When you were a homeless orphan, life was always tough. That was the lesson Huan had learned as she grew up.

It could have been worse, of course. The city of Green Rock was relatively big, having a good number of wasteful rich people from where she could get sustenance. The city also had a relatively good public order, so the chance to get randomly killed on the street was acceptably low, as long as you didn't get in the way of members of gangs or cultivator clans (which were pretty much gangs themselves).

Huan had been lucky enough, and later clever enough, to survive until she was twelve years old in such a place, so she understood the rules very well, she knew the merchants who were kind enough to give her some of the leftovers, she knew the safest places to sleep... It was a whole thing, really.

She had never been overly concerned about the future, figuring that simply trying to survive the day was more important, but whenever the thought of it entered her mind, Huan always figured that she wasn't going to get up to anything special.

She thought she would eventually find a reliable way to gain money, and then accumulate until she could obtain a place to live. After that... She would just keep going. However, it turned out that Huan's fate would be very different from that. And it all started when she was searching through a pile of trash and found a card that seemed to be glowing faintly.

There was something written on it. Huan had picked up a bit of reading characters over time, but she was by no means an expert, which was why she was immediately shocked upon discovering that she could understand what was written perfectly.

“Find a Card, Get a Cheat Free! Special Offer Just For Today!

If you are reading this, that means you are the lucky winner of our special cosmic lottery!

Is the world getting you down? Are you a bullied orphan with no connections? Are you an old cultivator with no potential left? Do you wish you could cast aside your weakness and rise to the top of the world?

Then this offer is for you! By finding this card you have gained a free gift coupon to exchange for any cheat you want! That's right, any cheat you want! That's not a joke or a hoax!

Do you want the power to drain people's talent, skills, cultivation base and even longevity? You can get it! Do you want a supreme cultivation skill that will allow you to defeat foes of higher realms and break through bottlenecks without issue all the way to immortality? You can get it! Do you want a talisman who can suppress spiritual beasts, help you master any technique, or do whatever other function you happen to need at the time? You can get it!

Choose whatever cheat you want, and it will be provided to you. This is a special offer that will be provided just to you, just for now. We hope you end up satisfied with your gift.”

The effect reading those words had on Huan's mind was akin to a bomb exploding. She could barely believe what she had read, but before she could even think about it, her heart had already made a decision.

“Unlimited money!” She screamed inside her head.

The cheats mentioned in the card were indeed tempting, in an ethereal sense, but Huan could not think of possibly choosing anything other than money. Money was the most powerful force in the universe. Both normal people and cultivators bowed to it, and simply having more than other people was enough to look down on them. Money could buy food, shelter, protection, even power. That was Huan's firm belief.

The card in her hand disappeared into dots of light. Huan felt a stabbing pain in her head and grunted, but did not close her eyes, which allowed her to see the object that suddenly materialized.

It was a purse. A golden purse of unbridled majesty. It hovered in the air for a moment before placing itself at Huan's hip.

Then, the purse changed. Gone was the majesty, and instead it became extremely normal, even threadbare, as if trying to match Huan's clothes and general appearance.

Then, it was over, and she was left looking at the purse, incapable of seeing anything weird about it. Huan reached with her hand inside it and pulled out a bunch of bronze coins. She was breathing hard out of sheer excitement as she looked the coins up and down and could not find anything unusual about them.

She placed the coins back in the purse and decided to try something more interesting. She reached inside again and pulled out another bunch of coins. Except this time they were silver coins instead of bronze ones. She wiped her mouth with her arm, certain that she had to be drooling at that point.

This was more money than she had ever held at once. Huan immediately shoved them back inside the purse, fearing that someone might see them. Having too much money visible on oneself was a good way to end up dead. So she looked around a bit before trying one last test.

She pulled out a single coin this time, but it was a gold coin. She hid it within her hands and looked at it. Huan had never seen anything so beautiful. She couldn't restrain herself and kissed the coin full-on. She was feeling a level of joy far from comparable to anything she had ever felt before as she thought about having unlimited money.

She could do all sorts of things now that money wasn't an issue anymore. She could go to the best restaurants and eat their most expensive dishes. She could walk into any store and buy whatever caught her eye, or even everything inside if she felt like it. She could buy a huge house on every city she went to.

Huan then snapped out of her daydreams and put the coin back in the purse. She looked at herself and realized that no one was going to let someone dressed like that get inside any of the high-end places. Well, that was another thing she could solve with money. She was more than clever enough to do it.

