Dao of Money

Jun looked up at the sky of the eighth floor with a faint glint in his eyes.

He had no idea what exactly was happening over there, but it was interesting enough to make him pause for a few minutes and watch. From a distance, the whole thing looked almost ridiculous—like a group of idiots repeatedly smashing their heads against a wall and somehow expecting the wall to feel sorry for them. Even from the second city, where Jun currently stood, he could make out the [Grand Aegis Array] surrounding the fourth city, and the cluster of cultivators trying to force their way through it.

He recognized the array immediately.

In his younger days, when he had still counted the current emperor as a friend, he had seen the workings of that array up close more than once. He knew what it was capable of, and more importantly, he knew that ordinary cultivators had no business trying to break through it.

But these were not exactly ordinary circumstances.

Even at this distance, Jun could tell that two city lords were helping with the assault, and that was the only part of the whole affair that truly caught his attention. He could not quite understand why that was happening. Unlike him, most cultivators could not simply fight a city lord, earn their approval, and walk away with a favor. So there had to be something else at play.

Whatever it was, Jun did not care enough to dig into it.

That kind of curiosity had never suited him. He had no habit of involving himself in other people’s business when it did not affect his own. Still, he could not help wondering what exactly they wanted badly enough to throw themselves against the fourth city like this.

He had already asked the Zombie Queen Vesrya about the cities on this floor, and she had been very clear on one point.

The medallion he was searching for was not on the eighth floor.

She had sounded absolutely certain of that.

Which meant whatever those cultivators were risking their lives for was almost certainly worth less than what he sought. So even if it turned out to be some famous weapon or hidden treasure, Jun found it hard to care beyond the level of idle curiosity.

Jun had enough great weapons of his own.

Whatever the people at the fourth city were trying to reach, he doubted it was worth slowing himself down for. So after watching the assault for a few moments longer, he turned his gaze away from the distant sky and looked back at his two disciples.

“We should be moving,” he said. “We’ll look around the ninth city first, then head for the library on the tenth.”

Both disciples had also been watching the commotion in the distance, but they quickly brought their attention back to him. They nodded, though Wenji hesitated just enough to speak.

“But shouldn’t we go and see what’s happening near the fourth city first, Master? It looks interesting.”

Jun clicked his tongue. “It is not interesting enough for me.” His voice stayed flat as he went on. “We’ve already wasted too much time in this pagoda. I want the medallion.”

That was enough.

Both disciples nodded again and said nothing more, knowing better than to keep pushing once Jun had made up his mind. One of his former disciples had tried doing exactly that once and had lost an arm for the effort. Though, in the end, Jun had been generous enough to pass him a cultivation manual suited for a one-armed cultivator, so things had turned out well enough.

Jun preferred it that way.

He had no interest in letting resentment settle too deeply inside those who followed him. Too many masters ended up with blades in their backs because they mistook fear for loyalty. Jun had no desire to become one more cautionary tale whispered about by old cultivators, though he also doubted any of his disciples truly had the courage for something like that.

With those thoughts drifting through his mind, he and his disciples started walking again.

The sounds from the sky still came now and then, enough to draw a brief glance upward every so often, but for the most part Jun ignored them. His focus returned to the streets around him, where puppets lay scattered in ruined heaps. The whole road looked as though a battle had passed through it not long ago. Some of the puppets had been split apart cleanly. Others were scorched or blasted open. If Jun had to guess, much of that work had been done by an archer—probably one with a fire aspect, judging by the burned marks left across the stone and metal.

He did not mind.

If anything, it made things easier for him.

He had never expected to be the first climber to reach the ninth floor anyway, especially not after finding signs that someone had already discovered the lift ahead of him.

For him, climbing to the very top of the pagoda mattered less than the medallion.

That was still the true goal.

If he got his hands on it, then perhaps he could turn his attention toward the upper floors properly. Until then, everything else was secondary. Still, the city lords themselves were interesting enough that Jun did not mind learning more. The way they functioned, the way they fought, even the way their bodies seemed to operate like perfected puppets—it all had value. If he could uncover the method behind such creations, then the strength of his own army might rise by another step.

With that thought lingering in his mind, Jun stepped over the broken puppet parts scattered through the street and finally found the entrance to the sewer.

A ladder led downward.

He ignored it and simply jumped into the darkness.

