Chen Ren placed his palm against the cold wall of the building and spoke calmly.

  “It’s fairly simple why none of your attacks worked,” he said. “The building is absorbing them.”

  Yun Zhaotian’s brows pulled together. “Absorbing them? What nonsense are you talking about? How is that even possible?”

  Chen Ren took a step back from the wall and pointed at the surface beneath his hand. “From what I can tell, there are pathways carved all through this building. They connect together and form a kind of qi circuit. Every time you attack, the circuit draws in the qi and sends it flowing through the whole structure.”

  He paused, choosing his words. “I don’t know where the energy ends up. I just know it doesn’t stay where you hit.”

  Yun Zhaotian stared at him, clearly not following. His eyes flicked between Chen Ren and the wall, confusion written plainly on his face.

  Chen Ren sighed and shook his head. “In simpler terms, you’ve been feeding qi to the building instead of breaking it.”

  That at least earned a reaction. Yun Zhaotian’s jaw tightened. “Then what?”

  Chen Ren pointed toward the back corner of the structure, where the stone beneath the snow looked slightly darker. “The circuit isn’t equally strong everywhere. This section is the weakest. If you break it here, the flow collapses. After that, the rest of the building won’t be able to protect the gate.”

  “That’s it?” Yun Zhaotian asked. “Just destroy one spot?”

  “Yes,” Chen Ren replied. “Most puzzles are simple once you know what to look for.”

  Yun Zhaotian hesitated, then gave a slow nod, even though doubt still lingered in his eyes. He drifted toward the spot Chen Ren had indicated, lightning already gathering around his arm.

  Chen Ren didn’t wait to see more. He quickly retreated, taking dozens of steps back as the air began to hum.

  “Let’s hope this works,” Yun Zhaotian said coldly, “for your sake.”

  He hurled a lightning spear forward.

  The impact shook the entire peak. A thunderous boom echoed across the mountain as the spear struck the wall. Wood and stone exploded outward, splinters and debris flying in all directions. A thick cloud of dust rolled across the snow, forcing Chen Ren to shield his eyes.

  As the dust settled, something unnatural was revealed beneath the shattered exterior. Thick, blackish lines crisscrossed inside the wall, glowing faintly before flickering and going dark. They looked like veins carved into the building itself, rigid and unnatural, now cracked and broken.

  As soon as that happened, the entire building shook violently. The ground trembled, loose snow slid off the roof, and dust rolled out from the cracks in the walls. For a moment, it felt like the structure might collapse, but then everything slowly settled down, the shaking fading until the mountain went quiet again.

  Yun Zhaotian stared at the building for a second before asking, “Is that it?”

  Chen Ren nodded. He walked closer and crouched down, picking up the broken pieces of the circuit that had fallen out. The fragments were dark and dull, but the moment his fingers brushed them, he could feel how easily qi flowed through the material. He had no idea what it was made of, but it was clearly valuable. Once he was alone, he could ask Wang Jun about it.

  Yun Zhaotian did not seem interested in the pieces at all. He turned away and headed back toward the front of the building. Chen Ren quickly slipped the fragments into his spatial ring, which was already starting to feel cramped, and followed after him.

  At the front, the other two Thunder Blade Sect cultivators were waiting. One of them, the male cultivator, asked, “What was that, Senior Brother Yun?”

  Yun Zhaotian replied casually, “Apparently, we can enter the house now.”

  Without wasting time, he formed another attack in his hand and threw it straight at the door. This time, the energy did not vanish. It slammed into the wood with a loud crash, shattering the door in an instant. Splinters flew everywhere, and a large hole opened up where the entrance had been.

  Yun Zhaotian stared as if not believing it for a second, then smiled and looked directly at Chen Ren. “You were right. I didn’t expect you to actually open the door.”

  Chen Ren returned the smile and said, “I’m just glad I could be of use to the esteemed Thunder Blade Sect.”

  Yun Zhaotian nodded. “Good. You have more manners than most cultivators. You know how to recognize a dragon. If I find anything inside that I don’t want, I’ll give it to you as a reward.”

  Chen Ren nodded in response, but before he could say anything else, a sharp, screeching sound echoed from deep inside the building.

  He clutched his ears at once, the sharp screech drilling straight into his head. The others did the same. A second later, the sound shifted, turning heavy and metallic, like grinding steel. Under that noise, Wang Jun spoke in a low, urgent voice.

