Dao of Money

257. Merchant vs genius (3)

As Chen Ren punched Yun Zhaotian and then kicked him away, sending him straight back into the hole he had created earlier, Yalan watched everything from above.She didn’t understand it.

Why had Chen Ren accepted this fight?

To her, Yun Zhaotian was nothing more than a pest. But that was only because her cultivation was far higher than his. Here in the pagoda, things were different. The gap had narrowed, and although she was confident that she could defeat the arrogant cultivator herself, she couldn’t say the same for Chen Ren.

She couldn’t see a clear way for him to win.

Not even with all the artifacts and tools he had bought in Goldspire City, or from Merchant Shrey. Those things were useful, especially with how he used them, but in the end, tricks only worked for so long. If she could start seeing through them, then Yun Zhaotian would too.

And when that happened Chen Ren would be in real danger.

Even as she thought that, Yun Zhaotian erupted out of the hole.

Qi surged around him as dark clouds gathered above the street, forming rapidly. Lightning began to fall from the sky, striking down toward Chen Ren without pause.

The entire technique had taken less than ten seconds to form.

Chen Ren moved quickly, trying to avoid the strikes, but the sheer number of them made it impossible to dodge everything. In the end, he was forced to take out a talisman, activating it to form a sheet of qi above him.

It shattered after just four strikes.

That alone showed how powerful the attack was. In the next second, rain began to fall. Yalan’s eyes narrowed slightly.

That wasn't normal rain… if she was right, it would start draining Chen Ren’s strength soon enough. That made things worse.

Even so, Chen Ren didn’t panic.

He stuck to his strategy. Even with lightning falling around him and Yun Zhaotian closing in again, he kept using different smoke bombs, disrupting Yun Zhaotian’s senses and forcing him to fight in an unstable state.

The logic Chen Ren was using was actually pretty sound.

What he was doing was taking advantage of Yun Zhaotian’s training.

The man had trained himself to such an extent that his natural senses had become extremely sharp. It gave him an edge in battle, letting him react faster and perceive more than others. But it also came with a drawback.

He felt too much.

That was why the vibration attack earlier had worked so well. And it was also why, when Chen Ren threw out another smoke ball that burst into thick, rancid fumes, Yun Zhaotian immediately groaned, his senses overwhelmed for a moment.

That moment was enough. Chen Ren closed the distance and landed another solid punch to his neck.

But before he could follow up—

Another lightning bolt struck down.

Chen Ren moved to dodge, but it still clipped his legs. Parts of his [Starlight Armor] cracked and pain clearly shot through him. In the meantime, Yun Zhaotian was already recovering.

From above, Yalan watched it all unfold. At this rate, the fight would only drag on, and in the end, Chen Ren would lose.

Yun Zhaotian was simply on another level, even with all the tricks Chen Ren was using.

But Yalan also knew him.

There was no way Chen Ren had stepped into this fight without understanding that. So what was he doing? What was the plan?

As she thought about it, Wang Jun, who sat on top of her, let out a small scoff.

“You’re wondering how he’s going to win,” he said.

Yalan nodded. “Yes. Right now, I don’t see a way. It’s pretty clear he’s trying to exhaust Yun Zhaotian, but that’s not how you fight someone like him.”

Wang Jun let out a low chuckle. “Then you’re not seeing it properly.” He paused slightly, his gaze fixed on the fight below. “Chen Ren is actually winning. I just don’t know how.”

At that, Yalan swished her tail and said, “How is he winning? Just a few lightning strikes on his body and he will be vulnerable enough. He’s too weak to think about winning.”

Wang Jun snorted. “But look at his expression. I have barely seen any panic on it since the duel started.”

At his words, Yalan narrowed her eyes and looked down more carefully.

Below, Chen Ren was moving through a barrage of punches from Yun Zhaotian, barely slipping past each strike while at the same time dropping small bottles of slippery liquid across the street.

