The Busy Finance Hall

Compared with the disorderly wilderness of three years ago, the Lingxian Sect could now be said to be a picturesque place of mountains and rivers, with scenery pleasant to the eye.

After several years of nourishment from the spirit veins, the plants here had all grown exceptionally well. The trees formed a dense canopy that blotted out the sky, while strange flowers and exotic herbs flourished across the mountainside. At some point, a faint layer of white mist had even begun to wind around the mountain, cloaking the Lingxian Sect on North Mountain in an even more mysterious veil.

Every now and then, the figures of various small animals could be seen darting through the grass and woods. They would zip from one side to the other, flap their wings a couple of times, and then vanish into the dense foliage.

Ordinary birds and beasts that had not awakened their intelligence were not restricted by the sect’s defensive formation. Many of them had been drawn here by the environment and settled down in the area.

At that moment, a young man dressed in the uniform of a Lingxian Sect disciple was walking briskly and steadily along a road paved with bluestone slabs.

As he passed the spirit fields, he happened to come across a spirited middle-aged man casting an irrigation spell over the crops.

“Uncle Dayou! Hard at work?”

The man crouching in the spirit fields halfway up the mountain was none other than Lin Dayou, dressed in the robes of a sect elder. He was rubbing the soil in his hands and examining it carefully. Hanging from his waist was a particularly lustrous white jade token—the identity token carried by every member of the Lingxian Sect.

Over the past three years, the Lingxian Sect had undergone subtle changes in many areas, including distinctions between ranks in the sect’s clothing.

For the most part, the overall design had not changed much. The only difference lay in the piece of black jade on the belt: ordinary disciples wore a fragment of jade, deacons wore a triangular piece, elders of the various departments wore diamond-shaped pieces, while the sect master’s was round.

These changes had been made so that, once the sect had more members, everyone could identify one another more conveniently.

Only after hearing the young man greeting him from below did Lin Dayou come back to his senses and look up. He patted the mud from his hands, rose to his feet, and laughed heartily.

“Oh, Mancang, you’re back! How long are you staying this time?”

Fang Mancang replied with a smile, “I’ll probably only be here for two days this time. The escort agency can’t spare me for long. Uncle Dayou, I’m going to find Jiang He first to hand over the things.”

Lin Dayou waved his large hand.

“Go on, go on. Take care of what you need to do!”

Fang Mancang continued on his way, greeting the sect members he encountered until he reached the teleportation platform at the floating island in the secret realm’s small garden. He teleported up to the island and entered the Finance Hall.

After three years of renovations and modifications, the Finance Hall was now much larger than before.

Yet it still did not appear spacious.

That was because filing cabinets had been arranged around more than half of the room.

The cabinets held storage bags containing all kinds of financial records belonging to the Lingxian Sect, carefully sorted and stored. Some relatively important documents in small quantities were kept in jade slips instead.

The sect had initially begun purchasing these jade slips in small quantities after making several trips to trade in the cultivation world. The reason they bought so few was simple: the things were rather expensive—far more expensive than ordinary paper.

Later, however, Lin Xiao and Mo Yuanjiao researched these recording jade slips, and Mo Yuanjiao worked together with Tietou and Hu Liang to combine formations with artifact-refining techniques. After considerable effort, they eventually managed to refine the slips themselves.

They purchased ordinary jade, then constructed formations and inscribed artifact patterns within it. They also carried out repeated tests to ensure stability, expending a great deal of time and effort before finally succeeding.

Naturally, they had received no small amount of assistance from the System belonging to Lin Xiao, as well as the manuals Comprehensive Guide to Basic Formation Engraving and Comprehensive Guide to Basic Artifact Refining Techniques.

Although the process had been time-consuming and laborious, with no shortage of materials wasted along the way, everyone in the Lingxian Sect felt that it had all been worthwhile!

After all, mastering the technique themselves meant reducing one of the sect’s expenses. If they sold the jade slips, it would even provide them with another source of income!

As a result, over the past three years, the people of the Lingxian Sect had become extremely enthusiastic about studying various cultivation arts.

Artifact refining in particular had attracted considerable attention. Perhaps because Old Master Lin already possessed a foundation in carpentry, he had shown remarkable talent in artifact refining and picked it up incredibly quickly. This placed immense pressure on Tietou, who had only reached the level of a first-grade artifact refiner the previous year!

And that was not even counting Lin Yun and Lin Lei, the two brothers following behind Old Master Lin!

Although Lin Yun had not taken to artifact refining as quickly as Old Master Lin, he cultivated rapidly. His cultivation was the second highest among the regular visitors to the Artifact Hall, and he had already reached the great completion stage of Foundation Establishment. The highest was Mo Yuanjiao, who was in the early stage of the Golden Core realm.

As for Lin Lei, although he did not have much talent either, after trying his hand at artifact refining—and especially after successfully refining an item himself—he had developed an overwhelming passion for it.

Every time Tietou saw Lin Lei, he felt that he was not working hard enough and did not dare slack off in the slightest.

With those few people constantly pushing him from behind and spurring him on day after day, Tietou had finally been driven to the level of a first-grade artifact refiner the previous year.

It was worth mentioning that after Tietou reached the first grade, Lin Xiao officially handed management of the Artifact Hall over to him.

However, with Old Master Lin and the others behind him, Tietou did not dare relax at all. He was currently striving toward becoming a second-grade artifact refiner.

Meanwhile, Mo Yuanjiao, the head of the Formation Hall, had reached the level of a second-grade formation master the year before last and was now working toward becoming a third-grade formation master.

Thus, Lin Xiao’s mission—“Cultivate specialized talents for the sect, with at least one person in each skill rated as a first-grade professional”—had already been completed the previous year.

But back to the matter at hand.

At that moment, inside the Finance Hall, Qin Jiang He was working with Jiang Youfu’s second brother, Jiang Youdi, on one side of the room. They were sorting through the account books and lists of goods that had just been brought back from the cultivation world, as well as those for shipments that were about to go out.

On the other side, Lin Xiao’s eldest female cousin, Lin Yan, was organizing the lists of goods being coordinated with the royal family of the Pu Si Kingdom. She had not yet had time to sort through and verify the account books.

Tall piles of various ledgers and records were stacked on both sides of the desk in front of the three people. They were all so focused on their work that none of them paid much attention when someone entered.

This was the scene Fang Mancang saw upon stepping into the Finance Hall.

He could not help but smile wryly to himself.

No wonder the Finance Hall was one of the two places in the entire sect most urgently seeking new disciples.

The other was the spirit fields.

Old Master Lin and the others always felt that the current area and yield of the spirit fields were still insufficient. Every year, they also had to send people down to help the villages and townships so that struggling farmers could obtain a better harvest.

But there were only so many people in the sect. Even if each of them spent half an hour or an hour at every location, they would still have to rush to cover so many places. After all, the window for the grain to fill was only a few days. If they arrived too late, they would miss the crucial period, which would be a terrible waste.

In the past, there had been no way around it. But now that they had the means to help, it was impossible for this group of old farmers to stand by and do nothing while watching people who, like them, depended on the land for survival struggle in poverty.

That was why the spirit-field group was also the department within the sect calling most loudly for new members.

Fang Mancang entered the Finance Hall, came to the desk opposite Lin Yan, pulled over a straw mat, and plopped himself down. He reached for an untouched ledger nearby and immediately got to work. As he lowered his head to the task, he greeted the three people who had only just noticed him.

“I brought back some snacks from the capital. Once we’re done here, let’s eat them together.”

The three of them replied with smiles.