  “Kid, get out of the way. You won’t be able to deal with what’s coming.”

  Chen Ren did not argue. Lightning surged through his legs, and he darted to the side of the building. In the very next moment, the wall exploded outward.

  A giant puppet burst free.

  It was massive—half as tall as the building itself—its body shaped like a crude metal giant. A thick polearm rested in one of its hands. Its round face was flat and featureless except for two large button-like eyes set deep into the metal. The entire body was pitch black, made from the same strange material as the circuit Chen Ren had just collected.

  Understanding hit him instantly.

  That was where all the absorbed energy had gone.

  As if to confirm it, lightning crawled across the puppet’s body the next second. The snow around its feet melted and hissed, turning to steam. Then it moved.

  The puppet charged straight at the three cultivators.

  Yun Zhaotian shouted in shock, hurling a bolt of lightning at it. The puppet lifted its polearm, and the lightning vanished into it as if swallowed whole. In the same motion, it swung the weapon toward the female cultivator.

  Lightning exploded outward.

  The strike was so fast Chen Ren barely saw it. The woman was thrown back in a flash of light, her scream cut short. He swallowed hard, his back turning cold.

  If these three were not here, he would have been dead.

  Wang Jun spoke in a whisper. “You should do what you have in mind now before the puppet marks you as a target too.”

  Chen Ren nodded and did not hesitate. He sprinted along the wall, leapt upward, and grabbed the edge of the roof. Pulling himself up, he rolled across the icy surface.

  From the rooftop, he had a clear view of the fight. All the three cultivators were hurling attacks at the puppet that kept trying to close the distance between them.

  Seeing that all three of them were fully occupied with the rampaging puppet and no longer paying him any attention, Chen Ren acted without hesitation. He moved to the side and struck the window he had noticed earlier, shattering it in a single blow before slipping inside.

  He landed silently in a wide chamber filled with several large chests arranged neatly along the walls. Chen Ren slowed his steps at once, his senses stretched outward as he scanned the room for hidden mechanisms or traps. When nothing reacted to his probing, he let out a quiet breath and moved forward.

  There were four chests in total. He opened the first two quickly, finding stacks of gold bars mixed with various unfamiliar materials. Without wasting time, he swept both chests into his spatial ring. The third chest held a pair of bracers. Chen Ren glanced at them briefly before storing them as well, deciding to examine them later.

  It was the final chest that made him stop.

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  As the lid opened, his eyes widened, and a grin spread across his face. Inside were neatly stacked bundles of papers—blueprints. Artifact blueprints. Even at a glance, he could tell that some of them described constructions he had never seen before. Chen Ren did not need to read them to know their value. Some of these designs might no longer exist anywhere else in the world. This was exactly what he wanted.

  This alone had made the entire risk worthwhile.

  He gathered every last blueprint and stored them away before turning toward the interior of the building. The noise outside had grown louder, metallic screeches echoing through the walls as the puppet continued its rampage. The sound made his ears ache, but Chen Ren pushed forward, hoping the Thunder Blade Sect disciples would remain occupied for just a little longer.

  The next three rooms proved disappointing—empty sleeping quarters with nothing of immediate value. Under different circumstances, he might have searched more thoroughly, but time was not on his side. Without lingering, Chen Ren moved toward the staircase and descended to the ground floor.

  The ground floor looked nothing like a battlefield. It resembled a warm, lived-in house, with wooden tables arranged neatly, a simple kitchen pushed against one wall, and woven mats laid carefully across the floor. There was even a hearth built into the stone, though it had long since gone cold.

  Though, he also noticed that a large section of the wooden floor had caved in, shattered inward, probably due to the charge of the puppet towards the door. Splintered beams and broken planks littered the space, and he followed the trail instinctively. It led him to a set of stairs descending into darkness.

  He sent qi coursing through his fingertips as a light source and stepped down, senses sharp and alert. After nearly a minute of cautious descent, the stairs opened into a vast underground chamber. A large platform dominated the center of the room, thick black circuits running along the walls and converging toward it. Chen Ren immediately understood—this was where the puppet had been resting.

  Scattered around the chamber were the remains of other constructs. Broken puppets lay in pieces, some fashioned from wood, others from layered metals he did not recognize. One shattered arm, entirely made of translucent glass, caught the dim light and reflected it faintly. Chen Ren’s eyes lit up at the sight.

