Dao of Money

254. Trial of taming

Zi Wen moved along the steep climb as a snowstorm howled around them, threatening to throw them off the icy mountain every second. He felt like each step forward was a trial on its own. The narrow path beneath them was barely wide enough to hold Little Yuze’s footing, and even then, the beast had to move carefully, placing each step without falling. Snow gathered under their feet, making the surface even more treacherous as strong winds pushed against them from the side.

Whiskey had already hidden himself inside Zi Wen’s robes.

From time to time, the small creature would poke his head out to glance at the drop below. The moment he did, his body would stiffen before he quickly retreated back inside, as if hiding there would somehow save him if they actually fell.

Zi Wen almost wished he could do the same. Every time his eyes drifted toward the edge, only one thought came to his mind.

If they fell, they would die.

There was no surviving something like that.

They were hundreds—no, thousands of feet above the ground now, and they were still climbing higher. The peak remained out of sight, hidden behind layers of rock, making it feel like the ascent would never end.

At the beginning, it hadn’t been this bad.

There had been beasts near the base of the mountain and broken sections along the path, but those had been manageable. Little Yuze had leapt across gaps with ease, and even Zi Wen could have crossed them without much trouble as a cultivator.

But the higher they climbed, the worse it became. It was no longer about beasts or traps.

What truly worried him was how narrow the path had become. One wrong step or one moment of imbalance was all it would take.

Little Yuze was already barely fitting along the ledge, yet somehow still managing to keep his balance. Zi Wen didn’t know how long that would last, especially with the storm growing stronger by the minute.

The wind cut against them while snow whipped across their vision and clung to their clothes. It had started halfway through their climb, and now it felt less like weather and more like another trial placed in their path.

Zi Wen tightened his grip slightly, steadying himself as they continued upward.

If this truly was the path to the inheritance, then it was clear that reaching it was never meant to be easy.

But Zi Wen couldn’t turn back.

After learning about the inheritance, he knew he had to get it. There was no hesitation left in his mind. If he failed here, then everything he had done in the pagoda so far would feel meaningless.

As they climbed, he kept thinking about one thing. In the grand scheme of things, he wasn’t anything special.

Before coming here, the strongest opponents he had faced were from Established sects. His world had been small, limited to what he knew and what he had experienced. But now, that world was expanding rapidly, and with it came a harsh realization.

He was competing against cultivators from the Guardian sects. Against prodigies from across the Empire. Even against unknown talents who had proven themselves just by making it this far.

And while he had done better than most, he couldn’t ignore the truth. He was still behind.

That feeling had only grown stronger after the battle on the sixth floor, where he had barely been able to contribute. Watching others fight while he struggled to keep up had left a mark on him.

If things continued like this, he would only fall further behind. He needed something to close that gap.

The inheritance was the only thing that could do that.

So despite the snowstorm, the narrow path, and the constant fear of falling to his death, Zi Wen didn’t slow down.

They kept moving.

Little Yuze seemed to understand his resolve. The wolf didn’t complain or hesitate, steadily pushing forward while releasing more of his flame-aspected qi. The warmth surrounded them, shielding both Zi Wen and Whiskey from the biting cold.

And the climb continued.

The path curved along the mountain, forcing them into even tighter spaces. These turns were the worst. The footing became more uncertain, and even Little Yuze had to slow down, carefully placing each step before shifting his weight forward.

Zi Wen stayed silent, focused only on maintaining his balance as they pushed through.

Then, as they rounded one of the sharper bends, something changed.

Ahead of them, the rough slope gave way to something more structured—Actual stone steps, carved into the mountain and leading upward.

Zi Wen paused for a brief moment, his hand resting on Little Yuze’s back as he took in the sight. After everything they had climbed through, the presence of something built here felt almost out of place.

But it also meant they were close.

He gave the wolf a small pat, and without needing any further signal, Little Yuze moved forward onto the steps, continuing the ascent.

The steps were buried under thick layers of snow, but Little Yuze’s paws radiated heat with every step, melting the surface beneath them and making the climb far easier than before.

Compared to the narrow ledge they had just crossed, this was far easier to cross.

They moved steadily upward, one step after another, and before long, they had already passed more than a hundred steps. Even so, there were still countless more stretching ahead of them, winding up toward the unseen peak.

Still, Zi Wen felt at ease.

Now that they were on solid ground, the fear of slipping and falling to their deaths had lessened. Even the howling wind seemed less oppressive when there was something firm beneath their feet.

Even Whiskey slowly peeked out again, and this time, he didn’t retreat.