When he landed at the bottom, foul water splashed lightly against his legs, and his face immediately tightened in displeasure. A thin sheet of qi spread over him at once, clearing the filth away before it could properly soak into his clothes. Jun hated sewer water. He had crawled through enough sewers in his life already to know that too many cultivators loved hiding treasures in places like these, as though filth itself made valuables safer.

Before his two disciples could climb down after him, Jun raised a hand and summoned flame.

A dark fire took shape in the air nearby, casting just enough light to reveal the path ahead, and then he started walking without waiting for the others.

A few breaths later, his disciples landed behind him and hurried after him.

The sewer was cramped, but even at a glance it was obvious the place had once housed the puppets he had seen above. The channels were built wide enough in certain places, with alcoves and reinforced passages that made the whole setup feel deliberate. It was a neat little arrangement, he had to admit.

Not that it would have mattered.

A few well-placed qi lances would have skewered any number of such puppets easily enough.

Still, heaven had apparently decided to make things easier for him here, and Jun did not like that. In his experience, whenever heaven did him a favor, it usually meant something worse was waiting farther ahead.

That did not particularly bother him.

Zombie Queen Vesrya had already told him that he should not face too much difficulty on the upper floors.

Although he didn’t trust Vesrya completely, Jun trusted himself, and that was enough.

The three of them continued through the sewers at an unhurried pace, taking one branching path after another until Jun finally saw the lift ahead. It looked much like the others he had used before, though this one was dirtied by weeds, filth, and the sort of sewer growth that had long since claimed everything around it. Jun flicked his fingers and a burst of qi swept over the platform, stripping it clean before he stepped onto it.

As soon as he did, Shuyi asked, “Are we going straight to the library, Master?”

Jun glanced at her and gave a small nod.

“Yes. The ninth floor may be interesting, but I have no desire to waste time there. We go up, find the next lift as quickly as possible, and then search the library for information on the medallion.”

Both disciples nodded and no questions followed.

Jun activated the lift, and at once it began to rise, carrying them up through the sewer shaft before breaking free of it and climbing higher into the open sky. As the platform lifted him above the city again, Jun was given another clear look toward the fourth city and the chaos around its array.

This time, he recognized the people involved.

Han Qingshi was there, and Jun’s eyes narrowed slightly at the sight. That was a man he intended to kill before leaving the pagoda. If left alive, Han Qingshi would almost certainly become a monster in the century to come. Nearby was Princess Yanyue, who in Jun’s opinion was far too cunning compared to even her brothers.

Then, finally, his gaze landed on the last person.

Chen Ren.

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Jun had never known the man before entering the pagoda, but every piece of information he had gathered about him since had only made him stranger in Jun’s eyes. Strange, yes, but also fascinating—if only because he had not been able to shake his suspicions about him.

But before Jun could let that thought go any further, he saw the portal ahead.

The moment the lift carried them into it, he felt the familiar touch of void qi closing around him, pulling him away from the eighth floor. Darkness swallowed everything for a brief stretch, and when it finally peeled back again, he found himself standing beneath a bright, open sky.

Flying beasts wheeled through the air in the distance, but Jun barely spared them a glance.

What held his attention was the ocean.

It stretched out in every direction, vast enough that it almost made the world feel empty, broken only by islands scattered across the water and the shapes of ships farther out. If Vesrya had spoken truthfully, then some of those vessels should belong to the merfolk of this floor.

Jun took all of it in with a blank face, but the first thought that rose in his mind was simple enough.

This was going to take time.

He already knew where the lift was supposed to be. The Zombie Queen had told him that much. The problem was that it sat on the far side of the floor, which meant he was now looking at an entire ocean that stood between him and the next step.

Slowly, Jun lowered his gaze.

They had arrived on a cliff, with a long flight of stairs carved down along its side. He looked toward them and said, “We’re going down.”

The three of them began descending.

A little way into it, Shuyi spoke again. “Master… are we actually going to cross through the water on foot?”

Jun glanced at her. “Why? You don’t want to?”

Shuyi shook her head slightly. “It’s not that I don’t want to. It’s just that it’ll take too long. We won’t be able to keep up with you, and you hate slowing down for us.”

Jun said nothing right away. Because, annoyingly enough, there was truth in that.

By the time they reached the foot of the cliff, he was still considering the problem. The sea spread out before them, restless and endless, and Jun stood there for a few moments simply looking at it, turning over possible solutions in his mind.

Then Wenji’s voice cut in. “Master, look. A ship’s coming.”

Jun lifted his head at once.

