Ruan Minghe of the Emerald Sun Sect was in a predicament.

  The Pagoda of Eternity had turned out to be far more challenging than he had originally expected. No matter how hard he searched, no matter how carefully he traced rumors and clues, he hadn’t been able to find even the faintest hint of the inheritance left behind by the Master Alchemist. That failure weighed heavily on his mind. So heavily, in fact, that even his pill refinement had begun to suffer—batches coming out with lower purity than he desired, flames wavering when they should have been steady. More than once, he found himself wondering if he had rushed through the pagoda too quickly instead of slowing down and combing every floor properly.

  The first two floors had been smooth. Almost deceptively so. He and the Emerald Sun Sect disciples had performed well, befitting a Guardian sect.

  Everything went wrong after that.

  Rivalries between Guardian sects were nothing new, but Ruan Minghe hadn’t anticipated just how vicious they would become inside the pagoda. On the third floor, he clashed with the Soaring Sword Sect, led by Li Kuangdao and Li Shijun. What began as tense competition quickly turned ugly when they tried to seize the Emerald Sun Sect’s pills outright. Only quick judgment and a willingness to retreat had allowed his people to escape intact.

  The fourth floor was worse.

  Frostpeak Sect, led by Han Qingshi himself, had pursued them relentlessly after learning that Emerald Sun possessed Earth-grade healing pills on their person. Several Frostpeak disciples had been injured in the snowfields, and rather than seek their own solutions, they had chosen the easier path—taking from someone weaker.

  Ruan Minghe still felt a bitter twist in his chest at the memory.

  He had barely escaped both encounters with his sect members alive.

  The truth was cruel but undeniable: Emerald Sun Sect was the weakest among the Guardian sects. Their strength lay in alchemy, not brute force. Worse still, many of their offensive pills had been stored in spatial rings that no longer functioned properly within the pagoda. What they had left was carried in pouches, carefully rationed, precious beyond measure.

  Ruan Minghe understood the desperation. In a place where spatial rings failed and danger lurked on every floor, pills were life itself. But even so, he refused to hand them over—not to Soaring Sword Sect, not to Frostpeak Sect, not to any other sect.

  Not even if they offered tokens.

  Some things, he believed, were worth more than currency.

  Especially not after the way they had treated him and his sect members inside the pagoda.

  Because of those encounters, Ruan Minghe had been unable to properly search for the inheritance at all. He had spent most of his time fleeing—avoiding pursuit, dodging ambushes, and choosing survival over exploration. Even now, safely settled on the fifth floor, he still hadn’t found a single meaningful lead. Worse, he wasn’t willing to venture outside the city again just yet. Not with how exposed his sect still was.

  Goldspire City itself housed many alchemists, and he had visited more than a few of them. Their pills were undeniably well made, though clearly overpriced. Still, none of them impressed him enough to justify a purchase. Some were even similar to the Emerald Sun Sect’s exclusive recipes, yet they lacked the same effectiveness. Close, but not enough.

  At least the ingredients were plentiful.

  Thanks to that, he and his sect members had begun refining large quantities of offensive pills again—preparing for battle rather than trade. Under normal circumstances, he would have already pushed for the sixth floor, but the steep cost of ascending had forced them to remain here longer than planned.

  They had tried selling pills for tokens, but the city guards strictly forbade running businesses. Without shops or stalls, they were left to seek out individual buyers, a slow and inefficient process. Tokens trickled in at a frustrating pace, barely enough to sustain them.

  The strain was beginning to show.

  Even his alchemy—once a source of pride and comfort—felt dull now, weighed down by worry and pressure. As an elder and the leader of the expedition, it was Ruan Minghe’s responsibility to find a solution, to secure enough tokens to move forward.

  Yet no matter how much he thought, nothing came to mind.

  If things continued like this, he would have no choice but to send his disciples back outside the city to hunt beasts and take on menial guild tasks. A path he knew would cost them injuries, perhaps even lives.

  By the time that thought settled in his mind, even the faint excitement he once felt for alchemy had completely faded.

