A monk with flame markings on his head appeared out of thin air, radiating the aura of the early Vajra Realm, and firmly blocked his path.
The Vajra Realm was a body cultivator's realm, corresponding to the Golden Core Stage of spell cultivators.
This man was Venerable Flameheart, one of the Five Great Venerables within the Nine-Luminaries Glazed Vidyaraja Pagoda-the cultivator who had guarded the first floor when Qing Chen challenged the pagoda years ago.
Qing Chen had poured in all the spirit stones he had accumulated recently, along with the twenty thousand he had just embezzled from the sect's treasure ship, totaling over fifty thousand low-grade spirit stones.
He knew that although the Nine-Luminaries Glazed Vidyaraja Pagoda's Dao Protector Authority possessed vast divine powers, its consumption was equally immense.
Of those fifty-odd thousand spirit stones, it would be good if even four or five thousand were actually spent on Venerable Flameheart. Most would be swallowed and digested by the pagoda.
"This lousy pagoda lines its pockets even more than I do!"
Still, with his previous experience, Qing Chen already had a plan in mind.
He knew that Venerable Flameheart could fight at full power for no more than half an hour before completely burning through those fifty-odd thousand spirit stones.
"If I only put in ten-odd thousand spirit stones, he probably wouldn't last even half a quarter-hour. A few spells at full power, and they'd be gone. So no matter where you go, you still need money."
Venerable Flameheart pressed his palms together, and a phantom Wisdom King appeared behind him.
The vajra pestle in the Wisdom King's hand was wreathed in the true fire of Buddhist flames, and a Flameheart Demon-Breaking Vajra Pestle came crashing down toward his head.
That single move burned through nearly a thousand spirit