Dao of Money

Even if Chen Ren felt like he had been inside the pagoda for years, only months had passed in the real world. But months were still a long time.

Long enough for many things to happen.

Although Chen Ren knew nothing had gone terribly wrong, he still wanted to see everything for himself. There was nothing in the pagoda that needed his immediate attention anymore, so he had already decided to take everyone and return to Meadow Village.

No one really complained about it.

They had already done everything they could inside the pagoda, and until a year had passed, they could not enter again anyway. According to Yalan, the number of cultivators gathered around the wall was also making her and the others uneasy. Verbal fights broke out every day, and even physical ones were becoming harder to avoid.

Two cultivators had apparently challenged Zi Wen and Li Xuan just because they had been speaking with Princess Yanyue, whom those men had been trying to impress.

There seemed to be no limit to how petty some of the conflicts were becoming.

The presence of older cultivators did not help much either. Most of them stayed in their rooms, drinking, gambling, and making bets about the pagoda. According to Yalan, many of them were treating the whole trip like a vacation rather than anything serious.

So instead of remaining in such a crowded and tense place, everyone preferred to return to the sect.

Li Xuan and Princess Yanyue were coming with them as well. Li Xuan planned to meet his father later before returning to his own sect, while Princess Yanyue simply did not want to return to the capital just yet.

More than that, Princess Yanyue probably wanted to speak with him about the pagoda.

Chen Ren wanted that conversation too, though for a different reason. He needed to make sure she did not tell anyone else that he owned it. If that secret spread too early, he would be in huge trouble, and he knew that very well.

As for the twins, they came to Chen Ren with a different request.

They wanted to join his sect.

Apparently, they had been thinking about it for a while. After going through the pagoda together, they had realised that following Chen Ren and the others was far better than scavenging inside the Corpse Lands, especially now that so many cultivators had gathered there.

The resources they had gained had already helped them learn several Earth-Grade techniques. They had also reached the middle of the foundation eatablishment realm, which was a huge improvement for people who had struggled alone for so long.

For the twins, this was a chance at a more structured life.

The Divine Coin Sect was still new compared to the older sects, which meant it did not have too many fixed rules or suffocating traditions yet. There would be enough freedom for them to move around, but also enough support that they would not have to fight for every small resource by themselves.

At least, those were the reasons they gave Chen Ren when they nervously asked to join him.

Chen Ren agreed, of course.

More cultivators were always welcome.

Besides, after their time in the pagoda, he knew the twins were trustworthy and reliable. There had been more than a few moments where they could have gone their own way, abandoned the group, or chosen a safer path. But they had stayed with him for whatever reasons they had, and that was more than enough for Chen Ren.

With the twins joining, their party to return home was complete.

And as it turned out, they did not need to take a carriage or fly on swords.

Zi Wen simply brought out his snow wyvern, Kuro, and let them ride it.

Chen Ren had honestly thought the wyvern had died back on the tenth floor, but as it turned out, Kuro was soul bonded to Zi Wen, whatever that meant exactly. Zi Wen had also gained a beast master inheritance, and from that inheritance, he had received the bag now hanging at his waist. It could store beasts inside it, even ones as large as the wyvern.

It was extremely convenient.

Chen Ren almost wanted to check whether the bag could be replicated. Just thinking about selling something like that to cultivators was enough to make him excited. Beast tamers would go mad over it, and even ordinary cultivators would want one if it could store mounts or guard beasts.

But in the end, Chen Ren did not have any spatial experts.

Wang Jun might know something, but he was not going to help without asking for too much in return. So Chen Ren let the idea rest for now as everyone climbed onto Kuro and prepared to leave.

The area around the Corpse Lands was already filled with all kinds of tamed beasts from different sects and clans. Some were large birds, some were scaled horses, and some were strange creatures Chen Ren did not recognise. Even among them, Kuro stood out. A wyvern was not something people could easily ignore.

So Zi Wen guided him higher into the sky.

Once they were above most of the flying beasts and cultivators, Kuro spread his wings properly and flew toward Meadow Village.

After being inside the pagoda for so long, even the air of the outside world felt different. Chen Ren could not explain it well, but the pagoda had carried far more qi in the air, even when that qi was not always obvious at first. The outside world felt lighter in comparison, less dense and less controlled.

At the same time, it was more pleasing in a way.

That was not something Chen Ren had ever expected to say about a Xianxia world, but it was true. The pagoda had been full of danger, trials, traps, and people waiting for opportunities to strike. Even places like Goldspire City had only felt safe because of rules and guards.

Here, at least for now, he did not feel like something would attack him out of nowhere.

Jun attacking him was still a possibility, but Chen Ren had a feeling the man would not be stupid enough to do it right away.

And even if he tried, the lords would protect him, whether they wanted to or not. His authority still worked in the outside world, and that alone gave him more confidence than he would have had otherwise.

But nothing like that happened as they travelled through the clouds.

Kuro did not fly at full speed, giving everyone enough time to relax on his back. Shrey and Yorren also wanted to look around the outside world, so Zi Wen slowed their pace even more. Because of that, the journey to Meadow Village took three days of constant flying.

Every night, they stopped somewhere in the wilderness to eat and recover.

As it turned out, even the lords ate. They also asked a lot of questions.

Most of those questions were about the Kalian Empire, its geography, its sects, and how much the world had changed since the days of the Azure Immortal Sect. Zi Wen and Li Xuan handled most of that, explaining whatever they knew while Shrey listened with open curiosity and Yorren looked as if every answer only made him more disappointed in the current era.

While they handled the lords, Chen Ren spent more time speaking with Yalan.