  He stared at the cauldron in front of him for a long moment before finally deciding to let it rest for the day. With a quiet sigh, Ruan Minghe rose to his feet.

  Outside, the streets were buzzing with activity, voices overlapping and footsteps echoing through the city. Normally, he would have ignored it all, but staying cooped up in his room felt suffocating. In the end, he decided that remaining still would do him more harm than good and made his way outside.

  They were staying in a small inn, one that barely had enough space for all of them. Ruan Minghe could have afforded a better place—at least temporarily—but he had deliberately chosen not to. Unlike the other Guardian Sects, the Emerald Sun Sect didn’t have the luxury of burning tokens. Every one of them mattered when their income was so uncertain.

  As he descended the stairs, his thoughts churned restlessly.

  Where had I gone wrong?

  Was it because he had never truly left the sect before, choosing instead to bury himself in alchemy and let others handle everything else? Perhaps. Within the sect, resources had always been abundant. Pills, ingredients, protection—everything had been provided without question. He had never needed to worry about survival.

  But this pagoda was different. It was a world unto itself, one that cared little for reputation or status. And here, stripped of comfort and certainty, he was struggling.

  Worse, his struggles were affecting the disciples.

  That thought weighed heavily on him as he reached the ground floor. Just as he was about to step outside, he noticed a small group of disciples seated around a table, speaking in hushed voices. Curious, he slowed his steps.

  As he drew closer, their words reached his ears.

  “We should definitely check it out,” one of them said quietly. “I don’t know how, but Princess Yanyue managed to start her own shop. I even heard the guard captain was there.”

  Another disciple frowned. “Why would the guard captain be there? The guards have been nothing but rude to cultivators.”

  “I don’t know,” the first replied, shaking his head. “But if it’s true, we should see it for ourselves.”

  Ruan Minghe stopped in his tracks. A shop? Princess Yanyue? And the guard captain?

  For the first time that day, something stirred within him.

  He approached the disciples, unable to hide the spark of curiosity that flared within him.

  “What are you talking about?” he asked. “What shop?”

  At once, all the disciples turned toward him. A few frowned instinctively, while others hurriedly stood up and bowed. Ruan Minghe knew well enough that not all of them liked him—many were under elders who openly competed with him—but none of them dared to ignore his question.

  After a brief hesitation, one of the disciples spoke up. “It’s nothing much, Elder Ruan. It’s just that Princess Yanyue managed to acquire a shop, and it opened today. I passed by it about an hour ago, and there was already a crowd forming. The guards were there too… along with the guard captain.”

  Ruan Minghe’s eyes widened.

  He immediately turned to another disciple. “Is that true?”

  She nodded without hesitation. “Yes, Elder Ruan.”

  That was all he needed to hear.

  “Take me there,” he said at once. “I need to see it for myself.”

  The disciples exchanged glances before quickly getting to their feet, filing out of the inn. Ruan Minghe followed close behind, his mind racing.

  How had Princess Yanyue pulled something like this off? Had she bribed the guards? But if bribery was that easy, why were so many cultivators rotting in jail instead of walking free? The logic didn’t add up.

  He couldn’t figure it out, but he knew one thing for certain.

  Before forming any conclusions, he needed to see it with his own eyes.

  As it turned out, the shop was quite far from their inn. With cultivation techniques restricted inside the city, they had no choice but to walk slowly. It took nearly half an hour before they even caught sight of the area.

  Ruan Minghe could have hired one of the horseless rickshaws to save time, but he dismissed the thought just as quickly.

  Wasting tokens was the last thing he wanted to do.

  And when he finally reached the shop, Ruan Minghe couldn’t help but stop in his tracks.

  The sight in front of him left him momentarily speechless.

  A large crowd had gathered outside, so dense that it spilled across the street, and city guards were stationed at the entrance, actively trying to maintain order and force the cultivators into a proper line. From where he stood, Ruan Minghe could barely glimpse the interior through the wide glass window—but even that was enough to tell him the shop was packed to the brim.