And yes, the stupid head was right. Chen Ren wasn’t panicking. In fact, the man looked focused as ever, clearly trying his best to avoid every attack, but there was no desperation in his movements. It didn’t feel like someone who believed he was about to die at any second now.

Yalan could tell the difference easily. But why? Was it because he knew she was here? That she would jump in if things got too dangerous?

She would do it, but that wouldn’t solve anything.

Yun Zhaotian wasn’t alone. With all the Thunder Blade disciples around, even if she stepped in, killing him wouldn’t be easy. It would only turn into a bigger fight.

So if not that, then what was Chen Ren relying on?

As that thought lingered, the battle below continued to escalate. There were attacks blowing from left and right, and Yun Zhaotian was getting frustrated.

His attacks were becoming heavier, more forceful, less controlled than before. He was still overwhelmingly strong, but the precision he had shown at the start was starting to slip.

Even the disciples watching from the sides had changed.

They were no longer shouting for Chen Ren’s death. Instead, they had begun whispering among themselves, clearly noticing that something was off.

Only Princess Yanyue remained silent. She watched the fight with the same calm expression, but now there was a trace of concern in her eyes. Because Yun Zhaotian losing his composure meant one thing.

He would start hitting harder and harder. The man clearly hated being made to look like a fool, and so far that was exactly what Chen Ren had been doing to him.

It was just about finding an opportunity, and just as she thought that Yalan saw it.

Chen Ren suddenly took out several spinning disks from his spatial ring. They shot into the air, rotating at a frightening speed before streaking straight toward Yun Zhaotian.

He didn’t retreat. Instead, he charged forward.

At the last second, he shifted his body, sidestepping just enough to avoid a direct hit, though the disks still sliced across his sides, drawing blood, but didn’t even slow him down.

The next moment, he was already in front of Chen Ren. His fist came down.

The impact sent Chen Ren flying several feet away before he crashed into a wall. Yalan winced slightly at the sight.

Even if Chen Ren could take a hit like that, he would still have broken bones, and Yun Zhaotian wasn’t stopping.

He rushed forward again, clearly intending to grab him this time and end the fight for good. For a moment, Yalan wondered if she should step in.

But then Wang Jun spoke. “That’s what he’s been doing? Bastard is really crafty.”

Yalan frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Look carefully,” Wang Jun said. “Thin streaks of qi… they’re coming out from his legs. He’s been making a rune on the ground this whole time.”

Yalan’s eyes narrowed as she looked down again, and she saw it.

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Faint, almost invisible lines of qi spreading across the street, forming a large rune beneath the rubble. It was even layered with a concealment rune, hiding it from plain sight.

The moment she saw that, everything clicked and Yalan’s body relaxed. She exhaled through her nose, letting all the stress relieve.

Below, Chen Ren was already striking again.

He threw out dozens of talismans, launching multiple attacks toward the charging Yun Zhaotian. But the man tore through all of them without slowing, reaching out to grab him only for Chen Ren’s body to disperse into an illusion.

Yun Zhaotian turned instantly.

Chen Ren appeared a short distance away, muttering under his breath as his qi continued to leak out of his legs.

The fight resumed. But this time, there was something Yalan justknew.

Chen Ren was going to win.

***

Chen Ren felt like he was dying every second.

Yun Zhaotian was relentless. The man wasn’t pausing even for a moment anymore. Earlier, there had been some control in his attacks, as if he wanted to beat Chen Ren down first before finishing him, but now there was only fury.

His face showed it clearly, and he wasn’t even reacting to the attacks aimed at his heightened senses anymore. It was as if he would rather endure everything than give Chen Ren even a single chance to take advantage of it.

Even now, when Chen Ren threw a stink bomb toward him, Yun Zhaotian didn’t stop.

The bomb exploded, releasing a thick green gas that spread across the street. Even the disciples watching from the side groaned at the smell, some stepping back instinctively.

But Yun Zhaotian didn’t care.

If anything, his glare only deepened as he pushed forward. The next moment, he unleashed another storm.