A large vessel was indeed cutting across the water toward them, heading straight for the shore where they stood. From its shape and the way it moved, Jun guessed it belonged to the pirates of this floor, and they had almost certainly noticed them from a distance and decided to investigate.

A grin spread across his face immediately.

He looked back at his disciples and said, “Get ready. We’re stealing a ship.”

***

When Li Xuan first called the [Grand Aegis Array] unpredictable, Chen Ren had agreed with him.

At least at first.

From the outside, that was exactly what it looked like. Every time they thought they understood the pattern of it, the array seemed to do something new. It fired beams, birthed silver eagles, sealed openings, and shifted its defenses just when they thought they had found a weakness. It felt erratic in the way only something old, powerful, and far beyond them could.

But the more Chen Ren thought about it, the less random it started to seem.

At some point, while the others were still trying to recover from the last exchange, something had clicked in his mind. The idea had been vague at first, more instinct than certainty, but once it formed, he had explained it to others and immediately went to Princess Yanyue to question her further, drawing on what she knew from growing up around such things. That conversation had only made his suspicion stronger.

If he was right, then the array was not behaving wildly at all.

It was following very precise orders.

The [Grand Aegis Array] was likely built around a fixed set of commands, commands meant specifically for climbers. That made sense the moment he looked at its purpose instead of its effects. The array existed to keep climbers away from the master lift and from whatever else the fourth city protected. In the past, that city had almost certainly been ruled by the floor lord of the eighth floor, and City Lord Xiangrui himself had already confirmed that climbers had never been allowed inside.

That mattered.

Because it meant the array had not been built to repel everything equally. It had been built with a very particular enemy in mind.

And that gave weight to Chen Ren’s theory.

Xuan Mo, the artificer who had built the floor, would never have imagined that another puppet or city lord inside the pagoda would one day try to enter the fourth city without direct permission from the floor lord. Why would he? From his point of view, the danger would always come from climbers.

Chen Ren’s own knowledge of arrays helped him make sense of the rest.

At the simplest level, arrays were built around triggers. A basic one would activate the moment its conditions were met, sometimes so crudely that even the person who created it might set it off by accident. More advanced array masters avoided that by weaving their own qi signatures into the formation so the array could tell friend from intruder. And with something as large and complicated as the [Grand Aegis Array], there would almost certainly be layers of recognition built into it—different qi signatures, different threat assessments, different reactions depending on who or what stood before it.

By that logic, the city lords themselves probably did not register as a threat high enough to provoke its full hostility.

Because really, why would they?

The person who built the array would never have imagined that a city lord might one day turn on it. Shrey himself had already said that the city lords could not truly invade another floor and make it their own, which meant they had always remained tied to their own domains. That was what finally settled the matter for Chen Ren.

The [Grand Aegis Array] was not reacting wildly. It was reacting in order.

When he thought back over everything that had happened, the pattern was there. The array had not shown all its danger at once. It had revealed more of itself gradually, and both times it had done so only after Han Qingshi had pushed deep enough into the layers to be recognized as a greater threat. Even when they had pressured the golden layer, Han Qingshi had still been one of the people right at the front of the breach.

That mattered.

If the array judged threats differently depending on who was inside it and how deep they had gone, then maybe that could be used against it.

The thought had turned into a plan soon after. Not a perfect one. Not something that would leave them safe for long. But if Chen Ren was right, then it might give them a window—a small one, perhaps only a few breaths, but enough for someone to force their way into the city.

That alone made it worth trying.

So now, floating in the sky while the others waited on his word, Shrey glanced at him and asked again, “You really think this will work?”

Chen Ren looked at him. “You agreed it was sound.”

Shrey gave a grunt. “I agreed it made sense. I didn’t realize that meant I’d be the one doing the hardest part.”

Xiangrui, floating nearby with the same easy calm he seemed to wear in every dangerous moment, said, “Don’t worry. I’ll be the one to do the harder part anyway. It shouldn’t be much trouble.” Then, after the faintest pause, he added, “And if it fails, we pull back.”

Shrey only let out a long breath at that. Then he reached down and patted his mount.

The beast responded immediately, and in the next moment it surged forward with Xiangrui keeping pace beside it.

By then, much of the red layer had already stitched itself back together, but the instant the two city lords drew close, Xiangrui moved first. Thousands of ice projectiles appeared around him and shot toward the barrier in a flashing storm. Chen Ren watched them hit with his full attention fixed on the layer, and when the frost spread and the red surface cracked beneath it, the plan finally began.

***

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