  He lifted his gaze to the signboard above the entrance.

  Divine Coin Pavilion

  The name looked simple but bold and impossible to ignore.

  Beneath it was an insignia that made his pupils contract slightly—the emblem of the royal family.

  So Princess Yanyue wasn’t just loosely associated with the shop.

  She was openly backing it.

  But how?

  As that question echoed in his mind, one of the disciples beside him spoke in a low voice. “Elder Ruan… should we wait here and see what they’re selling?”

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  Ruan Minghe slowly nodded, still visibly stunned. “Yes. If they managed to open a shop here, then there must be a way for us to do the same.”

  The disciples nodded in agreement and began moving forward to merge into the crowd. Ruan Minghe, however, stayed back.

  It didn’t feel right for him to squeeze into a line like this. He had never had to wait for anything in his life, but with city guards present, showing off his status as a Guardian sect elder would only make him look foolish.

  So he remained near the back, quietly observing.

  His eyes swept across the crowd, searching for familiar robes or sect insignias. He didn’t spot any other Guardian sect members immediately, but he was certain they would show up soon. There was no way they’d ignore something this public, especially with the royal emblem displayed so openly.

  It took nearly ten minutes before the line moved far enough for him to finally enter the shop.

  The moment he stepped inside, Ruan Minghe paused.

  At first glance, there was… nothing extraordinary.

  Shelves lined the walls, neatly stacked with various items. Weapons were displayed openly, mounted along one side of the shop, and counters were filled with pills, talismans, and miscellaneous goods.

  Everything looked clean. Organized and professional.

  But nothing—at least on the surface—seemed worthy of drawing the city guards’ interest.

  Ruan Minghe narrowed his eyes slightly.

  Then why…?

  If this place truly held nothing special, there was no reason for such a crowd or for the guards themselves to be standing watch.

  And that realization made his curiosity burn even hotter.

  He even saw some of the guards inside the shop.

  They lingered around the shelves, casually eating from bowls they held in their hands, chatting with the shop workers as they browsed the shelves like ordinary customers. That alone made Ruan Minghe’s unease deepen. City guards didn’t do this without reason.

  He stopped standing idle and turned to the Emerald Sun Sect disciples around him, who were already shifting restlessly, eyes darting toward different sections of the shop.

  “Go,” he said quietly. “Look around. If you find anything interesting, inform me immediately.”

  All of them nodded at once and split up, melting into the crowd.

  Ruan Minghe himself headed toward the nearest counter.

  A young woman was speaking with a pair of cultivators, her posture relaxed yet confident. The moment she noticed him approaching, she turned with a practiced smile.

  “Welcome to Divine Coin Pavilion,” she said smoothly. “I’m Anji, the store manager. What kind of item are you looking for today?”

  Ruan Minghe’s gaze flicked briefly to the walls lined with weapons and armor before returning to her. “Do you sell pills?”

  “Of course,” Anji replied without hesitation. “We carry a wide variety—many you won’t have seen anywhere else.”

  He almost scoffed.

  Pills I haven’t seen? As one of the foremost alchemists of Emerald Sun Sect, that claim bordered on arrogance.

  Still, he said nothing.

  Anji turned and retrieved a small pouch from beneath the counter. The moment she loosened the seal, an unfamiliar scent drifted into the air—rich, sharp, and strangely invigorating.

  Ruan Minghe’s expression shifted.

  He had never smelled anything quite like it.

  Inside the pouch rested a pill of deep crimson, its surface glossy, almost luminous, as if faint light pulsed beneath the shell.

  “This,” Anji said, holding it up, “is a Crimson Ignition Pill. If you’re heading outside the city to hunt beasts, it’ll give you a significant boost in combat power.”

  Ruan Minghe raised an eyebrow. “And how does it work?”

  “It ignites the qi circulating through your blood,” she explained calmly. “For ten minutes, your physical strength and qi output would surge explosively. And before you ask—there are no side effects. All our pills are refined to over eighty percent purity.”

