Chapter 303

Chapter 303: Cleaning Up the Mess

In the middle of the day, someone knocked on the door with “bang, bang, bang.”

“Who is it? The Rare Birds Pavilion is closed today. If you need to borrow flying birds, come back tomorrow.”

“Lin Er, it’s your elder brother! Hurry up and open the door. I need to go to Yongtai Bank.”

Hearing the voice, Lin Er quickly opened the door and asked in confusion, “Brother, you seem to be in a rush. What do you need to go to Yongtai Bank for? Did the family secretly send you Miao Jade? I’m your own brother; I want to share it too!”

“Get lost! I’m going to borrow Sect Points, not Miao Jade!” Lin Da said impatiently, giving his brother a slap. This kid dared to act up after just three days without being reprimanded.

“What? Did I hear that wrong? Going to borrow Sect Points from the bank? Brother, are you dreaming in broad daylight?” Lin Er covered his left cheek, extremely frustrated and wishing he could grab the door latch to hit his brother.

“Look at your foolish face. You could have borrowed it three days ago if you had deposited some Miao Jade in the bank. I’m talking about low-grade Mixed-colored Miao Jade. About two pieces can get you some Sect Points—two hundred pieces equal one hundred points. Borrow it for half a month, and you can return one piece of Mixed-colored Miao Jade or three pounds of artifact fragments,” Lin Da explained with a silly grin.

Lin Er quickly processed this information and clenched his fist, saying, “So, if I borrow one hundred points and hold on to it for two months, I only need to pay four pieces of low-grade Mixed-colored Miao Jade or twelve pounds of artifact fragments to the bank. Brother, do they also accept treasure fragments?”

“Of course! They do! Two pounds of treasure fragments can directly exchange for five hundred points. Hurry up! I found a cultivation method I want to see, but I need points to access the details.”

With that, Lin Da hurried off, while Lin Er returned to his room, cautiously prying open the floorboard. His brother didn’t know he had treasure fragments, so exchanging for three thousand points wouldn’t be a problem.

A lending craze quietly surged among miscellaneous and outer disciples, quickly spreading to inner disciples, with Li Hui of the Mirror Lake faction being the instigator.

Entering the Haotu Sect, such an upper sect, meant needing to find ways to increase income. After all, he had considerable expenses. He mortgaged loan notes to the bank for cooperation and used the properties under the Mirror Lake faction to borrow points from sect elders.

Even though he mortgaged them at an extremely low price, and if problems arose, he wouldn’t recover even one-fifth of the capital, Li Hui never thought about reclaiming those properties.

After seventy or eighty years, these properties had already deteriorated. Without looking at the books, he knew they were in terrible condition. He let the sect’s elders handle them; those who needed to be dealt with would be dealt with, and those who needed to be cleared would be cleared. The Mirror Lake faction wouldn’t take the blame for this, as there was simply no one to send.

Of course, Li Hui had already hinted that if those responsible for the properties came to apologize, everything could be negotiated, and they might even regain some respect.

With three days left until the sect’s classes began, Huo Qiniang reported in the newly refreshed hall, “Young Master, the three banks of Xianheng, Tianyou, and Xining each deposited fifty thousand pieces of Mixed-colored Miao Jade. Yongtai, Fengtai, and Kaiti Banks have been evasive, only redeeming a total of one hundred eleven thousand pieces of Mixed-colored Miao Jade. It’s infuriating! We clearly hold these banks’ deposit slips, yet they come up with various excuses; they are all greedy.”

Li Hui smiled, saying, “Heh, a greedy pixiu only takes in and never gives out. These banks naturally don’t want to redeem large amounts of Miao Jade. That would not be profitable for their operations. So, I invested a massive amount of Sect Points, allowing the miscellaneous and outer disciples to deposit Miao Jade in the bank, all low-grade Mixed-colored Miao Jade. As a result, it’s hard for them to shift it elsewhere; they have no choice but to redeem it for us.”

“Really clever strategy!” Song Zining, also in the hall, couldn’t help but praise.

