Dao of Money

After they had dealt with Yun Zhaotian, Chen Ren decided to take some rest. He needed to recover his qi and give his body time to heal before thinking about anything else.

Yalan shrank back to her normal size and went off to scout the area. When she was shrinking, Princess Yanyue’s eyes practically glinted, probably finding it interesting. But much to his relief, she didn’t ask anything about it.

Although Yalan had said she was scouting, her actual goal was to go pick up Wang Jun, whom she had left on top of the building.

Chen Ren was sure the head would complain a lot. But he didn’t care.

He had just survived a duel against a true genius from a Guardian sect. That was not a small thing. He had earned his rest. So when he finally laid back, even on the hard street, sleep took him before he even realised it.

He didn’t dream. In fact, there was nothing, just a long, peaceful silence.

For the first time in a long while, his mind felt light, as if there were no worries pressing down on him.

Everything felt… fine.

This kind of sleep was rare. In the past few months, he had barely rested at all. But in the end, even cultivators needed sleep.

After what felt like an eternity, he woke up and felt much, much better. His body was still sore, but the heaviness had faded, and his mind felt clear. He stretched slightly, then paused.

He wasn’t outside anymore.

Looking around, he realised that Princess Yanyue must have moved him into one of the nearby buildings while he was asleep. There was even a blanket covering him.

Seeing that, he couldn’t help but realise something else. He actually had a cot inside his spatial ring taken from the first floor.

He had just been too exhausted to remember. And had ended up falling asleep on the street instead.

But it didn’t matter now.

It hadn’t ruined his sleep, and although his body still felt a little stiff, he could tell his bones had mostly settled back in place. His dantian also felt almost full again, qi flowing steadily within him.

After checking himself over, he got up and walked out of the building. It didn’t take him much time to navigate the exit.

When he came out, he saw Princess Yanyue and Yalan already sitting under a tree calmly. No one else seemed to have come near them, and the area was quiet.

As soon as they saw him, Princess Yanyue smiled.

“Looks like you’re all okay now.”

Chen Ren nodded. “Yeah. Sleep helped.” He then looked between them. “What were you two talking about?”

Princess Yanyue glanced at Yalan before replying, “Yalan was telling me about everything you’ve been through. It seems like you had quite a rough time.”

Chen Ren let out a small breath. “I did. But it was worth it for what I found. I believe Yalan told you where the master lift is.”

“She did,” Princess Yanyue said, nodding. Then she raised her head slightly, looking up into the sky. “But there’s clearly an array around it.”

Chen Ren nodded. “Yeah. It’s called the [Grand Aegis Array]. I haven’t heard of it before either, but that’s what I found.”

As he spoke, he took out the book from his spatial ring, flipping through it until he reached the page that mentioned the master lift, then handed it to her.

While she read through it, Chen Ren turned his gaze to Yalan and asked in his mind, “Where’s Wang Jun?”

“I put him in one of the buildings,” she replied. “Go get him before we leave.”

“Yeah. I’m not leaving him behind. He’s annoying, but I’m used to him by now.”

Her light chuckle came through his mind.

Just then, Princess Yanyue turned toward him, her eyes shining slightly. “This book is valuable.”

Chen Ren nodded. “I know. I was lucky to get my hands on it.”

“You are,” she said, then paused for a moment before adding, “I do know about this [Grand Aegis Array].”

Chen Ren immediately raised an eyebrow at her. “You do?”

She nodded slowly.

But as he watched her, her expression began to change. The light in her eyes faded, and soon she looked like she had just swallowed something unpleasant.

“Why is your expression like that? What happened?”

She shook her head, more to herself than him and spoke, “I don’t know how to say this, Sect Leader Chen… but I don’t think it will be possible to get there.”

Yalan frowned. “Why not? It’s just an array.”

“Yes, it is,” Princess Yanyue replied, “but it’s the same type of array that surrounds the capital of the Kalian Empire. I don’t know if this one is exactly as strong, but even then… you would need more than one domain manifestation realm cultivator just to make a dent in it.”

Chen Ren turned his gaze back toward the floating city. From here, he could see a faint barrier around it.

It didn’t look that strong. But he knew better than to trust appearances.

If Princess Yanyue was right, then there was no simple way through it. The pagoda itself restricted cultivation to the foundation establishment realm for climbers, and even if he gathered dozens of cultivators at that level, it wouldn’t equal even one domain manifestation expert.

Which meant breaking it by force was impossible.

Chen Ren frowned slightly.

He couldn’t just give up and look for a normal lift. If that was the case, then everything he had done would be for nothing.

And with how difficult the pagoda was becoming, even reaching that old library might be too much trouble. The master lift was supposed to be the easier way out, but actually getting to it now felt almost impossible.

Still, a part of him had expected this.

The pagoda never made anything easy. If even the normal lifts were hard to reach, then a master lift would never be something simple. But there had to be a way.

There was no way the pagoda would have a master lift, allow information about it to exist, and then give no path to reach it.

As he was thinking, Yalan interrupted him.

“So what are you going to do?”

