Dao of Money

When Chen Ren first heard about the sixth floor, he never expected to enjoy it this much.

From the way Xiangrui had spoken about it, the place sounded poisonous and miserable. Which he understood could be for people with… less resources. But Chen Ren’s experience was the complete opposite, for one simple reason.

The entire floor was a goldmine.

Ruins were scattered everywhere. Zombie hordes roamed endlessly. And most importantly, they did not communicate with each other. Every single time Chen Ren encountered them, the result was the same.

At first, he would find a cluster of ruins close together and set up the [Coffin-Seal Array] around them. Then he would deliberately draw the attention of a bloodthirsty horde, one that wanted nothing more than to tear him apart. Once the zombies flooded into the ruins and were trapped by the array, Chen Ren would throw in dozens of thundercrack orbs and wipe them out in one go.

If any zombies survived the explosions, Yalan would step in and burn them to ash with her flames.

It was simple. Almost stupidly so.

It felt like the most straightforward business plan imaginable. And because Chen Ren was the only one doing it, the rewards were ridiculous. In just three days, he earned over a hundred thousand tokens. He more than doubled the amount held by Han Qingshi, who sat at second place in the rankings.

Chen Ren had already stayed in first place longer than he wanted. At this point, he no longer cared about keeping a low profile. Any powerful forces worth worrying about would already know his name by now.

So he kept going.

But on the fourth day, Chen Ren finally realized something.

His business plan was following the same path as any successful business. Sooner or later, others would find out.

And when they did, they would either try to copy it or ruin it.

Yalan had noticed it first. More than a few pairs of eyes were watching them from far away. When it happened for the first time, Chen Ren barely managed to make Wang Jun invisible in time, just as Yalan sensed other cultivators approaching from the horizon.

More climbers were finally reaching the sixth floor.

Even though the floor was massive, Chen Ren had been making too much noise. Explosions, disappearing hordes, sudden spikes in tokens—there was no way it would not draw attention.

He knew that even if others tried to copy what he was doing, it would not end well for them. Without the correct array, one that worked with the demonic qi in the air, they would most likely kill themselves.

Chen Ren did not care about that.

What he did care about was what would happen if some of them survived. If they did, they would come looking for him. They would try to steal the array, sabotage him, or force him into fights he had no interest in.

He did not want that.

And he also had no clean way to stop it without starting unnecessary battles.

So Chen Ren decided he had blasted enough zombies for now.

He turned and headed toward the lift.

Yalan padded beside him, Wang Jun resting against his hip, and after nearly two hours of brisk walking, she finally spoke.

“I think they left.”

Chen Ren smiled faintly. “Finally. I’m sure they would try to build an array of their own now.” He glanced at her. “Did you get a good look at them?”

Yalan flicked one ear in acknowledgment. “They were wearing Frostpeak Sect robes. I didn’t see Han Qingshi among them.”

Wang Jun spoke up, “Didn’t you say he prefers to fight alone?”

“That’s the impression I got,” Yalan replied. “But I’m sure he’ll hear about what we were doing.”

Chen Ren nodded, but he did not seem worried. He doubted someone like Han Qingshi would be all that interested in him or his methods.

According to Princess Yanyue, Han Qingshi was a brute, but a reasonable one. He loved battle and preferred to work alone. Yalan’s spying on the Guardian sects had confirmed the same thing. To someone like Han Qingshi, Chen Ren and his methods were probably not worth spending time on. He Ren was not a true warrior, after all.

“Let’s just get to the arena,” Chen Ren said. “Then we can plan ahead.”

Wang Jun muttered, “I don’t even know what your plan is. I get blowing up thousands of undead for tokens. It’s effective. It’s even fun. But I doubt that alone will get you entry to the seventh floor. If that zombie queen actually cared about her minions, she would have sent someone after you already.”

From the corner of his eye, he saw Yalan’s tail twitch in agreement.

“I agree with him. Do you have anything in mind to buy that could help us reach the seventh floor?”

Chen Ren did not answer right away. He walked in silence for a few seconds, thinking it through. He did have a rough plan, but it was not complete. The truth was, the sixth floor no longer had much to offer him. He had kept his void sense active for a long time and found nothing hidden. The place was exactly what it looked like.

A wasteland.

And now that others had noticed his methods, staying longer would only cause trouble. He hoped Princess Yanyue had found something useful and left the information with Anji, just as he had asked. If she had not, then he would need to get that information another way.

“You’ll see,” he said. “But I do have a few items in mind that would be very helpful for us.”

After that, they continued walking in silence until the lift finally came into view. The moment Chen Ren spotted it, he picked up his pace. Luckily, it seemed like someone had arrived recently. The lift was still there, untouched, and had not been called back to the fifth floor.

Chen Ren stepped onto it without hesitation. He took out the return ticket, burned it with a pulse of qi, and the lift activated at once, moving down. The first thing he wanted to do was check whether Princess Yanyue had left him any information.

Only a few minutes later, Chen Ren found himself back in the wide, familiar streets of Goldspire City.

As he stepped off the lift, he was immediately rewarded with a fresh breath of air. He let his lungs fill in the happiness but immediately noticed how a few cultivators nearby stared at him in surprise.

Why…A thought formed in his head and he immediately got the answer.

Most people came here to go up, not down. A couple of them tried to strike up a conversation, asking about the dangers of the sixth floor.

Chen Ren did not linger. “Run the moment you get there,” he said flatly, and walked away.

