Dao of Money

After whispers of an idea formed in his mind, Chen Ren decided he needed to talk to Wang Jun first.

He told Princess Yanyue that he would be going his own way with Yalan for now. At that, the princess looked surprised. Her eyebrows drew together and she said it was better to stay together, especially with the zombie hordes roaming the floor.

Chen Ren shook his head and insisted he only wanted to explore a little, and after that, he planned to return to the fifth floor to buy a few things.

Princess Yanyue clearly did not believe him, but she did not stop him. And after informing her, Chen Ren left. But not before asking her to send a royal guard to Anji if she found any information on the zombie queen.

Zi Wen and the twins would be safe with the princess and her royal guards. Besides, Chen Ren doubted they would find the Zombie Queen anytime soon.

The sixth floor stretched endlessly before him. It looked massive, far larger than the floors below. He wondered if each floor grew bigger than the last, but the thought did not linger for long.

Chen Ren ran across the desert, finding it hard to move through the sand that clung to his shoes. Demonic qi seeped from the ground, and even breathing left a foul taste in his mouth. Still, he firmly rejected any demonic qi from entering his body.

Yalan ran beside him with ease, flames flickering around her paws. “Where are we going?” she asked.

“I’m trying to see if there are any ruins we can climb,” Chen Ren replied. “But I don’t see anything for miles.”

“I’m sure we’ll run into some zombies soon.”

“Let’s avoid them for now,” Chen Ren said. “At least until we find a place where we can talk.”

Both of them kept moving in a straight line across the desert, not speaking much as the sand stretched endlessly ahead of them.

At one point, Chen Ren slowed down. Far in the distance, the sand shifted unnaturally. Something massive moved beneath the surface, its shape briefly rising before sinking again. It was long and thick, worm-like, its body forming a low ridge in the sand before disappearing. From the looks of it, he could tell that it was a sand elemental. A beast that the city lord had warned him about. Chen Ren quietly changed direction, making sure they did not head anywhere near it.

As they continued, they spotted zombies a few times. The undead figures wandered across the desert with no clear purpose, running in crooked lines or stopping suddenly as if confused. Each time, Chen Ren adjusted their path just enough to avoid crossing theirs. Fortunately, the zombies never noticed them. No fights broke out, and they were able to keep moving without drawing attention.

Nearly an hour passed like this.

Eventually, shapes appeared on the horizon. At first, Chen Ren thought his eyes were playing tricks on him, but the outlines grew clearer with every step.

Abandoned buildings stood ahead, half-buried by sand and worn down by time.

He smiled seeing them and rushed forward, leaping onto the roof of a nearby storey building.

After landing, he carefully moved to the edge and looked down. A few zombies lingered between the broken walls and collapsed structures below. They shuffled slowly, showing no signs of awareness or strength and weren’t a real threat.

Satisfied, Chen Ren finally sat down. He reached to his side and pulled out Wang Jun’s head, placing it in front of him. The head had been unusually quiet this whole time. Chen Ren poked it lightly.

The invisibility faded at once.

Wang Jun’s face appeared, and he let out a low growl. “You have really brought me to a foul place.”

Chen Ren sighed. “It’s not like I had much of a choice. Why have you been so quiet until now?”

“This place brings back bad memories. I knew it the moment the lift stopped. This is the worst floor in the pagoda. You should leave as soon as you can.”

Yalan tilted her head slightly. “You remember things about this floor?”

“Unfortunately, yes,” Wang Jun replied. “That damned guy who made the pagoda created this place just to mess with his disciples.”

Chen Ren raised an eyebrow. “How so?”

Wang Jun snorted. “From what I remember, I wanted this floor to be a massive temple to climb. Meridian expansion realm guardians. Falling boulders meant to crush cultivators. Spiked traps appearing out of nowhere. Even a few elemental traps for good measure.” He paused, then sneered. “But that bastard said it was too much.”

Chen Ren blinked when he heard that.

