Dao of Money

Chen Ren walked the corridors of the arena with a wide smile on his face as he looked at his current tokens. Starting with just 2,000 tokens, he had jumped straight to 6,548 in only three fights. Each victory in the arena only gave 200 tokens, so most of it came from his bets. He had more than tripled his wealth in a short time.

More importantly, his name had shot up the rankings. He was now second.

Han Qingshi still held first place, but the gap between them was small. Chen Ren didn’t like that. Being too high on the rankings this early meant too much attention, even if people wouldn’t know his ranking at a glance. He didn’t want other cultivators snooping for information on him, but he was sure the gap would widen soon, and that suited him just fine.

He quickened his steps, moving past a crowd whose gazes lingered on him longer than before, and slipped into a quieter corner of the arena hallway. Tucked between two pillars was a small shop that most people would miss if they didn’t already know it was there.

An old man sat behind a plain counter. There were no items on display. No banners. No shelves.

Just a single bottle of wine placed beside him.

The old man had a thick red beard and sharp eyes. As soon as Chen Ren paused in front of him, he looked him up and down before speaking.

“I’m Shrey,” he said. “What do you want?”

“My name is Chen Ren,” Chen Ren replied. “I’m a climber.”

The old man snorted softly. “I know. I know every climber who steps into this arena. Been a long time since your kind showed up.” He took a sip from his bottle and tilted his head. “Are you here to buy something?”

“Yes,” Chen Ren said. “What do you have on display?”

Shrey let out a sudden laugh that he almost spat saliva out. “Nothing.”

Chen Ren raised an eyebrow.

“If I put everything I own out in the open,” Shrey continued, “I’d get robbed before I finished my drink. You have no idea how annoying it is to chase someone across different floors.”

Chen Ren frowned and asked, “Then how am I supposed to know what to buy?”

Shrey grunted. “Push out your bracelet.”

Chen Ren did as told. Shrey tapped the bracelet once, and a hologram unfolded in the air. Lines of light spread out, forming a long catalogue that seemed to go on forever.

His eyes widened as he counted. There were at least over five hundred items in the catalogue. A whopping number he had never expected.

Seeing his reaction, Shrey chuckled, and pointed to a corner. “Go sit there and take your time. See what you want and make sure you have tokens for it. Just to be clear, you will have to pay a hundred tokens if you browse my catalogue and not get anything,” he said and raised his thick, bushy eyebrows at him.

“Okay, thanks.”

He nodded, moved to a seat in the corner, and sat down quietly. Shrey went back to his wine as if Chen Ren no longer existed.

He immediately focused on the catalogue. It was neatly organised, and after a bit of experimenting, he realised he could sort the items by price.

The list refreshed the next second, and Chen Ren stared at in shock.

The top item alone cost 1.2 million tokens. The rest of the top fifty items weren’t much cheaper, all hovering between 800,000 and 1.2 million tokens.

Eternity Heart Crystal – 1,200,000 tokensDao Severing Pill – 1,100,000 tokensAmbrosia of Endless Flow – 1,050,000 tokensVoid-Step Scripture (Fragment) – 1,000,000 tokensEternal Beast Taming Sigil – 950,000 tokensVoid-Spirit Alchemy Crucible – 900,000 tokensDevil seed – 880,000 tokensThousand -Thread Puppet Scripture – 850,000 tokensTrue Origin Pill Matrix – 820,000 tokensStar-Sealing Control Banner – 800,000 tokensOut of all of them, Chen Ren’s gaze lingered on the first item, then the third—the bottle of ambrosia that promised endless elixir, and finally the seventh, the devil seed. The name alone made it sound dangerous, and powerful. Though, the description of it didn’t tell him much other than the fact that he needed to consume it.

He swallowed, looked down at the head on his belt and asked quietly, “Do you recognise any of these?”

Wang Jun answered, amused. “Maybe. But it’s not like you can afford any of them.”

Chen Ren nodded. “Yeah. But I might be able to buy them later.”

The head only snorted and he kept scrolling, trying to find cheaper items.