He took a tramp straight to the Heavenly Sky General Store. The place was more crowded than ever. The pagoda was still open to outsiders, and more cultivators were entering by the hour. Even though many had already died, the rankings continued to fill up with new names.

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Chen Ren did not feel threatened.

To him, most of the newcomers were just walking bags of tokens. His real competitors were already on the sixth floor.

Inside the shop, it did not take long to find out where Anji was. But before he could reach her, Du Rensheng intercepted him, grinning widely. He looked ready to hug Chen Ren on the spot, clearly pleased with how well the shop was doing.

Chen Ren offered simple responses to his gratitude and walked straight to Anji.

She was sitting in one of the back rooms, which she had turned into an office.

She looked up in surprise when Chen Ren entered. Once he explained that he was there to ask whether Princess Yanyue had sent any information, Anji immediately began telling him what she knew.

One of the princess’s royal guards had come down just yesterday, bringing everything they had discovered. In the end, it was far less than Chen Ren had hoped for.

They had found a city in the middle of the sixth floor and confirmed that it was where the Zombie Queen resided. Other than that, they were unable to learn much. They had kept their distance after seeing other cultivators who tried to enter the city attacked by death knights and dragged inside in chains.

That alone was enough to make Chen Ren cautious. But one piece of information made him pause.

Yun Zhaotian had somehow reached the sixth floor and attacked the city directly.

He had also been captured.

According to the report Anji had gotten, the Zombie Queen herself had taken action. Princess Yanyue had not seen much of the fight—it had ended in seconds. She said the Zombie Queen created massive dark claws that tore straight through Yun Zhaotian’s defenses before pulling him into the city.

Chen Ren stored that information away for later.

It only confirmed what he already suspected. The Zombie Queen was not someone meant to be challenged directly. Facing her would be no different from fighting City Lord Xiangrui. No matter what one tried, death would be the only outcome.

Unfortunately, that was all the information Princess Yanyue had gathered. She had set up a small camp afterward and focused on hunting zombie hordes for tokens. She had also asked how Chen Ren was earning such an absurd number of tokens out of nowhere.

Chen Ren smiled when he heard that. Even Anji was curious now. He simply told her that he would explain everything later and headed back toward the lift once again.

As he walked, he turned all the information over in his mind. The Zombie Queen. Her city. The way she captured Yun Zhaotian in seconds. There was no doubt about it—no climber on this floor could fight her. Even so, Chen Ren did not expect a zombie, no matter how intelligent, to be reasonable or willing to negotiate.

But before he could plan anything, he needed one thing above all else.

A map.

He needed to know the layout of the city and, more importantly, where the lift to the seventh floor was located. Without that, any plan he came up with would fail before it even began.

As they moved, Wang Jun grumbled.

“Kid, I would have killed the Zombie Queen on my own if I still had my body. She shouldn’t be that hard to take on…” and like that, he went on and on about how he would take her on.

Chen Ren mostly ignored him and kept walking.

Soon enough, he reached the lift again. The guards looked at him strangely as he burned yet another return ticket, this time heading to the second floor. They probably thought he was wasting valuable tickets by going up and down for no reason.

Chen Ren did not care.

The moment he stepped into the arena, noise greeted him again. The place was still packed with NPCs and spectators. On the arena floor, three warriors armed with spears were fighting a massive lizard. Chen Ren paused briefly to watch.

One of the warriors was suddenly grabbed by the lizard’s long tongue and pulled straight into its mouth.

Chen Ren winced.

Wang Jun muttered, “Not a good way to go. He’ll probably melt in the acid inside that thing’s stomach.”

Chen Ren said nothing. He turned away and headed toward Shrey’s usual location, hoping he would have exactly what he needed.

On the way, Chen Ren listened closely to the conversations around him, hoping to catch something useful from the NPCs.

But there was nothing of value. Most of them were either shouting bets or gossiping about recent fights. In the end, he kept walking.

Soon, he reached the merchant’s shop, still set up in the same corner as before. Shrey sat on a stool, calmly eating a few buns.

When Shrey saw Chen Ren, he smiled at once. “I didn’t expect to see you here again. But judging by the rankings, I guess you’ve been making quite a lot of gains. I would ask how you earned so many tokens in such a short time, but I respect trade secrets.”

Chen Ren nodded in greeting. “You can just look at the rankings.”

Shrey chuckled. “Yes, it’s a nice trick. I learned it after the pagoda recognized my abilities in trade.” He wiped his hands and looked up. “Either way, what are you here for? My catalogue hasn’t changed. Not many climbers seem interested in my wares.”

Chen Ren doubted the man had gotten many customers at all. Most climbers probably did not even know Shrey existed, and his items were far too expensive for the average cultivator. Still, Chen Ren focused on the real reason he was here.

“Are you still selling information?” he asked.

Shrey grunted. “That depends on what you want. And you’ll need to buy something from my catalogue first if you want me to be inclined to sell you information.”

Chen Ren smiled slightly. “I plan to. But first, the information I’m here for. How much do you know about the sixth floor?”

Shrey snorted. “A lot more than you. But if you’re hoping for something that helps you kill the Zombie Queen, forget it. If she were easy to kill, the city lords would’ve done it already.”

Chen Ren shook his head. “I don’t want to kill her.”

Shrey paused, then looked at him more carefully. “Then what do you want?”

Chen Ren raised two fingers. “First, I want a map of the city the Zombie Queen rules, and any valuable information about that place. Second, I want to know more about the city lords on each floor, and how exactly they move between floors.”

***

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.

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