Wealth Moves the Gods

As if some critical puzzle had suddenly clicked into place, Lu Fan grew wildly excited, murmuring to himself, "So that's how it is! So that's how it is!" Yet a moment later, he sank into dejection once more. "A Golden Core defeating Nascent Souls... I can't do that!" His gaze turned unfocused. Extending his hands, he mumbled, "No, I must see the Lord Heavenly Venerable. I have to think of a way..." Seeing him grow increasingly unhinged, Li Fan couldn't help speaking up to caution him, "Fellow Daoist Lu..." Before he could finish, Lu Fan sprang to his feet. Completely ignoring Li Fan, who was seated right beside him, he flew straight out of the restaurant and bellowed at the top of his lungs, "Lu Fan of the Martial Practice Hall, Congyun Sea, Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals is here! Who dares fight me?!" At these words, Li Fan was momentarily stunned. The bustling streets of Weichang City fell dead silent in an instant. Only Lu Fan's defiant figure remained, standing proud in midair. After a brief silence, the crowd erupted into an uproar. "A mere Golden Core cultivator dares spout such wild boasts?!" "Are cultivators from the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals all this reckless?!" "Since when do dogs from the Alliance dare act so insolently in our Five Elders Association?!" Enraged, a burly, bearded Nascent Soul cultivator flew up before Lu Fan, intending to teach him a harsh lesson. Lu Fan hadn't lost his senses entirely, after all. He shouted repeatedly, "I am Golden Core, and you are Nascent Soul! Is everyone in the Five Elders Association like you, bullying juniors with higher cultivation? "If you want to fight, that's fine—send a Golden Core cultivator over!" Deliberately projected, Lu Fan's voice reverberated across Weichang City in an instant. "You..." The Nascent Soul cultivator choked on his words, his expression shifting through several emotions. In the end, he let out a cold snort and chose not to force an attack. Dropping back to the ground, he turned toward the crowd and bellowed furiously, "Where are the Golden Core cultivators of our Canhong Province?! Are you all dead?!" The crowd came to their senses. A young cultivator robed in green flew forward, cupping his fists. "I am Qiu Juemo of the Luoyan Gang. Please grant me your guidance, Fellow Daoist Lu!" Without waiting for Lu Fan's response, he loosed a flying sword straight toward Lu Fan's face. The azure sword-light arrived abruptly and without a sound. Fortunately, Lu Fan reacted quickly; flickering aside, he barely dodged the strike. "A sneak attack?!" A flash of anger showed on Lu Fan's face. "In a fight to the death, one naturally goes all out. There's no such thing as a sneak attack! Watch out, Fellow Daoist!" With Qiu Juemo's shout, thirty-three streaks of sword-light split from the flying sword that had already passed behind Lu Fan. Like living creatures, they instantly coalesced into a tiger-shaped sword formation, pouncing toward Lu Fan. Lu Fan snorted coldly. A faint bronze light radiated around his body as his frame instantly swelled several times larger. An abacus suddenly appeared in his hands. Lu Fan gave it a light flick, producing a crisp, clattering rattle. "The bustle of the world is all for gain!" Chanting under his breath, every flick of an abacus bead caused a round copper coin with a square center to materialize out of thin air. In an instant, thirty-three copper coins formed, streaking through the air in trails of emerald light to meet the flying tiger sword formation one after another. Qiu Juemo's expression shifted slightly, vaguely sensing danger. He tried maneuvering his sword formation to evade those bizarre-looking copper coins. Yet the emerald rays were startlingly swift; almost instantaneously, they collided with the thirty-three flying swords. There was no earth-shattering collision. The moment the coins contacted the flying swords, they vanished without a trace. The next moment... "Not good!" Before the word "good" could fully leave Qiu Juemo's lips, the thirty-three flying swords reversed direction in unison in midair. The flying tiger sword formation, originally under his control, turned back to attack him instead. What was more, its speed was noticeably faster. Caught off guard, thirty-three rays of sword-light pierced straight through his body. Blood erupted instantly. Qiu Juemo's body wavered, and in the end, he could hold on no longer and plummeted to the ground. The flying tiger sword formation lost control along with him, clattering haphazardly across the stone floor. The surrounding onlookers gasped in astonishment. "Thank you for the match!" Lu Fan said proudly, resting the abacus behind his back. "Brother Qiu!" A close friend of Qiu Juemo hurried forward to inspect his condition, only to find that Lu Fan had held back at the crucial moment, sparing his life. "What an embarrassment! Drag him away already!" "Indeed, that defeat came far too quickly!" ... Qiu Juemo's severe injuries drew no sympathy from the spectators. Instead, they continually jeered at him with eyes full of mockery. His friend's face flushed crimson, but not daring to provoke public fury, he quietly helped Qiu Juemo to his feet and hurried away in disgrace. "Let me!" A grey-robed cultivator bounded forward, his voice laced with anger. This time, having learned from the previous fight, he used no magical artifacts. Instead, he manifested his Golden Core dharma manifestation and summoned raging flames in a relentless barrage. "Wealth moves the gods!" To the cultivator's astonishment, as Lu Fan rattled the abacus, copper coins dropped into the fire. The crimson flames were stained with an eerie trace of emerald green. Then, the fire born of the cultivator's own divine ability went out of control and turned back on its master. In the end, amid a wretched scream, the grey-robed cultivator was miserably defeated. The lightning-quick defeat of the second challenger immediately dampened the commotion in the streets. "This Fellow Daoist Lu actually possesses some real skill," Li Fan mused, somewhat surprised as he watched from the sidelines. After a brief hush, another challenger stepped forward. "Ou Qianye of Canhong Province. Please grant me your guidance, Fellow Daoist!" This time, Lu Fan did not strike right away. Instead, he called out, "Is your Five Elders Association planning to wear me down through a battle of attrition just because you can't beat me one-on-one?" Ou Qianye's momentum stalled instantly, forcing him to hold back the move he had already begun. He said in a deep voice, "Then rest a moment, Fellow Daoist. Once you are fully recovered, we will fight again!" Lu Fan ignored him, closing his eyes to circulate his qi and recover. Before long, the two struck out at once and clashed. The outcome was another victory for Lu Fan. However, Ou Qianye was no lightweight either; his techniques and spells were an endless stream. Whenever Lu Fan turned a move back against him, Ou Qianye immediately followed with another spell. It took Lu Fan considerable effort to narrowly claim victory. "Impressive methods, Fellow Daoist!" Having exhausted his techniques and knowing he was outmatched, Ou Qianye cupped his fists and conceded of his own accord. "Likewise, likewise..." Lu Fan's tone was considerably gentler this time. Following this, the Golden Core cultivators of Weichang City challenged Lu Fan one after another. Without exception, every single one met defeat. Even with intervals to rest, the continuous battles gradually turned Lu Fan's complexion pale. Yet he seemed to sense something, and the look of excitement on his face could not be suppressed no matter what. While the attention of the entire Weichang City was focused on Lu Fan's challenge matches, Li Fan, having lost interest in watching, walked over to a roadside stall. *Secret History of Ancient Cultivation*. He picked up an illustrated volume and began flipping through its pages.