He told her more about what had happened in the pagoda after she left, including how he had obtained the medallion and what he thought Jun might do next. Yalan, in turn, told him that she had sensed Jun near the walls a couple of days ago, but the man had left without doing anything.

That made Chen Ren wonder what Jun was planning.

There was no clear answer.

Only time would reveal it, and that bothered him more than he wanted to admit.

During one of their stops, Chen Ren also spoke with Princess Yanyue. He asked her to keep quiet about him being the owner of the pagoda, and she promised that she would. Still, she had questions of her own.

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Most of them were about the pagoda and the records hidden inside it.

She wanted to know if Chen Ren could get her older cultivator diaries and journals from the pagoda, especially anything connected to ancient sects, forgotten conflicts, or the eras before the Kalian Empire.

Chen Ren truly wondered what Princess Yanyue wanted to do with those records.

In the end, he could only tell her that even as the pagoda lord, he could not simply hand things over to her. The pagoda had its own rules, and if he started giving away old records and inheritances too freely, the lords would definitely have something to say about it. At best, he could help her gather some information.

She did not seem disheartened by that.

Instead, she told him she appreciated it a lot. Because of him, she had been able to find what she was looking for inside the pagoda, and now she wanted a long-term partnership with him.

Chen Ren didn’t fully understand what she had in mind, but he nodded anyway.

Honestly by then, he was already tired of handling important matters. He wanted to rest for at least a week without thinking about pagoda rules, Guardian sects, ancient medallions, or Jun. So even if the princess asked him to do something right now, he was going to reject it for the time being.

Like that, mostly peacefully, they finally reached Meadow Village.

Li Xuan got down near Cloud Mist City first, planning to meet his father before returning to his sect. The rest of them continued forward. They made Kuro land some distance away from the village, and Zi Wen put the wyvern back into the beast bag so it would not scare the villagers.

After that, they walked toward the sect on foot. As it turned out, the sect already knew they were coming.

Qing He, Tang Xiulan, Feiyu and several others were waiting near the gates. A large number of villagers had gathered there as well, looking toward the road with open curiosity. When they saw Chen Ren and the others approaching, a few people waved.

From their faces, Chen Ren could tell that more than a few people in the sect and village were genuinely glad he had returned alive with the others.

Qing He, however, looked exactly the same as always.

She didn’t even smile when they stopped in front of her. She only looked Chen Ren and the others over from head to toe before speaking.

“You all seem to have lost weight.”

Chen Ren smiled. “Better than dying.”

Qing He looked at him flatly. “I actually thought you had died when you did not return after a month. I was already prepared to light incense and pray to the heavens to give you a better mind in your next life, but it seems you survived.”

Her gaze moved past him, landing on Shrey, Yorren, and the twins.

“And you brought more troublesome individuals with you.”

“Well,” Chen Ren said, “a lot happened.”

“I can see that.”

Qing He then turned her attention to Princess Yanyue. “So, did you find what you were looking for?”

Princess Yanyue nodded at once. “Yes, I did, Elder Qing He. Sect Leader Chen helped me a lot.”

Qing He clicked her tongue. “All male cultivators are good at helping anyone with a pretty face.”

Chen Ren almost retorted at that.

As if he cared whether Princess Yanyue was pretty. Her background was far more important to him, and helping her had always been about managing that connection properly. Of course, saying that out loud would only make things worse, so he swallowed the words and let the comment pass.

Qing He gestured toward the village, and Chen Ren’s group finally started moving.

As they crossed the village boundary, a few people even began clapping. The reaction made it feel as if they had returned from war, and judging by the faces around him, some of the villagers might have truly thought that.

Chen Ren listened more carefully to the whispers moving through the crowd.

It did not take long for him to realise that the Pagoda of Eternity had become famous gossip even here.

Some wondered how many treasures Chen Ren had gained. Others guessed how many floors he had cleared. A few even spoke about the Guardian sects entering it.

Chen Ren had not openly told anyone outside the sect where he was going.

His own sect members would not carelessly spread that information either.

So that left only one answer.

The pagoda had become far more famous than he expected.

It made sense for the pagoda to become famous in the end.

With so many cultivators gathered around it, mortals were bound to hear about it sooner or later. On top of that, with how his sect worked now, there were many people moving through different parts of the empire for trade, deliveries, and information. News spreading back to Meadow Village was probably only natural.

As Chen Ren thought about that, Tang Xiulan made her way to his right.

As the manager of the whole sect, she seemed to have gotten herself better robes than the last time he had seen her. She looked more composed now, and there was a quiet authority in the way she carried herself. But when she turned to Chen Ren, there was a smile on her face.

“Who are the new arrivals?” she asked.

“Just some friends I made in the pagoda,” Chen Ren said. “They are part of the sect now, even if not directly. The twins are proper members, though. The other two belong more to the pagoda.”

Tang Xiulan raised an eyebrow. She clearly did not understand what he meant.

Chen Ren knew he would have to explain a lot later. For now, he kept walking. He wanted to rest in his room first, then hear what had happened while he was gone. After that, he could hand out the gifts and resources he had brought back.

But when he reached the sect building and looked around, Qing He suddenly spoke.

She had been whispering with Yalan and Princess Yanyue until then, but now her gaze was on him.

“You should eat something, then come see me,” Qing He said.

Chen Ren paused. “Is there something wrong?”

Qing He nodded. “Yes. I think you have offended someone powerful. I wanted to ask you about it.”

Chen Ren froze. For a moment, several names went through his mind.

There were too many possibilities, and that alone made him feel tired before he had even entered his sect.

“What happened?” he asked.

Qing He looked around at the villagers and sect members nearby, then gave him a flat look.

“Eat first,” she said. “Then we will talk.”

Chen Ren pressed his lips together. That did not make him feel better at all.

***

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