  Without hesitation, he got to work, collecting the broken puppets and storing them carefully inside his spatial ring.

  Wang Jun’s voice echoed beside him. “Why are you picking up trash?”

  Chen Ren did not stop. “This isn’t trash,” he said calmly. “These are prototypes. Early versions of the puppet outside.”

  Wang Jun snorted. “And?”

  “And if Hong Yi studies them,” Chen Ren continued, lifting another fractured torso, “he might be able to recreate something similar. That puppet outside is holding off a peak foundation establishment realm cultivator with support. It’s been doing so for more than five minutes now. We need firepower like that.”

  There was a pause before Wang Jun asked, genuinely puzzled, “What is a prototype?”

  “I’ll explain later,” Chen Ren replied, already reaching for the next construct as he continued filling his ring.

  But when he tried to store the ninth puppet, his spatial ring resisted. Chen Ren frowned and sent a thin wisp of qi into it, only to feel the cramped, unyielding pressure within. It was full. Until he removed some of what he had already stored, it would not accept anything else.

  He let out a quiet breath. This was enough. More than enough.

  Outside, the metallic screeches of the giant puppet had begun to weaken, the shrill grinding growing uneven and strained. Chen Ren’s expression tightened. If he lingered any longer, he would be walking straight into disaster.

  He turned and moved quickly, retracing his steps up the stairs and slipping back out through the shattered window he had entered from. Below, the battle was reaching its end. One of the puppet’s massive arms lay torn apart in the snow, blackened circuits sparking weakly, yet the construct still fought on with stubborn force. One of the Thunder Blade Sect cultivators lay motionless nearby, blood staining the white ground in a wide arc.

  If his judgment was right, the puppet would fall within minutes.

  Perfect time for him to disappear.

  Wang Jun’s voice surfaced again. “How are you planning to leave without them noticing you?”

  Chen Ren didn’t hesitate. “I’ll take a big jump,” he said calmly. “Then I’ll rush straight for the lift. It’ll take Yun Zhaotian at least an hour to realize what’s missing, and by then, we need to be gone.”

  Fortunately, Chen Ren had already memorized the lift’s location. If he ran at full speed, without holding anything back, he could reach it in time.

  “What about the other treasures on this floor?” Wang Jun asked.

  “We’ll come back for them,” Chen Ren replied.

  With that, lightning surged around his legs in a violent rush. Snow hissed and melted beneath his feet, the heat biting into his skin as he launched himself forward, abandoning the mountain peak behind him.

  For a moment, it felt perfect—his body turning into a streak of light as he soared through the air like a released arrow. Then his stomach dropped.

  He was going too high.

  Far too high.

  Instead of landing atop the stairs, his trajectory carried him straight toward the edge of the mountain. Panic surged through him as the ground vanished beneath his feet. He twisted midair and threw both hands out desperately, fingers scraping against stone before finally catching the ledge.

  He froze.

  For a single heartbeat, Chen Ren looked down.

  The drop below was endless. Snow and jagged rock vanished into white mist, and he knew with absolute certainty that no amount of cultivation would save him from a fall like that. His grip tightened as he hauled himself up, muscles screaming in protest.

  Once he rolled onto solid ground, he did not waste another second. He cast one last glance toward the peak. The Thunder Blade Sect cultivators were still fully occupied.

  Perfect.

  They might have sensed something amiss, but with that monstrosity rampaging in front of them, none of them could afford to look away.

  Chen Ren turned and sprinted down the stairs.

  A part of him grimaced at the thought of what he had just done. Provoking a Guardian Sect was never wise. But he also knew the truth—he would never reach his goals without making enemies. The only thing that mattered was having enough strength to survive the consequences.

  Wang Jun’s voice came. “They will come for you, kid. When they do, how are you planning to fight back?”

  Chen Ren did not hesitate. “In the real world, I’d already be dead,” he said calmly. “But this isn’t the real world.”

  He leapt down another flight of steps, lightning flashing around his legs. “The princess told me everyone is equal in the pagoda. Not because it doesn’t care about status, but because it forces everyone to start from nothing. Tokens decide everything here.”

  A thin smile curved his lips as he saw the ground coming into focus. “And when it comes to currency,” he continued, “no one beats me.”

  Not even a Guardian Sect.

  ***

  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.