  Ruan Minghe’s eyes widened despite himself.

  “Eighty percent purity?” he repeated, his voice betraying a rare note of disbelief. “That’s… extremely high.”

  Anji’s smile deepened, confident rather than smug. “We only offer the best items in the city.”

  She reached beneath the counter again and produced two more pills, placing them carefully on a velvet mat.

  Pointing to a soft blue pill first, she said, “This is the Clear Dao Tranquility Pill. It stabilizes the mind for an entire day. If you attempt to contemplate your dao during that time, you’ll find breakthroughs coming far more easily.”

  Then her finger moved to a pale white pill, faintly translucent, wisps of qi drifting around it like mist.

  “This one is refined from the essence of a skyveil roc,” Anji continued. “It grants wings of qi for an hour—useful if you need to escape a charging beast or cross difficult terrain. Our supply is limited for this one, but all of our pills range between eighty and eighty-five percent purity. We also carry other types, depending on what you’re looking for.”

  Ruan Minghe didn’t respond immediately.

  Instead, he picked up the pills one by one and activated his [Silver Vein Eyes]. Qi surged into his eyes, his vision sharpening as layers of refinement and internal structure were laid bare before him.

  His breath caught.

  The purity was real.

  Not eighty in name alone. All the pills had clean refinement, with impurities reduced to an almost negligible level. Even if he couldn’t yet verify every claimed effect, the pill composition itself left no room for doubt.

  How…?

  He had never heard of these pills. And even if such pills existed somewhere in the wider cultivation world, achieving this level of purity consistently was something only a master alchemist could do.

  His personal best was seventy-eight percent.

  Among the Emerald Sun Sect elders, only the sect leader occasionally surpassed that.

  Yet this shop was selling multiple unique pills, all refined to a level that bordered on the absurd.

  Ruan Minghe slowly looked up, his gaze drifting across the shop. More customers were entering by the moment, excitement rippling through the crowd. Guards still lingered nearby, bowls in hand, talking casually with the staff.

  His mind raced.

  There was no way a master alchemist had suddenly decided to work under Princess Yanyue.

  And that meant there was only one way this was possible.

  Princess Yanyue had somehow found the inheritance—or at least fragments of the inheritance—of the Master Alchemist Ruan Minghe had been searching for all this time.

  The realization struck him like a bolt of lightning.

  The unfamiliar formulas. The absurdly high purity. The consistency across different pill types.

  The more he thought about it, the more everything aligned, until the possibility stopped feeling like speculation and began to feel like truth.

  His grip on the pills tightened.

  “Do you want anything else?” Anji asked politely, looking up innocently. “There’s a long line.”

  Ruan Minghe blinked, finally pulling himself out of his stupor.

  “No,” he said after a moment. “I’ll take these pills. But I want a meeting with Princess Yanyue.”

  Anji raised an eyebrow. “She’s not available. And we don’t let just anyone meet her.”

  Ruan Minghe frowned. “I’m not just anyone. I’m Ruan Minghe, elder of the Emerald Sun Sect. If the princess isn’t available, then I want to meet whoever is in charge here.”

  For the first time, Anji’s composure cracked. Confusion—and a hint of panic—flickered across her face. She opened her mouth, clearly unsure how to respond.

  Before Ruan Minghe could press further, a calm voice came from the side.

  “Anji, let me take care of this.”

  Both of them turned.

  A man walked toward them, his steps unhurried, a faint smile on his lips. When his eyes met Ruan Minghe’s, the latter felt an inexplicable pressure as if the man’s gaze carried weight beyond his cultivation.

  The man stopped in front of him and spoke.

  “I’m Chen Ren,” he said evenly. “I own this place together with Princess Yanyue.”

  He gestured lightly toward the back of the shop.

  “Why don’t you and I have a little talk in private?”

  ***

  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.

  Magus Reborn 3 is OUT NOW. It's a progression fantasy epic featuring a detailed magic system, kingdom building, and plenty of action.