Around the five-hundredth mark, items finally appeared that he could afford. But most of them made him frown. One-use pills. Disposable talismans. Cheap weapons that looked like they would break after a few fights.

None of it interested him.

He wasn’t here to survive one floor. He was here to make money.

Most cultivators only cared about climbing higher, so the cheaper items in the catalogue reflected that. Quick boosts. Short-term gains. Things that helped you fight, not things that helped you grow long-term.

Chen Ren almost closed the list.

Then his eyes stopped at an item priced at just under two thousand tokens.

At first, he frowned. Why is this so low?

He tapped it. The description unfolded, his eyes went over the words one after another and everything suddenly made sense. The item was really good, but there was a flaw. A very big one.

Chen Ren stared at it for a few seconds longer, then smiled.

This might be perfect.

He stood up and walked back to the counter. Shrey glanced at him over his wine bottle.

“Found something?” the old man asked.

“Yes,” Chen Ren said. “I want to buy the Beast Codex.”

Shrey’s eyebrows rose. “You read the description?”

“Yes.”

“It’s a blank book,” Shrey said flatly. “Doesn’t come with knowledge. Doesn’t tell you anything upfront. It only records beasts you personally kill. If you don’t fight much, it’s useless. The description should tell you that much, but you still want to buy it.”

“Yes,” Chen Ren replied without hesitation.

Shrey stared at him for a moment, then snorted. “Your choice. Just don’t come crying later, asking for your tokens back.”

Chen Ren nodded. “I won’t.”

Shrey gave a short nod in return. A thick book appeared in his hand, and he passed it over. The moment Chen Ren touched it, a message surfaced in front of his eyes.

[Do you want to buy the Beast Codex?]Chen Ren answered in his mind. Yes.

Two thousand tokens vanished at once. He slipped the book into his spatial ring without hesitation.

Shrey paused, then raised an eyebrow. “I thought you were new. Where did you get a spatial ring?”

“Tutorial,” Chen Ren said calmly, but the look on the man’s face implied something different. “I didn’t steal it.”

Shrey laughed. “Good. You wouldn’t want a bounty on your head. Every crime in the pagoda puts one on you. Then everyone starts hunting you. Not fun.”

He said it like something he knew from experience.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Chen Ren almost asked more, but stopped himself. Shrey felt like one of those strange NPCs—lazy on the surface, dangerous underneath. The items in his shop made that clear. None of them were easy to obtain. And he was okay with it. As long as they didn’t have any bad blood between them, he would be able to enjoy a long term partnership.

Chen Ren glanced back at the catalogue. “I’ll buy a few more things later,” he said. “But I need something else.”

Shrey took another drink. “Everything I sell is on the list.”

“I don’t think so.”

Shrey slowly set the bottle down. “You want something other than materials.”

“Yes,” Chen Ren said. “I want information.”

Shrey smiled faintly. “And why do you think I have it?”

“I don’t know,” Chen Ren replied. “You just seem like someone with long ears. How much for information on floors three to five? You know I still have tokens left.”

Shrey stayed quiet for a moment, thinking.

“Four thousand,” he said at last.

Chen Ren smiled. “Deal. Tell me about all the floor monsters and treasures.”

***

Princess Yanyue’s eyes widened as the rankings shifted in front of her.

Just a moment ago, Chen Ren had been sitting as high as second place. Now, his name was falling—fast. His token count dropped again and again, until he vanished from the top hundred entirely.

For a brief moment, her heart sank. Had she misjudged him? Had he been killed?

She quickly scrolled down the rankings, her fingers moving faster than her thoughts, until she finally found his name.

[807. Chen Ren - 548 Tokens.]She let out a slow breath of relief.

So he wasn’t dead. He had spent his tokens.

The only place he could have done that was the merchant on the second floor.

She herself had spoken to that merchant earlier, but everything worthwhile had been far beyond her reach, while the cheaper items had been useless. That made her even more curious—what had Chen Ren bought to drain over six thousand tokens in one go?

Another question followed right after.