Huan walked through the town with intent, always keeping a careful watch of her surroundings. Her objective wasn't far away, since she had started at the edge of the commercial district that bordered the poor area of the city.

Her goal was a merchant called Li Tianzi, who owned a small store in the more populated part of the low-class district. It was a fairly good spot for someone of his caliber, which was only kept due to his adeptness at navigating the interests of the various factions that were involved in the scene. There were also rumors about him having a backer, but nothing confirmed.

Li Tianzi's shop was of the general type, instead of being specialized in something. There were always all sorts of knick-knacks and products of all types, but nothing specially great, as he knew enough to avoid the trouble that sort of thing would bring.

And most important, his store was one of the few that did no reject absolutely anyone. As long as they had money, they could go in and buy anything they liked. Many street children who managed to get some money ended up spending it at that place.

“Welcome, child. What do you need today?” He asked, from behind the counter where he was sitting. She looked around the store, once again surprising herself with the sheer amount of stuff that was crammed within such a small store. There were things hanging on the walls and ceilings, things spread around disorganized shelves, and there were downright piles of things behind the counter and his chair.

Huan approached the counter and asked in a meek voice “Do you have any clothes my size? Not anything expensive, though, just something better than this.” She indicated her own rags.

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“As a matter of fact, I do have something that might fit your specifications. Does a top, skirt and pantsuit set work for you?” He asked, receiving a nod in response “Right. I think four bronze coins should be a reasonable price for it. Do you have enough?”

Huan frowned, looking like she was struggling with the idea of parting with so much money (and she was, a bit, since the idea of unlimited money hadn't really sunk in yet) but answered “Okay.” And reached a hand inside the purse, checking around for a bit before pulling out the four coins.

Tianzi received the money with a smile and reached behind him, checking around the piles of stuff to pull out each part of the set individually. They really weren't anything special, but it was enough for her purposes. So she took them and thanked him before leaving.

Huan went to a deserted alley to change into her new set of clothes. She threw her old ones away, as they would not help with her plan. With that came her next step: She had to clean herself.

A good place for it was the communal bath house in the edge of the medium class district. Huan made for it, and paid a single bronze coin to go inside, where she could place her new clothes in a basket and wash herself with the bathing beans and water from one of the tanks put there for that purpose. She scrubbed herself as best she could and slowly used the provided container to bring a bit of water of the tank at a time to water herself.

It was cold water, and the beans were not really high-class, but it was still a great luxury to someone like her, considering that a bronze coin could be put to more essential uses. She waited for her body to dry before going back to put her clothes back on.

That done, she was looking like one of those peasant daughters that she saw playing on the street sometimes, but that was only a step in her plan.

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From there on, Huan slowly improved her appearance more and more. She went into more mainstream stores each time to get better clothes, and quickly saw how much more friendly the shop people were when talking with someone who could possibly buy something, instead of a dirty street rat.

Surprisingly enough, her magical purse changed its appearance to match whatever clothing she was wearing, so it wasn't causing any dissonance with her dress.

Soon enough, Huan was wearing a stylish and beautiful, but also practical dress, which was popular among the noble women in the city. She also bought some jewelry and nice shoes to match up with the clothes. Then she went to a hair salon and paid to have her hair fixed up.

When they showed her a mirror to look at their work, Huan nodded in satisfaction. She looked like the perfect image of a noble young lady. With that, step two was complete.

Step three was going to the highest class restaurant she could find that wasn't solely based on reservation, and ask for the recommendations of the staff (“Money is not an object.” she said.) She ate her fill and some more, and for the first time in her life, Huan felt the sensation of being full.

During the meal, one of the workers struck up a conversation with her, in which he asked about why a young noble lady like her was going around unescorted.

Huan knew that this was a crucial moment, so she did her best to evoke a feeling of annoyance as she responded.

“Ah, they are around. You just can't see them.” She shook her head “Daddy won't let me go around without bodyguards, but I hate it when they keep hovering over me, so I asked them to conceal themselves while they protected me. They are good at that.”

That explanation seemed to convince him, and the conversation changed to one in which he seemed to be very interested on Huan's family and connections.

She had already imagined something like that would occur, as someone unknown suddenly appearing in such a high class establishment would draw attention, and information about it would certainly fetch a good price, so she already had a story ready.

She called herself Li Huan (as Li was a very common last name) and said that her family was traveling around the world in a vacation, as well as explaining that they were part of a wealthy merchant group back on their hometown.

She didn't expect that story to really convince all the people who would be looking into the matter, but it was plausible enough, and hard enough to fully verify, that she expected it would give her enough leeway to do what she wanted.