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Chen Ren looked at her and answered honestly. “I don’t know. But I’m not giving up on the master lift.”

Princess Yanyue frowned slightly. “Don’t you think it’s a lost cause, Sect Leader Chen?”

Chen Ren shook his head. “No. Not yet.” He paused, sorting through his thoughts. “I know the array might be extremely hard to get through, but we haven’t actually tried anything yet. We can’t give up before we’ve tested every option.”

Yalan tilted her head. “But what can we even try?”

Chen Ren didn’t answer immediately. Then something clicked in his mind. His eyes moved to the book still in Princess Yanyue’s hands. Without hesitation, he reached out, took it, and placed it on the ground in front of him.

“There has to be more information about this floor in here,” he said.

Then he crouched down and started flipping through the pages, focusing on everything related to the eighth floor, especially the city they were currently in.

Unfortunately, everything in the book was still from a different time, but that didn’t mean it was useless.

The architecture of the city hadn’t changed, and as Chen Ren kept reading, he began to find more than a few points of interest. Locations, structures, old pathways—things that could still exist even now.

As he flipped another page, Yalan frowned slightly. “What are you even looking for in that?”

Chen Ren glanced at her. “Like I said before, there are ways to travel between cities. So I’m trying to see if there’s a way to teleport into it. It should be possible.”

Yalan looked back at the book. “I don’t see anything about that, and you have checked it before right?.”

Chen Ren gave a small, wry smile. “I have, but I just skimmed through it back then, and there’s no mention of teleportation yet. But maybe there will be. At least the book talks about flying puppets and even boats that were used to move between cities.”

Princess Yanyue spoke up immediately after hearing that. “Actually, I found one of those boats.”

Both Chen Ren and Yalan turned to her at once. “Where?”

She smiled slightly. “Not far from here. There’s a large building nearby that looked like it belonged to someone important. I went inside, fought a few puppets, and when I reached the back, I saw the boat.” She paused before continuing, “The runes on it still seemed intact. But when I came out, I sensed the Thunder Blade Sect disciples nearby, so I moved and came here instead. I didn’t want them to find it out.”

Chen Ren nodded. “A flying boat would definitely help. But if the array is still active, it might not let us get close.”

After saying that, he turned his attention back to the book.

Without minding the looks from Yalan and Princess Yanyue, he kept reading—page after page. But no matter how much he searched, there was no mention of any teleportation array.

In the end, there might still be something like that, but he wasn’t going to find any mention of it in this book. And searching through the entire city for something like that would take far too much time, especially when there was a good chance it might not even be working anymore.

So he could only accept one thing.

The only way to reach the fourth city might be through the air.

Maybe in the past, there had been no array protecting it, and people could simply fly across. But that had clearly changed now.

Still, there was no point thinking in a negative direction.

As he stood, lost in thought, he felt a hand rest on his shoulder.

“Sect Leader Chen,” Princess Yanyue said softly, “it’s alright to just use the normal lift. I’m sure there’s information about it in the book.”

Chen Ren nodded slowly. It was true. The book had mentioned it.

It had said that the normal lift was located in the second city, hidden underground within the sewers. It also had mentioned that it required a key to access, but finding that key probably wouldn’t be so difficult.

They could go there. They could leave this floor.

But, Chen Ren didn’t know what would be waiting for them on the ninth floor.

He lifted his gaze again, looking between the distant fourth city and the second one.

Whatever choice he made—It had to be quick. More cultivators would definitely arrive on the eighth floor soon. Maybe some already had.

If Yun Zhaotian and his disciples had made it here, then the other Guardian sects wouldn’t be far behind.

If they moved fast, they might still be the first ones to reach the ninth floor.

But no matter how much he thought about it, he wasn’t able to give up on the master lift without even trying. His instincts told him that if he let it go now, he would be making a big mistake.

So he looked at Princess Yanyue and said clearly, “I still want to try taking on the [Grand Aegis Array].”

At that, she frowned. It was the first time since they had known each other that she looked openly dissatisfied with him.

“You are not the stubborn type, Sect Leader Chen,” she said. “I thought you were more practical.”

Yalan also purred, agreeing. “Yes. You are too fixated on it. I know we worked hard to get information on the master lift, but I don’t see any way to break that array.”

Chen Ren didn’t reply to that right away. Because they were right. But the main reason he couldn’t let it go was the medallion.

He still hadn’t found it, and he had a strong feeling that it might be somewhere on the top five floors. And Chen Ren knew very well that he wasn’t going to get through those floors the normal way if geniuses across centuries hadn’t been able to do it either.

For him, the master lift might be the only real path. Half of his reason for entering the pagoda was the medallion in the first place. But he couldn’t tell Princess Yanyue that.

So he simply looked at her and said, “I just need you to trust me on this. I don’t want to give up without trying everything I have.”

She kept looking at him, still conflicted, before asking, “But what can we even try, Sect Leader Chen?”

Chen Ren stayed silent for a moment, going through every bit of information he had in his mind.

Then he looked at her and said, “First, tell me everything you know about the Grand Aegis Array. Then I’ll think of a plan.”

***

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