If he was still buying things in the arena, then he hadn’t reached the third floor yet. So how had he earned over six thousand tokens so quickly in the first place?

It didn’t add up.

She decided she would get her answers later, when they met again on the fifth floor. Until then, she doubted she would see him anytime soon.

As she continued scanning the rankings, a voice drew her attention away.

“Princess,” one of her guards said, bowing slightly. “We’ve found the way to the fourth floor.”

She looked up. “What do we need to fight?”

“There’s a bear guarding the path,” the guard replied. “It appears to be the floor boss. The lift to the fourth floor is right behind it.”

Princess Yanyue nodded and glanced around the base of the mountain they were standing on.

After the second floor, the floors up to the fifth were open areas instead of closed trials. The third floor was a vast forest filled with all kinds of creatures, while the lift to the fourth floor was hidden inside the mountain itself. With her royal guards, moving through this place had been easy. Still, she knew others were not so fortunate.

Even now, distant screams and the sounds of battle echoed through the forest. The pagoda did not hesitate to erase the weak. If not for new cultivators constantly entering, the number of people inside would have already dropped by half.

She closed the rankings and headed toward the cave entrance with her guards. The sounds of fighting grew louder as they approached.

“It seems they already started without me,” she said calmly.

“The bear noticed us entering,” one of the guards replied. “We planned an ambush, but its senses are sharp.”

“That’s fine,” Princess Yanyue said. “Keep its attention. That will be faster.”

A few minutes later, she finally saw it.

A massive black bear filled the cave, its body covered in thick fur. Three eyes stared back at them from its face. Its claws tore into the stone with explosive force, and from its third eye, bursts of flame lashed out without warning.

“Move!”

Half a dozen royal guards moved around it in a tight formation, striking and retreating in turns. They were careful with every blow. Princess Yanyue had already given her order—the bear’s body was valuable, and they were not to ruin it.

Slowly, steadily, they wore it down.

The way they were fighting made it clear to her that it would take a long time to kill the beast. But she didn’t want to stay on this floor longer than necessary. Princess Yanyue narrowed her eyes, then stepped onto a flat rock to the left.

Her qi surged.

Silver light spilled from her core and gathered in her hands, shaping itself into a large bow formed entirely of qi. The air hummed as she drew it back.

“Don’t get in the way of my attack,” she said calmly.

At once, the royal guards glanced at her and leapt back without hesitation.

The bear paused, confused for a heartbeat. Then its three eyes locked onto her. It let out a furious roar and charged, claws tearing into the ground as it rushed straight at her.

Yanyue smiled. Perfect.

A massive arrow condensed along the qi strings, sharp and bright. When the bear was twenty paces away, muscles bunching as it prepared to leap, she released.

The arrow screamed through the air.

The bear tried to twist away, but the arrow curved mid-flight, tracking it without mercy. It struck before the beast could land and exploded in a flash of silver light.

The bear shrieked.

A net of qi burst outward from the impact, wrapping around its body. Shockwaves rippled through its flesh as it crashed to the ground, rolling once, then twice, before finally going still.

Silence followed.

Princess Yanyue jumped down from the rock and walked toward the fallen beast. The qi net faded away, leaving scorched fur and blackened marks across its body.

“We can still sell the meat,” she said, inspecting it. “Even if it’s a little burned.”

She turned to the guards. “Haul it up. The pagoda will spawn another one soon enough. We’re moving.”

The guards nodded and began pulling out ropes.

Yanyue walked toward a gate on the far side of the chamber, one guard following close behind. He opened it for her.

Beyond the gate, a round circular disk hovered just above the floor, slowly rotating.

Princess Yanyue smiled.

At this rate, she thought, I’ll be the first to reach the fifth floor.

***

A/N - You can read 30 chapters (15 Magus Reborn and 15 Dao of money) on my patreon. Annual subscription is now on too. Also this is Volume 2 last chapter.

Read 15 chapters ahead HERE.

Join the discord server HERE.

Magus Reborn 3 is OUT NOW. It’s a progression fantasy epic featuring a detailed magic system, kingdom building, and plenty of action. Read here.