Instead, he climbed out of Zi Wen’s robes and settled onto his shoulder, looking around more calmly than before. That alone reassured Zi Wen. A lunari’s instincts were sharp—if there was immediate danger here, Whiskey wouldn’t be exposing himself like this.

They continued climbing.

From time to time, Zi Wen would stop and let Little Yuze rest, feeding him herbs he had gathered from the fifth floor to replenish his qi. Once the wolf recovered, they would continue again, step by step, pushing higher.

Time passed quietly.

And after what felt like hours—nearly two—the end of the staircase finally came into view.

Little Yuze slowed as they approached the final stretch, his steps becoming more intentional. Then, as he placed his paw onto the peak, everything changed.

The snowstorm that had been battering them for hours began to fade. Alongside, the wind weakened and the snow thinned. Within moments, it was all completely gone.

Zi Wen stepped down from Little Yuze’s back and looked up at the sky, his expression shifting as realization set in. The storm hadn’t been natural. It had really been part of the trial all along.

He had thought the heavens were simply making things difficult for him, but now it was clear—it had been a test. That wasn’t a bad sign.

If anything, it meant he had taken the right path. But when he lowered his gaze and looked around the peak, his brows slowly furrowed.

The entire area was empty.

Zi Wen walked slowly across the snow-covered peak, his eyes scanning the surroundings again and again. The place was vast, far larger than he had expected, yet there was nothing that resembled an inheritance.

But the map he had been given pointed directly to this location. And he knew it wasn’t wrong. That meant only one thing.

There was a trick to it.

Zi Wen stopped where he stood and began thinking it through, his gaze sweeping across the empty expanse once more. Beside him, Little Yuze had already crouched down, his body rising and falling slowly as he rested from the exhausting climb.

Only Whiskey seemed unaffected.

The small creature jumped down from Zi Wen’s shoulder and began moving through the snow, rolling around playfully as if none of this concerned him. From time to time, he released small bursts of lightning, melting patches of snow and revealing the ground beneath.

Zi Wen watched him for a moment before turning his focus back to the problem. He thought through every possibility he could.

There were no other paths leading away from the peak. Going back down made no sense.

And yet, standing here did nothing either.

Time passed as he tried to figure it out, until something caught his attention.

One of Whiskey’s lightning bursts struck the ground again, melting away a thicker patch of snow. But this time, instead of revealing rough stone, something else appeared beneath it.

A carved surface.

He stepped forward immediately, brushing away more of the snow with his hands while Whiskey watched curiously. As more of the surface was revealed, the patterns became clearer, and in that moment, understanding dawned on him.

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Zi Wen turned sharply toward Little Yuze, who was still resting, and called out, “Little Yuze, can you melt all the snow beneath us?”

The giant wolf lifted his head, letting out a quiet breath before pushing himself back onto his feet. He nodded once, and in the next moment, crimson qi began to flow through his fur, causing his entire body to glow faintly with heat.

Zi Wen immediately picked Whiskey up and stepped back.

The next second, Little Yuze opened his jaws and released a stream of flames straight into the snow. The fire spread outward as the wolf moved his head from side to side, making sure the heat reached every corner of the peak. Thick steam rose into the air as the snow melted rapidly, turning into water that spread across the ground.

Once he was done, Little Yuze shut his mouth and stepped back.

Zi Wen waited a few moments for the wind to carry away the steam. As the haze cleared, his gaze dropped to the ground, and he saw it.

A sentence carved into the surface beneath.

It was written in an older form of the common tongue, but Zi Wen was certain he had read it correctly. He frowned slightly, thinking it through.

Tame the skies? What did that even mean?

He couldn’t fly. He didn’t have a flying sword, and even if he did, something told him that simply flying up wouldn’t solve this trial. The words felt like they pointed toward something more specific.

He was still trying to understand it when a sharp cry echoed across the peak.

Zi Wen’s head snapped upward.

“What in the heaven is going on?”

At first, he saw nothing but clouds drifting across the sky. Then, something moved within them.

His eyes widened.

A massive creature emerged from the mist, gliding through the air with slow, powerful beats of its wings. Its wingspan was enormous, easily spanning dozens of feet, and each movement stirred the air around it. Its body was covered in dark, scaled hide that shimmered faintly under the light, and its head resembled that of a dragon—elongated, with sharp features and glowing eyes that seemed to lock onto him instantly.

Spikes jutted out along its spine, running from the base of its neck all the way down to its tail, giving it a fearsome silhouette as it descended.

It was a wyvern. A living, breathing wyvern that cut through the sky and headed straight toward him.

For a few seconds, Zi Wen froze.