“It’s not just clever; in the end, we are still weak. Our Master has been in closed-door meditation for years, and we’ve become marginalized, so they dare to take advantage of us. If we continue this way, within half a year, we can wash out all the assets of the Mirror Lake faction from the banks. When that time comes, we can turn the tables on them.” Li Hui was cleaning up the mess left behind by Li Maocai. The assets of the Mirror Lake faction were too conspicuous, making them easy targets for envy.

One must admit that Li Hui’s methods in managing assets were extremely wise. He decisively let go of what needed to be let go of, and made those who were originally eager to act step back for now, shifting to a more indecisive stance.

“Qiniang, the first batch of talismans is about to be produced. Get ready to sell lower-tier spirit talismans. Let Zhong Yuan and Jin Feng help you quickly open the market among the miscellaneous disciples.”

“Understood, Young Master. I won’t let you down.”

“Zining, you shouldn’t do anything lately. Focus on getting your body back in shape. I’ve already devised a Water Spirit Talisman formation that I want to plant in your acupoints, allowing you to gather spiritual energy faster and speed up your cultivation.”

“Thank you, Young Master!” Song Zining was greatly excited. He was an ambitious person, but his strength didn’t match up with his ambition. After desperately following Li Hui, he finally waited for this day. Even knowing that the fate of his life and death would be controlled by the formation, he no longer wanted to wait; he wanted to grow stronger.

Once Huo Qiniang and Song Zining left, Guang Jin smiled and came out, still dressed as a little bookkeeper. He approached a large array of storage bracelets left by Qiniang and released a series of cardboard boxes specifically used by the banks.

Li Hui waved his hand and began consuming the Mixed-colored Miao Jade in the boxes on a large scale.

At this moment, he could clearly feel his potential gradually increasing, a stream of warmth blossoming within him, rapidly building a solid foundation.

“Just a little more, and I can advance to the Concentrating Spirit stage.”

“However, before advancing, I must go to the scripture hall to find the various cultivation methods Master mentioned to see if they match with my own. Without Master’s guidance, I could have easily gone down the wrong path. In my situation, I shouldn’t cultivate Wind and Cloud, not cultivate Electromagnetic, not cultivate Metal and Fire, not cultivate the Haotu Sect’s Thick Earth Sutra; I need to cultivate innate Purple Mist to suppress the Buddha Fruits and my own fortune and extend my life smoothly. Otherwise…”

Thinking about this, Li Hui smiled bitterly, grounding his thoughts and not allowing them to wander too far, taking out the Mysterious Pearl and channeling massive amounts of pure spiritual energy into it.

In recent days, Yao’er had moved many precious spiritual plants from the spiritual herb garden at the bottom of the lake, handling the unqualified spiritual materials at discounted prices with Chef Zhao mainly responsible for this task. As for the spiritual beasts and birds, they ran around making management difficult, so once caught, they would either be kept as food or sold directly.

As a result, the spirit herb garden and spirit bird garden were nearly abandoned, and looking at the lake bottom had turned into a wilderness, appearing much more wasteful than Li Maocai…

Li Hui was destined to continue down the path of wastefulness. Just when things had calmed for a day, he stirred up trouble by issuing a long list of tasks to the Protecting Path Stone.

The Protecting Path Stone, used for viewing and issuing tasks in the Haotu Sect, usually required disciples at the Condense Essence Stage to redeem points to do tasks.

Disciples who had only entered the sect for less than a month and played with the Protecting Path Stone were not unheard of, but the scale of investment in points was unparalleled.

“It’s great to have the sect backing!”

“It’s a pity that it’s so difficult to use my official robe; the ancient dynasty’s seal bracelet can’t unleash its maximum power.”

“And Ao Chonglin, I need to find rare items for talisman-making related to lightning, then help him embed them into his acupoints to accelerate his cultivation; he’ll have to rely on himself, and he shouldn’t even think about taking advantage until my grandson grows old.”

“Ao Chongguang is the same. The downside of being half-demon is right here, but thankfully Su Qing’er left behind many poisons in her pearl that can be borrowed for use.”