Wind, water, and lightning surged together, rushing toward Chen Ren in a violent wave.

He reacted instantly, tearing a talisman and summoning raging flames in front of him. The two attacks collided and exploded, but he still took the brunt of it.

The impact threw him back once again.

At this point, he didn’t even know how many bones he had broken from being slammed around. But it didn’t matter. All of it, this entire fight was just to create one opportunity.

As he landed, he pushed more qi through his legs, extending the runes around the street further, completing it as fast as he could before Yun Zhaotian could follow up with another attack.

Then he forced himself back up.

In the next second, he immediately took out more spinning disks from his spatial ring and sent them flying toward Yun Zhaotian, wincing slightly at how quickly he was burning through everything he had.

None of these were cheap. Each item had cost him a significant amount of tokens, but right now, that didn’t matter either.

There was no other way to hold back Yun Zhaotian. Even these items were only delaying him for a few seconds at best. Still, Chen Ren needed those seconds.

As the disks moved to cut through Yun Zhaotian’s flesh, Chen Ren moved. He rushed along the sides of the street, making it seem like he was simply trying to create distance, but in reality, he was extending the rune further along the ground.

Just a little more, and it would be done.

But then, from the corner of his eye, he saw something. A massive storm cloud descended toward him from the sky.

It was the same one that had been raining down lightning before, but now it moved as a whole, closing in from all sides.

Chen Ren’s expression changed. He hadn’t expected Yun Zhaotian to use it like this. He tried to run.

But the clouds surrounded him too quickly. In a matter of seconds, he was trapped. Lightning surged through the next moment and struck his body directly.

Chen Ren had no way to escape.

He gritted his teeth and trusted in his natural lightning resistance and his [Starlight Armour] as the current tore through him.

A scream escaped his mouth.

Pain exploded across his entire body. It felt like his heart itself was being shocked, like every part of him was being burned from the inside out.

Then, the storm clouds parted.

Chen Ren collapsed onto the ground immediately, his body barely responding as he struggled to move.

Yun Zhaotian stepped forward from ahead, looking down at him.

“Finally,” he said. “I got you. You’re not going to be running around anymore.”

Chen Ren only groaned in response. With slow, shaky movements, he took out three healing pills at once and forced them into his mouth.

Yun Zhaotian laughed as he watched him, and said, “Those won’t help you now. You were able to run around and give me so much trouble for this long. That was enough resistance you could have pulled. I almost respect how much of a cockroach you are to kill.”

Chen Ren didn’t reply.

Yun Zhaotian clearly knew he couldn’t move. He was taking his time, saying whatever he wanted before ending it. Around them, the Thunder Blade disciples had already climbed onto the nearby buildings, cheering him on as if this was already over.

Chen Ren knew this was his only chance.

He started to move his qi slowly, carefully, hiding it as much as possible while Yun Zhaotian continued speaking. For a brief moment, the man even glanced toward Princess Yanyue, then looked back down at him.

Qi gathered in his hand. A long sword made of lightning formed, crackling with power.

“I’ll make it quick,” he said.

Chen Ren’s eyes widened slightly. He couldn’t wait any longer.

As Yun Zhaotian stepped closer and asked, “Any final words?”

Chen Ren spat out, “Just fuck yourself.”

Yun Zhaotian’s face twisted in anger as he moved his sword. But at that moment—

The street beneath them began to glow.

A bright blue light spread across the ground, forming the array Chen Ren had been building all this time.

Yun Zhaotian paused. That single moment was enough.

“Yalan, get me out of here!” Chen Ren shouted.

The next second, Yalan dropped from the rooftop.

Yun Zhaotian reacted instantly, trying to strike before she could reach him, but it was too late. Tendrils burst out from the glowing ground, wrapping around his body and locking him in place.

Yalan grabbed Chen Ren and pulled him out of the circle in one swift motion as the light grew brighter, and brighter.

The next second, Yun Zhaotian screamed.

***

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