stood made Chen Ren more nervous than any symbol could have.

The man looked too clean for the desert. There was no sand on his robes, no dust on his sleeves, and no sign that the heat bothered him at all. His eyes were clear and deep, carrying the look of someone who had seen too much and still found the world amusing.

The tear in the air closed behind him a second later.

Chen Ren’s first thought was that the man would attack.

He shifted back slightly, keeping one hand near Wang Jun while qi gathered in his body. His mind was exhausted, his body was worse, and he had no desire to fight again, but that did not mean he would allow himself to be caught off guard.

The old man only smiled.

“You know,” he said, “this entire floor is designed to break a cultivator so badly that they can do nothing except remain trapped inside the illusion of their fear until they die.”

Chen Ren stared at him.

“But you passed through all of it like it was nothing,” the old man continued. “I do not know whether you are lucky or simply a chosen one.”

Chen Ren blinked and muttered, “I have never felt lucky since coming to this heaven-forsaken floor.”

The old man’s smile widened slightly. Chen Ren paused, his eyes narrowing. “Who are you?”

Before the man could reply, Wang Jun grumbled. “It cannot be.”

Chen Ren looked down at the severed head. “What?”

Wang Jun’s eyes stayed fixed on the old man. “Is it really you?”

Chen Ren’s gaze moved between them. “You know this man?”

“Of course I know him,” Wang Jun growled. “We are in this mess because of him. I thought this bastard had already died, but it turns out I was wrong.”

The old man only kept smiling.

Wang Jun’s expression twisted further. “He is the sect leader of the Azure Immortal Sect and the person who made the Pagoda of Eternity. At least, the plan was his. He pulled in a lot of favours to make it happen.”

Chen Ren froze. The sect leader of the Azure Immortal Sect. The man who had created the Pagoda of Eternity.

For a moment, he could only stare. He had never imagined meeting someone like that here. The pagoda had existed for centuries. Even when it had been built, this man should have already stood at the peak of his power. For him to still be alive now was almost impossible.

But as he thought that, he noticed something strange.

The man’s presence was too thin.

He stood right there in front of them, clear enough for Chen Ren to see every detail, yet there was something faint about him. It was as if he was standing there and not standing there at the same time. His body had shape, but his existence felt light, almost like a reflection on water.

It might have been some kind of technique.

But Chen Ren could not understand why he would use one now. The man did not seem like he had come here to attack. If he had wanted to, he was not sure he would have been able to stop him in his current state anyway.

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Before Chen Ren could think further, the old man spoke.

“Actually, I am not Yuren, the sect leader of the Azure Immortal Sect.”

Wang Jun narrowed his eyes. “That’s the sorry bastard’s name, I just remembered—”

“He is long dead,” the man continued. “I am only someone born from a part of his soul.”

Chen Ren’s frown deepened.

The old man touched his own chest lightly. “I call myself the Watcher. The one who oversees the pagoda.”

Chen Ren stared at him for a moment. “So you are a spirit?”

“Something like that.”

“Something like that?”

“I do have flesh of my own,” the Watcher said. “It is simply ethereal.”

Chen Ren had no idea what that meant, but he still nodded.

At first, he had expected the man to be something like the floor lord of this place. But if the Watcher was truly a soul left behind by Yuren, the creator of the pagoda, and if he oversaw the entire structure, then his presence here made even less sense.

Why would someone like that come to him now? Wang Jun seemed to have the same thought.

“So why are you here?” the severed head asked, glaring at the Watcher. “You might not be Yuren, but you look close enough that I still want to punch your face.”

The Watcher’s smile stiffened.

Wang Jun continued, “Do you realise how much sand I have all over my face? It went into my eyes.”

The Watcher looked genuinely uncomfortable at that. “I did not know you were going to be here, Wang Jun. Honestly, you are already deceased in my records.”

“Throw away records like that.”

“I cannot do that.”

“Then you are just as useless as the man who made you.”

The Watcher opened his mouth, but before the conversation could devolve into a bigger back and forth, Chen Ren stepped forward.

“You still haven’t said why you are here,” he said.

The Watcher immediately turned his eyes toward him.

“If I begin to explain, it will take some time,” he said. “And either way, I don’t think this is the right place for it.”

He pointed at the sand around them. Chen Ren looked at the endless desert and could not really argue.

“Why don’t you two come with me?” the Watcher asked.

As he said that, he raised his hand. Another tear formed in reality.

The air split open in front of them, revealing the same dark space the Watcher had stepped out from. Qi rippled around the opening, calm and controlled, as if tearing reality apart was nothing more than opening a door.

Without saying anything more, the Watcher walked toward it and vanished inside. Chen Ren stared at the tear for a few seconds.