After the meal, Huan left to go towards the central merchant district. She had planned for step four to be buying a bunch of things she would need, but then she realized that it would be difficult to carry everything on her person.

That was a problem, so Huan stopped for a moment while walking to contemplate what she should do about it. Then she looked to her inexhaustible purse and got an idea: The cheat she had gotten also included stealth elements despite her not having asked for it. Perhaps it could also serve as some sort of bag of holding.

In order to test it, she went to a nearby jewelry store and bought two dozen precious gemstone collars. All together they weighted enough to make it hard to carry all at once, and their volume was definitely bigger than the volume her purse should have. The store manager had even given her a thick paper bag to carry them around (“a special service”, in his words).

Huan left the store and went to a relatively quiet place, then started talking the collars off the bag and placing them on her purse. Soon enough, all of them were inside, and the purse hadn't changed form even a bit, and was still the same weight as well.

Smiling brightly, Huan then reached inside and easily pulled out the first collar she had placed in. It was very convenient to use.

That dilemma solved, Huan went to where she had planned previously, and then she started having fun. It couldn't be helped, even though most of what she bought were practical things like traveling clothes and rations, as well as maps and tents. Simply having enough money to buy whatever she wanted filled her with a sort of giddiness that was impossible to describe.

And of course, once in a while she would find things she didn't necessarily need, but would buy anyway. There were small toys and weapons, books (for when she learned how to read) and varied tools of every trade, small crafts and large amounts of all kinds of thread.

However, she was jostled out of her happy haze of shopping when she noticed a particular shop. A small street stall manned by a middle-aged man who had both a sword and a fan on his hip.

He was a cultivator. There was no way Huan could be wrong about that. The street children were usually adversarial with each other, but they did tend to inform the others of certain dangers, and that man had all the signs for being one of the biggest of those dangers, a cultivator.

There were many horror stories of street rats trying to pickpocket cultivators only to die horribly due to losing their arms, having all their blood sucked out, or other horrors such as those.

As such, signs such as his unusual musculature, the kinds of items he had, and the simple feeling she got when looking at him were clear indicators.

The fact that his stall was in a very good spot and yet there were no other stalls around was also a pretty big clue.

Huan felt fear and almost stepped back, but stopped herself by thinking of her magical purse. She had much more money than that cultivator could even imagine, so there was absolutely no reason to be intimidated by him. Her courage renewed, Huan walked towards his stall.

“Do you have anything that could be useful for non-cultivators?” She asked.

The cultivator narrowed his eyes and responded “I may have a few things, but I only trade for spirit stones, not ordinary money.”

Spirit Stones. Pieces of solidified spiritual energy. Apparently they were a currency for cultivators, but normal people would hardly ever see them. Huan had seen a single piece once, when another street rat was showing off what he had received from a cultivator he helped guide around the city. (That street rat was later found dead, because showing off one's wealth like that was a bad idea.)

However, despite the situation being unexpected, Huan did not falter. She had the confidence of having all the money at her disposal, so she simply reached out inside her purse.

The magic could give her all types of coins, so why wouldn't it give other types of currency?

Huan brought out a small green stone that seemed to glow faintly, exactly the same as what she had seen before. The cultivator looked at it and nodded, before starting to show off his wares.

Not that he had much to sell her, considering Huan was limited to items that could be used without a cultivation base. Mostly it was trinkets that she had no interest in, like a pill to improve one's appearance, but there was one thing she decided to buy.

It was a ring. According to the cultivator (who introduced himself as Wang Fugui), it worked to automatically protect her body from impacts while it was being worn, and the power source used were spirit stones. She simply had to hold up spirit stones to the crystal in the ring and it would absorb the spiritual energy in them.

The crystal would change colors to indicate how much energy it had left. White was full power and black was no power. According to Fugui, at full charge, it could block two attacks of a Foundation Establishment cultivator before running dry. Anyone below that level would need a lot of effort to get through it.

“I like it.” Huan said. That was an understatement, the thing was perfect for her. A defense literally powered by money? It had an amazing appeal “How many do you want?” She asked, holding the spirit stone.

“Five medium quality spirit stones.” He answered.

'Medium quality. So there were differences in rank of spirit stones as well...' Huan thought.

She decided that what she had should be medium quality, considering that was what Fugui had mentioned, so she reached inside her purse and took out four more of the same type, handing them all to the man, who passed the ring to her.

She put it on her finger before leaving. That had been a productive shopping experience.

Now, it was time for step five. She needed a bodyguard, and she knew just where to find one.