It sounded excessive. More than that, it did not feel like Wang Jun was talking about proper trials or traps meant to be overcome. From his tone, it seemed less like testing disciples and more like throwing random, deadly dangers at them just to see who survived.

“Why would you even want to build something like that?” Chen Ren asked.

Wang Jun answered without hesitation. “To thin out the unworthy disciples.”

Chen Ren looked straight at him. He did not believe that explanation at all. “That sounds more like you just wanted to kill them.”

Wang Jun’s lips slowly curled into a small smile. “Maybe. That guy did piss me off a lot during the construction of this pagoda. No wonder I don’t even remember his name now. My past self was a little unhinged, especially after repeated encounters with demonic cultivators. I picked up a few things from them.”

Chen Ren almost said that his current self did not seem much different, but he held his tongue. Instead, he asked, “Then how did this place turn into an undead land?”

Yalan nodded in agreement. “Why would a righteous cultivator even want so much demonic qi here?”

“Like I said, he wanted to mess with his disciples. From what I remember, he thought it would be funny for them to finally gather enough tokens to reach the sixth floor, only to be greeted by a zombie horde. He even said something like it would build character.” He paused briefly. “The demonic qi is for the same reason. So the disciples get used to areas filled with it.”

The more Chen Ren listened, the more he wondered if the sect leader of the Azure Immortal Sect had simply been twisted in the head.

Still, the reason behind the sixth floor did not matter much to Chen Ren. What mattered was simple. He needed to farm tokens here before moving on to the seventh floor.

Chen Ren looked down at Wang Jun. “If you don’t want to stay here for long,” he said calmly, “then you’ll need to help me.”

Wang Jun scoffed. “Help you with what? Do you think I can go fight a horde with my tongue?”

“No. But you can teach me some arrays that work with demonic qi.”

Yalan’s eyes flickered with understanding. “You want to trap the hordes.”

Chen Ren smiled slightly. “Yes. They’re mindless. It won’t be hard to trap them with arrays.”

Wang Jun immediately shook his head. “You’re getting ahead of yourself. Do you even know how few arrays can stop thousands of zombies at once? The constant pressure from them trying to push through would break most formations. And now you’re even asking about arrays that use demonic qi.” He sneered. “I doubt you even know whether such arrays exist.”

“They don’t?” Chen Ren asked.

“They do,” Wang Jun replied, irritation clear in his voice. “But that’s not my point. That kind of knowledge is precious and complicated. You won’t be able to—”

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Before he could finish, Chen Ren suddenly grabbed him and pulled his face close. Wang Jun panicked at once.

“What are you doing?!” he shouted.

Chen Ren met his gaze and cleared his throat. “I know… that you’re upset that you were left alone in your room again while the rest of us were out there doing our thing. I know you well enough by now. I get that it sucks. But I really don’t want to go through with this right now.”

Wang Jun frowned. “Go through what?”

“Your whining,” Chen Ren almost rolled his eyes at the question, “and your long rant about responsibility. We’ll go back and forth for a while, and in the end, you’ll give me what I’m looking for. It’s not like I don’t enjoy it, but I’d rather get out of here quickly.” He paused, then added, “The sooner we leave this floor, the faster we reach the inheritances. One of them is bound to have information on how to give you a proper body.”

Wang Jun went quiet.

His eyes drifted away, watching the black sand below as distant sounds echoed across the desert. Somewhere far off, hordes moved, their presence carried by faint vibrations and low, hollow noises. After a long moment, Wang Jun let out a slow breath.

“Fine,” he said. “I do have some knowledge about demonic arrays. I picked it up when I was playing spy in a demonic sect. But don’t get too excited. They aren’t offensive arrays. You’ll still need a way to kill the zombies. The arrays can only trap them.”

Chen Ren set Wang Jun down. “You can’t modify them?”

“No,” Wang Jun replied firmly. “You should know by now that I don’t have all my memories. Take what I’m giving you.”

Yalan spoke up, unbothered. “That’s fine. We can just attack them while they’re trapped.”