Panic surged through him as his instincts screamed at him to move, to run, to get as far away as possible. Against something like that, survival didn’t seem possible.

But then his gaze dropped back to the words carved into the ground.

Only the one that could tame the skies… Understanding settled in as he read them again. This was the trial.

Zi Wen looked back up at the descending wyvern, his expression steadying as his thoughts aligned. If he wanted the inheritance…

***

Ten minutes into riding Yalan, Chen Ren felt like he was finally getting used to it. Not comfortably, but enough to not fall off every few seconds.

Yalan wasn’t a mount, and she made that very clear. She gave him no space to adjust, no effort to make the ride easier. If anything, she seemed to be moving even more aggressively just to make it worse for him.

She rushed through the streets at a relentless, unpredictable pace.

Still, Chen Ren had ridden her once before. That experience was enough.

He gripped tightly onto her fur, anchoring himself just enough to avoid being thrown off, though the wind still lashed against his face, making it hard to even keep his eyes open properly.

But that wasn’t the biggest problem. The puppets were.

Until now, Chen Ren hadn’t really encountered rogue puppets outside of the workshop. The ones he had faced earlier had been guarding Xuan Mo’s domain, acting with purpose. But the ones here, they were different.

As Yalan tore through the city, it was as if something had awakened. At first, it was only smaller puppets.

They came out of nowhere, leaping from buildings or darting in from alleyways, trying to intercept them mid-run. Chen Ren spotted most of them before they could reach, but he didn’t even need to act.

Yalan was too fast.

Every time, the puppets misjudged their timing and slammed into the ground or walls instead, missing them entirely as Yalan surged past. But that didn’t last.

Soon, larger puppets began to appear.

One of them—a towering construct painted with a grotesque clown face—suddenly rolled into the street ahead of them. Its body began to spin violently as it barreled forward, blocking their path entirely.

Yalan simply soared over the spinning puppet in one clean motion, landing smoothly on the other side. But the thing didn’t stop. It twisted mid-spin and began chasing after them.

Yalan let it get closer. Then, at the last moment, her tail lashed out.

The impact sent the puppet flying sideways, smashing it into the side of a building hard enough to shatter its structure and silence it completely.

But that was only the beginning. More puppets started to emerge. Entire streets became blocked.

One road was lined with shield-bearing puppets standing in formation like knights, creating a solid wall that stretched across the path. Another street had robed puppets stationed along the sides, launching streams of qi projectiles toward them as they passed.

And with every turn Yalan took, there were more.

There had even been puppets that burst out from beneath the ground, blades already aimed for Yalan’s side the moment they surfaced. More than once, Chen Ren felt the shift in her movement as she twisted just in time to avoid being pierced, retaliating instantly to tear them apart before they could recover.

They dealt with each of them. But it cost them time. And time was the one thing Chen Ren couldn’t afford to lose.

The city stretched endlessly ahead despite how fast they were moving, its size becoming more apparent with every passing second. Even at their speed, crossing it wasn’t instant, and that thought slowly started to weigh on him.

Were they going to make it in time? Just as he thought that, another flare lit up the sky. The third one.

Chen Ren’s tension eased slightly as he saw it. It meant Princess Yanyue was still alive, still holding on. That mattered more than anything else right now, even if the signal also meant she was getting desperate.

If something happened to her here, he knew exactly how that would end for him. At best, his head would be on a guillotine.

At worst—

He didn’t even want to think about it.

So he pushed those thoughts aside and focused.

As Yalan slowed slightly to take a sharp turn, Chen Ren leaned forward and said, “She should be on that street.”

Yalan let out a low grunt. “I’ll take the high ground.”

Before Chen Ren could even ask what she meant, Yalan moved.

She jumped higher.

Her claws dug straight into the side of a nearby building, and in the next instant, she was running upward along the wall as if gravity didn’t exist. The sudden shift threw Chen Ren backward, and even Wang Jun let out a startled scream as both of them struggled to hold on.

But Yalan didn’t slow down.

Within moments, she reached the top of a four-storey building and pulled herself onto the rooftop. Without pausing, she began moving again, crossing from one rooftop to another with fluid, effortless movements.

“We’re here,” she said.

Chen Ren steadied himself, biting back the urge to tell her to give a warning next time. Instead, he leaned forward, looking down toward the street below, searching for Princess Yanyue.

It didn’t take long to find her.

She stood at the far end of the street, positioned atop a large stone slab. But the moment Chen Ren took in the full scene, his lips tightened.

She wasn’t alone.

Princess Yanyue was surrounded by cultivators.

***

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