In the Lu Empire, there is a saying: "When the sky turns gold, the Emperor is happy. When the sky turns purple, the Princes are fighting. When the sky turns a confusing shade of neon pink, Lu Xian has probably taken a nap."

  Today, the sky was neon pink.

  I was currently lying on my back in the middle of the Royal Clover Field, watching a cloud that looked vaguely like a dollar sign. My "Total Liquidation" of the Zhou Empire was behind me, my father was a Golden Immortal, and my new stalker, Zhou Wenhao, was busy cleaning up a continent. For the first time in months, I felt... peaceful.

  "The Dao," I whispered to myself, swirling a piece of spirit-grass in my mouth. "What is it, really? People say it's the path. People say it's the truth. But from a corporate perspective, the Dao is just the ultimate Monopoly. If you own the laws of physics, you never have to pay rent."

  I closed my eyes, thinking about the concept of "Flow." In my past life, "Flow" was when the markets moved exactly how you predicted, and you didn't have to lift a finger to make a profit. You just sat there, and the money flowed into your account like water.

  Wait, I thought, my brain drifting into that dangerous zone of high-level realization. If the Almighty One is everywhere, and I am a part of the Almighty One... then the universe is basically my own personal bank. And a bank doesn't 'work' to make money; it just exists and collects interest.

  As this thought settled into my mind, a weird sensation began to tickle my spine. It felt like I was suddenly being plugged into a very large, very high-voltage battery.

  Meanwhile, at the "Training from Hell" Courtyard...

  Qin Chenfeng was currently screaming. This was normal.

  He was inside the Endless Enemy Loop, fighting a phantom version of his own father. His wind-aura had become so sharp that the air around him was literally cutting the stones into cubes.

  "I won't... be... second!" he roared, his body glowing with a fierce red light.

  BOOM.

  A shockwave blasted through the courtyard, knocking over a rack of training spears. Chenfeng stood in the center, his aura finally stabilizing. He had just broken through from the Peak of Qi Gathering to the 3rd Stage of Foundation Establishment. At eight years old, this was a feat that would usually make the Tian Empire send an award.

  "I did it!" Chenfeng panted, wiping blood from his lip. "I’m catching up to that lazy monster!"

  Just then, my 3rd sister, Lu Yueran, walked by, casually spinning a jade needle between her fingers. "Oh, congratulations, Little Qin. You’ve finally reached Foundation Establishment. How cute."

  Chenfeng froze. He looked at Yueran. Her aura was different today. It wasn't just "doctorly" anymore; it was oppressive.

  "Sister Yueran... did you...?"

  "Hmm? Oh, yes," she said, checking her nails. "I got bored while waiting for my tea to steep this morning and accidentally broke through to the Peak of the Void Refinement Realm. It’s such a hassle; now I have to recalibrate all my needles or I’ll accidentally lobotomize my patients."

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  Chenfeng’s jaw hit the floor.

  A few yards away, my 2nd brother, Lu Jianfeng, was sitting under a waterfall. Or rather, he was sitting above a waterfall. The water was falling up. His sword was resting across his lap, and the space around him was flickering with the intent of ten thousand blades.

  "The Sword is the mind," Jianfeng murmured.

  Suddenly, the waterfall froze. Then it shattered into a billion droplets, each one shaped like a tiny sword. Jianfeng opened his eyes, which now glowed with a terrifying silver light.

  "Spirit Severing Realm, 7th Stage," he whispered. "Still too slow. If I want to be as 'lazy' as Xian-er, I need to be at least at the Integration Realm."

  Back in the Clover Field...

  I was still thinking about the "Interest-Bearing Universe."

  If I just exist, the Dao should pay me interest in the form of Qi, I reasoned. I don't need to cultivate. I just need to be a 'Preferred Shareholder' of reality.

  At that moment, the 27% of the Primordial Dao of Space-Time that I had been "holding" in my soul decided to agree with me.

  Suddenly, my dantians didn't just swirl; they exploded.

  "Wait, stop!" I yelled at my own stomach. "I didn't ask for a promotion! I was just theorizing!"

  But the Universe didn't care. It had decided that Lu Xian’s "Interest-Bearing Theory" was a profound Daoist breakthrough.

  The spiritual energy from the entire Luòtiān Imperial City began to spiral toward me. It formed a massive, neon-pink vortex that could be seen for miles.

  I felt my cultivation level start to tick upward like a fast-moving stock ticker.

  Foundation Establishment... 1st Stage... 5th Stage... 9th Stage...

  "No! Slow down! If I go too fast, I’ll have to go to the Imperial Academy!" I scrambled to sit up, but the gravity of my own breakthrough was pinning me down.

  Golden Core Realm... 1st Stage... 3rd Stage...

  CRACK.

  The sound echoed through my soul. I had just skipped the entire "Peak Foundation" struggle and smashed straight into the Golden Core Realm. But it didn't stop there.

  Because I had "mistakenly" understood the Dao of Space as a "Storage Account," my Golden Core wasn't a normal golden sphere. It was a shimmering, translucent cube that seemed to contain an infinite amount of empty office space.

  Golden Core Realm, 5th Stage.

  I lay there, panting, as the pink light faded. I felt... incredible. My senses were ten times sharper. I could hear the ants talking three miles away. I could feel the temperature of the moon.

  "I'm five," I whispered, staring at my small, chubby hands. "I'm a five-year-old in the 5th Stage of the Golden Core Realm. My father is a Golden Immortal. My siblings are all moving toward the Integration Realm. And I just jumped a major realm because I was thinking about bank interest."

  I stood up and brushed the grass off my robes. "Maybe nobody noticed? It was a very quiet vortex, right?"

  "WE ALL NOTICED, XIAN-ER!"

  I turned around. My six siblings, my parents, three Consorts, and a very traumatized Qin Chenfeng were all standing at the edge of the field.

  My father, the Golden Immortal, was crying tears of joy. "My son... the Interest-Bearing God! You’ve reached the Golden Core! At five! This calls for a celebration! A continent-wide feast! A monument!"

  "No monument!" I screamed. "I want to be average! This was a mistake! A rounding error!"

  "A rounding error that puts you ahead of 99.9% of the population," my sister Lingshu laughed, rubbing her hands together. "I’ve already started the marketing campaign. 'Lu Xian: The Boy Who Outearned the Heavens.' The merch sales are going to be legendary!"

  Even Zhou Wenhao, who had arrived for his daily "vassal report," was nodding solemnly. "As expected of the Master. To breakthrough while staring at a cloud... truly, your laziness is the highest form of cultivation."

  I looked at Qin Chenfeng. The poor kid was currently trying to eat his own training dagger in frustration.

  "I give up," I sighed, walking toward the palace. "I’m going to my room to hide. If anyone needs me, I’m retired."

  "You can't retire, Xian-er!" Tianhao called out. "The Tian Empire just sent a message! They saw your 'Neon Pink' breakthrough and have officially invited you to the Summit of Sovereigns! You leave in two days!"

  I stopped. I didn't turn around. I just looked at the dollar-sign cloud in the sky.

  "Universe," I whispered. "I want to close my account. The fees are too high."

  The universe didn't answer. It just gave me a little more "interest" in the form of a 6th Stage breakthrough.