Chen Ren shook his head. “No. That would take too much time. I already have a better idea.”

“And what would that be?”

Chen Ren only smiled. He didn’t answer. Instead, he sent a pulse of qi into his spatial ring.

The next second, dozens of thundercrack orbs dropped onto the rooftop and rolled across it with dull clinks.

“I picked these up when I was leaving from the city,” Chen Ren said lightly. “Now all we need is a horde. Then we’ll see what thousands of zombies look like when they’re blasted into tiny pieces.”

***

Vesrya, the zombie queen, sat on her throne, her hollow eyes fixed on the arena before her.

Below, two death knights fought. Their greatswords crashed against each other again and again, sparks flying as metal met metal. Around them, zombies filled the stands, roaring and howling in uneven waves. The sound echoed through the vast chamber, loud enough to shake the stone.

These arena battles were one of the few things on the sixth floor that still offered her any form of entertainment. They had done so for centuries. But unlike before, there was no real joy left in watching them.

In the early days, her servants had been truly bloodthirsty. They fought with hunger in their eyes. They pinned each other down, tore limbs apart, and sometimes even bit each other’s heads clean off. There had been chaos then. There had been life in that violence.

Now, it was different.

After so long, even the undead had changed. Her death knights had grown way too intelligent. They held back. They fought carefully, trading blows instead of tearing each other apart. The battles had become performances, nothing more than displays meant to please her eyes.

She could force them to fight like before. With a single command, she could strip away their restraint. But that would not be the same. It would not be their will. It would be empty.

Only the mindless hordes still fought with true intent. They lived only to see others fall. But they were clumsy, poorly coordinated, and far too easy to kill. Vesrya had lost interest in them long ago.

Her gaze drifted, unfocused.

Maybe she could try again. Try to push into the lower floors.

The thought did not last long.

Every time she tried, that damned Xiangrui appeared, standing in her path with the army he had cultivated. Each attempt ended the same way. Her servants died one by one, crushed under his forces before they could gain any ground.

The other floors were no different. None of them wanted her. To them, she was wrong. Undead. A user of demonic qi.

Vesrya clenched her fingers against the arm of her throne.

It was not her fault. She had not chosen this existence. And it certainly was not her fault that she wanted the entire pagoda for herself.

But right now, none of that was possible.

Vesrya wondered what else she could do. She had heard whispers that climbers had returned to the pagoda, but so far, there had been no confirmation. With nothing else to occupy her, she continued watching the arena. The two death knights had fallen onto the sand and were now rolling across the ground, punching each other with dull, heavy blows.

She watched for a while, then yawned. Footsteps echoed from the side, distracting her from her thoughts.

Vesrya turned her head and saw another death knight approaching her podium. She leaned back against her throne, one eyebrow lifting slightly.

“Is there any news?” she asked lazily. “Are the stupid hordes coming this way again?”

The death knight dropped to one knee. “No. But one of your servants saw the lift rise to the sixth floor. Humans stepped out of it.”

At once, Vesrya straightened in her seat. The drowsiness in her eyes vanished. The whispers she had heard were true after all.

“What became of them?” she asked.

“They fought a horde,” the death knight replied. “They are now moving through the sixth floor. They seem quite strong. I believe these are not the first ones to arrive.”

Vesrya slowly nodded. If a few humans had already reached this floor, then more would surely follow. She cast one last glance at the arena below. The fight no longer held her interest.

It was time for better entertainment.

“Keep an eye on the lift,” she said. “Make sure we know who is coming and who is leaving.”

The death knight bowed his head. Then he hesitated before asking, “Do you want me to go and annihilate them?”

Vesrya shook her head. “Pfft! No. There is no need to seek out the humans. They will come to us eventually.” Her lips curved slightly. “What we need to do is wait and watch how they try to reach the lift to the seventh floor. Every climber I have seen on this floor has tried the same thing.”

She paused, licking her lips.

“Only a few ever succeeded.”

***

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