How to spend half a thousand gold coins in less than two hours

Theo spent an entire night going around the city with his partner and offering the crowds the sweet delusion of a possible payback by a proxy and easy cash for them to grab.

A sweet delusion that ended up costing said crowds well over seven hundred gold coins in total. A haul unthinkable by any other scam that feared the guards. And a payout possible only because in theory… Theo did absolutely nothing wrong.

Sadly, he didn't get to earn all of those over seven hundred coins. As per his agreement with a black-alley scammer he recruited, thirty percent of all the proceedings went to the man's pocket.

It was a measure necessary to, at first, buy the man's silence and in the long term, make him guilty by robbing the citizens of the city of over two hundred gold coins himself.

In the end, Theo only managed to gather four coins over the five hundred mark, adding up to a total of five hundred and twenty coins after all the expenses he had before venturing out to earn this half a thousand.

And as soon as Theo was done changing his clothes and fixing his appearance to once again look like a cultivator rather than some back-alley lowlife, he rushed right back to the city.

It was never Theo's intention to hoard the money. The money that was in his pouch was no different than a pile of scrap metal.

'Money only shows its worth when it's properly used,' Theo thought as he ventured out into the city again as soon as the sun started to raise, announcing the end of the night phase of city life and the return of all the usual businesses that thrived during the day.

First, Theo went to gather the basic supplies.

The food, the tools necessary to clean the inn, a new bucket for the well hidden in the backyard of the inn. There were quite a lot of different things that he had to procure in order to enable his disciples to turn the rundown inn he bought into a place where they could all live and train.

Then came the furniture.

Even with considerable handcrafting skill, Theo was nowhere near the level of people who did it for a living. And as much as it pained his heart to spend money on something as simple as a bed, he knew better than to force his disciples to work hard without giving them a proper way to regain their strength.

In the end, all the down-to-earth expenses amounted to twenty-five gold coins. An immense wealth by the standards of the great majority of the city folk… but also a spare change in the eyes of a cultivator or a rich citizen living in the central districts of the city.

Yet, only after securing all of those necessary items and materials did Theo set his sights on a place that would truly torture his wallet.

Theo's first visit to the auction house that dealt with low-level cultivation resources was as much of a horror as it was an eye-opening experience.

'So those materials can reach this kind of price…' Theo thought when he reached the open trade area of the auction house where the items were sold not only without an auction but also in bulk.

Even in the auction house that dealt with the cheapest of the cultivation resources, one would only be laughed at if they wished to enter the auction proper without at least a thousand gold coins in their pocket.

'Fifty stalks of the rejuvenating grass, five low-grade spiritual pills, two spiritual stones…' Theo listed up all the items that he purchased, effectively turning his wallet back into the state it was in before he went out to earn his money during the night.

Fifty gold coins for a single spiritual stone. Twenty-five gold coins for each of the pills and then a massive bargain of only five golden coins per stalk of the rejuvenating grass.

It was only Theo's desperate attempt at haggling that allowed him to take away one stalk for free, the courtesy of making a relatively big purchase for the open trading area.

"And right now, I'm back to square one," Theo thought once he returned to his inn and stashed all the materials behind a loose plank in one of the guest rooms on the building's second level.

He only kept the spiritual stones in his pocket, not only because of how expensive they were but also due to how this was the only type of resource that he was interested in consuming himself.

'Later on, I would love to try out some of that herbalist recipes,' Theo thought, taking one last look at the bundle of grass before putting the plank back in its place and smearing some dust and dirt from the inn's floor to cover his tracks.

Then, with all of the elements of the first phase of his plan, Theo finally left the Inn and set his sights back on the sect.

It was still quite early in the morning. All of Theo's actions took him no longer than two hours, allowing him to make the trip back to the sect way before the sun could even reach the peak of its daily journey through the sky.

'You can really recognize the difference in the city districts as you walk through it,' Theo thought, admiring the changing architectural style of the buildings.

Back in the area where he bought his inn, the buildings were made with nothing more than the cost in mind. Cheapest materials, cheapest and most bricky shape, and a complete lack of decorations or beauty were the traits of nearly every building in the less popular areas.

Then, Theo reached the middle-class districts. There, people really started to think about their money, using a lot better materials for their houses and shops, not with the immediate cost in mind but by looking at the cost of the upkeep in the long run.

'A poor man pays twice, right?' Theo thought. His lips curved up a little when he realized how certain rules of humanity applied regardless of what world he was in.

Then, Theo reached the areas populated by the rich and local aristocracy.

Here, no one bothered to even look at the cost of the buildings. The quality of the materials, the taste behind its decorations and even the fancy architectural styles were all a matter of personal pride and social status. In the areas surrounding the three auction houses, one would only make a joke out of themselves if they dared to even look at the cost of the building.

And then, Theo finally reached the end of the city and stepped back into the sect grounds, where all the reason behind architectural style was now gone.

It was in the sect where the meaning of the money was truly lost. For people who spent hundreds if not thousands of gold coins on cultivation resources for their disciples alone, ten thousand gold coins for a small gazebo was nothing more but a fair prize. And as flaunting one's wealth in here was pretty much in a bad taste, this area ended up being the nicest out of them all.

'It's no wonder renting a spot in this place can be more expensive than outright buying a building even in the richer areas of the town,' Theo thought as he took a leisurely stroll across the sect, all the way to where he left his disciples to sleep.

Upon his return, however, Theo ended up freezing in the doors.

'Are you for real?' His eyes opened up a little bit wider as a sour smile crept up on his lips.

'I expected them to either sleep or just wait for me to give them their new orders… but to think they would all be running laps around the place!'

It didn't take long for the disciples to notice their master's appearance. Yet, taught by the experiences of the day before, they didn't dare to stop even for a second without an explicit order to do so.

"Guys, gather up…" Theo called them out in a weak voice, waving his hand in case his words didn't reach their eyes.

"I really don't know why you guys are so eager to run so early in the morning…" Theo muttered once his disciples gathered before him in a single, orderly line.

And as soon as he said those words, he could feel the hate behind the stares of all five of them.

"Anyway, it's better if you conserve your strength for now, so take it easy for now," Theo ordered before turning around and gesturing at his students to follow him.

"Conserve our strength…?" the girl who was the first to refuse to beat up the kids back during the selection asked, only to instantly purse her lips back up.

'A slip of a tongue?' Theo thought before pulling his eyebrows together, trying to recall her name. 'Kaya… was it?'

"I told you that the first month of my training is going to be hell," Theo reminded everyone of the words he said the day before. "But I'm not the kind of monster to make you sleep outside. I'm not going to work my ass off to provide you with a fancy place to sleep and train, though," he stated.

'With this, they should be able to prepare, at least mentally, for what I have in store for them,' Theo thought before putting on a small, fake grin on his lips and looking over his shoulder.

"Right now, we are going to a rundown Inn that I bought… An Inn, that I expect you all to bring back to a usable state by the end of today!"