His eyes went back to Wang Jun.

“Do not look at me like that. Obviously, we are going in. I refuse to spend another day with sand in my mouth.”

Chen Ren let out a tired breath.

Honestly, he would rather be anywhere else than this desert too. So he followed the Watcher through the tear.

Once Chen Ren touched the tear, it felt like a vacuum. It pulled him in immediately.

The next second, Chen Ren found himself standing in a place so unbelievable that, for a moment, he forgot his exhaustion.

It was a huge chamber.

There were no walls in the normal sense, only a vast space that stretched farther than it should have. In the middle of it floated a single chair, simple in shape but surrounded by layers of glowing runes. Around that chair hovered screens.

Hundreds of them.

They floated at different heights and angles, each one showing a different part of the pagoda. When Chen Ren looked closer, he saw cultivators arriving on the tutorial floor. Others were moving through the second and third floors. Some were fighting beasts, some were hiding, and some were being chased through Goldspire City by guards after clearly doing something foolish.

Then he saw cultivators buying things from his own shop. Chen Ren stared.

Everything was happening in real time.

There were all sorts of cultivators on the screens, most of whom he did not recognise. Some wore sect robes. Some looked like wandering cultivators. Others moved in groups with clear caution, as if they knew the pagoda was not the kind of place where carelessness was forgiven.

Chen Ren had never imagined there were things like cameras spread all over the pagoda.

He looked at the Watcher, who had already taken his seat on the floating chair.

“You truly are a watcher,” Chen Ren said.

The Watcher smiled. “That is the job I was created for. There is nothing else I can do here anyway.”

Wang Jun’s expression immediately darkened. “So you have been watching everything that happened to us, and you never thought to help someone who literally helped create this place?”

“I am sorry,” the Watcher said. “But I cannot interfere.”

Wang Jun looked like he wanted to bite him.

The Watcher continued, “Even the illusion I created was the best I could do within the pagoda’s rules. Other than watching, the only times I can act are when the pagoda itself is being harmed in some way.”

Hearing that, Chen Ren raised an eyebrow.

“So you were the one who created that illusion,” he said. “Why?”

The Watcher’s smile grew a little wider. The screens around them suddenly disappeared. A moment later, one large screen formed in their place.

Chen Ren looked up and saw himself fighting the illusionary golden dragon. Lightning filled the sky on the screen, the golden dragon writhed within the dome, and his own figure moved around it like a streak of light.

For a few seconds, he simply watched. “Because this was the final test to conquer the last floor.”

Wang Jun narrowed his eyes. “It does not seem hard enough for that.”

The Watcher glanced at him. “That is because things never went the way they were supposed to go.”

“How were they supposed to go?” Chen Ren asked.

“First of all,” the Watcher said, “you were not supposed to be on the fifteenth floor.”

Chen Ren could not really argue with that.

“Second,” the Watcher continued, “the floor was designed to break a cultivator’s mind by making them realise there was no way out. Even with their long lifespan, they would understand that one day they were going to die there. Alone. Forgotten by everyone. With no path forward and no one coming to save them.”

Wang Jun snorted. “No wonder that bastard thought of something like this.” The Watcher didn’t respond to the insult. The head paused, then continued, “So the illusion came afterward. It made them face their worst fear, but by then they were already broken, which meant they couldn’t deal with it properly. They would just rot in that hell until they died.”

“Yes. That is more or less correct,” the Watcher responded.

Chen Ren stared at the screen. The golden dragon on it opened its mouth, and golden flames swallowed the sky.

“But like I said,” the Watcher continued, “the circumstances around you were different. You did not arrive here alone at first. You had companions. You had Wang Jun. You trained. You held yourself together far longer than most cultivators would have.”

Chen Ren said nothing.

“And then,” the Watcher added, “you managed to make the pagoda react by trying to leave.”

Chen Ren looked back at him. “So that was not you.”

The Watcher shook his head. “No. I could not have done that even if I wanted to.”

That made Chen Ren feel a little less certain about everything. He had thought the Watcher might have been the one pulling the strings, but if even he could not fully control the pagoda, then this place was stranger than Chen Ren had realised.

“Either way,” the Watcher said, “with everything already disrupted, it does not change the important fact.”

Chen Ren’s eyes narrowed. “And what fact is that?”

The Watcher looked at him. “The fact that you are the only person in centuries to conquer the Pagoda of Eternity.”

For a moment, the chamber went quiet.

Even Wang Jun didn’t speak.

“As a result,” the Watcher continued, “you are now the owner of the inheritance left behind by Sect Leader Yuren of the Azure Immortal Sect.”

***

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